Ladymeow2020
Incheon, South Korea
This review may contain spoilers
Under the Power of Love and Comedy
I actually did not want to watch this drama in the beginning because of the poster of the young-looking lead actors vs. the rather serious synopsis. But someone persuaded me to try to watch first few episodes and eventually I was hooked. This drama has excellent cast, and everyone acted very well, even the extras. I find every episodes to be entertaining, although I admit that I fast-forwarded uninteresting and cringey parts.
The chemistry between Allen Ren (as LuYi) and Seven Tan (as JinXia) was great, and their cute sweet interactions made this drama worth watching. Their character development throughout the series, and their natural well-paced romance made this show really endearing. It did not take long for both of them to fall in love with each other (I am glad the Writers didn't take too long to execute).
Because he is a high ranking bad-ass Embroidered Imperial Guard, he is cold-blooded and heartless while doing his job. But in his private time, he is gentle and warm towards his family and friends, especially to JinXia, who has melt and won his frozen heart by her constant care and attention, her perseverance and charm, and best of all, her personal sacrifice she made for him (see Episodes 22-23). I loved their private moments together where LuYi gets to let his guard down and allow himself to secretly gaze intensely-lovingly at JinXia.
One of my fav episode is Episode 28 where he was poisoned and mentally regressed to an 8 years old kid. He was very cute as a child (mentally) and he called Jin Xia as his "big sister". When it rained heavily that night, he got scared of the loud thunder, ran to and beg his "big sister" to let him sleep with her; when she reluctantly agreed, he immediately jumped into her bed and grabbed her hand for comfort and sleeping. She cannot helped herself but adorably let him do so. Next morning, we see the adorable couple cuddling - only to be discovered by Xie Xiao (her big love admirer) who burst into her bedroom with breakfast. When he saw Lu Yi emerged from the bed cover, he was so shocked that he wanted to punch Lu Yi out, and then several hilarious arguments and scenes followed. The hilarious scenes were so funny that I laughed so much until my stomach ached. In fact, I kept re-watching Episode 28-29.
As for the second lead couple, Yan Yue (by Lu Hong) and Shang GuanXi (by Julia Ye), honestly, I was not really interested in their story; after few episodes of Shang GuanXi still pining for Xie Xiao's lost affection and Yan Yue constantly stalking her like a lovesick puppy, their story got boring really quickly for the viewer. I even fast-forwarded the scenes of them together, and rather just focus on other interesting characters such as the cunning and ruthless villain, Yan Shi Fan (played brilliantly by Han Dong), XieXiao (played hilariously by Ethan Yao), Lan DaoHeng (played by Han ChengYu) and Uncle Gai (played by Li Tin Zhe). The palace politics and power play by various parties were not heavy-handed and used nicely as good entertainment for the drama.
One of my complaints are the poor quality CGI and special effects in the show. For example: the under-water scenes where LuYi and JinXia fell from the ghost ship was poorly made (I laughed so much at this), and the river where they went raft-riding on, and the poisonous snakes on the island of Dr Lin Ling's (the poison-curer expert) were sooo fake, that I just shook my head... Luckily all these bad CGI was made up by the good story-telling and many comedy moments.
My second complaint is the imprisonment of Lu-Yi in the final episode 55, where he offended the Emperor when trying to re-instate Jin-Xia's family in order to atone his father's bad deeds. Come on Writers! Why waste the final episode this way? Even though Lu-Yi was finally set free in the end and he was greeted happily by Jin-Xia outside the prison doors, I felt the Writers should have spent the final episodes showing the Viewers some happy events like the wedding of Lu-Yi and Jin-Xia, how they awesomely spend their married life as a power couple solving crimes, fighting and catching criminals, and finally, seeing cute adorable babies of Lu-Yi and Jin-Xia.
This drama is highly recommended for its big entertainment value, and great acting and writing (except for some dumb silly plots - which were so obvious they're forgettable). To be honest, I enjoyed this drama so much that I wished there is a few more episodes to watch. I wonder if there will be a Season 2.
The chemistry between Allen Ren (as LuYi) and Seven Tan (as JinXia) was great, and their cute sweet interactions made this drama worth watching. Their character development throughout the series, and their natural well-paced romance made this show really endearing. It did not take long for both of them to fall in love with each other (I am glad the Writers didn't take too long to execute).
Because he is a high ranking bad-ass Embroidered Imperial Guard, he is cold-blooded and heartless while doing his job. But in his private time, he is gentle and warm towards his family and friends, especially to JinXia, who has melt and won his frozen heart by her constant care and attention, her perseverance and charm, and best of all, her personal sacrifice she made for him (see Episodes 22-23). I loved their private moments together where LuYi gets to let his guard down and allow himself to secretly gaze intensely-lovingly at JinXia.
One of my fav episode is Episode 28 where he was poisoned and mentally regressed to an 8 years old kid. He was very cute as a child (mentally) and he called Jin Xia as his "big sister". When it rained heavily that night, he got scared of the loud thunder, ran to and beg his "big sister" to let him sleep with her; when she reluctantly agreed, he immediately jumped into her bed and grabbed her hand for comfort and sleeping. She cannot helped herself but adorably let him do so. Next morning, we see the adorable couple cuddling - only to be discovered by Xie Xiao (her big love admirer) who burst into her bedroom with breakfast. When he saw Lu Yi emerged from the bed cover, he was so shocked that he wanted to punch Lu Yi out, and then several hilarious arguments and scenes followed. The hilarious scenes were so funny that I laughed so much until my stomach ached. In fact, I kept re-watching Episode 28-29.
As for the second lead couple, Yan Yue (by Lu Hong) and Shang GuanXi (by Julia Ye), honestly, I was not really interested in their story; after few episodes of Shang GuanXi still pining for Xie Xiao's lost affection and Yan Yue constantly stalking her like a lovesick puppy, their story got boring really quickly for the viewer. I even fast-forwarded the scenes of them together, and rather just focus on other interesting characters such as the cunning and ruthless villain, Yan Shi Fan (played brilliantly by Han Dong), XieXiao (played hilariously by Ethan Yao), Lan DaoHeng (played by Han ChengYu) and Uncle Gai (played by Li Tin Zhe). The palace politics and power play by various parties were not heavy-handed and used nicely as good entertainment for the drama.
One of my complaints are the poor quality CGI and special effects in the show. For example: the under-water scenes where LuYi and JinXia fell from the ghost ship was poorly made (I laughed so much at this), and the river where they went raft-riding on, and the poisonous snakes on the island of Dr Lin Ling's (the poison-curer expert) were sooo fake, that I just shook my head... Luckily all these bad CGI was made up by the good story-telling and many comedy moments.
My second complaint is the imprisonment of Lu-Yi in the final episode 55, where he offended the Emperor when trying to re-instate Jin-Xia's family in order to atone his father's bad deeds. Come on Writers! Why waste the final episode this way? Even though Lu-Yi was finally set free in the end and he was greeted happily by Jin-Xia outside the prison doors, I felt the Writers should have spent the final episodes showing the Viewers some happy events like the wedding of Lu-Yi and Jin-Xia, how they awesomely spend their married life as a power couple solving crimes, fighting and catching criminals, and finally, seeing cute adorable babies of Lu-Yi and Jin-Xia.
This drama is highly recommended for its big entertainment value, and great acting and writing (except for some dumb silly plots - which were so obvious they're forgettable). To be honest, I enjoyed this drama so much that I wished there is a few more episodes to watch. I wonder if there will be a Season 2.
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