byunbaekoned
Singapore
This review may contain spoilers
Honestly recommend if youre a Republican/Historical drama enthusiast.
I initially watched this drama for Song Yi because I saw her Cheongsam clips on Douyin. But heck I stayed for the plot and the casts' superb acting. (Also bc the plot reminds me of Rookie Agent Rouge 胭脂, RAR, I'll explain why.) I also shipped the 2ML with the FL rather than with the main ML but watching 10+ episodes changed my mind. I am now on the MLxFL ship. 2ML might wreck your ship sometimes, just so you know xD
Plot wise, its your typical naive FL with a Genius ML who helps & protects FL from all sorts of disastrous situations. As bad as this sounds, it's really not that bad. The FL is not "totally stupid", just "clever" at specific times, really naive and stubborn by nature. No fret, she does grow, just ever so slightly because from the POV of the ML, she's always the small little woman he wants to protect. However if you are expecting the FL to be like RAR's then no, but the ML's smarts is equatable to the ML in RAR. I would say the plot for this drama is similar only with the exception of the FL as per explanation above. Don't expect too much (topnotch) spy action from the FL, there were some great actions in the early episodes though!
FL is just your typical pampered princess who grew up loved by both parents and has no idea of what the world is outside. Her character development is very obvious through the 46 episodes as she got used to the society after her father dies in the first episode. FL also trusts the 2ML A LOT, like, A LOT!! Because the dude was the first man she liked, so he holds a special place in her heart and fully trusts him. Hence, whatever he says, which tend to cause misunderstanding between the main leads, the FL is inclined to believe him. She misunderstands the ML often but the misunderstanding is often resolved within an episode or two, which I am thankful for because its painful to watch my ship have tons of misunderstandings inbetween.
ML is your undercover spy who works for the Japanese on the surface, but is actually against the Japanese and hoping to kick the Japanese out of China (like all Ch Republican dramas are). He likes the FL at first sight and subsequently loves her as they spend even more time together. Most of the things he do (behind the FL's back) are for the sake of the FL's safety and while we viewers may know that, the FL doesn't know because ML doesn't tell. Its dangerous for FL to know. Hence, for spy related issues, he doesn't explain himself to the FL, you will have to put up with that while watching the drama. He does tell FL things that he can reveal to her without risking her life though.
This is also why they have a number of misunderstandings. Must understand that from FL's POV, for her to 100% trust the ML without knowing his real identity is real difficult, much less if the dude initially let her down a small number of times. Whereas for the 2ML, his identity is made known to the FL early on, on top of the fact that she once liked him like an idol, she trusts the him unbelievably much (even after the 2ML betrayed his country in the 2nd half of the drama, and that worried me every time they interact bc I fear that FL would reveal too much haha, but I did say she's clever so.... and also there's times I get so upset with her oh lord-).
The amount of romance in this drama.. is alright for me, would've liked more interactions between ML & FL for the last episode but unfortunately, they were either unaired or never filmed which resulted in odd decisions made closer to the ending. Yes, its a happy ending with both main leads alive. There were lots of interactions between the leads in the 10+ episodes, near to mid 20s but there on, romance was just scarce, and painful. That was when their acting peaked. Their crying scenes were perfect, I loved the chemistry between the leads.
Will rewatch, but probably selective parts and sweet clips only.
Plot wise, its your typical naive FL with a Genius ML who helps & protects FL from all sorts of disastrous situations. As bad as this sounds, it's really not that bad. The FL is not "totally stupid", just "clever" at specific times, really naive and stubborn by nature. No fret, she does grow, just ever so slightly because from the POV of the ML, she's always the small little woman he wants to protect. However if you are expecting the FL to be like RAR's then no, but the ML's smarts is equatable to the ML in RAR. I would say the plot for this drama is similar only with the exception of the FL as per explanation above. Don't expect too much (topnotch) spy action from the FL, there were some great actions in the early episodes though!
FL is just your typical pampered princess who grew up loved by both parents and has no idea of what the world is outside. Her character development is very obvious through the 46 episodes as she got used to the society after her father dies in the first episode. FL also trusts the 2ML A LOT, like, A LOT!! Because the dude was the first man she liked, so he holds a special place in her heart and fully trusts him. Hence, whatever he says, which tend to cause misunderstanding between the main leads, the FL is inclined to believe him. She misunderstands the ML often but the misunderstanding is often resolved within an episode or two, which I am thankful for because its painful to watch my ship have tons of misunderstandings inbetween.
ML is your undercover spy who works for the Japanese on the surface, but is actually against the Japanese and hoping to kick the Japanese out of China (like all Ch Republican dramas are). He likes the FL at first sight and subsequently loves her as they spend even more time together. Most of the things he do (behind the FL's back) are for the sake of the FL's safety and while we viewers may know that, the FL doesn't know because ML doesn't tell. Its dangerous for FL to know. Hence, for spy related issues, he doesn't explain himself to the FL, you will have to put up with that while watching the drama. He does tell FL things that he can reveal to her without risking her life though.
This is also why they have a number of misunderstandings. Must understand that from FL's POV, for her to 100% trust the ML without knowing his real identity is real difficult, much less if the dude initially let her down a small number of times. Whereas for the 2ML, his identity is made known to the FL early on, on top of the fact that she once liked him like an idol, she trusts the him unbelievably much (even after the 2ML betrayed his country in the 2nd half of the drama, and that worried me every time they interact bc I fear that FL would reveal too much haha, but I did say she's clever so.... and also there's times I get so upset with her oh lord-).
The amount of romance in this drama.. is alright for me, would've liked more interactions between ML & FL for the last episode but unfortunately, they were either unaired or never filmed which resulted in odd decisions made closer to the ending. Yes, its a happy ending with both main leads alive. There were lots of interactions between the leads in the 10+ episodes, near to mid 20s but there on, romance was just scarce, and painful. That was when their acting peaked. Their crying scenes were perfect, I loved the chemistry between the leads.
Will rewatch, but probably selective parts and sweet clips only.
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