What you need to know:

The story is entertaining and logical and dragged only a little in the middle putting much attention to the restaurant business.

The characters are awesome: there are very moral people, just common people and people who change a great deal to good or to bad. But they are believable and their interactions in many cases are not clichés.

The surroundings and music are very pleasant; the whole series is performed in a very aesthetical way.

And now, hello longread! :) What you possibly needn’t know but I just want to say:

The Dream of Splendor is a beautifully made series, almost flawless. That’s the impression after completing the whole work. When I ask myself if there are any plotlines which haven’t got logical solutions, I can’t find any I can't explain at all. That’s rare.

Speaking of the plot, I really appreciate the feminist topic but not driven to absurd extremes. The three gracious, beautiful and more than once distressed women unite to stand up for their rights and build a better tomorrow for themselves. In a process they prove that women can be respected no less than men, they can be artistic and yet have a successful business. They may be deceived or betrayed by the men they choose but still rise with their heads up and find more sincere and caring husbands. They may be wise and forgiving or passionate and revengeful – in other words, they are living people with their rights and wrongs and only their choice defines their destiny.

There have been many political schemes as well, which is cool, although I felt a little puzzled at all those names and double agents (the reason is not narration, though, but the auto subtitles – with a complete translation everything would be easy to understand). I really loved how the plot shows the main bone of contention – the painting of the Night Revels which is being mentioned since the very beginning but actually appears only in the end. Family matters, politics and social morals are all intertwined. The way some people serve different masters and switch their allegiances is also intriguing. Some seek glory and others try to be noble and just. Some would sacrifice anyone to save their own pride and others are able to walk in different people’s shoes. That’s so interesting to watch – mainly because the story is character-driven and they are so alive, complicated and real you can actually believe them.

More about characters. Zhao Pan Er is the main of the female trio. She’s elegant, smart, decisive and proud. The way she’s almost always right makes her a bit too ideal but her character is still believable. Still, some of her deeds might have been a mistake. For example, I feel her responsible for Ou Yang Xu becoming a villain. All he wanted was a glorious career; when Pan Er took her revenge (made a fuss around his house galling his pride, frightened him so badly he was eager to ban himself from a city) she created a devious foe desperately clinging for an opportunity to rise again. She also rushed with a decision about (a main lead) Gu Qian Fan’s ‘betrayal’. He disappeared but not for years or even months – anything could have happened, so why assume he broke up with her in the most unbelievable manner?

Apart from these, Pan Er’s actions are full of dignity and intelligence. She’s a grown-up woman, which gives the series a new vibe of a serious piece of art. No girlish foolishness and clumsiness! Though she also may be seen having fun, entertaining others or solving misunderstandings. Finally, a decent FL character! Heavens, we do need more of them.

And there are some. Sun San Niang is another lovely woman, who is a talented cook and a bit less skilled mother, getting round all kinds of life troubles. While Pan Er suffers from her low status of a musician, San Niang is misfortunate as a wife and mother. When her son disavows her, she wants to die but finds strength to begin once again. She’s very reasonable, calm and caring (although she is shown as a fighting kind of a lady in the beginning). She’s Pan Er’s right hand both in business and life matters. She also improves as a mother of the family since she regains her son and turns a pathetical scientist, her future lover, into a noble man and always motivates him to get better at things.

Song Yin Zhang is a complicated character. She begins as a very naïve girl growing into a very haughty one. She is talented, true, but she has no right to hurt her sisters’ feelings and act like a princess. She’s impulsive, jealous and hungry for attention and admiration. She’s also a dreamer who knows nothing about what’s going on around. She’s in love with Gu Qian Fan but never notices he’s ready to marry Pan Er. She’s deceived by seducers twice. In the first half of the series, she becomes quite unbearable. She really gives a problematic teenager’s vibe.

Later, though, there’s a great deal of a character development for her. She becomes more mature and less pretentious. She learns how to put herself in someone else’s shoes. She even settles very troublesome incidents. All in all, she a great character and is really accurately depicted.

Gu Qian Fan is a ML and in the first episode he’s seen as he must be: a cold and merciless ‘devil’ whose job is investigation and torture. Later on, we learn he never took pleasure in such work; he only needs a higher rank to give a status to his mother and is also deceived by someone he trusts. Actually, he’s quite a contrast to the image the others see. (Although Pan Er guesses he's a good person surprisingly soon.) He’s a softhearted, dignified, caring, humble and generous man who needs some friendly support. He’s trapped in the political battle of wills; he also has got a father whom he loves (and who loves him) but doesn’t accept due to the difference of their life attitudes. He’s also very vulnerable (somehow the characters in these series don’t have the ability to heal in ten minutes, which is a good call) and is wounded like half a dozen times. Once he finds friends and a woman he loves, he is loyal to them. He may be prudent, daring, passionate, unsure, professional and respectful to ancestors or not quite – but he’s always a noble man.

Interestingly, Qian Fan and Pan Er are really well balanced as a couple. While he is so hard on the surface and warm and mild in heart, she is a woman who has limited physical strength but her will is as an iron bar. The actors have done a fantastic job as a chemistry of the main couple is great. (You can find such a description almost anywhere but only here I see what this phrase actually means.) The very first time Pan Er saves Qian Fan it must be seen as a happenstance but you feel it’s a fate. Not a cliché one you can find in any drama. The best artistically solid life-changing moment one you can only hope to identify in real life. Their romance is so sweet and touching! Qian Fan is ready to marry a low status woman; he even accepts her desire to be a business lady, although it will ruin his status. Pan Er is like an angel saving the ever-wounded Qian Fan again and again. He doesn’t find it ashaming to share his unrealized expectations and show her his sorrow – but would break up with her in order to conceal the truth about the blood revenge between their families. She’s ready to step through it just to be with the one she loves. The flower symbols, the hairpin, the chats on the boat and on the doorstep, the warmness in their glances and tenderness in their guiltless touches – everything is so esthetical, so romantic!

What I love most of all are the interactions between characters – the main four and the supporting cast (for example, I really loved Chen Lian, Zhao Di and Pan Er’s standing customers). The plot is sometimes really gripping and sometimes not (there have been so many episodes about tea, music and competitors – well, that’s logical since this story’s about the restaurant business! At least they are depicted very artistically.) Personally, my favourite one is the first arc (about 5-6 episodes on how the main characters got to the capital) and the last one (where all plotlines, personal and political, are well combined).

There is one more thing I appreciate: there aren’t any 100% villains. People are not evil just because the script tells them to be; it’s life that changes them. In this work, they are mostly seduced by the ‘city’, they want to grab its ‘splendor’ and this is a serious motivation for a political life of the capital. I also like that a person isn’t changed in a moment; that’s a long process when one may surrender or fight his or her destiny. Being proud isn’t a bad thing – but choosing immoral ways is. I don’t think, for example, Ou Yang Xu to be the rotten soul from the beginning. His expectations of his future career were just too high and the means for obtaining glory weren’t of unassailable integrity. But he acted as is still acceptable in his kind of social life. We understand he’ll be an antagonist almost from the very beginning but he seems so innocent and powerless that he doesn’t look like a villain. He’s almost always a victim – Pan Er hates him (although he still loves her), his career and marriage are ruined, he is lost and starving, scorned and beaten. I really like the way the viewer is deceived as we can’t help but sympathize him. Moreover, that’s the key to his decline: since he pities himself and blames others for his misfortunes, he gets used to the idea he can revenge and use others as tools (and later even commit crimes – he hates it but there’s ‘no choice’ for him if he still wants to pursue his goal, which to that point has become a fixed idea). It’s also interesting that his schemes are smart but lack either timing or luck; he’s overplayed by ‘good’ characters or just by circumstances. As a successful scholar, he knows he just must outsmart others but his obsession with power plays a cruel joke on nonother than himself and drives him crazy. Xu Hai Qiao did a great job portraying such an ambiguous character – I wish there were a bit more of him in the series but even so it was very interesting to watch this transformation.

To sum up, this series has been very pleasant to watch; thrilling when the characters were overcoming dangers, educating in terms of art and culture, funny at times and with a very balanced romantic line. The soundtrack is also great, as well as costumes and surrounding. But all of these wouldn’t be of a high importance if not for such alive, different, interesting characters.