“Jun Jiu Ling” has all the hallmarks and characteristics of “Goodbye My Princess” – Peng Xiaoran’s (PXR) breakout drama and one of the best productions of 2019. It propelled PXR into the list of A-grade actress and highly sought after in the industry. "Jun Jiu Ling" is a heart-wrenching and sad tale focusing around revenge interspersed with your obligatory romance between the two leads, eternal friendship, love quadrangle, etc. There is nothing unique or ground-breaking about the main theme, and its subsequent sub-plots, but nonetheless, I was excited to watch this historical period drama because it is Peng Xiaoran’s first drama after her highly successful “Goodbye My Princess”, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

At the end of the first episode, I was left gobsmacked. I try not to be utterly critical of the storylines, but some of the scenes just defy logics. These are just some of the disjointed, incoherent and convoluted scenes happening in the first episode alone:
• The female protagonist could walk towards the Emperor without any actions from the guards until she was inches away from the Emperor.
• The doctor and her daughter could walk into the prison at ease and got the princess out of a locked cell room.
• The doctor’s daughter suddenly offered herself as a sacrifice when all of them could escape out of the prison. It does not matter whether the burning building contains a body or not.
• The doctor performed surgery on the princess face and change it to that of her dead daughter. Huh? And she got vocal chord change as well for convenience. And where is the injury?
• The doctor accidentally killed himself falling off a cliff. How convenient. And he only died after having the last words with the female lead.
• A supposedly heart-wrenching moment when the male lead finds out about the death of the female lead becomes comedy gold. It was awkward seeing Jin Han crying the way he did by cupping his mouth rather unnaturally.
• And what about ML meeting FL for the first time. Slow motion flying scene from the top of the roof that looks like a botched job. The flying speed was irregular making it looks like the ML was hoist from the rope.

OK you get the gist. I stopped watching after the first episode. 7 days hiatus and lack of any good c-drama currently premiering forced me to watch episode 2 of "Jun Jiu Ling". Now I am already 30 episodes into the series. But it still has a crappy illogical storyline. On episode 25, Jun JiuLing saved the granddaughter of a minister who killed Huang Ziqing, by giving Wan Qing a drug that stopped her breathing for a few hours. How is it possible for JiuLing to give the victim the drug when she was constantly being stomped and kicked upon by at least two (2) guards during the commotion? And in the next scene, the Emperor ordered Zhu Zan to be flogged 100 times, and after the beating, Zhu Zan’s face looked like he just came out from a facial treatment. It could not get any more ludicrous.

Anyway, I will still finish this costume c-drama because there are no good period dramas currently airing worth my time. Zhao Lusi’s latest costume drama – A female Student Arrives at Imperial College – is equally crappy too. While Peng XiaoRan is the star attraction here, I can’t but think she should not have taken this role. The male lead, Jin Han, is not suitable in his lead role too. Something about his acting is amiss and I just don’t find the two main characters having the chemistry. I just can’t see it after 30 episodes. And what is with Peng XiaoRan make-up. Sometimes, it looks like she has 1 inch of foundation on her face!!!

Since I am going to complete watching this train wreck, my rating is a commendable 7.0/10.0 for this series. I wish I could just stop after episode 1.