I had to go back to my dictionary to look up the word NIRVANA. From beginning to end there was never a feeling of nirvana - in the storyline or for the viewer. What had the potential to be a masterpiece was butchered by censors to the point that most of my time was looking for third party comments to find out -"what happened or why"? From the very beginning until the end there was no fluid storytelling. The actors were at their best emotional wrecks going through the motions. The poor viewer could not put the pieces of this story together without having first read the novel or second have someone that had read the novel explain what the heck was going on. It became a Humpty Dumpty mess. When you cut a drama with 72 episodes down to 60 you are definitely leaving someone's artistic creation muddled, messy and unintelligible. I don't want to discourage anyone from watching - just something you need to be prepared for when investing the time in this failed masterpiece. The investment of quality actors, quality scenery, quality costumes, and great cinematography was wasted. I yearn for the day all 72 episodes (uncut, uncensored) are released for viewership. That would be the redemption of this drama to a 9.5 plus. I ended up giving it a 7.5 because of the frustration factor. My last lament -- if you are going to do an Avengers type release of footage after the credits - you should not put FIN (end). The story doesn't end - maybe a part 2 but a major question needed to be answered at the end and only the lucky viewers that like sitting through credits in a foreign or Chinese language will see the true ending of this drama.