Excellent romance, great production, completely let down by mediocre plot . . .

Frustratingly, the political plot is full of flaws: tedious, goes around in circles, cartoon villains, and full of nonsensical story. Just lots of evil, greedy one note characters that pop up again and again. But, the romance plot is so good, that I finished this drama anyways. In some ways, the political plot is so clearly bad that it's easy to skip through the political parts and just watch the romantic scenes.

This has everything you could want in a romance: a Romeo and Juliet forbidden romance, a man head over heals for a woman who is his equal, tons of rescuing and protectiveness, and putting each other first. It will go down as one of my favorite romantic couples, and this drama reminded me of Xu Kai's excellent acting and romance in Story of Yanxi Palace.

The production values and direction are also extremely good. The costumes are very original and beautifully designed. There's a lot of excellent choices with camera angles, and music. The action scenes are thrilling and don't use much CGI.

This drama is so uneven it's hard to recommend. But, I must say I was deeply touched, and the romance will stick with me. It may be worth a try to see if this love story sticks with you.