TalkingWithYou
USA
This review may contain spoilers
Highly recommended but do not binge watch this drama!
If you try to binge watch this drama you will end up dropping it before you reach episode 25. However, if you take a day break, after binge watching every 15 episodes (e.g. 1-15 (then a break), 16-31 (then a break), and 32+), then you will fall in love with this drama.
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Review of episodes 1-19
This drama really had the potential to be a 10. However, the romance between the two leads in the first 6 episodes was not well developed. Meaning it was not believable for adults over the age of 25. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the romance, but it's seemed a bit too rushed. She barely even knows the male lead but because she thought he saved her life she developed strong feelings for him within 2 episodes. It isn't too far fetched but on top of developing feelings she ditched her first love who she had been crazy in love with for years, for the new guy and this all happens all within the first 5 episodes.
If the screenwriters would have invested one more episode, in between episodes 3-6 solely to dedicate more conversations between the two leads, then it would have made episodes 1-6 more realistic. What I am surprised by is the sexy flirtation coming from the male lead, specifically in episode 6. He tries to do the do, after their engagement but before their marriage. That is pretty uncommon in C and K dramas. Note: I just finished watching episode 7 and I am glad towards the end of that episode, the second male lead basically tells the female lead what I wrote above this line lol. "You've known him for how many days, and you want to get married?" "You cannot be reckless."
My favorite episode is episode 9 (around the 15 minute mark), because I think the female lead actor did a fantastic job portraying her emotions. If you can get past the female lead character in the first episode, you can make it through this drama. To be honest, I didn't like the female lead character (not the actress) in the first 19 episodes. While it's not the worst that I've seen in Chinese period dramas, it definitely isn't the best. I would have preferred the female lead character to be cute, playful, but cautious about who she befriends. However, the character is cute, playful, but has no sense of caution, actually she's pretty naive, and foolish.Episode 8 at the 31 minute mark had me screaming. Basically, I intentionally acted dramatic because of the betrayal (e.g. imagine the scenes in movies when someone is screaming and they kneel down and rip their shirt off because something painful happened).
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Review of episodes 20-52
•The female lead character gets better starting with episode 20.
•The male lead character is drugged and was supposed to be raped by a servant. I hate this because the scriptwriter did not write how wrong it was. RAPE IS WRONG, WHETHER IT'S A WOMAN OR MAN WHO IS THE RAPIST.
•The male lead character slaps the female lead in episode 37, and the scriptwriter wants us to be okay with it by saying he had to physical abuse the female lead character in order to protect her. PHYSICAL ABUSE IS WRONG IF IT IS NOT SELF DEFENSE, NO MATTER WHAT!
•The male lead character is VERY toxic. He basically uses the female lead and his concubine to get what he wants, and then is surprised when they don't respond with love. Unfortunately, out of all the historical k and c-dramas that I've watched, I believe his character matches how a crown prince in prehistoric times would have really been like (TOXIC).
•Although back in the first to fifth century, it was normal for women to start marrying as early as 12. It's gross to see a 60+ year old emperor, marry, and have a child with a 18-20 concubine. I am a bit disgusted by the scenes in which they appear together.
•There were a lot of filler episodes (e.g. 25-31, 44-46). I believe Chinese period and historical dramas should have 30-40 episodes, instead of 60-70. Let's make this a thing in 2022!
•Originally I rated this drama a 9.5 but took away .5 because of the end of episode 46 and beginning of 47. It's just not realistic. They are trying to escape so that they can go back to the female lead's country. Yet they stop to attend a festival where the court officials and the king will be at. Additionally, they stop and stand below the King, male lead, and the male lead other wife (the same people they are running from). SIGHHHHH C'mon now!
•The acting in episode 48 deserves an oscar. WOW
•Unlike other reviewers, I actually liked the ending. I don't think a toxic character like the male lead deserved to have had everything go his way, it's not realistic. He murdered the female lead family, lied to her, stalked her, threatened her, slapped her, in a rage of jealousy he killed her teacher, and tried to kill her best friend. How could their relationship ever recover if they ended up together?
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Review of episodes 1-19
This drama really had the potential to be a 10. However, the romance between the two leads in the first 6 episodes was not well developed. Meaning it was not believable for adults over the age of 25. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the romance, but it's seemed a bit too rushed. She barely even knows the male lead but because she thought he saved her life she developed strong feelings for him within 2 episodes. It isn't too far fetched but on top of developing feelings she ditched her first love who she had been crazy in love with for years, for the new guy and this all happens all within the first 5 episodes.
If the screenwriters would have invested one more episode, in between episodes 3-6 solely to dedicate more conversations between the two leads, then it would have made episodes 1-6 more realistic. What I am surprised by is the sexy flirtation coming from the male lead, specifically in episode 6. He tries to do the do, after their engagement but before their marriage. That is pretty uncommon in C and K dramas. Note: I just finished watching episode 7 and I am glad towards the end of that episode, the second male lead basically tells the female lead what I wrote above this line lol. "You've known him for how many days, and you want to get married?" "You cannot be reckless."
My favorite episode is episode 9 (around the 15 minute mark), because I think the female lead actor did a fantastic job portraying her emotions. If you can get past the female lead character in the first episode, you can make it through this drama. To be honest, I didn't like the female lead character (not the actress) in the first 19 episodes. While it's not the worst that I've seen in Chinese period dramas, it definitely isn't the best. I would have preferred the female lead character to be cute, playful, but cautious about who she befriends. However, the character is cute, playful, but has no sense of caution, actually she's pretty naive, and foolish.Episode 8 at the 31 minute mark had me screaming. Basically, I intentionally acted dramatic because of the betrayal (e.g. imagine the scenes in movies when someone is screaming and they kneel down and rip their shirt off because something painful happened).
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Review of episodes 20-52
•The female lead character gets better starting with episode 20.
•The male lead character is drugged and was supposed to be raped by a servant. I hate this because the scriptwriter did not write how wrong it was. RAPE IS WRONG, WHETHER IT'S A WOMAN OR MAN WHO IS THE RAPIST.
•The male lead character slaps the female lead in episode 37, and the scriptwriter wants us to be okay with it by saying he had to physical abuse the female lead character in order to protect her. PHYSICAL ABUSE IS WRONG IF IT IS NOT SELF DEFENSE, NO MATTER WHAT!
•The male lead character is VERY toxic. He basically uses the female lead and his concubine to get what he wants, and then is surprised when they don't respond with love. Unfortunately, out of all the historical k and c-dramas that I've watched, I believe his character matches how a crown prince in prehistoric times would have really been like (TOXIC).
•Although back in the first to fifth century, it was normal for women to start marrying as early as 12. It's gross to see a 60+ year old emperor, marry, and have a child with a 18-20 concubine. I am a bit disgusted by the scenes in which they appear together.
•There were a lot of filler episodes (e.g. 25-31, 44-46). I believe Chinese period and historical dramas should have 30-40 episodes, instead of 60-70. Let's make this a thing in 2022!
•Originally I rated this drama a 9.5 but took away .5 because of the end of episode 46 and beginning of 47. It's just not realistic. They are trying to escape so that they can go back to the female lead's country. Yet they stop to attend a festival where the court officials and the king will be at. Additionally, they stop and stand below the King, male lead, and the male lead other wife (the same people they are running from). SIGHHHHH C'mon now!
•The acting in episode 48 deserves an oscar. WOW
•Unlike other reviewers, I actually liked the ending. I don't think a toxic character like the male lead deserved to have had everything go his way, it's not realistic. He murdered the female lead family, lied to her, stalked her, threatened her, slapped her, in a rage of jealousy he killed her teacher, and tried to kill her best friend. How could their relationship ever recover if they ended up together?
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