At first, I was skeptical to watch the drama since I barely have heard of the lead actress (which is one of the ways I assess on whether to watch a drama or not - based on the cast). Didn't watch the drama when it aired, until now. For some reason, it popped on my YT feed and I am not regretful at all that I checked it out since it's one of the most memorable dramas I've watched. I've always liked dramas which would make me cry and Yanxi Palace is my ultimate favorite, and this might have entered my top 5 Chinese dramas.
Star crossed lovers - check. Political warfare - check. Romantic scenes - check. Heartbreaking scenes - check. And my God, the acting, Great acting - check. The way Cheng Yi just acts with his eyes, just brings my heart to tears. Everytime the camera zooms in on their eyes with those tears threatening to fall, oh I reach for my tissues right away (well some are sentimental heart fluttering eyes, but mostly teary eyes, anyways I applaud the actors and the director for this). Really made me go gaga over Cheng Yi because of this.
There are a few things I really liked about this drama:
1. The growth of the main characters from naughty youth to powerful people with grace. It's just wonderful how the character developments were staged. The interlocking of their characters, the backstory of each, including supporting characters all were well written in my opinion
2. Antagonists had justified reasons of being bad - well most of them like Yu Ying, Qi Han, Cheng Rui, Wan Yin. They had humanity in them. The only real bad person I think was 4th Prince who had to die in a boring way thru heart attack.
3. The supporting angels - I love that there were quite a few characters who subtly were supporting MingYu and ChengXu (other than their usual confidants), like 2nd brother and his sons, Li Nanny, He Shao Yong (though last eps only).
4. The purest heart of ChengXu was the most heartwarming in this drama. I've seen a lot of star crossed lovers who eventually had to sacrifice their love for the betterment of the country - FuHeng, Han Derang, LuBuwei to name a few (because a few people could not even obey the Bro Code). But the winner of them all was ChengXu since it's not only love that he sacrificed, but also his empire. How much of a sacrifice can one do, really, might as well just give up on your own life. 虐, that's all to describe ChengXu's life. One might think that the world was too harsh on him, but the way he tried to be strong in the hopes of realizing a happy ending was both heartbreaking and heartwarming. It hurts because we all know that it won't happen, but also warm because of his constant hope and the lesson taught on what's important in life.
But also there's a few I didn't like
1. How late it was for QiYuan to realize his wrongdoings despite being a grown child. He could have seen it earlier that ChengXu was sincere and did treat him like his own child.
2. How the two leads did not get the ending they deserved. I mean, why couldn't they be happy in the end, we've cried too much already, and the drama had to kill every relevant person except MingYu and ZhenEr. Maybe if QiYuan and RuoXuan had instead realized the unfinished story of MingYu and ChengXu.
So in conclusion, I cried a lot this time (my eyes are puffy while writing this) and has definitely logged this drama as one of my fave, and Cheng Yi as one of my fave actors officially. I will rewatch this but maybe only the scenes I love of MingYu and ChengXu which is quite a lot now that I think about it.
Quite excited about Stand By Me though it's another martyr drama for Cheng Yi