Repay harm with justice, repay virtue with virtue

In a system that is inherently inequal and unjust, is justice possible? Or is there only revenge?
Finally I've watched a cdrama that can easily be listed alongside international prestige dramas. Ripe town has it all - a compelling, well-paced and intelligent plot, highest quality production values - both visual and sound! - and a fabulous ensemble cast.
As the plot unfolds, we learn more about each of the main characters' (and victims') backstories - slowly giving us clues to what happened 20 years ago when a fire destroyed the Lu family residence and everyone in it but a few servants. What connection does the fire have to the recent gruesome murders? And why does the killer keep quoting the Analects?
Injustice is a central theme, but not merely in the sense of criminals being brought to justice, but also the injustice and inequality in Ming society - poor girls being sold to brothels, bastard children being bullied, superiors bullying their subordinates...it's everywhere. What happens when one of the lowliest members of society decides he doesn't want to take it anymore? (spoiler: lots of people die, both terrible humans who may in fact deserve their fate, and some innocent victims.)
Each character is well-rounded and believable, even those with little screen time. By the end, everyone's motivations are understandable even if you can't sympathize with them. It was easy to sympathize with our bailiff and his friends as they try to solve the mystery and "repay harm with justice." And Judge Song. Oh, kids. I generally do not cry during dramas, but I did shed more than a few tears when they read his poem in ep 12.
The pacing is excellent, I could hardly wait for the next episode to be subbed. The visuals are outstanding - it's dark and gritty but not unreadable - and it lends a sense of dread and foreboding to even beautiful seeming innocent scenes. The use of framing, of light and shadow is so good. And for the most part it is not dubbed. The silence! THE SILENCE between two characters has so much impact.
I can't recommend this drama enough, even to my friends who don't watch cdramas.

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Come for the romantic green flags, stay for the funny and talented ensemble cast

Follow Your Heart is an original screenplay (not an adaptation) that is an easy, light, and heart-warming Rom-mystery-com. It's a leisurely paced drama (imho, they could have tightened it up by about 4 eps) with strong acting, great fight choreography, good OSTs, and lovely chemistry between the leads. It's not perfect, but as someone who rarely re-watches dramas I could actually see myself wanting to rewatch much of this for the cute humor, the sweet romance of the main cp (ugh the way he looks at her even though he can't see her face! this is true love!), as well as the action, and great performances - the ensemble cast is very strong. From the many Yan Nanxing 'shapeshift' actors, to the support characters, and especially Jiang Xinbai's extra af mom who I thought was hilarious.
If you missed it when it was airing and you need a comfort watch, look no further.

-spoilers below-

First up: Happy Ending for all, except some side characters who sadly leave us but give our leads the opportunity to cry movingly. Even more joyous than the final wedding scene for me is the scene where Jiang Xinbai finally finds Yan Nanxing - even though she is self-conscious, looking like an old woman, afraid that she'll never turn back to her real appearance, he truly sees her and loves her as she is. This is the Real Thing folks.

Weak points/disappointments: the pace lags during the middle/last third, and the main lead's story disappears for a while. This definitely affects our appreciation of their chemistry, which is so strong at the beginning, but then we rarely see them together! LYX was injured on set so that's part of it, but I think the writing is more to blame.
Though there is one main "case" that is being solved throughout the whole drama, and one main cp, significant time is spent on the side-plots for the two other romances in the drama, of which at least one was not necessary. Characterization of some characters - particularly Jiang Suoluo (Sebrina Chen) never really worked for me. She was supposedly brilliant and competitive with her brother, but somehow couldn't even figure out how to break off her engagement to slimy social climber Yan BiQing (who did a great job of making me hate his stupid face.) I never got over how annoying I found her at the beginning even though she reconciled with her brother. The romance between her and Ruoqian felt forced and artificial for me - it would have been much more satisfying to see them crush on each other slow-burn style but then go off and become the great Chancellor and official that they wanted to be. Cdramas please stop making the end game early marriage and babies for EVERY character. JUST STOP.
I was also disappointed that they seemed to weaken Yan Nanxing in the middle - she is a traveling doctor who knows martial arts! She's a wily girlboss supreme! If they needed to make her a bit more helpless to further the plot they could've done it by putting insurmountable obstacles in her way instead of just somehow making her less competent. I still love her though. YNX is now one of my favorite FL characters, and I am so so so happy for Song Yi that she got to play her - she did a fabulous job.

The good stuff: Jiang Xinbai and Yan Nanxing are great characters, played by great actors, and their chemistry is great. Their relationship is a series of green flags, no contrived misunderstandings, just mutual admiration. The plot device of JXB being face-blind and her shapeshifting is adorable. He recognizes and loves her no matter what she looks like. This was especially funny on the 2nd wedding night - his was so angry he wasn't going to get his wedding night funtimes. And it was very touching at the end, when he recognized her even though she was old and gray (particularly touching to me, an old and gray watcher.) This is what love is like.
I did enjoy the Shang Beili and Tong Sai'er relationship as well - it's cute that he falls for her and her unconventional cooking then gets gege-zoned. Huang Riying did a nice job of playing a broadly humorous but innocent and naive character (which is tough to do, I often find these naive girls irritating, but I just thought she was cute and funny.) It was nice that they got Shang Beili to stop shouting so much after he fell in love - it softens even the loudest general I guess. It was also so satisfying to see the JXB/SBL relationship go from enemies to bros who had each other's backs.
I love love loved all the actors who played Yan Nanxing. Even Cheng Xiao who I have not been impressed with in the past did a great job of picking up YNX/Song Yi's mannerisms, and playing a woman stuck in someone else's body. Extra special shouout to Wang Chengsi, but all the dopplegangers were great.
Loved loved the appearances by Zhao Yuanyuan (Love is Sweet with LYX) and Wang Yifei (Ashes of Love & TTEOTM) give these beautiful and talented ladies some leading roles please!
Last but not least, the moms! THE MOMS. Finally we get a LYX drama with alive moms, and they are both tough, funny, and thoroughly entertaining. YNX's adopted mom was streetwise and funny (though i wish she hadn't randomly disappeared through some eps) and JXB's mom was a highlight for me. Weng Zhenrong did a great job being thoroughly entertaining - the Duchess was competent but capricious, intelligent and politically savvy but also loving and devoted to her kids. Her portrayal really encapsulated the kinda screwball-comedy tone I thought they were trying to go for, but alas, the entire drama didn't stick with that tone.

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Fun Wuxia/Mystery with Buddy Cop Comedy Vibes

Surprise delight of 2022. Even though Su Wuming is a disciple of Dectective Di, I think I liked this even more than the Detective Di movies I’ve seen (!) because as much as I love Su Wuming, the genius detective trope is a little played out for me. Giving him a great foil in Lu Lingfeng made the whole thing more enjoyable.

The writing for and acting of the two leads was an absolute delight to watch. They had great buddy cop chemistry that really elevated the whole drama. Female characters were pretty well written and realized, and some of the villains were downright enjoyable (creepy ghost guy, you looked like you had so much fun!)
Production values were fairly high across the board - sets, visuals, costumes, sound, for what could have been a very cheap drama. Everything seems to have been done with care and attention to detail. Though the plots are a little silly sometimes, I didn’t mindat all because they were entertaining.
Also tw to people like me who are sn*ke phobic - uh there are lots of scenes you will need to skip in the second mystery.

The drama starts at the end (!) which was an interesting way to wrap the whole thing up, but also an odd choice because they ended up basically reusing most of the first ep for the final episode.
In between there are several loosely strung together 'supernatural mysteries’ that our guys find themselves solving in different places all across the country. Each mystery is only slightly more difficult to solve than your typical Scooby Doo plot, and similarly any supernatural element is soundly debunked by the end. But the mysteries themselves are almost beside the point because watching the leads is so entertaining.

Pros: writing, acting, chemistry between leads, production values, almost no romance (a pro for me)

Cons: easy 'mysteries’, almost no romance (if you're into that sort of thing)

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It broke me

I am a fan of Luo Yunxi and had been looking forward to seeing him in something completely different with a thriller-type plot so I watched it when it came out.
Unfortunately, after many years and at least three rounds with the censors this drama was butchered beyond recognition. Any hint of the main themes of corporate espionage and ZXS's abusive upbringing that made him a perfect spy was blown away in favor of padding with 1) an annoying office bullying plot for the FL and 2) a completely irrelevant secondary couple story line that were obviously paid for by their management. They cut so many of ZXS's scenes - even ones used in the promo material!! Not to mention the infamous beating scene which took two painful days to shoot and we got like two seconds of it.
Normally I would drop something this bad but I hate-watched it for xixi and was rewarded by his tragic acting in the last few episodes. The only other bright spot was his 'sister' Mo Li - an interesting character well acted, but again her backstory was completely removed which was frustrating.
Giving this a 4 just because of Luo Yunxi and in memorium to all the deleted scenes and whatever the director's initial intentions were.

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A drama about volunteer rescue in China.

I'm giving this a higher rating than I might based on reviewing it as a didactic example of how rescue squads operate, and as a recruiting device for volunteerism.
Though some of the marketing makes it look like a cp drama, it is in fact an ensemble cast, with the focus being on the diverse people that make up volunteer rescue squads. It’s very politically safe and I was not surprised they chose to air it during the party congress.
Surprisingly for the moralistic/didactic theme, I thought all the couples were really cute and well done, so if you want romance, there is some. The special effects and sets were realistic, and everyone’s tragic backstory was tragic. You may need tissues for this one if you’re a crier.
The point is that everyone has a role to play - yes, even Ding Ding Ding. She kinda grew on me by the end.
It wasn’t without some super cringe moments though (spoiler: the little orphan would be doubly scarred for life by their wildly inappropriate attempts to help him 'heal’) but in general was ok.

Wu Qian was really good - I’d only seen her in two things when she was much younger, and she really is a mature, talented actress. Her character was written as cold and uncompromising though, so it was hard to really like or relate to her. Luo Yunxi turned in a decent performance as a disaster survivor with MAJOR PTSD who has a laundry list of issues that he really should be working through with a therapist but...it's cdrama land so we can't do that.

Pros: acting, special effects, ensemble cast, cute dog
Cons: not enough of the cute dog, didactic and moralizing, choppy editing and weak plot that made it feel a little like 'how to survive x disaster’ instructional videos strung together rather than a coherent drama

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Missed opportunity for camp

At least it was short.
Writing this review four years after the fact just because....
I enjoy low budget dramas and watched this one only for Luo Yunxi (as one does). The worst part about it was that it could have been so much fun, but the plot was just kinda lame - it's a xianxia, it was super short. There was no need for a mortal palace political intrigue plot arc. At the end when we encounter the nightmare demon guy - omg that's when I realized we could have had so much more. He was like a xianxia Dr. Frankenfurter. Imagine if we had him through the whole thing! And also imagine if the FL could act! cough cough.
Not a difficult watch, but worth it only for LYX oeuvre completists. This is the gig that got him noticed by Heavy Sweetness Ash Like Frost author, which got him an audition for Ashes of Love, so I can't hate it.

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Watch for the costumes

I watched shortly after this came out and my recollections now are: it started very strong, with lots of fun moments between the two leads, action, and beautiful costumes. Around episode 18 I despaired that there were still 37 to go. It was much too long.
After the initial plot arc, it became apparent that it was very much an ensemble palace/historical drama with tons of secondary characters - some interesting, some hate-able, some well-realized, some cookie-cutter. It was not a romance between the two 'leads' one of whom you only see in the beginning and end. I enjoyed Xu Kai's character at the beginning, very much his usually cheeky role, but at the end found his character stiff and uninteresting. Li Yitong did ok, but her character was almost Forrest Gump-like in that she was somehow magically present anytime something of historical import was happening. As the titular Court Lady she was so competent at everything as to be unbelievable, which definitely took me out of the story and annoyed me.
Struggled through the middle, just wanting to know how the drama was going to choose to depict Guifei, and was unsurprised and slightly let down. Based on my scant knowledge of Tang history the plot was very loosely based on actual events with lots of literary license taken.

Stuck with it until the end mostly for the aesthetics - the costumes are ridiculously beautiful and historically accurate. The entire palette of the drama - costumes, sets, color grading, etc. is like an amazing collection of san cai pottery.

I really wish My Drama List had more Ratings categories - I don't watch dramas for the music??? (I don't enjoy all the cheesy drama ballads and pop OSTs. y'all can have them.) Why isn't there a category for visuals??

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Watch Longest Day in Chang'An instead

I loved Longest Day in Chang'An (though not a perfect drama) so I was excited for Luoyang, since the screenwriter was the same. Unfortunately, the things I didn't like about Chang'An were multiplied and increased in Luoyang, which is to say: unevenly developed characters, poorly constructed character relationships (specifically M/F relationships), unnecessarily 'twisty' plot twists and an unsatisfying ending.
I kept watching mostly because Huang Xuan was such a compelling actor - this was my first time seeing him - but all the other mains were flat and boring. Though I don't blame them entirely, it was partially a script problem - I never thought any character would fail the Bechdel test as badly as Song Yi's character did. Both M/F relationships had no chemistry and seemed to add little to the plot.
Good parts were the cinematography (though not as good as Chang'an), Huang Xuan, and a few of the minor characters.

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Fun to watch

A little camp, a little satire, but overall fun. One of the few dramas that I re-watched only a month after my first watch to cheer myself up and it definitely did the job. Good performances by everyone - some play it pretty broad and slapstick and others go for a little more subtle. Was pleasantly surprised by Xu Kai, I think this was the first drama I watched him in and he can be a little uneven acting-wise, but this suited him well. If they had skipped the teacher/student romance angle I think it would have been even better - that's the only bit that felt forced and neither hilariously funny nor sweetly touching, but that's partially my personal preference.

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