Jina
United States
emotional whiplash with some payoff; lesson: miscommunication will be the death of you.
I came after watching the main couple in Legend of Yunxi and I can say with complete confidence that they are much sweeter and cuter in this drama. This story in general is not as politically intense as Yunxi, but that's good for folks who aren't very interested in the politics.
It's funny that I learned that this drama script and production took a long time to get going because it makes a lot of sense now that I've seen the whole drama. You can tell that the drama is in three distinct parts--I assume from a bunch of rewrites and changes. It wasn't really finalized until 2019, which makes me even curious if they imitated some scenes from the popular drama Goodbye My Princess (aired in 2019) as there are a couple similarities lol but I don't mind. Also, I assume that, because of all the troubles this show went through, there's also strange editings especially for the main couple. Sometimes, it feels like their scenes got cut short. I assume we'll never know truly what happened with this.
This drama can be split into three parts:
1) the first third was establishing the foundation for conflicts later on and groundwork for relationships, especially for the main couple and second couple. The main couple, strangely, doesn't get much screentime together during this part although they do meet many times. This part was the more romantic comedy sense and was a lot more lighthearted and simple. Unfortunately, this is the only time where the "power" of the dreams really come into play. It appears later, but not much.
2) A bit more angsty and drama driven but finally more screentime with the main couple and deeper development into their relationship. The political/serious plot during this time is kept to a minimum, honestly, as I think there was a time where the antagonist barely showed up at all for several episodes lol. So this was the part with more development of relationships like the second couple as well. There were some angsty and emotional moments that were very good and well done.
3) The final third part of the drama came back to the political/serious plot, but definitely felt a bit chaotically put together, seemingly as if the writers fell back on old tricks/illogical moves just to create emotional tragic scenes and move the plot along. Ex: more misunderstandings that made me rolled my eyes and strange plot turns that, by the last 5 episodes, I was just like "Okay, this might as well happen."
Overall, although the story kind of spluttered out by the end, this drama delivered on what was expected of it. This drama, I believe, understood its audience and what they wanted: cute and sweet moments with the main couple (and even with the second couple); tragic and sad emotional scenes to enhance our feelings for the show and characters (no matter how illogical we got to those points); pretty faces and pretty scenes.
This drama wasn't completely a romantic comedy but wasn't solely a political drama. It's a fun mix between, which was good, although I think the drama spluttered toward the end because they wrote themselves into situations that they didn't know how to get out of and so took easy solutions out.
In the end, this is a drama to enjoy for the pretty faces, the main (and secondary) couple, and their sweet and angst scenes. I didn't get too invested in the political/serious plot once it became too ridiculous and instead just enjoyed the emotional ride, the highs and lows, of the main couple--because seriously, this couple can be so sweet but then also frustrate me so much that I had a lot of emotional whiplash--from feeling teary and so sad for them in one episode to the next episode being so glad and happy for them. I still love them very much but I think the writers utilized the 'misunderstanding' trope a little too much toward the end that it was more frustrating than sad. Fortunately for this show, the sheer couple power of Zhang Zhehan and Ju Jingyi took me to the finish line.
I think that's the bottom line. If you're here for zhehan and jingyi, you'll enjoy many parts of this drama and finish it for its happy ending. You'll get pluses, like the cute secondary couple. If you're here seeking a strong and logical political plot alongside the romance...this is not the drama for that.
It's funny that I learned that this drama script and production took a long time to get going because it makes a lot of sense now that I've seen the whole drama. You can tell that the drama is in three distinct parts--I assume from a bunch of rewrites and changes. It wasn't really finalized until 2019, which makes me even curious if they imitated some scenes from the popular drama Goodbye My Princess (aired in 2019) as there are a couple similarities lol but I don't mind. Also, I assume that, because of all the troubles this show went through, there's also strange editings especially for the main couple. Sometimes, it feels like their scenes got cut short. I assume we'll never know truly what happened with this.
This drama can be split into three parts:
1) the first third was establishing the foundation for conflicts later on and groundwork for relationships, especially for the main couple and second couple. The main couple, strangely, doesn't get much screentime together during this part although they do meet many times. This part was the more romantic comedy sense and was a lot more lighthearted and simple. Unfortunately, this is the only time where the "power" of the dreams really come into play. It appears later, but not much.
2) A bit more angsty and drama driven but finally more screentime with the main couple and deeper development into their relationship. The political/serious plot during this time is kept to a minimum, honestly, as I think there was a time where the antagonist barely showed up at all for several episodes lol. So this was the part with more development of relationships like the second couple as well. There were some angsty and emotional moments that were very good and well done.
3) The final third part of the drama came back to the political/serious plot, but definitely felt a bit chaotically put together, seemingly as if the writers fell back on old tricks/illogical moves just to create emotional tragic scenes and move the plot along. Ex: more misunderstandings that made me rolled my eyes and strange plot turns that, by the last 5 episodes, I was just like "Okay, this might as well happen."
Overall, although the story kind of spluttered out by the end, this drama delivered on what was expected of it. This drama, I believe, understood its audience and what they wanted: cute and sweet moments with the main couple (and even with the second couple); tragic and sad emotional scenes to enhance our feelings for the show and characters (no matter how illogical we got to those points); pretty faces and pretty scenes.
This drama wasn't completely a romantic comedy but wasn't solely a political drama. It's a fun mix between, which was good, although I think the drama spluttered toward the end because they wrote themselves into situations that they didn't know how to get out of and so took easy solutions out.
In the end, this is a drama to enjoy for the pretty faces, the main (and secondary) couple, and their sweet and angst scenes. I didn't get too invested in the political/serious plot once it became too ridiculous and instead just enjoyed the emotional ride, the highs and lows, of the main couple--because seriously, this couple can be so sweet but then also frustrate me so much that I had a lot of emotional whiplash--from feeling teary and so sad for them in one episode to the next episode being so glad and happy for them. I still love them very much but I think the writers utilized the 'misunderstanding' trope a little too much toward the end that it was more frustrating than sad. Fortunately for this show, the sheer couple power of Zhang Zhehan and Ju Jingyi took me to the finish line.
I think that's the bottom line. If you're here for zhehan and jingyi, you'll enjoy many parts of this drama and finish it for its happy ending. You'll get pluses, like the cute secondary couple. If you're here seeking a strong and logical political plot alongside the romance...this is not the drama for that.
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