Jina
United States
Almost perfect with story, acting, cinematography, OST, costumes & sets
It's been a while since I've been this invested in a drama of this length and high quality production and I was initially reluctant since I heard that this drama was based on an ongoing comic--and so I feared that the drama would not end satisfactorily since it didn't have the source material to rely on. However, I was pleasantly pleased that this ended up being one of my top dramas (so far) of 2021! And it even made me interested in the comic too.
This drama is an epic journey of Li Changge who seeks revenge for her family but, in the course of her perilous journey of survival and gathering strength, has to decide between personal enmity or national security. It's full of tragic deaths, heartbreaking scenes worthy of many awards, well paid-off reunions, and is a grand dramatic complex story weaving in politics, war, deceit, secrets, and romance.
There's (sometimes brief but) great action, perfect OST (especially haunting vocals accompanying instrumental tracks), strong acting from the famous "mainstream" actors (Dilreba, Leo Wu, Zhao Lusi, etc.) but especially the supporting (and older) characters who play the roles of fathers, mothers, uncles, masters, etc. They were also fantastic and deserve much praise. What ties this altogether is the great cinematography--reminding me of the great cinematography from Goodbye My Princess--as it is imbued with a lot of artistic and metaphor and there are several scenes that left a lasting impression.
I feel like this story and production was almost at the level of Goodbye My Princess--one of my absolute favorite dramas of all time--just that it's not a tragedy. It's hopeful and delivers, I think, a pretty good ending.
There were just a couple things that felt like it was at 98% and not 100% like the way I feel about Goodbye My Princess.
1) Dilraba: I can see that she's an experienced actress and performs everything with technical precision. She is indeed very good and I enjoyed her performance as our main FL. However, perhaps an unpopular opinion, I think the drama would've been at 100% quality if a different actress had embodied the aesthetic and physical look of Li Changge. This has been mentioned before I think but the signature long bangs of Li Changge, on Dilraba's face, made her naturally long face looked even longer and wasn't as pleasing to the eye. At a couple points they even felt annoying as they were just so, ugh. On the other hand, when the bangs were a bit shorter, she looked so much better. So, in my dreams, Dilraba's Li Changge would have shorter bangs for the entire drama or a different experienced actress with a shorter face would play Li Changge.
2) Mimi, Mu Jin--characters and their relationship: I understood their purposes in the story but I have to be honest that I skipped over a lot of their relationship arc. Nothing about their characters nor actors pulled me to care enough. Maybe different actors or if the characters were written a bit differently--I heard that Mimi in the comic is a lot better.
3) There are some emotional lines that didn't draw through to the very end or did not feel organic enough. Ashile Sun and his brother Ashile She'Er. Enjoyed the shift in their dynamic toward the latter half of the series but would've wanted a stronger emotional set-up.
4) The comic scenes: I wonder if this was just due to budget? But I doubt it since they had all these actors and production and sets. I think the comic scenes were intentional to pay homage to the original comic--but it was a bit off-putting because it was not consistent about when it would show up. It just showed up whenever it wanted and then disappear for a while. For the most part, it seemed to cover the war battles that might've cost the production too much or felt unnecessary to drag out. For that, I'm a bit grateful.
Overall, I enjoyed this drama so much, I unhealthily watched it for like three days straight as each episode's cliffhanger had me searching for the next one. I don't regret watching this drama and followed along the suspense each episode and also immensely enjoyed the main couple and second couple's romantic storylines. I hope these actors and production get to reunite again in another historical drama. If not, I definitely know that I've been impressed and will be watching out for their future projects.
This drama is an epic journey of Li Changge who seeks revenge for her family but, in the course of her perilous journey of survival and gathering strength, has to decide between personal enmity or national security. It's full of tragic deaths, heartbreaking scenes worthy of many awards, well paid-off reunions, and is a grand dramatic complex story weaving in politics, war, deceit, secrets, and romance.
There's (sometimes brief but) great action, perfect OST (especially haunting vocals accompanying instrumental tracks), strong acting from the famous "mainstream" actors (Dilreba, Leo Wu, Zhao Lusi, etc.) but especially the supporting (and older) characters who play the roles of fathers, mothers, uncles, masters, etc. They were also fantastic and deserve much praise. What ties this altogether is the great cinematography--reminding me of the great cinematography from Goodbye My Princess--as it is imbued with a lot of artistic and metaphor and there are several scenes that left a lasting impression.
I feel like this story and production was almost at the level of Goodbye My Princess--one of my absolute favorite dramas of all time--just that it's not a tragedy. It's hopeful and delivers, I think, a pretty good ending.
There were just a couple things that felt like it was at 98% and not 100% like the way I feel about Goodbye My Princess.
1) Dilraba: I can see that she's an experienced actress and performs everything with technical precision. She is indeed very good and I enjoyed her performance as our main FL. However, perhaps an unpopular opinion, I think the drama would've been at 100% quality if a different actress had embodied the aesthetic and physical look of Li Changge. This has been mentioned before I think but the signature long bangs of Li Changge, on Dilraba's face, made her naturally long face looked even longer and wasn't as pleasing to the eye. At a couple points they even felt annoying as they were just so, ugh. On the other hand, when the bangs were a bit shorter, she looked so much better. So, in my dreams, Dilraba's Li Changge would have shorter bangs for the entire drama or a different experienced actress with a shorter face would play Li Changge.
2) Mimi, Mu Jin--characters and their relationship: I understood their purposes in the story but I have to be honest that I skipped over a lot of their relationship arc. Nothing about their characters nor actors pulled me to care enough. Maybe different actors or if the characters were written a bit differently--I heard that Mimi in the comic is a lot better.
3) There are some emotional lines that didn't draw through to the very end or did not feel organic enough. Ashile Sun and his brother Ashile She'Er. Enjoyed the shift in their dynamic toward the latter half of the series but would've wanted a stronger emotional set-up.
4) The comic scenes: I wonder if this was just due to budget? But I doubt it since they had all these actors and production and sets. I think the comic scenes were intentional to pay homage to the original comic--but it was a bit off-putting because it was not consistent about when it would show up. It just showed up whenever it wanted and then disappear for a while. For the most part, it seemed to cover the war battles that might've cost the production too much or felt unnecessary to drag out. For that, I'm a bit grateful.
Overall, I enjoyed this drama so much, I unhealthily watched it for like three days straight as each episode's cliffhanger had me searching for the next one. I don't regret watching this drama and followed along the suspense each episode and also immensely enjoyed the main couple and second couple's romantic storylines. I hope these actors and production get to reunite again in another historical drama. If not, I definitely know that I've been impressed and will be watching out for their future projects.
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