Lady Unagi
This review may contain spoilers
I'm a newbie in cdramaland. For me actually, period cdrama has a unique point that kdrama or jdrama doesn't have. When I watched The Longest Day in Chang'an and Joy of Life, I thought how could they made such a beautiful cinematography and costumes? How could they have well casted, well written and well directed drama? It's a period drama why it's really enjoyable to watch? Something like that. Then I tried to watch other cdrama like Goodbye My Princess. The couple was have good chemistry but the script was "meh".
I did also watch Rise of Phoenixes, they have very beautiful cinematography and props also potential actors but in the middle of dramas, why the plot became nonsense and ridiculously disorganized. Why don't I try watching Held in the Lonely Castle, maybe they are a little different?
I had same thoughts with pammo1949 "I have developed a love-hate relationship with but will not give up."
Qing Ping Le or I usually called it "Held in the Lonely Castle" instead of "Serenade of Peaceful Joy" it started stronger, engaging and powerful with Empress Dowager appearance and a will of young boy who wanted a justice for his biological mom but suddenly those expectations are fading and left with tragic love and life story.
As he grown up, Zhao Zhen his name. He had grudges to the Empress Dowager and fell in love with Zhou clan woman who accidentally he met but officials who thought they were "gentlemen", they want their Emperor married with graceful, morally responsible, good attitude and educated. She was a noble woman who her uncle was a warrior general and her name was Cao Danshu.
Zhao Zhen accepted their offering and he got trapped by malicious rumor which led him missed his wedding night with her.
He becomes very benevolent, wise and has a good foresight but he has a weakness, he fancied woman, he loves liquor, he leads everything from his head and not his heart.
Cao Danshu who truly loves her as she had crush with him and willingly married him without knowing what kind of person he is. When he missed the wedding night, she keeps blaming herself that he didn't like her because he didn't choose her as Empress and wife. She keeps getting hurts by time she lives in Palace. She knew she couldn't win his heart and He had been cold to her for fifteen years
The most heartbreaking point he has is he loves his Empress, his legal woman, his love but he hides the feeling of loving her and he is safeguarding her quietly. He wanted her to be safe. He also didnt know her love is bigger than his worried to the nation and people.
He loves her but he cannot stop himself from getting jealous or suspecting her. He was very untrusting of her, and there was rumors to impeach the Empress.
Until later on when he gets older, he really appreciates her but by then The Empress cares and loves him but not the romantic way. He just wants a balance between imperial harem and imperial court.
The lackness of communication they have, create so many misunderstanding and untrusting towards each other. In the end Zhao Zhen realised that He also loves her very deeply and told her before he died in her arms.
Zhao zhen is such a stubborn man also. He wants her daughter to be happy by pampered and spoilt her. He doesn't realise that her daughter is a human, a human has feeling which is different from his feeling. Huirou her name, acted the way she did, also because she was spoilt by her father and she was just trying to rebel against the marriage she did not want. She just wants a life for herself in a justice. Ended up hurting herself mentally. But Zhao zhen didn't realise that he was as stubborn as her daughter
When Zhao Zhen said "I was the one that caused all of this" was really heartbreaking. That's a father feeling that maybe son/daughter doesn't have those thing. A lion never kills or eats his own child. Both Emperor and Empress also Huirou have sad and tragic story. He was worried about the empress and his daughter huirou will suffer too... thats why i can only blame him for being too mature.
Qing Ping Le has very beautiful costumes details, very oldish and vintage props, historical set, beautiful cinematography, very sad and deep soundtrack. They have draggy, mess and dull script though if we look it generally, it's really smooth and the plot kept on track. The real problem here is they are wasting all potential cast's talents and skills. There are so much opportunity to make this drama looks incredible thrilling with the actor skills. The editing was very terrible. They jumped in to the other unrelated scenes which looks unnatural. It was like watching a drama made by student who just barely use video editing. The executions most of them look ridiculous for me and not strong enough to engage the audience to understand the meaning of them.
Very honestly, I personally think that this drama is too much focused on Zhang Bihan and her people. I think they could summarize Zhang Bihan and the gang into 5 episodes but they deliberately did this for 20 episodes even more. Maybe, because the investor or other things that influenced the original broadcast into less then 50 episodes. Even, Jiang Shuying as a lead (Empress) only had few scenes. If you read the novel or history, the Empress story is more interesting and impressive because her bleak and tragic life but she still respects and loves Zhao Zhen instead of mentally ill Zhang Bihan who wanted as a legal wife(Empress) with the gang who eagerly did a power struggle.
Despite all those things , they have advantages too and I really appreciate to all actors. Personally, i enjoyed watching every scenes. I learned a lot about Chinese literature, art, poetry, Confucius morality, and lesson of life. I found myself got convinced and interested by them.
Nonetheless, the drama is quite enjoyable and interesting for me. I was really impressive by their acting especially The Emperor and Empress. Their nonverbal, mannerism, knowledge and interpersonal communication between them even their monologue performances and the body language are communicated very well also so we can tell that they care and love to each other. The acting between officials court and Emperor are quite like how they represented in that year. Schemes, self-presenting, power struggling, etc..
The problem why people look down this drama because they want to see cat fights and the inner imperial harem fighting. the novel perspective its interesting and impressive to see life from the eyes of a worker in the palace, so it is fun to read.
But if we execute into drama, it would be confused the audience.
For me so far, if it is a novel adaptation, the drama completely ruins the original story but the scriptwriter wants to pleased investor& government and to look more historical than what in novel does but its ended up a failure to convince the audience
I did also watch Rise of Phoenixes, they have very beautiful cinematography and props also potential actors but in the middle of dramas, why the plot became nonsense and ridiculously disorganized. Why don't I try watching Held in the Lonely Castle, maybe they are a little different?
I had same thoughts with pammo1949 "I have developed a love-hate relationship with but will not give up."
Qing Ping Le or I usually called it "Held in the Lonely Castle" instead of "Serenade of Peaceful Joy" it started stronger, engaging and powerful with Empress Dowager appearance and a will of young boy who wanted a justice for his biological mom but suddenly those expectations are fading and left with tragic love and life story.
As he grown up, Zhao Zhen his name. He had grudges to the Empress Dowager and fell in love with Zhou clan woman who accidentally he met but officials who thought they were "gentlemen", they want their Emperor married with graceful, morally responsible, good attitude and educated. She was a noble woman who her uncle was a warrior general and her name was Cao Danshu.
Zhao Zhen accepted their offering and he got trapped by malicious rumor which led him missed his wedding night with her.
He becomes very benevolent, wise and has a good foresight but he has a weakness, he fancied woman, he loves liquor, he leads everything from his head and not his heart.
Cao Danshu who truly loves her as she had crush with him and willingly married him without knowing what kind of person he is. When he missed the wedding night, she keeps blaming herself that he didn't like her because he didn't choose her as Empress and wife. She keeps getting hurts by time she lives in Palace. She knew she couldn't win his heart and He had been cold to her for fifteen years
The most heartbreaking point he has is he loves his Empress, his legal woman, his love but he hides the feeling of loving her and he is safeguarding her quietly. He wanted her to be safe. He also didnt know her love is bigger than his worried to the nation and people.
He loves her but he cannot stop himself from getting jealous or suspecting her. He was very untrusting of her, and there was rumors to impeach the Empress.
Until later on when he gets older, he really appreciates her but by then The Empress cares and loves him but not the romantic way. He just wants a balance between imperial harem and imperial court.
The lackness of communication they have, create so many misunderstanding and untrusting towards each other. In the end Zhao Zhen realised that He also loves her very deeply and told her before he died in her arms.
Zhao zhen is such a stubborn man also. He wants her daughter to be happy by pampered and spoilt her. He doesn't realise that her daughter is a human, a human has feeling which is different from his feeling. Huirou her name, acted the way she did, also because she was spoilt by her father and she was just trying to rebel against the marriage she did not want. She just wants a life for herself in a justice. Ended up hurting herself mentally. But Zhao zhen didn't realise that he was as stubborn as her daughter
When Zhao Zhen said "I was the one that caused all of this" was really heartbreaking. That's a father feeling that maybe son/daughter doesn't have those thing. A lion never kills or eats his own child. Both Emperor and Empress also Huirou have sad and tragic story. He was worried about the empress and his daughter huirou will suffer too... thats why i can only blame him for being too mature.
Qing Ping Le has very beautiful costumes details, very oldish and vintage props, historical set, beautiful cinematography, very sad and deep soundtrack. They have draggy, mess and dull script though if we look it generally, it's really smooth and the plot kept on track. The real problem here is they are wasting all potential cast's talents and skills. There are so much opportunity to make this drama looks incredible thrilling with the actor skills. The editing was very terrible. They jumped in to the other unrelated scenes which looks unnatural. It was like watching a drama made by student who just barely use video editing. The executions most of them look ridiculous for me and not strong enough to engage the audience to understand the meaning of them.
Very honestly, I personally think that this drama is too much focused on Zhang Bihan and her people. I think they could summarize Zhang Bihan and the gang into 5 episodes but they deliberately did this for 20 episodes even more. Maybe, because the investor or other things that influenced the original broadcast into less then 50 episodes. Even, Jiang Shuying as a lead (Empress) only had few scenes. If you read the novel or history, the Empress story is more interesting and impressive because her bleak and tragic life but she still respects and loves Zhao Zhen instead of mentally ill Zhang Bihan who wanted as a legal wife(Empress) with the gang who eagerly did a power struggle.
Despite all those things , they have advantages too and I really appreciate to all actors. Personally, i enjoyed watching every scenes. I learned a lot about Chinese literature, art, poetry, Confucius morality, and lesson of life. I found myself got convinced and interested by them.
Nonetheless, the drama is quite enjoyable and interesting for me. I was really impressive by their acting especially The Emperor and Empress. Their nonverbal, mannerism, knowledge and interpersonal communication between them even their monologue performances and the body language are communicated very well also so we can tell that they care and love to each other. The acting between officials court and Emperor are quite like how they represented in that year. Schemes, self-presenting, power struggling, etc..
The problem why people look down this drama because they want to see cat fights and the inner imperial harem fighting. the novel perspective its interesting and impressive to see life from the eyes of a worker in the palace, so it is fun to read.
But if we execute into drama, it would be confused the audience.
For me so far, if it is a novel adaptation, the drama completely ruins the original story but the scriptwriter wants to pleased investor& government and to look more historical than what in novel does but its ended up a failure to convince the audience
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