The Legend of Dugu (2018)

I was looking forward to the drama every week. It was the only cdrama I kept up with these past few months, I had others that I dropped but this kept me on my toes.
The story revolves around the Dugu Clan, specifically the three sisters: Dugu Banruo (eldest), Dugu Mantuo (second oldest) and Dugu Jialuo (Youngest).

Initially I did not expect much sisterly love between any of the sisters because most sisters in traditional dramas hate each other for no reason. However, Banruo loves the youngest, Jialuo dearly because she practically raised her.It was so touching to see her do anything she can to save her sister. I loved their relationship the most. Banruo is played by one of my top favorite Taiwanese actress, Ady An. She did a WONDERFUL job with her role. Although her role was obsessed with having her "Dugu tian xia" - so obsessed to the point that she's betrays someone quite close to her. Unlike Mantuo, she puts her family safety above all others. Until the end, she knew which side to be on and what really mattered.

Second sister, Mantuo, is the antagonist of this drama. She's VERY VERY VERY annoying. She's also OBSESSED with the Dugu Tian Xia legend but she thinks everyone is against her when really its the other way around. She's willing to betray and back stab (and kill) her family. She fake cries to get her way around and get what she wants. Mantuo may be smart but she doesn't know that everyone else is even smarter and that those people knows who she really is and what she's up to. Yet, she continues to bat her eyelashes as if she's innocent in her wrongdoings. It's hialrious and irritating at the same time. I hate that the actress keeps pouting her lips, its ridiculous. In the end, she was still a pain in the ass. I still can't tell if the actress is good at her role or not because the pouting, baby talking, innocent act were very irritating to me. Like I wanted to slap her. :]

Youngest Jialuo was very carefree and did not let anyone boss her around.. She knows what she wants and its not "Dugu Tian Xia." She, like Banruo, holds her family above anything else. Which means she is willing to follow her father's orders despite protest against marrying ..someone. She and Mantuo is always fighting because Mantuo is a B****. Banruo is always on Jialuo side because she knows how cunning Mantuo is.

Main couple: Jialuo and Yang Jian were very cute once they warmed up to each other. I grew to love them when Yang Jian finally figured out Mantuo was a lying piece of ****..:]

Overall story is all about lies, betrayal, sisterhood, fight for the throne and high ranks in the palace, friendship, family, and love.

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I was very excited for this drama because the plot sounded interesting and intriguing. Three sisters getting into political grounds, attaining power, how great does that sound?

The drama did not really live up to my expectations; however, i believe that it was worth watching. The legend of Dugu is about three sisters. Out of the three, two of them (Dugu Ban Rou and Dugu Man Tuo) both treasure power and entitlements, while the young sister (Dugu Jia Lou) desires peace and happiness. From my point of view, this drama did not have much to do with politics. It’s more based on the sister’s romantic relationships and how all three of them become successful in their own way (only Dugu Ban Ruo and Dugu Jialou became actual queens).

The casting could have been better, Ady An was the only person who left a great impression on me. Her acting is phenomenal and perfect. Her chemistry with Jeremy Tsui and Zhou Ting Wei was so much more heart warming than Hu Bing Qing and Zhang Andy’s. Honestly, Hu Bing Qing and Zhang Andy had no chemistry at all! Their relationship was not delivering to the point where i shipped her with Ying Jun. This lead me to skipped through all of their ‘romantic’ parts. Another big problem with this drama was Dugu Man Tuo. She is extremely annoying and irritating. Dugu Man Tuo is always trying to strive herself into power, no matter what it takes, including sacrificing her dignity. She neglects people’s encouragements, telling her to stop being evil and even tries to steal both her sister’s significant other. However, she provides the story with a climax, no matter how provoking her character is. I believe it’s both the script and actress which made the character, Dugu Man Tuo, flawed. Also, Yang Jian (Zhang Andy) was so stupid and annoying in thw first half of the drama, he believes EVERYTHING Dugu Man Tuo says his actions were ao idiotic. However, in the later half, he becomes a more decent human being and learns to love Jialou. Another problem with this drama was the amount of people who died! LIKE WTH!!! To prevent myself from spilling spoilers, i won’t mention those who passed away in this drama, but some deaths may include your favourite characters (isnt that great)! So, out of all actors and actresses, my favourites were Ady An, Jeremy Tsui (his love for Ban Ruo was unconditional, even i could feel it), thats about it.

The soundtracks in this drama were fantastic and i was not really irritated by any sort of music displacement (which we all know happens a lot in cdramas). HOWEVER, whenever there is a ceremony or celebration in the palace, it is inevitable for some sort of dancing crew. I am perfectly fine with that, BUT the same instrumental song is ALWAYS being played, IT GETS SO IRRITATING WHICH MAKES ME ROLL MY EYES EVERYTIME.

Overall, as a person who never completes dramas myself, i am actually surprised that i managed to finish this drama (i did a skip through some repetitive and uninteresting parts though). I can almost say that this drama is my cup of tea. Its not anything special and never seen before, but it does have its own magic. I truly do love this drama and it left a very great impression on me. I would highly recommend people to watch it (i am aware that there are no English subtitles, but definitely give it a try when there are).

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Only watch if you have a HIGH tolerance for annoying, pouty, & fake innocent main characters.

Completed - 7/13/2022 - 7.75 (rounding up instead of down because of Ady An and Jeremy Tsui)

*warning - hard to write this review without spoilers - so read at your own risk*

“The Legend of Dugu” centers around the three Dugu sisters and the Dugu prophecy. This drama spans about 30-40 years, from when the sisters were only teenage daughters of the Minister of Northern Zhou to become mothers and empresses. Each sister feels differently about this prophecy and chooses different ways of life because of it. My biggest warning to future watchers is that, if you have a LOW tolerance for annoying, pretentious, pouty, despicable villains as main characters, you might not have a pleasant time watching this. I am OK with such a character in a supporting role, but as one of the main leads, I have to endure such hatred that I almost quit this show.

What I Like:

1. Dugu Ban Ruo/Ady An - The eldest sister of the Dugu clan, Ban Ruo is a badass. She’s smart, independent, harsh, ruthless, and scheming. She took the Dugu prophecy at heart and will do anything to be the Dugu to rule the world. She’s such an interesting gray character and I can’t help but admire her. Her goal never changes, even when against the love of her life and the road that led her demise. Despite her ruthlessness, the sismance between Ban Ruo and Jia Luo and how she puts family first were central to the plot. This is my first time watching Ady An and she was amazing as Ban Ruo. Out of the three sisters, she’s the only one that makes it believable to portray a teenager/young adult all the way to being a mother and empress. She carries herself with such grace that she reminded me of Qin Lan

2. Yuwen Hu/Jeremy Tsui - Playing against Ban Ruo is the handsome Yuwen Hu played by Jeremy Tsui. Unfortunately, his voice is dubbed so we can’t listen to his deep and sexy voice. But, we can still stare at his handsome face and expressive big eyes. He’s so good as our villain that you can't help but love him instead of hate him. His undying and obsessive love for Ban Ruo is one of the best things about this drama.

3. Romance: Ban Ruo + Yuwen Hu - They are not meant to be, given their family backgrounds and political positions. But their chemistry is sizzling. Whether it’s a good or bad thing, they are two peas in a pod and are so similar. Even though they are so in love with each other, nothing stands between them and their hunger for power. Ban Ruo’s wedding night was ‘WOW’. The way she stood up to Yuwen Hu and put him in his right place was well-acted by both. Ban Ruo is a badass and she keeps me guessing whether she still loves Yuwen Hu at the end.

4. Jia Luo’s Wedding night - Without giving too much away, the story behind the masked groom and all that happened inside and outside the tent was so touching.

5. Costumes - Such beautiful and patterned costumes for both men and women. For some reason, I think all the clothes the women wear seem to be too big, but beautiful nonetheless. I also really like the black/gold court official uniforms. They reminded me of my favorite red/black ones in “The Rebel Princess”. There are four weddings in this drama, and each bride has bright red and/or green wedding gowns and golden headdresses. The headdresses are intricately designed and royal/grand. I also see some of the tallest hairstyles and elaborate hair accessories on the women.


What I have Mixed Feelings about:

1. Pacing - I am not sure if I should categorize the pace to be slow or just OK. I think the first 25 episodes have pretty good pacing. A lot happened and my favorite romance also takes center stage here. Then it seems to have slowed down a little but it might be due to the fact that my least favorite character is taking up too much screen time. Then the last 5 episodes seem to be too fast and I wanted more episodes.

2. Romance: Jia Luo + Yang Jian - The chemistry is a little iffy. I waited for a long time for their romance to officially start and for some good push and pull. But things are resolved too quickly and they fall in love too fast. They actually seem more like friends or siblings but not lovers or romantic partners.

3. Different ages: Jia Luo and Mantuo - Hu Bing Qing has such a young face that I believe her when she plays the 15-year old Jia Luo. However, it’s hard to believe her as the empress and a mother of a teenager. Towards the last few episodes when she’s in the same scenes with her daughter, I think her daughter looks like an older sister. She’s quite petite, and she doesn’t carry herself with as much grace as Ady An as the empress. On the opposite end, Li Yi Xiao looks a little too old to be a teenager in the beginning episodes. She is a lot more believable after she’s married and scheming against the concubines.


What I Don’t Like:
1. Dugu Man Tuo - This is very personal, as I really can’t stand her fake pouty and innocent face. As Man Tuo is a main character being one of the three sisters, there is a significant amount of screen time devoted to her journey. Her scheming becomes repetitive as she uses almost the same method to get rid of people she doesn’t like or in her way. The worst thing is that she lasted throughout the drama and didn’t really die until the very last episode. It seems so unfair sometimes when I had wished Ban Ruo would have lasted that long. I guess I should credit Lil Yi Xiao’s acting for making me hate her so much!

2. Yang Jian - It’s rare for me to not like the main male lead of a historical drama. He’s OK at first, but then he loses his charms. This is my first Andy Zhang’s drama and he’s a veteran, so I am not sure if it’s because I don’t like his acting or the writing of his character. Yang Jian is not charismatic or charming enough for me to like him.

3. Kisses - ALL the kisses are bad in this drama. It doesn’t matter if it’s a kiss on the cheek, forehead or lips, they all make me feel uncomfortable watching. Very disappointing.

4. Dubbing - Another reason why I dislike Man Tuo so much is the voice actor that dubs her voice. That voice is annoying!! Moreover, I actually don’t like much of the voices of many of the characters. How I wish they didn’t dub Jeremy Tsui.

5. Bad CGI - The CGI of animals is one of the worst I’ve seen, esp when the drama is only 4 years old. The green screen scenes are also not believable and you can totally see how fake they are.


Other Random Observations:
1. There’s such a big contrast between Ban Ruo + Yuwen Hu’s romance and Jia Luo + Yuwen Yun’s romance, and each couple’s last scenes together. The circumstances and the feelings are so different, yet so memorable.
2. Also a big contrast of their wedding night scenes.
3. A drama full of lovebirds who can’t marry who they want.
4. The last conflict between Jia Luo and Yang Jian broke my heart. It’s not because of the incident, but how Yang Jian reacted afterwards.
5. Yang Jian is supposedly smart but he falls for Man Tuo’s tricks so many times.
6. Who does Man Tuo love more in the end - Yuwen Hu or Yuwen Wei?
7. Who does Jia Luo love more in the end - Yang Jiang or Yuwen Yun?
8. Power can make you lose your mind and forget promises….which you will regret later on.


Wow… this is a long review. Thank you for reading if you made it to the end.

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This show started off on a high note and it got much more exciting as the episodes progressed. I recall camping on Youtube every Wednesday evenings to wait for the episodes to be released! However, it lost its initial glamour and steam in the later episodes. While it had an appealing storyline, it was really draggy towards the end, which is such a pity because it had so much potential!

Ady An and Jeremy Tsui put on an astounding performance, and there were a few episodes that left me in tears especially in Jeremy Tsui's scenes - his portrayal of grief and sadness is truly one that will break your heart :'( Ady An has a powerful screen presence as well and I really liked her portrayal of Dugu Ban Ruo. However I can't say the same for the Hu Bing Qing-Andy Zhang pairing. Their acting was a little stiff, their facial expressions were unvaried and rather boring in particular that of Andy Zhang's. He has this frown that looks the same in all of his frowning scenes... Oh I forgot to mention!! I don't think the Dugu sister's father is mentioned in the cast on mydramalist, but his acting was truly 10/10!!! Fatherly love tends to get me all the time but this was really lovely :')

Despite the flaws in terms of the overall storyline and acting, the music was beautiful! There is a compilation on youtube of the 4 songs in the OST, my personal favourites being that of ?????(the duet) and ??????(by Li Yu Gang) - you can PM me if you want the link to the compilation :D

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YASSS I've been looking forward to this drama for so long. Super pretty costumes and a prophecy about a whole family ruling the world "Dugu Tian Xia" HOW DOES THAT NOT SOUND GOOD? :)

Story/ Plot: The drama was super interesting for the most part, but then it started going downhill. Don't get me wrong, the story line itself is pretty damn good, its just the acting that got me a little down. Nearing the last few episodes, Yang Jian beings to go power hungry after learning about the prophecy "Dugu Tian Xia". However, I feel like the way he became emperor happened way too fast, like it happened in around 2 episodes fast. The amount of deaths in the drama though (no worries I'm not gonna spoil it :) ) got me crying every time someone died.

Acting/ Cast: ADY AN I must say SHE WAS AMAZING PORTRAYING BAN ROU also JEREMY TSUI WHERE HAVE U BEEN ALL MY LIFE. The chemistry between Ady An and Jeremy Tsui was undeniable, I was more convinced they loved each other compared to Hu bing Qing and Andy Zhang. The chemistry between Jie luo ( Hu Bing Qing) and Yang Jian (Andy Zhang) seemed pretty one note, while Ban Rou (Ady An) and Yuwen Hu's ( Jeremy Tsui) love story will take you on one hell of an emotional rollercoaster ride, you'll cry when they cry too. And I must add Man Tou ( Li Yi Xiao) portrays one hell of an antagonist But one thing that I found quite annoying with Man Tou's character was her voice, it just sounds so fake.

Music: I put this in pretty much every since one of my reviews but here I go again! Usually with good dramas comes good OSTs.

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His series started off strong and it ended strong as well. How did the riders touch my emotions like this. This is one of the most heartfelt historical series that I have watched. It not only evoked tears but also joy frustration anger and intern most understanding of the emotional conflicts that many are faced with. There was a mixture of action, politics and romance. I am simply amazed at the riders ability in developing the characters wrote and also revealing their personalities without giving away too much information at a time. You can honestly tell by the first two episodes who has the potential to be the evil people and who does it. I like that they did not rush the romance between the characters and allowed us to see each of them developed and connect with each other. This story does surround prophecy about a family legacy however it does go much further than that. The three sisters surrounding the series play their characters really well. The male leads were all amazing as well. Each sister had a romantic interest and responded differently to those interest. I will say that the series appears to span over a large time frame but it was still amazing. One thing that I am not so keen about is that the riders me the intended villain appear to be a villain but I saw him more as someone pushed too far and later manipulated. This is a first for me not seeing the portrayed villain as the actual villain. I enjoyed the bond between the sisters initially but like all good things..... this series will definitely have you looking at that fine line of right and wrong but also make you wonder where the line is between stupidity, insanity and loyalty. The female villain in this one was a mixture of all three. There was definitely closure in this series so are you happy that you won’t be left hanging with the making up your own ending event.

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Very disappointed! Unsatisfactory ending! People sho did all the bad thing never got punished. Good people ended up dying early on. Only watched this because of Jeremy. The main guy is so annoying! He just went around making promises he couldn’t keep. The story tried to portray that he is a smart person, but he is so not. The chick that he was in love with in the first place is so cunning and he had absolutely no clue!! It is so messed up that he keeps saying that he’s totally over the second sister and is in love with the third one, but when he was “raping” the maid, he saw the second sister’s face. So like he is still wanting the second sister?! I find that so repulsive!! His face just looks dumb for some reason. The chemistry between the main leads are horrible! I feel like it was a waste of my time watching this drama! Good people and bad people get the same ending...

The acting is alright. Jeremy and ady are great! The bad chick is also good in acting. The rest is just ehhh.

The music is just...not great! Every time they have a dancing celebration at the palace, it the same god damn song that they are dancing to.

I wish I was warned before not to watch this because the ending is really disappointing...it is lengthy to have a really bad ending. I kept waiting to watch the satisfying ending but it didn’t deliver.

I would never ever watch this series again ...god no!

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Full of dramas one after another.

Even though the story gets boring at one point, the first half was fine. I was content w the storyline until the father died for no reason at all, and it didn't even help the sisters get together or anything. Honestly, even though Yuwen Hu is one of the main villains in the drama, he's still one of my favorite character. The scene where he went to see his daughter broke my heart, I swear I hardly cry in dramas but this one scene made me bawl my eyes out. Dugu Mantuo was so annoying, not only did she not have any character development, she also had a glow down as a character. I thought she was turning good towards the end of the story, but she was still ambitious and evil....wow as expected of the best villain out there, but the actress who played as Dugu Mantuo did a great job acting out here personality.

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In short this is a panorama of mistakes of every single characters in their entire life with very little reward for very few and if you want to learn how to make mistakes or you are addicted of watching people make mistakes and pay for them please do watch at your own risk .

The whole series was dragged and dragged on the back of character making mistakes and piling up a mountain and dying from it's crush at the end . If it was documentary than i would have understood all the skips and jumps through plot so to make all these mistakes justified .

Sadly it doesn't have chemistry in the story or between character that makes anything special worth mentioning except Banruo and Yuwen Hu and in most part of the series they are portrayed as borderline immoral characters and heavily punished for their actions and thus continuing the cycle of mistakes and punishment throughout the series till they died . ( sadly could not hold myself more and finished reading all spoilers and nothing satisfactory comes up )

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the plot line sound very intriguing and thought it was a drama that I haven't watched before where I was able to see three different storylines from the three different daughters. The drama started off quite well with lots of eventful scenes and then slowly started to become a bit meh in the middle but then ended with quite a bit of drama towards the end. I think that if you enjoy watching lots of changes and seeing how characters grow, you would enjoy this drama!

I thought actors were very well casted for this drama. I really enjoyed the acting of the eldest sister dugu ban ruo and the third sister really grows into her character. compared to when she was young, her character development growth is great. she matures and still holds on the values her father and eldest sister has taught. BUT not gonna lie honestly, could not stand the second sister dugu man tuo and the main male lead, yang jian. Both characters were quite annoying honestly. The male lead character was probably one of the dumbest characters I have seen in a historical drama. He does not redeem himself until like episode 40 and even until then still leaves me with angry thoughts that he doesn't deserve the third sister, dugu jia luo. I think I've also seen in other reviews that the facial expressions of the second sister were ridiculous. Does she only know how to purse her lips and look at away when she's angry? I think it would have benefitted for her to show more emotions that just being angry and like fake sad crying.

Overall, if you're interested in a long 50+ episode historical drama, this one was pretty good and you do grow fond and attached to certain characters are the episodes go by.

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