Fu Liu Nian (2022)

Entertaining

I feel this series deserves a perfect 10 although many have thought otherwise.

The reason is Jing Chao's outstanding performance as Mu Ze (MZ), the Machiavellian. He was willing to sacrifice his son, wife's family, father and brothers for the sake of the throne.

Xing Fei is relatively unknown to me as I hardly watch modern Chinese TV series. But, I feel XF delivered her line well in this series as Lu An Ran (LAR).

Zhai Zi Lu, as Mu Chuan (MC), is a young actor we should watch from now. His character matured over time in this series which made me feel ZZL deserve a credit for his acting. Although Jing Chao overshadowed him completely in this series.

The storyline is very interesting: LAR time travelled from the moment she died in the fire in her palace. back to her encounter with MZ. This time, she tried to kill MZ by pretending as if he was a river bandit. The attempt failed.
In this life, LAR went straight to the point by proposing to MZ that she was willing to marry him to help him achieve his ambitions. And, he fell for her trick. Her revenge began.

In short, I love watching the scenes between MZ and LAR from Episode 4 onwards. MZ is like a beast to LAR while MC is like a morning dew to her.

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What will you do if you have second chance in life?

I've watched few time travel drama genre, where the main character's soul is trapped in someone else's body, but this is the first time I've come across this genre of drama with a different approach.
This is a drama centered on a woman who goes back 10 years before and still has memories. She returned to the starting point where all the misfortunes that befall her in first life ( I'll use term first life/past life for her original life and second life for her rebirth) had not been occurred. Predictably, she will prevent and avoid all things that can trigger all the suffering and regret in the past. The question is, can she change her destiny? Can she change others?
Strength
The storyline flows smoothly at a good pace. Logical, meaningful and on point dialogues. The acting is at different levels so we will be immersed in life story of each character, especially female lead character, Lu Anran. I'm not a fan of Xing Fei, but I think this is her best performance by far.
The storyline is unpredictable, tense and lots of plot twists. This is a battle of wits between Lu Anran and Muze. The one more observant and adaptable in reading situation and know the opponent's weaknesses will win the battle. Even though Lu Anran has an advantage with her past experienced but in reality there are many secrets and intrigues that she didn't know about in her past life. Moreover, her opponent's is the scheming, calculative and manipulative Mu Ze.
Weakness
Writing inconsistency. It's a bit confusing what message the writer wants to convey, but it must be appreciated that all the bad characters get their punishment.
The male leads (Mu Chuan and Mu Ze) act out of character in later episodes, one of them previously described as having a calculating and careful disposition becoming rush in and committing reckless actions, and even though his character had development but the writer didn't give him a second chance.
my thoughts
I thought the ending was quite logical and I had expected they would ended it that way.
For a drama with low budget and poor cgi, this is quite extraordinary and I enjoy every story that is given in every episode. Rarely do we see a Chinese drama that has a good plot with the same pace from beginning to end and no unnecessary filler but only focuses on the main characters . If only the writer explained the reason why Muze fell in love with Lu Anran and Lu Anran's attitude could soften to him in the end then it would be even more perfect.
Credit to Jing Chao who stole the show with his superb performance.
The way they handled his character in final episode made me wonder if they should change the title to "fall of a Muze" lol. So did Lu Anran success? Did her fate change in second life?
If you like to watch time travel, rebirth drama genre with revenge plot, actors and actressess who can delivered their roles and don't mind with less romance scenes, i suggest you to watch this one.

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