Story of Kunning Palace (2023)

Watch for the engaging story, not the romance

An adaptation of a novel, this was a surprisingly enjoyable drama (ignoring the romances). The politics/story was actually the best part. Consistent characterizations, engaging political intrigue. I enjoyed watching everyone maneuver around each other and the various sideplots.

The various romances were however a bit of a mess. It was not clear why she rejected some men, like the young Marquis and Lord Zhang. I had to read summaries of the webnovel to understand their characters and relationships, which is the sign of a poorly written romance. Jiang Xuening's romance with Xie Wei also didn't start till late episode 32 iirc (?) and it was rushed. There was debate about whether Jiang Xuening was being groomed by Xie Wei or she truly loved him. Imo if they had paced it better and developed it better, it would have been more satisfying.

I was however pleasantly surprised that the second half and the ending didn't flop and I didn't have to skip episodes or scenes. I also felt that Zhang Linghe overacted at points but his Xie Wei was consistent. Bailu delivers a reliable performance as usual.

PS check out the As You Wish variety show. That was SO good.

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Bravo! Bravíssimo!

O roteiro é bom, os personagens bem construídos e o desenvolvimento do enredo bastante satisfatório.
Quando um drama tem capítulo especial, geralmente, é porque a finalização deixou a desejar, mas neste drama o especial é apenas um brinde da direção com cenas que não foram utilizadas na edição, pois em nada alteram o magnífico trabalho apresentado. Este drama, inicialmente, tinha a previsão de um número maior de capítulos, mas na edição ficaram apenas 38.
A direção conduziu o drama de maneira espetacular, as cenas eram bem acabadas, a coreografia das lutas impecáveis, edição sem erros graves, equilíbrio perfeito na emoção despertada nas cenas e cenário ou CGI maravilhosos. O efeito da borboleta utilizado no primeiro e no trigésimo oitavo capítulo é de uma sutileza indescritível. A ideia genial do diretor de refletir imagens no olho do cavalo e, também, nos olhos do casal protagonista, trouxe brilhantismo ao drama. A captação de cena de chuva no telhado no capítulo 6, remete a ideia de uma "tempestade" se aproximando para modificar os fatos. O diretor Chu Yui Bun costuma utilizar de recursos cativantes e prender a atenção logo nos primeiros capítulos, Neste drama ele tinha, além de seu talento indiscutível, um bom roteiro e um elenco de primeira grandeza. A finalização é bem elaborada e condizente com o desenrolar do trama.
O elenco esbanjou talento, não há nenhum personagem que não tenha sido muito bem representado. Bai Lu brilhou soberana do início ao fim, suas cenas foram viscerais. Senti cada emoção da personagem ao longo dos 38 capítulos, pude rir, chorar, sentir raiva, medo, desejo... A cena da morte de Fang Yin é de partir o coração, não só pelo seguimento da história, mas, principalmente, pela atuação de Bai Lu, seus olhos assumiram toda a dor da perda e depois todo rancor pelo assassino da amiga. Em várias cenas as palavras eram desnecessárias, pois os atores se esmeraram em incorporarem seus personagens.
O figurino é lindíssimo e a trilha sonora agradável.

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FIRE MEETS GASOLINE ROMANCE!!!

When the chemistry is chemistrying!!! They casted such lovely actors and actresses here and they did great!

I have no words for Zhang Linghe's acting here as Xie Wei ?? Therefore I conclude, they should give him more roles similar to Xie Wei lol he really ate being red flag! Bai Lu really knows the right script for her ? She doesn't disappoint!!!

Romance is romancing but I wanted more of them! It felt a little rush and it's very very slow burn on the FL's side lol. I can't say story is unique, but it's very entertaining and enough to keep me watching without skipping or fast forwarding. The two red flag FL and ML made me binge watch this ??

I hope they make more series like this with mature FL and cast the right actresses. I'm so tired of seeing the same period drama FLs either very very childish, annoying or have no personality except having kiki voice. I don't hate actresses who have naturally baby voice, I just don't like others who does it intentionally and looks so old to have those type of voice or dubbing.

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Strong Cast Performance mees Quality Production. Must-watch.

Stellar cast with an entralling plot. Absolutely loved the deep, mysterious vibe of the ML. His deep voice and stern facade really played well into the character. Fell in love in EP 1 with his 1 word "可". Bai Lu is again, inexplicabily beautiful in a Costume drama. Enjoyed the strength and straigtfowardness of the FL, actions & thoughts made sense, though she did fall into a more Damel in Distress personality towards the end. The chemistry though was excellent. There was always some kind of tension between the leads that all the more made viewers anticipate their ending.

The plot is where I thought could be more improved. While the pacing and arcs were decently written. many of the excellent premises were not woven and fully made use of. I fully expected the ML's schizophrenia to play a larger role towards the end. It would have been nice for the FL to also show more maturity in her behaviour considering she was "reincarnated" from an empress. Character growth kinda fell backwards from empress to a 19 year old girl..

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Started ok, Finished Wonderful

The high score attracted to look into it. Than i saw Bailu and Zhang Ling He and i was convinced to proceed further :). At the beginning i was thinking why is so high rated, yes they play well, yes is filmed nicely, yes to the environment, yes to the music, but i couldn't get that emotions to keep me engaged. Is a lot of Palace dialogues and plans on revenge from different sides of the story. From ep 12 it started to move a little bit, emotions between Ning and Zhang Zhe won me to continue. I felt that love from both sides, the sadness, the helpless, the powerless, the sacrifice - played beautifully.
All story goes well, I can't say that it was something really new, but the way story goes along and how is transmitted from flashbacks and back is executed gorgeously.
The last 10 episodes made me stay hooked wholly. The first kiss is absolutely dashing, ohh boy Xie Wei - this is when i said, is all worth watching it - don't get me wrong i am not a pervert :)), but sometimes in the dramas you need this to won the scene. It was rough, craving, longing for it and i could feel his desperation, the strong desire for love and caring.
Overall is a beautiful masterpiece, absolutely all characters played well, the bad ones, the good ones, the passer by's. I loved the many locations and places they used, the decorations, the nature, this gives richness to the drama. A little bit of abuse of camera to go into eyes and see the others, or the faded colours, it didn't spoil too much, but overly done is not good either.
The only thing i didn't like is the sister story - the prince didn't tell her that she is not the chosen one, yes they show at the end as a happy family, but it got me very frustrated (i know on those time that was something ordinary, but i still don't like it :)).
Enjoy!!!

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Good but overhyped

You have a great cast and an intriguing plot, and yet it was harder and harder to get through each episode the longer it went on.

The whole going back in time and redoing things plot device was good at first but its usefulness runs out early on. I honestly forgot about it half way through because it doesnt matter much to the story anymore. Not that it mattered any way since the entire story is a novel the author wants to re-write to have a less tragic outcome for her leads.

Palace intrigue is the focus here. The FL is eager to take herself out of the messy equation but shes drawn in anyway, so she changes her part in it.

The romamce is extreme slow burn. So slow that its hard to believe when it finally happens in the last handful of episodes. The ML clearly likes the FL for quite some time but it feels like the FL is simply giving in and settling because she cant get away from their fate and be with the one she really wantes. By her actions its clear she cares about ML but romantically she's cold and resigned. It was very underwhelming. There are 2 impassioned forced kisses by the ML and 1 consensual bed scene all toward the end.
I suppose it would be more believable that she fell in love with him if there was more screen time between them but there really isnt room for it with the many, many moving parts of all the plots. The story was just too complex with all the schemeing and backstabbing to thread in a satisfying love line.

The end is cute enough to satisfy most romance fans who hold out for all the episodes. At least there is that.

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When you get the chance to do over

The chance to right your mistakes is one of the top wishful thinkings that never loses its charm.

By right, the premise for Story of Kunning Palace (SoKP) already makes for a great start … By left though, SoKP falls through in the genre of reborn stories with poor camera angles and lighting, story execution and okay-ish actor / actress caliber.

Director Chu is infamous in the industry for his weird camera angles and inappropriate lighting position - so I will not delve deep into this. As a general viewer, I don’t have the professional knowledge to critique this constructively. The only thing I would say is it indeed cut down my viewing experience by a fair bit.

Onto the story. Jiang Xuening was the evil, alluring empress that was given the chance to redo life when she found she was back to her 18-year old self.

First things first, like any idol drama, I think evil can and should be contested. She was morally flexible and selfish in her first life, but to emphasise she was evil and thus, felt this deep regret to redeem her past actions to Yan Lin and Zhang Zhe was a bit lost on me. I felt that this may be due to the lost of translation from the original novel to drama adaptation.

This leads to the second, related point. The director and editors presented the story such that flashbacks of 1st life would play out right before the big event happened in 2nd life, and then we would watch how Xuening did differently after. On one hand, it made the story less draggy. On the other, it made me feel less engaged with Xuening’s motivation because I didn’t get enough context on why she felt a certain way with some characters in the scene. Like why she is so afraid of Xie Wei. Or why is she so grateful towards Fangyin. I mean they did mention why with the brief flashbacks, but the impact wasn’t deep enough for me to truly grasp the full picture of Xuening’s feelings. Not to mention, some of the flashbacks felt disjointed too.

Xie Wei should be an intriguing male lead - with his obvious backstory that closely mirror of Mei Chang Su story from Nirvana in Fire. Alas, while one may be able to copy the surface level stuff, the spirit or essence of classics is not as easily replicated. Maybe it’s the screenwriter. Maybe it’s the actor. To be fair, I think Zhang Ling He did good enough for his age. His Xie Wei just doesn’t have that charisma or charm for me, for now. Quite a lot of things were diluted to me in SoKP - I couldn’t feel that Xie Wei is was that smart to be able to fool the emperor, ministers, and rebels. There were more questions about how he survived his ordeal as a kid then and the resources he was able to amass at his disposal as an adult now to be able to do what he wanted. Similar to Xuening character, I felt this is also another lost in translation case. I shall stand corrected if I ever find the time to read the novel.

The funny thing was I got more intrigued by the side characters stories more than our main leads. One was Xue Hui’s arc, Xuening’s sister who was wise and truly just wanted to live her life peacefully but was misunderstood by Xuening for her indifference, in the 1st life. As Xuening chose differently this time, she came to better understand the person beneath the protective shell Xue Hui’s has built. Pity that Xue Hui didn’t even appear much on screen. Another one was Yan Lin’s, and I was rather satisfy with his arc. Fangyin’s arc was enjoyable too.

Overall, SoKP is a good enough reborn story that’s not for the nitpicky. It has a good enough storyline that sadly wasn’t translated as robustly on screen.

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Overrated, pretty design but a flat dead world.

TLDR: I really wanted to love this one but it let me down in the second half. Plot hits all the points it should, the actors are alright but the cinematography, lighting, lack of lived in feel and direction to overact drag this drama down to a 7 for me. It's alright but I won't be rewatching.

Ratings: So there's a lot of hype for this show especially coming off the success of Til the End of the Moon. Bai Lu is a beloved actress and there was much disappointment when this show's release was delayed. I feel like the eventual score for this show will settle down somewhere in the 7s but in the meantime most reviews are either going to be extremely positive or extremely negative.

Plot:
I found the first half of the show enjoyable and fairly interesting although there was the occasional tedious bit. Personally I love rebirth revenge stories so I felt like this was going to be the show for me. The build up was good, I was enjoying it and then although there were plot points happening the desire to watch and see what happened next disappeared. It really began to drag once they left the capital.

If you read out the main story the plot would be solid. There's a lot happening, you've got a palace intrigue part, a mystery, battles, festivals - truly a little bit of everything and the heroine is involved in all of the above (no pining away at home while the love interest is off to fight!) However the problem is that however dark and edgy they want to make the story they just never follow through. It's obvious from the start that the two main villians of the show aren't going to be on par with the lead couple. The tone is set that no matter how bad the stakes get the leads will find a way to make it through without major pain.

I think there's more to it than that but for me there was so much happening but there was no emotion to it, the story felt dead towards the end.

Acting:
The acting was fine, nothing outstanding, nothing obviously terrible. I don't know whether it was post production, the writing, or the direction that the killed the story so badly.

I think that the actor who plays the male lead has a fair bit of room to improve his acting. He's also fairly young and did a good job in a role that would probably normally be given to an older actor. He potrays a fairly dark character and does a good job of showing the crazy/calculating side he is lacking in being able to bring all his character's traits together into someone who feels like a real person. I felt this a bit with the Bai Lu's character too - she can act fairly well but for some reason it just felt like she was doing what was required rather than putting in an outstanding performance. I felt like it was standard across the whole drama that the actors overacted which makes me think that this was a direction problem more than an acting problem.

Production:
The sets, the clothing, the world were gorgeous. Absolutely stunning. Then they served a shit sandwitch when it came to lighting and cinematography. The lighting is horrendous - characters in bright daylight but they're using a white light instead of a warm sunlight light. It being noon but the shadows are all wrong. If the sets and the clothing were low budget I think it would have been less of a problem, but when the sets are so gorgeous the drama would have been on a whole different level if they did things like use real candle light, real sunlight etc. This exacerbated the issues with the plot - if the world doesn't feel alive and lived in then it's only going to provide a pretty backdrop and not give the actors a lot to work with. The other issue was that the sets, although gorgeous, were too perfect and didn't give the vibe that they were lived in. The character's clothes are always clean, there's not a hair out of place etc. No dirt, no dust, if a character gets whipped then they add in most of the blood on the clothes afterwards etc.

Music:
Nothing memorable, nothing jarring but nothing particularily good.

Some people might say that I'm expecting too much from this kind of drama. I would have agreed, especially as I'm cocurrently watching Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace again. However, I have enjoyed shows like Romance of Tiger and Rose and Love like the Galaxy (LLTG). I wouldn't normally make a comparison between two different shows but the difference for me is glaring. In LLTG I cared what happened to the characters, the world and people felt like they could exist somewhere, although I felt like the main couple would make it through it felt like there were real stakes, it was emotional. It had dimension where this show is pretty but completely flat for me. I'm sad because this show had the potential to be everything that I've been looking for in a show but instead I'm struggling to finish.

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Fixing the mistakes you made in the past

Best drama ever!!!
At first I was lost how will Ning'er and Xie Wei fall in love with each other since in the FL past life they were most likely enemies and still in her second chance life she was too scared of Xie Wei, I was getting curious to watch it and it was worth watching.

For me it seemed a bit obvious that Xie Wei had already fallen for Ning'er because he was so curious about Ning'er and Yan Li and also Zhang Zhe relationship with her and he was also caring, protecting and following her orders and treating her differently from others when he was her teacher. Even though Zhang Zhe seemed to be the perfect guy for Ning'er but Xie Wei's love for her was too strong to be defeated.

Best couple I wish to see them in another drama still being FL and ML loving each other.
This drama made me forget that they were acting because their love connection on-screen was too great to believe they are real lovers in reality, it also made me wish I had a boyfriend like Xie Wei even though he seemed scary because his jealousy was making me laugh ??

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Story of Kunning Palace has one of the best pacing of any 2023 drama. The storytelling is intriguing, with suspenseful arcs from the very first episode. The show does a great job of introducing the many characters and establishing their motivations. For the first 30 episodes, the twists and turns, as well as Jiang Xuening's personal growth, captivate the audience. The female friendships are beautiful and the discussion of female power is interesting.

The romance isn't the main focus of most of the show. In the beginning, Jiang Xuening struggles with her best friend's romantic feelings for her, while trying to save him and his family this time. In order to achieve this, she begins to plot with her teacher Xie Wei, but only in the last arc does she develop feelings for him. Instead, she longs for her former love, Zhang Zhe, an upright official with a strong sense of justice. One of the main themes of the show is that Jiang Xuening is not a good person, not in this life and certainly not in her last, but she is trying to be better. While Zhang Zhe is not a good match for her, the scheming and violent Xie Wei is. The story of Kunning Palace is not about love, but about intrigue, friendship, ambition and doing the right thing. It's only in the last 8 episodes that there is a real romance, and then the show loses its intrigue.

I was rooting for them right up until the moment their actual relationship developed. Firstly, I'm generally not a fan of the trope of men forcing themselves on women and women giving in until they like it, even if it's under the influence of trauma. Is it reasonable for his character to react that way? Yes, it is. Did the writers have to make him do it? Absolutely not. Especially when it is all framed as sexual tension. They were great as partners in crime, but at that point, is just using trauma for the sake of drama.

Overall, Bai Lu really stole the show. She was absolutely perfect for the part. As for Zhang Linghe, his performance again lacked nuance, but it was better compared to other shows I have seen so far. As for the side characters, the only other one that really stood out for me was Lui Xiening as Princess Le Yang/ Shen Zhi Yi, as well as the scheming Xue Yuan (by Huang Haibing) and his sister, Empress Dowager Xue (by Liu Min). These two were such great villains!

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This story is so good and very interesting story
Donot feel bored watching first few ep keep watching every ep them u will know how good this drama is .I hope everyone of u will like it.
From my point of view,I really like this drama specially zhang linghe (ml) and Bai lu (fl) their chemistry and later romance is damnnnnn!!!!
Other actors their roles all are perfect everything is so smooth
I hope they will lead another drama in near future.
Zhang linghe 's acting is so damn hot I cannot resist it feels like he is a real villian hehehe
Love from Isha?

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