Story of Kunning Palace (2023)

watch this or else

I'm not very good with words but here I am. ?

Hooked from start to finish, this drama has been worth the wait. Despite the limited budget, this drama delivered a high quality production. The script is quotable, there's so many lines that are memorable. It would've been better if iqiyi made more effort in translating them. The acting is top tier. It made me starstruck and engrossed. It felt like i'm there with them, I kept holding my breath not to miss anything. The costumes are also good. I like xie wei's hairstyle with his hair down and the ribbon on his back. He also looked great in his court official attire, that's my most fave look of him. The women's dresses are also so fine. I love the pastel colors. The gold on the royalties are also so fitting. I like a drama that invest in costumes because it adds to my watching experience.

I'm not sure how the drama plot stayed true to the novel but the drama plot was well done. I liked the pacing. There's something significant happening in every episode. There's no unnecessary fillers. Nothing was dragged or rushed. I think my main problem was the romance of xie wei and ning'er. While they have a lot of interactions in the first 30 eps, the love line hasn't really started there though from xie wei's perspective it's been going on from the earliest eps. Ning'er still hasn't have that kind of feelings for him yet. This is the slowest burn i have ever experienced in my cdrama life. But those moments of xie wei and ning'er from the first 30 eps are still serving chemistry. They're not doing romantic but they're burning of chemistry. bailu and zhang linghe did so well in that department. Came ep 31 onwards, some may say love was forced to ning'er but no. From the start, she might have develop something but only at later eps did it awakened. And mostly, xie wei's love for her reached her and she took it. They have such a toxic development but they're both intense so I think it suited them both fine.

I am not into love triangle, what more reverse harem. I liked how every men and woman in jxn's life are important to her story. I was stressed and seething of jealousy (for xw) when seeing her with zhang zhe though. Such a sad love story. Their moments were sweet.

When it comes to palace dramas, the scheming will always be present. Mostly, I get stressed watching those but this one our mains are mainly involved in the scheming. As the saying goes, they may not always win but they will never lose. That's how powerful our main leads here that I never have to sweat about them losing anything. They will pass through challenges again and again.

I think this is the kind of drama that I would want to marathon and watch with friends. Never a dull moment. Watch it, highly recommend!

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Satisfying Watch

I've never really written reviews before, but there's a first time for everything. The story from the very start is genuinely gripping. This drama includes everything: the usual selfless characters who give without expecting anything in return, along with characters of grey and neutrality. Our female lead is a blend of selflessness and cunningness, which is perfectly acceptable – a multifaceted character adds depth. She's not your typical damsel in distress; instead, she possesses a strong backbone. Is she silly sometimes? Yes, but who isn't? That only makes her more human. Our male lead exists in the grey area, understandably due to his backstory, yet we witness significant character progression by the end. It's undeniable, brilliant casting and a great storyline, which often overshadow the occasional directing errors.

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Perfect combination of Politics, romance and my ever favourite trope-TIME TRAVEL

Usually I can never get myself to complete any drama with a lot of politics. But this one had me hooked from the start to the very last episode. The six month wait after it's initial declaration was absolutely worth it.

The drama focuses on Jiang Xuening, who gets a chance to REDO her mistakes while further exploring her efforts, her relationships with the various characters.

Our Queen, Bai Lu, as usual never disappoints us and gave us yet another ground breaking performance thereby showing her versatility as a scheming empress(1st life) and as Ning'er(2nd life).
As for our ML, it was his second drama I watched with him as ML- the first being My journey to you, and the contrast between the characters he played shows his versatile acting skills. It's not easy to play a grey area character like Xie Wei and now i don't think anyone could have played this role as good as Zhang Linghe. The chemistry between the leads had me squealing at all times. Xie Wei's character screams- "a hero will sacrifice u for the world but a villain would sacrifice the whole world for you." especially with his dialogue-" Neither my qin, my revenge, nothing in this world compares to her." and Zhang Linghe portrays it exceptionally well.

Zhang Zhe may be the best person but Xie Wei was the most suitable one for Ning'er.

The OSTs especially the one by Zhou Shen, had my heart from the beginning.
A mix of various genres.... I would definitely recommend this to every cdrama lover!!!!!!!
No doubt one of the best chinese dramas of 2023 !!!!!

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2ND CHANCE AND REDEMPTION

A head strong Jiang Xue Ning (Bai Lu) who would do anything to become an Empress, who manipulated many people to do her bidding to stay in power and control, who died by killing herself of regret in exchange her life for someone else's life. The story of second chance and redemption of Jiang Xuening; to avoid herself get into the palace like her past life as the ambitious Empress. But she couldn't entirely escape from fate that's written to her, shifting her fates and people in the path of redemption. However some things were still end the same like invincible hand stirred to what fate have been. Ning'Er still end up joining the palace as a Princess's study companion and Xie Wei's (Zhang Ling He) student. As a new person, she still handled things with devious strategies to avoid certain fates that got her in trouble in previous life, with different approached she still manipulate people according to her wishes. The old feeling still hunted her to which decision made and wisdom came from. Relationship Xie Wei & Xue Ning were teacher and student, outside the circle they're conspirator.

Xie Wei/Xue Ding Fei (Zhang Ling He)
As the most scary person in Jiang Xue Ning's life - she most afraid and bitter toward him. Crown Prince's teacher and advisor to the Emperor, Xie Wei had every reason to be wary of. He hold most secrets as he's the sole survivor of 20 years old frightening 300 young lost souls originated, a 7 years young Viscount Xue Ding Fei was used to replace for (same age) Crown Prince's life to demanding rebel leader Prince Ping'An. Who knew he survived the massacre and became Prince Ping'An bullet to destroy Qian/Shen royal family, his hatred to his biological father Xue was no bound. His affection for Yan family where his mother was the beloved sister of Duke Yan (Yan Lin's father). This time around, he suffered from PTSD from early age trauma. His main goal was to destroy Xue which aligned with Xue Ning's mission and maneuver palace's politics to achieve goals. So much going on his calculating mind to achieve successful outcomes, he'd happily married Xue Ning and had twin children.

Yan Lin (Zhou Jun Wei)
In this new life Jiang Xuening redeemed her mistake by secretly plans to stop Yan Lin's bloody upcoming-age Crown Ceremony from happening, result of power struggle between 2 influential family Xue & Yan. With Jiang Xuening and Xie Wei's plan, the Yan family's lives were saved although they went exile for wrongful accusation. At point of time when Yan Lin lost his whole family during his coming-to age celebration from Xue and the day knowing Xue Ning rejecting his love. Her betrayal made Yan Lin obsess and furious. When he started to gain power to rebel, Yan Lin determined to make her his woman, but she killed herself to exchange life for a life. Xue Ning was forewarned Yan Lin that her feeling was friendship, none romantic, Yan Lin had to first hand knowing her true feeling to avoid obsession nor hatred as he's falling more deeper in love with her like in their previous life. He'd be a grand general and respected by whole country, Yan family all came back home.

Zhang Zhe ( Wang Xing Yue)
Jiang XueNing most precious person was Zhang Zhe. In previous life she was using him to cover up her many guilt of wrong doing, for the sake of love Zhang Zhe betrayed his conscience to make wrong judgement. He felt unworthy and guilt of the dead of his mother he wrote a letter to Justice Dept to sentence him to death. Xue Ning begged him to forgive himself and blame her instead. Few days before his death sentence, Xue Ning went to Xie Wei for his mercy and kill herself in exchange for his life. Second change, Zhang Zhe being an upright man was indeed love her, they had a chance to have their happy ending together, but his mother eventually died from the same cause and affect him the same guilt so Xue Ning decided to let go remembering how bad Zhang Zhe end up on their previous life. All in all Zhang Zhe assisted Xie Wei, Yan Lin, Xue Ning to reveal the truth of evil-doers Xue family.

Princess Le Yang/Shen Zhi Yi (Liu Xie Ning)
Jiang Xue Ning was her bestfriend, they're study mates. Jiang Xue Ning was successfully change their relationship dynamic into friendship rather as adversary in their previous life, but for sure Xue Ning knew that Princess Le Yang would be sent off to get married with enemy's prince and tragically died. In this life, Xue Ning would rush to save her from fatal outcome. Although she still had a bad marriage, faced abuse and imprisonment, she's finally free to come back home.

You Fang Yin (Melody Tang)
In previous life, she's the faithful attendant/maid to her Empress life, Fang Yin's been through too much during her reign so she felt guilty put her through. So, Jiang Xue Ning saved her from jealous bitter step sister and hateful You family. Xue Ning trusted her with business and independent. She married to a very nice man, handled businesses good, sadly died for loyalty.

Although the drama is heavy in political conflicts and intrigues, twisting fate for different outcomes might also be a little romance at the end. Great script, the intrigue wasn't boring, amazing costumes (everyone looks amazing), great coordination between flash back and new stories, good angle cameramen and directive. Zhang Ling He is great in here, shining in his acting (not convincing enough he's afraid of cat though), he'll have a long acting career. Bai Lu is so so as her usual self, as 27 yo she can't act like 19yo, we've seen her same acting in her other dramas. Zhou Jun Wei is pretty sleek as Yan Lin while Wang Xing Yue has character that's not special, I think he'd be more interesting as (previous life) Zhang Zhe when he broke many etiquette and laws - he'd lots of inner battles and emotion fight in within . Very good drama.

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tw: toxic relationship | not for the judgemental!!

Honestly I really liked this drama, it's definitely a slowburn that's worth waiting for unlike most fluffy dramas. I definitely love the FL and ML, had such great chemistry in the bts. I don't wanna spoil anything, so just gonna briefly describe the story.

1. Story. Not too harsh for the heart, definitely a smooth and satisfactory story that I really like. The plot(s) weren't that surprising either which is good imo, because complex stories are harder to understand but this drama definitely gives a nice ride.

2. Acting. Of course, per usual, well done. ZLH's expressions definitely do make me feel some type of way, smirking, grinning and scoffing I love it! For me, I really hate it when characters have a really stale expression, small details really do matter just like micro expressions so he did them really well. Bai Lu, insane acting skills however I do think she could use a little more expressions as well that isn't written on the script, in order to emphasize her character even more. (As a Bai Lu fan)

3. I think the music was alright, but I do think it's low-key overused, but definitely can't blame them as the OST's that are used for the scenario must fit the situation. When I first heard of the opening scene of SOKP, I was rlly invested though, I liked the unique idea of it.

4. As for rewatch value, I don't think ut deserves a 10 because everyone have their different preferences and opinions, so I'll leave it open to everyone's own idea.

5. Overall, I think this drama definitely should be watched, toy can watch it during your free time (recommended) or anytime!!

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The best drama of 2023 for me!

I loved this one! The story drew me in from the get go. And I watched it as it was airing…waiting for each episode to drop. Both the leads were phenomenal, the supporting cast was stellar and the story was gripping. The chemistry between the leads was fire. Zhang Linghe was absolutely swoon worthy with his burning gaze and his barely suppressed jealousy! Just wow. Only gripe I had was with the weird lighting and the odd placement of spotlights which was annoying! Highly recommended if you like a mature and passionate romance between two broken people with trauma!

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I want to fan-girl this dramaaaaa

HOW SHOULD I START!!!

firstly I want to talk about the story!!, the story is well written even if there are some changes, the writers didn’t spoil it !!, the character development of some characters is insane!! like I could relate to their growth of personality, and I didn’t know I will be so intrigued with political conflict? they make it interesting really !!, the story overall is amazing and even if there is some matters didn’t match or explained the plot will make you finish this masterpiece in few days!

Now let’s talk about the CHARACTERS:

Ning’er: to be honest she’s fall first or at least had crush on Xie Wei from their first life ?, like girl you want to be chocked like hell girl!! “ choke me like you hate me but you love me”, she admired Zhang Zhe , but didn’t really loved him that much bcz she always chooses herself and her comfort, even after she back in time, she still chose her comfort over what her heart or others thinks. Anyway this is not a bad thing really, bcz her second life she balanced this desire and become wiser of what her needs and others needs!!, and what make Xie Wei different is bcz he let her cross her comfort zone and cross her principles sometimes and it is not necessary a bad thing tho, he is the only one who helped her to overcome her past life and live normally.

Xie Wei: to be honest the story is around him not the FL ?, we only see his story from Ning’er perspective, anyway his personality is confusing as hell ? like he is a villain but not really an ordinary villain? he has a good reasons and good method? like he is a hero using villains tools and that why everyone who knows him well adores and protects him and specially respects him, he didn’y ask help of anyone he is simply attracted the people around him and if they helped him he will return the favor multiple times and if they hurt him of will they best results is dying really ?, yeah he is using the people around him but also taking care of them ?, he is a hero using villains tools as I said.

Yan line : best boy I will take him ?, for me he is better and greenest flag than Zhang Zhe !! like come on guys … he will die and fight for her and he respects that she’s not in love with him and didn’t bother… and his relationship with his father and his respect to the ML is so admirable really !! he is the Best man on the series!!

Zhang Zhe: our boring grean flag guy .. I love you man but what are you doing becoming depressed after lying ? and do a whole drama about it then accept it ???? and yeah u r rightous and all but u know that people have different personalities and you should act according to their personality man … like literally the first encounter with you was beautiful and u did a well scheme to capture the maid … why will you be stupid sometimes ?yeah he changed and learned that honestly is not always the best choice.. I love you man really , but I don’t know why u irritated me sometimes…

those are the main characters, the other characters were also charming, but I’m getting tired from typing !!

my comfort character is : lu Xian ( the businessman) the best friend of Xie Wei !! he is truly the definition of friendship!!

and ?? bye bye

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Explosively Exciting and Enjoyable!

I went in blind and was blown away by this fabulous drama! <3

I want to wax lyrical about it and now that I am done with the drama, I can't wait to re-watch it. I have already started watching clips to relive specific special moments like the explosive kiss scene featuring our darlings - ML and FL. I am on a bit of "SOKP" withdrawal at the moment...

What I LOVE about this drama:
- As always, suspend disbelief and fully immerse in the DRAMA of this drama. This drama is very dramatic with all its shenanigans... plotting, scheming, killing, protecting, lying, saving, loving...
- The ML is completely Da-Bomb Great in this drama. I watched one drama featuring him previously and thought that he was good. But, whoa, here, he is GREAT! He is AWESOME. He is MAGNIFICENT as Xie Wei. I love his snarls, growls, jealousy, plotting, smart mind, eloquence, the way he loves, the way he is petty, the way he is forward-thinking, the way he tries to move away from his past... I think ZLH brought this character to life splendidly and no one else can do a better job than he. ZLH is XIE WEI and XIE WEI is ZLH and no other actor can do justice to this character anymore because ZLH delivered spectacularly!
- The FL remains adorable in her own ways from start to finish. BL is a great actress. I have watched several of her dramas and she does shine!
- The plot is highly riveting and exciting. I want to go from one episode to the next. The drama's pace leaves me breathless and also, breathless for more!
- The entire cast is wonderful and I like that even the less significant characters have their opportunities to shine and to deliver. Because of everyone's stellar contribution, the drama is certainly superbly fine like excellent and expensive wine. I like that JXH is constantly good. She does not turn out to be a bitch in disguise. I like that the loyal characters like DQ and JS and FYQ all stayed faithful and strong.
- The OST is memorable. I have been listening to it over and over again.
- Story plot tries very hard to make sense throughout and I appreciate it! Everything is tied up nicely towards the end too which is wonderful.
- Happy, happy ending which is a complete plus point for me. It thrills me to see ML and FL having their well-deserved Happily-Ever-After.

What I DO NOT LOVE:
- Just some 'minor' issues - the villains are damn annoying. I hate Xue Shu and Xue Yuan. And well, all the baddies. But, I understand that every drama needs baddies or else, what drama will we have?
- I cannot fathom how Xue Yuan just keeps on wanting to kill his own flesh and blood. Even his son is not so ruthless and blood-thirsty. He is definitely mega-villain. I hate him and all the Xues (other than ML, of course; and ML says that he is no longer a Xue and a Yan).

Overall, I love this drama very dearly. It is superb. I highly enjoyed it. I came to it rather late but better late than never... I want to encourage everyone else to watch it and to enjoy it too! :o)

I generously give it a perfect score because, to me, this drama is truly dramatically magnificent!!

<3

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One of the Best drama from Bai Lu! Queen of Wuxia drama

*Positive things* : the chemistry's off all actor/actress is very good , their acting very impresif, especially Xue Shu and princess. I really dont like Xue Shu, but this thing proof her acting really good.

I like how jealously XW with Zhang Zhe until the end, its so funny.. Even his child respect Zhang Zhe. ?

Finally, we got happy ending for Bai Lu wuxia drama compare to Till The End of The Moon. As expected, Bai Lu acting very good!

The negative :
- The soundtrack drama is so so, i mean not too good but not bad.
- Ep 37-38, i expect more conflict, but turn is out, the result predictable.

Anyway i glad to know and watch this drama, it will be one of the best drama in 2023!!

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