It's an odd one and I'm all for it!

A quirky lead with her quirky family and quirky friends gets involved with local politics. The male lead is one tall, hot, adorable and shy labrador. Together they make a fun and engaging couple whose nuances are simply delightful. I'm a big fan of political dramas and light romcoms. This one is just right up my alley. I enjoyed the supporting cast immensely. Nothing too dramatic; the political conflicts were solid and more realistic than most dramas involving politics.

I like how the characters are evenly written. The FL is all colors of the rainbow. She's naive, hopeful, brave, and batshit crazy. The ML is not the typical cold and arrogant but with genius-level competency. He's reserved and competent but not the high-and-mighty type. We've met these types of leads in many other romcoms before but these are well-written and certainly well-executed characters. I also usually sigh when there is a childhood connection but this time it worked well into the story as it gave the relationship a friendly tone, a certain familiarity that only childhood friends have.

Love it!

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Full of Splendor Indeed

Let's start with how beautiful Liu Yi Fei is in this drama. And the whole production basks in beauty and elegance that you'd want to visit this particular period of the Song Dynasty if you ever get a hold of a time machine. I've read that the original story was written by a person who used to live in the thriving capital before becoming a refugee. He then recalls in this memoir the splendor of the life in the capital and the drama show us that. The pipa and the tea are cultural details I enjoyed learning about from this drama.

I didn't think Chen Xiao would measure up to Pan Er's beauty but it didn't take long for me to wait in anticipation for Gu Xian Fan to appear. I love the characters surrounding the leads, especially Chi Ya Nei and Chen Lian. Sun San Niang was strong and steady. Ou Yang Xu was the antagonist we didn't know we'd hate and pity. Son Yin Zhang, albeit the abrupt change in attitude towards the end, was pretty solid as well. Gu Xiao Fan's father could have been explored more, I thought he was a promising character.

The only thing I wasn't too happy about was the fact that Gu Xiao Fan was mostly side-lined in the last climactic moments. The drama started out with him so I thought they were setting up a predominantly romantic story but his role dissipated and the story tried to be grander than it started out to be. Anyway, I'll still rewatch this because it was simply delectable.

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I highly anticipated this drama for 1) Liu Yu Ning after his Hao Du character in The Long Ballad and 2) I love Wuxia. It started off with the same vibe I get with adventure animes that are heavy on friendship and camaraderie. Little Rock has that anime lead personality: strong, carefree, and gets down and dirty when he needs to. Su Meng and Di Fei Jing were very intriguing. Bai Chou Fei was going to walk the dark path, I just knew it. He was going to be Sasuke to Wang Xiao Shi's Naruto. Wen Rou was a hit-or-miss for me. Sometimes she was annoying, other times refreshing. Lei Chun felt like a forcedly put-together complex character. Her relationships to the other characters already made her out to be a complex character but her progression seemed contrived. The action sequences also had some hit and miss moments. The cut scenes worked nicely after longer elaborate fight sequences but sometimes it just appeared lazy. The longer I watched the drama the more frequent I skipped. I held on for the aesthetic and the fight scenes but I didn't enjoy its final trajectory. I found it overly dramatic without being cathartic.

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The Power Couple to Beat in Wuxia

Finally a strong female character from beginning to end! I didn't know what to expect from Lu Si since she has always played the adorable FL. However, I was convinced she was a strong and wise woman in this one. I was also worried Yang Yang will be all stoic and stone-faced, but I saw all emotions on his lovely face, thank goodness. This was a no-nonsense type of story-telling (except for some ridiculous fight scenes and vfx). Every character's goal was clear and their journey towards it was coherent. There were no annoying petty characters that serve no great purpose but exist only to make the main leads look good. It's still not as female-centric the way Pocahontas carries the story but it's a refreshing upgrade from the "strong" female characters of Chinese costume dramas I've seen. The power couple to beat in any wuxia.

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