Overrated but not bad

It could have been amazing, however it’s a little bit like a jigsaw puzzle box that’s been opened; the picture on the outside is interesting, but when you open the box, you find there are pieces missing or some of the pieces don’t belong.

WHAT I LIKED
I adore stories with strong, smart female leads which is why I started watching C-dramas. This story attempts to have that.

The cinematography and set design are gorgeous! Apparently, this show had 3 directors and it’s clear that some were more interested getting the right looking shot that they were in ensuring that the story and characters made sense on screen.

WHAT RUINED IT FOR ME
I think it’s important to establish chemistry and harmony so that the audience is swept up into the plot. IMO, that did not happen here. Reading a book is not the same as watching a movie. A movie requires that the visuals on the screen and the harmony between the cast and script are visually palpable. That didn’t happen here.

First, the casting decisions were terrible. I’m not saying that the acting was bad. Individually, I think each cast member did a terrific job. However, the cast never had any chemistry.

For one thing, it was difficult to understand how old these people were supposed to be. You have Wu Jin Yan who is a beautiful 30+ plus old woman in RL, but she looks like a 28 to 30-year-old. Then you have the rest of the non-parental figures in the show cast as 21-year-olds. If the story had been about 21-year-olds being led by a charismatic 30-year-old then I think that it could have worked. Instead, they put 5+ lbs of make on Wu Jin Yan and used trick lighting to try to make her look 21. The result is extremely uneven. She looks that age in about 80% of the scenes but, often within the same scene or episode, she clearly looks WAY older than the people that are supposed to be her peers. Instead of focusing on the plot, I spent as much time tying to figure out what was going on with their ages and whether that was intentional.

Furthermore, I think the decision to pretend that the Directors could manipulate things so that WJY could pass for 21 also destroyed the chemistry. Instead of a harmonized crew, we got great individuals playing good roles. What we needed was people that seemed to care about each other on screen as much as they did in the novel.

Second, the plot line was not great. Wu Jin Yan can be a great actress. She was fantastic in Yangxi Palace! IMO, she’s one of the best at making you believe that the FL is clever. However, in this it seemed like she was sleepwalking through the plot. The examples of her charater’s cleverness are not delivered with the same zing as Yangxi palace. I blame a lot of that on the plots. They’re clever, but predictable. Please tell me if you didn’t know what was happening with the flags at the quasi-nunnery 5 minutes before it was revealed.

Part of it was the setup. The main character went from normal and somewhat gullible when she was first introduced to being clever as a fox overnight, literally. At least, show us how she mentally worked out that she could be clever person instead being just a pawn.

The instrumental music used to propel the scenes is meh. It’s kind of like the show. It’s not bad, but it’s not something to get excited about either.

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So enjoyable

Even my husband has watched this show, twice, and I can barely get him to watch any shows. The story is based on history and I think that adds to its charm because it’s nice to see a woman depicted as beautiful and clever. This was the first c-drama we ever watched and that was a nice, refreshing change to how women are usually depicted in Western shows. However, everything about this show is great. The costumes. The sets! And, yes, the acting. Everyone, is excellent in their roles. And the twists are as good as anything in Dynasty but without the cheesiness. The chemistry between the FL and ML is the best. It’s only surpassed by the chemistry of the leads in Falling Into Your Smile. The music is beautiful. It’s a few years old at this point, but it’s still wonderful.

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Hmm…not as good as people claim

But I might change my mind. I started watching because of all the accolades this show has received including recent wins at the Weibo Awards 2024. Maybe my expectations were too high. The dancing of the white sparrows was mediocre. It was more about camera angles than actual dancing. I’ve seen better dancers in Chinese variety shows. It wouldn’t have mattered to me, but the director wanted the audience to be astounded by their dance. The music is all over the place. It ranges from hauntingly beautiful to soap opera bad sometimes within seconds of each other.

The characters are okay. The bad guy is the most compelling actor so far. I keep reading how the FL is so amazing. Ah…the best thing about her is that she’s 36 and it’s nice to see that a major production is giving an older woman a lead role, however her martial arts skills are miserable. Her fight scenes contain more cut away camera shots. The only closeups are of her vogueing as examples of her great style. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, it’s not. The cinematographapher loves the FL’s face and he gave her AMAZING lighting, but it’s also obvious that the lighting, and heavy pancake makeup, are being over used to make her look younger.

The story is…okay. It’s not awful. It’s not great. Same with the acting. My husband and I aren’t Chinese so the historical elements aren’t always easy for us to follow. We were hoping to get something as fascinating as Princess Weiyoung or The Story of Yanxi Palace. This is definitely no where near the quality of those, although the costumes are fantastic. The acting of the ML and FL isn’t bad, but isn’t interesting either. For ex., the acting of the FL comes off to us as one note. She’s great with an expressionless face during combat scenes. But, she has no other real expression either with her face or her eyes, mouth, etc. The expressions of emotion from her and the ML are completely confined to their voice. There’s 0 charm. At this point, I’ll watch a few more episodes, but I feel like one’s love of this show is cultural. I’ve read that many Chinese didn’t love Princess Weiyoung, but it is a major hit internationally. Similarly, I feel like this show will only be mildly successful internationally whereas it’s adored in China.

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