This was a great surprise.
(decided to go for lesser known poster, but they look so good together!)
Before watching I had no idea what the story was about, from the moment I saw the trailer, which was the sole reason I was so interested in watching this cdrama, I only figured they actually had a donghua made from the same story and that was it, no spoilers, no plots, nothing. Only in February when YT again gave me a recommended video I realized they started releasing it on their official YT channel (who knew the 32 episodes would be released in the span of the month), so I planned on watching.
Go in with low expectations and be surprised is everyday motto.
The story is nothing to marvel about at first, the FMC is transported into a book and become a demon concubine who will not survive till the end. She wants to change her fate and thus she plans to befriend the one who could potentially help her - the Emperor. But to her surprise she finds that the Emperor uses modern Chinese when he mumbled something under his nose, exhilirated she asks him a question in English - How are you?!
Imagine my hysterics when I saw this filmed with him being dramatic on the verge of tears and cgi of fireworks in the background when he answers - Fine. Thank you.
This is the best part for me in the story - we have two transmigrated characters who will become allies, besties and lovers. Even if it's not the first story I see where several people are transported from the outside world, but the difference is the take on it. That two are from same place and it bonded them a lot.
This CDrama is such a journey, which is mostly light-hearted and humorous, but not without sad and heart-felt moments.
I think the main male character Xiahou Dan is the most flashed out of them all, his story is the most profound and interesting out of all characters (at least blame the drama for making it so). The way we had no idea about his past and his struggles before the story makes a reveal about how he survived in this place for years made his story arc just heart-wrenching. The two main characters also take most part of your screen time. Which came to me not as a surprise, but I felt it was a pity that many secondary characters did not get more screen time, they were fun to watch. Some said after that popular drama came out that dramas should be more down-to-earth and not rely on look a lot, but I think it's bs, because for example I liked the character of Physician Xiao, although I felt it was a pity he did not get much of our time, but I think he was truly a great character and was played well, I even shipped him a little with Xie Yong'er. So let's not assume that we all chase only looks.
Offtopic: but for start we need to make authors not describe their characters as the most beautiful in the world "handsome, broad shoulders, long legs, square jaw, sharp look" or for women with "small faces, slim figures, bright eyes, red lips and white teeth and their shiny hair", because almost every novel describes their main characters like that, with rare exceptions when the FMC just looks pleasing.
Overall there are some settings that need a beautiful person, for example in this cdrama Yu Wanyin should be a demon concubine, well-known for her beauty, should they have found someone average instead? of course not.
The story itself is nice, when two characters with little to no real power try to struggle in the on-going political struggle between two main faction of Empress Dowager and Prince Duan and try to stay alive. While they also try to move the court and the country away from the never-ending conflicts and let it face the brighter future. Honestly liked how they wrapped it up.
The on-screen chemistry of two main characters is incredible, they were really fun to watch and follow. From how they first came to know each other to how their relationship evolved.
The acting is okay, most of the time it's good, but sometimes I blame the makers for some misses. Because every drama is not without flaws and I think this is one of them. Not saying acting is bad, just some places was too over the top. maybe because it has a theatrical feel to it instead of a movie? It's not my turn to point fingers, but the best example I have is fake blood and the use of it, because of filters it looks especially bright on screen, but also they use a lot of powder to make lips look "pale" but instead it looks unrealistic. I know it's the point of not being gruesome, but sometimes I think about what if sfx was a bit more real. It's the same as actors never looking bad. You know how they portray wounds as small smudge of red paint. It reminded me of one scene where a character named Wang Zhao was sent as envoy and we see his final scene in the desert, but the actor moved his hands so weirdly as if he was afraid to dig into sand, while in that situation I can imagine the character doing so and he spread his palms as if he was afraid to dirty them. Stuff like that took me out from the scene not once.
The actors ansemble is also nice, a great variety of characters with their own perks. Again, some of them are a bit comical even, but what can you do.
Production is great when it comes to costumes, locations etc. All except fights, those always look silly to me, though I know they did their best, but all those fights on wires with spliced editing to make things look cooler made me giggle. But beauty-wise.. ah those costume were so gorgeous they were a true eye-candy, I know they used a lot of modern materials, but it looked so good, plus this is a fictional world, so it didn't matter to me how accurate it was. Oh forgot to mention some props and that stone.. oh my god that stone made me laugh the hardest. Duing the scene of confrontation during the procession following to lay Empress Dowager to her final resting place on Mount Bei, three main ministers from Emperor's faction and Imperial guards try to push down a huge stone and it looked so fake it couldn't have looked more fake. I was wondering who was in charge, can't you do just a realistic boulder what was the problem? Yeah I have my own places to be picky about.
I mostly described everything, not going for spoilers, though included a lot of those in the text anyway.
I wanted to finish with one point that made me a bit off too, but this is me being nitpicky. The thing is about the soundtrack, there were several scenes where I think emotions could have been shown differently and would have been more impactful instead of using some dialogues, when a person is on the edge of being offed and it is always followed by loud song, this trick was used several times. As if every scene should be so lound and epic. If they used different music and not the same three songs on repeat I'd bawl my eyes out at some scenes, kid you not, but they spoiled the experience for me.
All in all, great and fun time spent. I feel a bit of a loss when typing this because when something is over, something that brought me so much joy I feel like when ever I will feel the same joy again.
RATE: 9,5/10.
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