An Ancient something
Time can be confusing indeed, and this is a story about questioning what you read in history books as well as accepting the things you can not change or something like that as we meet a man who is supposed to be smart but is oddly stupid for a smart guy and a really cool female lead who is awesome in every single way in this time twist Moon Lovers light meets One and Only light, very light and with a twist... offering us a really cool female lead a bunch of questions some cringe and slow mo dialog and pretty scenery here and there.To be honest I kind of lost interest after a while but kept at it for the female lead and lack of things to make me drop it. So it is an ok watch, not very good, not very bad it just is...
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Best Short Chinese Drama Ever Made
The amount of details they put in this drama is so great. This is by far tops the list of the best short chinese dramas I watched.Best Points:
1. The acting was great especially the FL. I had already watched some of her previous works and this drama for me is her best work. She did great in portraying the innocent teen until she became the Empress. You could really see and feel her change. However, the ML might seems to be overshadowed by FL's acting but for me it didn't. Both of them did good in conveying the melancholic theme of the drama. I hope they will pair up in a future drama with a happy ending..
2. THE DETAILS! Yes, the details really gives me goosebumps because IT WAS SOOOO WELL-MADE. The people behind this drama really put every of their creative powers to make this. It is also straight to the point with no plot holes. Every episode puts me in the edge of the seat and makes me cry.
3. The OST are perfect in every scene they put it. That's it because I might cry if I hear the song again, remembering every bits of what happened in this drama.
4. Although it's a low budget drama, it doesn't feels like it is. Well, I mean it is more perfect than those high budget dramas with crappy writings.
Overall, 10/10. So perfect, so tragic, so love it! Yes, it's a sad and tragic ending but for me it's also happy because the story gave us a lesson that historical facts isn't what you think it really is. And the ML proving to everyone that the FL wasn't really the villain in the story makes it already a happy ending for me. Maybe in their next life, the star crossed lovers will have their own happy ending.
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The Best Time Travel Drama So Far
If you're a fan of tragedy and enjoy getting your heart broken (like me), this drama is a must watch for you!I heard this drama is extremely low budget, but I'd say you won't be able to really tell or be bothered. I don't think I could care at all about those things when watching this. Unless you come expecting a colossal-scale epic with elaborate sets and props, fancy costumes, or mass extras in the background, this drama's small production won't really cause disappointment. I'd say that the production team really tried to make it to the fullest with the limited resources they got that the low budget production doesn't really affect the quality of the story at all.
The story itself is very unique and new. Even I'd say that the best part of this drama is the story. The story is a full 10/10 for me. I don't think I have ever experienced this kind of time travel before. Unlike most time travel drama, the timeline of time travel in this drama is in reverse order. The story keeps going back into the past instead of progressing forward, which is the most frustrating and depressing aspect of the drama.
This drama will take you into a path full of sorrows. Anticipate only angst. So if you expect to see an intensely sweet, cutesy romance in between the misery events, you shouldn't. Because this drama is a complete tragedy. You'd only encounter pain, pain, and more pain as the story goes on.
The most tragic aspect of this drama, however, was the fact that the first time the ML met the FL was the last time FL would ever meet the ML again, and later the first time FL would meet ML was going to be the last time ML could ever see FL again. But, that still wasn't the most hurtful part. I think what makes this heartbreaking is not that they can't be together, but the fact that at the time FL was most in love with the ML, the ML didn't know her, and then by the time the ML was totally in love with the FL, the she didn't know him.
It was so agonizing. Love and relationship are usually built from the shared history of a couple's journey together, but here, at every encounter, they weren't at the same page of history. Sometimes the ML doesn't share the memory of the journey that the FL had with him, other times the FL doesn't share the memory of the journey that the ML had with her. She loves him, but even when he loves her back, it wasn't to the degree of how much she loves him, and vice versa. It was almost like you have a one-sided love but everytime your love started to get reciprocated, your partner got amnesia and you had to start all over again and again.
The story is written very beautifully. The writers and the team really took the drama seriously and put so much effort using all they had because you can tell that, regardless of their low budget, they weren't producing the drama carelessly. They treated the drama as if they were doing a big budget project. They paid attention to smallest details that subtly imply a lot of significance in the story, every scene and dialogue has meanings that you'd not have been able to recognize the first time, and they thoughtfully bury a lot of messages that only make sense later as the story progresses.
The acting is really good despite the fact that these are not big actors in the Chinese industry. I hope their names get bigger and more projects in the future because they are really good.
The ML acting is alright. The ML was able to showcase how his character became wiser as the story progressed. But I'd say that the ML need to work with his expression because most of the time he has the same flat look on his face. It was quite hard to sympathize with him during the first few episodes although the acting as well as the feelings towards him gradually improved with more episodes unfolding. But I’d attribute that mostly to the writer because the story is really beautifully sad and you don't have any option but to empathize with the characters even when the acting is only half-way convincing. The ML wasn't awful but I won't say he was great either. He can make this tragedy so much more devastating than what it already is if only he wears something else than the stiff naïve look on his face. But his acting towards the end gets better. The best level of his acting in the drama was by the time he got heart failure in the carriage. I think he was awesome there and it was a very sad scene. From there as he became sickly and fell into the fourth time lapse until the ending, he started to look more pitiable and easier to relate in his agony.
I think the FL’s brother, the young general, Lu Shi, has more facial expressions. He quite successfully delivers various emotions (such as sadness, anger, even the “tragic” look) with his facial soft tissues. And Lu Shi is absolutely gorgeous, especially with the long hair and the side bangs sweeping his face. He was such a treat to the eyes. His smile is also very pretty. Here, he reminds me of Kim Bum from the Boys Before Flower. But Lu Shi got softer facial features and even more handsome. He is a very tragic character in the story. However, because the drama is short (perhaps due to the tight budget), so there wasn't much time to go into Lu Shi in more depth, I felt like his character would be very interesting if they’d explore him, then perhaps, his death (which already very painful) could cause even worse pain if he was exposed more deeply and longer to the audience.
Our main star is the FL. I'm completely in love with the FL. She invoked so much emotions on me with her acting. She truly knows the way to make viewer relate to whatever she is feeling. Either happy, angry, sad, or desperate, she makes it all look reasonable and makes me as a viewer supported whatever she feels. I think she truly is the cast that hard-carry the entire drama. It usually was really hard for me to watch actresses in Chinese drama without frowning or rolling my eyes because their acting can be either stiff (wearing too much of the innocent expression) or just over the top sometimes. But the FL's acting here is flawless. She showed different sides of her characters throughout the reverse growth very well. As an older FL, she perfectly exhibited maturity and composure. The way she acted during these period of her life reminded me of the actress playing Empress Fu Shou in Secret of the Three Kingdom. As the time goes back into the past, the FL here showed how her character also gradually act younger and younger. Her acting during her 18-year-old self displayed youthfulness and was very convincing as if I have never seen her older self before. Like she is completely a different person with the contrasting personality that she showed in different times. The way her eyes, eyebrows, mouth, cheekbones, forehead, all moved in meaningful manner. The drama could have gone really bad if it wasn't for the FL's acting that carry and conveyed the entire feelings of the drama. She makes the sadness of the story more palpable to me as the viewer.
There aren't that much of wuxia in this drama. But when there were martial art scenes, it was always executed beautifully. The FL fighting scenes is totally gorgeous and captivating. She is looks fearless and violent in every fighting scene, yet always so elegant.
It was so unfortunate that the drama is very short. Because it's totally beautiful and could be even much bigger. As someone who loves to watch Chinese tragedy and epic with 70+ more episodes, it would be awesome if this drama can be longer.
You can tell that the story in this drama is actually very complicated, but due to the time constraint, they couldn't touch at every single issues and had to pack only the most crucial events into the show. They don't really have that much time to elaborate the severity of these characters lamentation, although they still successfully showed the miserable melancholy of these people in the story, but I felt like the despair was actually worse and more gloomy than what was showed.
It was my first time watching a drama that is engaging throughout all its duration where I did not feel even a second of boredom. This drama is very well-paced, unusual, and interesting. It offers a totally different vibes and feelings than any Chinese costume drama.
I'd gladly recommend people to watch this drama. The writers are very smart people with great creativity. The director is talented in the way that he/she managed to make every scenes beautiful and cinematic with no weird camera angles despite the limited budget. The editor also deserve a compliment for the clean editing with no awkward cuts. Everyone seems to be very professional in this drama.
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