Chang Feng Du (2023)

A sweet gem

The first thing I will say is that this drama does not have pitiful female characters with uwu baby voices.

Our female lead starts off young, but she never has that childish voice. Her life is hard and she has stuff to do. Even the side female characters aren't terribly immature. It's so refreshing to watch a drama where the females aren't infantized.

Second, Bai Jing Ting as the male lead was perfect casting. His playful rich Young Master and serious court official facial expressions were perfect.

The plot/story in the first half had my heart pounding. You never knew who was going to be caught in the chaos. I really felt afraid for the characters.

The chemistry between the two leads was amazing. Even though they only share one one screen kiss, it was a beautiful scene. And you know what? I found myself not even missing kissing scenes. The way they looked at each other, hugged, touched, and spoke to one another was enough. It was such a treat to watch their marriage go from basically a business transmission to a legit marriage.

The side characters weren't too annoying. I was interested in all of their stories.

The plot in the second half turned it from a budding romance to a full fledge palace/fight for the throne drama. I think it was a smooth transmission, but I wish they focused more on the couple falling in love than who gets to sit on the throne.

The villain made sense to me at first, but the he went off the rails. I kinda felt bad for him and then again, dude... It's not and never will be that serious!

I'm giving it a solid 8. The ending was happy and didn't leave us guessing. Great drama!

Leia Mais

Watch for the romance, try to ignore the rest

Mediocre show with some intereseting moments, overabundance of sweetness and domestic bliss as well as suprising amount of brutality.

Storyline and characters are mostly mediocre, the level of intrigues by various baddies far from intelectual masterminds. This doesnt have to be a bad thing - a charming proof of their inteligence. Sometimes they felt like a necessary trope to add - e.g. evil concubine. Othertimes, the capricious nature of the bad guys was almost refreshing or on occasion even felt realistic (man in high position who are not eveil mastermind but rather short-sighted scared fools making lot of emotional decisions).

Unfortunately, the shows starts quickly favouring telling and not showing, which leads to tiresome amount of expository monologues or various repetitive dialogues used as characterisation tool (not always supported by the actions of said characters).

And then there is the blasted ep 17 that made me furious by its sheer idiocy. Well, if it was to be a proof of their youthful ignorance, I apologise.


SLIGHT SPOILER - mostly angry rant about the level of idiocy this show can try to present as sound economical thinking

Family moves to a different region for various reasons with the intention to reestablish their business and redevelop the region in very modern sustianable manner - crating a proper infrastructure that would make trading easier, creating various job opportunities in this new underdeveloped region etc etc etc. Yay.
There is lots and lots of talks how thousands of people depend on their business. This relocation is done not just by the main family, but the branches and all their affiliates. Then, suddenly, the main couple gets possesed by the spirit of student communists from the early 20th century and decide to give their wealth away to the governemnt (and you know the government is good because the local homeless community doesnt complain about them - naturally, why would they complain about governemnt that cannot provide them with shelter and food despite their refugee status) as a pennance for their sins of being evil burgoise merchants. This action is framed as something to help the region. Because, naturally, one-time donation accomapnied by aforementioned thousans of people who followed the main family to this new region with promise of jobs and home and are now without said jobs and home (their employer deciding to quit) is the way to go when one tries to improve underdeveloped region.

end of spoiler rant


Acting - nothing to keep you glued to the seat but not bad. Just be prepared for endless talks. Romance between the main couple - tooth-rotting sweetness, be ready for the most pleasant of diabetes.

And to cleanse your palate, you have the cruelty of the bad guys and rather brutal depiction of war and its consequences (at least in contrast to the harmonoius romance strylines) - which is a refreshing alterantive to the usual heroism. Given the drama´s tendency to grand motivational speeches, one tries to see some idea behind this and for the sake of my nerves, i decided to go with pacifism (a good thing). or maybe it´s just a tool to up the drama and hardships of the good guys. Most likely both are correct, even though not both delivered with the same strenght.

Overall, it´s not a bad show, if you concentrate on the romance and the domestic bliss and dont bother to think too much about the grand narrative and economical or societal theories presented here. :) and are fine with charming amount of ageism (mother-in-law is fortyfive and can´t stop whining about being old and useless. Well, at least she is not in her thirties, so some progress has been made!

Leia Mais

Not for me.

I'm dropping this.
The convoluted premise is just not interesting and Song Yi is not utilized super well.
See, I find she's at her best as a strong confident character, sassiness being appreciated.
Here she just pines and cries all the time.
Like girl, you got arranged-married into a rich family, how awful for you! And your husband even wants to divorce you and give you a ton of money? The horror!
Main dude tries, he's trying so hard I'm surprised he didn't pull a funny muscle in his face. Also his ears are massive.
But yeah, it's just not what I hoped. Definitely not Dream of Splendor, nor Joy of Life/My Heroic Husband.
Pass.

Leia Mais

Just not for me

I watched 2 episodes. I didn't find the story entertaining so decided to drop it........ For me it was just boring, I tried few times....

The characters and leads were ok just the story didn't appeal to me. Maybe should of been more patient with the story but in the moment just felt didn't want to continue with it.......

Anyways, those watching please enjoy.
Those who want to give it a try, I suggest to give it a few episodes and form an opinion......

I am still open to watching more of these leads in future dramas, this does not change my opinion of them......

Leia Mais

Ignore the insensible plot elements and you'll love it!

First episode is aestheically gorgeous. ML is at his adorable best! FL maturity shines. 2nd MLs are so suited to their roles.
But I haven't given a ten because there are parts of the story that don't make sense....for example, her first meeting with him is over a fox fur sold by her evil 'step-mother'---she demands it back even though he paid for it. And she wants it back to sell it.....huh? why is he at fault? And then there's the confrontation in the Pleasure House--would he really accept his wife berating him in public? Then, there's the giving away "ALL" their fortune because they can't get licenses to sell, but yet she turns around and easily opens a new business...with what funds? how did she get that license so easily? Then, there's her mission to gather provisions across the country---isn't the whole reason their own province has inadequate provisions because the other provinces don't/won't sell their own precious supplies? Yet, she has the funds and resources and successfully obtains 2/3 of what she needs?
I haven't yet gotten to the end, but ignore these gaffs in the storyline and enjoy.

Leia Mais

waste of time

One word: boring. I feel like it's a waste of time, and I've already dropped it.
Plot is mediocre, acting is mediocre.
Apologies in advance to him and her fans.
Is Bai Jing Ting a good actor to begin with?
I know he's good at making troubled faces and expressions, but I just don't think he's capable of making a heartfelt appeal to the audience with a facial expression that has no dialogue.
Song Yi has never given a great performance, and I feel the same way about this drama, that she is a mediocre actor compared to the greats like Yang Mi and Sun Li.
Everyone has their own taste in dramas.
Many people enjoy it, as evidenced by the ratings. Those who are addicted to the drama should continue to enjoy it.

Leia Mais