I can’t resist but share my thoughts about this drama before it truly concludes.

The waiting has ended, and lo and behold, another incomparable historical Chinese drama has been added to the list. I am a super fan of Zhao Lusi. While her beauty stands out, I rave about her versatility as an actress and what she did in this drama, which, needless to say, was a solid award-winning performance. Of course, everyone in the cast rocked in their respective roles, too.

Putting this theme into a live work was a monumental move from the producer - one rare subject to expand our familiarity with pearls that exceptionally held its value over the years in the jewelry industry. Behind its precious unpigmented feature – a so-called natural gem that isn’t processed mechanically was an unsettling story of the ruthless method of collection and trading driven by greedy monopolization as fictionalized in this drama. I believe this is a free adaptation that retells a story about a girl, who at a young age was taught and involuntarily became a pearl diver in an escapable place called pearl farm. The kind of surroundings she has, where each of them is fighting for survival and has to guard themselves under perilous attacks, turned her into a diver with nerves of steel that led to her involvement with the two MLs when both came in as guests at the pearl farm. One was there to set his vengeance in motion while the other was on official duty investigating.

Liu Yuning's (ML) & Zhao Lusi's (FL) character representations gratified my partiality for tough, sharp-witted, and capable central figures in a drama while revealing vulnerabilities and softness that was reasonably understandable looking at their back story. It was not an outright chemistry for them but strongly fetching as the story moved onwards. By the way, Liu Yuning’s unexpected casting here as a substitute for the male lead undoubtedly helped boost his popularity. The overall visual of this drama was stunning - from the locations, costumes/styling, and prop details, those smallest of things gave the exact look of the civilization the story requires for each setting. If those were shot in the actual locations or happened to be graphically enhanced only, didn’t matter at all. Still, I had this impression that the production cost an arm and a leg. I had nothing to object to the pacing and storytelling. Though inadequate to neutralize the overwhelming agony this drama has deeply shown from the torment of hard labor and slavery, repeated loss of lives, and physical sufferings in desperation to live; I love those random scenes showing the basic sources of joy such as feeling the sea air breeze over the ship deck, playing, listening, and dancing to the music of erhu (Chinese violin), and admiring the stock of flowers in a local stall.

If I were to compare this with “Love Like the Galaxy” which had won me over in a similar manner, both threw a plot of giving up on romance to fulfill an act of revenge with such engaging narratives that equally kept viewers invested. The fuss about this drama on its pre-airing soared high expectations. And yes, it was not a hype exaggeration by all accounts with the amount of appreciation it has been getting.