Being a avid watcher of dramas that i cant even list with fear that it might look like an addiction, this is the first time i have wanted to pull my hair out of my head because of a drama.
I just started to watch the china Republic era trope and this was my second one after "Fall in Love" whicth made it to my top favorite list,though i didnt come in with high expections,also i wanted to ignore comments and reviews which sometimes can mislead you or i was just being sturborn.I finished this one 2 days ago but i was still recovering from the trama it caused me,before writing a reaview.
To be honest Every character was well played by the actor assigned to it, even the extra did their job and mainly the ML Xiao Beichan played by Shawn Dou was outstanding and he is probably the reason why i stayed, He wouldn't match MArshal Tan XuanLi played by Chen Xingju in Fall in love but he has a commanding presence and he portray his character development well, from a spoil brat to an army academy graduate who became a leader of a vast army.His growth together with his friends was probably why many of us stayed.
His only weaknes was falling in love with a "stone" thais is the only way i can describe the FL character, she was so bad that i cant even go look up her name, i have never felt the need to summon writers as a viewer as I did in this drama, but am sure even the ML might have questioned why he was paired up with such souless character..I know its drama and fictious work but i dont beleive there is a woman out there so self centered that created misunderstandings whenever she turned,there was no peace around her, dispite being loved and cared for by the ML,his family and his friends, She was determined to only work with whatever was going on in her head which plenty of times ended up backfiring..
I agree the ML had some growing up to do, and once he did, he never looked back, he was stronger as the episodes moved but the FL had the same plans,same answers,same facial expressions from Episode 1-43, even when things looked promissing, there was no visible affection toward her husband,dispite showing everone else affection even the SML, i wont even try to talk about the SML , he was a mess,thats all i will say.
One last thing tht kept me watching and probably others,was the step mom of the ML,i beleive in history of dramas,there have never been a good stepmom like this woman, she was the matriach of the family,kept everyone together, she mended broken relationship, supoorted her husband who had a very big responsibility,she did all this while running a household with so many diffferent characters including the drama's biggest traitor..She the mother of all...
Overall, I will give this a 6 because of the ML and his friends but I will never seat through 43 episodes drama especially a torturous one.Second,I will watch whatever Shawn Dou is in cos boy oh boy,this man can act.Third,If you have short temper or low blood pressure,maybe skip this drama cos you might ge a heart attack just from the FL.If you need tears therapy,the last episodes will supply you with some onions.
In short,if there was to be a season 2, I would watch with one eye open cos this is one of those where there were so many deaths that one commentator said that the directors might have ran out of budget,they decided to kill everyone lol.
The production,cinematography,set and wardrobe get an OK but the OST was not up to the standard especially within the scenes.