Because of the meticulousness of the social interactions and the ins and outs of court life, ritual and rites, and the various strata of society with which this complicated series was made, the total illogic of the first ep doesn't make sense. My theory is that because of the arbitrary cap on the number of episodes that the Chinese government slammed on theTV industry, the filmmakers, who knew the story backwards and forwards, took the opening two, four, even six episodes (or more) and smooshed them into one in order to launch the story like a rocket, and get that episode count down to 40. So absolutely nothing makes any sense--losing a bunch of potential watchers.

I sympathize--the arbitrary cap has to hurt when you genuinely have a complicated story, and have to get it set up. The opening of Nirvana in Fire has been talked about a lot for how the first two or three eps are tough to get through because story points come at you like bullets, leaving the viewer bewildered. It's only when you've seen more eps that that opening starts making sense.

Another example of a series suffering under the arbitrary cap, Court Lady, which actually began really well, for such a complicated storyline. But the last ten eps pretty much were munched, as if some poor editor, existing on nothing but espresso hacked and slashed madly in order to squash the story down to the mandated length. Leaving out one ep entirely (46?).

I think that might be the case here, because the first ep was jaw droppingly stupid, from the assassination attempt in which everyone, including the Evil Emperor just stood around, to the whole prison escapade. But once we got to the second ep, things started gradually making more sense. And when Jiuling started meeting her guys, the emotional sense locked into place.

I could quibble with the logic along the way, but the emotional arcs were so compelling that I was very soon hooked and stayed that way to the last. Some of that was the beautiful cinematography,b ut mostly it was the impeccable performances of the cast.

I thought Jin Han was an interesting, and then a terrific, choice for a hero. His looks are not idol-pretty-boy (which I do appreciate!); he's got one of the most high-voltage sneers of any actor in C-Dramaland, when he plays a villain. He just electrifies the screen. But in this role, he got to really demonstrate his acting talent--sneers there were, but laughter, tears, intensity, suffering, exalting happiness--sometimes all in one shot. He moves really well; his fight scenes are terrific. The two actors who played his brothers complemented him perfectly--when they are joshing around you can believe they are brothers, and when they get serious, they are as tough as their legendary father.

The love scenes, the kisses, the banter, were absolutely delectable.

Ditto the acting of the other guys in love with her. Du Ya Fei especially, in his role as the obsessive, borderline-mad Lu Yun Qi, was utterly riveting whenever he walked on screen. His micro expressions were amazing. His was one of the most interesting arcs in the entire show. I really want to see more from him, with meatier roles.

Contrasting, Wang You Shuo as Ning Yunzhao was quietly astonishing. Beautiful to look at, benevolent in character, he was a perfect contrast to Lu Yunqi's crazy, and their scenes together at the end were pure magic. Young Zhou Zhang, playing Fang Cheng Yu, was also fabulous.

I was so glad to see Liu Jun playing the evil emperor. I fell in love with that actor watching his range as the dad in Story of Minglan. He gave what could have been a boring cardboard character some interesting in this series. Likewise I was glad to see Zhang Yan Yan, who was so marvelous in Nirvana in Fire 1 and 2, and so marvelously evil in Minglan, playing the general's wife here.

Then there is Peng Xiao Ran, who did a wonderful job as Jun Jiu Ling. She was utterly convincing, especially when fighting tears. I loved the range she demonstrated here, especially once she and Jin Han got together. Their scenes together were sheer delight.

Everybody was good. The actress playing the grandmother, the snotty sister who had a change of heart--everyone was terrific.

To wrap this up, it seems to me that the makers did the opposite of Court Lady, who trashed the ending of the series in order to make it fit the mandate, and munched the beginning of this one. So I suggest that anyone wanting to give it a try stick it out for a few eps, to see if things smooth out enough for you.

I do know already that I will rewatch this, but i'll probably skip that first ep altogether.