Hey! Sorry took me a while to get started on this series as I am going to be leaving for a holiday. I managed to get up to ep 4 today and have been busying packing and getting the pups ready. I guess I can manage to keep with one or two eps per night on wifi at the hotel.
So far, I don't think this is a great production and the story is a bit messy in the beginning. But the leads do look cute together. Unfortunately, I have jumped upon the Yong-Suo ship so judging by the title which seems to promote Gong-Lian, I am headed for many tears.
The story is strange as it starts off in the middle of something happening and we know little about the female lead's background when she is shoved right into a head-on political battle between the Yuwen brothers and their cousin from hell, as well as the ongoing military war between two major kingdoms, the Zhou and the Qi.
As you said, there is some fantasy elements or wuxia elements involved, but it is all tangled up into whoever wants to rule and unite China, which at this stage, has been broken up into bits.
Here come the spoliers:
click to show/hide spoilers For centuries, dudes have been trying to break into Emperor Qin Shi Huang's underground tomb which contains some magical devices which gives its welder the power to rule and unite China. But to get in, you need this magical pearl, which can only be activated by the blood of the Duan Mu clan, the architects of this underground tomb.
Duan Mu Ling is either coerced or pressured by her teacher to find this pearl as she is the last living descendants of the Duan Mu's. So she leaves her first love, Lan Ling Wang, which thinks she has died, to marry Yu Wen Yong under an alias Yuan Qing Suo, whose house is rumoured to contain this magical pearl.
I find Yuan Qing Suo's personality quite confusing. She is very cute, but she is very very silly and childish despite being aware of her serious assignment. And after the
click to show/hide spoilersamnesia
kicks in, she becomes more silly. She knows no martial arts and seems not to be versed in any special skills, yet she survives pretty well.
While I finds Yuan Qing Suo more compatible with Lan Ling Wang in terms of looks (they look heavenly in the white costumes) and height, I enjoy her scenes with Yu Wen Yong more, even when they bicker and you can see that Yu Wen Yong is very patient and lenient with her.
Acting wise, it is pretty much the first I have seen the three leads act so nothing much to comment on as nothing really dramatic has happened to call on acting skills. The three seems to be doing fine. And they actually look young which is good.
Storywise, there is a lot to take in, in terms of character and background. I quite like Luo Yun, which is Lan Ling Wang's fiancee, who seems to be a very generous and very pretty girl as well. But some stuff that happens in the story seems strangely misplaced and unbelievable (like the assassins being discovered because one of them farted, or Lan Ling Wang pushing over a 10 meter solid rock wall.).
Costume-wise, I find the hair accessories looking fake, but overall the costumes are more easy on the eyes than "Lan Ling Wang". The palace looks nice but Yu Wen Yong's house doesn't look grand enough for a prince.
But having finished ep 4, I am still very shocked that
click to show/hide spoilers Lan Ling Wang's mum is sleeping with Yu Wen Yong's evil cousin!
I am still in shock and need some time to digest it. I did not see that coming.