Great Potential, Boring Product

The core of this story was about the rise of Qin Shi Huang, and the rise and fall of Di Taihou (posthumous title) and powerful merchant turned politician Liu Buwei. Right from the opening and the first episode of this show, the audience were presented with a dark and gloomy but faced paced, information filled storyline. Any moment with my eyes away from the screen meant I had missed an important or key event in the story. Warning: Possible Spoilers and Lengthy Review Ahead

Not all stories are meant to have a happy ending, and I believe this was the perfect ending to this story. I heard about the final scene being deleted, and it was said that it may be because it was historically inaccurate. However, I think it wouldn't have suited the story at all, and would have rather brought down the quality. Right from the beginning, Li Hao Lan and Liu Buwei were too alike to have ever worked out. They were both extremely ambitious and self serving to really play out a sweet romance, which would been quite out of place in an era like the Warring States Period.

Speaking of ambition, Li Hao Lan was a really ambitious woman. I couldn't really see it at first. Li Hao Lan was a young girl who had been betrayed by her supposed lover (a man) and her father (also a man) and treated horribly as an asset/tool by Liu Buwei (another man). Once Li Hao Lan entered the palace, and became the Queen's attendant, a majority of her time was spent watching and learning from a Queen who loved herself more than anyone else. Growing up and learning from someone like this left quite a mark on Li Hao Lan's character. Li Hao Lan also came to love herself more than anyone else when she learnt that the men in her life prioritised their ambitions over their loved ones. Wu Jinyan did an amazing job, just that she could have had more facial expressions.

There was quite a few details that directed my attention to her possibly having been more ambitious than shown. First off, she remained married to Yiren even though she had feelings towards Liu Buwei. Secondly, she barely threw a temper tantrum before recovering from the fact that Yiren had left her and her son behind for 8 years and married another woman before she took on the task of becoming empress. She kept saying that Lu Buwei and Zichu never discussed with her or respected her, but somehow kept falling for their tricks, without harming herself, till Zichu died. Eventually she eradicated all possible threats around her son, Ying Zheng, and pushing him onto the path for success taking down her long time ally Liu Buwei with her. Just a side note, her son's goals to stop war by unifying the states was very in line with Hao Lan and Xiao Chun's disgust for violence and war. While she never held power as a ruling figure she did live out her life in solitary comfort as the King's mother till her death. Out of all the men in her life, the only man she probably ever loved was her own son.

Wu Jinyan did an amazing job portraying Li Haolan. The only complaint I would have is that her facial expressions are still lacking something, it just feels standard and cold across all the characters I have seen her play. Seeing her constantly play characters that are smart, witty and full of justice, it was quite refreshing to see her take on the role of a mother who spoiled her son and someone who advocated for women.

Nie Yuan didn't make as much of an impact for me but it was quite refreshing to see him get bullied by Hao Lan after watching him be all arrogant and powerful in Yanxi Palace.

The Queen of Zhao was one of my favourite characters, being the hardest one to understand. She herself was a young girl full of love and dreams, who grew up to reality and gained a twisted character that loved her daughter and her husband in a cruel way.

Qionghua's unyielding character was also a remarkable one that played a part in moulding Hao Lan's character. In fact when Qionghua spoke about being herself all I could think of was Peeta's iconic line about 'not letting them change him' and 'being more than just a piece in the games'.

Princess Ya kind of grew on me, and I loved her at the end. In fact I only could appreciate her character as I reached the end of the drama, she was someone who misguided, arrogant but surprisingly naiive. Seeing her bond with Hao Lan before her death really highlighted women's role as pawns in the eyes of men while they battled with a faux reality of a 'woman's life' and struggled to live with dignity throughout the show.

I absolutely loved Yin Xiaochun played by Jiang Zixin. She had a completely different role as a more mature, cruel and ambitious woman and I always got the chills because I could sense what Yin Xiaochun was always up to, whether it is betraying Haolan, protecting Zhao Yi or selling out Bai Zhong. Moral dilemmas, secrets, love interest(s), you could have a whole other seperate drama for her storyline alone. The acting was just perfect.

And finally Yiren/Zichu, our other male protagonist, he didn't have a major role, but right from the initial scene with Princess Ya placing a knife against his neck, he played the character of a 'fox behind a smiling mask' king really well, and I never trusted him at any point in the show. His scenes were always easter eggs, and he always managed to seamlessly drop foreshadowing hints only to the audience when he had something up his sleeves.

Overall, the casting was almost excellent, and I really enjoyed just spotting all the repeating characters from Yanxi Palace.

The music was also good, especially that zither piece that Yiren played to warn Hao Lan, though it could have been better.

Special credits to the people in charge of costumes, props and set design. They did an amazing job. I have to say it played a major role in setting the mood, with gloomy dark undertones, you can see that from costumes to freshly painted walls, they all have greyish hue. The feeling of despair, struggle, hopelessness in an era plagued with war and death, with the lack of colours throughout the story foreshadowing the ending. I loved the details, like the distinct differences in the fashion of the different states, and the cups they used for wine (similar to actual ceremonial wine cups from western Zhou Dynasty). Not sure how accurate it was but it was harmonious.

The story itself was a little disappointing. Based on the MDL Summary and the brief history on the key figures of this drama, I had expected a riveting, fast paced drama on how a pair of ambitious man and woman plotted and fought their way through to the top of the hierarchy with each serving their own desires and greed. The romantic entanglement though put me off. I feel like the story would have been leaps better if the romantic entanglements had been subtle romantic tension without loud proclamations of love. The politics were a little draggy, could have been more concise or straightforward, skipped a lot of court scenes with ministers arguing the same things back and forth. The could have saved money to improve on quality of filming to leave a better impression. All the key pieces like storyline, cast, music, props was done well, but filming quality and production just ruined it.

It is unlikely I would rewatch this. While it is jam-packed with events and information in every episode, it just wasn't riveting enough to keep me engaged throughout. It took me a few days longer than I usually would have to finish watching.

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