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Patchy Storyline saved by Good looking Actors, Good Acting Skills & Stunning Cinematography
I'm sorry to leave a not-so-glowing review for this drama as I really looked forward to watching it because of the featured cast. The story is meant to show how the lead character, Li Chang Ge, a Princess and daughter of the Crown prince, suffers the hardship of witnessing her father being murdered by her Uncle and her mother committing suicide because of a political coup, flees away in anger vowing to take revenge for the sake of her family and country, but eventually realises that seeking revenge was the not best way to truly find peace and contentment in Life because seeking revenge by instigating a political rebellion against her Uncle would (1) not resurrect her dead parents from the past (2) and just incur more internal wars that would cost the lives of more innocent bystanders (3) weaken the country's abilities to defend itself from its real enemies- the neighbouring Ashina and Mobei Tribes.
I really think the scriptwriters wanted The Long Ballad to be a different kind of Revenge Drama, where instead of purely avenging one’s loved ones by resorting to the same (underhanded) methods that one’s loved ones had been subjected to, the Protagonist would find their own form of redemption by focusing on a more noble non-self-serving goal instead of taking the destructive path of anger-fuelled revenge. To forgive, let go and find more constructive ways to deal with life's setbacks etc...in contrast to the opposing Antagonist of the story, who seeks revenge and does things none the wiser. After all, that is why we are meant to admire the Protagonist as a positive role model in these sort of Revenge Dramas right?
But if that was meant to be the intended purpose for the audience who view this drama The Long Ballad, I felt that the juxtaposition was poorly built up and came a little too late. I will elaborate more on this later.
Li Chang Ge is written as the charming intelligent female Protagonist of the story who has her character strengths and weaknesses and is supposed to go through some character growth throughout the story and emerge as a more mature heroine with positive traits for us to look upon and admire. I get that. Except that I did felt that the scripted storyline displayed her positive strengths too fast and too soon, to the point Li Chang Ge struck me as a character who had it too good, and I found it too unbelievable to be true.
For eg. I am amazed that Li Chang Ge never seems to die despite being shot by multiple people in the same side of her chest (always seems to be the right side of her chest above the heart) multiple times! Also, I'm not convinced how quickly Li Chang Ge manages to persuade Shui Zhou's Governor, Gongsun Heng to recruit her in as his trusty advisor. To get the level of insider access to the state's top secrets just by saving his wife and daughter in an "accidental" encounter and to be promoted overnight to become the city's military commander by just providing mere advisory words of consulting strategy, to me is just laughingly unbelievable! The way Li Chang Ge gets picked up and ordained overnight as a sworn disciple of the eccentric Swordsman Situ Lang Lang is too coincidentally convenient, he just met her whilst saving her and immediately he trusts her? And how quickly her lover Ashile Sun forgives her after her impulsiveness caused his adopted mother to fall prey at the hands of his evil step brother. No break up or cool off period after she makes such a costly mistake on him? Maybe Ashile Sun’s long-suffering forbearance as a character makes him too good as Li Chang Ge’s lover to be true! Lol
I know this is a drama, but it's a little sometimes too stretched from reality. But back to what I think was the key weakness of this Revenge drama…
I felt that the script writers could have introduced Princess Yicheng earlier and give the audience more backdrop and time to understand how this Sui Dynasty Princess came to be the most unsuspected sinister villain in the story. Many of the malicious schemes that she came up with to eliminate rivals who stood between her and the Empire, were not elaborated sufficiently enough through the lack of scenes, so understanding what she had done and had sought to do, was not easy to follow and to me, came across rather far-fetched. They should take a reference from Nirvana in Fire's strategist Mei Chang Su hahaha. His schemes were intricate and complex but at the bare minimum, they were at least understandable and brilliant.
Acting wise, Leo Wu did not disappoint. I thought that he has carried the role of the intelligent and valiant commander, Ashile Sun, very well for his age (21 years I believe?) even when he stood against an older female actress, Dilraba (27 years old then)whom I thought embodied Li Chang Ge's clever, courageous but impulsive character pretty convincingly. I'm sorry, I did not end up paying much attention to the second lead couple Hao Du and Le Yan although I know many other reviewers raved about how their enemies-to-lovers romance storyline was one of the memorable highlights of this drama. Leo and Dilraba’s acting skills and couple chemistry was the key thing that saved this drama for me.
I wish some parts of the storyline could be rushed and given more space to be more cohesive and developed, even if it means cutting out side characters and their story arcs. If not for these plot-holes that left me feeling skeptically unconvinced, I'd give this easy-to-watch drama a much much higher rating.
I really think the scriptwriters wanted The Long Ballad to be a different kind of Revenge Drama, where instead of purely avenging one’s loved ones by resorting to the same (underhanded) methods that one’s loved ones had been subjected to, the Protagonist would find their own form of redemption by focusing on a more noble non-self-serving goal instead of taking the destructive path of anger-fuelled revenge. To forgive, let go and find more constructive ways to deal with life's setbacks etc...in contrast to the opposing Antagonist of the story, who seeks revenge and does things none the wiser. After all, that is why we are meant to admire the Protagonist as a positive role model in these sort of Revenge Dramas right?
But if that was meant to be the intended purpose for the audience who view this drama The Long Ballad, I felt that the juxtaposition was poorly built up and came a little too late. I will elaborate more on this later.
Li Chang Ge is written as the charming intelligent female Protagonist of the story who has her character strengths and weaknesses and is supposed to go through some character growth throughout the story and emerge as a more mature heroine with positive traits for us to look upon and admire. I get that. Except that I did felt that the scripted storyline displayed her positive strengths too fast and too soon, to the point Li Chang Ge struck me as a character who had it too good, and I found it too unbelievable to be true.
For eg. I am amazed that Li Chang Ge never seems to die despite being shot by multiple people in the same side of her chest (always seems to be the right side of her chest above the heart) multiple times! Also, I'm not convinced how quickly Li Chang Ge manages to persuade Shui Zhou's Governor, Gongsun Heng to recruit her in as his trusty advisor. To get the level of insider access to the state's top secrets just by saving his wife and daughter in an "accidental" encounter and to be promoted overnight to become the city's military commander by just providing mere advisory words of consulting strategy, to me is just laughingly unbelievable! The way Li Chang Ge gets picked up and ordained overnight as a sworn disciple of the eccentric Swordsman Situ Lang Lang is too coincidentally convenient, he just met her whilst saving her and immediately he trusts her? And how quickly her lover Ashile Sun forgives her after her impulsiveness caused his adopted mother to fall prey at the hands of his evil step brother. No break up or cool off period after she makes such a costly mistake on him? Maybe Ashile Sun’s long-suffering forbearance as a character makes him too good as Li Chang Ge’s lover to be true! Lol
I know this is a drama, but it's a little sometimes too stretched from reality. But back to what I think was the key weakness of this Revenge drama…
I felt that the script writers could have introduced Princess Yicheng earlier and give the audience more backdrop and time to understand how this Sui Dynasty Princess came to be the most unsuspected sinister villain in the story. Many of the malicious schemes that she came up with to eliminate rivals who stood between her and the Empire, were not elaborated sufficiently enough through the lack of scenes, so understanding what she had done and had sought to do, was not easy to follow and to me, came across rather far-fetched. They should take a reference from Nirvana in Fire's strategist Mei Chang Su hahaha. His schemes were intricate and complex but at the bare minimum, they were at least understandable and brilliant.
Acting wise, Leo Wu did not disappoint. I thought that he has carried the role of the intelligent and valiant commander, Ashile Sun, very well for his age (21 years I believe?) even when he stood against an older female actress, Dilraba (27 years old then)whom I thought embodied Li Chang Ge's clever, courageous but impulsive character pretty convincingly. I'm sorry, I did not end up paying much attention to the second lead couple Hao Du and Le Yan although I know many other reviewers raved about how their enemies-to-lovers romance storyline was one of the memorable highlights of this drama. Leo and Dilraba’s acting skills and couple chemistry was the key thing that saved this drama for me.
I wish some parts of the storyline could be rushed and given more space to be more cohesive and developed, even if it means cutting out side characters and their story arcs. If not for these plot-holes that left me feeling skeptically unconvinced, I'd give this easy-to-watch drama a much much higher rating.
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