how good is it? well...it’s a long story...一两句说不清楚

my review is split into two parts: (i) the first part is a spoiler free review for those who are looking for a general recommendation, (ii) the second is a more comprehensive breakdown with spoilers that contains production details and tidbits gleamed from interviews with the actors, director, scriptwriter, casting director, etc. that might be interesting to those who have watched and enjoyed this drama.

Part 1 - Recommendation

based on script and directing alone, this is the best chinese webdrama i’ve seen this first half of 2021 and, while not perfect in execution, it is subjectively my favorite ancient setting suspense drama since nirvana in fire. i didn’t skip a single scene and even rewatched episodes twice or three times to make sure i got every detail (for someone who wanted to be a detective as a kid, this exercised my brain in the most enjoyable way).

after being used to webdramas with unnecessary storylines, useless characters, uninteresting secondary pairings to fill time (the amount i haven’t fastforwarded are in the low tens), this was a well-appreciated surprise. anything unnecessary is excised, the plot does not drag, no one is dumb for no reason just to extend plot. chekhov’s gun (the dramatic principle every detail within a story must contribute to the overall narrative) absolutely applies - even a slightly longer than normal focus on a particular person, action, or prop indicates it will likely be referenced later (see footnote 1 for details/spoilers). it’s fascinating to see how every single case contributes, like a set of keys on a ring, to the larger culminating plot. from an audience’s perspective, the mystery/detective part of the story is really enjoyable - you can literally follow along with the clues (question everything because it will all be answered!) and try to solve the larger mysteries along with the cast. importantly, the script doesn’t try to be too smart in tricking its audience - if you’re looking for more of an easy watch, everything will end up well-explained; if you’re looking to involve yourself in the mystery and pay attention to subtle clues, you’ll be rewarded with answers (see footnote 1).

i also like that it’s a “warm” drama with heart - while the story begins from betrayal and advances with high stakes, it is not so involved in its seriousness that the audience is buried in continual stress. lighter moments are sprinkled throughout providing humor (actually funny in a dry kind of way - like that darn omnipotent spoon) and emotional touch points - complementing and enriching its core story (see end of episode 21, which absolutely floored me in how beautiful it was presented). i’m reminded of nirvana in fire, where in midst of bleakness and intrigue, heroes remain heartbreakingly good, and where the story is focused but also balanced and colorful. if you’re looking for a great detective story, if you’re looking for a historically driven plot, if you’re looking for comedy, if you’re looking for an ensemble cast with great chemistry, you will find it all here.

on that final point, i love that characterization of the main cast and various side role, as well as their relationships, are all so well-developed - the villain cohorts are multi-dimensional and fun to watch (instead of just the usual cartoonishly evil), the female lead and female second are so, so supportive of each other (instead of competitive/jealousy), the various brotherhoods are sweet, even the parent-children relationships are touching and humane (instead of oppressive/overbearing). on romance, it’s a mix of slow burn (with small cute moments sprinkled throughout) and straightforwardness (with misunderstandings cleared up in hours) that is refreshing to see in chinese dramaland and feels very realistic. there’s also a subtle epic dimension to the main couple’s romance some alert viewers may come to realize (see footnote 2 for spoiler).

as for “failings”, this is a small budget drama (more on this in part 2), which is apparent in production, acting, and the ending episodes. the emperor basically never leaves his own room, he never attends court, he has no empress or concubines or female servants. the casting director mentioned casting was especially constrained by cost because they wanted to focus their budget on production - and so the main pair of actors are very green (this drama was basically a graduation gift [from beijing film academy] for both of them) although tolerable for their roles; they along with the rest of the cast were paid below market. many of the supporting casts were essentially cameos due to their relationships with the director and the production team, and extras were all staff. tencent also only allowed 36 episodes (in the beginning they were only given 24!) so the last 6 episodes were noticeably rushed - logic breaks down, we lose some of that emotional underlay that carried the first parts, and pacing went into overdrive. given how intelligent the show had been up to that point, it makes sense an outer force caused the deterioration in standard. i can almost hear the production team’s discussion - instead of lowering quality across board, they decided to make sure as many episodes were as good as they can get. but these are all “failings” by a higher standard than i normally would accord the typical chinese webdrama, and they did not greatly affected my viewing experience.

as for comparative dramas, madam holmes, miss truth, under the power, i’ve fallen for you, and honey don’t run away are similar in genre but they have rather weak detective plotlines that are more vehicles for romance - it’s almost the opposite here. young blood and the plough department of song dynasty are closer in being balanced and having great cast chemistry. i also have ancient detective and nirvana in fire in mind in being well-rounded suspense dramas featuring honest, good storytelling.

footnote 1: a few examples: (1) i was puzzled why the dancer didn’t kill herself right after she was caught (unlike other assassins) considering she had the poison on her from the beginning. we later learn yan ming’s death was intended to draw attention to duke chang’s existence so then it made sense she lived long enough to make sure they find the scroll; (2) mr. xue was suspicious from the start - we see him constantly feeding and taking care of fishes (the chinese word for fish being similar to jinyu’s name) as if he was playing/controlling jinyu; the antique owner also used “fish” as code for jinyu so one can deduce he and mr. xue were cohorts; various references to his separation from the emperor by a screen point to his state of being so close yet far away from capturing the throne; (3) the story doesn’t even waste a dog - it is used to show jinyu’s intelligence in the beginning and then much later to find chu he.

footnote 2: as the son of a general and daughter of the general’s right hand man, jinyu and chu chu would have grown up together from childhood (青梅竹马) if not for the eunuchs’ meddling. that they still ended up with each other in the end, despite and because of that past, gives a beautiful, fated quality to their relationship.

Part 2 - Background and Details
*more spoilers ahead

this webdrama became more atypical the more i dug into its history and production background. i had fun researching, and thought i would share.

as most know, this webdrama is based on a webnovel. i read a bit of it and basically there’s no correlation besides some similar names and roles. it almost feels like a juvenile, romance-focused fanfiction version of the drama. the web novelist (qingxian yatou/清闲丫头) and another young female scriptwriter (qian xiaobai/钱小白), as newcomers to scriptwriting, took three years to slowly grind the bones of the webnovel into script.

during this time, the director’s (lou jian (楼健)) contribution was invaluable. he was xiaobai’s teacher and guided their process. the scriptwriters said it was almost like homework with the completed drama their graduation project - lou jian taught them how to ground the story in history (the webnovel doesn’t reference any specific eras but the drama is set in late tang dynasty) which steered the plot direction, to revise the script in endless iterations, to round out existing and create new characters (like using qin luan’s obsession with hair to show his inner ambitions; xiao heng, a driving force behind the emotional impact of the drama, wasn’t even in the webnovel).

lou jian also became their director due to his earlier tutelage. as a well-respected older director whose other works all have been formal dramas (mostly spy/war oriented) for tv stations (as opposed to lighter idol-esque webdramas most international audiences are familiar with), this was also a new experience. he mentioned chances to direct webdramas aren’t usually given to older directors (he was born in 1967) because younger ones are seen as more in touch with the youthful demographics webdramas are targeted at.

but i think this symbiotic relationship between younger female scriptwriters and an older, more traditional director end up being key to the drama’s success. lou jian helped shape it out of an otherwise dime-a-dozen romance-driven webdrama it would have been, and gave it foundation in traditional storytelling and directing techniques - for example, he insisted on candle lighting for night scenes, better suited to the drama’s historical nature and suspenseful atmosphere than harsh artificial lighting which are usual webdramas’ bread and butter.

at the same time, he respected his scriptwriters and other younger workers’ thoughts. the two writers added modern details about women’s struggle in the world, values, and viewpoints (“girls saving girls is the most natural thing in the world”/“女子保护女子是天经地义的呀“). during a romantic scene in which jinyu delicately lifted chu chu’s chin with fingertips, lou jin debated whether to go with a more aggressive approach and was course-corrected by the female staff on the set. he kept a scene where jinli hugged jinyu out of concern (one of the best cp’s in the drama) because of the excitement it caused a young female staff.

so many others contributed. the editor’s decision to not cut the background music at the end of episode 21 was pure genius. certain parallel edits (between jinyu’s tea-making and chu chu’s examination; between mr. xie/mr. jing’s chess match and jinyu/jinli’s chess match) and the use of different title sequences to break up the story arcs were also great. the actors filmed everything without stunt doubles. they performed the actual fight scenes, the fire scene, the outdoor water scenes in the middle of winter.

as mentioned, this drama was poor and affected by tencent’s meddling which led to some quality failings in production and storytelling towards the ending arc. originally, the drama was supposed to be even shorter, at 24 episodes, which would have been more comfortable for their budget. but their production company did not want lose important details to the cases and characters, so it became a painful process of counting coins and cutting scenes to meet the 36 episode requirement. originally jinli was supposed to have a love line; editing at the end suggests many scenes were taken out. their production team mentioned how much they envied the scale of other dramas that were filming alongside them at the studio (“a 3,000 yuan wig and a 200 yuan wig are not the same”). the director had to fight for every additional change, and spent his lunch hours figuring out how optimize costs with the production team.

that they can tell a story this great (albeit not perfect) with all the limitations seems almost superhuman. i also appreciate what they did focus their budget on. the female lead doesn’t have pretty clothing and makeup, which wouldn’t be true-to-life for her status (but seems de rigeur in other webdramas). but production did decide to relocate shooting (very expensive) from the studio (hengdian) to hubei, china for the qianzhou arc, to make the scenes more realistic.

their efforts were well rewarded. despite its tiny budget, unknown stars, and no pre-show publicity, the drama managed to stay at the top of the datawin list of popular shows during its run. the two leads entered vlinkage’s top 20 list for media coverage (in midst of intensely popular traffic stars). reporting that the leads couldn’t promote the drama because they were revising their graduation theses trended to the top of weibo. its viewership, based on tencent’s numbers only, started at near 1 million views per day and climbed to 35 million (totaling almost half a billion) on the day its running ended for vip/fast-track viewers. su xiaotong even went back into costume to film a new ad insert for the show. review-wise, it started at an 8.1 and climbed to an 8.4 on douban as of its final airing for vip/fast-track viewers, which is equivalent to a crown in chinese webdrama land.

even with all its successes, i had a constant question while watching the imperial coroner - would it have been as great with a larger budget? or could it have achieved even more success with a larger budget? imagine if it kept its quality and had 4 or 6 more episodes to fill in the ending arc - the potential for an unquestionably perfect drama was within reach; production tried its hardest amidst unimaginable constraints. but maybe if tencent had put its eye on it from the start, they might have been forced to use traffic stars with their diva demands, to fill the script with nonsense and extend the plot unnecessarily, to hire a director that’s younger and more “in touch”, to be less than the very genuine story it is today.

i have a tiny hope platforms can learn the right things from this drama’s success (alongside other recent small budget/well-scripted shows that have blew up and beat out extravagant shows driven by traffic stars). at its core, dramas are about storytelling and the audience shows it responds to those who show sincerity in telling a great story.

- rrenaace
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sources:

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MzU0NTA3ODkyNw==&mid=2247495456&idx=1&sn=fd33c0477b3aa1d4aae58ad792da07d1&chksm=fb70c4c0cc074dd669cb5f1bb85b4f2d754ed482e5dd022bd8f71e9787acd157dd80ef31821e&dt_dapp=1#rd

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/nh7FP7OwICoaIpfpgM5PWQ

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MzAwNDk2NDc5OQ==&mid=2247506241&idx=1&sn=bb4ac0ba209664b88fbe64b2ae1dee88&chksm=9b217191ac56f8874ab0c3952ef3a903cd80b46c958516b275143fca39f7fa8a1760448e0cc5&dt_dapp=1#rd

https://share.api.weibo.cn/share/223656447.html?weibo_id=4637132620828147

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/eFFjb_m1ktNAZYY9nb93OA

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MzU1NDgwMTY3MA==&mid=2247513218&idx=1&sn=7136df7812f0ff74f7b425c378408083&chksm=fbdcfbebccab72fd337c6004e74b9d2d49ed5d14af00258097fc3daa41539a5f6fa6c63a70db&dt_dapp=1#rd

https://k.sina.cn/article_5737990122_15602c7ea01900sopz.html?from=ent&subch=oent&sinawapsharesource=newsapp&wm=3200_0024

https://www.douban.com/group/topic/227310396/?dt_dapp=1

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