Zhuo Zhuo Feng Liu (2023)

Cant think of one ??‍♀️

To say the romance in this drama was muted is an understatement. Even though it was touching it felt very flat and lifeless, I wish they gave the romance life. Also they went extremely overboard with the weird lightening and filter, it was really very obvious and it was distracting at times to watch.
But it was a good drama especially the first half of it. I knew right away who the main villain was going to be, to me it was pretty obvious even though they kinda tried to keep it low key until like ep20 or so.
The irony of doing a drama about including women in the imperial court but making women the greatest villains of the drama is definitely not lost on me or any other viewer for the matter, making the villain that psychotic, unhinged and basically a sociopath just destroyed the very message they claimed they were trying to convey which was women can be and should be officials if qualified. That’s the major reason I took points from the drama.
CDramas and making female characters be extremely vile, vicious, unhinged, wicked, evil and all any of the unpleasant words you can imagine is really very disappointing, the level they make this female characters reach is beyond my comprehension because I don’t know any of those type of women in my life but oh well.

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I thought it was a masterpiece drama XD

I like 13 eps earlier..this is show how Zhuo Hua is really smart and independent woman.. and I like interact between her and Ding Wang..very promising XD but after that the drama turn just mediocre.. sometimes Zhuo Hua became dumb but suddenly she can be smart again..
about Ding Wang..william Feng is too old to play this character (Ding Wang age is 30)..he looks like old man who always sick..sometimes he looks older than his brother (the King)
Also I little bit disappoint with their kiss scene XD why SML SFL has more passionate kiss XD
but so far I like this drama..smart Female lead is always my favorite..

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Love

Just finished this one, and love love it! I liked Feng Shao Feng from The Story of Ming Lan and in this one, I really like his role as Liu Yan. His character as protective but not over bearing suit him really well. I also like Jing Tian here, and both of them made really great chemistry.
This is NOT wuxia or xianxia, this is imperial drama. So, it is a bit on the slow pacing. Not a lot of fighting, lots of scheming, lots of unexpected but expected twists. Also, the story or the idea, is very bold, dreamy, can't be more fiction than this. It is a lot easier to imagine flying gods and goddess than female official entangled in out of wedlock relationship 😅 But the love relationship was beautifully done. If you like Dream of Splendor, The Sword and the Brocade, Destined, then you might like The Legend of Zhouhua.
Bonus: OST/MV are beautiful:
明明 (Clearly) by Zhou Shen 周深
灼心 (Scorching Heart) by Liu Yuning 刘宇宁

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Tale of Women with different ambitions!

The legend of Zhuohua is mainly a drama based on career driven women.
Starting with our protagonist,Zhuohua,she aspires to be a officer in the palace,but faces numerous challenges on her way since she is a female.Jing Tian was good in her role.
Feng Shaofeng plays the role of Lord Ding,who is the main supporter of female officers in the kingdom.I must say,he is a very good actor and was perfect in his display of body language as a reserved Lord Ding to his portrayal of love and caring male lead.
A special mention of princess Roujia and Wang Likun deserves a special appreciation for her portrayal of this character.
It tells us how we need to set goals and be ambitions but not over ambitious in the perspective of women.
No need to give a second thought,this drama can be easily preferred for a one time watch.

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Could have been 12 eps shorter

Some observations:
FSF really sold me on his desire. I believed him. I was ready to be his woman out of wedlock. I’m officially a fan.

Ministry of Revenue seems like a chill place to work. Not totally sure what they do but a good vibe.

There were far, far too many scenes with music and pensive looks. And those scenes were too long. Eliminating those would cut the series by two episodes. This right here is my biggest beef with this series.

Whenever something lovey dovey happened this weird shiny bluish filter appeared over the scene. Like, ATTENTION, ROMANCE IS OCCURRING. PLEASE FEEL ROMANTICAL FOR THE FOLLOWING MOMENTS. I thought maybe there would be laughter and applause signs but no, we only got cues for ROMANCE.

Dowager Empress was a star. Top notch.

The show started out really amusing. Stayed good til like ep 20. Seems like the writers changed or just started picking storylines out of a hat after that. Wasn’t awful, but was a bit, uh, muddleheaded.

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"My Lordship" excessively

I will reserve editing this review after completing the series. As for now, my thoughts:
◇Good start of story introduction. Multiple flashbacks (typical Chinese way of clarifying a story in a series)
◇I think artists casted for the roles were good choices
◇Production and wardrobe is great. The focus on detail is evident.
◇Started with the depiction of the struggles for being a female in a royalty, power and male dominated period.
◇by ep 12 not much background story for anyone but the female and male lead plus a little about second male lead.
◇I am in episode 12 and starting to get sick hearing "My Lord" wherein it it is said by lead female character excessively. Everytime she talks to Lord Ding, in every sentence she says, "My Lord" is said.
◇This series seems to be not any different from typical series highlighting smart and strong women wherein they show strong, decisive, and witty female character but then at the same time inserting stupid moves and decision that don't make sense for a smart and witty character.
Lead female is supposedly smart and talented, wanting to be a female official yet consistently placing herself in a situation that makes no sense and places her career and life in danger.

I am yet to watch a series that depicts a strong and/or smart woman that will remain true smart and strong from start to end of series.

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AVERAGE

People concern about age gap but I think that's great. Liu Yan (Feng Shao Feng) is the younger brother of Emperor which has already been in many wars and he's famous as the God of War in Chen Dynasty (make-up dynasty of China). Being that powerful and great influence to the kingdom, we don't expect some 20 something actor to take the role but I can understand the review as Feng ShaoFeng acted like he's a dying 50 something yo General. Liu Yan had stubborn illness from the effect of previous war he went to, 30,000 brothers men-in arms wiped out from that war and he's the sole survivor. Of that reason, he investigated the reason behind mass massacre as to why and who's the main culprit. His suspicion was his closest relative who instigated the extermination of his soldiers for the reason of him holding too much power that might endangering Emperor authority (been in reign for 24 years). He didn't know yet but has suspicion. He's devoted to his brother Emperor, he's kind to his nephews and niece, he had no intention to overthrown the Emperor but why did the culprit want to get rid of him?

In one of his investigation he met Mu ZhuoHua (Jing Tian), a runaway bride to-be that had ambition to go for national examination to be an Imperial official, she succeed it and rank to 17th of other scholars . An intelligent woman that also good in medicine, just too bad Jing Tian was badly act especially the girl JuLi who played her maid, their voice-over were so damn annoying!!! Jing Tian didn't act convincingly, more like an amateur actress in her first attempt. These two need some acting class or need some strict directive acting. Every sentence she opened it with 'Wang Ye'...and other casts not any better acting. Elder Princess acted like she's Kwan Yin....Ep 16 was enough, finally dropped it.

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Cheap, not-so-subtle romance

Story-wise, it is a decent drama as the story centers around a girl who was encouraged by her less-privileged mother to study as it would afford her more opportunities in the world. Great message for the women of today, and refreshing to see a female character assume a role as a court official, even if entirely fictitious. This is not the first drama to do this, but it is the first to show women taking the exam alongside the men to then become an official.

The acting from all 4 main leads are convincing and there is also a likeability about the supporting cast which isn't always the case as many dramas use the supporting cast as time fillers who serve no real purpose of driving the plot forward. Here they are given an identity, and even a personality, unlike their usual ornamental existence!

The music is a delight and the chemistry is there between the leads, compliments to the screenwriter who was able to bring the two characters together in a way that is amusing and also unique.

The problem? Oh boy. Where do I begin? The screenwriter (just like so many other screenwriters of chinese olden day dramas) refuses to believe in the capacity of the audience to be able to appreciate a romance that is mature, genuine, and that isn't all about sex. Their perception and trust in the viewer to be able to consume an adequately written, well-paced build-up of a relationship is so low, that wherever possible they try to remind us that the leads are attracted to each other, which actually ruins the natural chemistry they actually have. Just as we're enjoying the authentic and interesting dynamic, the screenwriter will then proceed to use vulgarity or not-so-subtle reminders that the male lead is a man, and that Muzhuo is a female, the supposed suggestiveness, not so suggestive, but rather distastefully shoved down our throat countless times instead. It's as if cdramaland writers cannot fathom that we as viewers of dramas can actually appreciate a romance that doesn't involve juvenile sexual innuendos at every turn and assumes that for a romance to be believable or marketable, we MUST incessantly ingrain in the viewers' minds that the leads want each other physically.

Whatever happened to the good old days of showing, and not telling viewers what to think? Whatever happened to conveying emotions of yearning for each other without ever resorting to cheap sexual references as a means to create chemistry between the two characters? For anyone wondering, I grew up on Hong Kong olden day dramas which rarely ever needed to employ such tactics to create romantic pairings that worked and was full of chemistry. The reason why olden day dramas are so popular and were such a pleasure to watch is because of the virtues that are known to be prevalent during that time. Loyalty, filial duty and undying, unconditional romantic love was at the forefront of themes featured in these dramas. These quintessential elements of an olden day drama is slowly being stripped away by the commercialism of these chinese productions, rendering the seasoned viewer in me restless and wanting to turn away from these narratives simply because of the patronising experience we are being confronted with because the screenwriters lack respect for their work, and the audience as a whole.

Do better please cdramaland. It could have been a good drama! Just like all those other dramas that were tarnished by the same limitation. Please quit the suggestive trash and regain some faith in the viewers' capacity to appreciate art and classy storytelling in the romance department of the story. Cdramas can go so much further if they would just let go of this obsession with featuring unneccesary sexual references in their productions.

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Two Odd Fish Acting As Chairs

It took all my patience to get through the first 3 episodes. I can't comment on plot, because I didn't watch enough to warrant a critique on that, and plot, as I've said many times, is king.

What I witnessed were two wooden chairs, in period costumes, interacting with each other.

I like the actress playing the FL, but here, she talked in a weird, unnatural way which was super odd. A cold, calculating fish that needed a better director. The ML looked ridiculously older than her (I see now there are only 10 years between them, but it looked like more than that to me). The ML was also a cold, calculating fish, and since his visuals (pulchritude) wasn't in-keeping with hers, they made a very unlikely fishy couple (or an odd chair coupling). I had to drop this because I was cringing at how unnatural everything from the dialogue to the love pairing was. It all seemed very forced to me, which made it unenjoyable to watch.

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