{year}=2025{episode}=EP.02{type}=TV{ongoing}
Review
I am a fan of Zheng Ye Chen and have been following his historical dramas. Unfortunately, all the roles he has played so far have been disappointing, including this one. My disappointment is not with the acting, Zheng Ye Chen's acting is great, but with the characters in the drama. To be more precise, I love all his characters but I don't like the endings of the characters. They always end in death or disappear into oblivion. It's a pity that such a good actor as him has not yet found a song that excites the audience.
In order to control the power of General Xue Yao (Zheng Ye Cheng), the emperor issued a royal decree for him to marry his adopted daughter, Princess Xu Chu Ye (Hu Yi Xuan), so he must hand over his military power to the emperor. The couple got married while Xu Chu Ye was in her coma, unable to wake up because she had a strange condition. After marrying with suspicion and overthinking, Xue Yao interprets Xu Chu Ye’s every move as a puzzle to solve, and likewise for Xu Chu Yue, his every slip of the tongue becomes a clue. These lead to hilarious misunderstandings, and they are truly a joy to watch. As the couple quickly get to know each other, they fall in love with each other. They go through ups and downs, marriages and divorces, reunions and separations due to misunderstandings, and all their misfortunes seem to never stop. But one thing is certain: their undying love for each other.
Xue Yao is a man of strong character, handsome, unwavering, and cold. Although he is a strategic general who wins every battle and war, he doesn’t know how to deal with women and his own feelings. He is heartbroken after the death of his beloved elder brother and is determined to find the real cause of his death. Zheng Ye Chen’s style as a general is amazing here. His good looks in the general’s uniform and then in the guard’s uniform are perfect. His sword fighting skills are also believable. His love for the prince is adorable and sweet, radiating from his gentle face and words. His gaze is gentle and loving. Seeing such a scene, the viewer’s heart is filled with love.
Xu Chu Yue is a very pitiful and very lovable princess. She has a secret. She has a special stone inside her that can transform her into one of the 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac whenever she sleeps between certain hours at night. When she reaches her 12th animal, she will sleep forever and never wake up again. Therefore, she must sleep at night and sleep during the day. No one knows her secret except those in her small circle. Xu Chu Yue is innocent, loyal, and curious, and loves her adopted brother. Hu Yi Xuan’s portrayal of the princess is perfect. She is lovely with bright eyes but an air of sadness between her eyebrows.
Xu Xing Chen (Yang Lin) is a prince born of a concubine who has fallen out of favor with the emperor. He and Xu Chu Yue grew up together, taking care of each other, escaping the brutality of palace politics. Xu Chu Yue considers Xu Xing Chen as his younger brother, but he is in love with her. Sometimes he comes between Xue Yao and the princess. The scenes are funny, funny, sometimes heartbreaking, and sad for others. For the prince, he wants nothing more than the princess, because the princess is the moon and he is her star.
The story starts off well as a flashback from Xue Yao's perspective, telling his story with the princess to a group of children. The story is both serious and not serious. But just when it starts to get sweet, the couple's love becomes a broken record, going back and forth once, disappointing the audience. At the end of the story told by Xue Yao, he takes his sleeping wife and jumps off the cliff. Except for the last villain, there is no resolution for the characters as much as what comes from them. To me, these are all bad editing and lazy writing.
Despite some things here and there and sometimes my disappointment, I enjoyed this drama for its beautiful and tragic love story. If you don’t mind the usual things like love triangles and sad endings, this is really good.
