Ning An Ru Meng (2023)

Maybe I'm not mastermind of chess of destiny but I will save as many pawns I can this time...

Story of kunning palace is one of the best time travel cdramas.....
1) ✅the fl is not meek character. she's a character that can do anything to achieve her goal. Though she made bad choices in her first life and manipulated people....but she got redemption by loving people who are important to her life .
2) ✅ the male lead is ruthless manipulative character and Zhang Linghe did terrific job portraying his character .
overall theme , action scenes, all are top quality.
4) ❌ the drama couldn't fill up the intensity of the plot from the first episode, I expected more intense plot.
5) ❌Xie Wei didn't reborn so , why didn't he made the same choices in the first timeline, so he could avoid death of first emperor and stop falling the power under Xue family .
6) ❌if the protagonists change then why would the antagonists stick to their original plan ? Even Xues are weak but Lord pingnan shouldn't have fallen under Xie Wei's trap so easily. The villains are not interesting.
7) ❌rather filling up the drama with non scene annoying romance with the second male lead ( who ain't better than wooden log ) they could have shown more schemes and romance between the main leads .
8) ❌Character of Xue ning sometimes burden the main plan of Xie Wei. I would rather prefer the fl being power of ml not weakness. There was no reason for her to follow the war when she can't fight or scheme . Rather than being kidnapped and hero saves beauty plot she could have rested at home .
9) ❌the production and director didn't did great job on pointing the weightage of scenes.
10)✅✅✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ although I pointed out many flaws, nothing is flawless and this show is worth watching and entertaining at the end of the day so I highly recommend this drama...

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I guess people still like bad boys.

This series was on my watchlist but it wasn’t quite the time to watch it but the hype and rave reviews made me watch it ahead of schedule and I will say that overall I can totally understand the reason for the hype.
Don’t get me wrong I liked the drama in the totality of what it is and although some arcs weren’t properly fleshed out (I won’t go into details here as someone else already did so read review by #PeachBlossomGoddess for further details if interested) it was still a good drama, aesthetically pleasing drama. I completely agree that ZLH was overacting sometimes but honestly i didn’t mind it at all, I can’t totally understand why people especially the ladies are into his brand of crazy (judging by many reviews I read), his ferocious deranged snarl looks where one for the record books and gave the likes of Wen Kexing ( my favorite male CDrama character tied with Mei ChangSu), DongFang QingCang and Wie Wuxian a run for their money.
My Girl Bai Lu always delivers and that chemistry was off the charts, I wish we got more of them as a couple but the ones we did get was definitely worth it.
As much as I liked the drama for some reason I didn’t crazily love it and I only give 10/10 to a drama I love and will definitely rewatch.
I highly doubt I will rewatch this but never say never.
Rewatch value 6/10
Overall value 8.5/10

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A Bit(?) of Dark Romance

It was a slow burn romance but with a twist, a bit of dark romance. To me, they were perfect for each other. One was direct to the point and the other one needed a push even tho it was obvious through her actions that she likes him. This drama was about FL given a second chance to right her wrongs and how ML fought his ways to survive and to do justice to the poor souls that unjustly annihilated for the sake of power and wealth.

ML, Xie Wei, a ruthless, righteous man and a meticulous strategist. Ofc he was cunning too, being raised by a violent rebel wld do that. I'm in awed by his plans that seemed to be 10 steps ahead although there was few things out of his control. It took sometimes before he realised his feelings towards FL but until that time, we can see unconsciously he protected her, wld make something to bring her pleasure and willingly wld die for her. Though he can be aggressive when he was jealous *rolling my eyes.
He was quite fierce when he chided FL for being reckless. Idk their interactions with each other sometimes frustrated me too.

FL, Jiang Xuening, quick witted but short temper woman who was caring and wld do anything to protect the people she loved and closed with. She was not afraid to be punished for speaking the truth. She had this unapproachable aura but when you are sincere to her, she repay it ten-folds. I like her no-nonsense approach when she wanted to accomplish her missions. She was intimidated by ML's personality and the shadow of who he was in the past life. So that was why it took sometimes before she had feelings for him. I think what ML did for her, moved her.

I'm really loving all OSTs in this drama especially the one by Jane Zhen, Zhou Shen and Bai Lu. Idk why I became a bit teary when I listened to Bai Lu's song. It just so soft and delicate I guess.

The period costumes in this drama were quite stunning. I definitely love the bright and the pastel colours of FL's dresses.

As for 2ndML and 3rdML.... Yan Lin, you are the best! You are so sincere and understanding. Zhang Zhe, I like that you hold on strong to your principles of being righteous but willing to hear what FL advised to you. Also, you know when to move on.
I definitely enjoyed watching ML's subordinates antics, Lyu Xian, Dao Qin and Jian Shu. They were so hilarious when they talked with each other. Shout out to my precious Lyu Xian, you definitely deserve to be happy. SCRIPTWRITERS WHEN I CATCH YOU!!

The ending was my kind of ending where I got to know how was everyone's life was going. I really appreciate that they wld do that. I am not fond of abrupt happy ending. Give us a closure after all the suffering and sobbing.

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A Familiar Idol Drama

In many ways, familiarity is an recurring element for Kunning Palace. The FL was an Empress of evil deeds in her past life that transmigrates into a do-over life, intent on fixing her mistakes. So the setting, the people, and even many events are portrayed as familiar events that add tension to the story.

As for my personal viewing experience, Kunning Palace also felt familiar‒A Familiar Stranger familiar. In fact having conscientiously avoided idol dramas‒costume or modern‒A Familiar Stranger was an rare exception that I attempted and enjoyed, perhaps mostly owing to its short mini-drama length. With Kunning Palace as the much anticipated big-budget drama, I joked to myself that all I'm looking for is AFS quality and I'm willing to turn my brain off for the ride. And to my cursed prediction, A Familiar Stranger is basically what I got: from the haphazard blinding lights, to the spinning shots, to the predictable OST that conspicuously serenades every modestly emotional scene, to the paper-mache world-building and story that I didn't dare staring into for the fear that even a lingering glance will set the whole world ablaze.

And sadly despite the modest expectations, I'm not sure if Kunning Palace matched the quality of AFS. Despite being a low-budget production shot in a pinch, AFS had arguably better production quality, better average acting quality, and better tropey romantic sizzle. And most of all, the short 3 hour run time and fast pace made all the irksome issues much more palatable.

To be fair, Kunning Palace is not a terrible show, and solidly above average for an idol drama. Unsurprisingly, a lot of people liked it, and liked it a lot. If you are not congenitally allergic to idol drama like me, the sets, costumes, pretty actors, and decent trope execution will be lighting up plenty of dopamine and serotine. And just some modest improvement to the script, acting, and cinematography would have made this a decent watch me. But as it is, the negatives slightly outweighed the positives, and multiplied by 24 episodes the cumulative enjoyment debt had become too much to overcome.

Complaints:
❌Kiddie level political schemes and too many plot issues
❌On-the-nose tension and dramatic moments, reinforced by even more on-the-nose dialog to make sure the audience understood the obvious
❌Too much try-hard acting; too modern line delivery, dialog, and general vibes
❌Amateurish cinematography and editing choices, the director feels like someone that likes to inject random effects into his Powerpoint slides to look professional

--Category Ratings--
- Overall - 6
- Plot - 5.5
- Theme / Message / Impact - 6
- Acting - 6.5
- Visuals - 7
- Audio - 7
- Rewatch - 5
- Accessibility - 7.5
- Subtitle quality - 8

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watch this or else

I'm not very good with words but here I am. 😅

Hooked from start to finish, this drama has been worth the wait. Despite the limited budget, this drama delivered a high quality production. The script is quotable, there's so many lines that are memorable. It would've been better if iqiyi made more effort in translating them. The acting is top tier. It made me starstruck and engrossed. It felt like i'm there with them, I kept holding my breath not to miss anything. The costumes are also good. I like xie wei's hairstyle with his hair down and the ribbon on his back. He also looked great in his court official attire, that's my most fave look of him. The women's dresses are also so fine. I love the pastel colors. The gold on the royalties are also so fitting. I like a drama that invest in costumes because it adds to my watching experience.

I'm not sure how the drama plot stayed true to the novel but the drama plot was well done. I liked the pacing. There's something significant happening in every episode. There's no unnecessary fillers. Nothing was dragged or rushed. I think my main problem was the romance of xie wei and ning'er. While they have a lot of interactions in the first 30 eps, the love line hasn't really started there though from xie wei's perspective it's been going on from the earliest eps. Ning'er still hasn't have that kind of feelings for him yet. This is the slowest burn i have ever experienced in my cdrama life. But those moments of xie wei and ning'er from the first 30 eps are still serving chemistry. They're not doing romantic but they're burning of chemistry. bailu and zhang linghe did so well in that department. Came ep 31 onwards, some may say love was forced to ning'er but no. From the start, she might have develop something but only at later eps did it awakened. And mostly, xie wei's love for her reached her and she took it. They have such a toxic development but they're both intense so I think it suited them both fine.

I am not into love triangle, what more reverse harem. I liked how every men and woman in jxn's life are important to her story. I was stressed and seething of jealousy (for xw) when seeing her with zhang zhe though. Such a sad love story. Their moments were sweet.

When it comes to palace dramas, the scheming will always be present. Mostly, I get stressed watching those but this one our mains are mainly involved in the scheming. As the saying goes, they may not always win but they will never lose. That's how powerful our main leads here that I never have to sweat about them losing anything. They will pass through challenges again and again.

I think this is the kind of drama that I would want to marathon and watch with friends. Never a dull moment. Watch it, highly recommend!

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Satisfying Watch

I've never really written reviews before, but there's a first time for everything. The story from the very start is genuinely gripping. This drama includes everything: the usual selfless characters who give without expecting anything in return, along with characters of grey and neutrality. Our female lead is a blend of selflessness and cunningness, which is perfectly acceptable – a multifaceted character adds depth. She's not your typical damsel in distress; instead, she possesses a strong backbone. Is she silly sometimes? Yes, but who isn't? That only makes her more human. Our male lead exists in the grey area, understandably due to his backstory, yet we witness significant character progression by the end. It's undeniable, brilliant casting and a great storyline, which often overshadow the occasional directing errors.

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Perfect combination of Politics, romance and my ever favourite trope-TIME TRAVEL

Usually I can never get myself to complete any drama with a lot of politics. But this one had me hooked from the start to the very last episode. The six month wait after it's initial declaration was absolutely worth it.

The drama focuses on Jiang Xuening, who gets a chance to REDO her mistakes while further exploring her efforts, her relationships with the various characters.

Our Queen, Bai Lu, as usual never disappoints us and gave us yet another ground breaking performance thereby showing her versatility as a scheming empress(1st life) and as Ning'er(2nd life).
As for our ML, it was his second drama I watched with him as ML- the first being My journey to you, and the contrast between the characters he played shows his versatile acting skills. It's not easy to play a grey area character like Xie Wei and now i don't think anyone could have played this role as good as Zhang Linghe. The chemistry between the leads had me squealing at all times. Xie Wei's character screams- "a hero will sacrifice u for the world but a villain would sacrifice the whole world for you." especially with his dialogue-" Neither my qin, my revenge, nothing in this world compares to her." and Zhang Linghe portrays it exceptionally well.

Zhang Zhe may be the best person but Xie Wei was the most suitable one for Ning'er.

The OSTs especially the one by Zhou Shen, had my heart from the beginning.
A mix of various genres.... I would definitely recommend this to every cdrama lover!!!!!!!
No doubt one of the best chinese dramas of 2023 !!!!!

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Can we have more queer coding and less toxic men plz?

The Story of Kunning Palace has a fantastic premise. It starts where most historical Cdramas end: a despotic empress dies after losing a coup d'état. But lo and behold! She suddenly wakes up, reincarnated in the same life but as an 18 year old again, with a chance to set things right.

For fellow fans of the latest isekai craze that has hit the anime scene, this plot may sound familiar. But unlike the comedic anime takes that places anime FLs in otome games, Kunning Palace takes itself far more seriously. Our FL is determined to do the right things by the people she wronged the first time round and does not mind using some underhand methods to do so. Along the way she (once again) meets the ML who, similarly, has good intentions and subscribes to an ends-justify-the means approach. A perfect match, right? So I thought initially.

Frankly, I quickly lost interest in the political intrigue of this drama and stayed around for the romance. Unfortunately, a gross error on my part. What the drama tries to construe as romance – I can only assume this from the sappy romantic soundtrack – is actually just the ML sexually assaulting the FL. Sorry to be blunt, but that's what it is.

This sexual violence would not have been an issue if the drama treated it as such. But with both the soundtrack and with the ML lead 'winning' the FL in the end, what the drama does instead is normalise violence in a romantic/sexual relationship. Ultimately, this ruined what I liked about the drama – two deeply flawed characters finding each other as soulmates.

Given this situation, I would have loved to see more romantic development with the FL and other characters. Obviously being a Chinese production, there's only so much you can do given censorship (especially recent crackdowns), but there was already clear queer coding happening between Jian Xue Ning and the Princess and You Fang Yin respectively. Perhaps this can be my pitch for a Kunning Palace baihe spin-off :)

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2ND CHANCE AND REDEMPTION

A head strong Jiang Xue Ning (Bai Lu) who would do anything to become an Empress, who manipulated many people to do her bidding to stay in power and control, who died by killing herself of regret in exchange her life for someone else's life. The story of second chance and redemption of Jiang Xuening; to avoid herself get into the palace like her past life as the ambitious Empress. But she couldn't entirely escape from fate that's written to her, shifting her fates and people in the path of redemption. However some things were still end the same like invincible hand stirred to what fate have been. Ning'Er still end up joining the palace as a Princess's study companion and Xie Wei's (Zhang Ling He) student. As a new person, she still handled things with devious strategies to avoid certain fates that got her in trouble in previous life, with different approached she still manipulate people according to her wishes. The old feeling still hunted her to which decision made and wisdom came from. Relationship Xie Wei & Xue Ning were teacher and student, outside the circle they're conspirator.

Xie Wei/Xue Ding Fei (Zhang Ling He)
As the most scary person in Jiang Xue Ning's life - she most afraid and bitter toward him. Crown Prince's teacher and advisor to the Emperor, Xie Wei had every reason to be wary of. He hold most secrets as he's the sole survivor of 20 years old frightening 300 young lost souls originated, a 7 years young Viscount Xue Ding Fei was used to replace for (same age) Crown Prince's life to demanding rebel leader Prince Ping'An. Who knew he survived the massacre and became Prince Ping'An bullet to destroy Qian/Shen royal family, his hatred to his biological father Xue was no bound. His affection for Yan family where his mother was the beloved sister of Duke Yan (Yan Lin's father). This time around, he suffered from PTSD from early age trauma. His main goal was to destroy Xue which aligned with Xue Ning's mission and maneuver palace's politics to achieve goals. So much going on his calculating mind to achieve successful outcomes, he'd happily married Xue Ning and had twin children.

Yan Lin (Zhou Jun Wei)
In this new life Jiang Xuening redeemed her mistake by secretly plans to stop Yan Lin's bloody upcoming-age Crown Ceremony from happening, result of power struggle between 2 influential family Xue & Yan. With Jiang Xuening and Xie Wei's plan, the Yan family's lives were saved although they went exile for wrongful accusation. At point of time when Yan Lin lost his whole family during his coming-to age celebration from Xue and the day knowing Xue Ning rejecting his love. Her betrayal made Yan Lin obsess and furious. When he started to gain power to rebel, Yan Lin determined to make her his woman, but she killed herself to exchange life for a life. Xue Ning was forewarned Yan Lin that her feeling was friendship, none romantic, Yan Lin had to first hand knowing her true feeling to avoid obsession nor hatred as he's falling more deeper in love with her like in their previous life. He'd be a grand general and respected by whole country, Yan family all came back home.

Zhang Zhe ( Wang Xing Yue)
Jiang XueNing most precious person was Zhang Zhe. In previous life she was using him to cover up her many guilt of wrong doing, for the sake of love Zhang Zhe betrayed his conscience to make wrong judgement. He felt unworthy and guilt of the dead of his mother he wrote a letter to Justice Dept to sentence him to death. Xue Ning begged him to forgive himself and blame her instead. Few days before his death sentence, Xue Ning went to Xie Wei for his mercy and kill herself in exchange for his life. Second change, Zhang Zhe being an upright man was indeed love her, they had a chance to have their happy ending together, but his mother eventually died from the same cause and affect him the same guilt so Xue Ning decided to let go remembering how bad Zhang Zhe end up on their previous life. All in all Zhang Zhe assisted Xie Wei, Yan Lin, Xue Ning to reveal the truth of evil-doers Xue family.

Princess Le Yang/Shen Zhi Yi (Liu Xie Ning)
Jiang Xue Ning was her bestfriend, they're study mates. Jiang Xue Ning was successfully change their relationship dynamic into friendship rather as adversary in their previous life, but for sure Xue Ning knew that Princess Le Yang would be sent off to get married with enemy's prince and tragically died. In this life, Xue Ning would rush to save her from fatal outcome. Although she still had a bad marriage, faced abuse and imprisonment, she's finally free to come back home.

You Fang Yin (Melody Tang)
In previous life, she's the faithful attendant/maid to her Empress life, Fang Yin's been through too much during her reign so she felt guilty put her through. So, Jiang Xue Ning saved her from jealous bitter step sister and hateful You family. Xue Ning trusted her with business and independent. She married to a very nice man, handled businesses good, sadly died for loyalty.

Although the drama is heavy in political conflicts and intrigues, twisting fate for different outcomes might also be a little romance at the end. Great script, the intrigue wasn't boring, amazing costumes (everyone looks amazing), great coordination between flash back and new stories, good angle cameramen and directive. Zhang Ling He is great in here, shining in his acting (not convincing enough he's afraid of cat though), he'll have a long acting career. Bai Lu is so so as her usual self, as 27 yo she can't act like 19yo, we've seen her same acting in her other dramas. Zhou Jun Wei is pretty sleek as Yan Lin while Wang Xing Yue has character that's not special, I think he'd be more interesting as (previous life) Zhang Zhe when he broke many etiquette and laws - he'd lots of inner battles and emotion fight in within . Very good drama.

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A Story With a Male Lead Like No Other!

Story Of Kunning Palace has a well-laid-out plot that will make you sit through all the episodes without the urge to fast forward or skip scenes. The story unfolds with bits and pieces of the past that are told through flashbacks. The past heightens the intrigue as it is surrounded by a sense of darkness. The flashbacks serve the purpose to contrast with the FL's present events as it shows her what could happen in the present.

The characters of Story Of Kunning Palace are one of the major factors that make the drama fascinating because the characters are not your typical leads. Zhang Ling He as the male lead was outstanding as Xie Wei. There are scenes where he gets really angry such that there is a dark side of the character yet a times a rather endearing side especially when he shows jealousy when there is another love interest for the FL. Bai Lu again succeeds in forming a certain chemistry with her ML.
Her scenes with Zhang Ling He were well connected as they were matched in the dynamics of their performance.

Story Of Kunning Palace is an excellent choice if you are looking for a drama mixed with palace intrigue, revenge, and romance with the unique addition of flashbacks to a past life to add a quality of hindsight. The characters are well-written and interesting with a plot that keeps you going from one episode to the next. The romance is slow burn but when the leads finally come together, it is well worth the wait. And of course, Xie Wei as a ML like no other, is well worth the watch! And the kisses....more than worth the wait!

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