Hong Dou Sheng Nan Guo (2024)

Clever, funny, well-acted romance with time travel you will enjoy

I know that there are some people who did not like it because of the ending but let me tell you: you will enjoy this costume drama regardless of what comes in the end!
What I enjoyed was a clever story of time travel with complete reversal of the roles, epochs and such, and an ending that actually makes sense and you will like it too if you pause for a moment and get your breadcrumbs together.

I enjoyed humor, particularly three male concubines in the Cold Palace. I liked the consistency of the personalities and how the actors played them, I loved the scenery - nothing familiar about the vistas, architecture of the main location and decor/costumes/makeup. I really liked the music, the theme sung by the female singer (I have not yet looked it up). Yes, it was smaller budget miniseries, but editing was good as was the artistic concept of this thing.

Now, in all honesty I am not sure how you will interpret the plot but here is what I got out of it.
In the coup staged by the 2nd prince the Emperor of the Southern Kingdom is killed and the Crown Prince framed for it. The Princes, FL, quelches the rebellion, bans CP and takes over the throne because she is a kick ass heroine, and her 2nd brother can't measure up. Unfortunately, during the coup the Princess (now Empress) witnesses the death of a brave warrior who actually dies saving her - in her arms I must add. We see that he gives her a bracelet in some scene so we know that he is someone special but can't really tell how close he is to her. The freshly crowned Empress grieves her father, exiled brother and the man who died in her arms while looking at the bracelet and as the bracelet falls apart, the Empress gets transported into the future.

She ends up 1000 years later with a movie star (who looks just like the guy who died protecting her) and because of a paparazzi taking some compromising pictures, she ends up being shoved into the position of the spoilt brat star's assistant. Luckily, her guard gets transported as well and the two of them get to know the modern times while trying to figure out how to get back to their own time. There is a Fairy Goldfish that reveals to the Empress that she must get the movie star fall in love with her, if she is to go back, so you know what is going to happen next. In the process the Empress encounters a man who reminds her of her 2nd brother, the villain, and she even gets to act with the ML she is falling in love with thus enraging the pouty female lead in the drama they play together. The learning of life in 21st century is not a breeze for an ancient woman also because the guy she works for is a prima donna. But they are getting closer and fonder of each other. There are even sweet moments there. But the Empress is determined to find her way back and her guard works on it too. Finally, when she and the guard are ready to go back, as luck would have it, the ML who is completely head over hills with the Empress (and is now accepting that she is from another time) confesses to her. Alas, Empress really wants to go home and rejects him, but before she does that jealous female movie star rams her car into the garden and ML saves the Empress once again. Unluckily, he dies in Empress' arms after that, and his blood and her tears activate the bracelet that he was just offering her as a proposal token. As a result, she and the guard go back to their times. Luckily, ML goes back unharmed too just because Fairy Goldfish said so.

And now we get to see the Empress in her own element and ML trying to survive in ancient times while trying to get to his love. And he is not having that much fun because the Empress is avoiding him! Why? The first thing that the Empress learns from the Fairy Goldfish upon returning is - the fate of her and ML is set: he will always die protecting her-in any life. The Empress is terrified because she saw him die twice, so now she is staying away and even after ML becomes a harem boy with two other cuties, there is no getting to her. Banned to the Cold Place the three male concubines do a song and dance routine to gain Empress favor. That is interspersed with gross, but funny beating up of the Northern Kingdom Prince who is being pushed as a husband for the Empress. I will spare you the details, there are twists and turns like first Empress declaring that women can sit for imperial examinations and be officials, then that each man can have only one wife and no concubines, then injuring her leg during daily yoga and ML procuring a wheelchair, then ML being poisoned by the 2nd prince who is aware of the Empress fondness of ML (ML again ends up nearly dead in her embrace!) and the Empress facing giving up throne or not getting antidote for the ML's poison. In the end both leads are victorious: he is detoxified, and she catches 2nd prince red-handed in rebellion. When all is done and we are watching them reunite, there is an assassin shooting an arrow at the Empress and - well you guessed it: ML dies protecting his love.
Did you like it? Of course not! How to like watching her holding him dying for the 4th time? Except...
As the snow falls on the Empress holding her dead lover the camera zooms out, director yells, cut and wrap-up and we realize that the Empress never went back to the Southern Kingdom, but stayed and became a movie star acting with the ML and they have their thing going on.
It was a clever story with a HE but not the ending we were expecting and that is why I am giving it 9!

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