The Autumn Ballad wishes to be a classic tale of family intricacies, power and corruption, mystery and love, but hitting all separate points does not a good story make. An extremely promising first part somehow ends as a series of happenstances so random and unbelievable that it feels parodic.

I want to focus here on 3 aspects of Qiu Yan's character: her relationships with her sister, her mother, and with Liang Yi.

Her relationship with Liang Yi remains the best of all 3, but not for the reasons it should. The pacing of meeting each other, disliking each other, relying on each other, and all the way to being in love / realizing the other is in love, is impeccable at first and very correct later on. The chemistry is here, the tempers, body languages, conflicts and devotions, are lovely. Things such as asking her to come with him, never acting dominantly, never trying to make her stay, are what i was looking forward to, and i was satisfied. It fits with the view we originally have of them both: Qiu Yan as a headstrong girl always hiding under a layer of defiance, Liang Yi as a usually cold man who cares very little for affection and who recovers his tenderness and mischievous side.

Qiu Yan's relationship with her mother was hinted from the beginning to be a big part of her emotional burdens and the source of her resentment. It follows through as such, the (lack of) development is logical and the last scene they share is wonderful because Qiu Yan refuses to simply forgive and forget. But this conflict brimming with story potential is simply left to stew in a corner, nearly-untouched, but for the 3 or 4 scenes it is given, which makes me wonder—was its climax good on purpose, or just because the writers didn't pay enough attention to it to mess it up?

But by far the most disappointing part of this drama is Qiu Yan and Qiu Min's relationship. Once again beautifully introduced as a delicate dynamic: Qiu Yan convinced that Qiu Min hates her, angry and worried at once to see her act so meekly; Qiu Min envious of her older sister who seems so capable and smart, who captured her mother's love, but who also exists as a protective shadow that she doesn't want to live.
They have so many of those delicate and beautiful scenes. Qiu Min asking Qiu Yan to hug her, and Qiu Yan holding back because she wants Qiu Min to learn to be on her own, is only the most memorable one. And I was so hopeful about how they would develop that I kept up hope even after the base cliché of sexual assault as a lesson to the maudlin and selfish girl; even with her "turning dark", I was hopeful; because I knew that it could be so good, if only all of this was focused on the sisters' relationship. As you probably guessed, it didn't happen. Qiu Min becomes a cheap rival love interest antagonist whose entire character is dedicated to making the viewer feel satisfied when her petty attempts fail. Even the excellent parting line, "I was so jealous of you, I forgot that I used to like you," can't simply fix this disaster.

I will spare you all from just how ridiculous the actual plot becomes, because I could write a whole review on how absurd the last episode was. In the end, what to take out of The Autumn Ballad? It's not the sort of drama you can watch "just for the romance"; the romance is good only because you go through the plot alongside it, and as the plot becomes offensively bad, the romance alone can't satisfy a viewer. At least not this viewer. The show is a mess, and in my opinion, the mess is due in part to its length. The plot, once rearranged, could've been beautifully wrapped up in 25 episodes. Alas, quality is never the only goal in a drama production.

Wanting to fill the afforded space is not that simple—especially not when you aim for this setting and deal with delicate characters. Good writing also means knowing how to prune the branches of a story.