King is Not Easy (2017)

What’s that drama?
This Chinese drama about soul-swapping was a hit romantic-comedy, but it also featured the worst plot twist of  2017.
da da da, da da da da da, da da da da DA, dadadadada…
What is “King Is Not Easy.” CORRECT!

Jeopardy question aside, I’ll break down this review into cast and plot, with a few comments on production, music, and re-watch value at the end.

Cast: Being a soul-swapping drama means that Bai Lu and Zhang Yi Jie had to be good at playing each other’s characters and their opposite genders, and in my opinion they were. They were hilarious, and the majority of their acting seemed very genuine *applause*.  All the characters, including our leads, did well. The plot is very silly, and the cast did a good job not taking their characters too seriously.

Plot: As the plot is bipolar, so must my review be. To avoid spoilers I will simply refer to the two plot arcs as “Arc A” and “Arc B.” Arc A was everything you expected it to be; the story was funny, sweet, and entertaining. It’s 20 minutes of guaranteed lighthearted fun—Arc B not so much. Arc B was highly confusing and disappointing. Presumably the arc was meant to add depth to the show, but is was not needed and very poorly done.

Production-The dubbing (the ADR) was very irritating at first, but I got used to it.
Music-Theme song was annoying, but the ending theme was pretty. The rest of the music was unmemorable.
Re-watch value-It is such a short show that I would re-watch it, but I would stop before I got to Arc B.

Overall, I enjoyed this show, it fulfilled its purpose by making me smile and laugh a lot. 7.5 stars.
P.S. At the end of each episode are short skits. Don't miss out—watch them!

Leggi di Più

I started watching this drama because I was intrigued by the idea of body swap, and it turned out to be a nice funny story.  
That was until the last couple of episodes happened. It felt like the writer of this show just had a sudden idea at the end of making this story and they wanted to insert it no matter what, or just had the idea all along and couldn't mix it well with the rest of the plot. Either way, it is didn't work out and they were a lot of plot holes and unanswered questions. Also, the relationship between the princess and the other man bothered me.
But I'm going to look over all that since I'd enjoyed almost everything about this drama and don't want to ruin the experience. Besides, episode 20 went back to original funny vibes of the show and it was really entertaining. I'd love to see more about Ji Man and Da Xi.

Recommended if you want to watch a (mostly) lighthearted drama with a lot of funny moments.

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It was good until it wasn't

From episode 1 to 15 it was good.
I really like the Emperor×Maid body swap part. Both Bai Lu and Zhang Yi Jie portray their roles perfectly. I really like Zhang Yi Jie's expression when he portray Da Xi's character.
The whole 15 episode were fun with some little twist and silly logic, which didn't really bother me.

But from the moment Da Xi and Ji Man got back to their body. Then the whole Western Goddess Tribe appear from nowhere. It's just a mess. Looks like they tried to make a plot twist, but it's doesn't goes really well.
The ending? It doesn't feel like an ending actually, it looks like the start of a whole another drama.
I'll just pretend everything ended happily after Da Xi and Ji Man goes back to their bodies.

The Couple skit at the end of every episode is really cute. It's like portraying Da Xi and Ji Man in modern life.

Overall it's a decent drama
I really like the intro & outro song. The cinematography was pretty good.
But because of the messy ending, i wouldn't recommend this to anyone.

Leggi di Più

*SPOILERS (just a warning)*

I thought this series was pretty cute. The beginning started of REALLY funny, you can tell it's a comedy (probably an indication from the themesong).

Da Xi is the main character starting off the series. My first impression of her was that she was a horn-dog, since the opening scene was here judging the appearance of other men and deciding what makes a good "husband." Her character is refreshing to see in "costume" dramas because she's not the typical damsel in the distress, she's blunt, funny and knows what she wants.

Ji Man is the other main character, he plays the Emperor of Zhou. There's no real impression of him at first, because right when he emerges they do the switcharoo.

Acting is quite hilarious. Especially is Da Xi is in the emperor's body, the actor Zhang Yi Jie had AWESOME expressions of when he's suppose to be Da Xi, especially squealing "like a girl" when she sees her crush Shao Yong. Our main actress, Bai Lu, also does great acting as a man in a woman's body. When the two switch back to their normal bodies, I was so confused seeing Da Xi being goofy in her girl's body!

Like many comments on here, the drama took a weird twist and ended weird. I thought it was interesting. The plot twist where they reveal the "dream sequence" was confusing and left many questions unanswered. For example, if it were a dream why did members of the palace remember Da Xi, if she was only in his dream? O_o There are also plot holes in regards to the Western Goddess Tribe and who they are, and why they didn't just use their magic in the beginning to whisk away the King's men that were ravaging their lands. Oh whale.

The ending was a definitely interesting, I've watched enough time travel dramas to enjoy it. I thought it was funny at the end how they end up in the future, and even switched bodies in the future (perhaps a part two?). My take on it was that, they (Guardian and Mountain Spirit) sent Da Xi to the future w/ an indentity and erase her memories. In the future she's an artist of a manga and pretty much draws out her love story of Da Xi and Ji Man. Ji Man gets sent there with his memories, and finds Da Xi (who has no recollection of who he is). And theyn their love story starts all over, and their soul switches again at the end of the drama.

To me, I feel like its more of Bai Lu gets reincarnated and maybe she subconciously remembers her previous life and thus came up with the idea for her manga. I didn't think it was as terrible as people were saying. The drama is really short, and cute. I'd watch again if I were bored.

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I just couldn't help falling in love with this rom com. I love the way the characters interacted with each other and the way everything was so animated it was so cute.

I feel like the story could have stopped at around episode 16-17 and the things at the back seemed to be unnecessarily complicating the storyline, but it's the author's story so it's up to them.

Although there were lots of loopholes and plot twists with seemingly many different drama stories being mashed together, I'm giving it a 9 for the cute acting and enjoyment.

I recommend this for anyone who wants to just have a good laugh and not think too much about deep storylines and back stories (although eventually the plot gets a bit confusing but I guess you can ignore it)

Leggi di Più

This is a difficult drama to rate since the plot is all over. The drama is a cute romantic comedy with, at least, 2 different plot lines and the sometimes cute short skit at the end of every episode. The soul-swapping storyline was well done and acted, but two not so much for the swapping arcs since the line of development became convoluted and confusing. Bai Lu as Da Xi and Zhang Yi Jie as Emperor Ji Man did a good job with the swapping plot on the historical setting but there was little to no chemistry for the rest. The drama had great potential but, although some parts are really entertaining, is difficult to recommend viewers to watch it.

Leggi di Più

This is an easy drama to watch if you like light hearted cute fantasy romcom. The story not unique but still interesting. Sets, costumes and cinematography is good for a low budget type drama. OST is lacking but the background music throughout the drama was well done. Zhang Yi Jie’s acting was excellent and Bai Lu did well. Overall. This drama was entertaining. I think the plot twists towards the few ending episodes made the rating drop below 8. If you are used to Chinese drama endings then you would fully appreciate this drama regardless of the plot twists and ending which by the way is (Spoiler!) a happy one even without a second season. So, go ahead and watch this drama.

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Fluffy Fun

Fairly light, feel-good drama. I love the extra scenes at the end of the episode too! They aren't related to the story line, but it is cute to watch more interactions between the leads! Bai Lu is soooooo pretty and such a good actress :). I highly recommend this drama if you are looking for a light-hearted laugh.

The premise of the story is that the king and a palace maid switched bodies and have to keep up the pretenses. They solve a lot of problems together and gain new perspectives. There are some cheesy moments and obvious plot armors, but overall, it is a cute little rom-com.

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I think it’s a really sweet short drama. The story starts off fast and gets straight to the point. There’s not a lot of scheme in and not very long episodes. Good if you are trying to find a short drama to watch.

The cast and acting was great. I have to give a lot of credit to the acting especially. Since the king played a very good role when he swapped bodies with Da Xi, I think both roles did great acting the body switch roles. Costuming was the best. They mostly wore one outfit throughout the entire show, and idk what’s up with the maid hairstyles, I don’t think the show put a lot of time into the costuming.

The ending is also a bit confusing, I don’t understand the entire situation with the controlling dreams and Da Xi being the queen of another tribe, and Ji Man not remembering who Da Xi is, that part didn’t make a lot of sense.

Leggi di Più

Could have been better

This drama has an interesting start to the story - a swap of souls between the emperor and a maid. This leads to a lot of hilarious moments as the maid is infatuated with an imperial guard captain. Demonstrating her affection in the body of the emperor, it causes a lot of misunderstanding that the emperor is gay.

The story goes on to give a twist - there is a double conspiracy going on. The maid is not who she thinks she is, and the emperor has other hidden agenda. This twist is interesting if the transition is properly developed, but unfortunately it is a bit awkward.

But the second twist in last episode was the worst. There seems to be this obsession with time travel, crossing dimension type of science fiction in Chinese drama. When it is not well developed and does not flow naturally with the story, it really spoils the drama as it stands out like a sore thumb.

For 20 episodes of half hour each, this is a very short drama. If you are not too concern about the flaws in the story and are in just for a laugh, this makes a light-hearted comical entertainment.

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Un drama sans queue ni tête...

Le thème d'échange de corps a souvent été exploité dans les dramas, pour ne nommer que lui "Secret Garden" (Drama coréen de 2010 avec Hyun Bin & Ha Ji Won) est sans doute un de ceux qui a le plus marqué. C'est donc avec un sourire aux lèvres que je commence ce drama en me disant que j'allais me payer une bonne tranche de rire...

Alors oui, j'ai bien ri jusqu'à l'épisode 15... Malgré une héroïne des plus égoïste qui ne pense qu'à conquérir l'homme de ses rêves. (Enfin, surtout l'homme qu'elle trouve le plus beau... car oui pour elle, seul ce critère compte !) Cependant après cet épisode beaucoup de longueurs se sont fait sentir ! Déjà soyons honnête... Ji Man n'est pas du tout crédible en jeune roi qui part à la guerre. (Oui, parce que bien sûr MONSIEUR a les compétences... Ou pas !) Ne parlons même pas de ce micmac à partir de l'épisode 18 (Non mais sérieux ?! Vous voulez pas plus nous perdre ?) et de la fin du drama qui m'a laissé pantoise...

Honnêtement parlant, l'histoire aurait pu s'arrêter à l'épisode 15... On voit un clair manque de budget de par certaines scènes et le peu de crédibilités qu'elles dégagent ne m'a pas enthousiasmée...

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