Story of Kunning Palace (2023)

Wow, that got me. In one word - beauty.

Impressions? Feelings? Experiences? Strong, deep, unforgettable. I've been looking forward to this series for a long time, but I didn't expect it to interest me like this. I swallowed one part after another and could not tear myself away from it. Cast, great music, but above all a wonderful, incredibly strong story, under the pressure of which I could not stand up, no matter how hard I tried. The biggest rush of emotions I've ever experienced while watching a movie.


Plot, effects, camera, music, actors, jokes, chemistry, serious moments, everything works perfectly. I would rank it among the top dramas I've seen so far.


Do I recommend watching the drama? Certainly yes. - it was simply amazing!

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THE BEST HISTORICAL DRAMA THIS YEAR!

Hands down “Story of Kunning Palace” is the best historical cdrama this year!!

Story:
The story is different from the other cdramas around: this time we have an anti-hero, Jiang Xuening, going back time to fix her mistakes that led to her death. She’s a complex character that did many bad things in the past but gradually you’ll love her so much more.
Then we have Xie Wei, who is personally my fav character in the drama. He has such a complex personality and soul, he’s so cunning, so smart and he always knows what’s gonna be his next step. He has the power of the world in his head. But keep in mind that he’s not an hero. He’s truly dark.

There are many other characters that you’ll completely love or hate. But each one of them has their own story and their own path. No one is left behind in the story. Everything is connected perfectly like some pieces of a puzzle. I’m so satisfied with how the story develops and continues. No black holes, no questionable moments in terms of the narration, no WTF?! or boring moments.

It’s truly a consistent, full of twists and coherent story. I’m truly mesmerised by the writing. They did such an excellent job in describing each character and each storyline.

Acting/Cast:
The cast was perfect and Bai Lu is truly THE gem of this drama. Her acting is on point, she’s emotional, heartless and cunning. Zhang Linghe did such a good job in portraying such a complex and dark character like Xie Wei and I personally loved the fact that this was the first time he dubbed his own parts with his voice. Especially in the second half of the drama we can perceive their talents and also their chemistry which is top-notch. These two look perfect together and I totally need to see them again in another drama, maybe a modern one. All the other actors did a good job too!! Zhang Zhe is truly talented, same for the princess and Xue Shu, who’s such a terrific villain. I loved all of them, truly.

This is a MUST watch and, for the first time for a cdrama, I could rewatch it over and over again. It’s perfect, believe me.

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Immersive Narratives and Flawless Portrayals: 'Story of Kunning Palace' Delivers

What struck me most about the series was the undeniable chemistry between the main leads, creating a captivating dynamic that held my attention from start to finish.

Zhang Ling He's portrayal of Xie Wei was nothing short of phenomenal. His ability to convey the complexity of his character, from childhood trauma to the intricacies of mental health issues, was done with a finesse that left a lasting impression. His eyes, in particular, became a powerful tool in expressing the depths of a man in love. Bai Lu, as the female lead, equally delivered a commendable performance, carrying herself with grace and skill throughout the series.

The storyline itself was a rollercoaster of emotions, with each episode presenting something new and intriguing. I found myself hooked, eagerly anticipating the next twist or revelation. It's rare to come across a show that keeps you engaged at every turn, and "Story of Kunning Palace" achieved just that.While the editing could have been polished in certain scenes, the compelling narrative and stellar performances by the cast overshadowed any minor shortcomings.

The power-packed storytelling and the actors' prowess managed to seamlessly compensate for any editing hiccups, ensuring a consistently enthralling viewing experience.In my opinion, "Story of Kunning Palace" stands out as one of the best dramas of 2023. The recommendation for this series as a must-watch is resounding. The thought of these talented actors gracing the screen together again is enticing, and I can't help but express a desire to see them in a modern drama, exploring a different setting and dynamic.

"Story of Kunning Palace" is a triumph in storytelling, character development, and on-screen chemistry. It has certainly set a high standard for dramas in 2023, leaving viewers like me eagerly anticipating future projects from the brilliant cast and crew.

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Been a while since I watched a smart female lead drama like this

This drama was why I renewed my iqiyi premium subscription. My kind of drama, a smart male lead, a smart female lead with a no-nonsense wit that knows how to scheme and give back to bullies. Been on a drama drought for awhile now but this drama gave me back the will to watch a drama. Good casts with good story and beautiful costumes. A very, very satisfied watch for me. If WY from story of yanxi place had a sister andi also considered ML from the story of Ming Lan as well, JN of SOKP would have been her sister although it's a different period and era but it's how I see it especially seeing how smart she is.

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This bustling world is a battlefield!! Suspence, angst, romance, scheme all in one….

This is one of the best Chinese historical drama I’ve ever seen!!! Just right amount of sumspense, perfect angst and like a cherry on top the slow burning deep romance, everything is perfect for me. Though I’m new at writing reviews but I am a veteran drama watcher. I’m watching k-drama and c-dramas for last 9 years. But basically got attracted to historical, political c-dramas just recently. And what a masterpiece it was!!!!! And if I start writing about the amazing casts I will be blabbering whole night! Bai Lu can initiate chemistry even with a block of ice and here she got my personal favorite Zhang Linghe…who is equally good looking and got a talent for acting!!! Surprisingly both the leads don’t come from entertainment background, but they proved that talent can be anywhere. Loved their morally grey character and yes, they may not be best as human beings but they are perfect for each other!! And the character XW, it was really tough to portray this kind of character…he is a double spy!!! And for some reason I really like smart leads in a drama rather than air-headed ones, specially the FLs. So this drama was so in tune with me and I enjoyed every moment. Not a single second I felt that should skip this part. So my advice will be even if anyone feels bored with first few episodes please try to continue. You won’t be disappointed….

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A dream that felt too real

This drama is definitely not the typical historical Chinese drama you would expect. It is based on the story of a strong female lead who wakes up from a dream that felt too real. In that dream, she was a selfish woman who would do anything and use anyone to achieve her ambitions. However, when she wakes up again, we see her character development as she tries to be a better person and make up all the mistakes she made and all those she hurt in her dream.
I really enjoyed this drama as it was really realistic and relatable, especially the relationship between the characters. I especially loved the chemistry between the main leads Jiang Xue Ning(Bailu) and Xie Wei(Zhang Linhe) and how they went from enemies to cooperating together to save the Yan family and many more. Jiang Xue Ning was the only light in Xie Wei’s dark view of the world and end up being the most important person and support to eachother.

Acting of the main leads were quite good but I felt like the supporting characters could have a bit more and better changes in their expressions to show their character development.
Music was good and I loved all the songs, Bailu actually sang one of them aswell!

The biggest flaw in this drama for me would be the pacing throughout the episodes. I just felt like the ending felt way too rushed, especially after seeing and getting used to the slow moving plot (up to around ep 33). The female lead only seemed to truly understand the male lead in the last 5 episodes and his intentions behind his decision and only then did she confirm her feelings for Xie Wei (with only 5 episodes to go). I felt like it could’ve been better paced to make the episodes flow more consistently and make it comfortable to watch.

Overall, it was a very unique drama and enjoyable to watch. Recommended.

Ps. This is my first review hahaha

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Bailu and her male entourage

Very much enjoyed this drama!!
Story: the trope of going back in time but I still love it lol. Will give 9.5 since it's overused.

Acting: bravo everyone. I liked all three stories with the male leads. I just give 9.5 because everyone could have improvements. Love BL but felt ZLH a bit awkward sometimes. Maybe the camerawork?

Chemistry: Lulu has chemistry with everyone be it males or females. Just love how she gets along with everyone!!

Rewatch: this one I would rewatch for sure.

Music: zhou sheng and Lulu's songs were awesome!! I still listen to them.

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Story of Kunning Palace is a magnificent production set within a historical period to bring a well written and better executed tale of redemption for Jiang Xue Ning (played by Bai Lu) and the masterfully revenge plan of the male lead Xie Wei (played by Zhang Ling He). There are many and long reviews analyzing plot and characters that are true to the story so my review is to simply tell the audience that this drama is excellent and a must watch. The drama has a stellar cast and the cast did a fantastic job bringing their characters to life, but I must have to reiterate that Bai Lu and Zhang Ling He were brilliant in their portrayal of Jiang Xue Ning and Xie Wei, two intelligent, strong, and steadfast characters that were brought together by fate and became a force to be reckoned with. Everything is played extremely well in this drama; from well designed palace antics, great action scenes, a slow burned romantic plot with a prolonged building of emotions that burst into an unwavering, blazing, and beautiful romance, beautiful and playful friendship to heart wrenching moments brought by greed and betrayal, and all the way to a well plotted resolution and a beautiful happy ending. This one is a masterpiece, enjoy it!!!

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Invicible Love String and Fate

Started with the rebellion under Xie Wei and Yan Lin (Yan Family) during the Shenjie governance, force Jiang Xue Ning as the former empress of the fallen dynasty deciding to suicide. However, JXN got second chance to restart her life and fate from the writer.

Suddenly everything started again at her age of 18. She having the memories of rebellion and every mistakes she once made, trying her best to avoid and fix everything hoping for a different outcome. She was once an arrogant, never looked into a detail but just focused on how to be an "Empress", this time she being a humble one but not dumb fix everything to the origin. Giving back the destiny that once she steal, however everytime fate lead hear getting near to Xie Wei.

In past life, she feels regretful towards Zhang Ze, Yan Lin, and many others. This life she manage to keep her friendship with Yan Lin in a good terms, not betraying him as a friend. Zhang Ze is a man with a word, a man that loyal, a man that once she fallen for but not able to being together, after a long way Zhang Ze finally building a feelings toward JXN, however JXN already gave up and having a special indescribeable fate with Xie Wei

Finally they manage to clean up the dynasty that full with evil, Xue family, and also Pingnan rebel. This time Jiang Xue Ning really able to change destiny, yet building a love relationship with Xie Wei

Well written drama story line, Good OST that suitable with every condition, and Actor who is manage to show their character.

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Excellent balance from the best historical drama in 2023

This drama grew on me from an 8 to a 10. First I wanted to give this drama a 9 after finishing because I used two days of wondering about what really happened in our character's first life and what Xie Wei was thinking at that time. But then I decided that it was a good thing that I don’t know, the guessing makes it more interesting and the characters become more complex.

This drama has so many great things going on. The actors does an impeccable job. Bai Lu is very good at this sort of light comedic roles and Zhang Linghe surprised me as a very good morally grey male lead. I need to see him as a fully bloomed villain in the future.

The foundation of this story is interesting because it doesn’t tell the viewer everything we want to know. The flashbacks are balanced and the tempo of the story is good. Some parts of the story is predictable and tropey but not to an extent that it is bad in any way. Somehow they manage to give everything a fresh feel, perhaps because our characters aren’t always good persons. They make mistakes but they deal with it. The story is easy to follow without being simple.

The word that keeps coming back to me is “balanced”. A bit of love, mystery, tropes, fighting scenes and palace intrigue. At first I was a bit disappointed by the main leads inability to defend themselves but later I found that refreshing.

It is the combination of not knowing everything from their first life, with the fresh take on tropes and the high quality acting, costume and art direction that makes this drama worth a 10. I can’t find anything to critique. The more I think about this drama the more I like it. This 10 grew on me.

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There's Just Something Missing.

Let me start off by saying this - this was a DIFFICULT show for me to finish in the beginning. The beginning of this show was incredibly slow. I don't mind the concept of shows setting the stage and foundation for whatever story they're attempting to tell, but I felt like this was one of those shows that would easily lose a potential viewer in the beginning. The only reason I kept going was because I'd been told by several people on various platforms that the set-up for the show makes the rest of it that much more worth it. That's what I was told.

Now, the complaints I have for this show are not with the actors. The actors did .. fine, I guess. They did the best with what they had. We can honestly say that. This show could have been so much BETTER but it wasn't. I'm actually quite disappointed with what this show turned out to be. The premise is intriguing and appealing, but the execution leaves a LOT to be desired. The execution fell flat, and that's my primary takeaway from this show. Months into the future, I'll probably think about how amazing this show truly could have been if given to a set of more competent writers (or directors?) Anyway, this show sounds good on paper but it doesn't deliver on those promises.

Starting off, I love Bai Lu. I love her to pieces and I find that she's quite talented for the most part. Now, I must say that I finished watching Till the End of the Moon prior to watching this show so some of this review mostly comes from my inner comparison of the two shows. Mainly for no other reason but because of the fact that Bai Lu stars in both. Let me start off with one of my biggest pet peeves EVER when it comes to watching dramas - there was a very distinct lack of chemistry between Xue Ning and her love interests. It's the strangest thing because all of her love interests were attractive. Yet, there was a strange lack of sexual tension and chemistry between her and any of them. I don't know how or why they manage to do THAT but it was one of the first things I noticed after I got through the first 10-episode slump. Again, I'm wondering if this is due to the director or something else, because I didn't ship her with anyone. Her first two love interests were decent men for the most part. They weren't downright awful or cruel, but it felt like the writers didn't know what they wanted to do. Meaning - it's almost like they were gearing up for a very specific endgame for Xue Ning and then decided to change their minds in the last 5 episodes of the show. Also, she had amazing chemistry with her girl friends. Xue Ning's relationships with the Princess and Fang Yin were some of my favorites in the entire drama.

People often complained about TTEOTM suffering due to those set of writers not knowing which way they wanted to commit regarding Ye Xiwu/Li Susu's feelings but I felt the same way about this show. I felt like the writers were building the foundation for Xue Ning to end up with Zhang Zhe and then suddenly decided not to follow through. I'm not saying this because I shipped them or anything like that. I'm saying that based on the way Xue Ning acted towards him. There is a very distinct way she looked at him that she never replicated with Xie Wei. Xue Ning looked at Zhang Zhe like he hung the fucking MOON! She had the heart eyes every time she talked to him and it was very very obvious that she liked him. It may not have been obvious to him because he's the duty before honor, hero type so his only purpose is to bring justice to the kingdom and blah blah blah blah. He was gorgeous but his character wasn't interesting enough to be the endgame. If they would have shown him struggling to do the right thing while understanding that following the rules and decrees of an unjust, indecisive leader would have sent everyone straight to hell, then I would have been rooting for him honestly. Xue Ning's interest for him was there. Their interactions were decent too, but his character was too much of a Lawful Good for me to root for him. Rules ensure that order is maintained but some rules need to be broken, and I don't truly believe he ever realized that. At least not by the end of the show, that is.

Someone else said it and I'm inclined to agree, but it appeared as if Xue Ning was simply going through the motions when she got with Xie Wei. It didn't seem as if she even LIKED him. It seemed like she was mostly tolerating and humoring him for some reason? What reason would that be? I don't know, but that's what it felt like. We know he liked her. That was obvious! But I couldn't tell if she liked him or not. She never looked at Xie Wei with the same kind of awe and adoration like she did with Zhang Zhe, which is why I said it seemed as if the writers (or director) didn't know how they wanted to play this. Not to mention the fact that there was truly no real reason for Xue Ning to dump Zhang Zhe in the end. Absolutely none. Also, Yan Lin was a sweetheart but it was never going to be him and that was also obvious. He was a good man who really cared about her, but I knew he wasn't going to be The One. He bowed out gracefully and that just goes to show what kind of a man he was. He loved her but he knew she didn't love him the way he wanted her to; it didn't change how he treated her. He still cared about her. He still protected her. He still wanted her to find happiness, even if it wasn't with him. He's a good man, Savannah!

Now, let's talk about her and Xie Wei. I typically don't like the enemies to lovers trope. I'm usually not a fan of it, but I can be if DONE PROPERLY. That last part is the most important distinction about that statement. The teacher-student thing didn't bother me. The idea that he would be awful and toxic to her also didn't bother me honestly. What DID bother me is the fact that there was no real sexual tension between the two of them. I wouldn't consider a man walking around choking you and telling you at every juncture that you belong to him to be sexual tension. Granted, that could be hot under the right circumstances. However, it wasn't hot in this one. I don't know if it was because the director (or writers) didn't know how to write the receiver of this type of dynamic or not. What I mean is this - in this type of dynamic, the receiver has a very distinct and specific role that would determine how the audience responds to the dynamic as a whole in the long run. Xue Ning never responded to Xie Wei like a woman who was just barely holding on by a thread because she wanted to jump his bones so badly but she couldn't because she's a lady who has to suppress her feelings and maintain her reputation. She didn't respond like that. She responded as if she was being threatened. Her responses came off more like fear rather than suppressed sexual desire. Which didn't make sense due to who she was in her first life. Who she was in her first life would have THRIVED with a man like Xie Wei. The Empress would not have shown fear like that; she would have gave as good as she got and responded by giving this man a run for his money, but that didn't happen either.

Another thing - someone else mentioned that we never saw Xie Wei supplicate himself at Xue Ning's feet, and I think that's another piece of the puzzle that would have changed the finished product of this relationship. I love a man who is possessive and obsessive (in fiction) for the most part, but I still need to see that man's willingness to submit to the woman he claims to be in love with. I don't want this misconstrued. I'm not saying I want him to go through some halfhearted, shoddy redemption arc, but I want him to beg and grovel for her sometimes. Whenever they would argue and he would be in the wrong, we never saw him supplicate himself to her and show her how deep his love is. He never apologized to her for his reactions to her. Yes, he never hid how he felt in front of the world. Yes, he put his life on the line to save her multiple times, but what about the words? We need to see you submit to her in private too. When it's just the two of you, why not? He never established himself as a safe place for her to land, in my opinion.

Sidenote: The one couple I actually found myself interested in was Fang Yin and her husband (whose name I can't remember for some reason). Now, those two had the potential to be great. There was just something about him wanting to lift that weight off of her shoulders and shared the burdens of life with her that I found intriguing. He saw her and he knew that she could have been the love of his life eventually. Yes, he wasn't in love with her initially but he could have been. If the writers had allowed them the opportunity to blossom and thrive, they could have fallen in love with each other and it would have been interesting. I wanted to see where it would go. I wanted to see more of it, but we didn't get that and that's unfortunate.

It bears repeating - this show could have been SO MUCH BETTER. I'm disappointed because it didn't live up to its potential. My expectations were so high based on what I'd read from other people, but I should have lowered them. Will I rewatch this show? Maybe some scenes because there were some scenes I found unintentionally funny, but not a complete rewatch. Would I recommend it though? Ehhh, maybe. It's not downright terrible but it's not as great as people claim it is. It's just okay.

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I can see why its one of the hottest dramas for 2023

This drama is about the story of a second chance in life. During the start it can be a bit confusing as they only show snippets of what happened in FL’s past life. However as the story develops, you will see how the past affects her decisions for the current life and how she is trying to be good this time round. Not too much romance going around at the beginning though FL has 3 love interests and lots of scheming plots among the villains as the FL tries to survive in the palace. Both FL and MLs played their roles perfectly. For some reason I kind of hoped the FL went with Zhang Zhe though. Kissing scenes were also really intense in the later episodes.

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