Story of Kunning Palace (2023)

Very enjoyable revenge palace drama.

The revenge plot was really well done and overall pacing of the story was great. Watching all the machinations in the imperial palace/harem, secrets slowly coming to light, and plotting of our cunning Male Lead really made this an enjoyable series. We also had a very smart Female Lead who was able to take care of herself no matter where she ended up. She was never a damsel in distress and despite not being physically powerful, she used her smarts, wits, confidence and strong personality to get herelf out of sticky situations. Also, this is one of the few cdramas where the Emperor actually has common sense and isn't immediately influenced by rumors or accusations. Honestly you probably wouldn't think this should matter since the Emperor is not a character we would care about unless they are the main lead, but it does matter when the story revolves around the palace. So I had much less frustrations watching this drama because everybody that mattered in the plot line was actually smart and did their jobs as you would expect them to. This overall made the drama more enjoyable compared to other palace themed dramas. There was just one character death I didn't like, it was so unecessary to the story aside from wanting to make viewers sad, so I didn't appreciate that at all.

In terms of romance, even though they I liked the pairing, I found the romance lacking a bit from the main couple imo. I personally felt more romance between the FL, Second Male Lead and even Third Male Lead because we got more healthy moments of affection/love shown between them. We only got to see more romance with the main leads towards the end, but even then it was more of a domineering type of love that could make you feel uncomfortable to watch. So I wish we also got to see more sweet moments between the main couple; or at the very least I would have liked to see FL be more expressive of her love with the ML like she was with TML. Granted the FL and ML's personalities and story lines don't really give off sweet vibes so it also makes sense that their love was more on the intense/obssessive/toxic side.

In addition to having a smart Emperor, other unique things I liked that weren't necessarily present 100% of the time but we did get to see were:
1) Bestest boy ever Second Male Lead who only wants the best for his crush and isn't possessive of her; 2) Non-competitive sibling relationship between the FL and her sister; 3) Healthy friendships between FL and other women; and 4) Parents apologizing to children.

Overall very satisfied with the revenge plot but would have liked to have more romance from the main couple. Bailu acted really well, crying scenes were so emotional. ML needs to work on his expressions but overall great job from him too and the rest of the cast.

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FIRE MEETS GASOLINE ROMANCE!!!

When the chemistry is chemistrying!!! They casted such lovely actors and actresses here and they did great!

I have no words for Zhang Linghe's acting here as Xie Wei 🤭🔥 Therefore I conclude, they should give him more roles similar to Xie Wei lol he really ate being red flag! Bai Lu really knows the right script for her 💗 She doesn't disappoint!!!

Romance is romancing but I wanted more of them! It felt a little rush and it's very very slow burn on the FL's side lol. I can't say story is unique, but it's very entertaining and enough to keep me watching without skipping or fast forwarding. The two red flag FL and ML made me binge watch this 🤭🔥

I hope they make more series like this with mature FL and cast the right actresses. I'm so tired of seeing the same period drama FLs either very very childish, annoying or have no personality except having kiki voice. I don't hate actresses who have naturally baby voice, I just don't like others who does it intentionally and looks so old to have those type of voice or dubbing.

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Strong Cast Performance mees Quality Production. Must-watch.

Stellar cast with an entralling plot. Absolutely loved the deep, mysterious vibe of the ML. His deep voice and stern facade really played well into the character. Fell in love in EP 1 with his 1 word "可". Bai Lu is again, inexplicabily beautiful in a Costume drama. Enjoyed the strength and straigtfowardness of the FL, actions & thoughts made sense, though she did fall into a more Damel in Distress personality towards the end. The chemistry though was excellent. There was always some kind of tension between the leads that all the more made viewers anticipate their ending.

The plot is where I thought could be more improved. While the pacing and arcs were decently written. many of the excellent premises were not woven and fully made use of. I fully expected the ML's schizophrenia to play a larger role towards the end. It would have been nice for the FL to also show more maturity in her behaviour considering she was "reincarnated" from an empress. Character growth kinda fell backwards from empress to a 19 year old girl..

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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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Story of Redemption and Changing Fate with brilliant politics play out and interesting relationship

The moment it started, you can't stopped. Every episode is so intriguing that you keep wanting to continue, not boring, well pacing. The story is so solid, almost perfect political planning, thanks to Jiang Xue Ning previous life and the delicious cunningness of Xie Wei.

There are a lot of twists and turns, from the strategic planning against the enemies (Xue family and the rebel King Ping Nan); added with interesting characters development a long the way, how the main characters are reacted to each other toward the plan, whether to trust or distrust each other; to unusual romance and relationship between the main characters (Xie Wei, Jiang Xue Ning and Zhang Zhe), from enemies to working together, then trusting and falling in love each other.

There is also a nice and touching sisterhood between the Jiang sisters, their sisterhood develops naturally and they support each other with fairness, not like the typical hating and plotting against each other as we normally seen in the drama. Best friends’ relationship between the characters (Xie Wei/Zhang Zhe/Lu Xian/fake Xue DingFei/2 Xie Wei's side kicks, Yan Lin/Jiang Xue Ning, Yan Lin/Shen Jie, Jiang Xue Ning/ShenZhiYi) are matured, full of loyalty, funny and understanding with each other.

The overall performance of the main and supporting casts are splended and well acted, although most of them are young actors and actresses in term of their age. Whatmore the actors are good looking.

They portrayed their characters beautifully and with a lot of tensions, especially for Zhang Ling He and Wang Xing Yue, and last but not least of course Bai Lu to whom you know what to expect from her, although she looks much older than her supposedly her real character's age in this drama. As for Zhang Ling He, Wang Xing Yue and Zhou Jun Wei, this is my first time seeing their acting, but love them all, looking forward to see their other dramas.

Overall, this is the best cdrama in 2023 I have seen so far, full of excitement and fun, and the best part of it is it has a happy ending. Don't miss out, it is a must watch historical cdrama.

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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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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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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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