I want to start by warning others from making the same mistake that I did and pre-judging the show by the reviews. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but in my opinion Lady and Liar is a million times better than Cruel Romance. The story (with the exception of episodes 20-42, I'll elaborate on this in a bit), the acting, the music, EVERYTHING is better than Cruel Romance. To be honest, I only watched the first two episodes of Cruel Romance and I could barely get through it. but after one episode of Lady and Liar, I was totally hooked.

*SPOILER ALERT* Okay so I'm going to put a ton of spoilers because I need to vent about my frustration of this series. I LOVE IT so much I gave it a high rating because it did start out as the BEST love story I've seen in a Chinese drama. But as I mentioned above (episodes 20-42) broke my heart, but because I love the first 20 epsidoes so much I only deducted .5 stars from the story. See? That's how love works, maybe someone should have explained this to the writers before they butchered what could have been the most epic romance drama EVER, by making the characters behave out of character, just in my opinion to keep viewers on the edge of their seat . *SPOILER ALERT*

This love story is comparable to that of the King and I, where the story begins with the leading actress having a love interest before she meets her the leading actor. And then using blackmail, the lead actor tries to get the lead actress for herself, leaving her former love interest heart broken and me, as the viewer as well. I wish the writers would stop making it so difficult to dislike the character competing with the male lead. He is honorable, loyal and loving. Fortunately, unlike the King and I, the male lead (Bai Zheng Qing/Bai Lan/Er Ye) is just as honorable, loyal and loving, except for when he is trying to make Tiffany Tang's character (Jian Xing) fall in love with him, then he does get a bit sneaky, but he is sooooooooooo devoted to her, that I can forgive his less than honest methods of courtship. And it's not like he ever forced her to do anything she didn't want to do (I really don't like story lines when the male lead is violent towards the female lead). True he took advantage of her memory loss to get her to date him, but their dating was so sweet and innocent. He wouldn't even hold her hand and she had to initiate the first kiss. And he was willing to stab himself nearly to death to save her life. which to me is the ultimate proof of love (not the stabbing part, but the willingness to lay down your life). What MORE DOES SHE WANT? I also like that his character has this dual nature of being incredibly confident, but at the same time a bit shy and vulnerable when it comes to being with the woman he loves. And very fortunately unlike the King and I, there is no cruel treatment of the leading actress by the leading actor, which totally ruined that particular drama for me. I hate when the story plot takes such a unexpected turn that it pulls me out of the drama and back to reality and makes me question how realistic everything is. Unfortunately that also happened for me int his drama. I was so engrossed in the love story that I felt my heart break when Jian Xing left Bai Zheng Qing to go back to her former fiance even though she still hadn't regained her memory and in her current mindset was in love with and MARRIED to Bai Zheng Qing. I capitalized the word married even though I'm a modern woman myself, but I thought in these type of historical series they like to play the we're married card and marriage trumps everything, especially in the historical periods. If this drama took place anytime after the 70s then yes I could buy that she would just be like" screw this I'm going to get myself a lawyer and divorce your lying ass", but during the time period it was set in, I just didn't feel like it was realistic how she tried to end their marriage. But regardless of the time period, my biggest point of contention and frustration against the writers is how quickly she was willing to believe her former fiance (Sheng Jie Wen) over her own husband (granted he's a dishonest husband, but like I said I forgive him because of how devoted he is to Jian Xing). I've never experience memory loss thank goodness, so I can't relate to how she must feel to have to rely on others to tell her who she is and how she is related to others surrounding her, but I can relate to having feelings for people and you don't just fall out of love with them even if you're mad at them. It just doesn't make sense, how quickly she decided to leave a man she claimed to love, married and been living with and went through life and death experiences with and then walks off with another who she doesn't know anymore due to memory loss and starts living with him and dating him just because he tells her she's supposed to? If you don't remember someone, I'm guess you don't have much feelings for them compared to someone you are MARRIED to. How stupid is she? And if she's that stupid, then I can't watch the drama anymore if I don't respect the female lead. I love that Tiffany Tang always portrays these morally strong characters, but in this particular series she kinda took it too far to the point that it compromised her love. I mean she married into the mafia, what does she think that she married a saint? He already compromised so much for her and changed his ways to make her happy. Anyway, this is why I skipped over nearly all the episodes between 20-42, because I couldn't watch her keep getting stupider anymore without wanting to throw something at my laptop. And I felt so bad for Bai Zhen Qing cause he just lets her do whatever she wants. In the end I also lost respect for him because he just stands by while his wife moves in with her former fiance and treats him like dirt beneath her feet every time she meets. Like I get that she's angry and I actually enjoy when the female lead gets mad at the male lead because then it's another opportunity for the viewer to watch while he proves his lover to her yet again. But I think Tiffany Tang's portray was a bit too self-righteous to the point that whenever she runs into Bai Zhen Qeng after leaving him she doesn't even seem like she's conflicted between love and hate. It seems like she just straight up hates him as if he was the villain in the story. Like, how could the writers ruin the story so badly? If I can't believe that their love for each other is undying (which to me is the whole point of watching these types of romances), then I can't enjoy the series. And Jian Xing's incredible stubbornness bordering on incredible stupidity, just made me want to tear out my hair. Like how could she claim to have ever loved her husband when on the word of a stranger (to her anyway) she just ends their incredibly romantic and hard earned marriage to go back to a life that she doesn't even remember? Like if she had regained the memories on her own then I would buy some of it. But who leaves their husband to go away with a stranger, who they don't remember?

And throughout all of her stupidity and stubbornness, Bai Zheng Qeng continues to remain loyal and devoted and protective of his wife. He's so stupid too! I wanted to shout at him, where are your balls?

In summary, I had to stop watching the King and I because the male lead became too cruel to the female lead, but in the Lady and the Liar, i couldn't watch anymore for the opposite reason, the female lead became too cruel o the male lead. Conflict is good for building suspense, but I can't believe in the love story when the leading characters try to kill one another. It kills the story.

Anyway, now that I got the venting part of this review out of my system, lets talk about what I did love about the series. EVERYTHING in episodes 1-20 and also the last 3 episodes when Jian Xing finally gets off her self-righteous high horse and realizes what an amazing husband she has. Hopefully his balls are still in tact.

Bai Zhen Qeng is my new favorite leading character in a Chinese romance drama series. He's all my other favorite leading characters (Tuoba Zhen from Princess Wei Yang, Chu Bei Jie from General and I and yes even the despicable King Ying Zheng from the King's Woman before he tried to kill and torture Lady Li) rolled into one. Loyal, kind, loving, devoted and courageous (maybe a bit underhanded) when it comes to being with the women he loves. And he's a bad ass when it comes to martial arts. He faces danger and death without ever flinching and without needing his loyal henchman to do it for him. And he's known by all in Shanghai as the wolf. Enough said.

The leading female character Jian Xing is just okay. She is reminiscent of Tiffany Tang's portrayal of Princess Wei Yang, except a bit less mature, and very innocent and naive (probably due to memory loss, which is understandable).

If I could re-write the series, and I will do it here just because I need proper closure (yes clearly I get a bit too invested in these dramas lol), I would re-write the episodes 20-42. Beginning with the fact that Jian Xing doesn't so readily believe whatever her former fiances says. Granted he is telling the truth lol, but still, what happened to being loyal to your husband? Especially when he's super sexy and good at kicking ass and willing to die for you? And then maybe Bai Zhen Qeng has her former fiance locked up for breaking into his house and startling his wife who is suffering from memory loss. And yes of course because Jian Xing is no submissive leading lady, she will question the truth of her former fiance's words and maybe she will even believe them and be a bit mad at Bai Zhen Qeng, but she will also realize it it late to do anything about it, not just because she they are married or even because her husband is clearly so devoted to her and saved her life over and over again, but because she has fallen in love with him and she can't stop loving him even if she tried.

And then to throw in some conflict maybe she does leave him, but not to be with her former fiance, but to sort out all the conflicting feelings she has about being in love with someone who has been lying to her all this time (albeit for good reasons). And then maybe she tries to live on her own for a while, but then she find herself in a dangerous situation again and of course her yummy husband has to come and save her, proving yet again how brave and loving he is. But he almost dies in the process and watching him almost die makes her realize that she doesn't care that he lied and then she forgives him and says goodbye and sorry to her former fiance, because he's not a bad guy (again the writers should make it easier to dislike the second male lead) and tells him maybe in another life time, but she can't find it in herself to leave her husband even if she wanted to. and of course Bai Zhen Qeng is so grateful to his wife as he always is whenever she forgives him for something or shows him even the tiniest bit of kindness (his character is almost pathetic in this sense) that he even has compassion for her former fiance (his brother) and helps him start his life over.

And they ALL LIVE HAPPILY EVER AFTER. THE END.

oh and maybe throw in a pregnancy surprise in between all the conflict. That's always a fun twist, even if it is a bit over used. Also it makes total sense in historical times when there is very little to no contraception methods :D

If anyone knows of a similar series that doesn't disappoint me as deeply as this series does, but instead has less erratic plot lines for the love interests to overcome, please let me know? Thank you!