The Rise of Phoenixes has an intriguing plot and an excellent cast. After watching a few epic dramas produced recently in China, I am beginning to feel that the endings often take on a Japanese style - always sad or tragic. I am starting to associate Chinese dramas with depressive endings. This story could have ended with the hero marrying his love, but the script writer/director chose not to. The overall setting is a little towards the old school of Chinese dramas.

I always suspect that dramas reflect the prevailing sentiments of a country. There is always this pessimistic view that nothing ends in perfection and there is no fairy tale with the ending 'they live happily ever after'. Japanese lived through the tragedy of the atomic bomb and WWII, while the Chinese lived through a century of political upheaval and hardship. Perhaps unhappy endings in romance are common in real life but most people move on after a setback, and we watch dramas for entertainment. A sad ending leaves a bad taste, otherwise I would have given it a overall 10 rating.

The theme songs did not impress initially but I grew to like them. There were little background music in most part of the drama, unlike Ashes of Love which was heavily dramatized by background music. I got to like Chen Kun as the story develops - initially I thought his acting was too pretentious to convince his opponents.

The were some small details which made it laughable. When asked for a token of verification, Zhiwei gave Ningyi a bracelet which she said was given to her when she moved into the Qiu's residence - she was a little girl then, but the bracelet was huge - should have used a pendant.

If I ever edit this story, I would opt for the heroine leaving with Helian and her former dynasty followers, and Ningyi eventually marrying someone deserving to be his empress and without the emotional baggage, for example, Yao's daughter who seems to be a bright and morally upright girl from one of the episodes. Especially since his father is still alive, he could have chosen someone for him. They could then both lead happy separate lives but every now and then, they would retrieve a gift from the other and think of each other, and their spouses would watch on tolerantly but a little unhappily. They could send gifts and congratulatory notes when they each produce an heir to the throne. To have Zhiwei committing suicide was ridiculous as she had so much fighting spirit in her - completely inconsistent with her character.

Chinese dramas like to propagate the belief that people at the top (emperor) lead lonely lives, which is not always true. The emperor made his life into a lonely one.

Chinese dramas really need to work on stronger endings (the Chinese saying: a tiger's head but a snake's tail). Of course, they are still better than many American TV series which do not seem to have proper endings - they just end when the viewership decline. On this note, Chinese dramas are doing much better.