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Palace- The Lock Heart Jade

Gong aka Palace: The Lock Heart Jade aka 宫

Synopsis: from wiki addicts Luo Qing Chuan is a modern day girl with a love of history who accidentally travels back in time to Emperor Kang Xi's era of the Qing dynasty. She becomes embroiled in the princes' struggle for the throne and is torn between her love for Yin Si, the eighth prince, and Yin Zhen, the fourth prince and future Emperor Yong Zheng. Caught in the crossfire of political intrigue, her wit and historical knowledge serves her well in her bid to stay alive as she begins to realize that true history is much darker and uglier than books portray.

Broadcast: Jan 31, 2011 -Feb 19, 2011

Episode: 39 (tv)/ 35 (dvd)

Cast:

I tend to avoid chinese dramas due to the annoying dubbing that I hated. However ever since I watched Scarlet Heart I have learned to endure with it. Recently I watched Sound of Desert which I believe is a chinese drama and was addicted to it so would definitely recommend it. I am currently in the state where I am hungry for some romantic chinese dramas. So came across this one under romance label in viki. It already has the 3rd season currently filming which shows this is definitely popular. I mean Scarlet Heart which I adored only had a second season. It's plot sounds similar to Scarlet Heart so let's see if this will be good.

Those that have watched it please let me know how it compares to Scarlet Heart.

Best Time

Best Time

Synopsis from viki :
The stories of four young people are interweaved with their best-kept secrets. Su Mann, a white collar, backbone, elite but ‘leftover’, screwed up every arranged blind date until she met her prince charming--Song Yi--since her high school days. To pursue her love, Su Mann followed Song Yi to join the MG Company with a fake resume fabricated by her best girlfriend

Broadcast: 2013

Episode: 47 +2 Sp

Cast:

Janine Chang as Su Man

Wallace Chung as Lu Licheng

Jia Nailiang as Song Yi

Catherine Han as Xu Lianshuang

Watching it for Janine. First saw her in Black & White but didn't really liked here there. Then watched

Sunny Happiness and fell in love with her. Then I followed her for Ring Ring Bell and loved it also. Viki was promoting Le Chun Kai at that time and I couldn't stop watching it and most recently You Light Up My Star. Everything that she was in I loved. So I think this one would just be a good. Apparently this is adapted from the novel written by tong hua which is the same writer who wrote scarlet heart which I watched even during my finals.

Tell me what you think of this drama. Hit or a miss. 

Clear Midsummers Night

Clear Midsummers Night or 盛夏晚晴天

Synopsis from viki:
The daughter of a real estate mogul Xia Wan Qing (Yang Mi), has seemingly no way of retreating after a friend's betrayal and her boyfriend backing out of their wedding. Fortunately, she's saved by business genius Qiao Jin Fan (Hawick Lau). Jin Fan is a "playboy" and the future successor for Qiao corporation. He extends an offering hand and together they embark on a path of revenge. Each for reasons of their own, begin a love with "uncertain motives." After enduring circumstances because of their families' competing interests and a number of conspiracies the two find true love.

Broadcast Period: Feb 15, 2013
Episodes : 51
Cast:
Hawick Lau


What caught my eyes was Hawick Lau. Haven't seen him since virtues of harmony that I watched when I was in my single digits. He looks just as suave. This seems interesting because her onscreen romance is also his actual wife. The plot also seems interesting. A female lead has a revenge while male leads helps her achieve her goal while falling in love.

East of Eden

East of Eden

Synopsis: from viki

A father’s tragic death, two sons seeking revenge on their father’s killer, a ruthless businessman, a scorned woman, two babies who are switched at birth – fate shatters the foundations of two opposing families when they discover that they intersect in a shocking way. Lee Dong Chul (Song Seung Heon), who witnessed his father’s tragic death in a coal mining accident, and his younger brother, Dong Wook (Yun Jung Hoon), have spent their lives seeking revenge on Shin Tae Hwan (Jo Min Ki), the managing director of the coal mining company Taesung Group that they believe was responsible for the tragedy. Although Dong Chul works his way up the Asian mafia and Dong Wook becomes a prosecutor, the brothers remain extremely close and share the singular goal of bringing down Tae Hwan and attacking his business ventures. But their worldview is irrevocably destroyed when they discover that Dong Wook was switched at birth and he is actually Tae Hwan’s son. Can Dong Wook continue to prosecute his real father, and how can Dong Chul feel the same way toward the man he thought was his younger brother but is really the son of his enemy? “East of Eden” is a 2008 South Korean drama series directed by So Won Young. It won the Grand Prize and numerous other acting awards at the 2008 MBC Drama Awards.

Broadcast: Aug 25, 2008- Mar 10, 2009
Episode: 50
Cast:

Main Characters:

Song Seung-heon as Lee Dong-chul

Shin Dong-woo as Dong-chul (5 years old)

Kim Bum as Dong-chul (15 years old)

Yeon Jung-hoon as Lee Dong-wook

Park Gun-tae as Dong-wook (10 years old)

Park Hae-jin as Shin Myung-hoon

Won Deok-hyun as Myung-hoon (10 years old)

Lee Da-hae as Min Hye-rin[6]

Han Ji-hye as Kim Ji-hyun

Nam Ji-hyeon as Ji-hyun (10 years old)

Lee Yeon-hee as Gook Young-ran / Grace

Jo Min-ki as Shin Tae-hwan (Myung-hoon's father)

Lee Mi-sook as Yang Chun-hee (Dong-chul and Dong-wook's mother)

Yoo Dong-geun as Gook Dae-hwa (Young-ran's father)

Supporting characters:

Dennis Oh as Mike Packard

Hwang Jung Eun as Kim So Hyun

This aired in 2008. What drew to me is obvious the star studded cast. Usually in viki the cast images would only be 1 or 2 characters. But for this show there were endless cast images. And it won like endless awards. So I definitely think this is a must watch

Tell me if this is a great or not so I can decided whether to start it or not.

Inborn Pair

Inborn Pair or 真愛找麻煩

Synopsis from wikipedia:
Two strangers, who never had much luck in the love arena, found themselves betrothed by their families. Figuring they will never find true love, they agreed to the arranged marriage. They bickered throughout their marriage. But bickering slowly gave way to genuine fondness for one another. In the end, the couple discovered that true love is not to be found but has to be cultivated.

cast:
Chris Wang as ke wei xiang 
Annie Chen as Song Yi Jei
Xie Kun Da as Ke Wei Cheng
Puff Guo as Li Er

Decided to play this on my radar because of Chris Wang. Saw him in Fierce Wife and loved him. SO goodlooking and he reminds me of Aaron Kwok who was my childhood idol.

Aparrently according to wiki this drama had high ratings. After this ended the production company split the member into two and made two new dramas in hopes of another success so I conclude that this has to be good. 

Tell me what you thought about this if you have already watched it.

Sound of the Desert Review

Sound of the Desert (风中奇缘) or Da Mo Yao (大漠谣)

picture credits to drama wiki

Episodes: 35

Broadcast Period: Oct 1, 2014- Nov 27, 2014

Synopsis:

Xin Yue was raised up by wolves but encounters a man, that later becomes her foster father, giving her a family and teaching her to live among humans. However warfare destroyed her family forcing her to flee and live once again roaming with the wolves in the desert. She finally decides to venture out into the city of Jian An when a merchant she helped out kept telling her the beauty of the city which reminded her of her father telling her the wondrous stories of Jian An City. There she encounters the harsh truth of the city and is determined to adapt to city life. Along her journey, she is helped out by a calm and kindhearted Mo Xun and an audacious General Wei Wuji, both of which she met in the desert. She falls in love with one of them but was rejected. How will she deal with the rejection and who will she choose in the end?

Review: 10/10 This is really just all about romance-which I love. There isn't much on imperial fighting until about episode 28 if your the type that likes watching schemes and plotting. If you don't like romance I would say to skip it. I read the plot from viki and it sounded interested. I watched scarlet heart and became a big fan of Liu Shi Shi and was excited to see another production of Liu Shi Shi. Eddie Peng and Hu Ge are people that I've heard of before but I have never watched anything they were in before. However I am more surprised at other A-list  that I know of-Maggie Cheung and Fala Chen that were from TVB. So I am excited to see what this has to offer.

I rate this 10/10 because it hit all the right spots for romance that I crave right now and considering how I finished the entire drama in 4 days. A large part of the high rating comes from being a fan Liu shi shi and Eddie Peng's gaze. However I have to say everyone played their role well. I was truly impressed with Eddie Peng's acting. Some people were saying not to draw comparisons between Liu Shi Shi role in scarlet heart however at some parts I was almost confused about the difference between the two characters and kept on making comparisons unknowingly. The two characters and plots were both very similar and Liu Shi Shi plays them exactly alike so it was difficult to not compare.

They have this in viki but I watched it off youtube from a uploader called mj01991. The video quality is ultraHD and I highly recommend to watch off of that. However they only have english sub up to ep 28. I watched the rest with my minimal chinese character and mandarin knowledge. I think they are still in the process of subbing it.

sidenote: my mother didn't even bother to watch another episode after the first episode because first of all this is in mandarin and she doesn't like to look at subtitles and two because she felt Liu Shi Shi wasn't as pretty compared to when she filmed scarlet heart. I read some comments that said the same. They felt that Liu Shi Shi and Hu Ge looked a bit tired. I felt she was the same as in scarlet heart and didn't catch on to any tiredness. I felt that Hu Ge only liked tired because his character was supposed to be melancholy and sickly all the time. One of the reason why I continued to watch after episode one is cause I felt the costumes were all nicely done and the scenes were so pretty. My sister who doesn't usually watch asian dramas asked me what the plot was because she couldn't figure it out after watching episode one.

Cast:

Liu Shi Shi or Cecilia Liu plays Xin Yue. A girl who lives alone with wolves in the desert after losing her father in warfare. She narrowly escaped from being captured and must live in hiding and thus changed her name to Xin Yue. She is an innocent but brave girl with strong animal instinct and has some serious fighting skills. After living alone in the desert for a period of time she decides to explore the city. 

Eddie Peng plays Wei Wuji. He is a hotheaded arrogant general that does not care about titles nor power. Although he is cold and rude to other people he shows his sincerity to Xin Yue who he falls for, protecting her yet teasing her whenever he can. The king favors him due to his superiority in archery, swordsmanship and mastermind in military tactics that is unmatched by any other person which contributes to his haughtiness. He is part of the royal family-his aunt is Empress Wan, his uncle is a general Wan whom care for him like a father and married to his uncle is Eldest Princess. Deep in his heart he feels an emptiness since his father left his mother once she was pregnant.







Hu Ge plays Mo Xun or Jiu Ye. He is kindhearted, caring and magnanimous. However, he is handicapped and due to this complex although he loves Xin Yue he keeps his distance and hides his true thoughts. He is a merchant with an immense amount social connection and power but prefers not to draw attention. His uncle is the king. Due to his grandfather's origination, he has underlying duties that he must accomplish.











extended casts:

                               Kristal Tin as Hong Gu             Fala Chen as Qin Xiang              Shi Xiaoqun as Eldest princess

                         Maggie Cheung as Wan Empress       Qin Hao as Wu wei Li                    Han Dong as Li Ji

the rest I don't know but wondering if anyone know who they are. I feel that I will see them in the future.
The first guy (I have seen him in scarlet heart -was delighted to see him again) plays chen yen guang.
Second guy looks like a new rising star plays li cheng
Third girl looks like Jessica C but I don't know if its her
Fourth girl plays Mao Yun Zhu



I have heard of Hu Ge and Eddie Peng many times but I have yet to see any works from them. Before there was a collaboration of Eddie Peng and Ethan Ruan but I wasn't a big fan of ethan and eddie just looked to cocky in there so didn't decide to watch it.


I discovered hot actor Eddie Peng. The drama will forever change my views of Eddie Peng. I can even declare he is my most favorite male artist right now. He looks a lot more captivating when he is acting compared to in pictures. Because of playing the character of a General his gaze has this determination which is very manly that I fell head over heels for him. In the first scene, I didn't really like him that much. Just another pretty boy with a nice role. But the determination and life he infuses into his character is so alluring. I watched the NGs and interview for the drama and his normal face is just all cute and smiley, but when portraying his role he is able to bring out the arrogant, confident, prideful, audacious felling that is part of the character. You get this strong charismatic gaze from his eyes-  like light is shining from his eyes and when he is fighting fire is spitting from his eyes. He gives General Wei a strong confident charming character that I don't think anyone else could exceed. Usually when people portray an arrogant character, the person also becomes hateful but he is able to balance the arrogance with his gaze and cute face makes the person charming.

I have to say again everyone's acting was astounding. And it deserves a watch unless you prefer a drama with more of a plot and less romance.



Spoilers **************************************************************************

most favorite song is also opening theme: pacifying the world for you by Li Jian Qing
I like the chorus from "white hair ballad" aka Bai Tou Yin by Della Ding.
Hu Ge also sings a song for this drama but that song didn't get me entranced

My favorite scene is ep 16 where Xiao Yue is in the midst of bathing and Wuji burst into her room and wouldn't leave while she is completely naked. He then abducts her and takes her with him back to where his army is stationed. While on horseback Xiao Yue is calling him names, and he goes yes Im here. Loved that part.






other parts that i really liked were:

 the fight scene in the beginning. You can feel Wuji's protectiveness and fearlessness










The moment when she was on all fours it was so cute and then jiu ye helped apply medicine onto her infected ear

 this is where we first see instances of her past that she wants to hide from. It was such a cute moment that they were hugging together and wuji reassuring her that he is here and there is nothing to be afraid of.

Our main lead Liu Shi Shi has oh so many different outfits. I thought they all looked pretty. I liked the blue one with the head veil the most.

I think the grandest outfit of all was worn by Fala Chen










My comments while watching the drama. These are thoughts, frustrations and questions I had while watching the drama

ep 1 Did anyone notice the wire at about 4:33

ep 10 is the scene where Xiao Yue gazes at the lit room of Jiu Ye while WuJi also silently watches Xiao Yue. Even though he know Xiao Yue loves Jiu Ye he doesn't leave her.









ep 16 is my favorite bathroom peep scene. The whole episode was pretty enjoyable for me.

they were officially together after ep 18. Through that time I kept on feeling she doesn't really like him. I kept getting the feeling that she will later leave general wei and get back with jiu ye. Even after she said she would marry general wei, i felt like she only did that because she felt that she didn't belong anywhere anymore since his wolf brother also has a family and wanted to belong somewhere.

ep 19 I always felt that wei wu ji was the second male lead that never gets the main girl. I always felt that he was going to die or something bad was going to happen to him so when he lost the fight with the other kingdom's king, I totally thought they were going to kill off wei wu ji's character in this episode. And then everytime he went to war, I felt that something bad was going to happen to him or that he would lose in war and then lose confidence and his relationship with xiao xue would turn sour.

We also keep seeing jiu ye regret and keep trying to get back xiao wei but it was pretty annoying to me. When she basically proposed to him, he decided to push her away, even after a final notice he decided to decline. She left and only after that does he regret.

ep 20 I thought it was cute that both of them snuck into each other's houses. General Wei was disappointed when he couldn't find her in her own room and thought she had lingering feeling for jiu ye and went to jiu ye's house. I thought there was going to be a misunderstanding.

ep 22 when wei wu ji finds out that he isn't able to marry xiao yue b/c the king want him to marry a princess, i was like no. this is just the same as scarlet heart. the king is the main problem in all dramas.

ep 23 i was terribly afraid their marriage would break apart. I also didn't understand why he had to bite her. anger? to leave a mark? punishment? I conclude that biting could mean leaving a mark claiming the person is yours. wu ji was angry and felt that xiao yue marked jiu yue so he decided to leave a mark on xiao yue claiming that xiao yue is his women.

ep 25 First he has endured many wound but is at the brink of death just by just falling off a horse then suddenly he's as healthy as a tiger. seriously @_@ please make it more believable

ep 26 I totally thought their marriage was over. She missed her timing and general wei hit the breaking point. However, so glad they made up. and of course the hot scene

ep 28 I started to like back jiu ye after seeing how much he would risk for xiao yue

ep 29 I didn't think think that empress was a manipulative person but after this episode she started to show her true colors.

ep 33: so many different thoughts in this ep

I had not expected li qi to die. Why do all the good guys have to die. I wanted him to work together with general wei and be good brothers. I even had the wishful thinking of having general wei and xiao yue help li qi and qin xiang leave palace so they could live happily ever after. Then after li qi was killed the first thing I thought of was madam qiang will never let go of her revenge.

At first I didn't understand why general wei would not say he was set up in a trap  but later figured out that if he said something, that would expose that his aunt had set up that trap so that they could destroy the Li family.


ep 34 I actually thought that madam qin xiang decided to let go of everything and live in peace because she decided to send her son away so he wouldn't be in the fight for power. But then later on you see she still has hatred and is scheming to kill both general wei and the wan family.

using other's pity to kill someone. I can't believe his cousin tried to kill wuji that way. General wei went to save him yet his nephew lured him there to kill him instead.

ep 35 end-I couldn't believe I was on the last episode. I like that it was a happy ending but it was so sad for Jiu Ye. He lost both legs and ended up wandering in the desert. However I felt that this is the definition of  love. True love needs no repayment. As long as the person you love is happy you are happy. Although lots of dramas try to display this concept this is the only drama that shows this concept well.

How did you like the drama. Did you think it deserved a 10/10 rating?