It's like a new c-drama each week for me recently because I've been so bored during lockdown and my new job doesn't start until next week. Long story short, I've had a break from working in general in start of December so I've been powering through dramas LOL.
If you're familiar with many historical c-dramas, Legend of Dugu is one of those chasing-after-the-throne-plot dramas. In a nutshell, it's about a family with the Dugu name having a prophecy that they will one day rule the world, it's about wives of the Dugu family helping their husbands get the throne but peppered with lots of complicated romances and couples that are in love with one another at the beginning of the drama, never getting the chance to actually end up with each other due to fate.
It's actually based on real historical events, the Dugu sisters were real and it's set in the times of the Northern and Southern dynasties. I actually love dramas like this that are based on true historical events, I end up googling so much afterwards and end up down a rabbit hole understanding what happened to everyone according to historical records #nerd.
Anyway, my thoughts on the drama...
*MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD*
The plot was great, I love especially how the drama plays out everyone's characters from when they were young to when they're older, when they have kids etc and then you see some of the lives of the kids too and how they play into the overall plot. It had a really good balance of serious power struggles to sweet romances.
The story was super heavy at the beginning on the relationship and power struggle between Yuwen Yu, Yuwen Hu and Dugu Banrou and their crazy love triangle. Then the story switches to focus on the relationship (less power struggle, more romantic rivalry) between Yuwen Yong, Yang Jian and Dugu Jialuo. In between you have the trouble-maker middle sister Dugu Mantou causing all kinds of havoc because she's just jealous of just about everyone and everything in this entire drama. Then towards the end it's more focused on power and the new emperor rather than any kind of romance.
I must admit although I enjoyed this drama, there were some parts that I just couldn't let go of in terms of how ridiculous it was portrayed, maybe in real historical records, it happened like this, I don't know but to me, it was just pure ridiculousness. I'm going to list out areas where I thought the story was really stupid all based on my opinion of course but I'm sure I'm not the only one...
*MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD*
Mantou being suddenly pregnant even though her relationship with her husband fell bad many years ago - seriously, I think this has to be the dumbest part of the plot. To have a baby, you need to have sex, if you’ve fallen out badly with your husband for years, how did this baby get conceived? And no, Mantou was definitely not romantically linked with anyone else in this drama at this point that we were made aware of. I actually thought her aunt was trolling her when she told her she’s pregnant to keep her in check but it turns out this Mantou popped out twins. What’s even more annoying is that she had girl boy twins and the girl has now disappeared from the drama entirely as if she only had the boy. What did she do? Chuck the girl twin away in a river? Boil her and eat her? Aliens abducted her? That scene wasn’t meant to happen?
Yuwen Hu’s death - OK this one probably annoyed me as much as Mantou’s pregnancy. This guy died way too simply and early on for someone that is the main antagonist of the drama, with supposedly high ambitions. He fell for Yuwen Yong’s trap completely and easily for someone that’s supposed to be cunning and then somehow got killed by arrows and his Ge Shu was also killed when he went to save him. This plot / scene was no red wedding scene (GoT reference to one of the craziest assassination scenes in TV history) but it was just so... non-dramatic. Let me tell you that trap was no elaborate trap either, it was just him taking him to see his mother to read out some poem and then he gets stabbed by Yuwen Yong, then shot to pieces. Now I get that he was upset and still a bit stunned to learn that the daughter he had with Banrou was still alive but yeah, makes so sense how someone that has been presented as so clever and cunning can be taken out like that.
Yang Jian being forever 30 years old - now this one, I’m hoping is just a bad translation. If I went back to really listen to it maybe I could work it out, but Yang Jian claimed he was 30 years old before the time skip then in episode 50, then the time skip happened where we see Lihua and the other kids grow up and there’s this scene where Yang Jian comes back from fighting Qi and Yuwen Yong wanted to promote him to Pillar of State and he tries to reject it saying he’s just 30 years old LOL. I’m hoping it meant 40 because if he’s still 30, he must have been a father at 15 or something.
...and this one just because I hate Dugu Mantou SO MUCH
Mantou always making a reappearance like some bad rash - now this woman... I have no words, she just keeps coming back time and time again and never lets go of her revenge even though she almost got made into a nun at one point. She fails every single time she tries to destroy other people because someone catches her out but still tries to harm Jialuo and Yang Jian and others EVERY DAMN TIME. Honestly, this woman doesn't die until the last 5 minutes of the final episode LOL. If you thought Yuwen Hu was the main villain, think again.
Overall, I can safely say that I enjoyed this drama. I didn't love it when I compare it to Love and Redemption but I definitely found it interesting to learn about the whole Dugu prophecy and how it turned these people crazy back in the day with the desire to rule the world. The power struggles were mostly interesting to watch, the cast were perfect for their roles, production value was pretty decent for a Chinese drama, costumes and scenery were stunning, Hu Bing Qing needs to be in more dramas because she is just so beautiful.
I think I'd give this drama a 7.5/10, enjoyable and worth watching but not the best c-drama I've seen.
No comments:
Post a Comment