Ok guys, so I had really high hopes for this drama. Not only was it recommended to me by my dad (my dad watches Chinese dramas all day everyday now that he's retired so I rely on a lot of his recommendations since he knows what type of Chinese dramas I like!), but it was actually pitched to me as being similar to Goodbye My Princess which I absolutely LOVED! Like I have never watched a drama that I enjoyed so much I wanted to watch it all over again until I watched Goodbye My Princess. It was also pitched to me as something "even more tragic than Goodbye My Princess" so I was like WHAT? more tragic? How? It's also got really high ratings on MDL so I thought, heck, this must be something truly amazing.
This drama was disappointing. I'm actually sad to say that it didn't meet my expectations at all.
I love a romance drama, throw in some tragedy and actual political drama into the mix and I'm sold. This drama was supposed to be romance but ????? Where was the romance? Where was the confession, hugging, kissing scenes?? Literally I struggled through about 10 episodes of this drama thinking ok, the romance is coming, the romance is coming, I can feel it. 24 episodes later and I feel kind of robbed to say the least.
*****As always... spoilers ahead*****
This story is about a girl named Shiyi (FL) who becomes the disciple of Jr Prince Nancheng (ML - who is the King's uncle supposedly), he's kind of like a monk character but without the shaved head. By that I mean, back in the day he swore to never get married and never have kids because he wanted to show that he wasn't interested in becoming king. Fair enough. You can already tell that his destiny with Shiyi was doomed from day one (this happens before he even met Shiyi). Fast forward, Shiyi becomes his disciple and eventually close confidant, the two of them strike up some sort of close but I-can't-have-you-nor-should-I-be-with-you type of relationship. Now this is basically the same shit for about 15-18 episodes of this 24 episode epic, the two are close but are never an item. Even more so, there's a political aspect to this story in which Shiyi is actually engaged to the Crown Prince as part of some old agreement between the king and Shiyi's mother to better their family relations with the royal family. The engagement gets called off at some point but the Crown Prince is obsessed with her and strikes up some sort of dirty bargain to get re-engaged to her again later in the series. Shiyi gets shipped off to the royal household and basically becomes prisoner for the Crown Prince who is basically evil and prevents anyone seeing Shiyi. Whilst Shiyi is cut off from all outside communications, the Crown Prince partners with his wife's evil father and they basically trap Prince Nancheng and kill him, this news is barred from Shiyi for about 2 episodes until she eventually finds out from her mother and then - kills herself on her wedding day.
In terms of tragedy factor, I felt the plot was weak, I personally felt nothing for the relationship between Prince Nancheng and Shiyi, by the time he was murdered by his nephew, I still felt nothing. I actually felt the relationship was very one sided by Shiyi, you could tell she was obsessed with her "master" but I never seemed to get anything back from Prince Nancheng, apart from the way he looks at her. I honestly wasn't there for this relationship from beginning to end and I just felt it was lacking some sort of passion.
In terms of the political plot, again that was weak af, like the Empress Dowager was an evil bitch from the beginning and she basically wanted to rule with a puppet king, so you get this whole drama of her enthroning these children as king so she could control them and therefore control the court for about 75% of the series. But then obviously these kids grow up and then she gets betrayed and then gets her revenge. The woman even kills her own son. This typical Empress Dowager plot is kind of dry and by the time she gets overthrown by Prince Nancheng and gets sent away to become a nun is kind of the end for her, until she gets killed by some other insignificant villain. Like she tries to recycle the same evil idea twice which makes this even more damning in my books. Then there's the capture and murder of Prince Nancheng, like where did this idea even develop from, all that was mentioned was "you should get rid of him" to the Crown Prince and then next thing you know, it's just so easily executed, Prince Nancheng being the smart, courageous, loyal general that he is, gets trapped and captured then murdered so easily in the space of about 1 episode. I mean...
Then there's the ending, Shiyi's death, her devastation at the thought of marrying her lover's murderer was just too much for her so on her wedding day she climbs up to the top of the building and then jumps off. In the most-classic-not-classic way, the Crown Prince (basically Emperor) is about 0.5 seconds too late to save her from jumping and she dies. She dies in the most non-elaborate way either, no blood, just a soft plop onto the ground.
One thing I will say for anyone reading this is that if you like something different in terms of a romance and if you like subtle romances then you might enjoy this. One other thing is that this drama actually has a part 2 called Forever and Ever (it's currently airing now) and it's basically Prince Nancheng and Shiyi in the present day and from what I heard, it's a lot less tragic as in it's basically the happy ending for both of them but in another life. I quite like how the drama ended where before she died, she hoped that they would meet in another life and be able to get married, then the ending scene pans to this board of writing that Shiyi wrote that was incomplete, I quite liked how that signified that their story is not yet finished and that there would be a part 2 - I found that quite artistic and well done.
Overall, this drama scored very highly on MDL and is quite popular in China from what I heard, I wouldn't say that this drama was my cup of tea at all. I prefer non-subtle romances, lots of flirting, the confessions, the hugs, the kisses LOL so maybe this is vastly different to what I expected and what I am used to enjoying.
I would give this drama a 6/10 and not sure if I would watch part 2 of this story in Forever and Ever but maybe I will and perhaps it will change my opinion on One and Only.
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