Yi nian guan shan

I was drawn to the show by the posters and trailers but the male lead turned out to be too disappointing. His crying scenes are unimpressive and lack emotions. It seems the actor doesn't have a deep understanding about the character and his performance is too flat and short of layers.

The famale lead's performance is acceptable, neither a breakthrough nor a surprise. Though she moves around in a slightly wooden way, most of the time she is a beautiful picture to behold.

Other characters in the Liu Dao Tang brigade are more or less stereotypes except the princess, who has an engaging and complete character arc.

The character building of Li Tong Guang is such a pity. He could have been a shining character but ended up to be a childish hothead with split personality.

The plot is tight in the beginning, sluggish in the middle (I had to fast forward the kissing scenes), and super fast in the end. The court politics part is a bit shallow and unrealistic.