C-drama review of The King’s Woman set in (fictional) Qin Dynasty.

 

I totally agree with this reviewer.

 

https://www.alwaysthecriticpod.com/blog-posts/2017/10/07/review-the-kings-woman-c-drama

 

This series can't decide whether it wants to be

 

a romance

 

a kung fu flick

 

a psycho drama --

 

a murder mystery

 

an alpha-female story.

 

and it flung out all these names off stage/off screen which we are supposed to know already.  I just watched the documentary and the Qin Dynasty Epic and I still had trouble recalling who they all were.

 

I think it's depending on Dilraba's star power,

 

but no happy ending either.

 

Too modernized, I think.

 

Yes, too many cliches and the usual tropes, too much kung fu,

 

appealing enough romantic leads

 

but I wish the bodyguard Han Shen got to live.  He was the only cool character who addressed emperor by his first name and looked him in the eye--now that's not possible even in Burma in the 19th century.

 

Convoluted plot and yes, severed deer head straight out of Godfather.

 

But I liked Ying Zheng's mother going crazy and himself on a murderous killing spree on a Handan Street where he had been bullied as a hostage prince, as a child.

 

He then ends up slumped against a column surrounded by corpses.

 

The rest is all concubines and harem intrigue, but for that you would do better watching

 

Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace--very depressing.

 

I can understand why the movie-makers had minority princess/concubine in plot

 

or maybe it was in the original novel, as a show-piece role for Dilraba.

 

However, why not then make it just some usual "old China piece"

 

if not going to include any of Qin Shi Huang Di's major achievements, then why not just make it a generic historical/kung fu plot?

 

I think by trying to make it so many different things, the story-line gets confused.

 

I'm considering if I should watch this to the end.

 

K. M.  Kaung

 

1-10-2023