Just when I had all but given up hope on this one ever airing, The Story of Kunning Palace showed up as an early Christmas present! Bai Lu plays our heroine who is given a second chance to relive her life after her first one ended rather badly due to her selfishness and greed for power. Having learned from first-hand experience that life as an empress is no longer something she wants, our heroine vows to forge a new path for herself…and hopefully, remedy a few wrongs. Unfortunately, fate would not be thwarted so easily as our heroine once again found herself the pupil to the man she feared the most- our hero, the very person who was the mastermind behind the successful rebellion that eventually killed our heroine in her previous lifetime.
First Impression:
I am one who usually avoids any show that has multiple male leads but having read the novel already- and liked it, I was pretty confident I would be okay with Story of Kunning Palace. I think as long as the show makes it pretty obvious who THE male lead is then I don’t mind having a couple of strong secondary male leads.
After waiting for the show to air for so long, I probably went in with too high of an expectation but I am happy to report at six episodes in, I am actually really happy with how Story of Kunning Palace is turning out thus far. I am especially happy with the great chemistry between our two leads! The show has really done a good job showing the very complicated feelings our two leads have for each other. Out of the three male leads, our hero is actually the one who had the least amount of chance with our heroine since fear was her primary emotion towards him in the beginning. If memory serves me right, the author did a good job of keeping a realistic yet steady pacing in developing our two leads’ romance.
One other pleasant surprise is that the show was able to inject humor into the storyline at fairly frequent intervals. The novel’s mood was pretty serious and somber most of the time, so I was really glad that the show kept the overall serious tone of the story but still managed to inject humor when it could.
Novel Comparison:
I feel the show thus far has stayed fairly true to the novel but there were some very notable additions and changes.
-The first change that totally surprised me is the scene where we see Bai Lu as an author in the modern day and telling her editor that she wants her female protagonist to have a second chance to relive her life. I don’t believe this part is in the novel at all.
-The second change is on the character Fang Yin’s backstory. In the novel, Fang Yin was filthy rich but ended up having to donate most of her wealth to the rebels to keep herself alive and was our heroine’s only friend/mentor in the palace. In our heroine’s previous life, Fang Yin had drowned and then woke up with a soul from the modern world. The “new” Fang Yin was obviously someone who was very enterprising in the modern world and was able to make herself very rich. In the novel, our heroine was actually very torn if she should save Fang Yin from being killed because she knew that if Fang Yin didn’t die, then she will not see her old friend again. Moreover, our heroine knew she desperately needed a trusty (and eventually filthy-rich) ally she could count on. After much debating within herself, including admitting to herself that her friend was never truly happy to be snatched away from her real home/world, our heroine saves Fang Yin’s life. Despite knowing it was the right thing to do to save Fang Yin’s life, our heroine nonetheless grieved for “losing” her friend and felt extremely lonely because she felt the modern world Fang Yin would’ve been the only person who could’ve understood her situation.
-This one is a change I am not as certain about since the novel really left it up to the reader’s imagination so it could’ve been just the way the show chose to interpret the story. In the novel, we know Yan Lin had his revenge on our heroine when she was imprisoned in the palace. However, if my memory served me right, I don’t think the novel ever made it clear if Yan Lin forced himself on our heroine or not. In fact, I personally leaned on that Yan Lin most likely didn’t go that far. It IS obvious that he did plenty of psychological torture which of course still had a lot of lingering effect on our heroine. (As the drama portrayed, Yan Lin would show up randomly while she was sleeping so she was always afraid to sleep.) One thing I really liked in the novel (which I think the show is doing a good job portraying) is that while our heroine has been hurt by Yan Lin she is also fully aware that she is the one who did him wrong first so even if there are moments she is hunted by what she suffered under Yan Lin’s hands, her heart ached more for how that sunny youth had been destroyed by her cruelty.
-One last thing I want to applaud the show on is how perfectly they cast Zheng Zhe’s character! This is the one character that was our heroine’s “White Moon Light” (a Chinese word to describe a person’s crush that is totally unattainable like the moon because the person seems so perfect in every way). Zheng Zhe’s character is one, in a perfect world, we would probably all wish could have a happy ending with our heroine.
While reading the book, I was a bit worried I would love Zheng Zhe’s character too much to ship our two leads, but the author did a great job at allowing the reader to have reasons to love both male leads.
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Thank you for reviewing this drama.
This article talks about the perfect Zhang zhe actually I found him annoying and unappealing compared to the charismatic dark ML a combination of dark and light is appealing a Mr perfect is bland and this described Zhang zhe
Agree! Zhang Zhe’s character in the drama is too extreme, too upright and boring.
Thanks for this, ninja, insightful as always! I do love when your compare dramas to the original novels!! The part where she’s a novelist threw me, but I know Chinese sensors can be sensitive about time-travel, right? I guess reliving a timeline might be deemed a type of time-travel, hence making it clear this just a ‘story’. But aside from this, I’m loving it and duly pleased that Zhang Linghe is growing well as an actor. I definitely prefer him when he’s playing a more serious character – no moping is always a bonus!! Bai Lui is stellar. Definitely will be happily watching the rest!
Thanks for the review, Ninja.
I watched the cast interview back in April, where Zhang Linghe comes across as sweet and friendly, so the mean bastard Xie Wei character was a shock for me! LOL.
Also had a good laugh at the “Joy of Life” get around for the transmigration trope ban.
Hi Ninja, I’m really liking this drama too. I just wished that she would have returned Yan Lin’s love back when he was a happy-go-lucky viscount. Can you explain what is a ‘viscount’ and what is the difference in role between Earl vs Marquis in the ancient court? I’m also confused as to why the Xie/Yan families became hostile after Ding Fei’s mom died. Thanks so much!
The problem with translating an ancient China book/show to English is that most of the time I think the translators really do have to take some liberties. In actual Chinese history, we obviously would have very different titles as compare to say, an English court. Therefore, any titles you get here, will be more of a guess. Now, I am no history buff so perhaps someone did really put in the work to figure out what English title would be equivalent of what Chinese titles. I did find Wiki’s page on Chinese nobility helpful when I was trying to figure out different Chinese titles.
As far as Xie/Yan families becoming hostile…do you mean towards the imperial family? While the official story is that little Ding Fei died a hero, but we can safely guess from what our hero did in the previous lifetime (killed the imperial family) AND the current reactions of the imperial family towards that massacre history that Ding Fei’s “death” was probably result of something shameful the imperial family committed. We can also assume Ding Fei’s mother’s death probably had a lot to do with her heart break over losing her son so that’s another reason for the hostility.
I’m in the middle of the novel and I’ve caught many insinuations in how she describes it, that Yan Lin did force himself. She even says she can’t forget what happened. I read these parts before watching them in the show so I do not believe the drama influenced how I read it. I think the novel is what makes their relationship more tragic on-screen because there is no return from what she remembers. For me, I think the main difference between the drama and novel (other than what you mentioned) is how I view Xie Wei. He is more expressive in the drama and he has a larger presence in it. I think we also understand his feelings more than in the novel. So while I am enjoying the novel, I am also enjoying how I can combine both novel and drama to get a fuller experience.
I am reading it through the second time and I am thinking you are right. That probably would make Xie Wei’s reaction (feeling of guilt) at the end make sense as well. It really does make our heroine that much more admirable. No matter how wrong Xie Wei was and how justified she was to hate him, she is willing to admit her own wrong and empathize how much she must have hurt him.
This one is on my to-watch list. Hoping it eventually makes it to either Netflix or Viki.