Love the costumes and the chemistry, not so much the plot.

With the perfect amount of bright colors and modern silhouettes without looking tacky,     The King’s Woman 秦时丽人明月心 first caught my eyes because of its look (and Dilraba).   The series  is adapted from the prequel to animation Qin’s Moon and retells the attempted assassination of Ying Zheng (Zhang Binbin), the king who’ll eventually become China’s first emperor,  by Jing Ke (Liu Chang), modified to become a huge love triangle featuring Gongsun Li (Dilraba).

The series opens with some classic clichés that they work in with mixed ability, including but not limited  to  having a  long-lost childhood true love that you’ve only met once,  no one recognizing the female lead is female, accidentally sharing a bed, the  rich guy pretending his underling is his superior because we all know relationships that start with lies end well,  and one or more lead’s guardian dying, but not before reminding them to hate their romantic interest for their parents’ sins.

Zhang Binbin is surprisingly (to me) the best actor of the bunch, and nails all the romance scenes, be it awkward first meetings, head over heels in love, or possessive creep.  Continue reading →