The trailer and the beginning of the drama were fantastic. Strong characters, gripping plot and amazing chemistry between the main characters. The plan was to give us a man who is a walking red flag, a female assassin, a world full of enemies and a budding sexy love will be the ones who should hate each other. Unfortunately, we got the standard court intrigue, siblings competing for power in the palace and martyrdom love.
Prince Murong Jing He of the Great Yan Dynasty reclaims Qingzhou, but after his victory, the city is destroyed by fire. Accusations spread that he ordered the destruction in retaliation for a supposed betrayal, earning him the title of "Butcher General". In the chaos, Mei Lin loses her family and swears revenge. She joins Shadow Works, undergoing rigorous training to become an assassin. Her first mission is to kill Murong Jing He, and she infiltrates his court disguised as one of the Xiyan beauties. However, she discovers that the mastermind behind her mission is none other than Murong Jing He himself.
Kill Me Love Me compared to previous dramas this year is unfortunately rather an average production. This year I published 9 reviews of Chinese dramas, 2 of which were weak and 2 were brilliant, and 3 I abandoned. So it is quite a balanced year for me and Chinese dramas and this drama fits into this trend. It had its strong points - the main actors and the general outline of the series, but the execution and side characters were not as good 😟 Generally the drama can be clearly divided into 4 stages:
2. Development of the plot and characters. The quality of the episodes has dropped slightly because as part of the development of the story too many side topics and additional characters have been introduced. The drama is still good and pleasant to watch but it is getting a bit chaotic. The relationship of the main characters is starting to change.
3. Turning the series upside down. The series is now reaching about episode 20 and it is slowly becoming unclear who is the good guy and who is the bad guy. The plan of bloody revenge is definitely taking place, the enemies are also lovers but those who were supposed to bring peace got lost. The drama is still ok but you can feel the departure from the general concept. It is starting to go bad.
4. The ending. The last 6 episodes were a total flop. The ending should be concise and refer to everything that happened during the entire series, but unfortunately the producers decided to go in a completely different direction and partially destroyed a good drama.
What I had the biggest problem with in this series was the inversion of the character's personality and the change in the tone of the series 😡 Murong Jing He starts the series as a tough guy, degenerate and ruthless, but in the 10th episode (1/3 of the drama) he changes from Mr. Red Flag to Mr. Boring Green. And what's worse, by the end he's just a crying boy. A similar situation occurs with the main character. Mei Lin trained for 10 years to take great revenge and avenge the death of her parents and the burning of her city. She was supposed to be a deadly killer... and they keep saving her. Apart from a few cool fight scenes, she is basically reduced to a damsel in distress. The flame of hot love that the producers gave us in the trailer is only 5 (?) scenes in the actual series. The flame quickly fades out and doesn't return to the screen. The 3rd flop.
I was rather counting on a drama about revenge, not love. I wanted something different than what you normally see in dramas. Unfortunately Princess Royal exploited that theme and that's all I can hope for this year.
Kill Me Love Me didn't just take place between two brothers and two kingdoms. The latter, the family home of the Princess of Peace, was crazy and crazy to me. I don't know what years the producers were thinking about, but it seemed very low-brow and in the sub it reminded me more of the Maya than China.
For many, the relationship between the princess and the King of the Yan State was "disgusting" but for me it perfectly showed what princess marriages looked like. They weren't like in Disney productions. Often young girls married old-timers whether they wanted to or not. They served more as a stamp or deposit than a person.
Before I got to the real ending of Kill Me Love Me, my ending was the death of the enemy and the next 8 episodes were exhausting to watch. Everything that came after was a complete waste with an absurd breakup and a senseless love triangle. You could easily skip those few episodes and watch the last 2 and you would know the same. The real ending, although very tearful and sad, was surprisingly well done and thought out. Kill Me Love Me is not the best production of this year, it has many shortcomings but it is still interesting and I kind of recommend watching it.
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