Prince of Lan Ling is a Chinese period drama based on the life of Northern Qi Dynasty prince Gao Changgong. It will offer you plenty of suspense, romance, action and royal plotting, but it feels a bit lukewarm and drags on for far too long. If you love period dramas with glorious costumes and nice visuals this is definitely for you, but if you are after passionate romance you might want to watch something else.
Story: (8/10)
The story is based on reality and it is mostly very good, but personally I would cut out about 10-20 episodes of material and storyline that feel like "fillers". Overall though the story is entertaining and nice, but it might cause impatient viewers to skip some parts.
Acting/Cast: (7/10)
For me the biggest problem with this drama is the mild chemistry between the main actors. They seem like good friends instead of passionate lovers. The main actors are both charismatic and do their jobs well, but it all seems a bit shallow. I have my suspicions that some important scenes might have been cut out since some Chinese series have had the same fate with more risqué scenes. Overall the acting is very good, but at least I did not really care about what happened to any of the characters and I didn't cry at any point in the drama (I almost always do :D).
Music: (6/10)
The music was pretty good at points and one of the vocal ballads, but there were quite a few low quality filler songs that really dragged the overall experience down.
Rewatch value: (5/10)
I can't really see myself watching this again any time soon. There were no extremely noteworthy scenes in the drama and since it is low-paced and long I can think of many series I would rather watch than this one.
Overall: (7.5/10)
My review might seem pretty harsh, but the fact is that I really emphasize CHEMISTRY above everything else. In this drama it could be due to the editing or directing of the series, but something is lacking between the main actors. The visual effects are much better than in usual Chinese period dramas; the war scenes look massive and convincing, the clothing and make up is really well done and I really appreciate that the female lead is not a generic beauty (she looks very unique). Maybe my problems is that this series really drew me in at the beginning, but in the end I feel let down.
Was this review helpful to you?