The newest hot drama has aired about 15 episodes by the time I start marathon-ing it. Which is good news because each episode makes me want MOAR. So we have the story of Lan Ling Wang(actual name:Gao Changgong), an actual historical figure of Northern Qi. The drama milks off the actual history that Lan Ling Wang is a great general who dies young due to jealousy from his cousin, the emperor. Rumour has it that he is so beautiful, he wears a hideous mask to avoid distraction when he goes off to war. The battle at Jinyong or Luoyang is also recorded in history where he only used 500 cavalries to rescue the city from the prevailing Northern Zhou army.
The drama has added further plot to spice up our great general’s life. Yang Xue Wu is the last descendant of a line of priestess. There is a saying that those who receive the priestess’s blessing, will own the world. It’s however literally said that whoever OWNS the priestess, rules over the world. In the age of the power-hungry kingdoms who wage war all the time, she is a precious advantage. However, Xue Wu only loves Lan Ling Wang even though he is destined to die early. They say fate is in God’s hands, but can this star- crossed couple win over their own fates?
Feng Shao Feng as the titular Lan Ling Wang. He isn’t beautiful like BEAUTIFUL but he can emit intensity and he is kinda hot š
Ariel Lin as Yang Xue Wu. She isn’t what I imagined as a priestess and I am more accustomed to see her in modern dramas. However, so far, I like what she is bringing into the character.
We also have George Hu playing sidekick or Prince An De.
Couldn’t find a solo shot of our second fiddle, Daniel Chan. He is Emperor of Northern Zhou who craves power and is constantly belittled by his ministers. However, he is cunning and manipulative so he isn’t a foe to belittle. At this point of the drama(Ep 11), he still does not love Xue Wu. What I see is he wants to own her and own the world. Can’t blame him for being superstitious. Is it me, or he hauntily resembles Wallace Huo. Not to mention he has a similar role to Wallace Huo in Qing Shi Huang Fei…
Crown Prince of Northern Qi and his evil advisor. He will ascend the throne to be Emperor and a major cause in death of Lan Ling Wang.
So far, I find the drama refreshing and interesting. I actually welcome all the battle conflicts and strifes. It’s a period drama which can do without harem scenes and as a result, we see more men which we can oogle over š I won’t say it’s detailed in re-enacting the period because Yang Xue Wu’s character is obviously mixed with a modern girl. I feel somehow it still has an idol drama feeling but if it is, it’s doing really well.
I’m worried how we will survive 46 episodes of this drama since it’s moving really fast paced. It has already covered the historical battle in about the first quarter so what will they use to let our couples pine for each other in the other three quarter of the drama? Oh well, that aside, I’m all set to finish up this drama š
More pretty stills and posters…
The initial posters are so epic and mesmerizing! I love the colours they use and how the clutter did seem to bring a touch of magic or fairy-tale š Anyhow, I’ll review again when the drama reaches the mid-mark.
dramamochi 
Hihi, my first post on your blog considering you are such a loyal supporter of my blog, lol. Just that I’ve nothing to write until now. I watched abt 5 episodes of this drama but have stopped to wait for my friend who is waiting for the Viet subs.
Like you I find the drama a refreshing change from all the harem fighting drama. It is not bad, pretty exciting & addictive. However episode 1 gave me the goosebumps when Ariel mistaken FSF as a woman & called him beautiful sister. Arrrrgh, come on his body is so masculine, she needs glasses urgently, haha….FSF is quite good looking but he doesn’t have the girlish good look like say Leslie Cheung. He is not that handsome to need to wear a mask. My, oh, my, what an ugly mask !!!! Can’t he wear something prettier, lol? All in all, I still enjoy the drama & will continue later. I hope the ending will not be a sad one. Warn me if I need to stock up on my tissues:(
Haha, I know. Their first meeting was quite ridiculous to accentuate the fact that FSF is a BEAUTY. Ohmilordy haha. Well, we’ve gotta just swallow all those unbelievable plot holes and just hope the plot carries us to a better place. When I watched this, I was prepared to throw reasoning and logics out of the window so yeah. I’m still marathon-ing it to the latest episode but I hope they have enough substance to cover 46 episodes. If it ends up crashing, I’ll tell you and you can start preparing your tissues ;D
You’re so fast! I am only up to ep 3 and ep 16 is already out!
I am so glad that they original actors got to dub their own voices (except for George), that just makes the characters so much more interesting!
I am anxiously waiting for the second male lead to appear.
It’s really increasingly exciting!First 10 episodes went by really fast. I fear the end now š„ But it’s still uplifting as of now (EP 16)
I don’t know how it happened but in less than 2 days, I’m all caught up! What are they at now? 27? 28? haha. I still really like it (though some of the plot lines/characters are starting to frustrate me)… I’m really hoping (but probably wishful thinking) that this is not a tragedy… ahhhh.
Thanks for all the pretty pictures! š
Episode 20 onwards frustrates me to no end T. T I hope all that passes soon…. I hope they manage to cheat fate again and somehow survive too. Or at least die meaningfully….
ROFLMAO that first meeting bathing scene takes the cake in terms of ridiculousness but I actually laughed all the way through it so I can forgive the temporary stupidity because it brought me joy (hahaha) š
I love these beautiful posters, especially the 1st one (with FSF, Ariel, and Daniel), and the solo FSF and Ariel ones! I agree with you: FSF isn’t BEAUTIFUL but he has charm and can emit intensity – his eyes are especially captivating. Ariel just looks BEAUTIFUL in her solo poster. Not quite like a priestess, but very beautiful and charming nonetheless.
Daniel’s Yuwen Yong is basically Qingshi Huangfei’s Liu Liancheng, but with more wives and more aggression and ambition (LOL).
The series was GREAT up until episode 20 where everything started getting crap with draggy love triangle soap opera storylines. However, things are supposed to get better again after episode 28 so…
All the spoilers online have revealed the tragic ending and while I expected it, I’m still saddened by it since I was hoping for something less depressing. Oh well. I’ll keep watching this series all the way to the end, but just prepare myself for the sad ending…
Oh and the calendar pictures are BEAUTIFUL! Especially November and December š
Daniel looks awesome in his Emperor robes š
Their posters are to die for, so much pretty. Wish they had enough budget to really pump up the wardrobe with pretty clothings like in the poster…. Episode 20 and a few episodes after was hell. Really hard to watch and I had to skip a few parts T.T Then the part where Yuwen Yong swept in to rescue her was like swoonn…. And it’s sad because he had to let her go again. Being such an ambitious and shrewd man, must have been a lot of internal glut. I still don’t know whether it will stick to a depressing ending. Maybe they can dodge fate again, like what they did with her surname…… T.T
I started watching when 23 eps were out, attracted by Mayday’s opening theme song, and boy am I glad that this crazy show releases 3/2 episodes each day! It’s addictive in a sweet cotton candy fluff kind of way. I hope that the China regulators don’t get their way and our OTP can get a happily ever after unlike how things unfold in history. To the death to Zheng’er!!!! She annoys me to no end.
I don’t know about the happy ending but I agree on the part about Zheng er
Ending may not be sad as all the predicted ending by the grandma appeared in .ep 36 where he really will “die” as emperor gg to give him poison but I think empress save him on condition that he cant look for Tian Nu anymore. So he has already “died” in his brother’s hands, as predicted.
oh god, major spoiler! But at least we know it’s a happy ending??
Spoilers say tragic ending. Yes, Lanling Wang dodged fate with the poison, but stuff happens and it’s not pretty….
Unless the drama decides to give us audience a surprise and change the ending a bit, but I doubt it since dramas like these usually end tragically…
I have to skip the Zheng Er bits too because I can’t stand her. I’m not attacking the actress, just saying that I hate the character Zheng Er. Plus all the stuff with her and Gao Wei and the evil Zu Ting is just draggy and very annoying to watch.
Totally agree with you that it’d be nice if they pumped up the wardrobe with the pretty costumes like in the posters, but oh well. I really like Lanling Wang’s black clothed masked vigilante look in the later episodes of the drama! He won’t show up for a while after the poison bit, but when he does, he looks pretty cool š
Oh goodness. So maybe I shouldn’t get my hopes up after all?? o.o Zheng Er is really a super antagonist. I think she’s really traumatised and mentally unstable after LLW left her. And I’m not looking forward to Gao Wei’s scenes. He’s just a kid that looks grown up
I just started watching 2days ago and I’m alr at eps21.. so intense!! gosh n i absolutely hate that zheng er! she makes me feel like stopping the show though.. i just love the part before marriage
I know! Before marriage was better than after. I’m taking a break from lan ling wang too
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haha, anyway are you watching the one with all the original actors voice? im watching the one with just ariel and i’m trying to find the url with the original actors
I think I should be watching the ones with original voice. Xue wu does sound like ariel’s real voice and so does feng shao feng for lan ling wang. So far I know only George hu’s aka 5th prince voice is dubbed
Dunno if you’ve seen the whole thing, but just wanted to chip in and say that the first 19-20 episodes were definitely WAY better than the later ones. The script kinda lost it after ep 20 and it just went downhill from there. The ending really sucks too š¦
Not sure what you guys mean about “original voices” cuz as far as I know there’s only the 1 version and it’s got some characters dubbing their own voices, e.g. Ariel and Xiaodong is their original voice, but the others are dubbed over, like FSF, Daniel Chan, and George Hu. FSF didn’t have time to come back and dub his own voice because he had too many other filming projects going on, and Daniel and George were dubbed over because of their accents.
I knew George Hu was dubbed over but I didn’t know feng shao feng and Daniel Chan also dubbed by someone else… No wonder Daniel Chan’s song had a different accent. I definitely agree the front 20 episodes were better. All dramas tend to lose way in the end though… Sigh…
I watched the final episode, and while it left me in a bucket of tears (the only 3 times I actually cried was for Xiao Dong, Xue Wu, and Wu Wen Yong. Somehow Gao Chang Gong never managed to pull my heartstrings\), there wasn’t any wow factor. Something felt missing…..like it was rushing, and lacked heart. Overall, Lan Ling Wang was a good watch (with plenty of fast forwarding through the Zheng Er scenes, save for her final scene, which was quite touching actually). At least better than other period idol productions by Yu Zheng.
Perhaps Gao Chang Gong was a character with less flaws, I couldn’t fully enjoy him full and flesh too. Too idealistic. On the other hand, Yu Wen Yong is a more flawed character, it’s easier to appreciate him as a human too. In the end, I think Zheng Er just needs a therapist. Serious PTSD issues
ahh so it really was the trailer that confuse us then about the original voices.. yeap im at eps 30 now and i cant wait to watch the ending.. thinking whether should i just jump to the last eps or not.. trying very hard to control myself but i cant bear to see the worst situation that will befall on lan ling wang n xue wu
hmm okay.. where do you download or watch from? care to share the link?
yea the ones im watching is Ariel and Xiao Dong original voices.. i saw from somewhere that theres a version with FSF and Daniel own voices though.. yea 1st 20 was perfect! im at 24 now n its getting really slow and on the verge of murdering zheng er
Really? Is there a version with FSF and Daniel? Have not heard of it yet. 24?Wait til u get to 30. Apparently, Zheng Er is for stay. She is the main antagonist I would say.
Are you guys talking about the trailers that were shown before the series started? Because 3 & 7 minute trailers were NOT dubbed (i.e. FSF and Ariel had their own voices).
But the version that was aired on TV is the dubbed version. Trailers can go undubbed, but usually by the time a series airs, it will be dubbed. Ariel and Xiaodong’s actor came back to dub their own voices but the others were mostly done by professional voice actors.
Maybe the trailers confused us? Haha