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the-loststone · 1 month

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Review for Wonderland of Love

It’s been a while since I was absolutely obsessed with a series the way I am about this one. Wonderland of Love is an absolute masterpiece among dramas that I’ve watched lately and I can only encourage more people to watch it.

Plot:

It’s pretty complicated but I’m gonna break it down as much as I possibly can.

The story starts with the Li emperor and most of his family being killed by the Suns, who rose up in rebellion and took over the country because of how incompetent and stupid the Li’s are. The remaining Li family are one of the younger son’s (Liang) and his three sons (Jun, Lin, Ni), and the deceased crown prince’s son. The story revolves around the youngest son of Liang, the thirteen grandson of the emperor, Li Ni. He was punished by his grandfather and father when he was younger (13) for being rowdy in court by sending him to guard the border in the army. Li Ni became a very competent and intelligent leader of the West Pacifying Army, a rather poor but skilled army, led by the Pei’s, and enjoys a simple life. When war breaks out, the Pei’s decide to name Liang emperor, even though he is currently being held hostage in the capital by Sun, while his older two sons are being held hostage elsewhere, and Li Ni leads the army. Li Ni advocates to name the crown prince’s son emperor, who is on the run, and tries to find him while fighting the rebellion.

So that’s two sides of the war: Li and Sun. But there’s a third party as well. The Cui’s have also taken a stance in the war. Frustrated by how stupid the Li’s are and evil the Sun’s are, they decide to fight for power as well, and also say it’s for the crown prince’s son, who is a child and will be easy to rule through. Cui Yi is the General of the Cui army, and he has a daughter, Cui Lin. Cui Lin can’t exactly lead the army because she’s a girl, so her adopted brother rules in her name, while she takes the mantle of Commander Ying Ho and acts as his advisor.

The story revolves around A Ying and Li Ni. Their love story is the primary story arc, but it is immersed in the politics of the situation. Li Ni doesn’t want the crown or the power, knowing that the court is a snake pit and wants to be far away from it because of the corruptible aspect of power, to return to the border and live an easy life. A Ying is aware the country is suffering and would rather be in the thick of the action and wade through the snake pit and have power to make change. They two begin as enemies, both fighting for cities and food under their own armies. The Cui army is considerably more wealthy than the West Pacifying Army and they have the advantage in terms of man power and weapons. The West Pacifying Army has stronger and better warriors though. Li Ni and A Ying are both incredibly cunning and intelligent leaders, so their relationship begins with them trying to outmatch each other and gaining the other’s admiration and respect.

A Ying begins to believe that Li Ni would be a great emperor, which he would be, and tries to push him to claim the crown because of his father and brother’s dangerous incompetence and Sun’s evil. Li Ni is extremely unwilling however, especially having promised the former crown prince’s consort that he would restore her son’s right to rule.

Nevertheless, situations arise that force Li Ni into power, as he is the most popular candidate compared to his brothers, despite the fact that his father is extremely prejudiced against him, and biased towards his stupid brothers.

The moral of the story is that people in power should be competent, skillful, and good hearted. You can’t just be one of them, you need all of them. It’s also about the love story between Li Ni and A Ying who struggle with their different ideologies but love each other despite it.

Characters:

Li Ni is the central character. He is smart, cunning, witty and kind. He is the son of Liang, who dislikes his youngest son because he is the son of a maid. His older two brothers, following their father’s bias against him, bullied him continuously as a child. Because Li Ni respects their mother, he remained quiet about his brother’s bullying and his father’s dislike of him grew more from it. Li Ni was raised primarily by women, his stepmother and his nanny. His mother died giving birth to him, and he feels a lot of guilt towards her. As a way to escape court and his family, he causes a ruckus in court and is sent away by his grandfather, the emperor, to defend the border. The border is guarded by the West Pacifying Army, led by the Peis. They take Li Ni under their wing, and he rises within the army and becomes the leader of the army. Among his disastrously incompetent family, he is the exception. He gains many military feats, and is regarded as the best candidate for crown prince among the courtiers when his father is made emperor. I don’t want to undersell it here. He is the superior candidate; everyone agrees. And the only reason he probably hasn’t killed his dad and brothers is because of censorship in China, because that family is so dumb. He is quietly grieved by the death of most of his family, but he does his best to protect those that he has, and has very close bonds to the men in his army, who he views as brothers more than his blood brothers.

A Ying, Cui Lin, is the other central character. She is smart, cunning, ambitious, and compassionate. She is the only child of Cui Yi, the general of the Cui Army. Since she can’t lead the army herself, despite being more than qualified, because she’s a girl, her foster brother rules in her name. I mean, literally taking her name and they act like Cui Lin is a boy. She acts as his military advisor and is able to make decisions through him. Her mother died when she was younger, leaving her with trauma of the battle and her mother’s death. For this reason, she is extremely critical about people in power and believes that the Li’s governance has been a disaster, having seen how people suffer because of their rule. She believes that the Cui’s should take power through the crown prince’s son and bring peace to the empire since no one else seems to be able to, at least until she meets and gets to know Li Ni. She was raised primarily around men, and is dissatisfied with the way women are not able to show that they have ambitions and the same aspirations as men.

Liu Chenfeng is A Ying’s foster/adopted brother. He takes her identity when she’s a child because her father didn’t want to remarry and since the father didn’t have a son, he decided to pretend the child he does have is a son. First he pretended that A Ying was a boy, and when that could no longer fool people, he had Chenfeng pretend to be Cui Lin. It’s a tragedy. Liu Chenfeng was too young to consent to lose his identity to someone else and he literally became A Ying’s shadow. It’s not that he was mistreated in anyway, Cui Yi treated him as his own son and raised him as his own. But there was always A Ying there as well. His entire identity was about her. When faced with the possibility that she would leave him, or that he would in someway lose her, he’s not the most stable person. Liu Chenfeng had romantic feelings for A Ying, which she did not reciprocate, having always believed him to be a brother to her. It’s messy. He’s messy. And his friends help him in his delusions. There was this one really funny post someone wrote which described Liu Chenfeng and Shu as a Voldemort and Quirrel pairing and it really made me cackle.

Lady Gu is the daughter of a minister in court. She is saved by Li Ni and becomes obsessed with him. Or rather, she becomes obsessed with the idea that he might help her in the world. In her family she is not especially high regarded and so when Li Ni comes by, she sees him as an opportunity to gain some respect and stability in her life. She’s a clever girl, and it is gratifying to see a second female lead who isn’t a complete idiot, even if her ambition gets the better of her in the end.

Relationship:

I don’t want to spoil too much. So if I’m vague, I’m sorry. Li Ni and A Ying have the best chemistry. Their relationship is primarily competing against each other trying to get the upper hand in political situations. I mean they are literally bartering cities in their courtship and it is adorable. It is so clear to them that they met someone who’s their intellectual match and they are so attracted to each other because of it. Like, A Ying got herself a man who likes it when she tries to poison him, and Li Ni got himself a girl who feels invigorated when he foils one of her plans. They are so cute.

Now that’s not to say they don’t have problems. Li Ni doesn’t like it that she wants him to sacrifice his dream of returning to Laolan and having a simple life, and A Ying doesn’t like it that he wants to abandon his responsibility to the kingdom and leave it to people who are less competent and likely to do more harm than good. I understand both. Li Ni doesn’t want to sacrifice the life that he could have and the future that he could have with her, and A Ying wants him to face the reality that the life he wants would never be possible. When she’s forced to make that same sacrifice, they even end up switching roles where he makes her understand the reality of their circumstances and that she can’t have the ideal life she wanted.

Production:

I love the music in this show. Absolutely killer soundtrack. The production is amazing. The only issue I would say in production is how artificial the Wonderland looks. It’s supposed to look like an oasis, and in a sense it does, but it is so obviously painted and fake that it’s almost funny. But otherwise, a beautiful set and cast and cinematography and lighting.

The fights are, of course, very choreographed and fake. I mean, that’s very standard in dramas though so I don’t really care or expect anything different. I mean, when a person can throw an arrow into another person who then will go flying ten feet away, I’m not going to put much belief in it. But it’s still very fun to watch. But just go into not expecting a real action scene.

There’s of course some dubbing as well, but it’s not too much or too noticeable in my opinion, which I appreciate.

Flaws:

Now, every show comes with its own flaws, and WoL comes with many of the same pitfalls that other shows have. It’s overdramatic in some scenes, has some inconsistencies, and can be very corny. I think my least favorite part was the whole bit about drawing little cartoon characters of themselves in a book. I think it was for advertising purposes, like the hotpot, and they tried to incorporate it as naturally as possible and towards the end where we like the characters and plot enough we can be forgiving. It was still annoying though and I just ignored it.

Why else:

If you are still looking for reasons to watch this show, then do it for the cast. Xu Kai doesn’t disappoint. I think this is my favorite of his dramas to date. And Jing Tian is beautiful and spectacular.

I think you’d like it too if you’re into books like ACOTAR or Fourth Wing.

If you liked Love like the Galaxy, you'd definitely love it.

If you've only watched kdramas, then try your first cdrama!

So don’t be shy, and give c-drama a try. It’s available on YouTube.