Review: Blossom (2024) 九重紫

Overall Thoughts

This was a surprising hit for Tencent and its leads Meng Zi Yi and Li Yun Rui. Meng Zi Yi’s had several dramas under her belt (Royal Rumors, Parallel World), but none with this level of success. Li Yun Rui is an up and coming young actor who’s had roles as side characters in other dramas (Parallel World, Creation of The God: Kingdom of Storms). No one was expecting this to be a hit (myself included) but this drama performed surprisingly well and has spurred a decent amount of online commentary. This drama is Tencent’s 8th drama to breach 30,000 mark on Tencent’s popularity index, joining the ranks of the massive hits of Joy of Life Season 2 and the Legend of Shen Li. However its looking like online marketing pushed this drama to breach the 30,000 and not actual viewership because it’s still standing at less than 25M views per episode, making it the worst of the 8 in terms of viewership per episode. 

At only 34 episodes, this drama moves at a rapid pace for much of the drama, giving us just the right amount of time to absorb the events but then move on to the next storyline. It didn’t dawdle or give us superfluous scenes of characters that led nowhere. I was honestly surprised that a few characters had their storylines completed in just the first few episodes. Only a few characters or stories overstayed their welcome. Overall, I thought this drama stuck the landing, giving a satisfying yet surprising ending for the main characters. There were several morally gray characters that had me guessing at their loyalty which was a refreshing shift from many other dramas.

Meng Zi Yi and Li Yun Rui are riding high from the successful marketing and performance of the drama and have much to look forward to in 2025 with several upcoming projects each.

What I liked

• Strong Directing and Beautiful Cinematography: Right from the first episode, I was pulled in from just how BEAUTIFUL this drama looked. The snow scenes in general in this drama were fantastic. I’ll give the credit to the director and cinematographer for smartly incorporating snow to create the cold and dark atmosphere where needed in the drama. The blocking of the actors, where they stood, and how they were presented on screen was also organic yet pleasing. There weren’t these random shots or closeups of the characters that broke the immersion of the dramas. The actors had to fight without weird CGI in the mix. The filters weren’t crazy and thankfully most of the drama was filmed on location and not on a lot. It was a soothing visual feast that brought forth the historical aspects of Chinese culture without being gauche. 
• A dizzying cast of characters that have complete stories: For a 34 episode show, the drama was able to tell complete stories for at least a dozen characters without diminishing the main plot. The subplots were both (mostly) a welcome break from some of the heaviness of the main plot line but also gave depth to the other characters. We are also constantly introduced to new characters as other stories conclude so it’s not like there’s always 15 subplots happening. It’s honestly been very rare to have these side plots for so many characters even portrayed on screen without dragging them out that I was very surprised when plot lines were concluded (in a good way).
• Characters never drop their intelligence for the sake of the story: All of the characters are extremely intelligent and are battling with each other based on wits, strength, and guts. Whether it was the protagonists or the antagonists, they all had their own stance and motivations in this wide chessboard of the empire. The protagonists faced formidable foes because all players were trying their best to outwit each other. Luckily, none of them made head scratching choices that destroyed their character. Even if a character might have made a wrong choice, it was in line with the choice the character would have made. 
• Strong Chemistry between the leads: I thought all the couples in this dramas had surprisingly good chemistry. I shipped the main couple of Song Mo and Dou Zhao but also enjoyed the other couples. I also liked that not all had a happy ending because, to my earlier points, characters made choices and had to live with their consequences.
• Cameo from Ye Zu Xin!: He’s the Crown Prince in the drama and only in a couple of episodes, but boy does he knock all of his scenes out of the park. Just watch the first episode and you’ll see why.
• Beautiful Ming Era costumes: Even though this drama is set in a fictitious world, it is heavily influenced by Ming Dynasty culture and customs. From the costumes, to the Imperial family, to even the new weapons that are introduced to the drama, we see heavy hints of the Ming culture. I’ve been watching a lot of Tang Dynasty and Song Dynasty era dramas so this was a welcome change.

What Suffered 

• Acting from the younger leads: I praised the chemistry of the different couples in the drama earlier, but the acting from the younger cast all leave much to be desired. Are they handsome? Yes. Are they beautiful? Yes. Are they still wooden? Yes. Meng Zi Yi and Li Yun Rui are merely fine in this drama as the leads. Their acting has little depth and if it wasn’t for the strong plot and directing, the drama would fall apart. Several of their big scenes together are heavily supplemented by the atmosphere around them, which I attribute to the director, rather than their acting. In general, most of the younger cast was rather stilted and were buoyed by the plot. Even though many of the older characters were rather despicable, I was still drawn to watch their scenes because of their acting. 
• It’s always winter: This was a double edge sword for the show. It was filmed in the winter and required several snow scenes. The crew created fake snow for the drama but hilariously, it actually snowed! The director then spent a lot of time utilizing the snow for the drama. This was great where needed but then the whole drama, which is supposed to span many seasons and years, always felt as if it was in winter. I lost my sense of time while watching the show because I couldn’t tell if and when time has passed. It was jarring when characters said that it’s early spring but all of the characters still have condensation emanating from them when talking.
• The Song family: The father and son duo of Song Yi Chun and Song Han overstayed their welcome. The actor for Song Han (Yan An) also couldn’t play the role in a convincing manner. I rolled my eyes at their “struggles” and their scenes where the ones that were the biggest slog.