Love and Crown Chinese Drama Review (Allen Ren, Peng Xiaoran)

I've been watching Love and Crown which stars Allen Ren and Peng Xiaoran, and I had to review it. But I want to keep the review short as I have more reviews to write after this one. So without wasting, let's just straight into Love and Crown Chinese drama review.

First Impressions 

Okay so, as a fan of both leads, it's natural that I watch this drama with high expectations. But worry not, I'm not going to play favouritism in the review. So I watched the first five episodes which were amazing. But I kinda had a hard time with the first episode because it was everywhere. One moment they're chasing the female lead to marry the male lead the next moment it seems like they're giving us flashbacks. But the story made sense with more episodes.

Story

When it comes to the story, I wouldn't say it was perfect or disappointing. It was just in between. I loved that we had a male lead emperor who isn't fully caged in the palace. He can go outside and do whatever he wants to do outside the palace. Which was good because his character wasn't boring. I don't know, I just don't like emperors because their characters are a bit limited.

Secondly, we had good storyline between the emperor, Xiao Huan, and the grand tutor Ling, who happens to be the empress (Ling Cangcang)'s father. It's one of those political struggle plots but what made it interesting is the relationship between these two. Xiao Huan is the student of tutor Ling. Xiao Huan recruited tutor Ling to his side when he was young in order to survive in the palace. Xiao Huan even promised tutor Ling that if he supports him, he will make Cangcang his empress. Which brings us to the whole story of Cangcang being pushed to marry Xiao Huan. Even those the people who pushed her had different motives for doing so.

This then becomes a situation where Xiao Huan leaves the palace in secret and cashes after Cangcang as Mr. Bai (Xiao Bai). He and Cangcang end up falling in love. Then here comes the grand preceptor Du Tingxin who has a huge crush on Xiao Huan and she's doing her best to cure Xiao Huan's cold illness. But Xiao Huan keeps putting his life on the line to save Cangcang almost every time. On the other side Xiao Bai ends up killing Cangcang's master, who happens to be a bad guy but Xiao Bai promised him he won't tell Cangcang about his deed. Then we have a love hate relationship between the leads ladies and gentlemen. 

The storyline was good but not perfect. They involved the Lingbi sect which was dangerous. But I didn't see much impact made by the sect. Everything related to the sect felt rushed and some were confusing. They rarely did any major problem in the city.

Ling Cangcang Wasn't A Badass Female Lead

As much as I love Peng Xiaoran, her character as Ling Cangcang doesn't stick out as a badass female lead. She just happens to be a female lead who knows how to fight. The reason why I'm saying this is because she's always the one being saved. People are always sacrificing to help her out. Even Zhong Lin did a lot compared to her. Cangcang is always the weakest link whenever someone tries to do something evil or bad. She doesn't show much intelligence, I'm not saying she never showed any. 

Love and Crown Ending 

If you're wondering about the Love amd Crown ending, it's obviously a sad ending. I mean, come on... you have Allen Ren as the lead, 90% of his dramas are sad and tragic. You also have Peng Xiaoran, if you watched Goodbye My Princess, you'll know what I'm talking about. So we had a lot of deaths in the last 10 episodes, more than I expected and it annoyed me. But that's the ending, I'm not going to drop any spoilers.

Conclusion on Love and Crown Review

Is Love and Crown a good drama to watch? Yes, and I highly recommend it. I loved the martial arts choreography, I loved the costumes. I low-key loved the lunatic Du Tianxin. She was somehow unpredictable, one minute she says she planned something for tomorrow, the next minute she changes her mind. She goes like "I can't even wait that long, I'm doing it now!" And she does whatever she said she will do. More action, less bluff. With all that being said, I'm rating this drama 5/10. It's in between. It wasn't disappointing, it wasn't perfect.