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Review: Secret of the Three Kingdoms (三國機密) (2018)
This drama was enjoyable overall. The story is an alternate history story about Liu Xie, the last emperor of the Han Dynasty, who was a puppet during the start of the Three Kingdoms Period. The story is based on a book by Ma Boyong, who wrote the Longest Day of Chang'an, so I was already expecting some interesting thrills.
The story was overally pretty interesting. The drama did lag a little bit and included some cheesey romance, but I'm not mad. I didn't think this drama would have worked if it was 100% serious. Considering younger actors were cast for most of the main characters, it would was for the better that there was some romance.
I would recommend this drama as a political drama with some romance.
Spoiler-filled, no-edit writeup ahead.
Story
As mentioned, the drama is an alternate history. In this alternate history, Liu Xie, the last emperor of the Han Dynasty had passed. However, he was born half of a pair of identical twin brothers, and his younger brother was raised outside of the palace in secret as Yang Ping, in the house of the Sima Clan. Yang Ping was brought into the palace in secret to take the place of his older brother and continue the Han Dynasty.
Yang Ping, whose real name was Liu Ping, was raised alongside Sima Yi, who considered him a brother. Between the two of them, Sima Yi was responsible for the brains, while Liu Ping was responsible for the heart, the honour.
At Liu Ping's side was also Fu Shou, the Empress, who was the main administrator of Liu Xie's imperial edict when he had passed. She was a mentor to Liu Ping as well, though over time, Fu Shou's views began to mirror Liu Ping's, softening her heart to his worries and understanding that sympathy can be a powerful tool in politics as well.
As Cao Cao became more of a threat, Liu Ping and Sima Yi's views started to diverge. Liu Ping always wanted to show mercy, even to his enemies, whereas Sima Yi always pushed for Liu Ping to be more cutthroat to protect himself.
Their relationship seemingly came to an end when Liu Ping was unable to protect Tang Ying, Consort Hongnong, and Sima Yi's love. At that point, Sima Yi was already allying himself with Cao Cao, and after that point, he firmly sided with them. Later on, it seemed that Sima Yi had forced Fu Shou to commit suicide, but it was revealed that Sima Yi had agreed to save her for Liu Ping.
By the end of the show, we saw that their relationship had healed somewhat. They acknowledged that they had very different views of how to rule, but at the very least, they were brothers forever, and Sima Yi still cared for Liu Ping's wellbeing.
In Three Kingdoms canon, the last emperor of the Han Dynasty surrendered his throne to Cao Pi and became the Duke of Shanyang. Some accounts say that the boat sunk immediately after he left, but Secrets showed Liu Ping leaving and joining Fu Shou in their little secluded home. It was VERY sweet v.v
In Secrets, Liu Ping entrusted Sima Yi to guide Cao Pi to rule the kingdom. As we know in history, the Sima Clan eventually took over the throne, establishing their own Jin Dynasty. So in all portrayals of Cao-Sima clan interactions, there will always be some sort of tension, and that was present in Secrets.
Overall, I liked the writing for Secrets. It was not airtight, and it did drag at times, but the story was interesting, and that helped a lot. A lot of the characters were reinterpreted heavily for creative reasons, and I am totally fine with that. After all, what we know as Three Kingdoms canon is also artistic interpretation anyway.
I was a little iffy of the conflict between Liu Ping and Sima Yi. I wondered, would Sima Yi really throw away years of brotherhood because Liu Ping was unable to protect Tang Ying? I understood that Sima Yi would have been upset at the time, but Tang Ying did choose to commit suicide herself, and we did see that Sima Yi's relationship with Liu Ping was mended. So perhaps it is reasonable to believe that Sima Yi had cooled down and put together the puzzle pieces and understood that Liu Ping was not solely responsible for not being able to save Tang Ying.
I admit that at times, I got a lot of the supporting characters mixed up. There are just a lot of characters in Three Kingdoms, and some of them would pop in and pop out so fast that I would forget them, and then be surprised when they would show up next. This is probably just a me problem though, because now that I think about it, I don't think this drama used too many characters to the point of excess. It's just that sometimes you need that many characters and some of them (especially the older men) happen to have similar looks.
One complaint I had when I first started this drama was that I was very disappointed that we weren't going to get Liu Xie/Liu Ping twin brothers angst. I would have really wanted to see them interact. Most of the brother comparisons we got were from other people. After all, Liu Ping never knew his own brother; other people were more familiar with Liu Xie. But the brothers plot ended up not being as strong as a point anyway. Liu Ping became a ruler in his own right, rather than ruling the Empire by his brother's rules.
Production
The quality of production for this drama was not the highest of the high, but it was still above average. The people who were in charge of the costumes and set clearly had a vision for a certain aesthetic, and the drama executed on that. The costumes had a distinct style that was more than just "typical Han Dynasty clothing" and I appreciated that.
Like in many historical Cdramas, all of the characters had title cards when they were introduced. However, the font colour that was used in this drama was difficult to read. This is just a very nitpicky thing, but it did bother me.
There were also some issues with low quality dubbing. There were times in the drama when the lines were not dubbed, though there was dialogue in the subtitles, which suggested carelessness. As well, when large groups of people were speaking in unison, the audio producers tried to mix the sound so that they weren't speaking perfectly in unison. A lot of dramas do this to make crowds seem more natural. In Secrets, however, the way crowds' speaking was mixed was VERY distracting. Sometimes crowds would be out of sync with a particular character of focus, but very in sync with each other, and it would be EXTREMELY distracting. So the audio editing was definitely one of the places this drama cheaped out on.
Otherwise, because I had expected this drama to be an idol drama, there were some things that surprised me. I certainly did not expect our main actors to go this hard. I thought that they were all able to carry the political parts of this drama well enough.
Other than the fact that this drama was blatant alternate history, there was one other thing that surprised me, which was the portrayal of love and amorous relationships in this drama. This drama had scenes in which we saw couples making out in the sheets. Of course, there were no sex scenes, but the closest we got was when Sima Yi and Tang Ying were about to have sex. That really surprised me, and not in a bad way. I just thought it was nice that this drama was able to show more than the very chaste on-screen relationships that we see in Cdramas now.
Characters
Liu Ping/Yang Ping/Yang Yihe
Liu Ping was our main character. Very altruistic, very gentle. He grew up in the home of the Sima Clan, and was unwittingly thrown into politics as a replacement for the EMPEROR OF THE HAN DYNASTY.
He was pretty willing to yield to Fu Shou and Tang Ying, knowing that she was more knowledgeable in politics. However, over time, as he grew more comfortable in his role, he started acting in a way that was more comfortable to him, i.e. showing mercy wherever he could. Fu Shou and Sima Yi were both very not happy with him not using his power to put threats to death. However, by the end of the drama, we saw that his merciful manner did in fact win many supporters. Cao Cao acknowledged this, as Xun Yu, his greatest supporter, committed suicide after a disagreement.
My interpretation of Liu Ping was that he was not necessarily doing things for the glory of the Han Dynasty (as Liu Xie may have), but that he truly just wanted to leave the people in the hands of a good ruler. In some interpretations of Three Kingdoms canon, Liu Xie barely held on to his position for the glory of the Han Dynasty, and he had allowed himself to die on the ship because by yielding the throne to the Cao family, he'd already failed in keeping his family's dynasty alive. Clearly Liu Ping did not have these hangups. I think he felt at ease yielding the throne as long as he knew that Sima Yi was there to advise Cao Pi.
And thus, he yeeted off to live in marital bliss with Fu Shou uwu.
I have never watched Ma Tianyu in any drama, but I thought he did a great job as Liu Ping. He was very naive and altruistic. At the beginning of the drama, it would get him into trouble, but by the end of the drama, we saw how he became strong by standing by these values.
Fu Shou
Fu Shou had a very strong sense of responsibility. If she wasn't, this plan would not have been put in motion at all. Fu Shou had to castrate the late Emperor herself, which was a huge risk. Near the beginning of the drama, Fu Shou told Liu Ping that if their plan wasn't going to work (if Liu Ping looked very different from Liu Xie), she would have been ready to kill herself and frame Cao Cao for it. She was very no-nonsense about politics.
By the end of the drama, we saw how she'd become more sensitive to the way that Liu Ping worked. Since he was the Emperor, she had no choice but to yield to him when he stood by his morals. But we saw that she started to see the good in them, so much so that even her father said that she'd changed.
Fu Shou and Liu Ping did fall in love, and it was probably because Liu Ping offered her something that she never knew was possible. Liu Xie had told Fu Shou that he just needed someone who would help him, whereas Liu Ping needed Fu Shou more for moral support than as a soldier, and I think that reminded Fu Shou that she was still a human with emotions.
At the end of the drama, Fu Shou was saved by Liu Ping via Sima Yi. Sima Yi appeared to kill Fu Shou on orders of Cao Cao but he had given her a special poison that would give off the appearance of death. She went to live in a secluded house, waiting for the day that everything would be done. The reunion between Fu Shou and Liu Ping was quite sweet. For once, they were no longer Emperor and Empress. They could just be a young couple trying to live life.
I'd never watched Regina Wan in any drama, but I loved her portrayal of Fu Shou. I think she dubbed her own voice, and she has this wonderfully mature voice that really suited the character. Her portrayal of Fu Shou was so tense and mature and yet we could see that she had a lot of feelings bottled up, that only came out when she was drunk or when she was absolutely at wit's end. I can't remember the last time we had a female lead character like her. <3 Love Fu Shou <3
Sima Yi/Sima Zhongda
Sima Yi considered himself big brother to Liu Ping. He was definitely fond of the boy and saw him as sort of a silly little lamb. Near the beginning, Sima Yi was always chastising Liu Ping and then helping cover up for his mistakes.
As Liu Ping started to get used to politics, he started having his own opinions on how to deal with his enemies, and that drove a wedge between the two. As I already explained, there was tension between the two because of Liu Ping's inability to save Tang Ying, and Sima Yi's need for revenge.
Since Sima Yi was a smart man, after he calmed down, he probably realized that the ones who were actually responsible for Tang Ying's death was the Cao family.
Upon Liu Ping's departure, he'd entrusted the kingdom to Sima Yi. I think that was the reason why Sima Yi didn't just immediately destroy Cao Pi (because he was definitely capable of it). He probably decided that he'd be advisor to the Emperor, as long as the Emperor was still responsible. The drama only went so far as to showing Sima Yi with a young Emperor (probably a young Cao Rui).
I've seen Elvis Han in the Wu Xin series, and he plays sort of a similar character. Elvis Han is one of the few "younger" male Cdrama actors who I think can really pull off charm and confidence. Maybe that is just what Elvis Han is like. In any case, he brought his own spin to Sima Yi the character. His Sima Yi was someone who felt responsible for his little brother, and it ruffled his feathers when his little brother didn't listen to his advice. But at the end of the drama, we saw that he understood that this was who Liu Ping always was, and that he shouldn't give up their brotherhood just because he suddenly realized that they are different people, that Liu Ping is an adult who should be allowed to act on his own beliefs as well.
Tang Ying/Hongnong Wangfei
Tang Ying was the Empress of the previous Emperor, who was Liu Xie and Liu Ping's older brother. She was a faithful ally to Liu Ping and Fu Shou.
There was an arc in which it was revealed that she was formerly working under orders of Yuan Shao, but by the time in the drama, she was no longer loyal to him, only loyal to the Han Dynasty.
Tang Ying was very reserved and cold, but she caught the attention of Sima Yi, who would try to get close to her by using his brains to impress her. It actually worked (lol) but of course, they were not destined to be together. After all, she was the wife of a late Emperor, and would have to remain a widow her entire life.
In the drama, Tang Ying was also a martial artist. Early on in the drama, when Liu Ping and Fu Shou barely had any allies, she was often helping them complete tasks.
Towards the end of the drama, Tang Ying was accused by the Cao family of being an assassin, and though she was considered innocent, she still committed suicide, probably figuring that her death would be useful to Liu Ping and Fu Shou, and probably also because she was tired of this life. All of the people around her were constantly caught up in this conflict, and though she and Sima Yi had acknowledged their love, it was but a distant dream.
Her death had caused Sima Yi to rage against Liu Ping, but as explained above, Sima Yi later came to terms with the fact that Liu Ping was not the true responsible party.
Cao Cao
Cao Cao was of course the greatest threat to the Han Dynasty. He didn't really become a major character in the drama until the latter half.
I wouldn't say that there was anything really special about this portrayal of Cao Cao. He was an intimidating man, but because Liu Ping did not fear Cao Cao as Liu Xie did, which Cao Cao took notice of. But this version of Cao Cao basically did everything we expected him to do in terms of Three Kingdoms canon, and I don't think he was really rewritten too much.
Lady Bian
Lady Bian was one of Cao Cao's wives, and the mother of Cao Pi, Cao Zhi, and Cao Jie. Lady Bian was apparently responsible for ordering the death of Cao Cao's oldest son. Early on in the drama, Cao Pi was seeking revenge for his older brother, and it was a shock to him when he learned that it was his own mother who had killed her brother, so that her own children would get a leg up.
Cao Pi/Cao Zihuan
In Three Kingdoms canon, Cao Pi was friends with Sima Yi, and he was the Emperor who got Liu Xie off the throne.
In the first part of Secrets, Cao Pi was a sort of ambitious but loyal man. There was that whole arc where Liu Ping and Fu Shou were posing as commoners and Cao Pi was doing everything he could to ensure their comfort. I truly think he was loyal to the Han Dynasty, even if it was just because he wanted to secure a good career for himself.
Over the course of the drama, he became the Cao Pi I was familiar with. He was always trying to get his father's approval and always falling short.
In Secrets, Cao Pi and Sima Yi seemed less friends and more business partners. Cao Pi saw the value of Sima Yi's brains and he was always protecting him. Cao Pi had done a favour to Sima Yi by saving his family, and Sima Yi had no choice but to ally himself with them.
Towards the end, Cao Pi was portrayed as an ambition-crazed man who wanted the throne because it would rove his worthiness to his dead father. The drama didn't show what happened after he ascended, but it's not necessary. Most people who know Three Kingdoms know what happens.
The last time I had watched Tan Jianci in a drama, he was playing Sima Zhao in the Advisors Alliance. So it took me a bit of time to get used to him as Cao Pi, though he did play a similar ambitious character lol. In fact, I might be getting used to seeing Tan Jianci as this tiny evil man.
Zhen Fu
Zhen Fu was only given a little screen time in this drama. In Secrets, Zhen Fu and Cao Pi did actually fall in love, but they'd fallen out of love soon after. Even by the end of the drama, when Cao Pi was ascending the throne and had tried to make amends with Zhen Fu, she refused him, and said that the man she loved was already long gone, implying that ambition changed him for the worse.
Cao Zhi/Cao Zijian
Cao Zhi was a son of Cao Cao, and the favourite. He was also historically known as a famous poet.
In Secrets, Cao Zhi was shown as a man who was loyal to Liu Ping. It made sense, seeing as how Cao Zhi was a man of art, and Liu Ping was a man of emotion.
In Secrets, it was shown that his loyalty to Liu Ping was his downfall. When the secret of the Emperor being Liu Ping was spreading, Cao Zhi ran to inform Liu Ping and Fu Shou, which earned him punishment from his father.
I'm actually kind of surprised that Cao Zhi was shown a political man, actually having opinions about the court, when in most portrayals I've seen, he really just is a full-on poet. But alas, this is creative interpretation, and I thought the way that he was portrayed was still interesting.
Cao Jie
Cao Jie was the daughter of Cao Cao. From what I knew of Three Kingdoms canon, I knew that she would eventually marry the Emperor, and that she would be sympathetic towards him. That was basically shown in this drama.
Cao Jie had been rushing on Liu Ping for most of this drama. Cao Cao had been pressuring Liu Ping to strip Fu Shou of her Empress status and install his own daughter as Empress. Towards the latter half of the drama, Liu Ping was quite set in his ways and so he strongly refused. Cao Jie also respected Liu Ping and Fu Shou's love, though it made her no less heartbroken.
It was only after Fu Shou was "dead" that Cao Jie was finally installed as Liu Ping's Empress. Though he was kind to her, I think their relationship was never romantic. As we saw at the end of the drama, she despised her brother for what he did to Liu Ping.
Yang Xiu/Yang Dezu
Yang Xiu was distantly related to Yang Jun, Liu Ping's adopted father. And it was Yang Xiu who helped in getting Liu Ping into the palace. That being said, Liu Ping and Fu Shou never really trusted Yang Xiu, and for good reason. He always seemed to have his own agenda.
Over the course of the drama, Yang Xiu allied himself with Cao Cao. In Three Kingdoms, Yang Xiu was put to death after he got too smart and misinterpreted Cao Cao's order. I admittedly don't quite remember what happened to Yang Xiu in this drama. I remember that his father was upset with him when he definitively aligned himself with Cao Cao but I cannot remember what happened to him XD
Anyway, this dude was very much a villain. Villain vibes from beginning to end.
Sima Lang/Sima Boda
Sima Lang was Sima Yi's older brother. He played a bigger role in this drama than I would have thought. Especially towards the beginning of the drama, he would help Sima Yi, even if he didn't quite understand why Sima Yi was doing certain things. Sima Lang was also very wary of Sima Yi wanting to take Tang Ying as his wife, etc. But all of those issues faded away eventually as more important issues became apparent.
Yang Jun/Yang Licai
Yang Jun was Liu Ping's adoptive father. Though Liu Ping was raised at the house of the Sima Clan from a young age, Liu Ping still clearly loved his father quite a bit. Yang Jun had to fake Liu Ping's death in order to take him into the palace. The part when Yang Jun amputated his arm and yelled at Liu Ping to go with Yang Biao was definitely a highlight of the first episode.
Yang Jun barely showed up for most of the drama, probably because he wasn't a high ranking officer to begin with. The first time Liu Ping saw him as Emperor, he greeted him warmly. Though Liu Ping was aware that he was Emperor and had no blood relations with Yang Jun, he still considered him his father, and tried to do as much as he could for him.
The second time Liu Ping saw Yang Jun was when he abdicated the throne, and in court, he addressed Yang Jun as father, though maybe not in earshot of others.
I do wish we could have seen more interactions between Liu Ping and Yang Jun. I really thought their father-son relationship was very sweet, since Liu Ping was so devoted and filial to his father, and even if Liu Ping was the Emperor, Yang Jun definitely still wanted to care for him.
Xun Yu/Xun Wenruo
Xun Yu was Cao Cao's advisor, and historically remained loyal to the Han Dynasty. In this drama, I don't think Xun Yu had as close of a relationship with Cao Cao than I saw in other dramas.
Xun Yu's loyalty to the Han Dynasty in this drama was still emphasized. Even when he found out that Liu Ping was not Liu Xie, he remained loyal to the Han Dynasty, and committed suicide when he realized that he and Cao Cao did not see eye to eye.
Guo Jia
Guo Jia was Cao Cao's other advisor, and he was shown to be loyal to Cao Cao through and through. He was a smart man, but he had a weak body, so he succumbed to illness.
Anyway, Guo Jia was really Liu Ping's first main villain, seeing as how he was very suspicious of Liu Ping from the get go. He was the one who put together the plan to find out what Yang Ping looked like. Upon his deathbed, Guo Jia wrote the secret on a piece of paper and entrusted it to Cao Jie. The fact that he wrote it out made me think that he was loyal to Cao Cao, and though he acknowledged Liu Ping's kind disposition, he was not won over during the course of their acquaintanceship.
Ren Hongchang/Diaochan
Ren Hongchang was Guo Jia's female companion. She ran an orphanage, but otherwise her history was unclear. It was later revealed that she was actually Diaochan, the lover of Lv Bu. She did have one personal goal in the drama, which was to save the daughter of Lv Bu, who was working in Yuan Shao's home as Zhen Fu's maid.
Diaochan was an ally to Liu Ping and Fu Shou, even if she did have a romantic relationship with Guo Jia. She also died during the course of the drama.
Man Chong
Man Chong was one of Cao Cao's lackeys. Basically he was always the bearer of bad news lol.
Dong Shaojun/Consort Dong
In Three Kingdoms 2010, Consort Dong was shown as the one consort who was loyal to Liu Xie. So I was kind of surprised when I realized that Consort Dong was not the female lead of this drama.
In this drama, Consort Dong was shown as a naive lady. It was said that Liu Xie liked her precisely because she was cute and bubbly, and that Liu Xie was still kind to her. At the time of the drama, Consort Dong was pregnant, and she was also very distrustful of Fu Shou, because she thought that Fu Shou was trying to keep the Emperor from her, which was sort of true, but it was more because Liu Ping and Fu Shou were still trying to figure things on.
Consort Dong died along with her unborn baby in this drama in a political scuffle that she had no part in :(
Shen Rong
Shen Rong was a young master that Sima Yi befriended early in the drama. The relationship was mostly manipulative on Sima Yi's part. He'd befriended Shen Rong so that he would have resources in the city (manpower, etc.). We saw that at several points in the beginning of their relationship, Sima Yi would trick the very gullible Shen Rong. Shen Rong was initially portrayed as a snobby young master but he really just was a gullible naive rich kid.
Themes
Liu Xie was a puppet his entire life. When Liu Ping first ascended to the throne, he was pretty unhappy with how things were, with how Fu Shou basically told Liu Ping always to yield, always to play it safe, kill the enemies to keep yourself safe, etc. Liu Ping felt that he had no agency, and that staying alive for the sake of staying alive had absolutely no purpose.
That being said, Liu Ping was always a gentle character, and though he angered Fu Shou a few times with his mercy, he slowly gained power and sympathy, and I think that was how he convinced those around him that it was possible to gain power through kindness.
Of course it didn't do him good in the grand scheme of things because he still abdicated, but in the context of Secrets, it was still a win for the Han Dynasty, because Liu Ping surrendered on his own terms, as opposed to Liu Xie, who by all accounts, barely ever made a single decision himself.
Overall
Really fascinating drama. Like I said, the fact that it's an alternate history and that it shows more explicit making out probably would not fly and that in itself is surprising.
But the story itself is ambitious in how it attempts to reframe the end of the Han Dynasty not as a whimper but as something a little more heroic.
I'm also pleased by the performances of the main cast, and how they injected love and emotions into the story.
I would recommend this drama, though it's definitely not for everyone. It's not a straight up political drama, nor is it an idol drama that focuses on romance. But I thought the final product was still fun to watch.
The story was overally pretty interesting. The drama did lag a little bit and included some cheesey romance, but I'm not mad. I didn't think this drama would have worked if it was 100% serious. Considering younger actors were cast for most of the main characters, it would was for the better that there was some romance.
I would recommend this drama as a political drama with some romance.
Spoiler-filled, no-edit writeup ahead.
Story
As mentioned, the drama is an alternate history. In this alternate history, Liu Xie, the last emperor of the Han Dynasty had passed. However, he was born half of a pair of identical twin brothers, and his younger brother was raised outside of the palace in secret as Yang Ping, in the house of the Sima Clan. Yang Ping was brought into the palace in secret to take the place of his older brother and continue the Han Dynasty.
Yang Ping, whose real name was Liu Ping, was raised alongside Sima Yi, who considered him a brother. Between the two of them, Sima Yi was responsible for the brains, while Liu Ping was responsible for the heart, the honour.
At Liu Ping's side was also Fu Shou, the Empress, who was the main administrator of Liu Xie's imperial edict when he had passed. She was a mentor to Liu Ping as well, though over time, Fu Shou's views began to mirror Liu Ping's, softening her heart to his worries and understanding that sympathy can be a powerful tool in politics as well.
As Cao Cao became more of a threat, Liu Ping and Sima Yi's views started to diverge. Liu Ping always wanted to show mercy, even to his enemies, whereas Sima Yi always pushed for Liu Ping to be more cutthroat to protect himself.
Their relationship seemingly came to an end when Liu Ping was unable to protect Tang Ying, Consort Hongnong, and Sima Yi's love. At that point, Sima Yi was already allying himself with Cao Cao, and after that point, he firmly sided with them. Later on, it seemed that Sima Yi had forced Fu Shou to commit suicide, but it was revealed that Sima Yi had agreed to save her for Liu Ping.
By the end of the show, we saw that their relationship had healed somewhat. They acknowledged that they had very different views of how to rule, but at the very least, they were brothers forever, and Sima Yi still cared for Liu Ping's wellbeing.
In Three Kingdoms canon, the last emperor of the Han Dynasty surrendered his throne to Cao Pi and became the Duke of Shanyang. Some accounts say that the boat sunk immediately after he left, but Secrets showed Liu Ping leaving and joining Fu Shou in their little secluded home. It was VERY sweet v.v
In Secrets, Liu Ping entrusted Sima Yi to guide Cao Pi to rule the kingdom. As we know in history, the Sima Clan eventually took over the throne, establishing their own Jin Dynasty. So in all portrayals of Cao-Sima clan interactions, there will always be some sort of tension, and that was present in Secrets.
Overall, I liked the writing for Secrets. It was not airtight, and it did drag at times, but the story was interesting, and that helped a lot. A lot of the characters were reinterpreted heavily for creative reasons, and I am totally fine with that. After all, what we know as Three Kingdoms canon is also artistic interpretation anyway.
I was a little iffy of the conflict between Liu Ping and Sima Yi. I wondered, would Sima Yi really throw away years of brotherhood because Liu Ping was unable to protect Tang Ying? I understood that Sima Yi would have been upset at the time, but Tang Ying did choose to commit suicide herself, and we did see that Sima Yi's relationship with Liu Ping was mended. So perhaps it is reasonable to believe that Sima Yi had cooled down and put together the puzzle pieces and understood that Liu Ping was not solely responsible for not being able to save Tang Ying.
I admit that at times, I got a lot of the supporting characters mixed up. There are just a lot of characters in Three Kingdoms, and some of them would pop in and pop out so fast that I would forget them, and then be surprised when they would show up next. This is probably just a me problem though, because now that I think about it, I don't think this drama used too many characters to the point of excess. It's just that sometimes you need that many characters and some of them (especially the older men) happen to have similar looks.
One complaint I had when I first started this drama was that I was very disappointed that we weren't going to get Liu Xie/Liu Ping twin brothers angst. I would have really wanted to see them interact. Most of the brother comparisons we got were from other people. After all, Liu Ping never knew his own brother; other people were more familiar with Liu Xie. But the brothers plot ended up not being as strong as a point anyway. Liu Ping became a ruler in his own right, rather than ruling the Empire by his brother's rules.
Production
The quality of production for this drama was not the highest of the high, but it was still above average. The people who were in charge of the costumes and set clearly had a vision for a certain aesthetic, and the drama executed on that. The costumes had a distinct style that was more than just "typical Han Dynasty clothing" and I appreciated that.
Like in many historical Cdramas, all of the characters had title cards when they were introduced. However, the font colour that was used in this drama was difficult to read. This is just a very nitpicky thing, but it did bother me.
There were also some issues with low quality dubbing. There were times in the drama when the lines were not dubbed, though there was dialogue in the subtitles, which suggested carelessness. As well, when large groups of people were speaking in unison, the audio producers tried to mix the sound so that they weren't speaking perfectly in unison. A lot of dramas do this to make crowds seem more natural. In Secrets, however, the way crowds' speaking was mixed was VERY distracting. Sometimes crowds would be out of sync with a particular character of focus, but very in sync with each other, and it would be EXTREMELY distracting. So the audio editing was definitely one of the places this drama cheaped out on.
Otherwise, because I had expected this drama to be an idol drama, there were some things that surprised me. I certainly did not expect our main actors to go this hard. I thought that they were all able to carry the political parts of this drama well enough.
Other than the fact that this drama was blatant alternate history, there was one other thing that surprised me, which was the portrayal of love and amorous relationships in this drama. This drama had scenes in which we saw couples making out in the sheets. Of course, there were no sex scenes, but the closest we got was when Sima Yi and Tang Ying were about to have sex. That really surprised me, and not in a bad way. I just thought it was nice that this drama was able to show more than the very chaste on-screen relationships that we see in Cdramas now.
Characters
Liu Ping/Yang Ping/Yang Yihe
Liu Ping was our main character. Very altruistic, very gentle. He grew up in the home of the Sima Clan, and was unwittingly thrown into politics as a replacement for the EMPEROR OF THE HAN DYNASTY.
He was pretty willing to yield to Fu Shou and Tang Ying, knowing that she was more knowledgeable in politics. However, over time, as he grew more comfortable in his role, he started acting in a way that was more comfortable to him, i.e. showing mercy wherever he could. Fu Shou and Sima Yi were both very not happy with him not using his power to put threats to death. However, by the end of the drama, we saw that his merciful manner did in fact win many supporters. Cao Cao acknowledged this, as Xun Yu, his greatest supporter, committed suicide after a disagreement.
My interpretation of Liu Ping was that he was not necessarily doing things for the glory of the Han Dynasty (as Liu Xie may have), but that he truly just wanted to leave the people in the hands of a good ruler. In some interpretations of Three Kingdoms canon, Liu Xie barely held on to his position for the glory of the Han Dynasty, and he had allowed himself to die on the ship because by yielding the throne to the Cao family, he'd already failed in keeping his family's dynasty alive. Clearly Liu Ping did not have these hangups. I think he felt at ease yielding the throne as long as he knew that Sima Yi was there to advise Cao Pi.
And thus, he yeeted off to live in marital bliss with Fu Shou uwu.
I have never watched Ma Tianyu in any drama, but I thought he did a great job as Liu Ping. He was very naive and altruistic. At the beginning of the drama, it would get him into trouble, but by the end of the drama, we saw how he became strong by standing by these values.
Fu Shou
Fu Shou had a very strong sense of responsibility. If she wasn't, this plan would not have been put in motion at all. Fu Shou had to castrate the late Emperor herself, which was a huge risk. Near the beginning of the drama, Fu Shou told Liu Ping that if their plan wasn't going to work (if Liu Ping looked very different from Liu Xie), she would have been ready to kill herself and frame Cao Cao for it. She was very no-nonsense about politics.
By the end of the drama, we saw how she'd become more sensitive to the way that Liu Ping worked. Since he was the Emperor, she had no choice but to yield to him when he stood by his morals. But we saw that she started to see the good in them, so much so that even her father said that she'd changed.
Fu Shou and Liu Ping did fall in love, and it was probably because Liu Ping offered her something that she never knew was possible. Liu Xie had told Fu Shou that he just needed someone who would help him, whereas Liu Ping needed Fu Shou more for moral support than as a soldier, and I think that reminded Fu Shou that she was still a human with emotions.
At the end of the drama, Fu Shou was saved by Liu Ping via Sima Yi. Sima Yi appeared to kill Fu Shou on orders of Cao Cao but he had given her a special poison that would give off the appearance of death. She went to live in a secluded house, waiting for the day that everything would be done. The reunion between Fu Shou and Liu Ping was quite sweet. For once, they were no longer Emperor and Empress. They could just be a young couple trying to live life.
I'd never watched Regina Wan in any drama, but I loved her portrayal of Fu Shou. I think she dubbed her own voice, and she has this wonderfully mature voice that really suited the character. Her portrayal of Fu Shou was so tense and mature and yet we could see that she had a lot of feelings bottled up, that only came out when she was drunk or when she was absolutely at wit's end. I can't remember the last time we had a female lead character like her. <3 Love Fu Shou <3
Sima Yi/Sima Zhongda
Sima Yi considered himself big brother to Liu Ping. He was definitely fond of the boy and saw him as sort of a silly little lamb. Near the beginning, Sima Yi was always chastising Liu Ping and then helping cover up for his mistakes.
As Liu Ping started to get used to politics, he started having his own opinions on how to deal with his enemies, and that drove a wedge between the two. As I already explained, there was tension between the two because of Liu Ping's inability to save Tang Ying, and Sima Yi's need for revenge.
Since Sima Yi was a smart man, after he calmed down, he probably realized that the ones who were actually responsible for Tang Ying's death was the Cao family.
Upon Liu Ping's departure, he'd entrusted the kingdom to Sima Yi. I think that was the reason why Sima Yi didn't just immediately destroy Cao Pi (because he was definitely capable of it). He probably decided that he'd be advisor to the Emperor, as long as the Emperor was still responsible. The drama only went so far as to showing Sima Yi with a young Emperor (probably a young Cao Rui).
I've seen Elvis Han in the Wu Xin series, and he plays sort of a similar character. Elvis Han is one of the few "younger" male Cdrama actors who I think can really pull off charm and confidence. Maybe that is just what Elvis Han is like. In any case, he brought his own spin to Sima Yi the character. His Sima Yi was someone who felt responsible for his little brother, and it ruffled his feathers when his little brother didn't listen to his advice. But at the end of the drama, we saw that he understood that this was who Liu Ping always was, and that he shouldn't give up their brotherhood just because he suddenly realized that they are different people, that Liu Ping is an adult who should be allowed to act on his own beliefs as well.
Tang Ying/Hongnong Wangfei
Tang Ying was the Empress of the previous Emperor, who was Liu Xie and Liu Ping's older brother. She was a faithful ally to Liu Ping and Fu Shou.
There was an arc in which it was revealed that she was formerly working under orders of Yuan Shao, but by the time in the drama, she was no longer loyal to him, only loyal to the Han Dynasty.
Tang Ying was very reserved and cold, but she caught the attention of Sima Yi, who would try to get close to her by using his brains to impress her. It actually worked (lol) but of course, they were not destined to be together. After all, she was the wife of a late Emperor, and would have to remain a widow her entire life.
In the drama, Tang Ying was also a martial artist. Early on in the drama, when Liu Ping and Fu Shou barely had any allies, she was often helping them complete tasks.
Towards the end of the drama, Tang Ying was accused by the Cao family of being an assassin, and though she was considered innocent, she still committed suicide, probably figuring that her death would be useful to Liu Ping and Fu Shou, and probably also because she was tired of this life. All of the people around her were constantly caught up in this conflict, and though she and Sima Yi had acknowledged their love, it was but a distant dream.
Her death had caused Sima Yi to rage against Liu Ping, but as explained above, Sima Yi later came to terms with the fact that Liu Ping was not the true responsible party.
Cao Cao
Cao Cao was of course the greatest threat to the Han Dynasty. He didn't really become a major character in the drama until the latter half.
I wouldn't say that there was anything really special about this portrayal of Cao Cao. He was an intimidating man, but because Liu Ping did not fear Cao Cao as Liu Xie did, which Cao Cao took notice of. But this version of Cao Cao basically did everything we expected him to do in terms of Three Kingdoms canon, and I don't think he was really rewritten too much.
Lady Bian
Lady Bian was one of Cao Cao's wives, and the mother of Cao Pi, Cao Zhi, and Cao Jie. Lady Bian was apparently responsible for ordering the death of Cao Cao's oldest son. Early on in the drama, Cao Pi was seeking revenge for his older brother, and it was a shock to him when he learned that it was his own mother who had killed her brother, so that her own children would get a leg up.
Cao Pi/Cao Zihuan
In Three Kingdoms canon, Cao Pi was friends with Sima Yi, and he was the Emperor who got Liu Xie off the throne.
In the first part of Secrets, Cao Pi was a sort of ambitious but loyal man. There was that whole arc where Liu Ping and Fu Shou were posing as commoners and Cao Pi was doing everything he could to ensure their comfort. I truly think he was loyal to the Han Dynasty, even if it was just because he wanted to secure a good career for himself.
Over the course of the drama, he became the Cao Pi I was familiar with. He was always trying to get his father's approval and always falling short.
In Secrets, Cao Pi and Sima Yi seemed less friends and more business partners. Cao Pi saw the value of Sima Yi's brains and he was always protecting him. Cao Pi had done a favour to Sima Yi by saving his family, and Sima Yi had no choice but to ally himself with them.
Towards the end, Cao Pi was portrayed as an ambition-crazed man who wanted the throne because it would rove his worthiness to his dead father. The drama didn't show what happened after he ascended, but it's not necessary. Most people who know Three Kingdoms know what happens.
The last time I had watched Tan Jianci in a drama, he was playing Sima Zhao in the Advisors Alliance. So it took me a bit of time to get used to him as Cao Pi, though he did play a similar ambitious character lol. In fact, I might be getting used to seeing Tan Jianci as this tiny evil man.
Zhen Fu
Zhen Fu was only given a little screen time in this drama. In Secrets, Zhen Fu and Cao Pi did actually fall in love, but they'd fallen out of love soon after. Even by the end of the drama, when Cao Pi was ascending the throne and had tried to make amends with Zhen Fu, she refused him, and said that the man she loved was already long gone, implying that ambition changed him for the worse.
Cao Zhi/Cao Zijian
Cao Zhi was a son of Cao Cao, and the favourite. He was also historically known as a famous poet.
In Secrets, Cao Zhi was shown as a man who was loyal to Liu Ping. It made sense, seeing as how Cao Zhi was a man of art, and Liu Ping was a man of emotion.
In Secrets, it was shown that his loyalty to Liu Ping was his downfall. When the secret of the Emperor being Liu Ping was spreading, Cao Zhi ran to inform Liu Ping and Fu Shou, which earned him punishment from his father.
I'm actually kind of surprised that Cao Zhi was shown a political man, actually having opinions about the court, when in most portrayals I've seen, he really just is a full-on poet. But alas, this is creative interpretation, and I thought the way that he was portrayed was still interesting.
Cao Jie
Cao Jie was the daughter of Cao Cao. From what I knew of Three Kingdoms canon, I knew that she would eventually marry the Emperor, and that she would be sympathetic towards him. That was basically shown in this drama.
Cao Jie had been rushing on Liu Ping for most of this drama. Cao Cao had been pressuring Liu Ping to strip Fu Shou of her Empress status and install his own daughter as Empress. Towards the latter half of the drama, Liu Ping was quite set in his ways and so he strongly refused. Cao Jie also respected Liu Ping and Fu Shou's love, though it made her no less heartbroken.
It was only after Fu Shou was "dead" that Cao Jie was finally installed as Liu Ping's Empress. Though he was kind to her, I think their relationship was never romantic. As we saw at the end of the drama, she despised her brother for what he did to Liu Ping.
Yang Xiu/Yang Dezu
Yang Xiu was distantly related to Yang Jun, Liu Ping's adopted father. And it was Yang Xiu who helped in getting Liu Ping into the palace. That being said, Liu Ping and Fu Shou never really trusted Yang Xiu, and for good reason. He always seemed to have his own agenda.
Over the course of the drama, Yang Xiu allied himself with Cao Cao. In Three Kingdoms, Yang Xiu was put to death after he got too smart and misinterpreted Cao Cao's order. I admittedly don't quite remember what happened to Yang Xiu in this drama. I remember that his father was upset with him when he definitively aligned himself with Cao Cao but I cannot remember what happened to him XD
Anyway, this dude was very much a villain. Villain vibes from beginning to end.
Sima Lang/Sima Boda
Sima Lang was Sima Yi's older brother. He played a bigger role in this drama than I would have thought. Especially towards the beginning of the drama, he would help Sima Yi, even if he didn't quite understand why Sima Yi was doing certain things. Sima Lang was also very wary of Sima Yi wanting to take Tang Ying as his wife, etc. But all of those issues faded away eventually as more important issues became apparent.
Yang Jun/Yang Licai
Yang Jun was Liu Ping's adoptive father. Though Liu Ping was raised at the house of the Sima Clan from a young age, Liu Ping still clearly loved his father quite a bit. Yang Jun had to fake Liu Ping's death in order to take him into the palace. The part when Yang Jun amputated his arm and yelled at Liu Ping to go with Yang Biao was definitely a highlight of the first episode.
Yang Jun barely showed up for most of the drama, probably because he wasn't a high ranking officer to begin with. The first time Liu Ping saw him as Emperor, he greeted him warmly. Though Liu Ping was aware that he was Emperor and had no blood relations with Yang Jun, he still considered him his father, and tried to do as much as he could for him.
The second time Liu Ping saw Yang Jun was when he abdicated the throne, and in court, he addressed Yang Jun as father, though maybe not in earshot of others.
I do wish we could have seen more interactions between Liu Ping and Yang Jun. I really thought their father-son relationship was very sweet, since Liu Ping was so devoted and filial to his father, and even if Liu Ping was the Emperor, Yang Jun definitely still wanted to care for him.
Xun Yu/Xun Wenruo
Xun Yu was Cao Cao's advisor, and historically remained loyal to the Han Dynasty. In this drama, I don't think Xun Yu had as close of a relationship with Cao Cao than I saw in other dramas.
Xun Yu's loyalty to the Han Dynasty in this drama was still emphasized. Even when he found out that Liu Ping was not Liu Xie, he remained loyal to the Han Dynasty, and committed suicide when he realized that he and Cao Cao did not see eye to eye.
Guo Jia
Guo Jia was Cao Cao's other advisor, and he was shown to be loyal to Cao Cao through and through. He was a smart man, but he had a weak body, so he succumbed to illness.
Anyway, Guo Jia was really Liu Ping's first main villain, seeing as how he was very suspicious of Liu Ping from the get go. He was the one who put together the plan to find out what Yang Ping looked like. Upon his deathbed, Guo Jia wrote the secret on a piece of paper and entrusted it to Cao Jie. The fact that he wrote it out made me think that he was loyal to Cao Cao, and though he acknowledged Liu Ping's kind disposition, he was not won over during the course of their acquaintanceship.
Ren Hongchang/Diaochan
Ren Hongchang was Guo Jia's female companion. She ran an orphanage, but otherwise her history was unclear. It was later revealed that she was actually Diaochan, the lover of Lv Bu. She did have one personal goal in the drama, which was to save the daughter of Lv Bu, who was working in Yuan Shao's home as Zhen Fu's maid.
Diaochan was an ally to Liu Ping and Fu Shou, even if she did have a romantic relationship with Guo Jia. She also died during the course of the drama.
Man Chong
Man Chong was one of Cao Cao's lackeys. Basically he was always the bearer of bad news lol.
Dong Shaojun/Consort Dong
In Three Kingdoms 2010, Consort Dong was shown as the one consort who was loyal to Liu Xie. So I was kind of surprised when I realized that Consort Dong was not the female lead of this drama.
In this drama, Consort Dong was shown as a naive lady. It was said that Liu Xie liked her precisely because she was cute and bubbly, and that Liu Xie was still kind to her. At the time of the drama, Consort Dong was pregnant, and she was also very distrustful of Fu Shou, because she thought that Fu Shou was trying to keep the Emperor from her, which was sort of true, but it was more because Liu Ping and Fu Shou were still trying to figure things on.
Consort Dong died along with her unborn baby in this drama in a political scuffle that she had no part in :(
Shen Rong
Shen Rong was a young master that Sima Yi befriended early in the drama. The relationship was mostly manipulative on Sima Yi's part. He'd befriended Shen Rong so that he would have resources in the city (manpower, etc.). We saw that at several points in the beginning of their relationship, Sima Yi would trick the very gullible Shen Rong. Shen Rong was initially portrayed as a snobby young master but he really just was a gullible naive rich kid.
Themes
Liu Xie was a puppet his entire life. When Liu Ping first ascended to the throne, he was pretty unhappy with how things were, with how Fu Shou basically told Liu Ping always to yield, always to play it safe, kill the enemies to keep yourself safe, etc. Liu Ping felt that he had no agency, and that staying alive for the sake of staying alive had absolutely no purpose.
That being said, Liu Ping was always a gentle character, and though he angered Fu Shou a few times with his mercy, he slowly gained power and sympathy, and I think that was how he convinced those around him that it was possible to gain power through kindness.
Of course it didn't do him good in the grand scheme of things because he still abdicated, but in the context of Secrets, it was still a win for the Han Dynasty, because Liu Ping surrendered on his own terms, as opposed to Liu Xie, who by all accounts, barely ever made a single decision himself.
Overall
Really fascinating drama. Like I said, the fact that it's an alternate history and that it shows more explicit making out probably would not fly and that in itself is surprising.
But the story itself is ambitious in how it attempts to reframe the end of the Han Dynasty not as a whimper but as something a little more heroic.
I'm also pleased by the performances of the main cast, and how they injected love and emotions into the story.
I would recommend this drama, though it's definitely not for everyone. It's not a straight up political drama, nor is it an idol drama that focuses on romance. But I thought the final product was still fun to watch.