How Dare You!? final thoughts

[thispatternismine]

Been a busy week & I've barely managed time for anything, but I've finished How Dare You!? & loved it.

It was pretty much everything I'd been hoping it'd be. Fun & hilarious, & totally nailed the vibe & tone of the novel, & took excellent advantage of the ridiculousness of the scenario for comedic purposes. I was absolutely dying at the scene where Xiahou Dan is marching through the palace grounds while the team of eunuchs carrying the palanquin that he's supposed to be riding in scuttle along behind him, desperately trying to keep up. And the scene where they're 'texting' each other where Mr Bei is running to & fro carrying the messages between them was another highlight. The fight choreography was also way better than expected for a comedy that wasn't especially action-focused.

Particularly loved the Empress Dowager. She was deliciously evil & charismatic & must have been wearing her teeth down with all the scenery chewing she was doing. She stole every scene she was in & the actress was clearly having a fantastic time with that role.

I have a few thoughts on the ending...

I'm definitely a bit disappointed here. For those who haven't read it, in the book, they spend time ruling the country, improving infrastructure, establishing 2FL's food delivery system, etc, until his death, then she leaves an heir in charge & goes off travelling, before she dies & ends up back on the train, having lived a full life. Then she goes to the ML's city to find him, & figures out where he works based on seeing a billboard for a drama based on the novel. Meanwhile he's gone to her city to find her. They eventually figure it out & get together.

Here they just un-transmigrate, & the drama takes that silly conversation 100% literally & has them just meet on the train & that's that. The change is especially weird considering how they made the opening 'real life' stuff way more involved than in the book. Instead of her just browsing on her phone & skim reading a terrible book to pass some time, the drama makes a huge thing about her company being involved in adapting the novel into a drama & she had to read it for work, with a mention of the boss being extra keen on that one, which seemed to be a hint that he'd turn out to be the ML in the end. But no. Really weird.

I'm wondering if it was a time limitation? But they were 8 eps under the 40 episode limit, & they could have cut that fireworks scene. They had options. Ha! Normally my big complaint about cdrama endings is they are too abrupt & don't give us a moment to bask in the happily-ever-after. This one basked a little too long & there was too much standing around chatting about how 'yay the evil is defeated'. Sure they were cute together, but I wanted to see more of them being cute in 'the real world'.

I still loved it, don't get me wrong. Absolute 11/10 drama, no question. Do not skip this because I'm being a little nitpicky. But considering how insanely faithful it'd been, & how funny & cute the novel version of the ending was, it felt like a weird choice, & I can't help comparing the two. If the drama was an original work & not an adaptation, or I'd watched the drama before reading the book, I'd be 100% fine but as it is, it's inevitable I'll compare the two versions & be a little 'aw c'mon!'.