Bu Bu Jing Xin ending

Finished Bu Bu Jing Xin.

Words cannot describe how much I love this drama and this story (separate from the drama, because the drama involves the awesome acting, directing, music, costumes, motifs and voice acting - Eight's voice actor has such a gentle sounding voice!).

You just have to watch it to find out.

You may find yourself disliking someone a lot at one instant, but just watch on, because the odds are that you'll like him/her in the next. Such is the draw of this story. Everyone is multi-layered, everyone is ultimately motivated by needs and wants which we can identify with. So, in the end, there is no one absolute bad guy/good guy, nor is there one absolute winner/loser. Like what Eight told Yong Zheng in the end, Yong Zheng might have became the Emperor, but Eight was still himself. He did not lose himself or change under the pressure of circumstances. So, in a way, he won.

Here is a comment I posted in response to Mrs Koala's post at her site:

I was going to comment on how I love the rawness in the ending song for the final episode. Not perfectly sung or mixed, but so filled with raw emotions, I cried yet again. Ever since the episode where Kangxi passed on, I’ve been weeping every episode, for different people.

This is what really worked for me. Tong Hua is able to create such believable characters, with depth and real motivations, that while I may curse at some characters at some point, I ultimately empathise with them and feel for them. There were no rights or wrongs in the story, just as there are no absolute rights or wrongs in life. This is the first time I’ve wavered between love and dislike for characters repeatedly in one drama. Usually, I’ll at the most swing from one end to another, and stick with that. But in BBJX, it’s always a touch and go, though at the end my fondness for each character has grew so ingrained that I cried with them, and cried for them. Even Ruoxi, who I got quite irritated with at one point, for all her mistakes, fears and modern-day-practical-thinking, won me over.

The writing, the acting, the music, the directing, and even the dubbing (oh, such successful choice of voice actors to add flavour to the characterisation) were on the dot.

I like the resolution at the end, where we get to see the end of each prince. It brings to mind that no matter who, be it the defeated princes or the winner of the throne, death is the ultimate end. And Thirteen might have gave Eight poison. It might have been recorded as such in history (I’m no history guru so I don’t know if it really got recorded/happened), and Thirteen might have been seen as killing his own brother. However, he was (in this story) just giving Eight an escape. When Eight told the Emperor about his past with Ruoxi, my first reaction was “Why did he become so spiteful? Isn’t he a person who refused to make use of woman in the fight among men?” And then, at that, I understood his motive. He was just trying to make the Emperor disappointed with Ruoxi so that Ruoxi’s wish to leave the Forbidden City will be granted. It’s because of Tong Hua’s consistant writing and carefully planned character growth which allowed me to trust Eight. I trust that he wasn’t such a spiteful person, and I was right.

I’m waiting to read the novel, and I’m sure it’ll be an even more overwhelming experience. This drama might just be one of the best time travel dramas I’ve watched, on many fronts.00

And over here:

I like your perspective. The entire time travel experience is a lonely ordeal for Zhang Xiao.

As Ruo Xi, she knows everyone's ending and yet have to watch them take steps towards their tragic end, not being able to change anything.  Her fears, her worries she cannot share with anyone, not even her closest ones.

As Zhang Xiao after she returned, she has to leave on with such vivid, beautiful and painful memories without being able to share with anyone. It's like a past failed relationship which you want to just whine about to friends, but she can never do that. The bitterness will remain buried forever in her heart.

Here's some BTS tidbits.

One warning though. This is not for the faint hearted.

Starting from ep 14, the drama will start to draw tears from you every other episode, escalating into a sobbing mess in the final 10 episodes. There are 35 episodes in all.

And for the final 2, have a kind reminder not to watch this in the library/on the train/anywhere public. You will have a terrible heartbreak...well, that is if there's any more fragments of your heart large enough to be broken by then.