Thoughts On: New Life Begins – Up till ep 19

I am not a huge fan of romcoms or romantic dramas in general but that does not mean I don’t watch any. Every now and then I come across one that draws me in, almost against all odds. 😀 New Life Begins is one of those. It’s unabashedly romantic fluff and I appreciate that it doesn’t try to pretend to be anything else. Which is what so many kdramas don’t seem to grasp these days. Drama has 40 episodes, which might sound a lot but I haven’t felt like it, so far anyway. Every epi has something to offer, some are slower and some are busier but I’ve enjoyed them all. And I haven’t done much FFing either! 😲

First off, couple OST videos for easy listening. The first one is basically just cute scenes of the OTP. 🙂

Full New Life Begins OST

Found OST for the BGM too – I’m loving it!

I love how enjoyable and fun watch this has been so far. Drama goes easy on the palace politics and instead of your typical “harem” drama with all the nasty back stabbing and scheming, we get females bonding, supporting and helping each other. They are just great together. Drama is for the most part very angst lite, though I know there will be some angstier episodes ahead. I also know that the conflicts will be quite quickly sorted out. Yeah, I don’t really mind some spoilers with this type of shows. New Life Beigns is a very pretty drama. I love the opening credits and all the beatiful shots in it. The closing credits are lovely too. I’ve been screen capping like crazy, just can’t seem to help myself. If this continues I’ll be having a tennis elbow for sure. 😂 The first episode introduces us to the Nine States of this story and how it’s done, is ingenious. It’s all done in stop motion animation with narration. Absolutely loved that! It sort of sets the mood for the whole show. They use animation in some other short narrative parts as well, to good effect. Drama is quite humorous in places, without being OTT. It’s also sweet but not saccharine, there’s enough seriousness in the mix to balance things out. For such a light hearted show, it has some surprisingly reflective and thoughtfull parts too.

As per most Chinese costume dramas, this one has about gzillion characters, but only few main ones and most of them are quite likeable from the get go. Others show growth and change for the better as the story progresses. Even the ruler of Xin State is not painted as all out bad guy, though like most rulers he puts the state, his position in it and the people of Xin first, above his family. This does lead to some conflict and strife but also to some self reflection. The only truly horrible character is the 2nd price (crown prince) who is a violent, self centered hypocrat and the root of all bads things. He doesn’t have any redeeming qualities and I truly hope he won’t get redeemed in the end. Though there is a main couple, Drama basically has an ensemble cast and I appeaciate that we get episodes for some of the other more relevant characters/couples. This brings fresh life to the story, so it doesn’t start feeling stale or too closed in. People have their preferences but I do like the unassuming cuteness of Yin Zheng, the 6th prince and Li Wei, our ML/FL. Their romance is rather slow burn and understated, which appeals to me as I’m not really one for the “grand passions”. 😁 The 5th prince Yin Qi is mostly played for comic relief, especially in the beginning. He starts out as sort of spoiled and silly but he has a good heart and I believe will have a pretty satisfying growth arc. He and Shangguan Jing make a fun mismatched but ultimately compatible pair. Yin An, the 3rd prince is the true comic relief, ha. He is pretty smart when it comes to business and politics but so oblivious of everyone else but himself that it lends to plenty of hilarity. Yin An is not a bad person per se but he needs a rude awakening to see how he constantly walks over those nearest and dearst to him. He tends to assume a lot and most of the time he’s totally off the mark. Which can be funny or sad, depending.

I originally had this idea to present the drama just as a post of screen caps buuuuut… seems like I had more to say than I initially thought, LOL! Anyway, here is a bunch of pretty pictures to brighten up November early December, which at least in these parts is likely to be rather gloomy. The first 9 pics are my edits from the closing credits.  Made couple of banners too, while I was at it. 🙂 I had fun playing with Photoshop, as I haven’t done that in ages.

Advertisement