Have you ever been hesitant to pick up a drama purely because everyone around you loves it, and you were worried that you might not like it that much?

I might be in the minority, but there are so many popular Chinese dramas I’ve given a chance and ended up not enjoying, so I’m usually very careful when starting a drama based on the amount of hype surrounding it.

That’s why I haven’t watched A Dream of Splendor even though it was released a couple of years ago, despite having many opportunities to start it. I never found the time because I was worried it wouldn’t meet my expectations.

Now, I know it’s unwise to base your expectations solely on someone else’s likes and dislikes, but it’s inevitable in the world we find ourselves in, where we’re bombarded with information and marketing tactics.

But I was tired of watching contemporary romance dramas, and I needed to watch something different to cleanse my palate. Finally, I decided to bite the bullet and watch this lovely drama, and I wasn’t disappointed.

I’ll talk about its many winning points shortly, but rest assured, if you give this drama a chance, you’re going to love every single part of it. And I know I criticized marketing tactics just a few seconds ago, but in this case, they definitely won.

What’s A Dream of Splendor About?

Our female lead, Pan Er, runs a teahouse with her best friend, Sun Niang, and their lives aren’t the best: she is the object of scorn because she once worked as a government musician, and her parents don’t have a very good relationship with her husband.

The male lead, Qian Fan, on the other hand, is called The Living Devil because he is very ruthless when it comes to punishing and torturing suspects. He is rather cold, doesn’t smile a lot, and speaks only when necessary.

They have very strong personalities, and when they meet, it is at once dangerous but enlightening because we see how similar they are despite meeting for the first time. Circumstances lead them to accompany each other on a journey for several days.

At this point, our female lead is engaged to another man, Ouyang Xu, but she receives news that he has moved on and also needs her to move on. That’s when she decides to travel to the capital to meet him and ends up saving our male lead’s life.

From this point on, they become entangled in the best way possible, finding love and happiness with each other.

As I mentioned earlier, she runs a teahouse with her best friend, who is married but is forcibly divorced and attempts to kill herself. Somehow, she floats to the boat our male and female leads are on. They save her, and they continue their journey, also rescuing Yin Zhang, a young girl who is like the female lead’s younger sister.

These three also find love, happiness, and fulfillment in the capital with three very different men, while trying to keep their businesses afloat and maintain their sisterhood intact.

My Review

When I first started watching this drama, I didn’t really pay attention to the title because I’ve seen much more descriptive, unrelated, and amusing ones. At this point in my watching career, I don’t even bother trying to find a link between the name of the drama and the drama itself.

But having watched this drama, let me explain my point of view on the title. ‘Splendor’ as a noun means brilliance or magnificent in appearance, and to describe something as ‘splendid’ is essentially saying that thing is very beautiful and magnificent.

I did mention it in the synopsis above, but this drama was very much about our protagonists finding themselves at the most dangerous and lowest points of their lives, and trying their best to climb back to the top. And while on their knees, their earnest wish is that whatever awaits them at the top must be splendid.

No matter how I look at it, that is really what every single human being wishes for: that the outcome of whatever they are doing is commensurate with the amount of effort they have put in. Our leads are just like us in their many dreams to live a life where everything—be it earning money, their love life, or their family life—is as splendid as can be.

As I mentioned earlier, this drama turned out to be significantly more feminist than I expected from reading the synopsis, and I loved every single second of it. At every point, we were reminded of the eternal sisterhood of our female protagonists, and every aspect of the plot was outstanding.

This was actually quite expected, as based on my research, it was written and directed by women. Instead of exploiting their misfortunes to heighten drama, this lovely historical drama focused more on growth and how our protagonists faced numerous challenging situations.

Our three female protagonists bonded over their unique circumstances and the hardships they endured to reach where they were, whether experiencing happiness, sadness, or anything else. They were determined to support each other until the very end, which was the best part.

It also really helps that every single character in this drama felt so fleshed out, to the point that I even understood and rooted for all of them from time to time. I appreciate it when a drama is bold and intentional about developing the backstory of every character, and that’s exactly what happened in this beautiful piece.

And if I want to highlight the most beautiful aspect of this drama, it would be wrong not to mention the chemistry between our leads. Having watched over 50 Chinese dramas by now, one recurring issue I’ve noted is sometimes the chemistry between characters feels lacking.

But that wasn’t the case in this beautiful drama. Right from the beginning, Qian Fan and Pan Er had an established rapport that made it seem like they had known each other for ages, despite just meeting. He looked at her like she hung the moon, and to her, he was the perfect human being.

In my opinion, the romance that enveloped this story from start to finish was definitely the best thing about the drama. It felt unique yet familiar at the same time. I won’t go into details to avoid spoilers, but I loved how our male and female protagonists balanced each other out, and you could truly see why and how they fell for each other.

Usually, when I’m watching a historical romance Chinese drama, I tend to ignore the political subplot because often it becomes more complicated than necessary, and I don’t want to give myself a headache while enjoying a drama.

Yet another thing that made this drama beautiful to me was the fact that I didn’t find the political plots distracting. In fact, the political intrigue involving our male protagonist tied back to the theme of being cast out and discriminated against, which was central to our female protagonist’s story.

I’ve tried my best not to reveal any heavy spoilers because I want you to enjoy the drama fully. Just know that you won’t feel lost, as every element introduced in the story circles back and connects to something else later on.

Final Thoughts

This is one of those dramas where after finishing the last episode, you feel like you’ve grown with the characters. While the character development in this drama seemed a bit unbalanced, as ir sort leans more towards one particular character (Yin Zhang), it was still magnificent by the time we reached the final episode.

If you’ve been debating whether or not to watch this drama, consider this my strongest recommendation. I promise you won’t be bored. But, if you prefer dramas with a lot of sweet family-related conflicts, this might not be for you, as our male and female leads do not live with their parents. Although our male lead has some issues with his dad, it remains on the periphery of the story.

If you do end up watching this drama, please come back here and let me know your thoughts, because I’m here to engage and discuss with anyone who loves chatting about dramas, whether it’s morning, afternoon, night, or midnight!