It’s surreal how much I’ve came to love General & I. Surreal as I don’t tend to fall in love easily for any drama but General & I has been easy to love, too easy and too difficult to let go but that’s the thing with great loves, they mark you the most and are harder to overcome, if ever. The story is simple and cliché: two very intelligent war mastermind adversaries, one a general, nicknamed the God of War, the other a female strategist. Pitting against one another they’re formidable opponents: mind versus matter, prediction versus adaptability. Together they’re unstoppable. That’s the reason everyone wants to keep them apart. It’s not that they’re weaker separately, but rather unbeatable together. Chu Bei Jie is the general of the kingdom of Jin, related to the king by blood. Bai Ping Ting is a childhood friend of the Prince He Xia, a sworn enemy of Chu Bei Jie. Chu Bei Jie and Bai Ping Ting fall in love but their love is an obstacle to the wishes of the king of Jin, the Royal Consort, the Chancellor and to He Xia. Through tick and conniving plots, Bei Jie and Ping Ting are separated. After years of turmoil in the land, they reunite again for their love towards one another to fight against He Xia and unite the land under one empire, bringing peace to the people and stability to the land they so dearly love. This is the story in a nutshell but the drama is so much more than that, is the sacrifices one makes for the loved ones, the sacrifices one makes for family, for country, for honour, the battles one faces not to conquer to dominate but to conquer to maintain peace and to fight for the ideals of a better world and at opposite ends for everything antagonistic to that. For that reason the story is a 10 out of 10 without another thought. The main catalyst characters: Chu Bei Jie, Bai Ping Ting & He Xia Chu Bei Jie performed by veteran Hong Kong actor Wallace Chung and embodies the personification of Mars, the mythological God of War in every sense. He’s strong, determined and wrecks havoc amongst those foolish enough to get in his way. He’s smart and a brilliant strategist, able to adapt to local circumstances like no other. He’s also fiercely loyal to his king and to the woman he loves, never doubting her, never losing faith in her. He’s also not afraid to show his emotions to her, to hold her, to comfort her, to cry in her presence. Wallace Chung performs Chu Bei Jin brilliantly. He is Chu Bei Jin. For a man in his early 40’s to perform Chu Bei Jin, a character that is over 10 years his junior, to perform the stunts that he performs in the drama with the agility of a man half his age is a feat not accomplished by many and Wallace Chung does it effortlessly. Bai Ping Ting is performed by Chinese A-List Angelababy. She took time to get used to on screen. Initially it was a struggle to see Bai Ping Ting. She appeared to passive when the character is anything but. Every scene seemed to drag with Angelababy’s performance. Is not that she was bad, rather she wasn’t good either. She was just flat and continued to be flat. Her emotions were so utterly standardized it was hard to empathize with Bai Ping Ting, despite liking the character so much on paper. It seemed that she was despondent of life and just existed. It was sad to watch. However as the episodes moved on, her performance grew more convincing, perhaps due Wallace Chung and Sean Sun’s performances who elevated the drama and by consequence perhaps made her elevate her performance as well. Bai Ping Ting is a character with more spunk than what was portrayed but saying that Angelababy’s performance was nice to watch with Wallace Chung and Sean Sun. He Xia is performed by Sean Sun and what a remarkable performance that was as well. He’s younger than Wallace Chung yet on screen their prowess’s are evenly matched. He Xia is despicable and vindictive and a pain in everyone’s side. He marries for power then when he loses the woman he didn’t know he loved is too late. He could’ve been happy but he chose to pursue vengeance and in the end vengeance took over him and he lost himself. Sean Sun is phenomenal performing He Xia. He’s unreadable. His face demonstrates nothing, his actions demonstrate everything. The secondary characters: the King, the chancellor, the Queen Consort, the Princess, Lady 13…what is interesting about them is that their role in the drama doesn’t drag. Once their purpose is finished they no longer appear in the drama. Normally secondary characters tend to stay in a drama from beginning to end but here, they don’t which is different but good. Once they no longer contribute to the story, bye bye and another character appears to take their place with the exceptions of the King of Yin and Princess Bai Lan. Acting/Cast, I would give it a 7. Not all characters are convincing but that mishap I gladly overlooked as I really enjoyed the drama. The OST is nice, it’s not outstanding but it’s nice and it matches the drama well. In a scale of 0 – 10, it’s a 6. Re-watch value: 10 out of 10. I loved Chu Bei Jie, loved, loved, loved the character and Wallace Chung! Bai Ping Ting matched him in every way possible. They’re a couple made in drama heaven, the Ying and the Yang, complements! Their battles against one another were phenomenal and when they put their heads together to fight their enemies was amazing! The drama remained solid and consistent if, dragging at times but that didn't compromise the story, building up to the reunion which ought to be watched again and again and again! Overall General and I is as perfect a drama as they get even with its imperfections and flaws. As everything in life is anything but perfect the drama is a pure example of it, a story that is utterly perfect despite how unperfect and challenging it was along the way!