If you are not fan of The Story of Yanxi Palace and Wu Jin Yan then you should leave this blog post and move on to the rest of your many open tabs. It has a special place in my heart because it was the first #cdrama I watched and never looked back. Now I will honestly admit, except for the Royal Feast, I have been unable to finish any #cdrama that she's stared in since then, so I was getting worried. Thankfully this year The Double was released, a #cdrama based on the novel Marriage of Di Daughter by Qian Shan Cha Ke
A period revenge Chinese drama about Xue Fang Fei, a young woman whose life takes a dramatic turn when her father, a wealthy county magistrate, loses everything during major upheaval and betrayal. Xue is saved by Jiang Li, the daughter of the Director of the Secretariat. She adopts Jiang Li's identity and heads back to the capital to seek justice. With the support of Duke Xiao Heng and a few good friends, she bravely faces various challenges, and works tirelessly to rescue her father and brother.
Apart from beautiful costume details and the usual majestic scenery, lets discuss what I liked about this drama...
The chemistry between the leads.
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The saying in the King's office
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Our evil characters have some depth and back stories
I thought this was great! They took some time to tell us what made our colouful antagonists who they are . Both ladies ( Joe Chen and Li Meng) had a good story arc.... many dramas fail to do this. It was done extremely well because I felt empathy and sadness for them. Bravo to the talented actresses!
Men manipulated into submissive roles
Now I am not saying I liked this, but it made the drama interesting. It was discomforting, a husband (Liang Yong Qi) burying his innocent wife alive .... to a man forced to marry a princess to cover for her pregnancy when the baby did not belong to him... to a father (Su Ke) unable to recognize a stranger masquerading as his daughter. The men are manipulated not to believe that they are powerful but instead to know they are powerless. It all made for an a very intriguing story angle.
When Su ke's character realizes how he failed his daughter by being unable able to recognize her or honor her in death, I cried with him. Fantastic acting.
I never knew a fan could be such a masculine weapon!
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