Presentation
Korean Title: 金枝玉叶 (Jin Zhi Lu Ye)
Aired in: 2019 (6 episodes)
Channel: Netflix
Grade: 8/10
Actors: Wang Herun and Wang Yuwei
Analysis
Synopsis
Zhaohua is the 7th princess and is engaged to Lhawang Dorji. She is young and capricious, sometimes considered cruel. For that reason, Lhawang Dorji refuses to marry her. In order to conquer his heart, Zhaohua gets help from Fukkan’gan, while competing with another princess: Siwan. Will Zhaohua succeed in winning Lhawang Dorji’s heart?
My Opinion (No Spoilers)
What I liked: I was kind of scared, when I started to watch the drama. I was attracted in the first place because it had a short format (only 6 episodes of 45 minutes); but the beginning of the drama was purely centered on the romance. It was really cheesy and stereotypical which made me a bit confused concerning the rest of the story.
Yet, my opinion changed completely, when I continued watching, reaching the climax at episode 5. I really liked it and how unexpected some twists were.
What I liked less: In overall, the drama didn’t go deep enough into details (regarding characters’ personalities especially) and rapidly uncovered the intrigue. Moreover, the drama was simply a spin-off and there was no clear message at the end of the story. What was exactly the purpose of the drama apart from entertaining?
Still, it was nice and pleasant to watch. Sweet and easy!
Analysis (Spoiler Alert)
The characters: Zhaohua (Wang Herun) is the young and capricious 7th princess (remember she is around 15 years old). She is to be engaged. Her mother is the Empress Consort Ling (Wu Jin Yan), the emperor’s favorite. Moreover, she is also short-tempered and has often been described as cruel and merciless. For that reason, her fiancé Lhawang Dorji (Wang Yuwei) wants to break their engagement. He is young, rich, handsome and has an excellent reputation. His family has been guarding the desert of Gobi for generations, so he is considered an incredible soldier.
Unfortunately, I think this male lead, who actually becomes the supporting lead, could’ve been worked on a bit more. His personality seems to be very bland and inconsistent at first. Also, he falls in love with Zhaohua incredibly fast (a bit too fast in my opinion), especially when he discovers she is not interested in him anymore (Did hurting in pride accelerate their romance? Very probable, since China at that time is all about honor).
The male character, stealing the spotlight to Lhawang Dorji in the drama, is Fukkan’gan (Wang Yi Zhe). His uncle told him his mother died because of the Empress Consort Ling, pushing him to avenge her by using Zhaohua. His sly plan is to seduce her and make her fall in love with him. He goes to great length to set his place into motion and abandons her in a village full of beggars. Even though he comes at her rescue at the end, because of his feelings for her (he got trapped in his own web); Zhaohua is deeply hurt.
I had some difficults at the very beginning at understanding his real motivations towards Zhaohua. I could feel he was very insistent with her, pushy and extremely insolent (let’s remember she is a princess and he is only a guard). He was not respecting her and was definitely playing with her feelings, which obviously made me want to get Zhaohua away from him.
The last character of that drama is Siwan (Xu Xiao Nuo), another princess. Zhaohua and Siwan grew up together, but Siwan has always been jealous of her. Because of that, she wishes to hurt Zhaohua. By the way, we discover at the end that Siwan is responsible for an accident that traumatized Zhaohua when she was just 11.
Siwan also wants to steal Lhawang Dorji from Zhaohua and get married to him.
I personally hated that character. I couldn’t stand her constant jealousy and her petty schemes. She was incapable to realize how lucky she was to actually be born as a princess, in wealth and pampered by the royal family. She was too greedy, which blinded her in the end.
The two male leads: Until the very last scene of the drama, I was really convinced that none of the male leads actually deserved Zhaohua. Lhawang Dorji was too indecisive and bland and Fukkan’gan was a liar, who betrayed and hurt her.
However, the final twist of the drama made me change my mind entirely. Indeed, after pretending to be crazy to avenge herself on Fukkan’gan and Siwan, Zhaohua has this wonderful conversation with Lhawang Dorji on their wedding day. He explains that he understood that she was pretending to be crazy to punish the two others, while expressing once again his love for her. At that time, I really saw that they were actually a very compatible match, on the same wavelength.
Portrait of the royal leaders: The final scene is magnificent, showing the current empress Consort Ling and the emperor, watching over Zhaohua and Lhawang Dorji, leaving on their wedding day. I could only see that moment as a parallel between the two couples, very similar in fact. In my opinion, Zhaohua and Lhawang Dorji are the emperor and empress’s younger selves. The two couples are echoing each other.
Like mother, like daughter: Even though at the beginning, Zhaohua appears to be immature compared to her mother (she is sly, clever and strategist); the daughter grows to become her mother’s equal, at the very moment she leaves the palace to live her own life. With her evil plan, Zhaohua now demonstrates she is able to defend herself using her brain and not her whip.
Karma: I love Asian dramas in general, because of the consistent presence of karma. I like seeing evil characters punished for their wrong deeds. In Yanxi Palace: Princess Adventures, it is absolutely the case at the end. First, Siwan wanted to turn Zhaohua crazy, when she was young but failed. As a revenge, Zhaohua turned her in to the crazy one, traumatizing her in the supposedly haunted palace. As for Fukkan’gan, he played with Zhaohua’s feelings and put her in danger, without knowing the full story regarding his past (his uncle lied to him about his mother, you’ll see). Plus, he involuntarily fell in love with Zhaohua, but pushed her away when she reciprocated his feelings. At the end, he is punished by seeing her marrying a man she now loves, leaving him alone and full of regrets.
The genres, the visuals, the opening theme: I was really impressed by the sudden mix of genres that appeared in the drama. What seemed to be a simple romance at first, got really close to a horror drama during episode 5 and 6. Moreover, it beautifully combined this whole with palace intrigue, unraveling characters’ evil plots of vengeance, betrayal and murder.
The other part of the drama that I appreciated a lot, were the costumes (that’s actually the reason why I decided to watch it in the first place). The setting is beautiful, the pictures in the opening are wonderful and give a great sense of royalty.
In a nutshell, if you want to watch a Chinese historical drama, easy to see but with some good twists, I definitely recommend this one!
P.S.: Was I the only one confused with the traditional music of the opening theme?
P.S.2: This drama is the spin-off of the 2018 70-episode Chinese drama: The Story of Yanxi Palace, with the actors playing the parents as main leads.
I’m sorry I couldn’t find a proper trailer 😦
Once Upon a Drama 