I am back with the spice of the month, the sensational CDrama Princess Royal starring acclaimed Zhang Linghe and Zhao JinMai. These two have taken the drama world by storm especially since this is their first project together and their chemistry has wooed the hearts of many. Whether on screen or off screen, you can’t help but fantasise them together and we have enjoyed this 41-episode drama.
Princess Royal is a historical, Chinese drama with thrilling, political themes alongside other heavy plots of romance, betrayal, family relationship and scheming devices that run throughout from the start. It begins with the eldest daughter of the King, Royal Princess Pingyue/Li Rong who has been married to her common or husband the Grand Chancellor Pei Wenxuan. For 20 years they have been together, seemingly as an amicable couple but that is far from the truth. The two have been irreconciled since she is in love with her eunuch servant Su Ringing who used to be the hottest, Young Master of the Noble Su family and Pei Wenxuan has always been entangled with his former fiancé, Qin Zhenzhen who is now a concubine of the Emperor. Their differences have led them to be known enemies and it reaches its peak as from the first episode we learn that Emperor Li Chuan (younger brother of Li Rong) is dying and leaves his last wishes to Pei Wenxuan while the Princess has been ailing from an unknown illness and is under the care of her eunuch. The Emperor and Pei have worked together to destabilise the power of the Noble houses in the court while Li Rong is a representative of the Noble families who want to have all power. In their conflict, the emperor leaves Pei in charge of keeping Li Rong in check and to destroy the Noble houses while Li Rong makes plans to kill her husband. In the end both die at the hands of each other, but that’s the start of the story. Miraculously, they wake up 20 years back when they two first met and married each other. With the knowledge of the last and unfolding of 20 years, the two decide to change fate together and forge a new path that is beneficial while uncovering secrets of both past and present. This time they would be allies and take charge for a better future.
This play is absolutely amazing as it touches various issues, many which are a great inclusion to current debates. With each episode, a truth unfolds, doubts arise and tension broils beneath. I loved the way we moved with the characters as both Pei Wenxuan and Li Rong are acting in such dimensional ways. Special shout outs to the cast especially when acting as their younger, inexperienced selves, their future more matured selves and the present young bodied but older mindset selves. In the bts, you could see clear distinctions between the three versions which shows the dedication and hard work of the actors and actresses. The cinematography was incredible, using various set pieces to really immerse you in this world of royalty especially the costumes and jewellery used. I watched the bts of the directors and executives and you can see the clear effort and mission they had, to thing this story to life especially since it is adopted from a novel.
The storyline follows our couple as they centre around key figures of their futures, trying to make changes within the Royal court, the Royal family and common people. They also readdress their love and feelings for other people that they had, hoping to get clearer answers this time and fix all miscommunication. Weeding out corrupt, power-hungry officials and learning the price of certain decisions, it is power packed with actions, hidden agendas and almost detective analysis of what will happen next. There are also plenty of funny moments between our couple as well, given the two dispositions they both hold in society and their rivalry. One of the reasons why I love it so much was how it outlines position of women in political forums especially with our female lead teams. They had a lot of power within the story, and we got to saw how easy it was for a woman to be overcome by many set traps. Even villainous women, you could understand why they had to resort to such measures as it was basically a man’s world to begin with. Li Rong and her team are very proactive in trying to gain power and solidifying their states as head figures especially without the need to marry a man from a powerful family or being simple women to give birth to sons for prestige. Instead, we see young women contending for equal standing and even more as they deem. The same goes for men who didn’t try to fight for power, but rather had simpler ideals of just being family men and protecting who they wanted to protect and also following the charge of the women around them. I greatly enjoyed this reverse of powers between the genders showing that it can work either way.
I also appreciated the public play and influence of the Noble families in court and the common people which gives rise to the pressure for the Royal family. To see how all of it unfolded in the future and the struggle to reform it in the present was such a key piece for driving the story and showed how difficult it is to bring a total balance in such standings. With the end resolve being our Princess as the final boss, I’m very satisfied with how it ended and the various pieces of each character following what was best for them. Now on to my own cons of the story,
1. The ultimate villain. From the get-go, the villain is outlined to be the Young Master Su Rongqing who surprisingly made it back to the past as well (which wasn’t explained how), and he is the major antagonist. He’s in love with our fml and challenges the disruption of the Noble families. He is a perfect villain and did an absolute fantastic job, his ending has so many openings and I wasn’t mad that he died in the end. It all worked out, but I have to say that his personal ideas were a bit too stubborn when his character itself was made to be smart and calculative. In the end he was just like too headstrong with his ideals instead of proposing a counter idea that was actually detrimental. Plus, his love for the fml was one of his greatest weaknesses which I feel at some point he should have abandoned her to really drive that wedge of him being a true villain. In my opinion, the True villain of the story is Father Emperor but I’ll not get into that yet.
The presentation of past trauma within our main characters. I feel like the girl was way too lenient towards Su Rongqing even after she knew he killed her while being overly hostile to her husband. It felt mismatched to a degree and even our ml didn’t have as much struggle with the realisation that the Princess really did kill him. They skimmed over such important mental and emotional reactions which makes it a bit too fictional for me. Give me the fear, the anxiety, the doubt of who is telling the truth and who is lying. Give me the hurt of loving someone for so long and they never thought about you at all!!
Pei Wenxuan and his personal story with his family was greatly underdeveloped and easily forgotten. Our ml had his own issues, but they as just used as snippets which just doesn’t make sense to me because he had such an interesting life prior to meeting the Princess so why not tell us more? I feel like Pei Wenxuan was literally built around Li Rong to appoint he has no other personality outside of her. Everything he does and who he is, is tied to her. It causes redundancy to some effect.
Lastly, the use of martial arts. They had such impressive scenes of fighting and sword play but they were very few…. almost love 5 out of 41 episodes… come on man! Give me death defying fight scenes and bloody messes. Let me see them kill each other. Given how politically heavy this was, I needed more life-threatening quests in all capacities.
All in all, I give this a solid 8.7/10. It’s a good drama, rewatchable and enjoyable. I’d like some extra scene of their married life and kids which would just solidify them for me. I want to see our actors in a modern drama as well as our main leads are such a power couple in real life. Hopefully you enjoy it as much as I have and look out for more. This has been a delight, and this is your feed.