Princess Silver (2019)

Plot twists and repetitive betrayals

Completed - 12/8/2021

Princess Silver is a lot more complicated than what the synopsis said. It also doesn't seem to be a highly recommended drama. It's not a bad drama, esp. if you enjoy revenge and betrayal plots. However, it's not a perfect drama as the pacing is a little uneven, and there are some weird illogical scene inconsistencies. I was thoroughly enjoying this drama in the first 25 episodes . But at 58 episodes, I think it's longer than it should be (which is quite common in Chinese historical drama). The sets and costumes are nice and elaborate. Girls look beautiful and Guys look handsome. Overall acting of the cast is pretty good as well.

This drama has a very romance-focused plot and all the "excitement" is because of these romances.

1) Rong Le/Man nYao (FL) + Prince Li (ML)
This is the lovely main couple. They love each other so much that they would suffer and die for each other. After the initial "surprise", they never doubt each other's love. However, I personally am not feeling the passion. I actually think our FL has the least chemistry with ML out of the other male leads. I am not sure if it's because I don't find Aarif Rahman very attractive, thus, affecting my perception of his acting/love for FL. Towards the second half of the show, I find it difficult to recall scenes in the first half that would justify his selfless actions.

2) Rong Le (FL) + General Fu Chou (2ML)
I find the chemistry between them the best, even though FL doesn't like 2ML. However, Jing Chao as our 2ML is such a good actor. I am so glad I got to know him here. In the bath tub scene, his acting was SOO good. I cried for him. It was so heartbreaking when he discovered who was in the bath tub and his eyes are full of emotions - or hard to control emotions. There are other monologues that he's done that were so heartbreakingly sad. The rare quiet times that FL and 2M spent together eating dumplings and watching fireworks, were my favorite scenes of theirs. Even when they were fighting, there's so much more chemistry.

3) Rong Le (FL) + Rong Qi (3ML)
If you are watching this drama because of Leo Luo, you might be disappointed. I would not classify him as a main lead, but more in a supporting role. He doesn't really have that many scenes in this drama. However, when he's there, you can see the usual Leo Luo elegance and sadness. This romance was sweet and sad at the same time. Rong Qi has to be the saddest character in this whole drama. However, I do find the love/hate relationship between the 'siblings' a little too repetitive. I would have loved the drama to spend more time showing us their earlier relationship and not wait till the end of the drama.

Other Observations;
1. Leo Luo is the only lead that uses his real voice.
2. Nice sets and costumes - but I find the clothes too big on the actors, esp. male actors.
3. Many pretty ladies in this drama!
4. There aren't too many fight scenes, but the choreography is quite good.
5. How come Prince Li can touch women all of the sudden, even when he's not in love with them?
6. FL's amnesia lasts a VERY long time - too long for my taste.
7. Abrupt scene changes
8. After watching "Sweet Teeth" I can't help but focus on the actors' teeth and find FL's crooked teeth a little distracting. LOL 😆
9. Most characters are pretty smart. There isn't any dumb, annoying character in this drama.

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You will only LOVE this drama if you stick it out to the end!

Both Leo Luo, and Jing Chao deserve an award for their acting in this drama. OUTSTANDING ACTORS!

I watched Princess Silver back in May 2021. Princess Silver is how I found out about MyDramaList.com, and is the reason why I created an account. I was so amazed by this drama, especially one person's unconditional love, selflessness, and sacrifice, that I searched for a website that would allow me to write about my opinion of this drama. In most dramas, the screenwriter portrays a very toxic idea of love between the leads, usually, it's not even close to love but rather is normalized mental/emotional abuse. However, in this drama, there is one person who truly loved the female lead, he put his pride aside, he humbled himself, he gave up his life, and he was very patient with her. BTW, the character that I am speaking about you will be able to identify in the last 2 episodes.

To be honest, Princess Silver is a drama that I wanted to drop 3 different times before reaching the end, but I am glad that I did not because in order to understand the beginning and middle, you must watch the end. The end will change your rating of this drama from a 7.0 to a 9.0. I will say for most of the drama, I had second male lead syndrome. I never rooted for the female lead and the male lead romance/relationship. At the end, I had third male lead syndrome lol. There were two things I believe was unnecessary in this drama. One was the second male lead storyline towards the end. It wasn't 100% bad, but it wasn't 100% ideal either. I don't care about happy endings, as long as the story make sense and is realistic. However, the alliance between the first male lead and the second male lead towards the end felt rushed and a bit unrealistic. The second unnecessity is the additional 4 episodes, as I think Princess Silver could have had 54 episodes instead of 58. It def. would have increased my rating from a 9.5 to a 10.

It is now August 2021, and I decided to rewatch this drama for the second time, solely to watch the love between the female lead and the character that I mentioned above.

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My Top Drama of 2019

This drama has very good story, like seriously very very well organized story. I love how they build the main FL, she experienced all kind of fortune and misfortune. Lost family and memories, betrayal, love, scarified , reunion , and she went through it all. probably the only drama which I okay with he being with any ML, either, Wuyou or Fu Chou or Rong Qi. I did pissed off at all of them when they plot their own plan by using her, but they did love her wholeheartedly so I kinda let's it go.
But I did sad at Hen Xiang. She go through a lot in the drama and only receive a little good life at nearly the end of the drama but have a sad ending (you know what I mean).
Overall, A very very good and highly recommended drama.

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Guilty Pleasure Chinese Costume Drama

This was only the second Asian drama I ever saw. My first Asian drama was Yunxi Palace, and I definitely enjoyed it enough to see what else was out there, so I came across this one, and I binged it. Now that I have seen countless C Dramas, this one seems like nothing special, but at the time when I first watched this one, I was absolutely entranced by it all. The cinematography, sometimes I forget that some C Dramas are live-action, just because of the colour editing, outrageous physicality (flying, etc), and the manicured authentics (skin blurring, elaborate wigs, prosthetics, etc). It's all so out of this world, that in my mind, I think of it like watching an animated series.

Anyway, I had nothing to compare Princess Silver with at the time, so I was completely absorbed by watching and learning about C Drama culture: blood spitting, mask-wearing, Chinese royalty, flying around, love triangle, and most of all, the fight scenes. I had never seen fight scenes like these. I still remember the fight scene where the ML flung the FL around whilst taking out the bad guys with the Go game pieces. The fight scene where the SML takes out bad guys with a boat paddle. These look like dance choreography, indeed, they have an element of dance choreography to them, and the colours!! The blue-themed daylight fight scene, and the black-themed night fight scene.

This is a melodrama. There is tons of blood-spitting, revenge, jealousy, over-the-top plot points. The SML stole the show, despite him being given crappy dialogue, he was the only rounded character in the whole thing, and of course, having not only suffered the most, but also having done the most for the FL, she remains cold and dismissive towards him and chooses the ML. Not that the SML was perfect in any way (except looks), but he wasn't arrogant like the ML, and he was a character that wanted to be a good person, but was thwarted at every turn. The FL was middle-of-the-road in terms of both characterisation and acting. Not a doormat FL at least, which was good. The ML is just an immature and arrogant character with no interesting qualities and although he was meant to be a warm character, in contrast to the SML's stoic character, the actor portraying him had no acting skills to apply to make him interesting in any way. Ironically, the SML, who was meant to be a stoic character, was the only charcter that displayed a range of emotions.

The scene/ plot point that was the most problematic to me, was when the SFL essentially raped the SML by pretending to be the FL. This wasn't a big deal to the script writer, since the SFL is still seen as a perpetual victim that the audience must feel sorry for, but this was a bridge too far (and that's saying something about a melodrama!). We later learn that the main antagonist of the entire plot had been raped by the king and father of most of the male protagonists, so rape was the reason for the entire revenge plot, and subsequent death of the only interesting characters. Interesting duality that rape is no big deal if it happens to a male character. The SFL not only rapes the SML, but afterwards, also attempts to kill the FL and frame the SML for her death. The SFL was just as wicked of a character as the main antagonist, and the SML shouldn't have had to die for her.

So, in conclusion, I didn't hate this drama because I had a good time watching it, in all its absurdity. It is a kitchen-sink melodrama C drama, and certainly not worth viewing if you are looking for a good story, with strong performances and good dialogue.

But if you are looking for a guilty pleasure C drama with gorgeous costumes, fight choreography, and a SML to gawk at, then give it a try.

If you want an actually good costume drama, not just a guilty pleasure one, then watch, "A Dream of Splendor", or "The Longest Day in Chang'an".

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Tragic for most characters but oh, so good for MC!

For me, this is the best dynasty era historical that I’ve watched even though FL spends at least a third of the drama married to another man (against her will, of course). Usually, I’m bored with dynasty historicals because there’s too many forced engagements, psycho female love rivals/evil moms/concubines and political intrigue, but I was not bored with this drama at all even though it contained several of those elements. I guess it was how and to what character those elements were applied that made the difference for me.

FL (Rong Le/Man Yao) – I loved her calm, dignified, mature nature. There’s none of that ‘cute’ crap that C-dramas like to add to their heroines. No baby talk or pouting. I did wish, however, that she had begun a bit of plotting herself instead of being a pawn in this game of revenge that’s going on. It wasn’t until she got the silver hair that she became kick-ass. That doesn’t mean that she’s a damsel in distress. She’s trained in martial arts and can fight with a sword; she’s just used and betrayed by a variety of people in her life. One inconsistency that bugged me - in the final episodes, she becomes pregnant and was determined that she would give up her life for the child (had a fight with Wu You about this too). Yet at the very end, she's apparently no longer concerned about the baby because she spends 5 years away from her husband and child mourning her first love, Rong Qi. Where's all those motherly instincts now? I know there was a blood bath at the end (7 people die), which can be traumatic, but it takes her five years before she returns to her husband and child's side? That just seems like an exaggeration of grief to me.

ML (Wu You) – I call him ML because he’s FL’s love interest and she ends up with him, but General Fu was also a male lead in terms of screen time. Poor Wu You - what bittersweet irony! He was so opposed to a marriage alliance (good for him, BTW!) that unbeknownst to him, he caused the woman he loved to be married off to another man! Yeah, he was deceived, but talk about the regret! I loved this guy despite his earlier schemes to get the book that everyone’s obsessed about. He’s honorable, capable, committed wholeheartedly to the woman he loves and is strenuously opposed to marriage alliances. His children will thank him! You’ve got to love a guy who purposefully takes poison to turn his hair silver in order to protect his woman! He and FL are such a striking couple when they have silver hair! I was sad when their hair returned to its original color. He's a rare breed - a Chinese ML that I simply loved! He was strong without being cold and had such a regal demeanor. Everything you’d want in a benevolent dictator. He and FL are such a beautiful couple! Once they are officially a couple, there are no longer any misunderstandings between them - they trust and are totally devoted to one another - which is part of the reason this drama is different than other dramas.

General Fu – oh, how I loved this guy even though he starts out as a villain! He’s the 1st husband of FL and acts as an impediment to the MC’s love story. It’s so sad how he longs for the love of his wife yet can’t get it no matter what he does. She constantly misunderstands and thinks the worse of him despite his patience with her (a true villain wouldn’t let her keep him out of her bed). Part of me wished that she would love him just a little so he could experience a little happiness but the other part of me wanted her to remain true to ML. Listening to his dream of a life with Rong Le in episode 33 was heart-breaking, and even more heart-breaking when he gets tricked by Hen Xiang. He finds out as the drama progresses that revenge isn’t as sweet as he thought it would be. In fact, it’s pretty devastating for himself and everything he cares about. The bitter irony is that he’s been used and is being used by the true villain (Fu Yuan) of this drama just as much as FL. Aw, my heart aches for him. I loved his expressions, especially when he's shaking his head and laughing to himself as though thinking 'what fresh hell is this?' Also, I loved his thoughts when the dying Hen Xiang promises to find him in the next life. Basically, his voice over says, 'Please don't. Just leave me alone already.' If there were such a thing as a next life, I hope he finally gets Rong Le.

Hen Xiang – one of the women obsessed with General Fu. She’s so obsessed that she puts on FL’s face to trick this poor guy into sleeping with her. All I can say is at least she pulled this on the General and not Wu You (keep our MC’s love pure!). Personally, I think this drama didn’t need her. She was just another character obsessed by unrequited love.

Sun Yali – this pitiful character had a ‘hero’ complex. Whenever she’s ‘saved’ by some guy, she falls in love with them. Instead of accepting the proposal of a man that actually wants her, she spends her life fantasizing about men that will never love her. She and her father were delusional to think they could force WY to marry her. WY never does anything he doesn’t want to do; peer pressure/imperial decrees don't faze him. He won’t be your typical C-drama emperor with numerous concubines. He makes it clear numerous times that he will only ever love and marry FL.

Emperor Qi, FL’s brother – Leo looks much better with short hair and glasses. The long hair doesn’t suit him. He’s another tragic character, another plotting male. It’s clear that he loves his ‘sister’, but he’s got an evil mom (the ultimate villain of this drama) to deal with.

Fu Yuan & Lin Shen - evil incarnate. Enough said.

There are many other characters I’d like to mention but I don't want to write a book. Let’s just say I was interested in all of them, which is unusual for me with a C-drama. This drama had it all – irony, regret, revenge, unrequited love (everybody pretty much didn’t get who they wanted except for MC), obsession, betrayal, but the worse of this was applied to supporting characters, leaving MC’s love pure and unshakeable even though they experienced difficulties. The story itself was interesting, held together and had a few shockers at the end as the main plot was finally revealed and the viewer understands the motivations behind things that have taken place in earlier episodes. It’s tragic on many levels, but the MC’s ending is so satisfying that it makes up for how many characters get killed off.

If anything these historicals make it clear that men marrying multiple wives/concubines and having multiple children via different wives breed hatred and strife. Wives/concubines constantly scheming, brothers constantly scheming for the throne. One husband and one wife is best for family unity as well as a peaceful nation.

58 episodes is a lot but it’s definitely worth the watch.

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Very Tedious

I started out really enjoying this drama thru the first 10-12 episodes and then it descended as many have already said into a tedious and boring and convuluted mess. I could not really like any of the main leads and found them all ridiculous in the end. I really disliked the female lead by episode 18 and her actions were so ridiculous and selfish at the end that I was not really routing for her. The male lead was dull and boring and his utter blind devotion to her was not really believable. Her brother even less so. While I appreciate Leo Wu as an actor his character was not a good one.. I noticed so many people seemed to like him/sympathize with him and I just do not get it. He was a horrible human being who used her so many times. Save her? He was the cause of most of her problems. If he had gotten rid of his phsyco Mother all would have been fine but I guess there would be no story. The third lead male twin brother was also pretty pathetic but he was the one I liked the most. While he was not so believable I guess I understood where he was coming from. Last but not least was the last few episodes and the utterly absurd ending. What a mess. All in all I would not waste my time on 58 episodes of constant lying, constant poisoning and utter nonsense.

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A show that you should watch at least once in your life.

Very convoluted with all it's twist and turns, almost in a mind numbing way. Some aspects of the show have a very familiar feels.

A dominant ML and 2nd ML. An amnesiac FL as the heroine. Beautiful traditional/period costumes, good looking actors, artistic fight scenes, and a great love that defies all.

The length of the show allows each character development to take place. They started as young person's full of angst and uncertainty. Then they've been through a lot, gain alliances and some enemies too. They've love and lost and love again. Anyway, it has a happy ending so all is good.

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in other to suppress my frustrations with this drama i ll start with what i liked about it; omg male lead is the most beautiful man ever, like he looks like he came straight out of a disney comic book, some prince charming coming to life. the general was an awesome actor, i hated and loved him at the same time, and emperor Qi a.k.a night lord was exceptional in his approximately 6 scenes lol. the baby emperor was a huge highlight for me and the actor did good. FL was great with her acting, i could appreciate that she was a fighter and smart lead (but was she though o.0). i appreciate that eventually somewhere around the 31st episode, all form of back and forth that is common with the lead couple ended (i mean typical plotting and framing that makes one of the partners believe a lie and separate leaving viewers in a spiral of episodes awaiting their eventual reconciliation). i appreciate the loyalty of the couple to each other in the second half. i appreciate that some of the evil characters were redeemed and we were able to sympathize with most of the characters and that’s it people……..

with all this being said there is something that isn’t right with the story telling and directing that turned a potential awesome story/ drama into a disjointed ride that can only be survived with the help of the skip button (in its defense i binge watch dramas and once they are over 25 episodes i can’t help but skip unnecessary stuff) but the degree of skipping in this drama was really high ’_’ this drama had a lot of potential interesting characters that were absolutely under utilized. emperor Qi for example was a mysterious character and viewers were dying to know his story but we got less than two episodes of an underwhelming reveal of his back story lol at least he got one, Agent wu and wang yu were there the whole time and only got 2 mins explanation of who they were (family killed, wanting revenge, was the lazy excuse of a backstory of all the side characters) , prince Qian yi story line was weird, it couldn’t really connect his motives and his switch from good to bad. The empress fu yuan didn’t even get a full back story to give a better understanding of her mission to revenge. hearing the story from the maid’s narration to the general was mediocre at best considering there were 58 episodes in this drama and one could have been devoted to flashback the story of what happened in the past. the birth story of the FL and why her family was killed wasn’t clear at all. how come the old emperor did that to a woman he loved (ML’s mother); yes we figured it as poison but who did the plotting, why did they do that? all of this could have been explained with a few good episodes of flashbacks. even the book that was the core of the plot at some point turned out to be useless to the story. so you are wandering if all of this didn’t reflect in the drama, then what did lol. the writer spent a 16 strong initial episodes introducing the characters and the mysterious plot then suddenly we are in the cliche love triangle situation which isn’t bad….. until it lasts a whole 15 episodes. the FL was supposed to be smart and strong but the writer couldn’t decide i guess, because sometimes she was strong other times she was a damsel in distress slipping and falling 22 times o_0. her decisions sometimes will have you like WTF !!! there was a lot of time to gradually unravel the mysteries in this show but they decided to dump it all in the last 3 episodes. i went from being curious about the mysteries to just wanting it to end because it dragged in the center and wore me out. they focused on the wrong stories to tell and ignored the plots that would have carried the show.


some skip ideas
*interactions between wu yu/prince chen and everyone literally
*interactions between crown prince and anyone apart from the king, the general and prince li. that dude is useless
*all ya li’s scenes till the second half lol (she had a serious case of hero worship syndrome)
*pricess zhao yun till the last 20 episodes

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Life can take a different turn even when we don't want to.

First of all the drama is not that bad as many have written. Many condemned the Fl and ML.
Okay from these drama we see that the Princess lost her Memory of who she is and trying every possible means to still serve her country. Yes she was threathened and manipulated by people she loved and cared about.
Alot of people were wishing she fell inlove with the Qi Emperor, how possible is it when he manipulates, use and even made her loss her memory, that is not LOVE and that is why many are suffering in Marriages because we cannot differenciate between love and obsession.
Secondly how would she fall inlove with the General who is also like the Emperor, manipulative, always playing victim card. He is just obsessed with her and don't want her to be with who she loves.
She could'nt do any thing immoral with Prince Li while still married , i am sure a lot of people would've called her promiscusand loss woman.
They love theirselves but they have to endure all adversaires . Love must not be how we want it to be to suit our taste.
My only désavantage is that it was too long for my liking.
For those saying they love General Fu character i wonder what they love about him.
He passed through thesame trauma as Prince Li but did Prince plot unnecessary revenge against those that drugged the Emperors wine.
I cannot write long epistle but the Male lead and Female lead tried. Everything must not be CHEMISTRY .

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Many Stories in One

My overall feeling was that the whole drama was trying to accomplish too much, so the characterization was incomplete. First off, it's hard to relate to a main character who doesn't have her memories, because she herself doesn't even know who she is. There are some other places that made me a little disbelieving and frustrated, as well.

For example, the plot point about the Book of Mountains and Rivers. There was a lot of spying, stealing and seducing involved, but books can be copied, so couldn't it have been redistributed? Yes, there was the theory that only the original holds some sort of military secret, but if that was true, then Hen Xiang would have known it all along, given that she never lost her memories. Hen Xiang's appearance in the drama was a good twist, that did surprise me.

The drama seems to be a misnomer, since Man Yao had silver hair for only a relatively short period of time. Though it did remind me of Danaerys from Game of Thrones, and the action scenes are fairly well choreographed.

The plot point of 2 guys falling for the same woman, but then the guys turned out to be twin brothers, reminded me of Handsome Siblings on Netflix. But that drama was more palatable for its relative simplicity. I would be more shocked by the trope if I hadn't seen that drama first.

The story's moral compass, which is supposed to highlight why Fu Yuan is bad, and Man Yao is good. Fu Yuan chose to pass the poison to her child and remain healthy, whereas Man Yao wanted to give birth to the child and die during or after. This is actually pretty controversial, and I disagreed with the drama's conviction that it is correct for a mother to die for her child if only one of them can live. Abortions also apparently don't exist in this drama's world.

The whole arc in Chen kingdom made the main characters seem slow, because the child emperor is so brilliant by comparison. Not that the original Northern Realm's emperor was around for comparison, but it made his insistence on alliance through political marriage seem extra trite. At least Zhao Yun ended up happy. I also wished the gray characters - Hen Xiang and Fu Chou - didn't have to die. They didn't really get a redemption arc, which undermined the point that children shouldn't have to pay for the sins of the parents. Rong Qi died as well, but the way he died was the most touching thing in the entire drama. I can see why Luo Yun Xi's career got launched from here.

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Would like to give 8* but ended up with 3*

Would like to give 8* for overall story that writers build in this Drama.
They build a world with 4 kingdoms which has proper origin and characters with right personality.
Story is written will in which each characters playing off each other is done extremely well.
The cast and their acting is excellent. Maybe some can be better overall performance of the cast is above average.
Music score gives right amount of emotional impact on scenes.
But will give 3*.
Not sure how one person can conquer 4 kingdoms without even known by other kingdom leaders.
Sure there are some probability if one or two leaders are dump, but given knowledge and intelligence of the leaders it shouldn't be possible.
Northern Emperor's intelligence comes and goes episode by episode.
Chen Empire is not legible in story.
Martial skill of FL is coming and goes not sure why.
One human body can handle how many poison? FL been poisoned 6 times in two years’ span, all of them are fatal ones.
Never understood why Empress had to kill Lady Yun. Why did she kill FL's family? How did she become empress? How did she survive the fire and poisoning?
Why and how did she plan everything 20 years ahead? was she prophet to know every person to be born and their capabilities who may become significant officers in all 4 kingdoms to include in her plan?
Some might argue she had multiple contingencies but all her plans are rigid without margin of error even her failed plots.
Why did not memory poison work on her (she regained her memory almost immediately)?
Rong Qi has as much intelligence as fish, not sure why even bother trying to save man Er' and follow his mother’s order knowing bother are not mutual.
Other than this there are lot of small inconsistency all over the story, people disappear and reappear at random plots.
Characters skill changes from episode to episode.
So my score is 3/10 for this Drama

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