Plum Blossom Scar (1993)

The drama started with an interesting premise: an infant boy and girl secretly switched at birth. The boy, Hao Chen, grew up in a wealthy aristocratic family while the girl, Yin Shuang, lived in poverty and hardship. Their paths later converged, and Yin Shuang found herself face to face with her biological parents. Not knowing her real identity, they looked down on her and saw her as nothing more than an inconvenience. Normally, this would’ve given us great moments of dramatic irony and suspense. Instead of mining that gold mine, the series chose to focus on a stupid love story.

Love, as portrayed here, was unreasonable at best and dysfunctional at worst. Our one and only couple, Hao Chen and Yin Shuang, loved each other madly and obsessively. They acted like it’s the end of the world when he had to marry the Princess, never mind that arranged marriage and second wife were both acceptable practices of the time. While Hao Chen had no feelings for the Princess, he should at least treat her with the care and kindness any wife would expect. Instead, he insisted on keeping his love for Yin Shuang “pure.” His stubbornness made life a needless hell for all parties involved.

Steve Ma and Vivian Chen made a striking couple as the intense Hao Chen and the weepy Yin Shuang. Both overacted to the hilt. Lu Wen was better in her role her as the Princess, albeit with some crazy Chinese opera-style makeup. I felt sorry for the Princess more than anyone else. She was the only one who didn’t have much of a choice or a chance at real happiness. Her frustration at being in a helpless, loveless marriage brought out the worst in her. She came across as a sympathetic person instead of a cartoon villainess. At the end of the day, she deserved a better guy than Hao Chen. We all do.

I do like the soundtrack and overall aesthetic of series. Romance junkies might like the fact that the male lead never wavered in his devotion to the female lead. Other than that, there’s not much else to love about a drama that’s all about love.

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