What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger

On a surface level, "Blossoms in Adversity" tells the story of a young, strong-willed and adventurous woman called Hua Zhi, whose family falls into peril when her grandfather, the infamous scholar and Imperial Censor Hua Yi Zheng, draws His Imperial Majesty's ire on himself during court session, and her blossoming romance with the Emperor's nephew and Commander of the Security Bureau, Gu Yan Xi. On a deeper level, however, this story is more than just a love story. It's about a family that grows together through adversity, including important lessons about kindness, resilience and karma.

The intriguing premise of an official's family falling from grace is what drew me into watching this drama in the first place. I'm always in for some well-executed "riches to rags and back to riches" story and this one does not disappoint, though there are some elements I wish would have been better developed.

The drama starts out strong with the main plot immediately being pushed forward right at the end of the first episode. The property is confiscated by the Emperor's Security Bureau, the men gathered and sent into prison, and then the women and children younger than ten are suddenly all on their own, forced to retreat from the captial with what little belongings they managed to gather in the little time that was so gracously given to them. Thanks to Old Madame Hua's connections (no spoilers here), they find a charming, though rather desolate and run down little farmstead not far from the capital to settle down - and that's when the real struggle starts for these pampered noble women who have never worked a day in their lives. Heads and flared tempers butt quite a lot in these early episodes as the women learn to come to terms with their new living conditions and the social stigma of being members of a "sinnful" family.

Hua Zhi is the only one who doesn't need much time to adapt and immediately takes the reigns to make the best out of their seemingly hopeless situation - be it by helping the few remaining loyal maids to clean up the property, hunting down a scammer, or saving the family from perishing in their sleep due to fume poisoning. Her efforts don't exactly get rewarded with much gratitude in the beginning, but that soon changes when she starts raking in money with her business ideas, leading them to eventually return to the capital.

The pace starts to flare out and drag a bit towards the second half, picks up again when one major villain makes its final nerve-wracking move, falls once again afterwards and then rises into an exciting, if not quite predictable conclusion. I definitely think they could have added in some more obstacles into the Hua family's rise to prosperity to make it a bit more realistic, but I understand that there is only so much one can do with a 40 Episodes per Drama-limit.

Watching the Hua women go from spoiled, fearful noble women to hard-working, strong individuals no longer dependent on men is probably one of the best aspects of this drama. Each and everyone of the them (with the execption of Hua Zhi - more to that later), grows so much throughout the course of the story, that you'll hardly recognize them again in the end. It's truly inspiring and touching to see them growing into a family that sticks together and supports each other throughout all the adversities they are facing. And all of this in a time period in which women are told from birth that they are nothing without the "stronger" sex. The amount of wealth the Hua family accumulates over such a short period of time definitely has to be taken with a grain of salt, though.

The men are barely present in the drama, so it's not surprising we don't see all that much growth on their part (though one could certainly argue that two to three years spent in exile mining and transporting heavy rocks at freezing temperatures should have taught them a thing or two). Same goes to Hua Zhi. The lack of growth on her part, however, is not attributed to her "Mary Sue" status. In fact, she does have quite a few flaws, her most prominent one probably being her self-righteousness and inability to remain silent in the face of injustice, even to her own detriment. The problem here is that the writers barely gave her room to overcome her character flaws (probably to avoid her becoming "too perfect"). Though it's not really a deal breaker, I would have loved to see some growth on her part, even if it meant adding in more flaws at the start of her journey.
Zhang Jing Yi, however, does a solid job portraying the young, kind-hearted, smart, business-savy and confident head of the Hua family.

The male lead, Gu Yan Xi, faces similiar issues. The biggest let-down on his part though is probably the lack of depth in Hu Yi Tian's acting when it comes to Gu Yan Xi's complicated relationship to his Emperor Uncle. Hai Yi Tian does such a wonderful job portraying a paranoid Emperor, who though cruel in nature still very much trusts and loves his nephew. Hu Yi Tian does not quite live up to that expectionally complex character portayal in his character's responses in certain situations, which makes the Emperor's love for him seem more oppressive and one-sided than it actually is.
Hu Yi Tian's fight scenes, however, are absolutely phenomenal, though as always, you'll have to take the realism of some of those with a grain of salt.

The main characters' relationship was quite decent. It was overall very mature and solid and not making use of too much well-established cdrama tropes such as misunderstandings due to lack of communication that drag on for episodes. Though one could argue that Hua Zhi lets Gu Yan Xi off too easily for lying to her and keeping his true identity hidden for the entire first half of the drama. Their love and trust in each other has to be commended, and I certainly loved seeing them respecting each other's jobs and freedom.

Another noteworthy character portayal is Lu Yu Xiao's Shao Yao, Gu Yan Xi's little sister, who has been isolated in her courtyard for years and thus lacks the social and communication skills "normal" people possess. Portraying such a character convincingly in such an endearing way certainly isn't easy, but Lu Yu Xiao more than nailed it.

The body count has been kept rather low compared to other dramas of the same genre, though there are some character demises that are really sad, if not a bit unnecessary (especially a certain one towards the end).

The OST was, as always, very solid. The mix of modern electro tunes and classic instruments added a nice layer to some scenes, though the background music was rather loud and thus more often than not, drowned out the on-going conversation a bit.

In conclusion this drama is best enjoyed for what it is: Not a master work by any means, but rather a soild and inspiring story that will entertain you for many, many hours.

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