jingling
The romance was... messy. It was as if the production team couldn't decide what they were trying to film-- an historical political drama, or a romance drama, and kept flip-flopping between the two. I felt like I was watching an half-arsed political drama half the time with irrelevant characters who don't contribute to Chu Qiao's storyline at all, and an underdeveloped love triangle between Chu Xiao, Yan Xun, and Yuwen Yue the other time.
The title "Legend of Chu Qiao" is pretty much a lie. There's hints at CQ having an incredibly interesting backstory, but that's shoehorned in at random times and isn't revealed until way too late, and never utilised to make an interesting story. CQ has very little agency, and the story isn't even about her bringing down the institution of slavery. It's first about her under the command of YWY, then her under the command of YX, and trying to outsmart a bunch of YWY/YX-related people want to kill her.
Her relationship with YX could've been one of the strongest emotional arcs, and while to some extent I did think it worked, it could have been much stronger. I found CQ's romance with YWY very underdeveloped and flat for the majority of the drama, although it started off okay, and got better near the end.
In terms of acting and characters, Dou Xiao (Yan Xun), Li Qin (Chun'er), and Niu Junfeng (Yuan Song) stood out to me the most. It probably helped that their characters had complete arcs, and had significantly changed from the start to the end. DX completely stole the show for me, and his portrayal of YX from a happy-go-lucky princeling to a person filled with hate was amazing. I wouldn't say CQ didn't have a character arc, but her storyline felt like one befitting a supporting character rather than the main character-- as such, I found ZLY's performance adequate, with a few great emotional scenes, but didn't wow me in the same way as DX or LQ. In the same way, I thought Lin Gengxin was watchable, but there were no real 'wow' moments for me.
Another highlight would be Deng Lun (Xiao Ce) whose foxy prince was amazing, but unfortunately, under-utilised.
The music was great, but I don't think I'll be rewatching this drama again. There's just way too much I'll have to fast-forward through.
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The story wasn't really anything special, full of common tropes in Chinese romance fantasies. The best thing about this drama was probably the acting-- every main character excelled at their multiple roles.
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This story revolves around Li Xiaohan, a single mother of a daughter, Yiping, who contracted HIV after a blood transfusion. They live open a bed and breakfast on Baisha Island. Li Xiaohan definitely falls into the "naive but kind country girl" trope, but in her own way, is a very resilient character whose weakness is thinking of others too much.
An Jieluo is definitely plays into the the trope of a very over the top, bad-tempered, "bark is worse than his bite" rich second-generation heir, but he is also a talented doctor. After he loses his job for beating someone up at the hospital (his bad-tempter is no joke), he goes to work on Baisha Island where his mother's building a resort.
The resort project is lead by Jiang Fengen, the second male lead and Li Xiaohan's ex (who is still in love with her, of course). Xu Yiyun, Fengen's current girlfriend, who is the daughter of a company executive and a violinist goes with him to Baisha Island.
Yiping is also a complete delight to watch, and super duper cute. Much of the tension in the middle of the drama is about HIV, and how the villagers on Baisha Island don't understand it and react badly.
My favourite thing about this drama is how it subverts the evil mother-in-law/ex-girlfriend/girl-who-likes-the-guy-who-likes-you tropes that are pretty much staple in Asian dramas. There were elements of some of those, but they were handled maturely and not made a big deal of. Basically, the women who are usually pit against each other actually sat down, thought things through and talked with each other. I especially appreciated the friendship between Xiaohan and Yiyun.
All in all, it's a very steady, character-orientated and mature drama with no huge ridiculous eyeroll-worthy drama and villains.
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