Unique! Rewatch!
This series is why I still believe there is love for everyone. this might seem over the top to some but if you have not felt left out or an outcast in your life in one way or another, then It might be difficult to relate but I did and it was just beautiful.I'm amazed at how many people have lost the main storyline, point of this series but I'm also glad there are people who appreciate the diversity and representation that we've never had in any other BL series.
I'm so thankful for Saint and everyone involved in this series for brining this series come to life!
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Thank the heavens it's over.... but
The series was good enough albeit very confusing with the erratic jumping in and out of the time lines. Though some acts felt circulatory rather than progression. The length did nothing to enhance the story as some of the actors needed an early exit. Mainly, Ken. The father, proving to be the biggest moron, as he kept relying on the village idiot. The erratic pointless behaviors of others would see me using the 2X just to get through it. I like the premise of the plot but it lacked conviction. The hair brain plans, and gratuitous performances left the script badly wanting direction and weight. This leads to the elephant in the room.The elephant: Fort and Peat. The sex.
The director knows their strengths. They look good together. They blend well in most of their responses to each other, verbally and physically. What he can't erase is the obvious. Their acting.
Fort has grown a little. Peat has not. What I would like to see is Fort have more presence on screen rather than relying on his gorgeousness. Let’s be real, he is. Sometimes his movements say I'm waiting on the next line to react. There is a bit of a pause in the fluidity. The body was made for suits but the smile can only go so far.
Peat is still in the bedroom in college in LITA. His mannerisms bring nothing new. He plays broken characters as if that’s all he knows without adding layers or nuances. Ep 9 when speaking to the doctor emphasized this. He is childlike in most.
The sex. Too practiced. Too rehearsed. Always too important to their scripts that beg for better telling. Are they bad? No. This should be an evolution not an insertion to keep viewers.
The ending did not have the effect on me as was expected. Between eyes rolls and a heavy dose of laughter at the declaration scene, I didn’t like it much. Vier closing his eyes, waiting on the final moment just sent me over. Though it is here Peat actually showed the right restraint. Vier forgiving in the name of love, unbelievable. He carved his forehead in his insanity. But hey, if Vier can forgive, we have to also. Just make sure he's on some kind of meds.
It's watchable, take with a large grain of salt and lower expectation.
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In this drama there were so many big shot actors all in one for which impacted the many watching audiences:
Cha Eun Sang (Park Shin Hye)
As much as I love Park Shin Hye as an actor I found her character very annoying. This is because of her constantly crying whenever she faces a problem in her life, or just crying after see Kim Tan (Lee Min Ho). But if she was aiming for that type of character I applaud her for that.
Kim Tan (Lee Min Ho)
Lee Min Ho playing Kim Tan was pretty good because of how he would always want to stick to his brother, having no clue of what's going on within the business because of his young age. However, he kept cockblocking the relationship between Cha Eun Sang and Choi Young Do for which I would like to see further develop.
Choi Young Do (Kim Woo Bin)
Oh gosh, did I love Kim Woo Bin's character in this drama. The different emotions he used to express each and everything showed perfectly well on his face. However, I feel as though if the relationship between Choi Young Do and Cha Eun Sang were to further develop it would add some extra excitement.
Lee Bo Na (Krsytal) & Yoon Chan Young (Kang Min Hyuk)
This is one of my favourite couples the were so cute and funny.
Lee Hyo Shin (Kang Ha Neul)
He acted out his character extremely well with the different emotions shown in this drama from: Mysterious -> dorky -> angry -> jealousy there were so many emotions he displayed wonderfully.
Kim Won (Choi Jin Hyuk)
He played the role of an elder brother, step in company owner and a lover extremely well. I loved how he could show different personalities to his character.
Jo Myung-soo (Park Hyung Shik)
asdfghjkl;' He was too adorable in this drama I could see the many bromances forming with him. ><
Han Ki-Ae (Kim Sung-Ryoung)& Park Hee-Nam (Kim Mi-Kyung)
OMFG these mothers were one of my favourites! They were humorous, cute and dorky. I also applaud Kim Mi-Kyung for not speaking throughout this whole drama, other than narrating :L
Rachel Yoo (Kim Ji Won)
She did amazingly well! Playing the antagonist in this drama simply brilliant.
As or music wise, it did sound really nice at the beginning but they just kept replaying the tracks over and over again when there was any chance possible. Which made it especially cheesy.
I'm sorry but I wouldn't watch this again, it was very confusing and lacked finesse therefore I would give it an overall score of 6.
Sorry if I did offend anyone with my review but as mentioned before I had my expectations up really high. Also is it just me or did Cha Eun Sang cry in at lest 18 of the 20 episodes?
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Hilariously entertaining
The story is very entertaining. 1st episode is funny, second episode is funnier and the rest is enjoyable. This is not annoying anti women/men love story.. The male lead is a popular actor that has an adonis reputation but the truth is he dislikes women, and vice versa for Female lead who is a lawyer. Where she ended up working in a law firm dominated by men. And that’s how they met, It’s worth watching. You won’t be sorry. The casts have good chemistry. They’re all good actors, they played their roles really well. It’s funny how the men and women are totally opposites from the female parents to main leads.Esta resenha foi útil para você?
Now that we've got that out of the way: Despite unevenness, Cheese in the Trap is a narrative success in my books, for many of the same reasons I've also defended that other 2016 YA drama with a bad reputation, Scarlet Heart: Ryeo. (Speaking of, MLSHR is one of the recs under CITT because it, too, has a "questionably crazy male lead." Hilarity.)
Anyway, k-drama romances tend to fall under two trends:
(1) Zany Disney-esque romcoms where love lifts everyone up where they belong (see: My Girlfriend is a Gumiho, To the Beautiful You, You Who Came From the Stars, etc. etc. etc. etc.).
(2) Toxic and imbalanced relationships that are glorified with undeserved happily-ever-afters (see: Boys Over Flowers, The Heirs, and so on and so forth).
Cheese in the Trap isn't either of those stories. Much like MLSHR, CITT is concerned with one overarching question: Can a person change another person? (Alternatively: Do people change *for* other people?) The show doesn't give a pat answer, and that's to its credit.
In short, this is a slice-of-life that isn't afraid to go dark (and not in an incongruous after-school special way — unlike Age of Youth, the darkness in CITT is fully fleshed out). If you're looking for light, escapist fun that delivers a straightforward message, there are literally hundreds of other dramas for you. If, otoh, you want a complex story about young adults that doesn't idealise its characters — but also, importantly, doesn't descend into nihilism — you might want to give Cheese in the Trap a shot.
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I really thought Idol Romance finally made a good show
After the first two episodes, I thought this show was going to be good. I thought "Wow, Idol Romance finally learned from their mistakes", but immediately after episodes 3 and 4, I realized that they hadn't. The only thing I liked about this show was Eun Gyu, but more on that later.The story was just boring. Nothing happened. In the span of 8 episodes, not a single thing happened. The whole show can be boiled down to this: a new guy joins a restaurant and creates an overly dramatic love triangle that would never happen in real life. I don't understand who green-lit this script. It could've had the potential with a different storyline than just another love triangle. I do admit, Hae Won and Eun Gyu did have decent chemistry. The actors did their scenes nicely. But what was seriously lacking was some development in that relationship. And the fact that Ji Soo and Eun Gyu got into such a dramatic argument about a guy they'd known for a month, despite their 15 years of friendship, seriously annoyed me as a viewer. There was so much backstory between those two friends that never got unpacked, other than maybe 5 minutes across all episodes that just dropped bombshells of information on us.
Along with the story, the characters just bothered me in so many ways. All of them. They were all poorly written. This is no hatred towards the actors, by the way. But I don't get why all the characters were so childish when they were all at least in their twenties. Why did they all start acting so fussy just because of some new handsome guy joining? Ji Soo was just a very uncomfortable character in the weird way he forced himself upon Hae Won, but Hae Won was also annoyingly naive. And I didn't understand what the real function of Ha Jin and Joo Seo Hyuk was. They were just kind of there.
I hate critiquing acting because I know I'll never be able to perform the same way, but the acting in this show was not that great. The only actor whom I genuinely thought was good was the actor playing Eun Gyu. The guy playing Ji Soo was also good at times, but it was Eun Gyu who carried the show acting-wise. I hope to see him act in other shows after this because he really has talent.
Overall, no, I did not like the show. And I honestly don't recommend it to anyone. I think you'll only like this show if you swallow *anything* related to BL. But this show was just not good. I would've dropped this show if it weren't for being so short.
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OVERRATED
I was really looking forward to watching this drama especially when I heard Kim Soo Hyun was playing the male lead, however unfortunately I was extremely disappointed.I suspect it also has to do with my high expectations of this drama but honestly not only was the storyline average but also the soundtrack and character development wasn't intriguing.
I feel like it got so much attention because of the good looks of the main characters but I felt that their chemistry wasn't amazing and their relationship was overly complicated.
I didn't feel moved at all watching this and the ending wasn't satisfying. It has an interesting concept however lacked thematic value.
Overall it was an alright drama and there were some heartwarming moments however definitely did not deserve the praise that it had received.
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5 brilliant episodes
The good:-this is a drama with an important topic and for about 5 episodes it was more than brilliant. Lee You-mi's performance alone was so outstanding as victim of heavy domestic abuse, I really hope she gets every award possible for the role.
-for the first half, the drama managed to capture the fear and emotional extreme situation of victims of domestic violence - and for a change (which was good!) it showed that domestic violence is not only happening in low income, low background areas (how it is depicted most often) but also in high society, where abusers use their power and money to cover up their crimes easily.
-some things were shown very realistically- for example that Cho Eun-su, herself traumatised by a violent father figure in her childhood, could do any sort of artificial self-defence training as much as she wants, when the actual real danger situation occurs with a very violent real attacker, who is much stronger than her, she has no chance to fight him for many reasons. That's an important lesson for women if you want to learn how you might really have a chance defending yourself against a real attack - and it's none of the artificial fight sport trainings, as they are that - artificial, with opponents who only do a certain set of artificial attacks and moves, and stop when it starts hurting.
the bad:
- from episode 5 on many things didn't make any logical sense anymore and logic was thrown out the window for the sake of creating cliffhanger situations and thriller elements by the writers.
-it didn't make any sense that Jang Gang looked exactly ( as in more a clone than a twin) like No Jin Pyo - and on top, he is in the very same area of Seoul AND for a very strange resaon to start with Cho Eun-Su sees this very identical person while trying to retrieve a stolen luxury watch. Propabilities for this are simply zero. As for the character of Jang Gang, they could at least have worked with small prostetics, like changing his (veeeery distinctive!) ear shape and giving him false teeth. A character like Jang Gang with his background does certainly NOT have super white, straight perfect clean Hollywood teeth. As he is shown as a heavy smoker and with a criminal street past, he would not have these perfect teeth at this age in any universe.
-While, as always, Jang Seung-jo delivered an excellent performance in both roles, the figure of Jang Gang didn't make any realistic sense to me. The switch from being a submissive, quiet, stuttering low job worker to full blown, crazy laughing psycho? (And this crazy laughter was stolen from 'my name' genius psycho role Do Kang-jae by the way) Nah, sorry. If that guy had been that kind of uncontrolled psychopath, he wouldn't have worked for a long time for Jin So-beak before and he wouldn't have stayed hidden and low profile in general. Also he really did have a family (wife and child) in Shanghai as can be seen in the airport footage shown, so he comes back to threaten Hui-su and his whole demeanor changed? Nah, someone like that, if he would go back to blackmail her for more money, he would act at least normal to stay low and get the money - like he did before. To act out like a crazy person in the middle of the city doesn't make sense and was just written like that to create a fear and danger situation for the two women.
-Also factual mistakes began to show - when Jang-Gang comes back to threaten Hui-su, while he does have the dead man's phone, why would he suddenly have the door passcode to the appartment? If so, he would also have the pass code to the safe. So again, this situation of Hui-su hearing the beeping code of the door and a man just entering her place was just written to create horror and fear, but without brain, as the guy wouldn't have had the pass code.
-While Jin So-beak was a fantastic character for himself, his connection and will to risk his own life, business, everything for the two women didn't make sense either? Why would he do that? Was he attracted to Eun-su from the start? Well, after a while, honestly, nothing came of it, so in reality, a guy like him would simply have lost interest in her and her situation. The drama never explains his motivation to any degree that would make sense of his actions. The fact that 20 years ago he lost his son (something he and Hui-su have kind of in common but he finds out very late anyways) was not a motivation for all he did then.
-the police sister of the villain - didn't make sense in many situations either. So what position did she actually have as an officer? How is it possible she can spend almost all her work time alone (and not with at least one colleague) doing all the things she does? That wasn't realistic at all.
- my biggest problem comes in the end: so, to give this ( as it is a Netflix production after all) a forced moral message, they ruined the end for me. Both women admit to their crime, give apologetic and 'wise' statements in court - and don't even tell the truth? The truth was, yes, they had PLANNED to kill a man, but, (which was realistic) he found out about that plan, and what actually happened was that HE attacked both women brutally and was about to actually kill Eun-su, when Hui-su, in actual SELF-DEFENSE! - killed him to prevent him from killing her friend. In every normal universe, a defense lawyer would have brought this up and followed on it to reach a not guilty-verdict - and it would have been the truth! Instead they create this Kindergarten-morality, and Hui-su saying she killed her husband?
-And it gets worse! Eun-so has her turn too to tell the jury how 'guilty' she is - and says something I find highly problematic. She actually blames herself in retrospective, as in when she was a very small child and had to endure her violent father beating and abusing her mother- and she says and implies that little children are at fault for reacting with ignoring such situations when they are over? NO! Little children NEVER have ANY fault in howEVER they react to such super traumatic situations! It is a very wrong, and dangerous message to tell any victim of also former domestic abuse, that it was in any way their fault when they were just small children.
Result:
Stellar acting performances, especially by Lee-You-mi, a good start of a storyline with a very important topic.
Sadly for the sake of creating thriller and tension elements, the writers threw logic out of the window in many scenes from episode 5 on.
While this would have had great potential for important messaging to try to enable and encourage victims of domestic abuse to at least try and get help, they ruin this message in the end by letting the two women repent like sinners and give off messaging that is the opposite of encouragement.
And yes, I get it, they can't end such a story on the note that the women get away completely unbothered because they would probably get legal trouble concering encouraging people to kill their violent spouses.
But they would have had a chance to show that even IF the women get to court, they CAN get a good defense lawyer who, in such crass cases of abuse and a killing in self-defense, (maybe even adding temporary insanity due to not only her own life being in acute danger, but also her having to watch her abuser killing her best friend and life anchor) could have reached an acquittal instead of a prison sentence.
Acting and idea 10 - storyline decline and very questionable messaging 3. - I'd still give it a 6 because of the partly very good acting performances.
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I enjoyed the cross cultural elements of the film. There was a time, in my ignorance, when I thought all East Asian cultures were more or less the same. I have since broadened my horizons, but it was still quite interesting to see that China was just as much a cultural novelty for Dong-ha, a Korean, as it would've been for me, a Westerner.
What's more interesting is that a great portion of this film is in English because Dong-ha doesn't speak Chinese and May doesn't speak Korean. I must admit it was a bit weird for me to hear them speak English so I muted the sound and simply read the subtitles. It's not that their English was poor. Actually, they were as good as anyone can speak a foreign language, but their accents were really heavy. I found that it distracted me from the emotion of the story and the performances.
I'm thankful this movie wasn’t too emotionally draining. The few times it reverted to more somber themes, those were quickly overruled by one comedic scene or another.
Dong-ha and May had mad on-screen chemistry. There were some very steamy kisses in this movie, and May was a full participant in all the action! No shocked, open-eyed reaction here. For once I can't complain about the intimacy between the characters being fake. My only wish was that those kisses were more frequent and longer! haha :)
Overall, I have very few complaints. This was a simple, but satisfying story with good, subtle performances from a pair of very attractive leads. I doubt I've ever seen Jung Woo-sung look so handsome on screen, not even in A Moment to Remember (and let’s face it, the man was pretty darn hot in that movie!). The ending was unnecessary. I would have preferred a different outcome, one that was a bit more straightforward and less open, but it didn't spoil the movie for me. It's clear that the director just wanted to be a jerk and yank our chain.
I highly recommend Season of Good Rain as the perfect date movie. It’s a light romantic drama that’ll make you reminisce about when you first met your love, give you many reasons to make out and offer you something light-hearted to debate about after it’s done. Enjoy!
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The story is good, and the way it's told is very interesting. I loved the way they shift plot sequences to keep the element of suspense. It was done very artfully.
The character Jang Tae San is wonderfully written and Lee Jun Ki lives the role. As we follow his struggles and efforts, we also see more of the person inside,who is the hardest on himself.
The most beautiful parts of the drama are the interactions between Tae San and Soo Jin. The drama writers have written in that connection to perfection. You start to look out for the little girl, when the story has been moving elsewhere for a while. And of course, the girl who plays Soo Jin is super cute.
The rest of the cast are great too- including all the baddies.
Now, the plot isn't without it's share of holes. But none of that affects the compelling nature of this drama.
The ending is perfect- realistic and at the same time, leaving us on a happy note.
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I watched it because of my favorite actress Nakama Yukie. I've seen her acting very different characters; high school student, high school teacher, Sadako, clumsy police, woman with multiple personality, silly yet lovable reporter and her character in Utsukushii Rinjin whom I have no words... So I was tempted to see her acting in this one too.
Second reason why I watched this was Gackt. I loved his creepy yet attractive character with long tongue. If you're curious what he does with the tongue watch the drama.
I was amazed by the drama. I'm glad it wasn't super long. Otherwise I would've ended up dropping it...
The music was very good and now I feel like I know something about Okinawa's history.
The acting was good but from some new actors it wasn't as good but I still liked it.
Okay I have no idea what I'm babbling about. I liked the drama and that's all. I think this is a drama no one should miss.
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This high school GL drama was a sweet little romance with so many lovable characters to get attached to. But perhaps a merged or cut storyline could've allowed the much needed foreshadowing of character flaws that were relevant to the drama's climax. I also found that the lack of addressing of 2 red flags (one from each of our main characters) killed my investment into their particular ending.SPOILERS START HERE!!!
>>> Ongsa and Sun <<<
I absolutely loved the initial set up for this couple. Ongsa is an insecure, anxious, and socially awkward teen from the countryside. Sun, is the popular (though we really don't see this really), confident, and mature classmate who Ongsa instantly develops a crush on. They accidentally become penpals and Ongsa anxiously lies when it starts coming time for them to actually disclose stuff like names and such. This arc didn't overstay its welcome in my opinion (but Aladdin's the genie "Tell her the truth" scene certainly played in my head on repeat). I was also quite taken by how maturely Sun handled this. Demanding an explanation and refusing the nonstop stream of unexplained apologies. Most love interests would have stormed out, and the lack of communication would have been dragged out for days/episodes. Not here.
By the end of the drama, we start to realize that Sun isn't the perfect, one-dimensional love interest previously portrayed. While her dream is repeated rather verbatim in a short span of time, she does have a dream that she is passionate about and knows where her future is going. She also is not quite at the maturity generally presumed around her. Indeed, much like most teenagers, that "maturity" is partially covering up the fact that Sun molds herself and her reactions to what she thinks is expected of her. Which, of course, causes problems in her relationship with Ongsa - especially since Ongsa is also not thinking as a unit (most high schoolers/first relationship couples dont) and makes the unanimous decision that Ongsa and Sun shouldn't be out to anyone but their shared friend group. This was frustrating, and i feel like Sun's character flaw could've been better hinted at earlier in the series, but overall, quite true to a high school first romance.
What did make me angry is the fact that both Sun and Ongsa did incredibly red flag things that were never really addressed well. Sun literally outed Ongsa, Aylin, and Luna. She outed Ongsa once to her (Sun's) parents without warning, and then again (along with Aylin and Luna) to Ongsa's own parents despite/in spite of Ongsa's attempts to stop her. This wasn't even addressed once, let alone condemned. Being out very obviously means something in the world of this drama, and Sun couldn't have known what Ongsa's parents' reactions would've been. And then, after their break up, Ongsa wouldn't leave Sun alone. This was brought up once, but then was swiftly ignored when Ongsa came with a more detailed apology (that I sorely hope was victim to something being lost in translation, because i didn't like how it compared their love for each other as one being more true than the other just bc Ongsa was scared to be out of the closet).
I am, however, glad that Sun realized that she was being hypocritical and unfair though, especially since she was molding herself to what she thought Ongsa wanted in their relationship, instead of talking to her. And so, i appreciate that they became a more healthy and stable relationship afterwards. Though, admittedly, my enjoyment of them as a couple was killed by their red flag actions that weren't properly addressed. So, I wasn't really invested in their ending.
>>>Aylin and Luna<<<
An absolutely adorable 2nd couple. I loved how honest Aylin was, even when she was nervous, in pursuing Luna (after Luna showed her she could trust her). And i loved the relationship between Aylin and Ongsa (her cousin). Aylin and Luna were a healthy couple pretty much from the beginning (with the hiccup of pushing Aylin into socialization too fast), and I don't think i stopped smiling for a moment when they were on screen together. And Aylin's neurodivergent (potentially autistic?) coding was great to see - especially with her lack of social cue awareness, her needing clear answers to social questions, and her displays of overstimulation that can be seen even in the background of other scenes. However, my one complaint is probably that Luna, as cute and lovable as she is, didn't really have a character flaw in sight.
>>>Alpha<<<
Alpha is Ongsa's older sister and Aylin's older cousin. On one hand, i loved that her presence helped contribute to Ongsa's family relationship development (she and her father had lived separately from her mother and sister for several years). Her scenes with Ongsa and Aylin were sweet. And i really related to her pre-graduation stress of uncertainty in her future and in her family relationships. But, she really didn't have much of an impactful role. So perhaps this was a storyline that could've been omitted or perhaps merged with Luna's (perhaps to balance out Luna's perfection) since they share similar traits and are in the same year together.
>>>The Friend Group<<<
I really value the focus on Ongsa's growing friend group, as it really helped her develop as a character and in her confidence - not having any friends coming into school and all. They're supportive, distinct, eclectic, quirky, and diverse. It made for the perfect complement to Ongsa's story and needs. There was also some comedic relief in there I really appreciated.
>>>Teachers Bambam and Nida<<<
These characters stole my heart. I loved their low-angst side story of the hapless accident-prone and tarot-loving Bambam and of her caretaking friend who developed feelings. Furthermore, I liked how they provided advice to their students when needed, and also stepped away so the major characters can figure things out on their own. And of course, they helped to drive the story forward at a few places, in believable way that never made me blink twice.
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Love story in warlords-time Manchuria
First, let's clear away some misunderstandings. The story is not about a "last princess" or even a "fallen" noblewoman. It is about a couple of characters who fight for their own visions and aspirations, and who are somewhat fated to be together, despite hurdles and threats to their life.I was quite satisfied by this drama, despite the sometimes-abrupt editing, which makes suspect parts are missing. But this is understandable since the history of this drama also was not really smooth. As some previous commenters pointed out, it was an adaptation of a novel and in the very long time since it was shot, it got reduced from 50 to 38 episodes, more or less put aside for almost three years, and finally released with little fanfare. Original title is Bu Yun Qu , 步雲衢 (Bù yún qú, which may translate as Crossroads under piling clouds). The original novel was not available to me.
Warning: this is a long review, with History reminders for those unfamiliar with the period. Those who are may of course skip these details.
"The Last Princess" is a historical romance drama set around 1911-1932 from the fall of the Qing dynasty until the end of the warlords’ period and the establishment of the Manchukuo puppet regime in 1931. Despite the grittiness of that Republican era period, it is often the theater for “romantic” movies and dramas using the models of real historical figures, while depicting imaginary characters who might remind of the adventurous ones from Alexander Dumas novels of the 19th century. So, this one is also not a docu-drama, but an imaginary “romantic” story using impressions of some historical characters and events.
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To start, some reminders about Chinese “Republican era “timeline and places may be useful:
* The Qing empire fell in October 1911. A provisional government was established in Nanjing the following year under Sun Yat-sen, who had returned from his long exile to lead the revolution. But the "southern" revolutionaries were not strong enough to defeat the Beiyang army of Yuan Shikai, in the north, who became the de facto dictator of China after the Xinhai Revolution established the Republic of China in 1912.
* The Warlord Era began in 1916 upon Yuan Shikai's death. It lasted until 1927.
* Two of the most powerful strongmen of the Warlord Era were the "Old Marshal" ZHANG ZUOLIN (warlord of Manchuria from 1916 to 1928) and WU PEIFU in Zhili, known as Hebei province, now. (Today, the C-shaped area of Hebei, surrounding Beijing and Tianjin municipalities, makes up the Jing-Jin-Ji megalopolis region bordering the Bohai sea, the Shandong peninsula to the south and the Dongbei north-east region to the north, which borders with the Changbai mountains and the Korean peninsula).
***
The drama focuses on the story of a couple, who struggle to fulfill their dreams despite many oppositions
FL character Yurong may appear cold in the beginning, but she does not waver in her sentimental attachment once it is formed, although at times to the point of unreasonable clinging, while also being at times too eager to distance herself from her dangerous warlord. She manages not to appear too unbelievable despite her ever-impeccable hairdo and manicured nails, But her sacrifices for the “public good” are exaggerated and make her stand out sometimes irritatingly as a rigid and stubborn would-be martyr. But not as whiny and childish as another female character (the very irritating Jiaojiao).
28-year-old Rain Wang Herun王鹤润 (who played Yurong) has been acting in many dramas since 2017, including as FL in one (2019 Yanxi Palace: Princess adventures, a Yanxi Palace spinoff)), where she portrayed a determined Qing dynasty princess contending with palace intrigue and a vendetta against her family, while navigating the treacherous terrain of romance. Her portrayal of the conflicted Yurong is adequate. The former princess attempts to become an independent modern woman putting action before passion, sometimes recklessly and clumsily, while she at first remains bound by remnants of old-time family loyalty.
ML character Zhao Zhengnan ( played by 38-year-old singer and actor Ryan Zhang He张赫, who seems blessed with never aging physique) is both handsome and determined: a soldier intent on putting the state before his personal feelings, but still doing his best to protect his love whom he puts before his own life. He manages to reel Yurong in and contain her excesses several times, despite many heartaches.
This was my first time watching a drama featuring this actor born 1984 in Shenyang. A graduate of Shenyang Conservatory of Music, majoring in opera, he is also a singer, but does not sing in this drama. He made his acting debut in the 2009 film “Perfect Bride” and has since taken part in 7 movies and 19 dramas, of which 2 are upcoming. Among these, he was playing, together with Hu Yitian, the role of a war pilot in “Defying the Storm” (a drama set in the period from 1937, when Chinese air force was still in its infancy and relying on foreign planes, sometimes complete with foreign pilots, such as the famous Flying Tigers, an U.S. volunteer squad which operated 1941-1942). I was favorably impressed by his Zhengnan and may look up more of his work.
Special mention to Tao Yi Xi who plays Yurong in the first half of the first episode. She often plays child or support roles since 2013, but we don't know much more about her. She does stand out here, with her kitten!
Each character in The Last Princess represents a part of the turbulent History.
As the descendants of prince Chun did in actual History, the child “gege” (title of a Manchu princess) Yurong decided to cast aside her Aisin-gioro name linking her to the imperial clan, adopting the name Jin (金)instead. (The real-life descendants of prince Chun did the same and lived to become valued professionals and even civil servants in the PRC). From childhood already Yurong set forth to fulfil her dream of becoming a doctor to “help people”. She thus represents the New Women in the beginning of the 20th century.
Yurong was an idealist and stubborn young lady. But at first, she was saddled with a cumbersome family member in the person of Guri Bude, a feckless Manchu cousin to whom she had been betrothed in infancy. She never agreed to fully accept the arranged marriage, living instead as a student housemate or sister, in their Tianjin house near the university where she studied medicine. She was concerned about his numerous weaknesses but without more than a sense of family loyalty to him.
He knew she had a crush on a boy briefly met in her childhood, who might be in Tianjin, but Guri Bude failed to evaluate the importance of this. Guri Bude (played by Zheng Xiaodong) represents the clueless and weak people of the previous regime, who could not defend their spouses, their country or themselves, dreamed of restoration of the Qing empire, but only failed miserably and fell prey to a greedy woman and to opium, the evil drug that led to the downfall of the Qing and invasion of China by foreign powers.
This greedy woman, Baoxi (played by Ke Nai Yu), belonged to the antagonist Wu warlord clan, vying for control of mines and land in Manchuria. The Wu family represents the factions who, in Zhili (present-day Hebei) sided with government only for their own gain, with no sense of honor or of country. Their son Wu Pei (played by "Sean Zhang"/Zhang Liang) was a vicious murderer, ready to kill even his helpers and sell-out to the Japanese who would soon launch a full-fledged invasion after killing the main opponent to their schemes: the Zhao warlord of Manchuria. These were the traitors to the country.
On the other hand, the Zhao warlord was, if not exemplary, at least more likeable, and patriotic. The old marshal cared enough for his son Zhao Zhengnan, main protagonist, that he accepted to cancel another infant betrothal, so Zhengnan might marry his one and only flame. This despite having to forego the direly needed money from the Sheng tycoon family, and make an enemy of Sheng JiaoJiao (played by Chen Meng Qin), the rejected bride-to-be. She would never accept the situation and go to extraordinary lengths to “re-capture” her obsessive life-long interest, Zhengnan.
Meanwhile, beset by lack of funds, the Zhao clan struggled to keep their hold on Fengtian and its rich mining resources. (Fengtian was the name at the time of present-day Shenyang city, and of the province, known today as Liaoning province); another important Manchu name for Shenyang was Mukden, but the drama avoids referring to the game changing Mukden incident of 18 September 1931. It features instead the assassination of the warlord of Manchuria (loosely modeled on real-life Zhang Zuolin, who was murdered by Japanese agents on June4, 1928).
In "The Last Princess", Ryan Zhang /Zhang He plays the role of “Young Marshal” Zhao Zhengnan, loosely based on the historical ZHANG XUELIANG (1901-2001), the so-called "Young Marshal" who became both warlord of Manchuria and head of the Beiyang Government after the death of his father.
The constant power struggle, sometimes armed, between factions in Beijing (Nanjing was official capital in that period) is depicted in this drama. The Beiyang government was changeable and unstable: it had seven different heads of state and more than two dozen different ministries between 1916 and 1928 when China was partly reunified under the Nationalist banner. Foreign influence was important, as despite the capital being in Nanjing, foreign countries also recognized the Beiyang government, pressing it for advantages such as land deals and railroad building and operating. In the decade following 1928, Japanese aggression increased on the coast of Manchuria, which was gradually abandoned by the Guomindang Nationalists. The GMD was more concerned about eliminating their political rivals : the Gongchandang Communist party, following the doctrine of先安内, 后攘外 "first internal pacification, then external resistance" (=getting rid of communists, before fighting the Japanese).
I did not skip any part and was not bored. I will not go into too many details, but here's a bird's-eye view: Zooming to end after many twists and turns, after separations and reunions in cities, on railroads, in hospitals, and in the wild Changbai mountains close to Korea, with bandits! Happy end for the pair, although Jiaojiao got a frightful end, but she was so stupid anyway, that it was a wonder she still was around, and what did she mean, bragging to very end about all the dirt she had on people armed with guns? She really was asking for what she got.
Of course, Manchuria was not yet liberated at end of drama, but the survivors were envisioning peaceful futures. We were spared from gritty depictions of death camps; instead, the cell that held our GCD heroes was surprisingly airy and clean, and I was looking at those handcuffs which slender-wrist Yurong easily could have slid off, and her impeccable clean hairdo with the pearled hair tie... Mmmm looking good till the end! Fingernails always clean and well manicured. THE pin-up heroine! Only found in c-dramas.
Zhengnan also looked dashing in his military uniform, even grazed by bullets that mowed everyone except him. But of course, he still needed to be persuaded to join the Party since this was PRC produced.
(In reality, historical model Zhang Xueliang did not join it, just as he never married a Manchu princess of House Aisin-Gioro, nor a doctor or nurse, for that matter; his real-life personal story was quite eventful, but he was far from a romantic, very different from the Last Princess drama.)
All considered, it was a satisfying melodrama with a handsome cast and mostly OK acting, which I did not regret watching. Since it followed at least more or less the timeline and some features of the Zhang Xueliang historical model, it made me read more to accompany my watching, and I liked the incentive to dig deeper, including watching some documentaries and listening to some period songs, both famous romantic songs by singers like Li Xianglan, the “Liaoning nightingale” (1920-2014) and other ones. These are not featured in the drama, but the OST is soothing and pleasing, and the music is not overshadowing dialogues.
The most memorable song is the one featured on episode end credits: At a glance - 一眼之间 Yīyǎn zhī jiān (Zǐ Zhú 紫竹).
While looking at end credits, I also noticed that there was a musical cooperation with Thailand, including instrumental music directed by well-known Somtow Sucharitkul who is both a gifted writer of horror and science fiction, and a composer (he composed five symphonies and a ballet, a “Requiem: In Memoriam 9/11,” "commissioned by the government of Thailand and inspired by the poetry of Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, and T. S. Eliot. ").
You can watch the drama and listen to the complete OST on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQ2b2Z8Kvi8&t=15s.
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"Hiyokko" is a drama that speaks of a rural Japan in the Olympic age of 64. A drama that adds cultural values to a story rich in details told by an acting cast aided by a beautiful soundtrack and flawless cinematography. Instead of having complex and fanciful themes, "Hiyokko" stands out for its simple and classic history with a focus on everyday life. As it says: Happiness is in the simple things of life. Good Drama!
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