Hua Qian Xi Shi (2025)

Best version of this trope

So far I’ve only watched two other versions of this story (including ai hong chen’s) but I would still say this is the best. The summary is a bit lacking. Basically, the second prince went to FL’s family as a tutor in disguise. FL fell in love with him but he’s in love with her half sister. Then FL married the foolish third prince instead of her sister.

LIKES:

1. Story - definitely the best. Other versions (one modern and the other also historical) focused more on the FL’as suffering and then suddenly she married a sick guy and all is well. Here, you can see the how everything fell into place. They just took the main plot but didn’t go crazy with it and filled the logical gaps. And even if I haven’t watched other vesions, this is still a great story.

2. Characters - All were great. From the main leads to the secondary characters. The writers did great showing their motivations or past so you can sympathize with them. The actors did well of bringing them into life. Seriously you’ll even feel sorry for the half sister which is quite rare since 2FLs are usually two-dimensional characters only existing to abuse FL and later be the one abused by the ML. The 2ML wasn’t also all bad considering the other versions were extreme in their ways of making FL suffer. Here, 2ML still has a conscience which he didn’t just recover when he realized FL was the one he loved all along.

3. Relationships - the dynamics of the relationships in the story are not purely love or hate. Even between the FL and 2FL, you can’t say the 2FL was all bad when you understand her intentions but you can’t say FL did anything wrong either because their conflict was rooted in their parents affairs and it affected them.

The one that stood out to me the most was between the dad and FL. Yes the dad ignored FL’s mistreatment and even punished her for the mistakes she didn’t make, FL still couldn’t let go her father because she already experienced what a good father he was. And kudos to the dad actor because you can see the conflict and guilt in his face and body language but you still can’t help but be pissed off with his actions.

4. Romance - this is the least I noticed in the story but it doesn’t mean it was bad. I absolutely love that ML showed his presence early in the story and supported FL unlike other versions where the ML only shows up on the latter part. Here, ML was already actively protecting FL. And when they got together, they did one thing most cdrama couples fail to do: COMMUNICATE. There’s only a tiny bit misunderstanding which was easily resolved. The rest are two people supporting and loving each other.

Special mention: I absolutely love the color grading and costumes here. It made everything looked better.

DISLIKES:
I despise FL father. Sure he kind of redeemed himself in the end but he himself said that it wasn’t enough to erase what he did to FL which was the truth.

Fave scene:
- when FL invited ML to consummate their marriage in broad DAYLIGHT and got ML acting all shy

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