No women's right here
Yang Zi is definitely one of the best contemporary Chinese actress. She is always able to strike up excellent chemistry with her co-actors. I first saw her in Ashes of Love about seven years ago. She was good then and I think her acting skills have improved over the years as well. Her onscreen chemistry with Li Xian (as Jiang Chang Yang) was outstanding. Li Xian's cheekiness was very amusing and entertaining. The second male lead was very good as well, with his portrayal of sadness, grief and disappointment. Overall the cast was excellent.
Costume and make-up were a good portrayal of the Tang dynasty fashion scene. Historical facts were good. East and West markets existed in ancient Chang-an (XiAn today) - there were two major markets - the East sold mainly domestic and high end goods, and the West was more of foreign trade. (I visited XiAn last year and can testify to this historical accuracy.)
Story was very interesting. The drama depicted the difficulty of women during those time - bullied while running a business, forced to be subservient to the men in their lives and treated as a second class.
Soundtrack was lovely: the opening instrument piece and the ending theme song were beautiful. Also, the dances were some of the best in Chinese dramas - I actually enjoyed watching them. In the past, I termed the dances in Chinese dramas lame duck dances.
In the drama, He Wei Fang (acted by Yang Zi) was fooled into marrying into the Liu family to Liu Chang. Her in-laws believed a fortune-teller that her horoscope would bring great fortune to their family. She was robbed of her dowry and almost killed as the in-laws were after her family's money. Pretending to be dead, she found her way to the capital city Chang-An, tried to make a living and was nearly raped.
She ran into Jiang Chang Yang, a close friend and entertainment officer of the Emperor. Jiang seemingly was a happy-go-lucky guy who was corrupt and only interested in amassing money. On the pretext that he wanted Wei Fang (aka Peony) to help him made money through her flower-growing skills, he helped her set up her business. Along the way, it was obvious that he was falling in love with her. Emotionally damaged by his parents' relationship and in self-denial, he continued to pretend that it was all about money.
Complications set-in as Peony's husband, Liu Chang, discovered that she was still alive and he was in love with her. Her in-laws had their eyes on the county princess as their new daughter-in-law and set out to sabotage Peony's business and get her into trouble with the law. She was declared a slave in the court.
Human dynamics were interesting. Peony teamed up with Qin Sheng Yi to start their business. But Qin's character was a direct opposite of hers - brought up in a family that undermined a woman's status in society, she was emotionally weak, insecure and had a severe inferiority complex. Liu Chang was a proud, stubborn, upright but weak person. In spite of being in love with Peony, he could not stand up against his parents' choice of daughter-in-laws. I also suspect he desired woman he could not get - forbidden fruits taste sweeter to him.
This story was interesting and high on action. Pace was also well managed throughout - not too slow and not to hurried. Music was good and apt.
Overall, it was an excellent production. I rewatched the drama and re-rated it a 10 instead of 9.5.
The English translation of Chinese drama titles are always a bit odd as it is difficult to work out a direct translation between the English and Chinese languages without losing the poetic feel in Chinese . I think The Beauty of a Nation would sound much better or less ideally Beauty and Youth.
The ending was open ended. We were left to wonder whether Jiang and Peony would eventually truly marry, what would Liu Chang do next and whether the Emperor and Jiang would succeed in their conspiracy. A sequel is being produced according to Yang Zi and I cannot wait to watch the continuation of the story and hope it has an convincing ending. I hope it won't have a lame ending.
Costume and make-up were a good portrayal of the Tang dynasty fashion scene. Historical facts were good. East and West markets existed in ancient Chang-an (XiAn today) - there were two major markets - the East sold mainly domestic and high end goods, and the West was more of foreign trade. (I visited XiAn last year and can testify to this historical accuracy.)
Story was very interesting. The drama depicted the difficulty of women during those time - bullied while running a business, forced to be subservient to the men in their lives and treated as a second class.
Soundtrack was lovely: the opening instrument piece and the ending theme song were beautiful. Also, the dances were some of the best in Chinese dramas - I actually enjoyed watching them. In the past, I termed the dances in Chinese dramas lame duck dances.
In the drama, He Wei Fang (acted by Yang Zi) was fooled into marrying into the Liu family to Liu Chang. Her in-laws believed a fortune-teller that her horoscope would bring great fortune to their family. She was robbed of her dowry and almost killed as the in-laws were after her family's money. Pretending to be dead, she found her way to the capital city Chang-An, tried to make a living and was nearly raped.
She ran into Jiang Chang Yang, a close friend and entertainment officer of the Emperor. Jiang seemingly was a happy-go-lucky guy who was corrupt and only interested in amassing money. On the pretext that he wanted Wei Fang (aka Peony) to help him made money through her flower-growing skills, he helped her set up her business. Along the way, it was obvious that he was falling in love with her. Emotionally damaged by his parents' relationship and in self-denial, he continued to pretend that it was all about money.
Complications set-in as Peony's husband, Liu Chang, discovered that she was still alive and he was in love with her. Her in-laws had their eyes on the county princess as their new daughter-in-law and set out to sabotage Peony's business and get her into trouble with the law. She was declared a slave in the court.
Human dynamics were interesting. Peony teamed up with Qin Sheng Yi to start their business. But Qin's character was a direct opposite of hers - brought up in a family that undermined a woman's status in society, she was emotionally weak, insecure and had a severe inferiority complex. Liu Chang was a proud, stubborn, upright but weak person. In spite of being in love with Peony, he could not stand up against his parents' choice of daughter-in-laws. I also suspect he desired woman he could not get - forbidden fruits taste sweeter to him.
This story was interesting and high on action. Pace was also well managed throughout - not too slow and not to hurried. Music was good and apt.
Overall, it was an excellent production. I rewatched the drama and re-rated it a 10 instead of 9.5.
The English translation of Chinese drama titles are always a bit odd as it is difficult to work out a direct translation between the English and Chinese languages without losing the poetic feel in Chinese . I think The Beauty of a Nation would sound much better or less ideally Beauty and Youth.
The ending was open ended. We were left to wonder whether Jiang and Peony would eventually truly marry, what would Liu Chang do next and whether the Emperor and Jiang would succeed in their conspiracy. A sequel is being produced according to Yang Zi and I cannot wait to watch the continuation of the story and hope it has an convincing ending. I hope it won't have a lame ending.
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