This review may contain spoilers
Retribution 101
The Double could easily be a daily soap. Thankfully it is not and it is much more entertaining. The Double dabbles in all the virtues and vices - self sacrifice, revenge, karma, selfishness, psychotic obsession, manipulation, kindness, cruelty, hyposcricy, cowardice and bravery. You name it, you got it.
The story is engaging. At the very center of it is Jiang Li a.k.a Xue Fangfei, a virtuous, loyal, beautiful young wife of a newly appointed scholar, who unfortunately catches the psycho princess’s eye. Under her pressure and his own cowardice, he not only loses himself but has to kill his wife. Xue Fangfei manages to survive because of brave kindness of a total stranger Jiang Li. Just for the crime of helping her, Li loses her life. Li, whose life is a series of tragedies and betrayals, makes Fangfei promise that she would help clear Li’s name from utterly false and criminally cruel allegations made by her step mother. And that’s where the drama begins. There after it’s a series of incidents that eventually not only restores Jiang Li’s good name but even punishes literally everybody responsible for ruining it in the first place. Along the way, Fangfei takes her revenge by destroying the would-be killers. And as a bonus, she gets her happily ever after with a handsome, enigmatic Duke who never gives up on her. At one point, he is the only decent man in her life. He sticks with her and she with him. Together they manage to save the kingdom as well.
This is the story. It’s melodramatic in the sense the villains schemes seem OTP at some points. But at no point, Li seems hopeless or lost in her counter-schemes. That shows that at no point the story has any confusion about the direction it wants to go in. There are a couple of unnecessary tracks, which if edited out could have made the story even more tight.
The screenplay is not 100% in sync with the story. Maybe it was some weird decisions to edit out stuff. For example, I still don’t know why the Duke stares at Xue Fangfei at the very beginning. It’s shown as a kinda flashback. But I don’t understand the reason behind it. It also does not clearly tell why Shen Yurong tangles with the princess in the first place. Sure, she notices him, but I am sure he could have avoided many if not all of those encounters. He is said to be a virtuous, good man who is not into bribes. So why does he let the princess get to the point of obsession? These small details actually are important which throw light on the characters and their motives. At least for me, these details decide whether I sympathize with a villain or not. Because this motive is never shown, I could not sympathize with the princess or Shen Yurong. Sure, Shang Yurong is kind of a tortured character but all I saw was, his selfishness and borderline narcissism which creates the whole mess. Princess, although has a backstory and battles with some serious PTSD, did not make me feel sorry for her. There was not a single act of kindness from that woman. For me, she was truly irredeemable.
And that brings me to the characterization. Since it’s based on a novel, characters are all predefined. The drama does not have a lot of leeway. It can only deviate so much from the main source. They can only pick and choose which characters to keep. This drama does a solid in that section. 99% of the characters aren’t superfluous. They serve a purpose and carry the story forward.
Which automatically leads to the actors. All the actors have done pretty decent job in the drama. Wu Jinyan excelled in the scenes when she returns to the capital under the guise of Jiang Li and inadvertently crosses path with her would-be murderers. You can feel her rage, hurt and pain in these scenes. At the same time, her pretend contriteness when she first returns home is not over done. Well balanced acting.
Wang xingyue has played an enigmatic and borderline cruel Duke Su. I enjoyed anytime WXY was on the screen. But I gotta be honest, at times he appeared wooden and awkward in some scenes, especially in the close up scenes where he has to smile or soften towards Li. Duke Su’s cold and calculating demeanour was perfectly captured by WXY, but in the romantic scenes it was a hit or a miss for me. Some of their flirting is done so naturally that it gave me a melty feeling but some was so wooden, that I was frowning at my screen. At the risk of getting tarred and feathered, I will say that there was no natural chemistry. Any chemistry that I saw and liked was mostly a product of story, careful editing, and my natural desire for our leads getting together. One thing though, not at any juncture, the story tries to become a romance. It has romance but that happens in the background. At no point, it overpowers the essence of the story.
It is around 40% about leads, the rest is villains. There are so many. That’s why it felt like a daily soap. They just kept coming. Sure, our leads manage to overcome them every single time. But I also felt somewhat exhausted with their scheming and general villainy. On that note, I do not agree with anybody who says the princess or the step mother are grey characters. Nope, they are not. They have backstories, yes. But at no point, they show any mercy towards their victims. At no point, they behave like good people and in the in the very next, would slit your throats. Nah, they were just cruel and evil. The only grey character is Shen Yurong. He is so delusional that he wants to get back with his wife he killed. He keeps helping her through out. But all of that is not counter balanced by his initial atrocity. That, for me, is a grey character.
I have one gripe though. The deaths of duke’s lackeys is so so so unnecessary that my jaw dropped when they happened. They happened in the last 10 minutes of the show. Why?why would you kill perfectly healthy, skilled warriors - not one but both? What were they even thinking? SMH. IMO, that whole battle is senseless and way unnecessary. Those last 15 minutes could have given us a good epilogue where Li slowly humanizes the Duke. In stead they gave a 5 minutes extra episode which felt very choppy due to its disconnect from the last episode.
Anyhoo. The positives are lot more than the shortcomings IMO. If you have any doubt about watching it, watch it solely for Duke Su’s fans and WXY’s martial practices. It will get yiu your money’s worth.
Overall, I’d put in the solid green in my entertainment ledger.
The story is engaging. At the very center of it is Jiang Li a.k.a Xue Fangfei, a virtuous, loyal, beautiful young wife of a newly appointed scholar, who unfortunately catches the psycho princess’s eye. Under her pressure and his own cowardice, he not only loses himself but has to kill his wife. Xue Fangfei manages to survive because of brave kindness of a total stranger Jiang Li. Just for the crime of helping her, Li loses her life. Li, whose life is a series of tragedies and betrayals, makes Fangfei promise that she would help clear Li’s name from utterly false and criminally cruel allegations made by her step mother. And that’s where the drama begins. There after it’s a series of incidents that eventually not only restores Jiang Li’s good name but even punishes literally everybody responsible for ruining it in the first place. Along the way, Fangfei takes her revenge by destroying the would-be killers. And as a bonus, she gets her happily ever after with a handsome, enigmatic Duke who never gives up on her. At one point, he is the only decent man in her life. He sticks with her and she with him. Together they manage to save the kingdom as well.
This is the story. It’s melodramatic in the sense the villains schemes seem OTP at some points. But at no point, Li seems hopeless or lost in her counter-schemes. That shows that at no point the story has any confusion about the direction it wants to go in. There are a couple of unnecessary tracks, which if edited out could have made the story even more tight.
The screenplay is not 100% in sync with the story. Maybe it was some weird decisions to edit out stuff. For example, I still don’t know why the Duke stares at Xue Fangfei at the very beginning. It’s shown as a kinda flashback. But I don’t understand the reason behind it. It also does not clearly tell why Shen Yurong tangles with the princess in the first place. Sure, she notices him, but I am sure he could have avoided many if not all of those encounters. He is said to be a virtuous, good man who is not into bribes. So why does he let the princess get to the point of obsession? These small details actually are important which throw light on the characters and their motives. At least for me, these details decide whether I sympathize with a villain or not. Because this motive is never shown, I could not sympathize with the princess or Shen Yurong. Sure, Shang Yurong is kind of a tortured character but all I saw was, his selfishness and borderline narcissism which creates the whole mess. Princess, although has a backstory and battles with some serious PTSD, did not make me feel sorry for her. There was not a single act of kindness from that woman. For me, she was truly irredeemable.
And that brings me to the characterization. Since it’s based on a novel, characters are all predefined. The drama does not have a lot of leeway. It can only deviate so much from the main source. They can only pick and choose which characters to keep. This drama does a solid in that section. 99% of the characters aren’t superfluous. They serve a purpose and carry the story forward.
Which automatically leads to the actors. All the actors have done pretty decent job in the drama. Wu Jinyan excelled in the scenes when she returns to the capital under the guise of Jiang Li and inadvertently crosses path with her would-be murderers. You can feel her rage, hurt and pain in these scenes. At the same time, her pretend contriteness when she first returns home is not over done. Well balanced acting.
Wang xingyue has played an enigmatic and borderline cruel Duke Su. I enjoyed anytime WXY was on the screen. But I gotta be honest, at times he appeared wooden and awkward in some scenes, especially in the close up scenes where he has to smile or soften towards Li. Duke Su’s cold and calculating demeanour was perfectly captured by WXY, but in the romantic scenes it was a hit or a miss for me. Some of their flirting is done so naturally that it gave me a melty feeling but some was so wooden, that I was frowning at my screen. At the risk of getting tarred and feathered, I will say that there was no natural chemistry. Any chemistry that I saw and liked was mostly a product of story, careful editing, and my natural desire for our leads getting together. One thing though, not at any juncture, the story tries to become a romance. It has romance but that happens in the background. At no point, it overpowers the essence of the story.
It is around 40% about leads, the rest is villains. There are so many. That’s why it felt like a daily soap. They just kept coming. Sure, our leads manage to overcome them every single time. But I also felt somewhat exhausted with their scheming and general villainy. On that note, I do not agree with anybody who says the princess or the step mother are grey characters. Nope, they are not. They have backstories, yes. But at no point, they show any mercy towards their victims. At no point, they behave like good people and in the in the very next, would slit your throats. Nah, they were just cruel and evil. The only grey character is Shen Yurong. He is so delusional that he wants to get back with his wife he killed. He keeps helping her through out. But all of that is not counter balanced by his initial atrocity. That, for me, is a grey character.
I have one gripe though. The deaths of duke’s lackeys is so so so unnecessary that my jaw dropped when they happened. They happened in the last 10 minutes of the show. Why?why would you kill perfectly healthy, skilled warriors - not one but both? What were they even thinking? SMH. IMO, that whole battle is senseless and way unnecessary. Those last 15 minutes could have given us a good epilogue where Li slowly humanizes the Duke. In stead they gave a 5 minutes extra episode which felt very choppy due to its disconnect from the last episode.
Anyhoo. The positives are lot more than the shortcomings IMO. If you have any doubt about watching it, watch it solely for Duke Su’s fans and WXY’s martial practices. It will get yiu your money’s worth.
Overall, I’d put in the solid green in my entertainment ledger.
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