Platinum Fox

I am on 17. I am very curious as to whom Fan Xian's mother is and how she knew all about soap, etc. Does it tell us in this season or is it in the big finale (season 3)?

There are no love triangles.

You might like The K2, Flower of Evil, and Signal.

You might find Story of Yan Xi Palace interesting. When I watched SYXP, Fu Heng reminded me a great deal of LBY and the main female was a great deal like Shao Shang. The emperor here, for me, seems to be a comedic version of the emperor in SYXP.

I am on episode 15.

Thank you for the response. I just went to season 2 and there are many more responses over there which makes more sense. I am sure that people are waiting until the whole drama is finished to write more.

It's interesting that this show is very popular, but there are very few comments here. Is this normal? Also, someone on another site wrote that this drama is a parody. Can someone explain to me how it is? I can somewhat see it.

If you want to continue the mirror image, you could say that SYR/PWN/PC represent Shakespearean tragedies and XFF/DS represent the comedies.

Jiang Li actually is the second daughter. The husband had a child with a maid before Jiang Li's mother. The maid's daughter was killed by Ji Shu Ran (3rd daughter's mother). Ji Shu Ran killed Jiang Li's mother, drove the maid "crazy" and set up a five year old by saying Jiang Li pushed her down the stairs to kill the child and mother. Jiang Li is sent to the nunnery after that.

Yes, this drama is full of irony. It is what gives it its comedic atmosphere. If you are interested in this mirror image and haven't watched Love Like the Galaxy, you should. The second season mirrors the first.

Thank you for the discussion.

I don't know Mandarin either and must rely on translations as well. To answer your questions:
1) Again, appearance vs. reality plays a role in this perception. Appearance: SYR and PWN are having an affair. They are not. He doesn't love her and doesn't want to have anything to do with her, but the mother and sister force him to do it because it will bring the family honor and power. The princess essentially is holding him hostage. Much like how she was treated on the plains. Once SYR realizes that he will never get XFF back (his poetic justice for killing her), he gives in to the princess completely by giving her a chrysanthemum hairpin. Which in Chinese culture means, "I love you and I wish you happiness and long life." After he gives this to her, they have sex. Thus, PWN is now an adulterer. What does this have to do with XFF and DS? Once SYR and PWN have sex, so do XFF and DS (candlelight scene). Remember the two couples mirror each other. Also, XFF and DS visit each other's residences quite frequently, this is not done between a man and a woman in Chinese culture unless they are a couple. But because XFF is Jiang Li, she is not committing adultery and is free to have a relationship with Duke Su as she is an innocent 15 year old girl.

2) At first that was the goal of the revenge, but remember poetic justice says in no way is SYR and XFF getting back together. He doesn't deserve her. It will defy an imperial edict if it has to. Enter PWN. She has XFF's brother still alive in her dungeon. PWN trades the brother for SYR and XFF gladly accepts. PWN gets XFF out of the marriage. By now everyone involved knows that Jiang Li is really XFF. However, they can't touch her because of who she appears to be. Once XFF has her brother back her revenge is complete. The fact that PWN saves SYR is enough to expose the whole affair. It is already public to the emperor, etc. that there is something going on between SYR and PWN. Because XFF "died" , people will be thinking did they kill her because of their affair? SYR doesn't have to admit it. People will think differently when given certain information. Her revenge is done. Now we just have Duke Su's which completes the poetic justice for PWN. Her brother must die because of what he did to Duke Su's father.

Other thoughts: Yes, but that is when he is under the impression that PWN will kill his family (because she had XFF's family "killed") and XFF if he doesn't comply. Keep in mind appearance vs. reality. Remember PWN is cruel and sadistic, but she doesn't kill people except for her father. PWN is really testing SYR to see how far he will really go for her. Remember the surprised expression on PWN's face when he tells her he has buried XFF alive. To her this is power and love.

Imo, where he turns selfish is when he tries to get her back through raping her. He realizes she is happy with someone else and has totally replaced him. He becomes jealous and wants to get her back. Again poetic justice says they won't.

Actually, after awhile she can go back to being XFF. XFF agrees to be Jiang Li until the grandmother passes away, so there will not be any heartache for her about Jiang Li. So XFF will eventually get her life back with a better man! Poetic justice rules.

Interestingly enough, this entire plot has been done before in A Female Student Arrives at the Imperial College. It is the second male lead's story literally interpreted.

XFF storyline is a mixture of the novel and Love Like the Galaxy. She is Ling Bu Yi and somewhat Shao Shang and definitely Princess Wei Young.

XH's storyline may be from the book, but I don't know because I haven't read it all. However, it feels a great deal like Nirvana in Fire. It also has The Legend of Lu Zhen in it.

Because of appearance versus reality, for me this is a parody on about seven different historical fiction dramas: Princess Wei Young, Love Like the Galaxy, The Story of Ming Lan, A Female Student Arrives at the Imperial College, Who Rules the World, and Nirvana in Fire. Possibly The Long Ballad, the princess arc. Just my opinion.

His license plate reads Sang Zhi I love you. I don't quite understand this one, but it has to do with the Chinese characters of the numbers. They either look like or sound like I love you.

The flower in the museum grows from the heat of their hands. Their love for each other is growing slowly and when the promise is reached their love will be in full bloom. By the end of the drama, the promises have been kept and their love is in full bloom.

DJX is symbolized by the dog and the fox. In any culture really a dog is a guy who chases after a lot of women or chases after a woman who isn't the same age. DJX doesn't chase after any women. Girls like him, but he doesn't reciprocate. So there is no reason to call him a dog, except when he flirts with Sang Zhi in the car. By this time he is a full blown adult 22. Sang Zhi, on the other hand, is only 17. She hasn't even reached the age of majority (18) nor can she get married. However, she is old enough to consent to sex. The age of consent is 14 in China. Also, he is symbolized as a fox. In Chinese culture a male fox is a teacher, a god, beautiful, and the fox's tail means protection. A fox also means cunning, sly, and intelligent. I will let you think about this one.

Sang Zhi: she is represented by the bear and the puffer fish. In Chinese culture the bear means protector. When she was young, she was sickly, so the parents put a bear blanket on her bed which she still seems to have. You can think about the rest. Puffer fish means good fortune.

The light bulb has a picture of him patting her head. Put that in the light socket, turn on the light, and what do you get?

The book The End of Eternity is a social commentary on the use of nuclear materials whether for war or used for energy. The writers have used many things from this book, too many to list which is why people should be reading it rather than the novel Hidden Love. They have used the book in two ways: the content and to show the intellectual differences between a 17 year old and a 22 year old. She can read the words, but she doesn't understand them.

I am talking about the doorway scene when she is 14. The brother teases her about being in elementary school because of her height. She fires back, "Yeah, and everyone thinks your my dad." Then, she says, "I will get taller." She also says her name means innocence. Follow the dad theme throughout the drama. Notice she speaks like a child most of the drama, even when she is 19.

This is just to get you thinking and started on your journey. Trust me it was a journey for me to get where I am in understanding this drama. Just to let you know, while writing this, I figured out another reason why they used the novel The End of Eternity, so thank you for that.

When you watch a drama, watch what they focus on. If it is focused on more than once, it is important to the story. Again, if you have any questions feel free to ask.

While I agree with you on XH, our two "villains" and XFF are different. Poetic justice is where whatever you do to someone, it will come back to you. In this drama it is not the whole story. The main comedic element in this drama is appearance vs.reality. So we have to look at poetic justice from a reality standpoint and not appearance.

SYR: Appearance: he seeks power through selfish means. He kills his faithful wife in order to be with PWN. Therefore, poetic justice says he should be powerless, lose the love of his life, and die. Oh wait he does. You’re right. Poetic justice has been served. However, because of appearance vs. reality, this is not the whole story.
SYR: Reality: It is not him who wants the power and the glory. It is the mother and the sister who are greedy. They dislike XFF because her status is not high enough for them. Having SYR become a prince consort, he will have double the power, but this is only if PWN’s brother comes into power. So why does he “kill” his faithful wife, to protect her reputation and from being killed by PWN. He does this out of love for her, not selfishness. If PWN marries into the Shen family she has the higher status and will become the first wife leaving her to do whatever she wants to to XFF as XFF will become a concubine. Notice no man in this drama has more than one “wife”. He believes PWN will kill her as he will favor XFF over PWN. But cruel twists of fate step in
Cruel twists of fate: SYR is already highly favored by the emperor before PWN becomes obsessed with him.If he had stayed on this trajectory he would be powerful, have the love of his life and be alive, exactly what the mother and sister want. But because of his one simple act of kindness to the princess and his masochist personality he has with all three women, he becomes without power or love. He could stay alive, but he realizes that he is too far gone and his death could bring XFF happiness. It is his most selfless act as now XFF is free to marry Duke Su as either identity. Poetic justice in reality: Because her death meant nothing in the beginning, his death needs to mean something.

XFF: Appearance: poetic justice for XFF should be for her to clear her name of adultery and get her husband and family back. She does get her name cleared of adultery by using someone else’s name. She gets her brother and father back. It looks like she will get her husband back as well with the rape scene. So she is set. Wait, reality check.
Reality: He has tried to kill her and he is no longer worthy of her. Poetic justice needs to change. Poetic justice in reality, she finds someone better. SYR had nothing to do with her brother and father, PWN is the one who did that. Poetic justice XF's brother comes back alive and her father is found innocent of his crimes. Oh wait, that happens all before the fake pregnancy event. Her revenge is complete and poetic justice has been served. End of story. There is no need for the fake pregnancy event, so why does she do it? To show that she is human.
Cruel twist of fate: PWN can’t have children, so how can she become pregnant? This is why SYR investigates why PWN " becomes pregnant". It is during this time we learn her backstory. We know that her dominatrix behavior is all a facade. In fact, she is a mentally fragile woman who breaks after losing “her child”. Thus, because everything for XFF is done, this turns what she does to PWN into something just downright cruel. Poetic justice in the end: to wait for a husband who may not come home without ever having a child. Another cruel twist of fate is that she is committing adultery with Duke Su. So she has become the very thing the nunnery was all about not so kind or virtuous. Which means she needs to be punished as well.

Duke Su is different because he has nothing to hide like the other three. He can even openly commit adultery with her because she is Jiang Li. They could have gotten married because she was Jiang Li, but they waited until SYR was dead, so she could be her true self.

You are very welcome. Feel free to ask any questions or write to just clarify your thinking. This is a discussion forum and how we learn, myself included.

I did watch The Glory. I am still pondering how I think about that one. It disturbed me how students could bully not only other students, but also teachers. I need to watch Beyond Evil.

Did she know immediately that she loves him? No, she falls for him slowly after she realizes how considerate and kind he is. At 14 her dream is to have the perfect brother. Her perception of him creates the unrequited love story but also the perfect brother image when she is 17-19. Meanwhile she falls in love with him. The same goes for him.

For him, can love be hidden even from yourself? I think of Jewel in the Crown and Story of Yan Xi palace. The main love story for both is about the two emperors realizing that they love the women whom they have looked at prior to this realization as just a commoner or a servant. The same for DJX. When DJX sees her again when she is 17, she is grown up, biologically a woman, and able to consent to sex. When he tries to hit on her, the brother and Qian Fei both shut him down. This lets him know that if wants to get close to her, he will have to do it in a different way. He does as her tutor and "brother". It is what makes him a dog. Most crushes turn into nothing, but for both of them, their crushes turn into love. This is why he can say that he fell for her at the first snowfall and upon reflection, in episode 24, he can admit he had a crush on her when she was 17. It is okay because the brother is now okay with the idea. They no longer have to hide their love from each other, from friends, or family.

At first I wrote this off as just a simple love story which on the surface it is. But when I had many questions at the end, I knew something else was going on. So I watched it again and realized many hidden in plain sight easter eggs. Many things are important: the light bulb, the animals stuffed and drawn, the flower growing, the picture of the fox drinking the milk signed Rosy, the book The End of Eternity, his license plate, etc. They all have meaning and enhance the story. The dialogue in the doorway, the dorm, car, and hospital are very important to the social commentary that is happening in the story with the age gap. There is a lot going on in this drama and most viewers will watch it once and move on. They expect that.

Happy watching again!

I will have to give Joy of Life a try. I started it, but lost interest in it pretty quickly. But I also did that with Love Like the Galaxy and now it is one of my favorites. So we shall see. If you like thrillers have you seen Death's Game, Flower of Evil, and Healer? All three are modern day thrillers. Let me know what you think as well.

Thank you for the recommendations.

I would have to agree with you on her earlier work, but her later work such as Who Rules the World, Love Like the Galaxy, and Hidden Love shows she has come into her own. She has learned how to make each of her characters unique. And it takes a great deal of time and experience to do that.

Actually, I have watched most of Zhao Lu Si's dramas and a movie. But honestly can't really remember them. She does create a good vibe with all of her leading men. Could you recommend some other good dramas? I watch most genres, except fantasy.

I watched TLI because of ZLS, but I am not a big fan of fantasy. I didn't hate it, but for me it seemed more like a Saturday morning cartoon (Superfriends). I did like the social message though that it was trying to convey.