I totally feel for the people missing out on this awesome
drama. I haven’t had the chance to finish this drama yet because I’ve been
doing too much recapping and I had just wanted to leisurely enjoy this without
any interruptions but I got a request to recap it and I got influenced. Heh.
It’s by far the best Cdrama of all the Cdramas this year. Show, don’t make me
eat my own words later. The story is written out in history already but it’s
the process of how JieYou gets from point A to point B that is so satisfying to
watch. Zhang Xin Yi, the actress playing JieYou is a goddess. I don’t know why
she’s not in more dramas but because of this drama, her and the actor playing
Weng Gui, Justin Yuan, took their on-stage chemistry off-stage too. These two
are dating in real life, which explains why their chemistry in the drama is through the roof. These two aren't afraid of any body contact. It's indisputable that Zhang Xin Yi is beautiful to stare at but Yuan Justin has never looked so fine on my screen before. He looks awfully good with facial and curly hair.
I don’t have enough time to recap this fully. Even this is
only a very brief summary of the overall storyline. Episodes 1 – 4 were amazing
to watch and I didn’t mind going through them again to translate scenes that
made me giddy. I hope some subbing team will pick
this up for you guys. I don’t know, maybe try begging on every drama site for
subs? xP. This summary does no justice to this drama; there are so many tiny
moments that enhances this drama’s worth that my simple summary cannot capture.
Even if I were to go as far to explain every detail, I still don’t think it’d
be good enough. Plus, this drama is just so pretty to watch. It'd be a waste just to read about it.
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| Left to right: Hu Gu, Weng Gui, JieYou, Kun Mi |
The story follows Princess JieYou (of Da Han) who is offered
as a “peace bride” to the Wu Sun ruler (name: Cenzhou; addressed as Kun Mi) to
appease the tension between the two states. In addition, there’s another state,
Xiong Nu, who also offers a peace bride to Wu Sun. Technically, these three
states (Da Han, Wu Sun, and Xiong Nu) are at odds with each other but poor Wu
Sun is caught in the middle. Both countries want to be allies with Wu Sun.
The drama starts off with JieYou not knowing her identity as
a Princess. At three, her parents had abandoned her and she was adopted into a
performance troupe. In there, she’s close to Ah Cai and the troupe leader whom
she treats like a father, in fact, everyone there is like family to her. During
her days in her troupe, she meets a man, Weng Gui. He’s a Wu Sun diplomat
working in “Da Han” (the state of China during Han Dynasty), or trying to work
in Da Han before he’s murdered. He’s being targeted because he’s trying to
arrange a peace marriage between the two states but Xiong Nu warriors are hunting
him down to prevent their alliance. Weng Gui is also of royalty in Wu Sun. He’s
cousin to the current King of Wu Sun. So basically, both JieYou and Weng Gui
are of royalty.
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| Jie You |
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| Weng Gui, Jie You's feet |
[Episodes 1-4] When JieYou and Weng Gui first meet, they
have no idea about each other’s royal identity, neither do they have any clue
JieYou will be his future sister-in-law. The two are romantically involved
quite soon into the drama and it was absolutely a delight to watch. She’s
brave, witty, and fun, and he’s exactly the same. They know each other’s
quirks, channel the same wavelength like they’ve known each other for ages when
they’ve only met for a few days. They have this hate-love thing going on but
the thing I love about these two is that they know there’s more love than there’s hate. Actually there’s no hate,
that’s just how they have fun with each other. They openly flirt with each
other, or at least he does, while she has fun baiting him too. She’s an expert at
the push-and-pull game. And the camera loves her; she has no best angle because
her every angle is perfection.
But with all premature loves in dramas, tragedy
must befall them until they can have their happily ever after.
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| Kun Mi, Jie You |
[Episode 5-11] JieYou has a jade, which is the only emblem
she has of her parents. This jade plays a huge role in helping her discover her
identity as a Princess of Da Han. In fact she had lost it while saving
Weng Gui and he risks his life to retrieve it. The irony is that this jade will
bring tragedy upon this couple: with the jade she becomes Princess JieYou and
is subsequently offered to Wu Sun as the peace bride to the king there, Kun Mi. Now Weng Gui, Kun Mi's cousin, has to arrange the marriage
between the love of his life and his cousin.
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| Ah Cai (far left), Jie You, Hu Gu |
[Episode 11] Xiong Nu has offered Princess Hu Gu as the
peace bride and so far, as with all concubines, there’s animosity between her
and JieYou but since they’re both such strong women, it’s kind of fun and I
don’t hate Hu Gu (yet).
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| Pitiful Kun Mi |
There’s also animosity between Weng Gui and Kun Mi. In all
historical dramas, I swear the kings will never be at peace because there will
always be a grand upheaval to usurp the king. And so Kun Mi is wary of Weng Gui
who threatens his position as the king but Weng Gui has no greed for the power
whatsoever. I actually pity Kun Mi, there’s no one he can trust. First of all,
he’s caught between two states and between his subordinates trying to win his
favour. One of them tries to convince him that Weng Gui is dangerous because
he’s hooking up with Han Dynasty’s Emperor to seize Wu Sun for his own. And
then he’s also caught between two women, Hu Gu and JieYou. Both of them want
his favour for political sake and only for political sake. There’s no love
whatsoever. Compared to JieYou, Hu Gu is much more active at it; she openly
tries to seduce him and it’s obvious she’s got an ulterior motive. Kun Mi isn’t
some idiot one-dimensional character, he’s smart enough to know that he can’t
trust anyone but he also doesn’t make enemies out of anyone just yet. He’s
pretty much embodied the saying, “Keep your friends close, but keep your
enemies closer.” However, JieYou doesn’t have any hidden motives, she’s there
obviously to bring peace between the two states. Love was never in the mission.
For Kun Mi, I think he’s still in love with his previous wife, Xijun, who was
also a peace bride from Da Han.
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| Huai Tian Sha/General Huai |
The second male lead is Huai Tian Sha, he’s a general. He
comes off rude at first, but he just has a traumatic past that renders him
emotionless. JieYou has made countless nicknames for him that all revolve around
his cold expressions. She also becomes the first person who makes him smile.
Not only that, he’s impressed by her sense of righteousness and well everything
else about her because she really is that amazing. It’s a no brainer he’d fall
in love with her. This girl is so amazing that I can literally ship her with
anyone (but her and Weng Gui are perfect for each other). In drama language, General
Huai is your hot moody man who silently protects the girl he loves despite it
being unrequited. When JieYou is given the role as the peace bride, he tries to
help her escape (but fails bitterly). When she’s married off, he volunteers
himself to become her bodyguard and stays with her at Wu Sun, ensuring her
well-being. He’s also acting as an informant to report back to Emperor of Han
dynasty if anything is fishy going on in Wu Sun.
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| Feng Liao |
[Episode 7-9] General Huai is completely devoted to JieYou
but there’s another girl who has her eyes on him. She’s Feng Liao and she’s
adorable. If JieYou wasn’t this awesome, Feng Liao would be a great scene
stealer especially with her budding romance with General Huai. He’s not
responding to her that much but I’m sure it will happen. The fact that he
doesn’t care about her cute antics makes it fun though. I think the females in
this drama are amazing. Actually the men are too. Alright so I just love
everyone, maybe except Ah Cai (she’s a close friend of JieYou for now) I get
the feeling I’ll hate her guts later on. Feng Liao should become a really
important person later on in the drama. Is it a spoiler to say that her
character is based on the first female diplomat for China working in Wu Sun?
Side note: The actress behind Feng Liao is Ye Qing and she's dating Huang Ming whom some of you guys may know as Zheng Qi from Boss & Me.
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