Chinese Title: 女医·明妃传 (Nu Yi · Ming Fei Zhuan)
Total Episodes: 50
I'm eyeing this drama favourably. Lots to ingest in just a span of seven episodes.
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| Yun Xian eyeing her ultimate love: a plant |
Tan (Hang) Yun Xian (Cecilia Liu/Liu Shi Shi) aspires to be a female doctor, a
rare ambition during that period. When she was a child her family was once highly
regarded as medical practitioners who served the Emperor. A mistake she had
committed under a royal eunuch’s influence had put her entire family under a
death penalty. To save the family, her grandfather shouldered all the blame and committed suicide. Her
older brother, the only son left in the family, has also died while on the run. Only her father, her grandmother, and Yun Xian herself remain. They've also changed their last name from Tan to Hang.
Yun Xian had promised her deceased brother she would learn
medicine in his stead but her father is strict on prohibiting it. Her father
blames her for the family’s detriment, which is sort of true, but her
grandmother was swayed by her passion and secretly teaches Yun Xian.
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| Zhu Qi Yu |
Yun Xian’s passion for medicine and heart of gold has allowed
her to save Zhu Qi Yu (Huang Xuan). The Emperor’s men were hunting him down to prevent the Empress Dowager's plan of usurping the current Emperor and promoting this guy, Zhu Qi Yu, instead. The Emperor's men fail though. Zhu Qi Yu is saved by Yun Xian (despite him almost killing her) and the Wang
family (the daughter of Wang family actually fancies Qi Yu). Although he's part of the plan to take down the current Emperor, Qi Yu is loyal to him. It was the
Emperor who had saved him in the past thus he will never betray the Emperor. Well, that’s what they all say.
Yun Xian also saves a noble grandmother (surname Xu) from a
stroke and gave her a prescription. Despite it being a good deed her father disciplines her harshly for practicing medicine. But what is a girl to do when a grandmother is dying in front of
you?
Yun Xian’s grandmother praises her though but once she
realized Yun Xian gave the wrong prescription, she bans her from prescribing
and helping others for the mean time. Although her grandmother is disappointed,
she doesn’t reprimand her heavily because she’s proud of her granddaughter who
has already surpassed many doctors, especially without having any direct
patient experience.
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| This is the result of running away from Zheng Qi |
Shortly after being prohibited from practicing medical, a
servant begs Yun Xian to save her dying lady (surname Yu) who has just
undergone a miscarriage. This lady is from a household that’s known for being
righteous (even to peasants) but recently they have been wrongfully accused such
that no doctor will see them for their own livelihood. With a heart of gold and
an unknown man’s persuasion, Yun Xian feels obligated to help even if it means going against
her grandmother’s orders. This unknown man happens to be the Emperor but she doesn't
know it yet. What a shocker.
She only knows him as Zheng Qi. (Wallace Huo; his character's real name: Qi Zhen) For now I will follow Yun Xian and call him Zheng Qi.
She saves Yu Lady and (much later) the family even take her
in as a (step-)daughter. Zheng Qi (the Emperor) was taking her back home from
the Yu household but Yun Xian angers him when she says something on the lines of the Empress
Dowager being better than the Emperor. Uh oh. Zheng
Qi throws a fit at her and ditches her with the horse that she doesn’t know how
to control. Obviously what happens next is the horse going out of
control.
Luckily, Yun Xian is saved by Qi Yu (the guy she saved in
Episode 1) and this time he makes sure he gets her name. It’s obvious he
luuurvs her. He even sends a gift to her.
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| Xu Lady (left), Yu Lady (middle), Yun Xian (right) |
On an outing with Yu Lady (the one with the miscarriage),
they come across Xu Lady (the household with that grandmother who had a stroke)
and “prescribes” her a formula to heal her sickness.
Since Yun Xian isn’t allowed to prescribe, they all call this “prescription” a
random scribble on a piece of paper.
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| Mr. Xu (left) and The Royal Eunuch (right) |
Unfortunately, Xu Lady dies the next day. The husband, Xu
Man – alright, I’ll call him Mr. Xu – sues her for malpractice. It turns out
that Xu Lady died from mixing her medications that she had been prescribed from
a previous doctor with Yun Xian’s “prescription”. Anyways the fault doesn’t lie
on Yun Xian but Mr. Xu blames her regardless and to the court they go. The doctor they call for professional advice doesn’t pardon her. As a doctor, she
should have asked for Xu Lady’s medication history. But here’s the key: she’s not
a doctor. Hence she can’t be held responsible for the malpractice. Meh. It’s a little bit forced. In
addition, she gets help from The Royal Eunuch (“The” because he’s "The" Emperor’s
royal eunuch) and a noble lady’s testimony that she had not “prescribed”
anything. With all that powerful support from powerful people, Yun Xian is free of all her charges. By the way, where do they find such perfect people to act an evil scheming looking eunuch? Oh and kudos to the servant that pretended to faint.
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| Medicine Lady ): |
Fuming with anger, Mr. Xu takes
revenge on a medicine lady (modern day pharmacist) who Yun Xian had befriended
during her time in jail. Together with the grumpy medicine lady, Yun Xian had
saved other female prisoners (with fingernail and bird poop porridge – *shudders). When the
medicine lady had learned of Yun Xian’s aspiration to be a doctress, she warmed
up to her immediately and taught her all the medicine she knows that wouldn’t
be documented in medical books. This was valuable knowledge and Yun Xian was
grateful for every bit of it. Medicine lady was so smart too, she was the first one to figure out Xu Lady must have mixed her medication before anyone else did. Scoot over you PhDs. Personally,
this was my favourite scene, seeing Yun Xian learn from a person that seemed less
qualified had such a nice feel to it. However, those moments are forever gone. Mr. Xu had brutally
killed the medicine lady. What
a coward this guy is. Feeling responsible for the medicine lady’s death, Yun Xian
wonders whether she’s really a curse. She gives up on medicine and embarks on a
mission to be apathetic for the rest of her life.
Onto the Emperor’s side of the story: he's a smart emperor but he's got a bad rep. Actually, Yun Xian thinks he's a good for nothing Emperor (she actually said that directly to Zheng Qi, not knowing he was The Emperor). However Qi Yu knows how capable he is since they were young.
Zheng Qi had no part in
wanting Qi Yu murdered instead he wants Qi Yu to spy on Empress Dowager for
him. The Emperor had recently discovered it was her that had brutally killed
his mother but he can’t directly reprimand the Empress Dowager because she
controls a large portion of the army. Why is the Emperor so useless when he’s supposed to be smart? Anyone want
to enlighten me on the history? Qi Yu accepts the mission and becomes a
secret agent. Did I mention they are the cutest buddies when they're playful?
And if you haven’t realized, it was the Emperor that had
helped Yun Xian with her court case (hence the presence of The Royal Eunuch)
and he also saves Yun Xian from her own self-hate. Through his kingly methods,
he manages to settle her at a temple to care for the sick who cannot afford to
see a doctor. Zheng Qi successfully persuades her to continue with her passion. It’s
actually much more emotional here. Flashbacks of
the medicine lady makes me tear up.
The Romance and The Bromance
Qi Yu loves her. Zheng Qi loves her. She loves medicine. The
end. For now.
Zheng Qi and Yun Xian have a hate-love relationship, while Qi
Yu and her have an innocent feel. It seems obvious (or maybe not as spoilers warn) that Zheng Qi gets the girl but Qi
Yu smiling at the thought of Yun Xian makes me smile with him. I fully
understand why he's the second-leading man (not that he can't be leading-man
material I just don't find him good looking enough). I fondly remember him smiling
when she gave him a handkerchief and when Zheng Qi teased him. He's cute.
Although I love hate-love relationship, I don't feel the
chemistry between Cecilia Liu and Wallace Huo (yet). I'm just not a particular
fan of these too. Maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned that, heh. Hey that’s a good
thing, no? Me not being their fans but still able to digest this show means it’s
pretty good drama, right? Right.
I did laugh just a bit at the end of Episode 7 when Yun Xian
thanked Zheng Qi for reviving her passion. He was so obviously waiting to
pounce on her gratitude that I was going to nitpick on its obviousness but Yun
Xian got there before me. Good job, show. It's a genuine praise.
Now for the bromance (they're actually brothers by the way), the camaraderie between the Zheng Qi (Emperor)
and Qi Yu is fun to watch but I’m already dreading the moment when that
camaraderie shatters because of Yun Xian. Do we have to go that route?
Tan Yun Qian
Cecilia Liu is perfect at crying. Sometimes I just wish she
wouldn’t care so much about her pretty face when she cries. Otherwise, I’d
surely be crying with her more. Or maybe this girl just has a naturally pretty
crying face. Now that can’t be fair.
I feel that her character is a little too optimistic and
lacks that depth of solemnity. This girl is responsible for the death of her
family members because of her “medical malpractice” and yet she has the nerve
to continue medicine? I can’t even blame dad for harbouring hate against her own
daughter. However for her character to be this optimistic and passionate for medicine despite all the odd against her, her character should be more
resolute. I see more weakness. She shouldn’t waver as much as she did when her abilities were
questioned. Nothing should be able to trump the fact that she lost her brother to
her mistake. Or the fact that she has to endure her father's hate. But something did. She completely gave up on medicine when she was
considerably less responsible for the other two unrelated people’s death. That
doesn’t add up.
In the drama’s defense though, they didn’t give her a free
ride to innocence. She is responsible
for at least of the deaths. That responsibility made her cave in and give up on
her ultimate dream? Fiiiiiiiine. I have no choice but to accept that answer now. If the drama did charge her for malpractice in Xu Lady’s case, I wouldn't voice against it. Just because she isn’t
certified as a doctor, it’s okay that she doesn’t ask for her medical history? Okay
fine. Then she shouldn’t be going around prescribing anything. That’s just irresponsible.
The patients coerced her into it? Then she shouldn’t have blabbed about their
condition. None of them went to request her help. She walked up to each and
every one of them. It’s like offering them the best candy in the entire world,
and then not giving it to them.
I really want to see her mesh the two traits together: her
ultimate love for medicine and her willingness to sacrifice anything for it.
She’s already lost her brother, what’s more to lose? At the moment we’re not at
that point yet (when we ought should be): she’s not willing to sacrifice anymore
for the sake of medicine. I hope that changes. Yes, I'm brutal like that. I want her to sacrifice until I'm eyes bawl. I swear that's what the drama is intending anyways.
I'm getting Da Jang Geum (Jewel in the Palace) vibes.
I do like it that her liability in Xu Lady’s death isn’t sugar-coated that much; it makes her medical pursuit much more worthwhile. We get to watch her rise in the place she’s fallen. I also like that she’s gaining trust in everyone bit by bit. I commented that her overall character was weak but I do see moments of her strength. She grasps onto her dad's whip, fighting against the punishment when she knew she did the right thing. She went to court alone without her dad's support, having complete confidence in her medical knowledge. I just wished the drama didn't make her almost give up. I want to see more of her strength with each failure. She doesn't need to be supported by men.
You can pretty much say I look forward to Tan Yun Qian's growth more than the romance, which is rare for me but the drama isn't called The Imperial Doctress for nothing.
Just to end off on a happier note: Here is when Zheng Qi (or Qi Zhen, whatever) realized he fell in love:
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| Zheng Qi: Do I really love her? |
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| Yup. |