Return of Pearl Princess
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| Er Kang, Ziwei, Emperor, Xiao Yan Zi, 5th Prince |
The Return of Pearl Princess is a Chinese television series based on a book series by the name from Chiung Yao. The story is about Yan Ziwei the daughter of Emperor, Qiang Long, through an affair with a commoner. After her mother's death, Ziwei travels to Beijing to find her father. While in Beijing in a tough situation, Ziwei meets, befriends and later becomes sworn sisters with an orphan, Xiao Yan Zi. Xiao Yan Zi promises to help Ziwei meet the Emperor but being injured and found with the items that Ziwei's mother left her. The Emperor and everyone at the palace come to believe that Xiao Yan Zi is the Emperor's daughter. Conflicts arises as friends of both Ziwei and Xiao Yan Zi try to return them to their proper places.
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| Ziwei, Xiao Yanzi, Jinsuo |
Xiao Yanzi was quite funny at times and I liked her caring over Ziwei and the sisterly bond that truly developed between them. I liked the overall lightheartedness and the fun and funny scenes. I particularly liked the scenes when they were all together interacting. I also liked how the men, particularly Er Kang, who was always calm, collected and think things through would just loose his mind when they were in trouble. Especially when Ziwei was in some kind of trouble.
The Return of Pearl Princess has some nice, fun and lighthearted parts, however I had some problem with other parts. Not being a speaker of Chinese, I watched the Return of Pearl Princess that someone created subtitles for. So there are many things that come into play. I found the show to be long-winged. There are things that seemed like they could have been summarized. I am not sure if this was part of the original book series or the style of the show. Also quite a lot of scenes just seemed redundant. Like when they would all just meet to talk about their problems over and over. But nothing new, important or improved ever came out as a result. So, it felt quite useless to have them. For example the reveal of the main conflict of the real princess seemed liked it just dragged on too long.
What I thought was really missing was the politics and the struggles for power when a new princess appears and is the favorite of the Emperor. Whom everyone is vying to again power from. I thought there would have been more conflicts and not just from the Queen. I sometimes found that some of the characters were quite self-centered. Throughout the entire show their is but one real conflict which is posed by the Queen. The other conflicts were mostly perceived and easily resolved. Xiao Yanzi and Ziwei are constantly surrounded by people who affirm that whatever they do is good.
Er Tai seemed at time to be the only voice of reason but he was constantly ignored and not wanting to be left alone or behind, he would join in on the madness. Which was almost always instigated by Xiao Yanzi. I found that the acting was not successful all the time because you found out who a character was suppose to be through dialogue and words not through actual acting or action. Xiao Yanzi never changes through her entire stay in the palace. Even when she knows that she has to appear to give in, not just for herself but for others. She doesn't do it she just continues to yell and fight even when it should have brought worse things on her and others. Ziwei was no better at times. Especially when the Emperor sends them to the prison and that official comes to interrogate them. We the know the official is corrupt but what does Ziwei do? She tells Xiao Yanzi that it's the official they had had a conflict with before and they proceed to mock him which gets them tortured. Only an idiot would instigate someone who already hates you to hurt you more because you just could't keep quiet.
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| Er Kang & Ziwei |
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