Happy New Year!
Jan. 7th, 2023 02:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yesmissjaneSo, I just finished my first C-Drama for the year, and I thought I would include some thoughts about it here.
《Lighter & Princess》 is a modern romance drama, starring (Arthur) Chen Feiyu and Zhang Jingyi, neither of whom I have seen in anything before, but I've heard of CFY from the many, many waves of publicity about the (almost certainly never to appear) 《Immortality》, and in the last couple of days I spotted ZJY in a widely circulated photo from the upcoming 《Hidden Blade》.
I think I was expecting a fairly light and fluffy show, but that is not at all what I got. This thing is an angst fest pretty much from the get go: it even has the classic MDZS structure of opening on something terrible happening to the main character, then winding time back to show the audience how events transpired to get there. Nevertheless, it was well paced and the central cast were good in their roles. I'm not sure if I'd say I loved it, but I appreciated it, and I certainly didn't feel like dropping it at any point.
Some of the things I liked about 《Lighter & Princess》:
even though it is a properly romance story (the relationship is central to the story arc, it even has a happy ending with a wedding) the romance is not the central concern of either the ML or FL for much of the run time of the series. They have genuinely rich lives with stuff they care about going on. They're actually not together *romantically* for much of the back end of the series, though they are very much together in every other way that counts. And not in just a slow-burn, building sexual tension way (not that there's anything wrong with that, per se), but in that the other dimensions of their relationship feel meaningful in their own right.
having said this, another thing I enjoyed about 《Lighter & Princess》is the main couple have palpable chemistry together. There are many sequences of them just looking at each other, and, yeah. It wouldn't have worked with just anyone. When they finally get together for the second time, just before the end, it feels so inevitable. They have a conversation in the final ep where FL says 'I know we haven't been together long' and I suddenly went, oh yeah. That's true. It's probably only days actually, after being broken up for years, but they are so comfortable together it's like they are an old married couple, in a good way.
another thing I liked: the antagonist IS NOT a romantic rival with the ML for the FL. This is so lazy and overdone. Here there is a romantic rival, but if anything he grudgingly works with the ML, in order to support the FL by extension. The romantic rival is not an asshole, he's not pushy, and when he finally realises he's never getting anywhere (despite FL still being extremely single) he bows out gracefully, meaning I can continue to wish him well, which I like to be able to do. The antagonist has his own extremely understandable motivations for doing what he does, he may in fact have the most complex character development of anyone in the story. I'm still very mad at him, but he's not a one dimensional bad guy. And the ending of the show is at least in part grappling with what to do in the face of messed up history. Is it possible to not be eaten by revenge, resentment etc? When you have wronged and been wronged, is there a way forward that isn't just dying mad?
apart from the two leads, my favourite characters were Ren Di (played by Zen Keni) a very singleminded college drop out who forms a successful band who is on some level a plot device, dropping back into the story periodically to give things a little push, and Fu Yizhuo (played by Hu Wenxuan) another drop out, this one a latin dancer who only appears very rarely, but brings a real lightness with him whenever he appeared, which the drama was very much the better for imho.
Anyhow, all in all, I'd say this one was a solid start to the year. It didn't rock my world, but it was worth the time I spent watching it.
Has anyone else seen 《Lighter & Princess》? If so, what did you think?
《Lighter & Princess》 is a modern romance drama, starring (Arthur) Chen Feiyu and Zhang Jingyi, neither of whom I have seen in anything before, but I've heard of CFY from the many, many waves of publicity about the (almost certainly never to appear) 《Immortality》, and in the last couple of days I spotted ZJY in a widely circulated photo from the upcoming 《Hidden Blade》.
I think I was expecting a fairly light and fluffy show, but that is not at all what I got. This thing is an angst fest pretty much from the get go: it even has the classic MDZS structure of opening on something terrible happening to the main character, then winding time back to show the audience how events transpired to get there. Nevertheless, it was well paced and the central cast were good in their roles. I'm not sure if I'd say I loved it, but I appreciated it, and I certainly didn't feel like dropping it at any point.
Some of the things I liked about 《Lighter & Princess》:
even though it is a properly romance story (the relationship is central to the story arc, it even has a happy ending with a wedding) the romance is not the central concern of either the ML or FL for much of the run time of the series. They have genuinely rich lives with stuff they care about going on. They're actually not together *romantically* for much of the back end of the series, though they are very much together in every other way that counts. And not in just a slow-burn, building sexual tension way (not that there's anything wrong with that, per se), but in that the other dimensions of their relationship feel meaningful in their own right.
having said this, another thing I enjoyed about 《Lighter & Princess》is the main couple have palpable chemistry together. There are many sequences of them just looking at each other, and, yeah. It wouldn't have worked with just anyone. When they finally get together for the second time, just before the end, it feels so inevitable. They have a conversation in the final ep where FL says 'I know we haven't been together long' and I suddenly went, oh yeah. That's true. It's probably only days actually, after being broken up for years, but they are so comfortable together it's like they are an old married couple, in a good way.
another thing I liked: the antagonist IS NOT a romantic rival with the ML for the FL. This is so lazy and overdone. Here there is a romantic rival, but if anything he grudgingly works with the ML, in order to support the FL by extension. The romantic rival is not an asshole, he's not pushy, and when he finally realises he's never getting anywhere (despite FL still being extremely single) he bows out gracefully, meaning I can continue to wish him well, which I like to be able to do. The antagonist has his own extremely understandable motivations for doing what he does, he may in fact have the most complex character development of anyone in the story. I'm still very mad at him, but he's not a one dimensional bad guy. And the ending of the show is at least in part grappling with what to do in the face of messed up history. Is it possible to not be eaten by revenge, resentment etc? When you have wronged and been wronged, is there a way forward that isn't just dying mad?
apart from the two leads, my favourite characters were Ren Di (played by Zen Keni) a very singleminded college drop out who forms a successful band who is on some level a plot device, dropping back into the story periodically to give things a little push, and Fu Yizhuo (played by Hu Wenxuan) another drop out, this one a latin dancer who only appears very rarely, but brings a real lightness with him whenever he appeared, which the drama was very much the better for imho.
Anyhow, all in all, I'd say this one was a solid start to the year. It didn't rock my world, but it was worth the time I spent watching it.
Has anyone else seen 《Lighter & Princess》? If so, what did you think?
