Triad Princess
Feb. 13th, 2023 07:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yesmissjaneSo, I spent most of last week sick, and I needed something short and fun to watch (I was stuck in the middle of a looooooong C-Drama, which I will talk about another time, which was just not ticking the boxes I needed right then) and Netflix recommended I look at 《Triad Princess》, which I did.
So, to start with, I like Jasper Liu's face (I had previously seen him in 《Use For My Talents》which is not a great drama, but he was certainly handsome enough in it to be memorable) and the whole energy of the piece was just what I was looking for: fast moving, and not taking itself too seriously. This is a Taiwanese production, and I haven't seen many of those, but enough for me to recognise that they have a particular flavour, which I am partial to. And it was only 6 episodes! So we have a ridiculous first interaction with identity shenanigans and then she kung fu kicks him off a bridge, and I was like: OK then! This is it!
Right up until the last ten minutes or so I was having a great time with this; Jasper Liu of the pretty face is not the world's most accomplished actor, maybe, but the role wasn't asking too much of him. Eugenie Liu the female lead, and maybe especially Cecilia Choi the female second lead turned in much more compelling performances, and there were two comedy relief male characters who have a love at first sight across the barricades kinda thing happen which was dumb but cute, so basically I was all on board.
And then at the final moment, when they seem to be giving us a cliched-but-setting-appropriate love conquers all happy ending, we have the second male lead doing a heel turn and the whole thing becoming a gaping hole awaiting a second season (which has not materialised in the 3+ years since). Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.
If I knew this was coming, I might not have watched it, probably, but if I had and did anyway I wouldn't have felt so betrayed. Which is how I felt. Absolutely betrayed. It's a romance story, and at the end of the final episode they got our two love interests who had been at odds to the point of meeting again (not even a reunion hug or kiss) and immediately cut to another character plotting to break them up. That's *not* how a romance ends.
So, I've gotten this out of my system now. Triad Princess. It isn't terrible, but it also isn't finished. Be warned.
So, to start with, I like Jasper Liu's face (I had previously seen him in 《Use For My Talents》which is not a great drama, but he was certainly handsome enough in it to be memorable) and the whole energy of the piece was just what I was looking for: fast moving, and not taking itself too seriously. This is a Taiwanese production, and I haven't seen many of those, but enough for me to recognise that they have a particular flavour, which I am partial to. And it was only 6 episodes! So we have a ridiculous first interaction with identity shenanigans and then she kung fu kicks him off a bridge, and I was like: OK then! This is it!
Right up until the last ten minutes or so I was having a great time with this; Jasper Liu of the pretty face is not the world's most accomplished actor, maybe, but the role wasn't asking too much of him. Eugenie Liu the female lead, and maybe especially Cecilia Choi the female second lead turned in much more compelling performances, and there were two comedy relief male characters who have a love at first sight across the barricades kinda thing happen which was dumb but cute, so basically I was all on board.
And then at the final moment, when they seem to be giving us a cliched-but-setting-appropriate love conquers all happy ending, we have the second male lead doing a heel turn and the whole thing becoming a gaping hole awaiting a second season (which has not materialised in the 3+ years since). Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.
If I knew this was coming, I might not have watched it, probably, but if I had and did anyway I wouldn't have felt so betrayed. Which is how I felt. Absolutely betrayed. It's a romance story, and at the end of the final episode they got our two love interests who had been at odds to the point of meeting again (not even a reunion hug or kiss) and immediately cut to another character plotting to break them up. That's *not* how a romance ends.
So, I've gotten this out of my system now. Triad Princess. It isn't terrible, but it also isn't finished. Be warned.
