CULTURE | TV | SERIES
New C-Drama: A Tale of Love and Loyalty
Emotional rollercoasters and good music guaranteed
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I’m one of those people who are on the lookout for new Asian content. Surprisingly, I haven’t watched the famous Marry My Husband K-drama yet. I read the manga and was sure it would be great, so wanted to stack up those episodes!.. In the meantime, I sniffed around.. and stumbled upon this Chinese mini-series!
It’s a quick watch — 20 episodes, more or less 15–20 minutes each. It’s said to be low budget, but I assure you: it didn’t feel like it. There weren’t many filming sets, but the costumes are gorgeous, the music is brilliant and the main lead will blow your mind.
The cast
A Tale of Love and Loyalty introduced some new to me actors. Richard Li and Ming Jia Ji started to be featured several years ago, but it’s my first drama with them. I believe both leads had good chemistry, but I found them awkward with some supporting characters.
Funny fact, maybe it’s just me, but I felt that the crew tried to play with the viewers. There were some moments where I thought of the main characters as Tantai Jin and Li Susu from Till The End Of the Moon. I can tell you that Richard Li definitely reminds me of Luo Yun Xi.
The plot
At the centre of our story is love. Su Yan — second daughter, a princes born from a concubine, is betrothed to marry the second prince of Nanchuan. She doesn’t agree with this decision and runs away from home. As luck would have it, she encounters robbers on the way and gets saved by none other but the prince. But of course, she doesn’t know that as Yu Wen Yuan hides his identity.
The plot offers an abundance of palace intrigues — the young Empreror is of weak health, but so is his young wife. Early on the audience spots his unhealthy interest in the sister-in-law — Su Yan, the second princess, betrothed to his own brother. Things twist and turn, characters turn out to be rotten and not as good as they pretend to be.
The Empress kills herself and sends a letter to her sister — she is to marry her husband, becoming the mother of her newborn nephew. Her role is to support the weak Emperor and leverage her connection with the prince of Nanchuan in case of a rebellion. At this point in time, we are well aware of Yu Wen Yuan’s reputation as the God of War.
Heartbreak and problematics
Of course, the God of War gets enraged — his brother will marry the woman he loves?! Yu Wen Yuan barges into the palace and swears to Su Yan that she will eventually come back to him. He knows how unstable is the Emperor — a rebellion will surely come.
Five years on, Su Yan is forced to plead for help — she sends a desperate letter to Yu Wen Yuan, begging to save the Emperor and stop the uprising. It doesn’t take long for the God of War to enter the palace.
The story is heartbreaking — characters are difficult, many layers unfold throughout each episode. I took Su Yan as a weak female lead, but she showed some serious character later in the drama. Our male lead comes off as strong-headed, even cruel (yandere vibes, anyone?..), but we learn about his soft and caring nature as the story progresses.
The story asks, what’s more important: duty to the country and duty to our family, or personal happiness and love?
Spoiler alert: this is not a fluffy and happy drama, so if you’re afraid of some serious heartbreak, I would recommend you skip this.
The soundtrack is fabulous, but it can shatter your soul too:
You’re warned. Proceed with caution.
Overall ranking
I haven’t seen any reviews of this C-drama yet. My take? It was good. Keep in mind, it’s a low budget drama. Costumes were fabulous, music was great, they made the most out of the few filming sets they had. Acting was good. Not perfect, but good. Overall, I was satisfied.
The story? Painful. I wasn’t pleased with how it ended (maybe the creators intended to annoy their fans?..). I suppose I’m used to watching multilayered C-dramas extending to several reams and touching upon different timelines and…well, lives. Maybe they wanted to be different and chose to shatter this standard. Or perhaps it was one of the budget limitations.
I binge watched this series in two days, it’s incredibly short, the story will hook you up and since it’s only 20 episodes and they’re more or less 15min, you will not see the end coming!
I enjoyed series like Back from the Brink and Till the End of the Moon. I think A Tale of Love and Loyalty is not far off.
If you also watched it, let me know what you think!
