Princesa Wei Young (2016)

Everyone Frames WeiYoung + Beautiful Shades of Blue

8/22/2021

I really want to like this drama more and I am rounding this up to 8.5 (I debated to keep it at an 8). However, the repeated framing and dragging of the show prevented me from doing so. If this drama is about 40-45 episodes long instead of 54, the pacing would be a lot better. It has all the right ingredients: good general plot, great acting and characters (love strong, smart leads), beautiful costumes, decent background music and songs.

Negatives:

1 . Repeated Framing - The show is basically someone framed WeiYoung and tried to kill her, then she got out of the crisis due to her own wit or saving from others, then repeat again and again. I was bored from Ep 20-30 and lost my attention. It's so predictable that it's not fun anymore. It's unfortunate because I really like the general plot of the drama, but the pacing was off. This is my biggest critique of the show and why I did not rate it an 8.5, since I am judging it against other big historical drama.

2. Plot Holes/Plot - The writing is not very tight. There are also lots of convenient eaves dropping throughout the show by the villains. There are also some illogical/impractical plot holes and I noted down two incidents but there are more: 1) ChangLe tried to burn down the lantern shop but how could she walk in without anyone noticing? Where's the shop owner? Was TuoBaJun (ML) really so far away that he didn't notice anything until the store was half-way burnt down? 2) When WeiYoung (FL) and TaoBaoYu (2ML) were stuck in the secret room, why didn't FL shout out the location of the secret ring to open the door to ML? They apparently could listen through the wall/door with no problem. 3) How come all the doors of the rooms in the Li family are see through? Everyone can hear your secrets!! There's no privacy!!!

Positives:

1. Acting - I enjoy the acting by all cast members. Our main leads and secondary leads are great. You can feel their love and obsession, their pain and evilness. This drama has a large supporting cast and no matter they are veterans or the younger actors, they are did a pretty good job.

2. Romance - One minor criticism I have is that I want to see more scenes and romantic development between ML and FL before they officially fall in love. Their love story is so strong, romantic and heartbreaking that I wanted a stronger foundation or evidence. Having said that, I love their relationship - their undying love and trust. I love seeing their banter and their open communication. I was pleasantly surprised that ML is quite funny and outgoing, and not the cold-on-the-outside-but-warm-on-the-inside type. You can feel the chemistry between the two leads and believe in their romance. The other romance/obsession storylines are pretty well-developed (though a little draggy). It's so sad that in a way, none of the significant relationships ended well. I am not as interested in the romance between the Little Princess+Prince and the two bodyguards.

3. Costumes - Blue is one of my favorite colors and I LOVE the different shades of blue in the costumes. You see light blue, royal blue, navy blue, indigo, dark blue, etc. Most of the time, Chinese dramas are dominated in gold/red/white in the palace, and blue/yellow/pink for the ladies. I am so happy to see that it's different here. Aside from that, their costumes, jewelry and head pieces are elaborate. Not only does the royal family have elaborate head pieces, but the ladies have beautiful hairpins and flower arrangements that match each of their outfits. I love seeing the different designs and patterns on the male characters outfits. The ladies dresses are all beautiful and multi-layered. Aside from the color palette that I enjoy in "Legend of FuYao", this is the only drama that I am so obsessed with the costumes and really pay special attention to each outfit.

4. Music - I would like to praise the use of background music in this drama that did not overpower the drama itself. I've seen too many C-dramas where the music is so loud that I couldn't hear the dialogue, or the songs are played over and over again when a romantic scene occurs. The music in this drama complements the scenes and let the acting speaks for itself without the use of music to manipulate viewers' emotions.

Overall, I like this drama. I wish it had a happier ending after what the leads have gone through, but I am satisfied with it. If I watched this drama before the many historical dramas I've watched, I might have given it a solid 8.5 or higher and be less critical.

Leia Mais

Watching Princess Wei Young is like a rollercoaster ride of emotions. You can feel happy seeing cute romantic scenes between WeiYoung and Tuoba Jun but a few minutes later you feel so angry at the villains (oh there are so many villains in this drama) that you want to smash your TV screen (but I don't LoL), to feeling frustrated at WeiYoung for being so gullible at times. However, I think this rollercoaster of emotion is what glues me to this show and actually making it enjoyable.

Story and Acting:
The premise of the story is nothing new. It's a story of betrayal, revenge, power struggle and rise to power. It's a bit melodramatic, that you need to prepare a few tissues. I think this is the first of Tiffany Tang's drama that I really enjoyed. I have watched a couple more of her dramas but she doesn't portray a strong female character, which annoys me. However, I really like her as WeiYoung, and her chemistry with Luo Jin's character. The cast that plays the villains did a good job too, at least in making me really really hate them and happy when bad things happen to them in the end. The costumes and color combinations are superb and really a feast for the eye. I thought they did excellent in that. The ending, although sad, is beautifully done. I cried my heart out watching the last episode during Tuoba Jun's last moments with WeiYoung.

Music:
I love love love the OST, especially the ending theme. I have put some of the OST on my Apple Music Playlist and have been on heavy rotation.

Rewatch value:
Definitely will re-watch this in the future, although i might skip and fast forward scenes (especially those containing Li Chang Ru and Li Chang Le; They are despicable!)

Overall:
Although there are parts in this drama that feels draggy, I really enjoyed watching this drama. Story, acting, costumes and setting combined make it worthwhile. I also like that there is some fighting scenes too.

Leia Mais

Revenge & Romance

THE PRINCESS WEIYOUNG (Jinxiu Weiyang) was a very entertaining C-drama, with more soap (soap opera vibes) than I usually care for in my dramas, but still very beautiful to look at it and highly enjoyable with a very lovely cast. The story is interesting because it begins as a revenge drama and morphs into a romance drama with many twists and turns along the way.

While it took me a while to connect to the main heroine Princess Weiyoung also known as Li Wei Yang / Feng Xin'er (Tiffany Tang) she was a strong likable lead and when paired with Tuoba Jun, Prince Gaoyang, (Luo Jin) there was real chemistry. They evolved into a real power couple, even with many obstacles in their way.

I LOVED many of the side cast as well such as the cunning and calculating Tuoba Yu, Prince Nanan (Vanness Wu), the adorable and deadly Li Changru (Mao Xiaotong), the loyal and devoted Li Minde (Liang Zhenlun), the quirky and daring Tuoba Di, Ninth Princess (Chen Yuqi), the adorable and loyal Bai Zhi (Mu Le'en), the loyal bodyguard Jun Tao (Wang Yanzhi) and so many others. There were so many great characters in this show.

Overall, Princess Weiyoung was a very enjoyable ride, even with the intense melodrama and outrageous plot twists. Very memorable.

Leia Mais

I would really like to recommend it to everyone... This drama made me feel all kind of emotions: love, hate, anger, sad etc.
At first i am at doubt to let myself dive in to some historical Chinese drama with loooong episodes... sad ending.......
But this drama made me realize to give chinese historical drama a chance.. I am not disappointed that i watch it.
Here are the reasons.

1. The story is superb.. Although at some point i curse the script writer for always making the female lead suffer but later on i'm loving it because it makes her more stronger and more smarter. I like how she solve it all and make those people who try to frame her suffer the backlash.

2. The cast is amazing. They portray there own characters well, from the main lead to the supporting characters, even those bitches and antagonist. I love the romantic moments of the side characters making me root for them.

3. The Ending.. I will not spoil anything but i will tell you that it is a bitter sweet ending. I am both satisfied and unsatisfied with the ending.
* Reasons to be satisfied:
-all the antagonist die
-main leads ending up together with a child (extra points for me)
-There is peace throughout the land
* Reasons that i'm not satisfied:
- antagonist die a sudden death, i want them to suffer more that to die easily for everything they have done to those innocent people.
- what happened to supporting couple in the story? Did they get married? I'm confused
- I want it to have a second season. There is so many questions that i haven't get any answer.

Leia Mais

This drama totally broke me in many ways, and, for something that was barely romance focused at all, it was surprisingly interesting. The scheming and the angst got a TAD repetitive at the end and did very much cause me a lot of emotional distress (I will be watching rom coms for the next couple months lol) but the drama was surprisingly good. The characters were great and I actually had some SLS with Li Minde for the first time ever! Wow, I've always wanted to experience SLS! Overall this drama was pretty solid albeit very hard to rewatch (so I will probably never watch it again).

Ok but how cool is it that the main leads are married IRL!?

Leia Mais

I enjoyed the overall story for this drama, but some of the small palace intrigues got repetitive towards the back half of the series so this would have been stronger if it were maybe 40 episodes instead of 54.

Good stuff: Great chemistry between the leads. Interesting and fun secondary characters. Some good twists on those characters. Lovely cinematography and good OST.

Some stuff that wasn’t quite as strong:

The male lead character is a little too idealized — he’s super noble and naive and somehow that doesn’t hinder him at court. It’s a little odd and sometimes I had to roll my eyes.

Weiyoung is the subject of so many plot conspiracies, she has to free herself by playing detective. That’s fine the first couple of times (despite some laughable solutions), but it gets old by the last third of the series.

Despite those flaws, I was emotionally involved with their story so this series definitely does a lot of things right, but the large number of episodes always magnifies anything that’s not working.

Leia Mais

Happy to learn that Tang Tiffany and Luo Jin is a couple in real life. They are so cute together. Tiffany is absolutely gorgeous, and Luo Jin has mysterious vulnerability that draws me. Their roles in PRINCESS WEIYOUNG was marvelous, chemistry perfect.

Never read the novel, so nothing to compare to. It was nice to see a clever heroine, and Weiyoung's wit & intelligence was admirable, but frustrating to see writers trying to maintain her heroic aspect through being a pushover. For someone of her background and tragic past, she was too passive and too reactive to her enemies. Except for the heroine, all female characters were scheming, jealous, basket-case suffering from inferiority complex. The whole world was against Weiyoung for some unknown reason, where everyone's sad outcome, their flaws, tragedy was solely due to Weiyoung's existence. Most virtuous and loyal characters were servants to their masters. Repetitive and uninteresting battles between good and bad was tedious for long 54 episodes, but main couple's charming relationship made up for some of the annoyance.

Leia Mais

Stunning headdresses, beautiful wardrobe and sets. Power and love games where the women vie for love and power with plenty of intrigue and dastardly doings. Can get quite nasty not to mention downright fatal.
The first few episodes are a bit boring, going around and around, but the story and the acting pick up at the royal hunt.
Throughout, there's a collective obsession with this one woman, the surviving princess of a wronged kingdom who by accident or chance becomes a member of the enemy kingdom.
She seems to be another version of the unsinkable Molly Brown and a combination of Sherlock Holmes, Joan of Arc and Mother Theresa who attracts both loathing and affection especially the love of the two handsome main players - Prince Tuaba Jon, caring and honest, and Prince Tuaba Yu, devious and capable - two very different characters. Take your pick.
In the end even nasty characters are capable of sacrifice.

Leia Mais

Frustrating...but weirdly addictive?

OVERALL
This drama has action in excess, enough to make you (and the FL) gasp for air. Watch it if 1) you like fast-paced plots where the villains make the protagonists sweat buckets, 2) you like strong, mature female leads. Maybe reconsider if 1) you have no patience for clichés, repetitive plot devices and 2D characters, 2) you like dramas where the romance is central to the plot, 3) you prefer happy endings.

THE STORY
I've heard good things about this series, and since I was looking for a new historical drama with a super intelligent FL, like Yanxi Palace or Long Ballad, I decided to give it a try. Unfortunately, Princess Weiyoung doesn't come close to these two dramas (in my opinion). On the positive side, it is definitely watchable until the end. I easily drop dramas when I feel they're not worth it and it wasn't the case. The fact that there's always a new round of problems for the FL to overcome keeps you on the edge of your seat most of the time. Weiyoung is also a likeable character. She's mature and strong (unlike the childish FLs so common in C-dramas), and you definitely want to root for her. The main romance is nothing stellar but it's believeable and a little cute...at least in its beginning stages. But that's it.

The biggest issue with Princess Weiyoung is that it fails to deliver what it's promising. The drama is supposed to be about the quest for revenge of Weiyoung. She's hyped up as this extremely smart girl who can find her way out of any situation and can succeed in anything she wants to. However, Weiyoung doesn't accomplish much herself. Circumstances (or other people) take the lives of those she wants to punish, and whenever she's in trouble, 7/10 times she is saved by someone else. Then there's the plot. FL gets framed AGAIN and AGAIN, as if there's nothing else that can happen to her but getting framed. And not only does she never learn from her previous experience and manage to predict future attempts or protect herself, other characters also fail to learn from previous attempts to frame her and constantly fall into traps (including ML at some point!!!!). Another major issue with the drama is the overuse of the SAME clichés, not once but several times. Couple trouble caused by misunderstanding? Check. Disguise to frame FL? Check. Trying to kill FL by fire? Check. Overall, it just looks like the drama was written carelessly; like people combined common tropes and underdeveloped characters in one day to come up with the series. If all you need is lots of action in full speed though, you might not notice!

THE ACTING
It was fine, especially from the main leads. There isn't much chemistry between them, but it's more due to the plot than to the actors. I must say I'm growing a bit tired of the female villains in historical C-dramas though. I wasn't sure at first, but I'm starting to suspect that there is a kind of acting "cliché" for these characters that is very extra and cartoon-like. Villains don't have to be surreal, they can act like normal people. I hope I can see less obvious villains, with reasonable backstories and some depth, in future shows.

THE MUSIC
It was okay, though not memorable. I have a pet peeve with dramas that put instrumental/songs over characters who are supposed to be playing an instrument but are obviously not playing whatever music we hear. It just breaks your immersion in the show - reminds you that it's all fake.

REWATCH VALUE
Not high. It's not a bad drama, but I honestly don't think I would ever feel like watching it again. There're tons of better dramas to rewatch when I need to.

Leia Mais