The Princess Wei Young (2016)

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.

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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.

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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.

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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!?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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It's all downhill

So I understand why people call it repetitive but honestly I don't mind that, it's like a game of chess. I like watching some navigate others dislike of them in an over the top way that only people with money and privilege can afford. It's a palace drama you get palace drama troupe, of one being evil and power hungry, someone obsessed to the point of wanting to ruin what they love, dealing with a epidemic, a school segment, someone be a hidden villain, yada yada.

Honestly everything was perfect the writing was good the characters were amazing until they made Cousin Meek and Mild a hidden villain like what was her plan "drive the person you loves into another woman arms while trying to kill her" 🤔 like that's how you know it was wrong. It was unnecessary when they could have had Prince braids work with Sister Chihuahua.

Don't get me started with the emperor being a fish on how much his character flip flops, like how is he able to rule a country when he picks people to be a scapegoat instead of you know investing, also the time frame is absolutely impossible, 10 days, 3 days, like are they allowed to eat or sleep or wait the person out. Like seriously ain't no way..

Don't mention the. Cement that help them solve the case you know instead of the jewelry, or the fact that they have a skin walker as a maid. Like are you serious going to tell me that isn't a national security risk to have someone who can wear another person face.

Honestly the mother 8s goat. She was amazing so was cousin handsome I'm just glad he didn't die during all this. Actually I'm proud the show didn't kill off people who failed again weiyoung.

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