I just completed the Princess Silver series and it left me with very mixed emotions. I've never written any review before but the extremely heavy after thoughts compelled me to write this post. This is not so much a review, but I want to share my thoughts and feelings about the drama. In my opinion, Princess Silver is one the best Chinese Drama produced in recent years. I have not read the novel, so I do not know how close the drama to the original source is. Nevertheless, the story is a beautiful and very heavy heart tragic story that takes a lot of emotions out of the viewers. Complex relationships, plots, and key secrets are beautifully written and planned by scriptwriters. For the most part, the drama flows well through the many episode but becomes a bit draggy on the last six. Perhaps, it could have been done with 60 episodes and I will share my thoughts on that.

Let us begin, the soul of the drama definitely comes from the superb young casts, especially Sophie Zhang. She is the center and the life of the drama in every single episode. All others are good, but Sophie's performance is many levels above all others. I have seen her once few years back in ROCH as Guo Xiang. Her acting has matured significantly over the years. Unlike Guo Xiang simple happy loving teen character, Rong Le character consists of complex dispositions, and most involve extreme level of emotions: happiness, betrayal, despair, hatred, strong will, wisdom, hope. Yet, Sophie has demonstrated the ability to connect all those with me as a viewer. The two vivid scenes, when she gets rolled out on a bed to force surrender from Wu You and when she finds out the cure for her illness, to me, are no doubt of her best performance. You can really connect and feel the pain and torment through her face and twisted body. Her performance would be the only reason if I to re-watch the series (very unlikely). She has done an extraordinary job in Rong Le.

As for the male roles, it is worth to mention of good performance from both Aarif Rahman and Jing Chao. Zongzheng Wu You played by Aarif is a protagonist that anyone can long for: intelligence, arrogant, powerful, brave, fidelity. I do find a bit stiff in Aarif acting. He does well in arrogant and battle scenes, but I don't connect with him on the painful and happiness scenes. Perhaps, that is the intention of the scripts not to show weakness in Wu You character. I think Wu You is not a difficult character to play and Aarif performance does progressively gets better through the series and keeps hold of the viewers. The chemistry between Aarif/Sophie - Wu You/Rong Le is phenomenon. Together they really bring out an intense love that would rival any relationship in all period drama. The sacrifice, loyalty, and fidelity outshine all the evilness in the story which is extremely critical factor for good period drama. You want them to be together, but you cannot wait for them to be separated as well, and long for them to be back again. It is a heartwarming circle that keeps the wheel of drama rolling.

With Fu Chou character played by Jing Chao, I would say, second to Rong Le, this is also a complex role to play. Seasoned actor Jing Chao fits and plays the role well. This character has no external emotion expression, but I do connect with Fu Chou from begin to end, from dislike to acceptance, from suspicious to truth, and from despite to sympathy. Through mostly short sentences, burst of emotions, facial and body expression, Jing Chao has really carried out the depth and complexity of the character. Because of his acting, I do circle back to Fu Chou and accept his role in the story.

To my least favorite character of the series, it is Rong Qi played by Luo Yunxi. From both character and performance standpoint, I find it exceedingly difficult to accept and tolerate this combination. Luo Yunxi acting seems very dry to me. Understanding that Rong Qi is a sickness and painful role, I never see that but do see an internal evilness in him until the very last episode. I am not sure whether I misunderstand the role, or it is supposed exactly like that. This is where I like to know what is really the Rong Qi actual character in the novel. As for the story, I see the last 6 episodes is written as a redemption for Rong Qi and to fill in all the missing pieces. I find myself forwarding most of it because, by episode 60, my mind is already made up for Rong Qi as an antagonist, and there is no return from there regardless of how many more beautiful details of Rong Qi and Rong Le relationship added. I understand the need for a series of events to bring back all memory for Rong Le and to cure her illness, however, the dragging of the last few episodes on the relationship of Rong Qi and Rong Le during her pregnancy are very repugnant in my view. At that point, most of the secret plots have been exposed, and therefore, I feel that the series could have been concluded with 60 episodes by keeping the details on their relationship minimal. It is very unlikely that I would rewatch the drama because of these very distasteful episodes.

Lastly with some random thoughts, although I have enjoyed Princess Silver, the tragic story in the drama is too heavy heart for me to rewatch a second time. I find it draws a lot of emotion out of me which a good drama should do. I am also overly impressed with the overall casts and their performance. I hope and look forward to seeing their other works soon. Regarding costumes, I have mixed feeling on some costumes used in the drama, especially the design and accessories of the royal outfits, seemed to be over killed. For those who enjoy serious, highly emotional, intense love, and complex storytelling, I highly recommend this series. If you are looking for fun, light heart, beautiful love story, my current favorites are Joy of Life and Under the Power, both are excellent dramas that will leave you a big note of happiness and satisfaction.

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I started the series with much excitements after seeing Arthur Chen's great performance in Ever Night. Yet, I ended up with complete disappointment and found myself dragging to complete the last 8 episodes. The story itself is fairly good but is somewhat predictable. Unfortunately, the series are full of gaps and deviations from the main story due to bad writing. Further, the acting of Arthur and the young crews are at best mediocre. Many complex scenes come across very dry and lack of emotion. To be fair, the first 20 episodes are decent to watch and do enticing us to keep going. The story then starts deviating to the many side stories that put the main characters all the way to the back. The series then becomes unclear who is really the main characters and story line. The series do come around in the last 2 episodes to have decent ending. Unless you are a big fan of Arthur Chen, I would not recommend investing the time in this series.

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