Legend of Mi Yue《芈月传》

[doraemon]

Hey guys, I didn't seem to locate any threads discussing this fairly recent drama, which is quite a surprise given how viral it went in China towards the close of 2015. Being a major production that I enjoyed on the whole (costing a fortune to produce - 3 million RMB per episode from what I recall), I hope we can get a discussion thread rolling where we can comment on anything from the cast, plot and costume to the characters, anachronisms and your favourite scenes. 

 

Here are my two cents on how I personally found the drama:

 

- Legend of Mi Yue is another drama that typically combines palace and court intrigue in ancient China. To be honest, the former aspect could have been done a lot better. It seemed like an atrophied version of Legend of Zhen Huan《甄嬛传》where venomous schemes and manipulation among the harem no longer appeared fresh to a nationwide audience that already grew accustomed to high-calibre and innovative cat-fighting exhibited in Zhen Huan a few years back. The lacklustre and not-so-captivating palace intrigue component also meandered on for a marathon 60 episodes (out of an 81 episode drama), by which time most viewers had ditched the drama and ratings on douban plummeted consequently. This can be considered, in my humble opinion, as biggest failure of the drama which unsurprisingly drove away audiences.

 

- However, the final 21 episodes brought about a pleasant (and eventually climactic) metamorphosis in the drama's theme and storyline, where Mi Yue was no longer a hackneyed victim of palace subterfuge, but elevated to the status of a crucial political matriarch. Whether or not the engaging qualities of this final quarter could be ascribed to a juxtaposition to its previous tedium, I was gripped by pretty much every turn of events, with all of my favourite scenes appearing in these episodes. So for those friends who gave up on the drama halfway, I would highly recommend finishing it off from Episode 60 onwards. 

 

- Sun Li's acting was perhaps questionable throughout the first half of the drama, but needless to say, impeccable in the latter half. I kept mistaking her character Mi Yue for Zhen Huan when she was still Mi Bazi (a mid-tier rank in the Qin harem) owing to the similarities in identity (as the Emperor's concubine), mannerisms (from what I could tell anyway...) and intellect (lacking in shrewdness and sophistication - somewhat 傻白甜). Nonetheless, Sun Li's acting as the empress dowager (acting emperor) of the Qin Kingdom left me in awe. She really emanated the regality, political astuteness, diplomacy and matriarchal aura which so resemble who she is (as an actress in palace dramas). 3/5 of my favourite scenes all involved Mi Yue showing off her oratory prowess and political foresight: speech to the Qin army, talks with envoys from the other kingdoms (especially with Jin Shang from the Chu Kingdom), and her comical proclamation “朕有喜了”, all of which I have viewed over and over again!

 

- Liu Tao's role as Mi Shu (Mi Yue's half-sister and Empress of Qin) was passable in the early episodes where she tried to assume the naivety and cuteness of an innocent Chu princess, who mistakenly believed the Qin-Chu political matrimony to be true love (but age gap perhaps too big to bridge with acting and makeup?). Her acting in the middle stage as a jealousy-ridden Empress pretty much ticked all the boxes (calm and gracious on the outside; tempestuous and malicious on the inside)  - her mother-like aura perhaps did her some favours in playing 一国之母. After the death of Mi Shu's son Yingdang, it appears that Liu Tao exerted too much force in many of the scenes at first glance. On closer rumination, I came to realise that delusion, anger and frenzied madness should unmistakably characterise a woman, no matter how powerful or high in social standing, who had lost her husband and son, and whose grip over the kingdom is also in peril. The scene where Mi Shu was evicted from power really testified to her insanity, and although the acting seemed exaggerated, there was nothing that can stop me from enjoying the way Liu Tao represented the state of the character in those circumstances.

 

- One scene (and the only scene from any Chinese drama) that brought me to tears was the final scene with Mi Yue and Mi Shu when the former tried to bury the hatchet and rekindle their erstwhile sisterhood. Seeing Mi Yue, the most powerful figure in the Qin Kingdom, re-enacting their classic childhood encounter by bowing to Mi Shu, a fallen political villain, was undeniably moving and also mirrored the complex gamut of emotions (love, hate, nostalgia, regret, resignation etc) which the two characters were likely going through in those mere minutes. Rarely do you see a scene in Chinese television drama so pregnant with emotion. 

 

- Unlike a lot of viewers (predominantly of the opposite sex  ) who were mesmerised by Huang Xie's (played by Huang Xuan) steadfast infatuation with Mi Yue, I found him to be a somewhat redundant character who just kept reappearing as quite an obvious distraction. Needless to say, I was not impressed by his famous line “月儿好看”...(feel free to disagree with me  ). 

 

- There are too many characters to talk about, but I can say that two of my other favourites were Zhang Yi (the peripatetic and erudite court adviser with facetious antics) and Zheng Xiu (Empress of the Chu Kingdom - adorably seductive in my opinion) - in short, both have salient and likable qualities about them. 

 

- The main score and theme song (Huo Zun's 《伊人如梦》) were also the best I've come across in any drama, both being wistfully melancholy and emotionally resonant. 伊人如梦 brought me to tears once again.