C-dramas remain notoriously hit-or-miss for me, even with last year yielding a bumper crop of watchable ones like Nirvana in Fire, The Disguiser, and My Sunshine, among others. Overall it’s still mostly duds and the recently started The Imperial Doctress with Liu Shi Shi and Wallace Huo has me headdesking at the stupid and boring writing leading to a waste of everyone’s time. It was filmed two years ago and should have stayed in a vault permanently, but another drama filmed two years ago is about to be dusted off and aired later this week. It’s period C-drama Princess Jieyou with Yuan Hong and Zhang Xin Yi as the titular princess, and better known as the drama that got the two leads together in real life.

They are still dating happily so the promo circuit is certainly going to have tons to write about. The previews look promising to me, and even better is this drama having a wide expansive feel and isn’t stuck in palace settings or about succession intrigue. It’s set in the early Han dynasty as Emperor Wu of Han (Liu Che) sends his half-sister Princess Jieyou out to the hinterlands to marry one of the “barbarian” tribes, the Wusan. The drama postulates that she fell for a handsome brash Wusun general and their forbidden loves runs smack into patriotic duty. Bah, if the general is brooding Yuan Hong then I suggest the princess consider eloping. Continue reading →