Princess Jieyou (2016)

SPOILERS ALERT. Please do not continue reading if you don't want to know the story line.

Synopsis:

Jie You (Zhang Xin Yi) is a young, lively and enthusiastic girl who traveled with her group of friends and her teacher as a performance group. Jie You was an orphan and was picked up by her teacher. When she was picked up, she had a piece of jade around her neck. During their travels in the desert, she sets off on her own to look for water sources and meets Weng Gui (Yuan Hong) who was fighting with xiong nu soldiers.

The second time they meet was when she was performing a magic trick and Weng Gui was hiding from the xiong nu soldiers in her performance box. He had been badly injured and Jie You chose to let him stick with them. After she had treated him, Weng Gui lied that he was just a merchant from WuSun. After a series of events, they got closer and together they tried to help Jie You find out about her parents. Weng Gui however was actually on a mission to visit the Han Emperor to raise a marriage between the Han and WuSun for the sake of alliance. He left his dagger with Jie You and told her that no matter where she went, he would find her as long as she kept the dagger close to her. By then they had fallen deeply in love with one another.

However, Jie You discovers that she is actually related to the imperial family. In a twist of fate, she ends up being chosen as the he qin gong zhu of Han and will thus marry the king of Wu Sun, who also happens to be Weng Gui's brother. Throughout the show, many times Jie You has to choose between being the princess of Han to doing what is right for the citizens of WuSun, against her will to be with the love of her life, Weng Gui. Because Jie You helps Kun Mi (King of WuSun) share the burden of managing the country, Kun Mi gradually falls for Jie You.

During her stay in WuSun, Jie You faces many obstacles put infront of her by the princess of Xiong Nu, Hu Gu, out of jealousy for Kun Mi's liking. Jie You sacrifices being with the person she loves for the people of Han and WuSun while Weng Gui sacrifices everything for her, always coming to her rescue when she is in trouble.The plot develops along the lines of 2 people deeply in love who are so close yet so far, and the sacrifices they make for each other.

Acting:

The casts are extremely good as the chemistry between Zhang Xin Yi and Yuan Hong is out of this world! And yes they are dating in real life after acting together in this drama. In this show Yuan Hong is able to pull of the character as one who is a child at heart but becomes a mature man when it comes to the woman he loves. Zhang Xin Yi also portrays the character of Jie You extremely well, being able to show that Jie You is weak at times but able to put up a strong front when it is needed of her. The scenes in which she struggles to make decisions are always well put up, reflecting her psychological torment.

Music:

I love the opening theme song and can't stop listening to it.

Overall:

I would totally watch this drama again. I somehow feel that the romance scenes had a lot of potential to be improved because of the story line. A lot of romance scenes which I saw in the trailers of this show did not seem to have made it to the actual 45 episodes of the show. I hope that there is actually a 46 episode version that includes those scenes. Strongly recommend this drama as I think it is underrated.

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