Shang Guo Fu Zhi Qian Dui Xue (2023)

Dessert candy costume short drama

As of May 26, this drama was fully subbed until Ep 15 on WeTV, but I watched the rest in original on another platform instead of waiting since it trickled out at the snail pace of 10 mins daily, so I got impatient. It is also being released without subtitles at the moment on YouTube.
The story seemed to promise events and there were lots of turnabout moments, some demoniac magic, some treason, a heartless and treacherous crown prince, an illegitimate other prince, some foreign princely "Kun" state that has perhaps an axe to grind with the rigid "Wei" king, some undead people... and a pretty girl who does not know who to trust and who to love.
It translates into live action a popular manhua, "Shang Guo Fu Zhi Qian Dui Xue" (上国赋之千堆雪) by Ga Cha Shang Hua (呷茶赏花), with a cast of pleasant-looking actors in costumes, and colorful and clean decors, just like in the very pretty posters.
ML Chen Tongxue is maybe not the most handsome of the princes (at first, he is not even a prince, but being the illegitimate son of the Wei king , he has been accepted to join the palace, despite the covert enmity from the legitimate Crown prince). He is not bad looking either. Chen Tongxuan is played by Hu Wenxuan (胡文煊 ) who was a K pop idol and a dancer, signed under Yuehua (the Beijing based music company where Cheng Xiao and her sister also are signed) together with four others who formed the group D5 in 2019. He notably appeared as Fu Yi Zhuo, the latin dancer friend of Li Xun in the drama "Lighter and Princess" (2022) and in a support role in "Wenderella's Diary" (2023).
Antagonist Crown Prince is played by Zhou Chuan Jun (周川珺), who already appeared in a handful of other dramas, mostly fluff youth ones, since 2019. He is quite good looking, but obvious as a scheming, treacherous, evil minded prince. His good looks would have made the Maid choose him if she had a choice, not seeing through his "benign" appearance, for a good part of the drama.
FL, Xuan Qiancao is from a fallen military family and reduced to become the maid of a prince, if he so chooses her. She has a magic mark on her nape that could give power to her lover, so Chen Tongxue sought to secure her as his maid from the start. Qiancao is played by more experienced actress Han Le Yao (韩乐瑶). I remembered her from a small support role as the cousin of the protagonist in "Arsenal Military Academy," and more recently as Secretary Bai lead in last year's funny time loop short episodes drama "I want to resign every single day".
There's also Yue Shuye Second prince of Kun State, a foreign country that has an exchange of gifts with Wei kingdom. He is played by Guo Xiao ( (郭祥) (no further info about this actor, at the moment) and sports a very shiny outfit with braided hair, and despite a straight forward way of looking directly at people, he is just as inscrutable as the Crown prince.
The Kun state seems to be a sort of Khanate, where coral and lapîs lazuli beads are used in hair decoration. It once won a battle against Wei state, so they are equally matched in the drama, and the Second prince is a sort of ambassador.
There are also other secondary characters which don't stand out as much:
Lu Qinghui, a faithful aide to Chen Tongxue (played by Li Jia Yang (李嘉祥), a Chinese singer and actor),
Lin Yi, another trusted aide in charge of relief planning (played by Tao Hao Nan (谭浩楠) )
Lan Yao, Qiancao's friend at the Academy who becomes the Maid and spy of the Crown Prince, and seems to become possessed with evil magic at his contact. She is played by Gao Tao Tai (高乙冉)
The king of Wei, the mother of Qiancao, and the mother of the Crown Prince, the Crown Prince's reluctant fiancée He Lingying (who has set her sights on Chen Tongxue and also seems to wear a magic mark, but does not use it herself; she is played by Li Yang (李阳) ), make up the rest of the cast, apart from the palace staff and soldiers.
The drama is not boring. It's a romance, so there's the usual tropes and kisses. Some parts are puzzling, there are mysteries and a "grand design" linked to the magic mark.
The episodes are short (10 mins x 24), so it is binge-watchable as "dessert candy".
The music is pleasing, with a nice song at the end of episodes. The theme song is called 《故人山河》Old Friends Mountains and Rivers, sung by 二两车厘子. Another song is 《恩宠》 "Grace" sung by Hu Wenxuan 胡文煊 (who acts in the drama).
Presumably, The Maid Ballad will be released as a "movie-edition", sometime after finale of today, or after the translations are completed in about a week's time.

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