And now for a seductive Chinese distraction

Because jeezus I need one.

I don’t know how it happened but the YouTube channel Drama Forever slipped into my recommended videos so I clicked on it out of curiosity and got completely sucked in to The Story of Yangxi Palace.

The story follows our Cinderella,Wei Yingluo, as she goes to the Forbidden City to find out who among the courtiers raped and killed her sister.

The time frame is the Qing dynasty at about 1740ish(?) Some of these people actually existed though I think there has been a lot of poetic license taken. The language is Mandarin with interesting English subtitles.

A warning for the politically sensitive out there: there’s a lot of class warfare, misogyny and harsh correction provided by the Office of Careful Punishment. Our plucky heroine is probably smarter than anyone in the emperor’s employ and she plays a very long game.

The costumes are gorgeous and the actors are so beautiful it hurts. The guy who plays the knight Fuca Fuheng will take your breath away. Wei is a Chinese Audrey Hepburn with her gamine appearance and her wide doe eyed look. And even though I was plopped in the middle of the story and have had to piece together a lot of the plot, I can’t stop watching.

It’s got plenty of pathos and melodrama but I have to say I’m impressed by the range of these performers. At times, I’ve wanted to sob and rage right along with them.

The setting of the Forbidden city leaves me a bit cold. I’m not sure where this was filmed. The buildings look authentic enough but the city itself seems like a bare desert with only Wei Yingluo’s clever shade screen made from old rattan screens providing shelter and coolness to the eunuchs and maids that scurry along its dusty streets.

So here’s a clip to whet your fancy where Wei Yingluo, now a maid for the empress, runs into her secret crush, the handsome, earnest and filial Fuca Fuheng.

Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/XVRjGabfnrk