Pursuit of Jade

[asakiyume]

We finished watching this. So sad it's over! I loved it so much in every way. It was like it was made for me.

Chang Yu, the orphaned daughter of a butcher, is gifted with incredible strength ... and also has received some pretty impressive martial training from her dad. Was he maybe not the humble man he claimed to be? Perhaps?

She rescues a man left for dead in the snow, a caravan guard attacked by bandits, she assumes, and he doesn't contradict her, though he does know an awful lot about all sorts of things and has fabulous calligraphy. Is he maybe of higher status than he lets on? Just maybe?

I loved the sweet interactions between these two; I loved how righteous and strong Chang Yu is; I loved the strong female friendships in the story (no romantic rivalries whatsoever, THANK GOD); loved the complicated court machinations, the secondary characters and their side stories, the gang Chang Yu collects, and the conclusion.

Then at the very very end, there's an alternate-timeline what-if story of how everyone's lives could have been if things had gone differently. So interesting! My question for those of you who watch C-dramas regularly is, is that sort of thing common? I thought it was a cool twist.

Trailer (this is all in Chinese, but Netflix has subtitles, and you can probably get it on YouTube with subtitles as well).

Now I've persuaded Wakanomori to watch Legend of the Magnate with me (many thanks to skygiants for posting about this! I'm loving it too!) I'm a quarter of the way through but happy to go back and start over so Wakanomori can enjoy it too.

(No C-drama icon, so it's the Red Detachment of Women up there instead.)

Comments

[sartorias]

It's not usual, but not unheard of. I enjoyed that one, though had some issues with the end. (Though almost worth it, almost, for that breathtakingly poignant ride back into the village)...

[asakiyume]

I thought the end had a problem with exculpating the people who had been the ostensible evil doers all along, but was able to accept it. Was that what you had problems with, or something else?

[sartorias]

That in part that, yes, but that is an aspect of the sudden shift to court politics and heavy duty war, which seemed to come out of the sky like an anvil, but I suspect the then-necessity of stuffing fifty eps worth of plot into 40 was at blame, as for so many other stories whose novels are apparently more balanced.

[asakiyume]

*nodding*

So you reckon if it had had another 10 or so episodes, it could have unfolded things with more ease?

I wanted to know more about the backstory of ... I don't know anyone's names: the restaurant-running woman who was really the wife of the silver-haired actually-an-imperial-prince. She says at the end to him that she's from far, far away, so my head cannon is that she was a barbarian princess.

[sartorias]

Heh, why not! I think it's fun to mentally fill in the cracks and holes. (Though too many of these and I get tossed out.)

[asakiyume]

You've watched so many more of these than me! When we got to Ambitious Uncle imprisoned in the Cold Palace, I turned to Wakanomori and said, "Hey, that's in Sherwood's novels, too! It must be a Real Thing!"

[sartorias]

Heh!

[sovay]

the restaurant-running woman who was really the wife of the silver-haired actually-an-imperial-prince.

These characters sound great.

[asakiyume]

They are so, so great. It's so much fun.

[athenais]

Regarding Yu Qianqian, I personally think she’s an involuntary time traveler, specifically a transmigrator. This is where she’s taken from modern times and inserted into a book or a Web comic that she was reading. It’s ambiguous in the drama. Transmigration is a very popular trope in several shows I’ve watched in the last couple years. But no matter how she ended up in the Pursuit of Jade world it is heartbreaking that she knows she can’t go back to where she’s from.

[asakiyume]

OMG does Yu Qianqian (thank you for the name!) show up in other stories?? Has the author written her in a modern context?

She's such a cool, good character. I loved her a lot. Sometimes we do end up far, far away from everything. (Oh no. Now I'm tearing up!)

[athenais]

I don’t think she is, but I don’t read the print or web material so many dramas are based on. She is a fabulous character, one of my favorites Snow Kong has played. And as you know I love this drama a lot! So happy you like it, too.

[asakiyume]

Definitely definitely!

[sovay]

I loved the sweet interactions between these two; I loved how righteous and strong Chang Yu is; I loved the strong female friendships in the story (no romantic rivalries whatsoever, THANK GOD); loved the complicated court machinations, the secondary characters and their side stories, the gang Chang Yu collects, and the conclusion.

Avoidance of romantic rivalries sounds particularly nice!

[asakiyume]

I know some people come to long dramas specifically for that kind of roiling emotional entanglement, but I HATE it and was very glad to have none.

[adore]

I loved the strong female friendships in the story (no romantic rivalries whatsoever, THANK GOD)

Oh! Okay! I'm sold!

[genarti]

I've been wanting to watch Pursuit of Jade, so this is one more mark in the recs column! I hadn't heard much detail about it, though, just that it had a lot of fun female characters, which is always a pro in my book.

I haven't run into the alternate-timeline what-if epilogue tactic before, though. That's fascinating!

(Isn't Legend of the Magnate fun? Delighted you're enjoying it!)

[asakiyume]

It's a very emotionally simple story, and for me, that's very relaxing. There are complications about everything else (no principle character is who they seem to be at first meeting), but not about people's feelings. (And yet, for me, that doesn't make it dull!) Also--and this is in contradistinction to too many of the telenovelas we attempt--deliberate, sustained, malicious lying doesn't play a main role. People are duplicitous, but they're not in there poisoning other people's hearts. Problems and dangerous situations unfold, and the characters deal with them. Nice! I like it.

[skygiants]

+1 to everything Beth said!