The romance of tiger and rose/传闻中的陈芊芊 Review

Summary
The story is about an orange scriptwriter who got stuck in her own story after a dream. The orange became the third princess Chen Qian Qian of Huaheng Town. The story is set in Huaheng Town a town ruled by women where man are seen as lowlifes. On the contrast, Xuanhu Town is ruled by men and women are a second class citizen there. Due to the defeat of Xuanhu, they sent their heir Han Shuo over to form a marriage alliance and marry into Huaheng Town. His real motive was to marry second lady Chen Chu Chu, the one who has the most chance of becoming the next ruler of the town and get the Dragon Bone. The Dragon Bone is supposed to be able to cure all diseases. Han Shuo suffers from a heart disease. After the heart disease is cured, he will attack the town.

However, Chen Qian Qian foiled his plans by forcing him to marry her. Chen Qian Qian is spoiled, a tyrant and someone who likes to visit brothels. She was infamous in the town. In the original story she was supposed to die in the third episode from poisoning by Han Shuo. But, orange script-traveled and became Chen Qian Qian. Therefore, she knew what will happen on the day of the wedding. At first, she thought that she could go back to her world when she dies, but after a few funny attempts, the poisoning failed. Instead, Han Shuo (banana) got forced to marry her. The reason being that orange lied to her mother that she was pregnant and didn’t know who the father was (she was known for being a playgirl). In order to not let this scandal be known, the mother forced banana to marry her daughter. On the wedding day, all his wedding gifts were green and he also got a green hat (pun at the Chinese expression that green hat means cuckhold).

Orange lied to her mother for being pregnant because after the failed poisoning attempt, she thought that perhaps if she bring the story back to how it should evolve, she would be able to go home at the ending. So, banana can’t die and has to get together with the original lead female character apple (her second sister Chen Chu Chu). So, she tried many ways to bring them together. All failed and made her look suspicious of wanting to let her second sister have a fall out with their mother. Apple was the most likely successor of the town. So, she became wary of orange and thought that she was a deep schemer.

While this all happened, banana got to know that orange lied about being pregnant in order to save him. Good feelings towards her began to form. When she even stole the dragon bone to cure his disease, he fell in love with her, but she kept pushing him towards apple. This made him very unhappy and he couldn’t understand why.

At one point orange realized that she had also fallen in love with banana. She tried to ignore it until she realized that apple has changed and had now become the villain. Then, she decided to accept banana. However, she discovered that even though some things had changed from her script, but the major events in her scripts still happened. In her original story, banana would die after being stabbed in the heart by apple. She tried to prevent that from happening and made it appear that she never loved banana and only used him for her gains. She then exiled him to a place that supposedly only she knew.

On the way to that place, banana was rescued by apple. They made an agreement. Banana will help apple become the head of the town and apple would give him a mine. They went back to the town and held everyone captive. However, banana still loves orange and didn’t harm her in any way, but he treated her very coldly on the outside. He got jealous when peach (Pei Heng) appeared to care about orange very much and he was also jealous when orange had naughty paintings of peach (still laughing at that scene). He also has his own plans because he doesn’t trust apple.

The day apple wanted to make herself the head of the town, banana charged in with his soldiers. However, apple got angry and tried to stab orange. Banana blocked the blow and got captivated instead. When he was about to be decapitated, orange saved him by rushing to the scene and committed suicide. She faked her death, but her mother is very smart and saw through it, so did apple.

On the way to her burial ground, apple send an assassin to let her fake death become a real death. The assassin was captured. They went to Xuanhu Town where men was in charge. There orange caused a ruckus by teaching the women there not to be submissive.

At the same time, apple seized the military power of Huaheng Town and put her mother under house arrest. Orange, banana and banana’s parents went to save her. During the battle, banana saved orange from being stabbed by apple and was stabbed in the heart by apple. The ending of the script still happened. Apple was captured and made a bet with orange. The myth was that when the sun brightened during the ritual of becoming the next head, that head would be a good one and benefit the people. When apple walked to the table to worship, the sky darkened and there was a heavy wind. When orange walked, the sky had brightened and the sun appeared. She also went back to her original world with this light.

Review

Zhao Lu Si as Chen Qian Qian/ Chen Xiao Qian: Chen Qian Qian was a spoiled brat. After Chen Xiao Qian took over the body, she acted carefully and tried to do many things to push the story back to how it was supposed to be. She did those things without care about other people’s feelings. No wonder Chen Chu Chu got suspicious of her. She got away with many things for being the favorite of her mother. Zhao Lu Si is cute and is good in these kind of roles. However, she seemed to play the same role over and over again in all her dramas. I don’t know whether she is typecasted or that she keep searching for this kind of roles. I find that she needs more variety, but she is good in this kind of roles and she is cute to look at. A 4/5.

Ryan Ding as Han Shuo/ Han Min Xing: He suffered from a heart disease and the prophecy said that he wouldn’t live past eighteen. So, he came to Huaheng town to steal the Dragon Bone that was supposed to be able to heal all diseases. In the end, he truly got completely healed by it. Han Shuo was supposed to be a tiger, but they turned him into a cute little puppy. I didn’t see much of his ruthlessness. Even when he was “evil” and collaborated with Chen Chu Chu, he wasn’t truly ruthless. His acting was better than Zhao Lu Si. He had showed more range of emotions. A 4.5/5.

Zhou Zi Xun as Chen Chu Chu: The supposed female lead in the script. She went from good to bad. She was the most likely heir to the town. She doted on her little sister, but after Chen Qian Qian did many things that appeared like she (CQQ) wanted to harm her and most importantly because her mother favored Qian Qian more, she began to hate Qian Qian. She was someone who lacked motherly love and longed for that love. In the end, it turned out that she wasn’t her biological daughter. This made her even more ruthless and she seized the army. In her own words, she said that she didn’t want to be the head anymore since power was all she needed to control the town. Zhou Zi Xun was a weak actress. I felt like she didn’t portray the entangle of Chu Chu’s emotions very well. Villains are hard to play, especially a villain with many conflicting emotions. A 2.5/5.

Sheng Ying Hao as Pei Heng: He broke all tradition and was able to become the only male minister in Huaheng Town. He was betrothed to Chen Qian Qian since the young. He hated that because Chen Qian Qian was spoiled and a bully. Later, he began to like Chen Qian Qian and in order to save her, he became the commander of the army of Pei family. That was rare because the soldiers would only listen to a female commander. He hated himself for being weak because he didn’t know martial arts. I feel that he is strong due to his strong will. Sheng Ying Hao lacked a bit in showing his emotions. Throughout the drama, I felt that he only had one expression. Perhaps that is the trend now for second male lead. The second male lead in Miss Truth also had one expression throughout the serie. I was not bored by that one expression because I liked his character very much. A 3/5.

Hu Cai Hong as Chief of Huaheng City: The ruler of Huaheng Town. I could feel that she was a cunning lady and a very smart one. She could see through everything. However, I feel that she lacked as a mother. She doted only on her third daughter Chen Qian Qian. She basically neglected her first daughter Chen Yuan Yuan because of her disability and she was harsh on Chen Chu Chu. I think that she was harsh on Chen Chu Chu because she knew that Chen Qian Qian was not suitable to be the next ruler and was harsh to train Chen Chu Chu. But that was only a tiny part why she treated Chen Chu Chu so harsh. Chu Chu was not her biological daughter. She didn’t even hesitate to make Chen Qian Qian the heir when it was Chu Chu who she had always trained to be her heir. Her reason was that it was better for Qian Qian’s fate to be in her (QQ) own hands. So, she basically discarded her second daughter after her favorite showed to be capable of being the next ruler. I found Hu Cai Hong very beautiful for her age. When she was on the screen, my eyes would focus on her unconsciously. She had so much presence. Her acting was also very fine, especially, the disdainful glance she casted at Chu Chu when Qian Qian won. A 5/5.

Wei Xiao as Lin Qi: The nemesis of Chen Qian Qian. They had been at odds with each other ever since they were children. She was the richest family in town and owns the brothel that Qian Qian often frequents. Due to the fight over the throne, she got sacrificed by her good friend Chu Chu and was saved by Qian Qian. From then on, she became a close friend of Qian Qian, albeit a bickering one. She was cute and I liked her. Wei Xiao did a good job acting as a spoiled brat and she was also good with her expression when she knew that she had went overboard. A 4/5.

Zhao Xin as Chen Yuan Yuan: The first daughter of the ruler of Huaheng Town. She can’t walk because of an accident caused by Qian Qian. Her mother neglected her mostly because of that. She had depression, wrote wills like a diary and refused to get her legs treated. I felt bad for her because her mother only remembers her when Qian Qian was poisoned. She is highly skilled as a doctor. Later, Qian Qian won the examination. The bet she made with Yuan Yuan was that if she wins the examination, Yuan Yuan would get her legs treated. Their relation improved a bit after that. Yuan Yuan then fell in love with someone who used to work at the brothel. She suffered because of that but got a happy ending in the end. Zhao Xin was good as the melancholic Yuan Yuan and it was cute to see her fall in love. A 3.5/5.

This is a very cute drama full of fluff and novel with woman being in charge. It showed gender inequality but failed to give a solution for the current society’s problem. Perhaps, even now, there is no real solution for the gender inequality. 24 episodes felt like nothing here. I finished it in two days. There wasn’t one boring episode. At the end when they got to Xuanhu city felt a bit out of place. They were barely there when they went back to Huaheng. I also felt that it ended too soon. After Qian Qian returned to her world, she thought that it was a dream. The male lead thought the same. And they accepted each other like that? I wish that they could’ve explored that a bit more before ending with each other. Perhaps a 2 more episodes would’ve done the job. I will rate this drama 4.5/5

As to why I used orange, banana, apple and peach to describe them was because when Chen Qian Qian script-traveled, she needed help with how to let the story go back to the right path, she got a three advisors who were story-tellers and writers. It happened that there were a few fruits on the table and she used those fruits to tell her story. Those scenes with her advisers were so funny.