Rooting for the secondary couple in Legend of Fragrance
I just want to drop a quick hello and talk about my latest interest in Chinese dramaland. And sorry for the silence these past two months! Nothing has really piqued my interest to write until I watched a MV for the upcoming Hunan TV series Legend of Fragrance, starring Tiffany Tang Yan and Li Yifeng. The premise of this drama is neither refreshing nor brilliant. The plot basically consists of typical Chinese melodramatic angst, revenge, unrequited love, love triangle, family feud, etc. Two handsome guys will fall in love with Girl No.1 (Tiffany Tang). Girl No.1 initially has crush on Guy No.2 (played by William Chan), while Guy No.1 (played by Li Yifeng) madly pursues Girl No.1, the Hana Yori Dango-style. Then comes the villainous Girl No.2 (played by Shu Chang) who is infatuated with Guy No.2 and even took advantage of his "body". The new splash in this otherwise typical drama formula is that Guy No.2 will learn to love Girl No.2. In sum, Guy No.2 and Girl No.2 are my latest drama obsession because they just look so gorgeous together!
Even though I described Girl No.2 as "villainous," she is not exactly the meaningless cruel bitchy antagonist who's out to destroy Girl No.1. Girl No.2, or better known as Xiao Hui, is the archetypal Japanese girl in Chinese dramaland who plots to help her father's mission to spread Japanese imperialistic goals. She ironically falls in love with her fellow Chinese classmate, Inspector An Yichen. Through some calculative moves and manipulation, she actually ends up marrying her Prince Charming. But be warned! There will be a lot of angst and bittersweet...and it will definitely end in tragedy. Due to some misunderstanding or unknown reason, An Yichen will shoot Xiao Hui's imperialistic father and force her to have an abortion. Not exaction my definition of "Prince Charming." Nonetheless, An Yichen loves Xiao Hui in the end.
Compared to the main couple in Legend of Fragrance whose chemistry is quite bland in my opinion, I find An Yichen and Xiao Hui's slap/kiss relationship much much more to my taste. To my big surprise, William Cheung and Shu Chang have wonderful chemistry in this drama. I have always adore Shu Chang as an actress, but William Cheung is quite new as an actor for me. His acting has improved a bit since I last watched him in Legend of the Ancient Sword.
Official MV - Fragrance of Love
Official 3-minute Trailer
Official 13-minute Trailer