Drama Review: My Sassy Princess (祝卿好)

My Sassy Princess (祝卿好)

Synopsis

Based on the original novel Jin Yi Wei Da Ren (锦衣卫大人) by Yi Ren Kui Kui (伊人睽睽), the drama tells a love story between Liu Ling (Princess Chang Le), an outspoken and domineering woman who fights for what she wants. Liu Ling makes it her mission to capture Shen Yan, one of the commanders of the Jilin Guards. To pursue him, Liu Ling follows him everywhere to create “fate encounters.”

Adapted from the novel Jin Yi Wei Da Ren (锦衣卫大人) by Yi Ren Kui Kui (伊人睽睽).

Memorable Soundtracks

• Qing Qing (卿卿) by Zhou Shen
• Tong Xin (同心) by Ye Xuan Qing
• Spend (Time) Together (共度) by Liu Yu Ning

Watch My Sassy Princess (祝卿好) if you like:

• Romance focused dramas as plot focuses on the leads romance, slow motions, and sweet scenes
• Happy ending for all three couples
• Sassy female lead created a unique aspect to the drama, but can also be displeasing to some

Avoid My Sassy Princess (祝卿好) if you dislike:

• Continuous misunderstandings as there’s lots of teasing between the leads but no real relationship development
• No solid character development, or depth to story
• Soundtrack montages were prevalent in and unnecessarily added in for most episodes and several times within an episode

Final Review: My Sassy Princess (祝卿好)

Follow you to the end of the world

★☆☆☆☆ 1/5

My final review doesn’t steer too much away from my first impressions of the drama. The storyline is solid enough to build a good story. We have all the ingredients ready with our protagonists, villains, antagonistic forces, side couples, romance, hurdles, etc. The issue was wanting to do too much with these ingredients but not finding the right mix, leading to an unnecessary 22-episode show when it could have been 12 episodes. 

Our female protagonist is a conferred princess who doesn’t have a good reputation due to her personality. Liu Ling does come from royalty, as her uncle is the emperor. As stated in the drama title, she’s supposed to be sassy, and Princess Chang Le was indeed sassy. Her character is full of energy and has a huge fighting spirit. She’s not afraid to go for what she wants and doesn’t care who she offends. Princess Chang Le or Liu Ling uses that personality to hide her childhood trauma of losing her mother, lack of parental love from her father, and mistreatment from her stepmother. While Shen Yan is our male lead, his character doesn’t possess much depth. He initially serves as a threshold for Liu Ling to achieve. Shen Yan is what Liu Ling wants, a goal that she pushes to obtain, and she does. 

We got a lot of sweet teasing from the leads, but the lack of actually seeing romantic scenes on top of their unnecessary misunderstandings to drag out the plot felt draining. The two protagonists go on and on in a back and forth about how they can’t be together when technically they never tried to in the first place. They “get together” and “break up” too often to care for anymore, especially when there’s not much conviction to make me believe why these two are so in love or why it matters. While watching them tease each other was cute, I felt little to nothing when we saw them cry or sit there with a whole montage of flashbacks, voiceovers, and beautiful soundtracks on the screen. Here’s a mini-episode recap of the breakdown of their romance in detail.

• EP 1: Liu Ling pursues Shen Yan, and he allows her to stick around so that he can use her as a distraction to lure in the enemies.
• EP 5: First kiss
• EP 6: Shen Yan falls in love with Liu Ling, but Liu Ling is engaged.
• EP 9: Liu Ling breaks off the engagement, but Shen Yan’s mom doesn’t like her. 
• EP 10: Liu Ling’s grandfather doesn’t want her to be with Shen Yan. Shi Jin makes Liu Ling realize that she may not love Shen Yan. Shen Yan overhears and is upset – they part.
• EP 12: Liu Ling still sends him food but won’t visit him. She realizes she does love Shen Yan, and they make up.
• EP13: Shen Yan’s mom wants him to get married to Princess Qin Ning. Princess Qin Ning dissuades Shen Yan’s mom from their engagement. 
• EP 14: Liu Ling gets engaged to Touba Lie – they part. 
• EP 16: They long for each other.
• EP 17: Shen Yan realizes he wants to fight for Liu Ling.
• EP 19: Engaged
• EP 20: Married
• EP 21: Separated
• EP 22: Reunited

The two want to be with each other but don’t. They hug and makeup but then don’t get together. As romance is the show’s priority, it was not well done for us to feel the anguish. Even with the side characters, we get a lot of longing gazes, and that’s the bulk of the show. There has to be a good mix to keep me fed and sated through the show. However, everything felt bland, from the romance to the overall plot.

The drama introduces this power-hungry Lu family that the Jilin guards and crown prince wants to take down. They’re our biggest villains in the story, yet it felt so mediocre. The Lu family shows up to fight a little, scheme here and there, but they aren’t present. The mystery and journey of trying to find all these people connected to the Lu family felt unnecessary at the end of it all. If you consider that having this side arc made it possible for our second couple to have screen time, then it may be necessary. 

I adore our second couple, Shen Yu and Xu Shi Jin, and believe their story should have been the show’s highlight. It may have been a bit similar to Couty Lady (2021), but with its little take, Shen Yu and Xu Shi Jin would have a more interesting story than our leads. Shi Jin has a complex family background and now holds a position as a court lady to the crown prince. Even though they like each other and were once engaged, it isn’t easy to be together, and it’s believable that they can’t. Also, only when you look at these two that the Lu family, uncovering mysteries and journeys taken, would be more relevant to drama. If we take these two out, the only subplot that would make sense with the protagonist is the last four episodes of Prince Guang Ping’s rebellion. 

I’m quite disheartened because it was one show I was highly anticipating, with two leads that are reasonably good at acting. I thought that the focus of this drama being romance base would change in the second half, but I was wrong. This drama’s sole focus is on the romance of Shen Yun and Liu Ling. Everything else that could’ve added more flavor to this drama did not go in. We just got a lot of sugar, some salt, but nothing else in the dish. 

My biggest beef with the show is that it tries hard to be deep, but it’s not. Many of the emotions of longing, love, sadness, etc., felt forceful. The political plotline felt mediocre and not well thought out or even rushed. I can’t think of minor underlying themes that I could have amplified to enjoy at the show’s completion, except for the second couple. This drama falls at a 1.5/5 for me and sadly, I’d have to say that this may be one you may want to pass on. If you have differing opinions and don’t mind sharing, I’d like to read your thoughts on My Sassy Princess (祝卿好).

^{Photo credits: iQiyi}