My Sassy Princess (祝卿好)
First Impressions on EP 1-8
Story
My Sassy Princess (祝卿好) is a 2022 Chinese drama starring Crystal Yuan Bing Yan (袁冰妍) and Zheng Ye Cheng (郑业成). A romantic costume drama focuses on 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.”
The bulk of the story, thus far, focuses on the romance of the two protagonists. We see a lot of chasing and pursuing from Liu Ling and resistance from Shen Yan. Yet, their relationship develops quite fast in the show. Several slow-motion embraces are seen between the two leads to create sugary sweet moments. We get our first kiss scene at episode five and our leads are heads over heels for each other by episode six. At the same time, the two leads have hurdles to cross in their familial relationships. However, the main antagonistic force of the story ties to the political struggle that involves the Lu family. Maybe there will be a flip in focus in the later half of the show.
Characters
Crystal Yuan Bing Yan (袁冰妍) is best known for her role as Xuan Ji in Love and Redemption (2020). She plays the female protagonist, Liu Ling, or Princess Chang Le. Liu Ling was granted the name of Princess Chang Le as a child. She has a rocky relationship with her father following her mother’s death. Because her stepmother does not treat Liu Ling well, her grandfather, the Duke of Ding Bei, dotes on her. In a world where she feels misunderstood and alone, Liu Ling becomes attracted to Shen Yan after their chance encounter. With his waist token in her hand, Liu Ling uses it as an excuse to stay close to Shen Yan. Her outspoken and playful personality sticks closely to Shen Yan as Liu Ling follows him wherever he goes. Liu Ling does whatever she wants even though she is betrothed to Lu Ming Shan (He Ming Han or 何明翰). Her only goal is to make Shen Yan fall in love with her and break off her engagement.
We see a lot of Liu Ling’s persistent and immature personality in most of the first eight episodes. In serious instances where she knows Shen Yan is working, Liu Ling still follows him and creates trouble for Shen Yan through her damsel and distress moments. Despite her personality, which may come off as childish and unattractive as a female lead, Liu Ling’s honesty and purity are what attract Shen Yan to her.
Zhang Ye Cheng (郑业成) from The Sleepless Princess (2020) plays our male protagonist, Shen Yan. Shen Yan is one of the commanders of the fourteen armies of the Jinlin Guards. He works for the Crown Prince and is known as the stern-faced Yama. While his father is a minister, Shen Yan is a concubine’s son, making him unfavored. This doesn’t sway Shen Yan from doing his job of serving his country.
We have four other characters with possible love lines. Shen Yu, the Administrator of Nandian, was engaged to Xu Shi Jin, the lady in waiting for the Crown Prince. The Xu family’s past caused the two to break off their engagement, but their affection remains. Ling Bi (Yan Zhi Wen / 杨志雯) is the maid for Liu Ling, and by following Liu Ling to Jiang Zhou, she gets into several arguments with Luo Fan (Guo Xiao Tian / 郭笑天), Shen Yan’s right-hand man. They are our third potential couple of the show.
Overall Impressions
I’m somewhat on the fence for this one. I think Zhang Ye Cheng and Crystal Yuan Bin Yan are pretty good actors in their field. However, I’m not too fond of the drama and its direction in these first eight episodes.
- Romance comes first, so choppy editing is obvious when they want to move time to shift and center around the romance. That also means Shen Yan catching the bad guys isn’t as important as saving Liu Ling, and falling off cliffs is used in a romantic setting. Because the other aspects of the plot come second, the flow of conversation to move on to the next scene comes in weird fades. Even with Liu Ling’s personality, I think the romance can be less forceful and let it come naturally through the plot. It would make falling in love with their story easier instead of feeling like their romance is forceful/rushed/disconnected.
- The unrealistic world setting favors the protagonist’s halo. Liu Ling isn’t an actual princess; instead, the title was conferred to her by the emperor. Despite having a powerful grandfather, Liu Ling, who doesn’t acknowledge her princess title, still uses it to her advantage. Not only that, despite the hierarchical difference, not much respect or line is drawn to show the power difference. It makes it hard to believe that the Lu family is strong. Or that a stab to the stomach causes Shen Yan to faint, but a stab to the heart does him no real harm.
Apart from those things, I foresee myself sticking to the end of the drama. Despite the lack of believability with some of these elements, like the disconnect between their love story, the two actors do a great job at making you believe that they have affection for each other. Not sure if I’ll be doing episode recaps, reactions, or a final review. However, I’d love to read your thoughts and opinions on My Sassy Princess if you don’t mind sharing!
