Princess Returning Pearl

"Princess Pearl" (Huan Zhu Ge Ge) is the Taiwan series that has captured the hearts of viewers first in China, then when dubbed, into Hong Kong, and now in foreign countries like the US as it's being released in tapes. Ratings have shot up and even defeated the 30 or so years monopoly TVB has enjoyed in their ratings when ATV bought the rights to show the series and broadcasted it on their station. The script itself is written by the original author, Qiong Yao, of the books and the first part of the series was so popular that fans (and greedy movie producers) demanded a sequel. I don't believe in sequels--it usually takes something good that was originally in the first and destroy it with a sequel. It certainly is the case with "Princess Pearl."

Part I begins with an interesting storyline--Zhi Mei (Ruby Lin) is the daughter of the emperor, Qian Lung, who had a love affair with her mother, a commoner, and left with a broken promise to return for her. Eighteen years later, Zhi's mother had passed away with a last wish for Zhi to travel to Beijing, carrying two items: a fan and a painting, to find her father. With her loyal maid, Jin Sau, Zhi arrives at Beijing only to find no one willing to listen to her story. Under circumstances, she meets Xiao Yin Zhi (Zhao Wei), became sworn sisters, and pours her whole tale to her god-sister. The fun-loving Xiao offers to help and points out a way to see the king over a city wall. The three tread to the wall but Zhu and Jin Sau were too weak to climb. Zhi hands the items to Xiao and bids her to hand them to Qian Lung for her. However, days later, Xiao Yin Zhi is pronounced the newly acknowledged Princess Pearl, touring the streets of Beijing with her "father", the king! The rest of the first series is focused centrally on the unraveling of this fiasco, with a moving ending.

The fighting choreography in "Princess" is quite bad. Too many flying scenes with swooshes of the camera. Another criticism often heard about Taiwan's films is that they are too wordy. It does take a lot of patience to watch "Princess"--one has to get used to the style. A lot of scenes could really be summed up in a few words and many scenes were quite redundant. For instance, scenes with the main characters together in a room discussing and analyzing their conflicts were too long, often trivial. In film, show rather than say! "Princess" is composed of many cute, funny, yet pointless conversations. However, unlike many other series with faulty scripts that often show long and dragging scenes, "Princess" does connect in the end--credits to the author.

With some patience watching, "Princess" does have many touching scenes. Zhao Wei as Xiao Yin Zhi is notable in the series as the playful and rowdy princess. Ruby Lin has also harbored a lot of fame from her role as the serene and gentle Zhi Mei. The love relationships in the first series was not as significant and moving as the father-to-daughter relations, however. In fact, the parent-children relations overpowers the love conflicts and is what makes the first part of the series memorable. Often times, the love scenes between Zhi Mei and her lover, Yi Hong, were quite--how should we say?-- hair-raising, causing some goosebumps to rise.

The second part to the series is a big downfall from the first part. Because it is a sequel and needs new conflicts, there is a sense that the princesses' lives were made more miserable just so that there is more story to tell. Qian Lung's mother returns to the palace from her religious pilgrimage and the Queen's action's become more ridiculous than ever. More trivial scenes than ever are added, only serving to give some with light humor. The concentration in the sequel is clearly on the love between couples. Two new important characters are also added--the border princess Hom Herng and her lover, Mon Don. Their conflict become an integral point in the sequel.