Princess Returning Pearl I-II
If TV series had a personality, I would peg this one down as happy and pretentious. Why has it been so popular? The simple answer is mass appeal. Plenty of Hollywood movies with mainstream appeal have been blockbuster hits, yet have been derailed by movie critics. Yet ultimately, how do you define a good movie? Purely opinion.
The beginning was quite engrossing, but the unraveling of "which is the real princess" scenario was too long and dragging for an insignificant conflict. The whole story, which seemed original at first, was blown out of proportion and over-dramatized. It would have made a decent two-hour movie, not a 20 hour series.
Characters in here are pretty self-centered, thinking the world revolves around them, and it does. They have a single obstacle: the Empress and her aged maid. Other than that, they are surrounded by an affirming universe. They have the royal princes and Ruby Lin's maid, always reassuring whatever Ruby and Vicki did, they were right. They have the wise Qian Long, one of the wisest and most powerful Qing Emperors, always giving in to Zhao Wei. Not that she is particularly helpful in affairs of state or is heroic in any sense. She just gets away on pure charm. A bit ridiculous, if you ask me.
As for the scope of the series, it is as insipid as the plot. No politics, no realistic view of inner palace struggles, no historical accuracy, nothing that brings the series beyond the very trite dilemna that Zhao Wei and Ruby Lin are experiencing. (Compare it to TVB's Duke of Mount Deer or Lady Flower Fist.) Sure, we have some laughs here and there, some romance, and father/daughter relations, but that's it. The appeal of Princess is based solely on emotion. Granted, there are some touching parts, but they never reach beyond the surface. Even the suffering/pain of Ruby Lin is not that convincing because the situation seems too contrived.
A few words about the acting: The directors seemed to depend greatly on the characters' charms (as opposed to the plot) to maintain the viewer's interest. Unfortunately, I didn't care for the main character, Zhao Wei. She was too jumpy, as if on a perpetual sugar high, and her acting is too exaggerated, batting her eyes in a self-consciously I-think-I'm-so-funny manner. Most of the time, the pigheaded girl's antics and temper tantrums were not interesting, nor even good enough to pass the time. Just plain annoying. As for Ruby Lin, she is delicate and warm-hearted, befitting her role. However, at certain scenes, her acting skills did appear rough around the edges.
Another gripe is that "Princess" is too wordy. Being familiar with Taiwanese Qiong Yao films, wordiness is a given, but it becomes doubly frustrating when they keep repeating the same things (Poor Vicki, Poor Ruby!!!) Where it did help was that it gave me a better feel for the characters. Characterization was not very successful through acting, but more successful through each character's verbal description and definition of what they (and others) are. Zhao Wei was never witty through her acting: I only got a sense of what she was supposed to convey through the numerous verbal descriptions.
Redeeming merits: Gorgeous costumes, big-budgeted production. Technical direction is quite good, giving very flattering close-up shots of main characters. Two pretty girls in Zhi Mei and her maid, who were very cute in their roles. Mediocre-looking guys who are credible actors. But overall, a one-dimensional and compartmentalized plot. As a series, this is one piece of eye-candy that is so sugary that one is apt to choke upon it.
