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Absorbing and Fantastic

I want to say upfront that watching the Chinese historical romance drama Pursuit of Jade can become very addicting, and by the time you reach the final episode you'll wonder if you just spent a couple of years in the past watching all the fascinating characters play out their equally absorbing storylines. This series has become notorious for several reasons, including one of the most justifiably admired, show-stealing antagonists ever (my hat is off to Deng Kai, the actor who played the role, but we'll get to him shortly.)

This story sprawls in different directions, but it basically follows the romance between Fan Changyu (Tian Xiwei), a female pig butcher with super human strength, and Xie Zheng,(Zhang Linghe), a wounded warrior she finds in the snow. Yes, I know, that doesn't sound appetizing, but in reality it's brilliant. Changyu believes her guy is simply an ordinary soldier who needs her help to recover and survive; Xie Zheng is in fact the Marquis of Wu'an, one of the highest of the Emperor's military leaders, the nephew of the most influential chancellor at court, and nearly the latest victim of a 16 year blood feud. Xie Zheng believes Changyu to be a simple village woman when in fact she's the daughter of an important figure in his tragic past.

Because of a greedy gambling relative about to make her homeless Changyu asks her patient to marry into her family so she can keep her parents' house and take care of her sister, and promises in return to support and care for him (this is a significant twist because marrying into her family would make her the head of the household, and her husband would answer to her.) For his own reasons Xie Zheng agrees, and the romance between them blooms from there.

The series grows out in several plotlines involving a puppet emperor, Xie Zhang's scheming chancellor uncle, the uncle's court rival, two brothers and their prince dad who are trying to take out the emperor, Changyu's deceased parents, and even a secret baby plot. It gets very complicated very fast, yet you can keep up with the multiplots if you pay attention. All the while Changyu and Xie Zheng grow in their affection for each other while dealing with their own problems, part and come back together in interesting ways, and suddenly become engrossed in the past tragedy and present scheming while fighting the prince and his sons, one of which is not who anyone thinks.

Now we get to Deng Kai, who plays Sui Yuanhuai, the supposedly frail oldest son of the rebel prince. From the moment he enters the first scene he's in, this guy starts reeling you in. His styling is perfection, especially with his gorgeous long silver/black hair and dark, menacing wardrobe. He's soft spoken, coughs every now and then, but is so intense he scares everyone, and rightly so. He's actually Qi Min, the rightful heir to the throne who everyone thinks died in that tragedy 16 years ago. He's also obsessed with a single mother and restaurant owner, Yu Qianqian (awesomely played by Kong Xueer) to the point of madness, and their dark and twisted romance almost steals the whole series.

I am generally not a big fan of Chinese historical romances, but this one got me on all fronts. There are criticisms of the plot being overly complicated, that there are too many villains, and that the lead actor was just posing so he looked good in every scene. I can't agree. The plot is not for morons to follow, obviously, but it's not that hard to keep up with it. The antagonists were layered, and not at all too many given the depth and breadth of the storyline. The lead actor held his own ground in the face of many, many excellent depictions of characters around him. He might not have been as dramatic as the disturbing Qi Min, but he was solidly heroic.

Problems: eh, not much to gripe about, honestly. The plotline involving the chancellor was a little muddy and the hardest to follow. Some of the background characters became interchangeable at times (I kept confusing Xie Zheng's mom and the chancellor's wife.) There are a couple of scenes, particularly involving a child being forced to watch a maid being beaten to death, that I found overly violent and possibly triggering for some abuse victims, so keep that in mind.

It's not for people who want a no-brainer series to watch, but otherwise Pursuit of Jade is one of the finest long Chinese romance series I've ever watched. If you enjoy complex characterizations and the long plot game, then this might be the series for you. Available on Netflix.

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