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Michael's Thoughts on 'Shining Just For You'
- Michael's Thoughts on 'Shining Just For You'
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Michael's Thoughts on 'Shining Just For You'
Michael > October 10th, 2023, 12:47 AM
![[Image: shining-just-for-you.jpg]](https://forums.sf-fandom.com/images/embeds/shining-just-for-you.jpg)
Peng Xiao Ran and Feng Shao Feng star in "Shining Just For You"
Shining Just For You is a Novoland story also known as Novoland: Princess from Plateau. The series originally aired from late November 2022 through late December 2022. The Novoland fictional world is a shared franchise that was created by 7 Chinese authors in the early 2000s to be China's fantasy equivalent of Middle-earth. The group wrote over 30 novels and short stories in the shared world before they broke up.
There have been several movies and TV series based on Novoland, including Castle in the Sky, Legend of the Naga Pearls, Novoland: Pearl Eclipse (aka known as Mrs. Zhu), and Novoland: Eagle Flag.
As the links indicate, I've already reviewed a couple of these shows.
BACKGROUND OF THE STORY
The Novoland franchise is set against a 10,000-year timeline in which various empires rise and fall. The world is populated by various races including Humans, Kuafu (giants), Heluo (sort of magical dwarves), the Winged Tribe (winged humans), a spirit race, and maybe a few others.
As best I can determine, the Humans are the dominant race for most of Novoland's history, although there were one or two periods where the Winged Tribe were very powerful if not the dominant group.
The name Novoland is usually translated as "the 9 provinces" or something similar to that. Think of it more like 9 regions spread across 3 continents.
Shining Just For You takes place very early in the 10,000 years and I believe it's the earliest story adaptation done thus far. That is, all of the other stories are set at some point after Shining Just For You.
The story opens as Yu Xiu Ming, Emperor of [Great] Chao, seeks to conclude a peaceful alliance with a group of nomadic tribes in the far north. The 7 tribes of Yebei ("Night North") are the last major culture to still retain their freedom outside of Chao. However, the 7 tribes form a loose confederation and they've been fighting among themselves for years..
Yu Xiu Ming has a reputation for winning battles. In the course of about 15 years he has defeated every major tribe and kingdom and united them under his rule, thus forming the first great empire of Novoland (based on the Eastern Continent). Yu Xiu Ming still has many enemies, though, and a deep secret.
HOW SHINING JUST FOR YOU BEGINS
There is an opening montage at the beginning of Episode 1, where the background of the world is explained by a narrator (voiced over a series of illustrations). This is what the translation says:
Quote:From the harmony of Heaven and Earth, the dawn of chaos unfolds. The Truth Masters descend upon the world. They are powerful, yet elusive, and nowhere to be found. Since then, the lands have been ruled alternately by the Human Tribe and the Winged Tribe. The flames of war raged on. There was no end to the clash of arms. Even the Kuafu Clan and the Heluo Clan were caught in the crossfire. It was not until the end of the late Xian Dynasty that a young general emerged from nowhere, united the five clans, and built an unprecedented dynasty like no other: the Great Chao.
All that the birds could reach belonged to Chao, except for one place known as Yebei which had yet to be conquered. Underneath the veil of such greatness, however, was the never-ending war among the seven tribes of Yebei.
The main story begins with the return of Princess Zhuyan (aka Qi Hai Rui, or just A'Rui to her close associates) and her friend and companion Ye Ling Shuang. Rui is the younger daughter of Wei Qi, high king of Yebei. Ye Ling Shuan is the daughter of the Dayuangu of Yebei. He's sort of like the high priest or chief magician of the nation and is a close advisor to the king.
Although Rui and her older sister Qi Hai Lian are immensely popular with the people, Ye Ling Shuang is detested and reviled because she was born with a gift of [random] prophecy. The people of Yebei believe she is a harbinger of evil and want nothing to do with her. Rui protects Ling Shuan and the Dayuangu kind of tolerates her (although he secretly loves his daughter but cannot face down public sentiment).
Rui is played by Liu Meng Rui (so the actress and character have the same first name). Qi Hai Lian is played by Cheng Xiao Meng.
The two young girls have a friend from the Winged Tribe, Yi Wu You. He was taken in by the Yebei people after his nation was defeated by emperor Yu Xiu Ming. Yi Wu You is in love with Ye Ling Shuang and Qi Hai Rui is in love with Yi Wu You. However, Rui is about 4 years younger than Ling Shuang so there isn't any drama between them. Rui is idealistic, pure-hearted, and perpetually happy - until someone tries to harass Ling Shuang.
The Dayuangu is named Ye Jing Qing and he's played by Wang Mao Lei. He has a recurring role but appears mostly in flashbacks. He's a minor but somewhat important character in the story.
Qi Hai Zhenyu is played by Gao Shu Guang. As king of the 7 tribes he has the highest authority but he can't control the other clan chiefs. He tolerates Ling Shuang for Rui's sake.
The 7 tribes come together every year for an Autumn Tournament. Just prior to the tournament, the Dayuangu informs the king that Chao has sent an envoy to Yebei to conclude a marriage alliance. The emperor wants to marry one of the two princesses. Qi Hai Zhenyu wants to refuse the marriage offer. Yebei has over 100,000 warriors. The Dayuangu reminds him that he doesn't have complete rule over the tribes. The episode kind of leaves their conversation there.
Two things happen during the tournament.
First, the Snow Wolf King appears. He is considered to be a god by the Yebei. For some inexplicable reason he marches into the encampment and attacks Ling Shuang in front of everyone. None of the Yebei people do anything to help her.
But then a Chao warrior appears and helps Ling Shuang by killing the wolf. The general is impressed by Ling Shuang's courage and despises the Yebei people for doing nothing to help her. So he gives her a bronze token (one of only seven) that she can use to redeem a favor.
He introduces himself as "Envoy of Chao, Commander of the Lanyi Army, General Who Defeats Bandits, Xie Yu'an". (He's actually the emperor of Chao.)
However, the Yebei people blame Ling Shuang for the white wolf's death and attempt to burn her at the stake. It takes all of Rui's persuasive ability (and a threat to harm herself) to persuade Qi Hai Zhenyu to release Ling Shuang.
Jie Zhuying, Commander-in-Chief of Chao, is secretly in love with Qi Hai Lian, who spent a few years in Tianqi (the capital city of Chao). So when the king and envoy negotiate the treaty, they agree that Rui will be sent back to Tianqi to marry the emperor.
When the princess' caravan sets out, she has Ling Shuang accompany her for fear that the Yebei people will kill Shuang if she remains in the north. Meanwhile, Ling Shuang has persuaded Yi Wu You to try to rescue them. But when he attacks the caravan he can only carry one girl away. Although it's obvious he wants to save Ling Shuang, she insists that he save Rui.
Ling Shuang thus accompanies Yu Xiu Ming back to Tianqi. But before they can leave the north, Qi Hai Zhenyu breaks the treaty, wipes out an entire regiment of Chao troops, and starts a war. Yu Xiu Ming is thus forced to reveal himself in his full power. He's an immortal who cannot be killed, and he easily defeats Qi Hai Zhenyu, slaying him in battle. The Yebei people are forced to surrender and become slaves of Great Chao.
So this sets up all the plots and drama of the following 24 episodes.
THINGS ARE NOT WHAT THEY SEEM IN TIANQI
It would spoil too many sub-plots for me to go into everything that happens. But basically Ling Shuang uses the token that Yu Xio Ming gave her to save herself from slavery. She finds her way to the Imperial Astrology department, where she becomes the disciple of Jie Hai Tian (Jie Zhuying's father). Jie Hai Tian is a close ally and supporter of the emperor, but he has a habit of defying imperial orders and taking matters into his own hands.
Every time Ling Shuang meets Yu Xiu Ming, she both impresses and infuriates him. She doesn't back down and earns his respect. So even though he may have her arrested, even condemned to death for committing some high crime, they eventually work things out. She proves to be too valuable an ally for Yu Xiu Ming even though she always has her own agenda.
The imperial court is divided into factions (as is always the case in these shows). Yu Xiu Ming manages to stay one step ahead of his most connving officials and even to give them a lot of freedom. That is, he turns a blind eye to some of the corruption in the court. He appoints his cousin Fan Ru Hui (played by Li Yu) as Great Steward (basically to manage the court officials, run the bureacracy, etc.).
Fan Ru Hui leads one faction of court nobles but there are other factions. Each group has its own agenda and they aren't very loyal to the emperor. And then there are the remnants of the various royal families Yu Xiu Ming has defeated. Some of them still retain power as his (reluctant) vassals or subjects. So there are many plots unfolding at the same time.
Meanwhile, Ling Shuang (renamed Bai Lu by Yu Xiu Ming) accidentally discovers Yun Wen (played by Bian Cheng), an ancient astrologer trapped in a piece of magical amber (apparently a stone that fell from the heavens, as it's also called a Starstone). Yun Wen had been attempting to construct a magical array - a sort of complex diagram through which to conduct magic - when he accidentally destroyed his body. His spirit was transferred to the starstone during the final battle between Yebei and Chao.
Ling Shuang agrees to help Yun Wen reconstitute his body if he helps her with her various tasks.
THERE ARE SERIOUS PROBLEMS WITH THIS SHOW
As there are only 25 episodes, one would expect the storyline to be fairly short and straightforward. Instead, it's extremely complicated and convoluted. And, in fact, there are missing parts. I've read in some of the reviews of the show that it was cut down from 36 to 25 episodes during final editing. And as always happens, various characters and plot points were changed from the original story.
Some of the acting is quite good, but it's good on a scene-by-scene basis and not very satisfying. Just when you start to understand a character and his or her sub-plot, one or more parts of that sub-story are skipped over. A character could be on death's doorstep in one episode and skipping along happily in the next.
The characters reveal just enough information to fill you in on what happened, but it's not satisfying. In fact, many fans of the Novoland books are unhappy with this series and I can empathize with them. It's an obvious hack job and I haven't been able to find a good explanation of what happened.
Of all the actors I've named thus far, Peng Xiao Ran is the only with whom I was very familiar. In fact, she went on to star in Romance Of A Twin Flower (which aired from March through April of 2023). Peng Xiao Ran played the twin sisters Jie Man and Nie Sang Yu (raised by different foster families) in that story.
Li Yu also had a minor role in My Heroic Husband, a series that aired in 2021. He played Commander Song Xian (one of the villains). The character of Fan Ru Hui in Shining Just For You is a much more important and complex role. Unfortunately, I think due to bad editing (although possibly also a poor script) his character's complexity is flawed.
Chung Shu Kai is the director for this series. And he has a fair number of credits to his name. I don't think it's fair to blame all the problems on him. I doubt it was his decision to cut this story down to 25 episodes. If he was forced to do so for budgetary or other reasons, he deserves credit for at least giving the audience a story that proceeds from beginning to end. It's got many rough spots in the middle but if you watch it all the way through, you'll more-or-less understand what happened (and mostly why). That said, when I look at the ratings for his past work on My Drama List, he doesn't win spectacular praise from the viewers. I haven't seen anything else he's directed.
There's also a second director, Zhang Jun Hao, and Shining Just For You is only this director's second credit.
Feng Shao Feng plays emperor Yu Xiu Ming. He's capable enough and some of his scenes are pretty good. But, again, I think the editing hurts his performance. His work comes out better than Peng Xiao Ran's because in many of her scenes her character has a wooden "I'm just here to get to the next scene" tone. Usually when the emperor is on screen something significant is happening. Despite his long list of credits, I've only seen him in one other production: 2013's Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon but I don't remember much about his character (Yu Chi Zhen Jin, Chief Minister of Da Li Si - a sort of police force).
Meng En, who plays the lead male's bodyguard Jing Mu in A Female Student Arrives at the Imperial Academy, has a minor role in this show. He plays a character named Yu Jing An but I can't for the life of me remember the significance of the character.
MY FINAL THOUGHTS
If you want to say you've watched all the Novoland productions, you'll have to watch this show.
It does provide some interesting background about the world. But it also mixes things up, too. The map is very different from maps used in other shows or movies. And that's apparently because it's yet another production company. It would have been better overall if only a single production company had secured the rights to the entire franchise (and been able to produce every show and movie with the same quality as, say, Novoland: Eagle Flag or Novoland: Pearl Eclipse).
But it's not fair to the actors to form an impression of their skills from watching this show. Based only on the 2 shows I've seen her in, I'd say Peng Xiao Ran will be embarrased to talk about this show going forward. I'd be surprised if it helps her career and she's lucky she got to star in such an excellent production as Romance Of A Twin Flower.
Feng Shao Feng's career probably won't suffer because of this show. But it's most likely not one of his better performances, and that's a shame because you can tell from the 25 episodes you get to watch that he really put his heart into this character. Yu Xiu Ming is an interesting character because he has supernatural abilities [that are explained in the story]; that is, he's an emperor but an emperor with special abilities. He's not the typical "emperor who sits behind a desk and listens to everyone else screw up".
Li Yu probably gets the most complete screen time, in terms of allowing the audience to learn about his character. But even his performance is a bit off because there are missing parts of the story.
Overall, I'd say it's more disappointing than satisfying. Even so, there are some stunning scenes and many of the special effects are pretty good. Some of the special effects are terrible. I don't know if there was a budgetary issue or if the production company simply wasn't up to the task.
I'll end it on a positive note. I'm glad I got to see another Novoland story, even if it wasn't as good Eagle Flag and Pearl Eclipse.
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