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Michael's Take: The Romance of Tiger and Rose
- Michael's Take: The Romance of Tiger and Rose
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Michael's Take: The Romance of Tiger and Rose
Michael > November 23rd, 2023, 01:48 AM
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Zhao Lusi and Ding Yuxi star in "The Romance of Tiger and Rose", written by Nan Zhen.
THE ROMANCE OF TIGER AND ROSE
This show first aired from mid-May 2020 to June 1, 2020 on Tencent Video. You can watch it with English subtitles on several YouTube channels. I switched back and forth between a couple before settling on C-Drama, but they kill the sound every now and then - mostly during romantic songs. So if you want to hear the actors and the music all the way through, you'll have to watch clips or other translations.
Some of the subtitles are difficult to read regardless of which version you watch, so you may have to stop the videos a few times but most of the time you can hear the actors and ambient sounds AND read the subtitles.
I've tried watching this show several times and always stopped shortly into the first episode. I finally had to read some spoilers to convince myself it was worth watching. The series scores 8.2 out of 10 on MyDramaList from nearly 20,000 user ratings (as I write this).
The show is described as matching the historical, romance, comedy, fantasy genres.
Premise of the Show
Zhao Lusi plays a young, inexperienced scriptwriter (Chen Xiaoqian) who has landed her first big project. She is running out of money and waiting for the studio to pay her when she receives a call. The lead actor chosen to play the hero, Mr. Han, has some problems with the script. So Xiaoqian rushes down to the studio to discuss the script with him.
Mr. Han (played by Ding Yuxi) is performing Wuxia-style stunts (in a harness) in front of a crowd of admiring fans. As he bobs up and down on the set, Xiaoqian asks him what he objects to in the script. He tells her that he feels the hero is poorly written. His motivations aren't clear and his actions aren't justified. But the real problem is that Xiaoqian doesn't know how to write a love story.
Insulted, she rushes home to negotiate with the studio boss. But he insists that she rewrite the script in 3 days. So she settles in for a marathon writing session, and in the process works herself into near-sickness and complete exhaustion.
And then she passes out ... entering the world of her script. Anyone who has seen the 1991 movie Delirius starring John Candy, Mariel Hemingway, Emma Samms, and Raymond Burr will understand what's going on. But it can all get a bit confusing because The Romance of Tiger and Rose takes a very different approach (and I think it works better).
Dramatis Personae
So far as I can determine the only two characters to appear in both the "real world" and the fantasy world of the script are Chen Xiaoqian and Mr. Han. She assumes the role of the Third Princess of Huayuan City, Chen Qianqian, and he assumes the role of the Crown Prince of rival city Xuanhu, Han Shuo.
The other main characters of this [fantasy] story are:
- Chen Chuchu (played by Zhou Zixin), Second Princess of Huayuan City
- Pei Heng (played by Sheng Yinghao), Minister of Education and Qianqian's fiance
- Chen Yuanyuan (played by Zhao Xin), First Princess of Huayuan City
- Lin Qi (played by Wei Xiao, aka Smile Wei), young mistress of the Lin family
- Chen Zhu (played by Hu Caihong), mother of the 3 princesses and "City Owner" of Huayuan City
- [Pei Heng's unnamed male subordinate] (played by Jin Yan Qing)
- Su Mu (played by Quan Peilun, aka Patrick Quan), a handsome male musician/entertainer
- Su Ziying (played by Chen Ming Hao), a male subordinate of Lin Qi
- Sang Qi (played by Li Ang), male subordinate of Queen Chen Zhu
- Zi Rui (played by Qu Yijia), male subordinate of Princess Chen Qianqian
- Bai Ji (played by Liu Shu Yuan), male subordinate of Princess Han Shuo
- Meng Guo (played by Shen Chi), a [male] bandit chieftain
The Premise of the "Inside" Story
Scriptwriter Chen Xiaoqian wants to tell a feminist parable. She has created a world where the rival cities represent both the best and worst characteristics of societies where women rule over men (Huayuan City) and men rule over women (Xuanhu City). Huayuan City is supposed to be pure and "good" while Xuanhu City is supposed to be "evil" and conniving (in Chen Xiaoqian's mind). They are stereotyped paradigms that work better as metaphors than as real societies.
And that's the problem with her script. Chen Xiaoqian is basically a "Mary Sue" - a writer who has worked herself into her own fictional world. The characters in the story and the plots are all classical cliches.
Princess Chuchu is the intended heroine of the story. Han Shuo is the intended hero of the story, but he's a classic "bad boy" with an evil plan who is supposed to fall in love with Chuchu. In fact, Princess Qianqian isn't even supposed to last beyond a couple of scenes at the start of the show.
How The Real "Inside" Story Plays Out
Once Zhao Lusi's real world character (Chen Xiaoqian) wakes up and realizes that she has assumed the part of Princess Chen Qianqian, she begins changing things.
In the original script, Han Shuo arrives in Huayuan City to fulfill a peace treaty between the two cities. He's dying of heart disease and he has been sent to marry Princess Chuchu. His real intention is to find the mystical "Dragon Bone", an ancient artifact of Huayuan City that is said to have the power to heal any disease. He needs to go through with the marriage and make Chuchu the Crown Princess so she'll learn the secret location of the Dragon Bone.
However, as Han Shuo is entering the city he is met by Princess Qianqian. One of Han Shuo's operatives pushes a cart in front of the princess, and her horse panics, sending her flying into the air. Han Shuo uses his Kung Fu powers to fly out of his carriage and "rescue" her. Qianqian immediately falls in love with him and declares before the entire city that she will marry him. She directs Han Shuo's escorts to take him to her palace. Because this goes against Han Shuo's plans, he decides to poison her and get her out of the way.
As she realizes where in the story she has entered, Chen Xiaoqian (now aware that she is Chen Qianqian) uses her knowledge of the original story to defeat everyone who moves against her. Her goal is to survive until she can get to the end of the story, at which point she believes she'll be returned to the real world.
Because she employs her knowledge of "the future" to second-guess and outwit the various characters scheming against her, Qianqian gradually causes the story to follow a new course. Many plot points still happen by unexpected ways. But the characters also begin to exercise independent thought. She gradually realizes that her knowledge of the original story doesn't always give her an advantage.
As events unfold, Han Shuo falls in love with Qianqian and Qianqian (Chan Xiaoqian) gradually reciprocates his love. She resists the feelings she's experiencing in part because she's never been in love before, in part because she wants to go home, and in part because she's afraid of what will happen if she falls fully in love with Han Shuo.
There Is An Immense Subtext to the Full Story
Because Chen Xiaoqian knows she is living out her own script, she openly talks to herself about how the film and television industry works. She even occasionally explains "modern" concepts to other characters (who are confused because they live in an "ancient" world).
When she realizes the story has taken on a life of its own, following a plot she doesn't understand, Chen Xiaoqian (Qianqian) recruits 3 in-story storytellers to help her work out what she should do next. She uses a fruit basket to describe the various main characters of the story (she is an Orange, Han Shuo is a banana, and Chuchu is an apple).
Qianqian never quite breaks the Fourth Wall the way a western comedy would. She doesn't face the camera and talk to the audience. But she clearly speaks FOR the audience when criticizing the cardboard stereotypes that she's written into her story. She even sometimes talk to the other characters and say things like, "You're like this because I wrote you that way". And they're mostly oblivious to these running commentaries, or they just shrug them off in confusion.
When you put all the hints together, you should see how the real scriptwriter (Nan Zhen) uses this story to poke fun at many of the tropes that are common in Chinese dramas. And some of the gags are even directed at the worldwide film/TV industry, such as when Qianqian says things like "they couldn't do this because there wasn't enough budget for it".
So Deadpool fans will appreciate the dry sense of humor that she expresses, but she's not as over-the-top as Ryan Reynolds is.
Chen Xiaoqian's journey is to grow up as both a writer and a woman. She realizes that the world isn't as simple as she imagines it to be, and therefore her story (and its characters) can't be as simple as she originally wrote them. She learns through interaction with her characters that they all need to have their own motivations and aspirations. Otherwise, they're kind of lost and act like NPC characters in a video role-playing game who act on cue and then don't do much else.
And she also must learn about love: what it is, how to feel it, how to express it, and what it means to love someone.
Each of the major characters has their own journey, not in the original story, and not necessarily to be written into the rewrite of the script.
The plot veers from the satirical parody of story-telling it starts out as into a sly examination of existential philosophy. The more deeply Qianqian (Xiaoqian) falls in love with Han Shuo, the more real he becomes and the more aware she is of just how "real" her imaginary world is. And she begins to wonder if she can stay there, or if she wants to stay there.
How I Finally Brought Myself to Watch the Show
Every time I tried watching the first episode, it just didn't make any sense to me. What I didn't realize was that the story is more than just a classic "writer falls asleep and dreams about the script" plot.
John Candy's Delirious wasn't very successful. In fact, I only watched it on cable TV. I never saw it in theaters and it doesn't earn a very high average fan rating on IMDB. It's a cute movie but it doesn't really leverage the basic concept well to do more than wander from one gag to another. There is a love story but it's not a very interesting one.
The Romance of Tiger and Rose raises the interest factor by pitting the protagonists of the "real" story and the "inside" story against each other, but also by forcing Zhao Lusi's character to fight for her life. She's not sure she'll wake up in the real world if her character dies. So the audience is drawn into her personal peril more effectively than in other, similar shows/movies I've watched.
The audience must ask itself, "Hey, is this all really a dream?" And Qianqian even goes so far as to ask that question herself (both for herself and her audience). She's aware of who she is in real life, but she's also Qianqian. She has a place in the fictional world and doesn't have to make one for herself. But she doesn't belong there, and so she must deal with the consequences of surviving in spite of the fate she wrote for herself.
My Final Thoughts
This is not my favorite C-Drama by any means but I'm glad I watched it. Zhao Lusi is a great actress and she can play many parts convincingly. You can forget that her character is "aware" of the differences between the real world and the dream world, and you can question what is supposed to be real and what is supposed to be fictional just by focusing on her performance.
That said, I think there's a slight subtext in Ding Yuxi's performance, too. I didn't think about that until I was about 2/3 of the way through the show. I don't want to say more than that.
Some of the characters are interesting in a weird sort of way. Su Mu, the musician played by Quan Peilun, is a brilliant character. He is an effeminate man who is admired by the women of Huayuan city. He's not gay. It's just that the musicians and dancers (all male) are deliberately trained and groomed to be living works of art. Patrick (Peilun) Quan gives an amazing performance as a man who has been reduced to a sexualized object who rebels against the role in a quiet, persistent way. He is, in fact, one of the heroes of the story. But the way he is dressed and his make up complement Quan's performance. He's not quite human. He's intended to be a caricature and not a flattering one. Quan does an amazing job with the role in my opinion. The character takes longer to break out of its stereotype than others, but I found myself rooting for him. And I can't help but think he is a quiet subtextual paean to the "Me Too" movement.
Many of the episodes are page turners. They end on cliffhangers (no doubt as part of the "hey, we're making fun of C-Dramas" motif) and you don't know what's going to happen next. In fact, that's part of the fun. Chen Xiaoqian reveals the full (original) plot to the audience as she thinks/speaks to herself, trying to work out the differences between the original story and the "living" story. So as time goes by and more changes in plots and characters appear, the audience is drawn into wondering what happens next.
Who Has Appeared Where in Shows I've Reviewed
Zhao Lusi starred in Who Rules the World (2022), Love Of Thousand Years (2020), and A Female Student Arrives at the Imperial Academy (2021). Of course, she's starred in so many other shows but I doubt I'll be able to watch/review them all. And I favor the historical/fantasy dramas anyway.
Ding Yuxi starred in Romance Of A Twin Flower (2023).
Zhao Xin played supporting character, Huan Ning, in Who Rules the World and a supporting character, Zhu Yu, in Time Flies and You Are Here (2021).
Hu Caihong played supporting character, Third Madam (Han family), in The Legend of Yunxi (2018).
Wu Yijia played supporting character, Qi Yun (young master, Qi family), in Who Rules the World.
Browse more Cdrama reviews on the SF-Fandom Forums
SF-Fandom's Guide to the Cdrama reviews (with cast names and plot summaries)
List of Cdrama Reviews in SF-Fandom Forums - Chen Chuchu (played by Zhou Zixin), Second Princess of Huayuan City