‘Lost You Forever’: Episode 1 Run-down — Tragic Childhood is Tragic

Yang Zi looks convincing enough as a boy this time.

EPISODE 1 RECAP

The drama starts out with two cousins enjoying another day of their peaceful and protected lives in the palace. The girl, Xiaoyao, is good at martial arts and all kinds of physical activities, while the boy, Cangxuan, likes to read.

Xiaoyao also loves to pick on her cousin, but they seem to genuinely care about each other, exchanging gifts, tokens and everything.

Suddenly, the sky darkens and thunders. Their grandma collapses.

The next thing we see, the entire kingdom including the two children are in mourning for Cangxuan’s father who has died in a battle. Their grandpa, the king, kind of looks like he just wants to get this over with, though. He wants to close the tomb before Cangxuan’s mother could say goodbye to her husband.

Cangxuan’s mother comes just in time, calls their uncle a traitor and stabs him. Sheesh, how many traumatic experiences do they plan for these kids today?

Well, a lot more, apparently. The mother takes her own life right there and falls into the tomb where the father has been laid which closes immediately. I guess that on the bright side, red flowers bloom where she dies?

Shortly after that, the grandma falls ill and passes away.

Xiaoyao tries to comfort Cangxuan and defend him from bullies afterwards. But then Xiaoyao’s mother has some more bad news to break. She has decided to take over the army and ride into battle for king and country, just like Cangxuan’s father. I’m not sure what her real reason is because she certainly doesn’t look like she is loyal to the king that much. It’s also implied that she knows she is going to die when she leaves. She asks Cangxuan to take care of Xiaoyao for her.

And sure enough, Xiaoyao’s mother dies too. The children cry their eyes out again.

The king decides then to send Xiaoyao to another kingdom/realm to get an education.

Cangxuan begs the king to let Xiaoyao stay, saying that he can protect her. No, kid, you can’t, says the grandpa. How could you protect her when all you can do is beg? The grandpa actually… makes sense in this case. He also inspires Cangxuan to become a powerful ruler.

Off Xiaoyao goes, Cangxuan has another good, long, tragic cry; and that is it for the cousins for now. They are separated.

Years later, we see that Xiaoyao (Yang Zi) has grown up.

Now, I’m not sure what kind of “education” the king sent her to acquire, but she is working as a street vendor right now. She goes around town, selling potions and medicines, helping rabbits give birth, and seems to be making a living on her own.

A grown-up Cangxuan (Zhang Wanyi) is also heading to that particular town. He vaguely looks like the child actor who plays the small version of him. 

Cangxuan still keeps one of the gifts Xiaoyan gave him when they were little for good luck: a white fox tail.

Between this fox tail and the one Donghua wears on his sash at the end of Ten Miles, I think we can safely say that these thing aren’t exactly the best looking accessories.

Around your neck as a scarf, maybe.

Anyway, Cangxuan retains his bookish, quiet nature and has not given up on reuniting with Xiaoyao yet.

COMMENTS

Lost You Forever is a fantasy drama: lost family, hidden magic, powerful artefacts, demon lords, that kind of thing. As of now, we don’t know where the plot is going or what the main conflict will be, but the world-building seems rich and promising of a story of more than just a girl-boss and her three lives of romance.

That being said, this first episode is packed with misfortunes for the main characters, a little too much that it becomes overkill by the time the children’s last decent relative dies. It is difficult to sympathize with them when we hardly know any of the characters who get killed off. The child actors’ performances, though solid, couldn’t make up for the lack of background and building-up in this introductory phase.

The good news is: Yang Zi’s acting, as well as her male co-stars’, is good enough to get this story going. So, ultimately it doesn’t matter if Xiaoyao is a bubbly girl who comes from the happiest family ever or an abandoned child with a tragic past, her character is likeable so far. And Yang Zi certainly puts some effort into a believable man disguise.

Going a bit beyond episode one, each of the male leads — there are several, it’s unclear at this point who is going to be Xiaoyao’s love interest — has a distinct personality that complements Xiaoyao in a different way.

Since this drama is based on a novel by Tong Hua who wrote Scarlet Heart, if we’re lucky, we might get an entire gang of charismatic male characters, most of whom… suffer tragically throughout the course of their lives and lose the people they love the most… OK, scratch that, but at least we can hope to get a very good (even if sad) ending, right?