EPISODE 1 RECAP
A woman (Peng Xiaoran) in white is running away from a group of soldiers led by her husband (Ding Yuxi). It seems she has been accused of murder. They chase her towards a cliff. With no way out, she turns back and shouts at the husband again that she did not kill whoever it is that is dead.
The husband doesn’t seem to care a whole lot and tells her to submit to the law. Interesting set-up, not only is the lead couple married, it’s also not a happy marriage.
The woman’s face goes wild and she backs away from them while reciting some poetry. The husband asks what she plans to do. Buddy, she has a crazy expression on, is stepping backwards, and there’s a cliff behind her, what do you THINK she plans to do?
The woman jumps. The husband turns his face away as she falls. Hmm, looks like he’s completely okay if she dies.
Next, we see the woman wake up in a manor. They’ve rescued her from the cliff, after all. But she doesn’t seem to remember who she is. A maid reminds her that she is Nie Sangyu, the wife of Lord Ning Yuxuan.
Sangyu is shocked, she doesn’t remember being anyone’s wife at all. And judging by her manners, either they picked up someone with the same face as the woman who jumped, or the water just knocked her old personality out of her completely. Ohh, I see now — “Romance of a TWIN Flower”. So it’s possible that it was the woman’s twin who got rescued. Thanks for the much-needed spoiler, title.
The maid begins to tell Sangyu — who might not be Sangyu — what happened. Turned out, she wasn’t a very nice lady before. She hated the woman her husband was about to take as his concubine, so she attempted to kill him on their wedding day.
That’s right, Sangyu was that crazy. And when she lunged with the knife that day, no one reacted fast enough, only the new bride, who ended up being stabbed. This is why we see Sangyu being pursued in the beginning, she really did commit a crime.
The maid also notes that Sangyu’s husband, Yuxuan, is dubbed “the most beautiful man” in the city.
They say that in every drama, so I’ll just go along with it.
On the same day, Yuxuan summons Sangyu. She enters his room and is instantly entranced by his super slender physique beauty. But Sangyu isn’t so friendly, he wants her to sign a document that consists of a list of her crimes and an agreement to lock herself in a building for reflection forever.
Sangyu refuses. They argue back and forth, her manners confuse Yuxuan. He is muddled and slips out at one point that they have never actually been husband and wife to each other. Sangyu finds this fact more fascinating than anything she has heard so far.
In the end, Sangyu complies. She’s probably afraid the guy might pass out from all the boiling emotions he’s clearly going through. Sangyu and her maid move to an abandoned building inside the residence.
But Sangyu isn’t about to take this unjust treatment lying down. One night, she sneaks into the kitchen to make herself some food. Sangyu makes multiple dishes, dancing to hippy music in the background. This is another clue from the drama that you should not apply too much logic to this story. It’s a funny dance, by the way. Almost like a tribute to the feel of Peng Xiaoran’s character in “Goodbye, My Princess”.
But the fun soon ends when Sangyu realizes that the kitchen door has been locked and there’s a spreading fire just outside the room.
People run over with water to put out the fire. Yuxuan and his close guard also come. He hears a voice from inside the room, which triggers a memory of himself being trapped in a fire accident when he was a boy. So he rushes over and kicks the door open at the same time Sangyu charges out with a wooden post in her hands in an attempt to break the door down. They collide — good thing Sangyu throws that wooden post away before it can hit Yuxuan on the head — and of course, tumble to the ground together.
Sangyu smiles, yes, she SMILES, as she briefly lies on top of Yuxuan, while the fire is still raging around them.
Yuxuan pushes her aside and starts yelling and accusing her of setting fire to the kitchen; he believes this is another plot to harm more people in his manor. Right, Sherlock… the girl set fire to a room inside which she was locked.
Is it bad that all I can think of is all that food Sangyu made but didn’t get to eat? I mean… that was a lot of good dishes.
COMMENTS
Since I knew what I sighed up for when I clicked on this drama, I have no complaints about the inconsistencies in the plot. It is a light-hearted show that is not meant to be dissected too much.
Although, since romance is the focus, there are a few things we can say about the acting. So far, I believe Peng Xiaoran does a decent enough job with her character. For a bubbly-eyed and mischievous female lead of a half-fantasy drama, the hardest challenge nowadays is not to annoy viewers, and she hasn’t (yet).
Ding Yuxi, on the other hand, isn’t quite what his character requires. We are told that the male lead is a politician-like figure with power, cleverness, and some ruthlessness; he has a dark past and is trying to heal himself, to recover from childhood trauma. But so far, these things are only told, they are not reflected in the acting yet. What I see instead is an actor trying to deliver, but is only halfway there. Taking one brief scene where Ding Yuxi sits at his desk when Yuxuan talks to Sangyu as an example. His poses – which are meant to convey power — are unnatural and his movements are scripted.
Because this is the case, it’s difficult to get into the romance. This couple has the “opposites attract” set-up. The female lead’s mischiefs are fun, but I don’t look forward to the male lead’s reactions to them due to the predictability of his acting.
This isn’t to say that Ding Yuxi gives a bad performance, his character’s emotional scenes are much better than the ones where he is supposed to be indifferent and quietly clever. But generally speaking, he is not quite on par with Peng Xiaoran.
I would say that the most intriguing element in this drama so far is the female lead’s identity.