Finished watching Qingchuan's Veil of Vengeance, my first cdrama completed of the year. It was only 18 episodes, some of which were only 25 minutes, but you know what, this has been a year of mostly just watching movies, so I'll take it.
Anyway. I may write more complex thoughts about Qingchuan's Veil of Vengeance at some point but basically it was good for:
-Female general seeking bloody revenge
-Younger, puppyish love interest (who is also seeking revenge on roughly the same ppl) (calls her shifu)
-Kind of a gender role reversal vibe tbh, if you can't tell that from the two bullet points above already. The FMC is stronger, older and more experienced, but it's not just that. She feels like the kind of vengeful hero you usually see as male in cdramas. She hides her identity to get revenge and presents herself as a business owner, mysterious martial artist, and head of a secret business and spy network (in a lot of revenge stories, I see a disguised woman playing the role of a maid or marrying into the family she wants to destroy). She was tortured in the past and her body is covered with scars--rough ones, too, including large burn scars. And she is going to kill her enemies with her own hands/sword, even in situations where it would be easy to get someone else to do it for her. Meanwhile the male MC technically has his own revenge and political intriguing going on but he's kind of playing second fiddle to her and her schemes are always a step ahead of his schemes.
-Beautiful costumes, at least imo
-More focus on political intrigue and revenge plotting than the romance
-It's revealed that the FMC was raped in her backstory. I often find rape as tragic backstory to be kind of sensationalized and badly done, but I actually liked it in this case. Partly bc this is a cdrama and I feel like it's rare for Chinese dramas to address rape so directly, especially with the main character. I also appreciated that the FMC is still portrayed as strong and that while her love interest is angry on her behalf, he still sees her the same as ever. That said, the rapist is a major character and his possessiveness towards the FMC is a major plot point in the second half of the drama so you may or may not like that. (...I actually enjoyed him tbh. He's kind of a sexy villain I can't help it.)
-Every episode seems to be a different length lol. They average out at 30 minutes but some are like 45 and some are like 20. It's wild.
-I'm getting a little tired of the "we must take down the regent empress dowager so the Rightful Emperor (who is like. a teenager or something) can Reclaim His Power" trope. Not that it occurs THAT that often. But it feels like such a reflection of 1) how female historical figures with any level of political power get demonized and 2) the refusal of cdramas to say "the Rightful Ruler is Bad, Actually" (y'all need to get on Nirvana in Fire's level with that, just saying).
-Some elements of the political intriguing can get a little confusing or implausible. I'm thinking about Mo Qinglian's situation specifically, weird fuckign way for Mo Junyu to handle things, if you've watched it then you know. And yet... it was perhaps the whumpiest element of the plot. And so I must forgive it.
I thought it was a good show! Curious to hear other people's opinions :D
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