#mickey he

Cheng Yi is so pretty!!!

But also, emperor calling eunuch father:

And bowing to him:

Hint, dude, imprisoning the woman's husband so she'd agree to become your concubine ain't a great way to win her heart over.

The time travel/transmigration ban is thanks to the success of it and BBJX one-two punch combo. Tragic but almost worth it because two dramas are both huge huge faves. Where BBJX is a moody tragic masterpiece, this is just insanely addictive fun.

In the event you were not (1) watching cdramas back in 2011 (2) did not watch this since (3) weren't around when I posted about this before, JPLH centers around our awesome heroine Qing Chuan, who is a modern day owner of an antiques shop and a huge Emperor Yongzheng fangirl, who falls through time and ends up in the Qing Dynasty, during the time of Kang Xi's sons' fight for the throne, a fight that she knows and is happy Yongzheng eventually wins.

She meets and has some epic interactions with hunky YZ, then merely the Fourth Prince (played deliciously by young Mickey He - as always with plenty of chemistry with Yang Mi; they were a tragic OTP in Schemes of Beauty some time before JPLH, the chemistry is still there.)

Today's censors would collectively immolate themselves rather than release this drama - Four is ruthless and scheming and fine with murdering his brothers (and others) on his path to the throne (so like the historical YZ.) There is no noble "I care for the people" from him or anyone, they just want power. He does develop a soft spot for our plucky FL and she has an epic crush on him but...wrinkle. Her endgame OTP is not this gentleman. It's this one:

The immature Eighth Prince, loser in the battle of the princes, her bete noir in the palace and one who is here confusing one of his brothers who does not understand that his bullying is a bizarro form of flirting that even he doesn't get, not a genuine desire to harm.

One of the things that this drama, bubblegum tho he is, ahistorical tho it is (QC teaches one of the concubines to get into Kang Xi's favor by rollerskating!) gets is how bloody and murder-happy that world is. None of these people blink at murdering, maiming or otherwise damaging others

Did I mention that JPLH is a Qing era AU of Boys Over Flowers, btw? With our FL as Makino, Eighth Prince as queued Domyouji and Four aka Yongzheng as an extremely homicidal Rui. I have said it before and said it again - this is the first BOF adaptation that actually makes sense to me in power and character dynamics because of course period absolute royals are gonna be insane, bloody, and get everyone to obey.

This drama has the old school cdrama delicious vibe (that Dashing Youth brought back) of starting light and then descending into hell. It's the best. I love how long it takes Eight to win her. I love the ship and angst and happy ending and why it makes sense for her to take so long to realize it's him she loves (look at his initial behavior, look at her being a time traveler etc.)

This was my first Qing era drama actually. When I looked at Feng Shao Feng not just with the queue but unbound loose hair (with the half shaved look) and went "you know, I don't know if it makes sense, he looks FUCKING HOT" I should have known I was a goner for period cdramas, if I wasn't before.

PS I am old enough to remember FSF and YM having hordes of RPShippers. Oooooold.

PPS Equivalent of Rui's violin:

I am sorry, but the moment Qi Yan went “Yifu,” I got flashbacks to both Word of Honor and Sha Po Lang which is surely not what the makers intended. Hahahahaha

Also, the Emperor calling a Eunuch “yifu,” says a lot about power dynamics right there tho I doubt our emperor is a pure little lamb seeing he assisted said eunuch to take down the Prime Minister who the previous Emperor (who conveniently died shortly after) was gonna use to bring the Eunuch dude down.

But the whole he can’t even pick the color of his robes, the Eunuch does it, is seriously creepy. (And combined with the yifu SPL/WH flashbacks is giving me truly weird vibes ahem.)

Never mind me, I am just thirsty.