Before I started watching The Disguiser, I’d already started on Chronicle Of Life which was in the process of being subtitled on Viki episode by episode. I can actually get by without the subtitles but it’s a bit more enjoyable with the subtitles just in case I miss something.
Yes, Chronicle Of Life is another imperial romance set in the popular Qing Dynasty. The very young as in 10 year old Emperor Kangxi (who had a more than 60 year reign making him the longest reigning emperor in Chinese history) has just begun his reign and is being pursued by assassins. He bumps into a 10 year old girl called Liang’er (daughter of a Duke) who has just escaped from her family massacre ordered by none other than the Empress Dowager Grandmother played by veteran Hong Kong actress Michelle Yim (she was one of my favourite actresses back in the day).
Kangxi is played by Hawick Lau while Liang’er is played by Zheng Shuang, they were also a couple in Cage Of Love which I have also watched. The young Emperor and Liang’er take refuge in a cave where Liang’er sings him a nursery rhyme and refuses to leave his side. The Emperor is very touched and draws the face of a tiger on her palm.
Of course there is always a love triangle. Liang’er’s cousin is Nalan Rong Ruo who changes Liang’er’s name to Lin Lang when she has amnesia. He thinks it’s better for her to have a new identity so that she can have a clean slate and forget her traumatic past, i.e. slaughter of her entire family. Liang’er was supposed to have met the Emperor again at some temple but she never made it there because of her amnesia.
Fast forward 8 years later and the 18 year old Lin Lang is working in the laundry section of the palace along with 3 good friends. Meanwhile, the Emperor has never forgotten his childhood friend, Liang’er and despite having a bevy of concubines, continues to search for her. The Emperor and Rong Ruo are the best of friends and yet he’s never informed his most trusted aide that he’s spent 8 years looking for his childhood sweetheart?
I think that they should have made the gap longer. 8 years is jut not credible since Hawick doesn’t look like he is just 19 and neither does Rong Ruo. Furthermore, it doesn’t even make sense that in one of the episodes, Rong Ruo’s elder sister who is one of the Emperor’s concubines declares that she is 17. How can this be when in the childhood scenes, she looked much older than Liang’er and if Liang’er is already 18, then Elder Sister should be in her 20s.
So Emperor finds Liang’er, knows it’s her but she can’t remember anything. While serving as the maid named Lin Lang in the Nalan household, she and Rong Ruo have fallen deeply in love but she ran away because of the Nalan family’s objections. All this while, Rong Ruo has also been trying to search for Lin Lang. The guy who plays Rong Ruo always wears a tormented expression on his face.
In every romance drama, the hero always piggy backs the heroine. No different here where the Emperor saves Lin Lang’s life multiple times and piggy backs her here and there. She also saves the Emperor’s life by taking an arrow or two for him.
Throw in some eunuch/maid/concubine sabotage for good effect and you’ve got yourself an engrossing Qing Palace drama where the heroine is too good and forgiving to be true and the heroes keep running after the girl in every scene.
