This weekend, I am watching the final episodes of The Promise Of Chang’an which I have thoroughly enjoyed as the plot and acting is rather stellar. Unlike some dramas with happy endings, I can’t say the same about this dramas as star-crossed lovers Prince Xiao Cheng Xu and his childhood sweetheart Helan Ming Yu don’t end up together. Cheng Xu has only ever wanted to be with Ming Yu and despite being married to Cheng Xu’s brother, King Xiao Cheng Rui, she has never loved him. As Cheng Xu and Ming Yu make plans to go to Jiangnan together forsaking everything, he volunteers to go to war and ends up being killed by a poison arrow while saving King Xiao Qi Yuan, Ming Yu’s son. The part where Ming Yu finds out that the one she has loved for over 2 decades has died is really sad.
Now Qi Yuan is in love with a girl he met when he was a child, the daughter of a nobleman. Her name is Dong Ruo Xuan and he is determined to be together with her despite his mother’s initial objections. However, he has to marry another princess of an ally county in order to maintain peace and stability at the border. Ruo Xuan was reluctant to be a concubine as she knows palace intrigues can be deadly. The actress who plays Ruo Xuan, ex-member of Rocket Girls has to put on a sombre and dignified expression throughout most of the episodes she is in.
Good drama which kept me waiting for each episode to appear with subtitles. I thought it was one of the saddest China dramas I have watched as the ones who loved each other for over 20 years did not end up together eventually. Cheng Yi who plays Xiao Cheng Xu is excellent as he yearns for his lost love, so near yet unobtainable.
