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Such Fun

I decided to watch the very long Chinese Xianxia drama Fateful Love due to the male lead (Zhang Han, who I liked in Sunshine of My Life despite the way he looks and the fact that he was a bit too old for the part.) So glad I did, too, because this is quite a high fantasy romp with lots to like and a few characters to love, although at times it does get a bit complicated.

The first episode adds some confusion at first. We're introduced to the female lead as a nameless soldier in the modern world, who seems to be in a Land of the Lost place as she finds an ancient dagger in a cave. Suddenly she's transported to a completely different world of the past, where she wakes up in the same body, but she's now Han Zijing, the abused illegitimate daughter of a minister. She then catches the eye of Prince Jun Beiye, a general looking for a wife.

Despite Zijing's questionable status and a very fresh scandal she woke up entangled in (this is where it starts to get complicated), as well as her best efforts to turn away Beiye, he chooses her and they become sorta-kinda engaged. They then proceed to get into all kinds of conflicts involving strange tribes, mysterious artifacts and pretty much the soup to nuts bad guys and monsters of Chinese high fantasy. Of course Zijing and Beiye fall for each other, and they work together to uncover the secrets of her identity and her past.

Puzzling bit: Zijing never forgets that she was that modern soldier in another world, and decides everything happening to her is a dream. This seems a bit convenient, but it may explain why she makes some pretty stupid decisions throughout the series, like forging ahead on her own to deal with some dangerous dilemma instead of waiting for Beiye to join her and help. She's also constantly distracted by, abducted by, and sometimes romanced by Xuanyuan Lige (played quite artfully by Yao Chi), the Crown Prince of Dongling. This guy is a great visual, as well as an excellently crafted, constant conflicted and morally murky character who provides a lot of tension, but Beiye never sees him as a genuine threat. I didn't, either.

Problems: Surprisingly not a lot other than what you might expect in Xianxia (characters and situations so far over the top they've fallen into another dimension of often implausible, sometimes silly and occasionally cheesy storytelling.) There was some repetition in the middle of the series that could have been better written as different challenges -- maybe even a quest or two -- instead of duplicated scenarios. The big build up to what is the wrap-up of the series didn't seem all that necessary to me; it could have been simplified (which would have made the series easier to follow.) Also, brace yourself for an ending that may annoy the hell out of you (I was expecting it, and liked it.)

The romance is pretty chaste but quite romantic in a quiet, subtle way. The costumes are beautiful and mostly well made, and often truly inventive, especially with the female head pieces. The secondary characters are interesting and diverse for such a huge cast, and the cascading conflicts intermesh together well to make up a complicated but fairly easy to figure out series conflict. Although everyone seemed to hate the heroine and blame her for their problems, that tends to happen to remarkable people like her. I thought Han pulled off Beiye's character flawlessly. This guy just keeps impressing me more and more.

If you don't mind watching 40 episodes, and you like big casts, big stories and lots of romp, Fateful Love is probably for you. Available on Viki.com.

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