Legend of Fuyao – The Drama - Part 3

Episodes 31-40: Emperor Father

Introduction to the overbearing, domineering father, Zhangsun Jiong, is as subtle as the character himself. The emperor of the entire world is a soft-spoken, slow-moving, old man. Even his anger appears fleeting. He shows his ire at Wuji for failing to bring the Earth Absorbing Bell artifact to him with surprising calm.  It’s a challenge he knows his ‘most capable person in the world’ son could easily achieve, did achieve, failed to deliver. But in the next breath he tells this envoy, who has greatly disappointed him, that his mother is waiting for him. Another envoy would have been unceremoniously killed. The child is scolded then sent home for dinner. The conflict ahead between the ruler of the world and the next in line to rule the world is set. One is an unyielding autocrat (usually). The other is an unyielding manipulator with levels of stubbornness that even the autocrat knows can't be broken at will (usually). After all, the former raised and trained the latter. Though anger by Emperor Father is the fast to ignite and quick to die kind with regard to his son, his grudges are the opposite.  Just how long this king of all men holds grudges is hinted at when one looks at his response to the invitation to share a meal with his wife and son.  He declines with tart grace.  There’s definitely something off there.

Life at Court

Palace intrigue, it appears, never changes.  The minutiae of even a privileged existence must become dull with time. Until greed and jealousy reach an unbearable level and despicable consequences ensue. This leads to the most horrifying event but also the most satisfying fightback portrayed in a drama.

Being where she shouldn’t be is an occupational hazard for Fuyao. And yes, once again, Ms Meng is in trouble.  Oh my!  This time she’s caught in the ultimately unforgiveable act of impersonating a member of a royal family.  Which country’s nobility does not matter.  The crime is an automatic death sentence.  It plays that Fuyao pretends to be Folian (aka Feng Jing Fan), Princess of Plough and Wuji's ‘fiancée’. [1] It isn't convincing. There is a lack of necessity and being too much into this play acting that renders the whole arc as contrived.  It was a foregone conclusion Fuyao would be caught.  It was predictable that her stupidity, dressed as ‘innocence and kindness’, would, unsurprisingly, turn around and bite her.  It took no leap in imagination to see that the outcome would bring trouble for Wuji.  Those are among the reasons this storyline did not garner as much interest for me as others did.  The risk and cost were just too high for even over-confident Fuyao to attempt. 

Yet, this very confidence gets her noticed by the emperor himself.  He’s quick to calculate that Fuyao, on whom his secret guards have provided intel, has value as a pawn to help him control his errant son -- or, so he thinks.  Yet, however, you get the feeling that the cunning emperor likes Fuyao, despite it all. It's not just that he chooses to meet her, calling for the fake Folian to be brought to his private chamber whilst ignoring the real Folian.  He even tells her that Wuji's love for her is real, that his son doesn't love the real Folian. If it's not like, it's respect on many levels: for her intelligence, for her ethical standing, for her confidence in standing unbowed before him. He does, indeed, go on to manipulate the truth in an endeavour to undermine Fuyao’s trust in Wuji, hoping that their bond can, thus, be broken. But even then, Fuyao does not clearly say their past was all lies but, rather, asks if it was all fake. It sounds like she still holds on to the hope that Wuji’s feelings and actions towards her are genuine. That viewpoint is important if they, Fuyao and Wuji, are to overcome the traps and trials laid out for them by family and foe alike.

The time comes for all parents when you are no longer the centre of your child's universe.  It is both terrifying and hurtful. It frightens you that they will now make their own decisions and, with that, mistakes you can only watch. It's hurtful that after all the effort you have ‘invested’ in them, a stranger can replace your influence so easily. When Wuji begs for Fuyao's life, it is the first thing he has ever asked his father for. [2]  The magnitude of the request is not lost on the receiver. The look on that man’s face is as the father, not the world ruler. Status can do nothing to reverse time, however. Dismissing Wuji with a bang of that infuriating bonger thing spells the end of more than the discussion. And truly, that infernal bong is such a rude way to dismiss people. It's also one of those sounds that causes nightmares. It's sufficient to elicit a conditioned response in those against whom it has been used.

A discontented emperor is way worse than a sulking parent, though both can take petty revenge. However, Emperor Lord’s tantrums -- silent or not -- are accompanied by high stakes.  The consequences can include not only the loss of liberty but even your life, even if you were previously the favoured son. There’s no reasoning with an autocrat father whose sole mission is to create a replica of himself. So Wuji's apologies, even his assurances of filial devotion, just causes his father to double down with the refusals and jealous pouting.  The lie of impersonating Princess Folian almost costs Fuyao her life.  It also costs Zhangsun Wuji a whole lot of trouble because of how far he openly goes to protect and save her.  Rebellion and disrespect, Wuji already knows, are two ‘crimes’ his father does not tolerate nor forgive. He crossed both lines, and punishment is guaranteed. The weapon of choice to deal with this wayward son is to use his own brother against him.

It is indeed understandable that Zhangsun Ping Ron, eldest sibling but sidelined for the throne, is dissatisfied with the lot granted to him by his father.  That his younger brother is the chosen one and thereby awarded the title of Crown Prince and all the glory of the kingdom now, and the promise of ruling the entire world later, must be emotionally galling.  It must hurt more than his pride to be looked down upon by the citizens who, of course, understand the significance of his lower status.  Yet, his father applies sound reasoning to the decision he makes in this particular case. We see a leader who is manipulative but very aware of the situation he has created for his older son.  A ruler must be wise, courageous, politically astute, and able to win the hearts of the kingdoms he governs.  Oldest son, Zhangsun Ping Ron, fails on all counts.  Wuji checks all the boxes, and then some.  Explaining this would be a waste of breath.  The people understand, so, I guess, to Emperor Father, that’s good enough.  There is, no surprise, a catch in the emperor’s decision.  He does not formally grant Wuji the right to rule after him.  Rather, he leaves the position ‘open’, causing his disgruntled and openly hostile senior offspring to continue in his assertion that he has an automatic right of ascension to the throne. Sibling rivalry at its worst.

Still, whatever methods Zhangsun Ping Ron has used in his past efforts to destroy Wuji and could choose to use now with the support of his father, the attempted rape and murder of Fuyao is as unwarranted as it is shocking. [3] Yet our girl represents all women in her refusal to accept what seems impossible to survive. The attack is brutal, the fightback by Fuyao desperate, but at its end, that bully will never be a sexual predator again. This brings us the best portrayal in a drama of a lover wronged and his determination to save the one he loves. Wuji is literally shaking with rage and fear.[4]  His hatred extends beyond the fact that it is Fuyao in the snare of the preying brother.  His hatred is, as we later find out, also towards all the crimes and cruelty that form the life of that immoral, despicable sibling.  Wuji was never someone to share that which he cares about most.  Not his friends and, most certainly, not his woman.  He doesn’t share because his loyalty understands only total outcomes.  Wuji gives you his whole heart, including his life, if that’s what it takes to protect you.  How then can he tolerate a sexual assault on this woman whom he later describes as more important to him than life itself, much less that her very existence was almost erased? Perhaps, indeed, this is the point where Wuji recognises that he can’t live without Fuyao.  It is certainly the point where he separates the man that he is from his position and duties as inheritor of the world he will become. 

Love and hate share a narrow divide

Yang Mi’s performance of hating and loving someone at the same time is sublime.  I’m never keen on the drunkenness used to express true feeling in dramas, but it served its purpose here.  Although I maintain the view that the emotions could have been expressed without the alcohol.  That aside and thankfully, Fuyao did not close her heart against Wuji as the emperor had planned.  She was hurt, and she did question whether her lived experience was the truth.  Fuyao’s persisting faith in Wuji is evidenced when, seriously wounded from the older brother’s abuse whilst in Megrez, she continues to express a wish for him to appear beside her.  She must have been inwardly calling for him whilst desperately fighting for her life, right up to the point when she slips into unconsciousness.  Although she witnessed him kissing the real Folian and was told by the emperor that Wuji will always put duty first -- as in marrying Folian to form a political alliance -- Fuyao does not question that Wuji will come to save her.  He had always turned up in her hour(s) of need, and this is her most desperate moment.  She expects nothing different this time.  Had she hated Wuji, would she have wished him there at such a vulnerable time: partially undressed and with the situation of her attempted, possibly realized rape leaving nothing to the imagination?  Unlikely.  Then, sitting alone in the desert outside Yoa City, where she is recuperating, we see Fuyao hallucinating and visualising a horse-riding Wuji galloping towards her.  This type of hate is unreliable and easily transitions back to love, which we see when Wuji really does appear before her.  Drunk or sober, Fuyao’s tears and her resistance to his embrace are short-lived.  She chastises him for not coming sooner.  She accuses him of not caring about her.  She wonders how her dream and wish for him to be with her could look and feel so real.[5]  That type of hate is a lie summoned to protect the heart, but one that fails completely.

The arguments they have, too, feel real and similarly fail to dampen their desire for one another.  The making up feels even more real.  Of those, none is more touching and envy inducing than after the Yao City Festival when Fuyao admits that her reason for rejecting Wuji at that point of a relationship which they have mutually acknowledged, is that she knows she is dying from the poison Wuji’s brother injected her with. Adding that she wants to free him from the pain and sadness that will come is faulty reasoning, but easy to relate to, even in its short sightedness.  Thankfully, they get over that and share the most beautiful ‘date’.  Nothing more than gentle, calm, time together.  Him with his head resting on her shoulder.  She does the same later.  Them with playful fingers intertwined and projecting the ownership and trust that they share.  Real is a word that has been used repeatedly about the relationship between Fuyao and Wuji.  Whether embracing her, smiling at her, crying over her, or flirting with Fuyao, every touch, every movement of Ethan Juan’s acting is spot on.  Every expression of love lights up the scene and screen and carries the viewer with it.  How he separates the depiction of anger with, say, Folian or Qi Zhen, Prime Minister of Deep Water, and his anger with Fuyao when she tries to push him to another woman, is a masterclass in exposing layers within emotions, which few in life or on scene can do well.

Nosey Parker

I want to skip straight past the Black Tribe Gang storyline.  But I can’t. That Fuyao had no business getting involved in their business is a given.  Why not contact the emperor or Wuji through the citizens (as she herself is, in fact, a wanted fugitive in hiding)?  In Wuji’s absence, why not let Zhong Yue who is there as her personal physician reach out for help? 

When Fuyao decides to be superman-woman to deal with the Black Tribe Gang (the cross dressing makes it hard to keep up sometimes), surely she understands the odds are against her succeeding in whatever hare-brained scheme she has devised.  That she doesn't die at the gang's fort is due only to Wuji's secret guards tasked to protect her. They pay with their lives, every one of them. Ten superb fighters; [6] none of whom she had ever even greeted in passing. The loss of those lives is on Fuyao.

Should the citizens of Yao City have locked the gates against Fuyao? Hell no! Bastards, all of them. Ignorant bastards with selectively short memories. In truth, though, it was partly her fault. She played one too many games with them and, simpletons that they are, the residents believed she had abandoned them and given the city away to the gang that had terrorised the region.  All except one young man, Tie Cheng, Yao City’s archery champion, who has great respect for Fuyao, not to mention a serious crush on her. His repeatedly failed attempts to give Fuyao access to the fort are pitiful to watch.  Fuyao being chased and attacked by the gang should have brought pause and reconsideration to the observers.  The angry mob within the city walls should have asked themselves whether Fuyao would be running from the enemy if she had truly switched sides. Not a nice storyline; just cruel and bloody. A knife to the heart doesn’t stop the gang leader. How did it not kill him?  Yet one to the gut stopped him in his tracks. It's not about reality but about reasonable levels of suspended belief. The storyline, in truth, is not bad; it just wasn’t necessary. What was good, however, is Fuyao’s reunion with Wuji.  Even in this, however, the Black Tribe Gang was irrelevant.  They did not matter the least bit.

Friendship

Almost equal to the themes of romance in this drama, friendship in Legend of Fuyao [7] is equally well portrayed.  It’s refreshingly positive. How easy it was for Fuyao and Yalan Zhu to become friends where most dramas make them enemies because of a man that only one of them is interested in.  The friendship between Xiao Qi and Yalan Zhu is bright and innocent.  When they scheme mischief, they really are every empty-headed teenager ready to go into battle without a plan.  Let’s rescue Fuyao together could so easily have translated to let’s die together, together, together but for the interception by 'an adult’, Zhan Beiye.  Their reckless ambition has to be thwarted a second time when they scheme to rescue Fuyao again. Same absent plans and empty strategies. Which of us doesn’t recognise both the abundant belief in invincibility and the stupidity of these two?  Living on a wing and a prayer was ever the anthem of youth.

Between Wuji and Zhong Yue?  They are true brothers. The relationship is easy but deep, with natural understanding, easy compromise, and steadfast loyalty.  They easily and often vocalise that loyalty, giving frequent assurances of their respective support.  Neither needs the permission of the other to interfere in their business.  Honesty is a given, welcome or not.  If there is that one person in your life that you can rely on to always tell you the truth, the value of their friendship is beyond a price.  Wuji and Zhong Yue have it.  One shouldn’t omit the friendship between Wuji and his bodyguard and closest aide.  Master and subordinate, they somehow breach the boundaries of status and, nonetheless, stay within protocol.  Perhaps it’s having been together for so long.  Perhaps it’s Wuji’s attitude towards people that he trusts and cares about.  Perhaps, even, that this drama, The Legend of Fuyao, makes a conscious effort to promote positive friendships to balance the negative relationships encountered elsewhere.  Whatever the reason, they are welcome diversions from all the angst and power battle themes of the drama.

Leonora

asiandramaobserver@gmail.com

[1] Episode 33

[2] Episode 34

[3] Episode 34

[4] Episode 34

[5] Episode 38

[6] Episode 39, 40

[7] Legend of Fuyao. Yang Wenjun, Linmon Pictures, 2018. Rakuten Viki, https://www.viki.com/Legend of Fuyao/35844c