Chinese Drama 2019

Under The Power (Chinese Drama Review & Summary)

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• Genre: Historicl Costume Drama, Romance, Mystery, Investigtion
• Release Date: 28 December 2019
• Origin: China, Adapted from a novel by Lan Se Shi
• Cdrama: 56 Episodes

Cast:

• Ren Jia Lun as Lu Yi
• Tan Song Yun as Yuan Jin Xia
• Han Dong as Yan Shi Fan
• Ye Qing as Shangguan Xi
• Ethan Yao as Xie Xiao
• Han Cheng Yu as Lan Dao Heng
• Lu Hong as Yang Yue
• Xi Xue as Lin Ling
• Ding Yong Dai as Zhu Houcong, the Jiajing Emperor
• Liu Wei as Lu Bing
• Li Ting Zhe as Uncle Gai

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Episode 1

There was a prologue where it narrated that during the years of Jia Jin, Yan Song did something dastardly.  He framed the Grand Secretary, Xia Ran.

Xia Ran ended up beheaded.

Yan Song had become powerful by getting rid of Qiu Cheng, Shen Lian, Yan Qi Zhen, and other political enemies.

Yan Song and his son took the power.

In the 37th year of Jia Jing was headed by Wang Zhi from Wokou and attacked the coastal cities of the Ming Dynasty.

The same year the map of the coastal defense was stolen from the Ministry of Defense.

Lu Yi, the son of Lu Ting, was put in charge of the investigation.  Lu Yi was the commander of the Embroidery Uniform guard.

Lu Yi was very astute and rather brutal.  He used knives to torture a witness/suspect to confess what he knew.

He found out that Cao Kun might have something to do with stealing the map. Lu Yi found out that Cao Kun had been promoted by Minister Xu Lang.  Lu Yi surmised that Cao Kun was a spy who lurked beside Minister Lu Yang.

Meanwhile, Yuan Jin Xia works at Department 6, she was investigating Li Dan who was eloping with Cao Ling Er, daughter of Cao Kun.

Cao Kun tried to bribe Jun Xia with gold bars.

Jun Xia handed Li Dan to her assistant, Da Yang as she had been called by the Shifu.

The Shifu gave her a new assignment.

Apparently Cao Kun had been found dead, burnt to death as his house.

Jun Xia used forensic to declare that the man who was so burnt, he was unrecognisable, that he was already dead before he was murdered.

To confirm that the man was indeed Cao Kun, Jun Xia asked Cao Kun’s wife if he had been injured before.  The wife readily said that Cao Kun was shot with an arrow ten years ago and the tip of the arrow remained in his chest as the doctor broke the tip of the arrow.

Indeed Ju Xia found the tip of that arrow in the burnt man’s chest.

She confirmed that he was Cao Kun.

Shifu said that the three jurisdictions department had sent the document to find the killer of Cao Kun.  He told his constables that a reward of 15 silver coins will be given to the one who finds the killer.

Jun Xia was gleeful when she snatched the document, which was surprisingly snatched away from her by Lu Yi.

Jun Xia not knowing who Lu Yi took her gun and was going to point it at him but he snatched it as well.

He told Jun Xia that she made a mistake as he took the tip of the arrow as it was not as old as 10 years ago.

The burnt body of the man was taken away, together with her gun by Lu Yi.

It turned out that Jun Xia was adopted, she was still looking for her real parents.

Her adopted mother did not really approve of her working as a policewoman, she would have rather Jun Xia had married someone with a settled life.

Jun Xia was not a girly girl, in fact the case of Cao Kun disturbed her so much she started investigating by going to prison pretending to be a catering servant.  She found Li Dan and showed him that she still got his gold and if he tells him where Cao Kun was then he can have the gold back.

I am loving this drama already despite it only the first episode.  The cast is good especially the leads.  So cute.

Episode 2

Jun Xia was on surveillance in front of a property where Cao Kun was supposed to be hiding.  But the man managed to get away despite Lu Yi turning up as reinforcement.

Their next target was a brothel/bar which was owned by Cao Kun.

It so happened that at that time there was an auction of an antique harp which was much sought after by the moneyed people including Lu Yi who bid the highest and would have won it if Yan Shi Fan did not turn up and made the auctioneer repeat the bidding for the harp.

Being high up official, everyone allowed him to get away from bidding a piddling amount of money and winning it.

Yan Shi Fan then invited Lu Yi to have a drink with him and listen as the harp will be played by Miss Dong.

Miss Dong did not turn up instead it was Xia who dressed by in female clothes complete with beautiful make-up who eventually played the harp.  She partly covered the lower half of her face with a thin veil.

She played Tao Yao which captivated Lu Yi immediately.  This might be the time when he had fallen in love with Xia.

Anyway Tao Yao has a backstory.

It was Lu Yi’s mother’s favourite music.  She was playing it over and over while her husband was practicing his sword-fighting in the yard.  He might have accidentally stabbed her with his sword, killing her instantly.  This was the reason why father and son were on each other’s throat all the time over the years.

Anyway. Yan Shi Fan noticed how engrossed Lu Yi was with Miss Dog’s playing so he said that he can have the harp and Miss Dong as well for the day.  They can get to know each other and talk.

It seemed that Lu Yi needn’t have to be convinced because he went immediately to see Miss Dong.  He wanted to find out how Miss Dong knew of Tao Yao which was an original composition of his Mother’s teacher.

Xia/Miss Dong said that she learned it from an old man.

Lu Yi wanted her more to elaborate but all Xia wanted was to get the photofit of the new-look Cao Kun.

Xia sprinkled a knock out powder on Lu Yi’s face and took the photofit from his waist.

At that point, Lu Yi knew who the girl was before he fainted.

Xia showed the photo to Da Yang.

When she got back to Department 6 HQ, Lu Yi’s Embroidered soldiers were already waiting to arrest her.

She  told them that they need to present and evidence for the arrest.

Her Shifu concurred with this statement and told the soldier that they can leave with they can’t show the evidence.

Xia immediately went to find Lu Yi and gave him back the photo.

Episode 3

Xia is adopted by a very kind woman when she was young.  Her new mother wanted her to give up policing and marry a simple guy with a good job and settle for a peaceful quiet life.

Xia, however, loves being a constabulary, she loves the job, her colleagues and forensic works which was very good at as noticed by even Lu Yi.

They finally found and arrested Cao Kun, which was not easy at first because he had changed his appearance by donning a prosthetic mask.

Xia was going on a trip to investigate something with the boss and Dayan.

Episode 4

Da Yang is so sweet and Xia rather takes advantage of his goodness.

She asked him to pretend to be her boyfriend so that her mother would lay off matchmaking her.

Da Yang laughed it off.

Their camaraderie did not go unnoticed by Lu Yi, who was rather annoyed by it.

They were aboard a cargo ship.

A consignment of gifts to the emperor had gone missing and Xia and Da Yang were being blamed for the thieving.

The guards were about to kill Xia and Dayang but Lu Yi came and caught the arrow that was flying straight to Xia’s throat.

He was enraged and told the guard that he was a weirdo in that he will not have anyone kill his people.

Xia was able to prove that she and Dayang had nothing to do with stealing the gifts because it was an inside job all along.

Their voyage was surprised by the appearance of a luminous ghost ship.

Episode 5

The team found out the thieving of the gifts was all a setup.  It was planned by a group which thinks of themselves as some sort of Robin Hood, robbing the rich to give to the poor.

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