Chinese Drama 2021

Monarch Industry (The Rebel Princess) Chinese Drama Review & Summary

---

• Genre: Historical Costume Drama Fiction, Romance, Imperial Marriage
• Release Date: 9 January 2021
• Origin: China
• Cdrama: 68 Episodes

 

Cast

• Zhang Ziyi as Wang Xuan/Awu
• Zhou Yiwei as Xiao Qi
• Tony Yang Youning as San Huang Zi Zi Tan
• Jiang Kai as Emperor
• Coco Shi as Empress Wang
• Angie Chiu as Princess Chang (Awu’s mother)
• Yu Hewei as Wang Lin (Prime Minister, Awu’s father)
• Guo Jia MIng as The Crown Prince
• Purba Rygal as The Second Prince
• Zuo Xiaoqing as Xie Wanru
• Yuan Hong as He Lanzhen
• Liu Duan Duan as Song Huai En

---

This television drama is the first for Zhang Ziyi who is a renowned international film actress after she wowed the global audience in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in 2000.

---

Episode 1

At first, I was not that enamored to watch this drama because I thought the gorgeous Zhang Ziyi is too old to play the young princess.

Then earlier today, I saw Avenue X’s first impression of this drama on Youtube. I love her reviews but I suddenly felt bad for Zhang Ziyi and her first foray into television dramas.  I wanted to watch this despite Avenue X’s pronouncement that this drama’s plotline is too dated and the cast is playing characters much too young for their real age.

True that Zhang Ziyi looks rather mature for a fifteen-year-old but she is really so stunning it did not matter in the end.

The drama started with young Awu being a beloved princess of the Palace.  Her mother was a princess and father is the Prime Minister.  Her uncle was the Emperor and her aunt was the Empress.  They all doted on her.

She is gregarious and quite likable.

Then came her puberty celebration where she will be married off.

Candidates for her hand in marriage were bandied off including marrying the Crown Prince.

Awu started telling the Emperor that she wanted to marry…. but she was interrupted by her own father who reported the escalating bloody war in Ningzhou.

Awu was so annoyed.  She was not able to tell them that she would only marry the Third Prince, Bro Zi Tan.

But she was not daunted, she went to Uncle Emperor and made him promised that if she wins a game of chess against him he must grant her wish.

She won and asked him to allow her to choose her own husband.  She reminded him that Emperor cannot break their promise so she had her promise.

Meanwhile, the Emperor is having a problem with keeping his promise on another issue.  He sort of made an unofficial edict that if General Xiao wins the battle in Ningzhou, he will make him into a lord.

Unfortunately, the nobles were up in arms about this because General Xiao comes from a very humble background.

Episode 2

With the help of Jin’er, Awu was able to sneak out to go on a date with Bro Zitan.  They went to a light festival where they sailed paper flower boats and made their wishes.

They were later watching a puppet show when the crowd started gossiping that General Xiao will be coming to the Capital soon and would probably be married to one of the nobles.  The consensus was that no princess is good enough for the valiant general.  Only Princess Shuangxuan will do.

Awu was annoyed.  She said that the Princess was allowed to choose her own husband.

Anyway, what she did not know was that General Xiao was standing nearby with his guard.  The guard said that General Xiao is so mighty, he is more than a match with anyone.

Awu said that the Princess’s beauty could launch a thousand ships, etc.

Anyway, the General stopped his guard to say much more.

The Princess and Bro Zi Tan were having a quiet time where they more or less promised each other that they will be together for always.  He gave her a jade hairpin as a love token.  They were totally loved up but were interrupted by assassins who wanted to kill Bro Zi Tan.

They would have succeeded if the General did not turn up and single-handedly disposed of the assassins.

Awu was totally shaken by what happened.  She wanted to have downtime at home but when she got to her room, the Empress was there, waiting.

The Empress was telling her that it was her duty to marry into the top because she is a Wang.  Her blood is so royal, it should not be diluted with anyone less royal.  She was forcing Awu to marry her son, Ma Zi Long, the Crown Prince.

Awu told her aunt that she had already promised Third Prince marriage and had given her a love token.

The Empress was so vexed she was on the point of slapping Awu when the Princess, Awu’s mother told the Empress to stop.

Anyway, when Awu and her mother were alone, she asked her mother who would assassinate kind Bro Zi Tan?

Her mother said that it could only be the Empress.

The royal concubine went to the Emperor to beg him to investigate who tried to kill their son, Zitan.

The Emperor was shocked that someone would try to kill one of his sons.

He immediately investigated the Empress.

Meanwhile, Minister Xie called his daughter, Wan Ru.

Wan Ru is Awu’s best friend.  The minister had told his daughter that she should marry General Xiao.

Wan Ru went absolutely mental.  She said that the general is a boor and a savage.

Episode 3

The King officially welcomed General Xiao into the Capital but it did not go as planned because Minister Gu jumped into his death from the balcony with a banner saying that commoner Xiao Qi should not be made a lord.

Everyone was shocked.  Awu’s father conducted a secret autopsy on Minister Gu.  It was found that the Minister had been dead for four hours even before jumping to his death.

Wan Ru got a good slapping from Minister Xie when she refused to marry the uncouth Xiao Xi.

It was the dinner banquet in honour of General Xiao.  He was being made a lord but Awu missed the ceremony as she was asked to see the Empress.

Episode 4

It was the banquet for General Xiao who will be made as Lord Yuzhang.  There was drinking and plenty of it.

During the middle of it the crown prince left the party and went to a room and waited more someone.

Meanwhile, Awu was led into a secluded courtyard and into a room.  She asked the made was no one was about,  she was told that probably the Empress wanted a really private word with her.

She started calling for her auntie, the empress, as she entered the room.  What she saw shocked her to the core.  The Crown Prince was in bed with Princess Wan Ru.

When the crown prince saw her though, he got up and ran after saying that he could not understand what was going on.

He thought all along that he was in bed with Awu because Awu is the one he liked.

Awu ran away from him, from shock, abhorrence, and fright.  To get away, she climbed into a wall that led to a ledge in the roof of the palace.  She misstepped and would have fallen into her death if the newly made lord, Lord Yuzhang, was not there to gather her in his waiting arms.

She thought it was Zitan at first but she fainted.

What happened was immediately found out by the family.

The Crown Prince said that he thought it was Awu that he was with which only got him a big punch from the emperor.

It was found out later that some sort of incense which was aphrodisiac was burning in the room which made both the crown prince and Wanru disorientated.

Awu’s father said that it was only right that the Crown Prince marries Wan Ru.  This infuriated the Empress saying that the Wang influence will be affected.

There were some influences in the palace to make Zitan the new crown prince.

The cinematography of this drama is really very polished.  Cannot be faulted.  The music score is well defined.  Its points to dramatic moments, exciting moments, confusing moments, etc.  Very watchable.

Episode 5

Wan Ru was hurriedly married off to the Crown Prince.

It looked like the Second Prince had something to do with what happened to them initially.

Awu’s father is the Prime Minister and was in the thick of it.  He wanted to preserve the strong position of the Wangs in the palace.

So he secretly went to Lord Yuzhang to propose a marriage between Lord Yuzhang and Awu.

Lord Yuzhang did not accept the proposal because he said he was a soldier and marriage had not even crossed his mind.  He will be leaving for the borders soon.

The Prime Minister won’t give up so easily.

Meanwhile, Zitan went to his father to ask permission to marry Awu.  He said that Awu is his world and would not look at other women.

Zitan was the emperor’s favourite son so he said that he will issue an edict of the marriage on his birthday.

But before his birthday, the Prime Minister gave the Jade Royal Seal to the Crown Prince to present to the Emperor.

The prime minister told the crown prince that the emperor will be so pleased and he was right.

The Emperor was ecstatic to receive the seal because it would mean he will be more powerful and not just a puppet emperor.

In his elation, he call for drinks form his favourite Concubine Xie, Zitan’s  mother.

After a couple of drinks the emperor collapsed.  He had been poisoned.

The Prime Minister and impressed question the doctor who said that the poison did not come from the drink, it was from the jade seal.

The Prime Minister advised the doctor to think again because if he drinks the wine and gets poisoned he will be buried with 39 relatives of the doctor.

The doctor was forced to change his findings.  He said it was the wine that poisoned the emperor.

The empress announced that Concubine Xie and Zitan are locked up in prison which upset Awu who said that Zitan and his mother were not the type of people who would harm anyone.  She added that the Emperor had approve a wedding between her and Zitan.

The Prime Minister ordered that Awu should be escorted home.

Now, Lord Yuzhang started an investigation into the emperor’s poisoning.

Episode 6

The Xie became a victim of the Wangs’ ambition of power.

The Empress visited Concubiine Xie in prison and told her that she had to kill herself after leaving a suicide note if she wanted Zitan and the Xie family to live.

Concubine Xie knew how nasty the empress was and with the Emperor in a coma she did not have much choice.  She did tell the Empress to not harm Zitan and the Xie clan otherwise she would turn into a vengeful ghost and would make the Empress’s life miserable.

Poor Awu was conned into agreeing to marry Lord Yuzhang for the sake of Zitan.

Episode 7

Wan Ru visited Awu to ask why she was marrying Lord Yuzhang rather than Zitan.

Awu told her that she had a change of mind because she had always admired Lord Yuzhang and marrying him was a dream come true.

Wan Ru was annoyed at her because this was another step into making the Wang powerful.  Wan Ru told the newly released Zitan that Awu did not really love him because she always had the hots for Lord Yuzhang.

Zitan was upset but told Wan Ru that it was up to Awu who she marries.

Meanwhile, Awu’s mother met up with Zitan and told him the truth that Awu only agreed to marry Lord Yuzhang in order to save Zitan’s life.

Awu’s mother arranged for Awu to elope with Zitan.

Unfortunately, Zitan ignored the instructions of Awu’s mother to arrive at midnight at the rendezvous (To be fair he did not know that he was eloping with Awu.). Instead, he arrived the following morning, long after Awu’s father found out about the elopement and had time to get to Awu before Zitan.

Episode 8

It was the wedding.  And during the ceremony, Lord Yuzhang knew his wife does not care for him one bit.  She rebuffed his touches and would not look at him, even once.

Then the final stage of the wedding, the chamber ceremony.

Awu was left waiting and then found out that her husband had left the building.  He was called for an emergency skirmish in the border.  He left without seeing his new wife.

She was annoyed and humiliated she went to the balcony and in front of the people she took off the phoenix coronet which her husband should have removed.  She threw the coronet on the ground.

Months later, her husband apparently sent her letters and gift almost everyday which she ignored.

Zitan was also writing to her but she told her maid to burn them because she is now Princess Yuzhang.

Awu and her maid went out to the 1000 – Lantern Festival and really had a good time.  But she was abducted by a man who could fly on a wooden wing.

Her father found out about it and sent soldiers but they can’t find her.

Her husband found out about it but he can’t do anything because he was tasked by the Crown Prince to stay and patrol Ningzhou.

Episode 9

Awu was kidnapped by the Helan tribe who had a lot of issues with Lord YuZhang.

Helan Zhen, the leader of the tribe first saw in the street and found her beautiful and wanted to see her close up.

He tried to molest her a few times but she was one feisty lady.

In the end, he decided to bring her to her husband.

Episode 10

Awu almost got away and had a couple of rescuers from Ningzhou but there were too many Helan soldiers.

She managed to tell the rescuers though that in three days, Helan will use her as bait to kill Lord Yuzhang.

Episode 11

Xiaoke was made to wear Awu clothes and pretended as her.  They strapped Xiaoke with explosive and so was Awu.

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

Did you notice it?

Apparently, Zhan Ziyi was show wearing trainers in this episode and the producers apologised for this oversight

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

32

33

34

35

36

37

38

39

40

41

42

43

44

45

46

47

48

49

50

51

52

53

54

55

56

57

58

59

60

61

62

63

64

65

66

67

Episode 68

8 March 2021:  I couldn’t wait to see if this drama has a happy ending so I jumped to this final episode just to check.

I realised that I had to go back to previous episodes to fully enjoy and understand what happened.

Anyway, in this episode, Zitan was now the emperor but it seemed not for long because he made Awu promised to kill him as soon as the insurgents get to the palace.  He doesn’t want to die at the and of the rebels and without his dignity.

Awu sadly nodded.

Then suddenly a battalion of soldiers came crashing into the palace.  I was shocked that the brave and gallant Song Huai En turned out to be a baddy.

Song Huai En ordered the arrest of the emperor and then a new emperor was marching in.

Awu was shocked to see her dead father as the new emperor.  Awu got a dagger and held it against  her neck and told her father that she would kill herself if her father tried to force himself to the kingship.  She said that it was so wrong, it invalidates everything he had taught her.

Her father said that he loved her more than the throne but Song Huai En stabbed him.

Song Huai En then said that he will be the new emperor.  He would take everything from Xiao Qi.  Song Huai En wanted her to be his queen but his request was immaterial because he was shot by Xiao Qi.

The dying Song Huai En begged Qiao Xi to return him to Ningzhou.  So sad.

The peace was restored, Zitan abdicated in favour of Jing’er (whoever he was?!!!)

Awu and Qiao Xi went back to Ningzhou and now look after a dozen kids.  And Awu was also pregnant.

The End