A new sweet romance comedy costume drama “General’s Lady” will soon be available on your screen on October 9, 2020. If you like “romance comes after wedding” story theme such as “The Romance of Hua Rong” and “The Sleepless Princess,” then you might be interested in “General’s Lady.” In the ancient times, your parents would arrange your marriage with someone you never met but you eventually fall in love with your husband. The perfect fairytale, don’t you think?
将军家的小娘子 “General’s Lady” is a 30-episode web drama based on a popular web novel. Starring newcomer young actor and actress, Tang Min and Caesar Wu. The female lead, Tang Min’s most recent work is “Chef Hua” which you can watch on Yoyo English YouTube channel with English subtitles. As for the male lead, Caesar Wu, you definitely know him as Xi Men Yan in the newest version of “Meteor Garden.”
“General’s Lady” tells the story of Shen Jin, the daughter of a noble family, who is married off to Chu family’s son, Chu Xiuming, who is known as the Demon General who has killed his previous three wives. With the sudden change of the imperial court situation, the emperor became more and more suspicious of the Chu family. Taking Shen Jin’s parents as hostages, he sent a secret order to Shen Jin to act as a spy to monitor the Chu family.
Is this drama will be good? Will it be worth watching? What to expect from this drama? To answer these questions, we need to take a look at more details on the web novel it is based on as well as the director’s previous works.
将军家的小娘子 “General’s Lady” web novel is written by Yanbo Jiangnan and published as a series from December 2014 to May 2015 on Jinjiang Literature City, a major Chinese website for publishing web novels which hosts popular novels adapted into popular drama series, such as “Scarlet Heart,” “Empresses in the Palace” and “The Untamed.”
Yanbo Jiangnan has written many short and lengthy novels but “General’s Lady” is her most popular work as it get published as a hard copy book in Simplified Chinese as well as Traditional Chinese release for Taiwan and Hongkong. There is another one of her works that get published as hard copy but in simplified chinese only. Unfortunately, “General’s Lady” has not been translated into English but you can read summary and spoilers of the novel in English here: https://forum.novelupdates.com/threads/the-young-lady-of-the-generals-house.93776/
“General’s Lady” novel has received praises from netizens, it has its own fanbase and quotes from the novel are often picked up by web novel fans on Weibo and WeChat. When the news of drama adaptation came out last year, many of the novel readers were excited about it and this drama has been anticipated by many until now.
Last year, “General’s Lady” has won Golden Blowfish Award for The Most Anticipated Series in the 2019 China Entertainment Industry Summit, a few weeks after it has wrapped up filming. “Court Lady” starring Li Yitong and Xu Kai has received the same award as well.
However, other than praises, I have also stumbled upon comments that says the story has several plot holes and some parts are very slow-paced, although romantic scenes between the two main characters are very sweet.
One of the reasons of the netizens’ high anticipation of “General’s Lady” might because it is directed by Wu Qiang who has directed popular works, “The Eternal Love 2” starring Xing Zhaolin and Liang Jie, as well as “Well Intended Love” starring Simona Wang and Xu Kaicheng. This is also the reason why many netizens are predicting that “General’s Lady” might become a popular web drama, because the director’s previous works are successful.
Based on all the above facts, here is my personal opinion of what to expect from “General’s Lady.”
Plotwise, it will likely be an interesting and exciting love story because the two main characters comes from opposite sides. They are arranged to be married for peace treaty between two sides. This kind of plot has good prospect as a love story. However let’s keep in mind that some of the novel readers also mentioned that it is slow paced in some parts and has several plot holes. I am predicting slow parts and plot holes mostly on the palace conflicts. If we like to watch palace conflict dramas, I think, at least we will enjoy the slow paced parts.
Another worrisome part, according to Douban data, the scriptwriter for this drama are two rookie writers that has never written drama scripts before.
Directing wise, if you like how “The Eternal Love 2” and “Well Intended Love” directed and edited, I think it is a guarantee that “General’s Lady” will have the same quality, although there is always a possibility that this work might be the work the director does not perform too well.
Production wise, I would say visually, from stills and trailers, “General’s Lady” has proper quality. I say it is higher production quality than Caesar Wu’s previous work “The Chang’an Youth” in terms of costume, make-up, hair, props and sets.
Cast line-up wise, most of the actors and actresses are newbie and unfamiliar faces. They can be either good or bad, we will never know until we see the drama. Concerning the leads, Tang Min and Caesar Wu, I have seen various comments on their acting skills from mediocre to excellent, so, at least, we know they are not bad. I have never seen any of Tang Min’s works. But for Caesar Wu, I have to say his acting skill is still inconsistent. Sometimes mediocre, sometimes brilliant, I am guessing his performance depends on whether or not he is comfortable with the lines and scenes. The success of this drama will also depend a lot on these two leads’ onscreen chemistry as lovers. So far, what I have seen from trailers, they have adequate onscreen chemistry, so I am looking forward to their scenes together.
Overall, I am estimating my score for this drama will range between 6 to 8.
Don’t miss “General’s Lady” premiere on October 9th! Yoyo English YouTube channel has released the trailer with English subtitles so they will most likely provide English subtitles for the drama as well. Stay tune! Yoyo English Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S66Fl2ZJROw
CDrama Skyhouse 