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I've started watching "The Rise of Phoenixes" (which, as a big plus, is available on Netflix, so not constantly interrupted by annoying ads) and so far it's really, really good. It remains to be seen whether it will give me all the feels of "Nirvana in Fire" but it has top-notch acting, beautiful aesthetics, and finally - finally! - women with real agency who actually get to provide input to all the plotting alongside the men, as well as being dab hands with a sword. The actress who plays Consort Jing is Our Heroine's mother and she must have had a whale of a time in this one, not stuck in a palace brewing medicinal teas but shaping the fate of an empire. So far, the writing is very good, but as I'm only on episode 7 of 70, I shall withhold judgment on that aspect - "The Story of Minglan" let me down very badly in its final episodes, so I've learned to be cautious about enthusing too soon, but thus far the story has been gripping and the pacing very good.
Prince Ning Yi, the youngest son of the Emperor of a usurping dynasty, has been imprisoned in a temple since the age of 18 when he did something Very Bad, or possibly his father did something Very Bad, and certainly his oldest brother, the Crown Prince ("taizi-gege"), did something Very Bad ten years before that. Ning Yi has spent his time in exile becoming an expert in weaving, an art generally looked down on as women's work, and on gaining his release spends a lot of his time in brothels pretending to be a tailor while picking up vital gossip and scheming with friends. His long-term goal is revenge/justice for his murdered older brother, Ning Qiao, who appears to have been collateral damage when the Very Bad things went down, but unlike Prince Jing, he doesn't have a strategist at his side to do the dirty work for him, so he has to do both the strategising and the wetwork himself. Luckily, he has loyal friends and servants to help, but matters are complicated by a love interest who is up to her neck in intrigue, not to a mention a connection to the supposedly dead son of the usurped emperor.
Photo: Qiu Mingying. This is what "Nirvana in Fire" never gave me. Now I can die happy!
Prince Ning Yi, the youngest son of the Emperor of a usurping dynasty, has been imprisoned in a temple since the age of 18 when he did something Very Bad, or possibly his father did something Very Bad, and certainly his oldest brother, the Crown Prince ("taizi-gege"), did something Very Bad ten years before that. Ning Yi has spent his time in exile becoming an expert in weaving, an art generally looked down on as women's work, and on gaining his release spends a lot of his time in brothels pretending to be a tailor while picking up vital gossip and scheming with friends. His long-term goal is revenge/justice for his murdered older brother, Ning Qiao, who appears to have been collateral damage when the Very Bad things went down, but unlike Prince Jing, he doesn't have a strategist at his side to do the dirty work for him, so he has to do both the strategising and the wetwork himself. Luckily, he has loyal friends and servants to help, but matters are complicated by a love interest who is up to her neck in intrigue, not to a mention a connection to the supposedly dead son of the usurped emperor.
Photo: Qiu Mingying. This is what "Nirvana in Fire" never gave me. Now I can die happy!
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