Historical Costume Drama. 2020. 36 episodes approx 44min each. Available on Viki Rakuten and can also be found on You Tube, both with English subs.
Set in the Tang Dynasty, this Chinese historical drama has some light relief moments. Principal characters are successful silk merchant, Li Jing Liu and Chief Long Ao Yi is the leader of the Dragon Bamboo Gang of Yincheng. These two are representative of the upper and lower classes.
A valuable shipment of gold thread for the New Silk Road business goes missing and Chief Long helps Li Jing Liu investigate (whilst clearing her Gang's name). Both of these have unusual weaknesses though! A mutual respect and attachment grows between the two and they continue to work together. The story moves to Cheng'du in the second half of the series and the storyline become a little more serious.
No historical costume drama is complete without scheming officials and so there are plenty of those! The streetwise, gambling, heavy drinking, smart mouthed but caring Chief Long (played by popular actress Bai Lu). The reserved and clever silk merchant (played by Lai Yi) who is intrigued by Chief Long. A good supporting cast of business partners, friends, servants, gang members, ladies of the night, royalty and more makes a series that is definitely easy to watch.
Whilst the story slows down a little in places and some little things get left behind and not revisited, it's not boring. As I became invested in the story and characters I started to love some and intensely dislike others - to me this is a sign of a good drama! Both leads are excellent actors and the two have good on-screen chemistry and I suspect there was much laughter by the actors on the set between takes. Great costumes and hair, great looking sets and some on-location filming. A little romance, adventure, intrigue and more. Well worth watching and good enough for me to add to my "watch again down the track" pile.
Enjoy!
