Pursuit of Jade follows the romance of a butcher’s daughter (Tian Xi Wei) and a famed general (Zhang Ling He) in hiding as they help each other, fall in love, and go on to fight on the battlefield together.
Tian Xi Wei plays Fan Chang Yu. She is the kind and strong daughter of a butcher who takes care of her younger sister after their parents pass away. Her life is challenging and gets more complicated when she takes in a wounded man surrounded by mystery.
Zhang Ling H is Xie Zheng/MarQuis of Wu’an. He is a famed general who is injured in battle and is taken in by Chang Yu. For protection, he hides his identity and ends up growing close with her during their time together.
For the most part, Pursuit of Jade was a very fun watch, but it is an extremely difficult drama for me to rate. I would sum up my experience with it like this: the first third was amazing, the middle third was good, and the last third was meh.
The first third was a complete work of art. It was one of the most esthetically beautiful dramas that I have ever seen. So much care went into every little detail of each scene from the production to all of the sets and costumes. The small village it is set in had such an incredibly cozy vibe too.
The winter setting was truly something else. It was like a winter wonderland covered in snow, and it was almost always snowing outside. The inside of homes were lit with a warm amber glow, and the windows were frequently left open to see the gentle snow falling outside. I kept thinking how cold that must have been to always have the windows open in the middle of winter, but it was a gorgeous sight. Even though there is definitely plenty of drama and some action, it really just felt so cozy.
VAGUE SPOILERS BELOW
I loved the developing relationship between our main couple, Chang Yu and Xie Zheng. Their first interactions are a mix of mystery and humor all put together in such a beautiful way. I enjoyed the small moments between them as they got to know each other.
I also really liked how quickly Xie Zheng was pulled into the family. I loved the cozy little family they formed with Chang Yu’s sister, Chang Ning (Cao Yan Ning). I just so enjoyed the day in and day out of them living in this beautiful winter village.
We see a lot of our couple protecting each other in various situations from simple busy bodies in town to more dangerous situations. I liked how they both stood up for each other and quickly build up loyalty towards one another. They also had such a nice chemistry, and their interactions just felt so natural.
There’s plenty of fun and sweetness surrounding Chang Yu so adamantly proclaiming how she would take care of and protect Xie Zheng before his identity is fully revealed. Oh how I loved the time spent in the little village as their romance was just beginning!
We then do move on to some more difficult things as the circumstances lead our couple to having to part for a time. Stakes grow as war looms, and they have to make their way back to each other. Then of course, there’s the big reveal of Xie Zheng’s true identity.
That leads to big repercussions that definitely impact their relationship. It’s a difficult time where they have to adjust to how they interact with each other. There are a lot of ups and downs, but new identities emerge as they navigate this transition. Although I didn’t love this portion as much, it was still interesting to see the people they become, and who they become as a couple. They were still by far the highlight of the drama in the latter portion that suffered from some major issues.
There is a secondary romance that involves the Grand Princess (Yu Zhong Li) and Headmaster Gongsun Yin (Li Qing). This one was simple and played out slowly but was still interesting enough.
Then we have complex relationship that is more of an obsessive hostage situation. We have our big bad, Qi Min (Deng Kai), who holds his love obsession, Yu Qian Qian (Snow Kong), captive for a good portion of the drama. This is one of those kind of disturbing and awkward relationships. Most of her interactions with him are her just trying to survive with him being angry and possessive. There is some understanding that develops later on, but it’s definitely not a romantic situation.
The middle section of the drama really takes shape after tragedy strikes the village. This is when our main couple separates and has to make their way back to each other. We see them dealing with various threats before they finally reunite. I still quite enjoyed this section of the show, although we do start to lose some of that charm from the beginning.
Now, as we move into that ladder third, that’s where things really start to kind of fall apart. The tone really changed as we spread the focus to a lot of other characters, and there are huge stakes at play. It felt like the pacing was just rushing forward, and we were skipping a lot of important connecting scenes. This happened with the major events as well as developments with our main couple.
It really felt like they needed more time to adequately tell this portion of the story, but instead they were forced to cram as much of it in as they could. It definitely made things feel a little disjointed.
I still found our couple as the main anchor during this time, and it improved as it went towards the very end. But the actual ending of the drama in the last few episodes really built up to a lot of the big mystery that happened in the past involving many of our key players. Although a lot had been revealed, there was still some important information to discover.
And the drama went the route of sort of just explaining what happened at the very end. It felt a bit lackluster. But the actual ending of the drama was satisfying, and I was happy to see where all of our characters ultimately ended up. Although it was a bit trying to get there, at least it wrapped the story fairly well.
END OF SPOILERS
So, as I mentioned, my experience of the show was all over the place. It’s challenging to go from absolutely loving the beginning to liking the middle to feeling pretty meh about the last section. I loved the main story involving our couple and who they were as individuals. The stuff surrounding them and their past was important to all of this, but it wasn’t as interesting to watch. But for the most part, it was a very enjoyable drama.
I will very much fondly remember that first third that was so magical, cozy, and mysterious. It really showed how aesthetically beautiful a drama can be when such care and attention to detail is present. That will always be my main takeaway from the drama and will help me remember Chang Yu and Xi Zheng’s story as a whole more fondly.
My Rating: 7/10
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