The Legend of Anle (2023) - Final Review

Final review/rating: The Legend of Anle (2023) - A decidedly average half-way house adaptation only made watchable by its cast 

This is 7.5/10 stars ✮✮✮✮✮✮✮ from Pandafan🐼

Overall rating:         7.5 Stars Plot:                       7 Stars Acting/cast:            8 Stars Couple chemistry:   8 stars Music:                    7 Stars Re-watch value:      6 Stars Enjoyment factor:   7.5 Stars

The Legend of Anle (2023) could have been so much better than it was given that it is adapted from a fantastic source novel. I wanted to see the machinations of a brilliantly intelligent but morally grey (anti)-heroine as she schemes to avenge the unjust annihilation of her family and soldiers.  I wanted to see her playing a dangerous game of the heart with the equally intelligent hero who loves her, but whose family is responsible for the death of hers.  I wanted to see love, hate, angst, and if logically possible, redemption...

But rather than giving us a Nirvana in Fire-esque thrilling battle of wits, the drama seemed unable to decide whether it was going for serious epic darkness or bubblegum pink romcom, and halved the difference with questionable results. I blame the scriptwriters and directors.  They gave us watered down leads whom we are told are intelligent, a messy and at times boring script, too many filler scenes from an annoying imposter, and logic defying plot holes that require some serious suspension of belief. I know it is not entirely fair to compare this drama with one of the best C-dramas of all time and to find it wanting, but given the similar starting premise it's hard not to. And Nirvana in Fire this most definitely is not.  

To be fair, it's not bad.  It's just not very good.  And despite its flaws, The Legend of Anle (2023) remains watchable due to committed performances from the gorgeous main leads who managed to wring emotion and entertainment from the tired script. I have such mixed feelings because while I wanted a gritty dark drama, it was also enjoyable watching a flirtatious Dilraba playing the femme fatale to a flustered Gong Jun and on one or two memorable occasions seeing him give as good as he gets...

SPOILERS AHEADS

A strange romcom revenge pastiche 

For a spoiler-free synopsis, see mine 👉here.  

Given the starting premise, I had wondered whether we would be getting a Nirvana in Fire-esque masterpiece, with a female Mei Chang Su and possibly some star crossed lovers angst thrown in for good measure.  The basic framework for that is in place as we have Di Zi Yuan (played by Dilraba) as the sole survivor of her family, who are unjustly accused of treason and slaughtered, along with 80,000 Di troops.  Ten years later, she returns to the capital as the beautiful sea bandit Ren An Le, who claims to want nothing more than the handsome Crown Prince Han Ye (played by Gong Jun), in exchange for her dowry of 30,000 naval troops (or at the very least, an official position in court). An Le/ Di Zi Yuan's real purpose is of course to seek retribution and redress for the dead.  In this, she is assisted by the enigmatic and ruthless Luo Ming Xi (played by Liu Yu Ning).  

And so, from episode 1 onwards, we get an outrageously flirtatious An Le doing
her level best to enchant Han Ye and to throw dust in everyone's eyes as to her real identity. Of course Han Ye is not just a pretty face, so he knows she is up to something, but at the same time, as they work together on case after case, he finds himself falling for An Le.  Don't get me wrong, Dilraba absolutely nails the tongue-in-cheek femme fatale and it is quite hilarious to watch Gong Jun's prim and proper Han Ye getting all sorts of flustered. They have chemistry in spades.  

But even knowing that it is all a façade and An Le/ Di Zi Yuan's true purpose, I still found the way the drama oscillates between romcom and melodrama to be as jarring as the occasional unsynchronised voice dubbing which plagued the drama throughout. It's as if the directors and scriptwriters thought the audience could not handle a darker tale and so ended up presenting us with a strange pastiche of romcom-revenge instead.  In my view, this was a serious misstep - no need to underestimate the intelligence of the audience!   

Also, although we are constantly told that both An Le/Di Zi Yuan and Han Ye are incredibly intelligent, the drama does not really do a good job of showing that. Both are meant to be chess prodigies capable of playing metaphorical 3-D chess with everyone around them. But it's not enough to give us the occasional scene of An Le/Di Zi Yuan and Luo Ming Xi playing chess to establish that (and incidentally much of the ruthlessness and scheming is delegated to Luo Ming Xi in the drama, which further reduces the impact of An Le/Di Zi Yuan as the supposed mastermind).  

The two cases that are solved (the scholars cheating scandal and the disaster relief corruption case) hardly required genius level deductions or strategy from An Le/Di Zi Yuan and Han Ye.  I certainly did not think the Marquis or his stupid brother-in-law were particularly intelligent adversaries, so defeating them was a foregone conclusion, and did not really showcase the intelligence of the leads.  

I also feel that both leads are watered down from their original counterparts in the source novel. In the drama, An Le/Di Zi Yuan is often whitewashed to the extent of improbability and does not have the same ruthless edge.  How can someone with the burden of 80,000+ souls on her shoulders worry about the fate of the fake Di Zi Yuan, whose overweening ambition and entitled stupidity threatens to upset her carefully laid plans?  I understand her qualms about letting An Ning and Han Ye become collateral damage to her quest, but it seems out of character that Di Zi Yuan would allow an upstart who is willing to accept the insulting new name of Di Cheng En帝承恩 (literally, meaning "recipient of grace") to get in the way.  The drama spends too much time and energy on the conflicted love An Le/Di Zi Yuan feels for Han Ye, rather than the machinations necessary to advance the revenge/redress plot. Honestly, at times, Luo Ming Xi seems to be the only character driving this, notwithstanding the constant references to the 80,000 fallen Di soldiers.   

As for Han Ye, again we are told he is extremely intelligent, but the way the script is written does not showcase this.  

Instead, we are left wondering if Han Ye is rather dim given that it takes him until around episode 20 to realise that An Le is Di Zi Yuan, and afterwards he seems to unrealistically believe that she will be willing to continue to live in peace as An Le.  He also seems to believe that the Di family were traitors and is completely blindsided when An Le/Di Zi Yuan forces a showdown with the Emperor, whereas in the source novel, he has been investigating the Di case all along.  

The drama also blunts the impact of Han Ye's intelligence as it does not allow the audience to be privy to his scheming or to at least have hints of this in most instances.  Instead, we are often told after the fact what he has done (eg. changed the royal edict 10 years ago to save Di Zi Yuan's life by consolidating her Crown Princess role; saved Di Zi Yuan's little brother's life and raised him as Wen Shuo under the nose of the suspicious Emperor). I did love the brilliant checkmating of the Emperor and the Northern Bei aggressors in one move in saving Di Zi Yuan and using himself and the security of the Jing State as bait in episode 35 though, and the drama should have given us more moments like that.   

I still enjoyed Gong Jun's portrayal of the conflicted Han Ye, who wishes to protect Di Zi Yuan with his life but whose heart is moved by Ren An Le.  He is pretty much a perfect Crown Prince.  In addition to the sparkling chemistry he has with Dilraba's An Le/Di Zi Yuan, I also enjoyed his uneasy friendship with Luo Ming Xi, and found his brotherly (almost fatherly) love for Wen Shuo particularly moving, as well as his love (and ultimately grief) for his sister An Ning.  The drama did Han Ye dirty though, in only cluing the audience in to his intelligence late in the piece and then reducing his unwillingness to return to the capital in the last few episodes to noble idiocy.  In the novel there are more important motivations than his blindness, such as the precarious balance of power in the State of Jing as by that stage Di Zi Yuan is regent.  All that is omitted in the drama in favour of a soap opera-ish ending.  

Much to my annoyance, the drama also gives way to much screen time to the tedious character of Di Cheng En, the girl that has stood in as the fake Di Zi Yuan
for 10 years on the mountain in exile.   Her entrance at episode 11 is necessary to stir tension and to provide camouflage to the real Di Zi Yuan, but the drama should have gone with less is more here.  Instead, we get endlessly repetitive scenes of Di Cheng En manipulating the affections of her bodyguard, many entitled monologues on what the world owes her, and some completely unnecessary bath scenes, which served no purpose plot wise.  

In my view, the drama peaked at episodes 24 and 25 when Di Zi Yuan reveals her true identity and forces a showdown with the Emperor and, abetted by Luo Ming Xi, Han Ye, and An Ning, ultimately unveils the conspiracy of ten years ago and gets redress of sorts for her dead.  At that point, we definitely did not need more Di Cheng En, but the scriptwriters appeared to think differently, foisting multiple scenes of her on the audience, including some of her being bullied by maids, and her 'redemption arc' conversation with Di Zi Yuan and final exit from the capital, devoted bodyguard in tow in episode 31. I advise judicious use of the fast forward button.  Honestly what were the scriptwriters smoking?  

After episode 25, the drama loses any mojo that it had and does not pick up until the war arc against the external enemy (the Northern Bei as led by the one-dimensional villain Mo Bei), which begins in episode 32, and thereafter involves more gratuitous deaths, angst, dodgy war CGI and plot holes than you can shake a stick at. 

To butcher Oscar Wilde, to fall off one cliff may be regarded as misfortune, to fall off two looks like carelessness.  You basically have to throw all logic out the window and suspend disbelief, when Han Ye survives his second fall from a cliff after being shot through multiple vital organs with no damage other than to his eyes.  

The drama than manages to kill off two of my favourite characters with no real reason than to wring further angst from the script.  Honestly, while I was invested enough in Di Zi Yuan and Han Ye's HEA (and yes, it is a happy ending for them), I cared more for Luo Ming Xi who dies alone, and for Lin Lang (wonderfully portrayed by Wang Yi Ting) who was the MVP of the drama for me - beautiful, loyal, intelligent, an ethereal dancer and deadly assassin, whose unrequited love for Luo Ming Xi and pointless death is truly tragic. She deserved better.  

By the time episode 39 arrived, I was ready for The Legend of Anle (2023) to end, and somewhat annoyed that Youku put several cute special episodes of Di Zi Yuan and Han Ye behind a paywall.  Youku should just have owned the romcom tone they had gone for and include these snippets in the official final episode for ultimate sweetness, but I guess they wished to wring more money from viewers who wanted at least one kiss. I watched the special episodes and can confirm that while they are super sweet (including screen time for Di Zi Yuan and Han Ye's son Han An Xi) we will have to wait for a second collaboration if we want an actual kiss from the leads 😅

Final thoughts 

🐼: The Legend of Anle (2023) falls well short of greatness.  While watchable, at times it can be rather boring, which is no mean feat considering what they were given to work with - a fantastic source novel and some top level actors who have charismatic screen presence.  

I have really mixed feelings on this drama. Likely, my disappointment in the direction the directors and script writers chose to take colours my view. I think it was ill-advised to chop and change some of the most gripping elements of the source novel and to reduce what could have been a dark and gritty Nirvana in Fire-esque epic into a strange romcom-revenge pastiche.  

Even with the occasional emotional highs and the committed acting of the leads, this drama only scores 7.5 stars from me, and I consider that to be a generous rating.  Dilraba, Gong Jun and Liu Yu Ning were capable of giving us more, if only the adaptation could had allowed for it.    

7.5/10 stars ✮✮✮✮✮✮✮