Scent of Time (2023) - Final Review

Final review/rating: Scent of Time (2023) - A suspense-laden reverie on regret, redress, and redemption

This is 8.5/10 stars ✮✮✮✮✮✮✮✮ from Pandafan🐼

Overall rating:         8.5 Stars Plot:                       8 Stars Acting/cast:            8 Stars Couple chemistry:   7 stars Music:                    7 Stars Re-watch value:      8 Stars Enjoyment factor:   8.5 Stars

Scent of Time (2023) poses the tantalising question of what, if anything, one can do to redress past wrongs and to change fate if given a second chance. 

I didn't realise it at first, but the twist in the tale is obliquely hinted at in the Chinese title of the drama, 爲有暗香來 ("Because of the Subtle Fragrance"), which is derived from a poem by Song Dynasty poet and statesman Wang An Shi 王安石. Elsewhere, the twist is also foreshadowed throughout the drama, which makes it difficult to miss.

Despite this, the way the drama unfolds skilfully dials up the suspense - it is almost impossible not to root for Zhou Ye's Hua Qian in her high stakes quest to atone for and rewrite the past. The hook is in what choices she makes, what actions she takes, and the unintended fallout of those decisions.   

Viewers who are watching this drama for the romance may well be disappointed - it is protagonist rather than romance focused. Three potential love interests are presented, but Scent of Time (2023) is one of the rare dramas in which I truly did not care who, if anyone, the endgame would be.  I just wanted Hua Qian to be living her best life.  Although some of the scriptwriting in the later episodes was noticeably weaker, I stayed until the very end to find out how Hua Qian's story would conclude...

SPOILERS AHEADS

Plot: What if you could rewrite the past? 

For a spoiler free synopsis, see mine 👉here.  

The drama's central protagonist is Hua Qian (played by Zhou Ye), whose unscrupulous means of securing the man she wants brings about the unjust deaths of her rival Mu Yao's family.  In this Hua Qian is aided by her powerful and amoral family.  But there is a deadly reckoning for them, and the drama commences with Hua Qian on the run, only to be captured and to witness the deaths of her family. As she herself lies dying, she is offered a second chance at life...   

To her shock, Hu Qian wakes to find herself back some two years in time, prior to her family's death and her own. The catch is that this is at a point when many of the evil deeds that she and her family have committed are already in motion. Knowing this, Hua Qian strives with a single-minded determination to atone for the wrongs of the past with the aim of rewriting the future.   

But the road to redemption is far from easy, and it takes all of Hua Qian's considerable wits to stay one step ahead.  Hua Qian may have a 'cheat sheet' in the form of foreknowledge, but she finds to her cost that this is not infallible. 

Furthermore, convincing her problematic family to alter their course is a Herculean task.  Between her ambitious father, enabling mother, and lascivious reprobate of an older brother (whose only redeeming feature is a whole hearted devotion to his little sister), Hua Qian has her hands full.  She is often doomed, Cassandra-like, to have her warnings unheeded and to have her worst nightmares play out as variations on the original theme.  

Hua Qian and her three potential love interests 

Zhong Ye Lan; Zhong Xi Wu; Hua Rong Zhou

Ironically, Hua Qian's profound transformation makes her attractive to three very different men: Zhong Ye Lan, the husband she married under false pretenses in her 'previous' life; Zhong Xi Wu, the powerful head of the family who offers her his heart; and Hua Rong Zhou, the devoted young bodyguard with a mysterious past.  

To be honest, I thought the 'new' Hua Qian was too damn good for all of them. Zhou Ye is really good at portraying heroines who combine steel with a hint of vulnerability and she carries this drama.  What a treat to have an intelligent protagonist who refuses to have her acumen clouded by romantic entanglements! If only there were more characters like Hua Qian in c-drama land.  She is such a badass.  Ruthless to both herself and others in seeking atonement; meting out justice to those too powerful to be touched by the law in a manner that recalls her villainous antecedents. Yet there is a sincerity and compassion in her approach to others that evokes an answering love and loyalty from those around her. She's no saint though - Hua Qian's loyalty to her family sometimes has her skirting a fine line with moral complicity. 

I truly did not care who the endgame CP was, because I just wanted Hua Qian to be happy, whatever and whoever that happiness involved. 

But some comments on the three potential love interests below:

大爺 Zhong Ye Lan (played by Peng Chu Yue) intrigued me at first.  But he showed his colours early on, in his indecisiveness over whether he loved his first love Mu Yao and/or Hua Qian, as well as his pettiness in denying Hua Qian a divorce, whilst restricting her household expenses. (When he had the audacity to skimp on Hua Qian's walnuts, that ship truly sunk for me 😅) Later, with the benefit of distance and perspective, Zhong Ye Lan actually proves an insightful ally, smoothing the way to a truce between Hua Qian and Mu Yao, and once he was out of the running, he became infinitely more likeable.  

I could not warm to 家主 Zhong Xi Wu (played by Wang Xing Yue), the head of the family, who has Emperor-like status in the drama. This is definitely not because of Wang Xing Yue, who has the most speaking eyes and makes every bit of his decidedly limited screen-time count.  Rather, it is because of how the character is written for the majority of the drama (and probably because I still have PTSD from his villainous Crown Prince in One and Only (2021)).

Zhong Xi Wu may love Hua Qian enough to throw convention to the winds despite her being a divorcee and a quasi sister-in-law to boot, but he also has the worst timing.  Who in their right mind would think it appropriate to declare himself to Hua Qian at the graveside of her recently deceased brother? 

More disturbingly, Zhong Xi Wu employs some truly toxic techniques to try and control Hua Qian: surveillance, using Hua Rong Zhou's life as leverage, and keeping Hua Qian captive in the Zhong villa... While he does eventually learn to let go, I thought Hua Qian better off without him, the undercurrent of mutual attraction notwithstanding.  I mean, in real life, any sane person would run a mile from this version of Zhong Xi Wu.   

As for bodyguard Hua Rong Zhou (played by Zhang Yi Jie), he was my pick of the bunch, as he was completely and utterly devoted to Hua Qian. 

However, this CP pairing also did not give me butterflies, likely because Hua Rong Zhou is altogether too young and too wet behind the ears.  Besides, Hua Qian little brother-zoned him quite early on, so it was difficult to transition to seeing him as her romantic counterpart.  I also got the impression that the scriptwriter/director wanted to hedge their bets for any potential Zhong Xi Wu ships, so left this CP pairing lukewarm.  

I do think Hua Rong Zhou was the choice of Hua Qian's heart though, the one she pined for after she was living in peace and far away from the politics of the Zhong household. He in turn, never lost faith that she was alive and waiting for him somewhere... 

I found their happy reunion moving and could have done with more of their idyllic days in the village (and less of the flashbacks, new plotlines that seemed to go nowhere, and random cameo characters that peopled the last few episodes).  

The twist in the tale - 爲有暗香來 "Because of the Subtle Fragrance"

There is of course a twist in Hu Qian's tale - there is no second chance. She has actually been in a coma, sustained by healing incense that Zhong Xi Wu has kept burning for her sake, and everything she has gone through was just a dream.

As I noted in the intro, the twist is obliquely hinted at in the Chinese title of the drama, 爲有暗香來 ("Because of the Subtle Fragrance"), which is derived from the last line of a famous poem 梅花 ("Plum Blossoms") by Sung Dynasty poet and statesman Wang An Shi 王安石 (1021 - 1086).  梅花 ("Plum Blossoms") is a five character quatrain: 牆角數枝梅, 凌寒獨自開。遙知不是雪, 為有暗香來。Roughly translated, the poem refers to some plum tree branches at a wall corner, flowering alone in the cold, however from afar, the poet knows that the blossoms are not snow, because of the subtle fragrance that comes to him. The Chinese drama title therefore alludes to the illusive nature of Hua Qian's dreamscape experiences.

This twist will not come as a surprise for most viewers, as it is foreshadowed throughout the drama. Hu Qian keeps noticing the scent of incense, which no one else except Hua Rong Zhou can smell.  But the hook was in the 'what next', and I suspect, like me, many viewers stayed till the end to find out how matters would ultimately resolve.

Some thoughts on the ending

In the final episode, once Hua Qian awakes, the real Mu Yao (who has not shared Hua Qian's dreamscape experience) cruelly brings her back to reality.  Real Zhong Ye Lan also has no idea who Hua Rong Zhou is, because he does not exist.  Distraught and traumatised, Hua Qian realises that all her efforts have been in vain, and she lapses back into her coma to rejoin Hua Rong Zhou in their idyllic dreamscape.  

Only, the real Zhong Xi Wu (clearly a much nicer sort than his dreamscape counterpart) stays by her bedside, promising to face the future with her, or if she will not wake, to wait forever for her. After all, he has waited this long.  

And Hua Qian who can hear him in her dream finds the bravery to farewell Hua Rong Zhou, the figment of her imagination which her subconscious has framed to love her unconditionally, and to wake and face the music. The drama closes with Hua Qian calling out Zhong Xi Wu's name, and him turning to smile at her, heart in his eyes... 

I think the director / scriptwriter was trying to please both sets of CP fans but likely ended up pleasing none. The drama ending differs from the source novel, which has a transmigration premise.  In the source novel, Hua Qian is able to re-write the past and ultimately chooses Hua Rong Zhou over Emperor Zhong Xi Wu, and lives a life of idyllic happiness.  Basically, if you are on the HRZ-ship and want the novel ending, you need to stop watching at episode 29.  The drama ending, episode 30, has Hua Qian waking from her dream and with the prospect of future happiness with Zhong Xi Wu - a concession to censorship and an attempt to please ZXW-ship fans.  

From the reaction from netizens, it appears that the official drama ending largely failed to please both sets of fans. The furore was such that screenwriter Yu Zheng actually put out a short extra animated clip that made it obvious that the happy-ever-after was with Zhong Xi Wu. 

As a viewer whose only ship was Hua Qian, I have mixed feelings about the ending. It really puts me in mind of a line from Shakespeare's The Tempest - "when I waked, I cried to dream again." 

The ending makes rational sense, but emotionally it evoked a sense of loss.  I understand that the drama cut out the transmigration part of the source novel plot and used 'it was all a dream' to circumvent censorship constraints. I also accept that it is realistic, because there really are no do-overs in life. But it is so cruel to Hua Qian.  To be given a second chance only to wake to the reality that all her efforts have been futile, that the one person to love her unconditionally was a figment of her own imagination, and that her family are dead for the third time. In the end, all that she was able to change was herself.  That is very real, but also incredibly bleak, after watching the preceding 29 episodes.

Hua Qian chose to wake, to face the consequences of reality.  A brave choice, and I expected no less of her, but I can't help thinking that her path ahead is a lonely one, even with the real Zhong Xi Wu in the wings.  To all intents and purposes, the tentative HEA is with a stranger who just happens to share the same face and identity as the dream Zhong Xi Wu that Hua Qian and the viewers came to know.  (Probably for the best, all things considered, given how toxic dream Zhong Xi Wu was and how apparently lovely the real Zhong Xi Wu is). 

My preference would have been for Hua Rong Zhou to be a real person who gets hurt protecting her, shares her dreamscape coma, and wakes with her. That way, at least the dream can be a shared reality with someone else, and the harshness of reality a burden halved.  But that is getting into fanfic territory...

Final thoughts 

🐼: Scent of Time (2023) is a compelling watch. 

It is a suspense-laden reverie on regret and the quest for redemption, told from the perspective of Hua Qian. Romance is, quite rightly, an afterthought, as there is so much more at stake than who the endgame is. The drama tantalises with the prospect of a second chance, posing the question of what, if anything, one can do to atone for past wrongs and whether one can rewrite the future.  

The somewhat bleak answer is that this is not possible, except in one's dreams. But while there may not be a way of changing the past, it is always possible to change oneself, as Hua Qian does, and to choose to face the future bravely, come what may.  

8.5/10 stars ✮✮✮✮✮✮✮✮