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[Mainland Chinese Drama 2019] Goodbye My Princess 东宫


0ly40

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While waiting for Viki to have all of the episodes subbed, I decided to take a look at parts of the ost song, “First Encounter/Meeting.” I had a lot of fun analyzing it from XF’s perspective and character! Once again, the producers/writers of GMP’s ost are amazing on many levels, and the osts are definitely a beautiful art piece that compliments the drama.

 

First Encounter/Meeting

Credit to Viki English Subs

 

“Wounds have frosted in my heart

Can’t forget your image in my mind

 

If we meet for the first time again, who are we returning to

Fall goes and spring comes again

Dreaming and awakening are just in cycle”

 

Wounds have frosted my heart. Can’t forget your image in my mind.” LCY/XW has wounded XF’s heart, and to protect herself, she embraces the cold in hope to numb her pain. XF jumps into the River of Oblivion to forget the catastrophe she brought to her loved ones. Perhaps, another reason leading to her jump into the river was not being able to truly hate LCY/XW and instead hated herself; her heart just couldn’t forget him. Hating and blaming LCY/XW would have easily given XF an excuse for the destruction she brought to her loved ones and herself. Unfortunately, seeking numbness to avoid pain is like using a temporary ointment for a wound that requires care beyond just an ointment. Eventually, the underlying problem which caused the wound in the first place will resurface, and when it reappears, it’s going to be lethal. This is reflective of XF’s tragic ending when she sacrifices herself and suicides.

 

“If we meet for the first time again, who are we returning to? Fall goes and spring comes again. Dreaming and awakening are just in cycle.” These lyrics imply that even if we choose to forget, we will participate in the same behaviors and make the same decisions because we didn’t choose to own our story which consists of our failures, mistakes, success, and love. The cycle will continue and everything will repeat. A part of me wonders what would have happened if XF decided to own her mistake instead of letting her mistake own her. I’m going to define “owning her story” as XF truly forgiving herself for the destruction she brought to her loved ones as well as for being in love with LCY/XW; to me, I am not confident to say that she forgave herself at the end since she ended her life. This thought leads me to this question: Would the cycle have been stopped and or at least been positively impacted? I’m holding onto the belief that it’s a yes. XF would’ve kept on living because she accepted her story. Of course there are are other factors, such as LYC/XW, the palace, and her duty as the legitimate Xi Princess, that have potential to influence her peace long-term if she remained alive. However, I still think if her mindset was set to own her story, she will ultimately be in peace about the fact that she killed her love ones (family/clan/friends).

 

On the flip side, a part of me also wonders about a greater being, destiny, that also plays a role. Regardless of owning one’s story, can one change their destiny due to the decisions they make on the way and or do they have control over it?

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Li Chengyin and  Gu Jian were both disgusting, possessive and selfish men. Wanting her but not actually caring for her. 

 

This was not really a romantic story, just a tragic story. Xiao Feng lived a horrible life, trapped and alone, living with her enemies.

 

Especially Li Chengyin was an evil villain. Not only killing her loved ones, both directly and indirectly, but also raping her.

 

Sad story.

 

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Happy Birthday to our Crown Prince, Chen Xingxu! My boy is turning 23 years old today LOL.

 

He’s really one of the odds nowadays, not your typical ‘fresh meat’ young actor. But he’s very young and so talented that you can’t help it but get attracted by him. 

 

CXX knows his elements, his face is suited to act as complex roles. His pattern is very clear and steady. Plus, he got a very good management team (aka his mom),his next projects are all well-known and anticipating plots. I wouldn’t be surprised if his game would rise extremely high in the next 2-3 years, just hope that he’ll stay out of troubles/scandals. 

 

The hype of GMP is still hot, rumors of epilogue is running around all weibo. Suddenly, all fans becomes writers and directors, so many creativity surrounding the fandom as we are still waiting for full 55 episodes to be out. 

 

I really hope to see PXR and CXX more in variety shows, they got excellent humors. Upcoming variety show starring our leads will come out around April 9-11 (I really don’t know, just rumors)

 

PXR used to be a host, she’s very smart and quick. Rumor said that she’s having another historical drama soon, paring up with Lin Gengxin. I’m anticipating into this, love PXR when she’s wearing traditional clothing. And her acting is decent, her best ones where last few episodes of GMP *claps claps*.

 

CXX is extremely hot right now, doesn’t even need to look for projects any more since many is starting to directly delivered to him. Upcoming projects are all remakes of iconic films. What’s interesting is that none of them will have him end up with FL...geez.

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Happy birthday CXX! I feel a little less of an ahjumma now that you're a teeny bit older :joy: haha but all in seriousness, I can't wait to see what you have next in stall for us! Such a great actor who's really set the bar high for all of the other young actors! Our handsome prince :wub:

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6 minutes ago, Erafera1 said:

This is so cute,especially the crying one:lol:

 

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Cr.logo

 

just curious,why his fans calling him 九日弟弟?

is it from his name? 

It's coz if you separate out the chinese character (XU) 旭 in his name,it is 九日 (9 days) :P

 

 

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11 hours ago, Pandafighter86 said:

I really hope to see PXR and CXX more in variety shows, they got excellent humors. Upcoming variety show starring our leads will come out around April 9-11 (I really don’t know, just rumors)

 

PXR used to be a host, she’s very smart and quick. Rumor said that she’s having another historical drama soon, paring up with Lin Gengxin. I’m anticipating into this, love PXR when she’s wearing traditional clothing. And her acting is decent, her best ones where last few episodes of GMP *claps claps*.

 

CXX is extremely hot right now, doesn’t even need to look for projects any more since many is starting to directly delivered to him. Upcoming projects are all remakes of iconic films. What’s interesting is that none of them will have him end up with FL...geez.

 

Why is that? So far one of his female lead tried to commit suicide, though she didn't died they separated, one died coz of suicide, one is a ghost, then what else? I just hope when he finally take project which his female lead is alive, he also alive LOL

What if after that he gonna acts as a complicated & complex character that him the one that will dies at the end haha:sweatingbullets: 

At least give me one drama which you & your female lead alive & be together till the end dude huhu

 

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Another review for our beloved drama.:love::wub:

https://cnewsdevotee.wordpress.com/2019/03/30/review-goodbye-my-princess-东宫/comment-page-1/?unapproved=11808&moderation-hash=8c030c24d85e0f48cdd9aae39c697613#comment-11808

[Review] Goodbye My Princess (东宫)

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This drama is probably the first drama to ever make me feel all sorts of emotions. I have never ever loved and hated a drama at the same time before. Watching Goodbye My Princess was like riding on a roller coaster, lots and twists and turns and ups and downs. And even though the drama had tons of angst and painful moments, it was still an outstanding and unforgettable drama.

Just an FYI, this review is going to be a tad bit longer than the usual ones I’ve written…

 

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Plot/Storyline
Click here to see information about the plot and character list at my First Impression page on this drama.

Overall

Xiao Feng

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Xiao Feng was my favorite character throughout the drama. The reason is because her character fully embodies what a typical person would react and be like if they were to be put in her situation. She’s not strong yet, she doesn’t yield down. She’s weak, but still holds on to her beliefs. She may feel helpless, but never gives up hope. She’s definitely not the strongest or most outstanding female protagonist, but she still stands out in her own way.

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Watching her throughout the drama, I couldn’t help but sympathize with her. All she ever wanted was to remain in Western Liang and roam the grasslands with her Little Red Horse and the person who she loves. She wanted freedom and the ability to choose her own life. But her status as the 9th Princess made her unable to do so. It was the reason why Gu Jian couldn’t acknowledge his feelings for her, why Li Cheng Yin approached her, why she had to marry into a strange land, and why she had to submit to everyone all around her.

Li Cheng Yin

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This guy… is full of crap. I loved and hated Li Cheng Yin. I liked his charisma and his love for Xiao Feng. Even after all the painful heart breaks he made Xiao Feng endure, he did truly love her. But it all doesn’t justify his actions.

Li Cheng Yin, like Xiao Feng, was originally innocent and naïve. But once he starts to battle for the position of the Crown Prince, he becomes a scheming and heartless person. He manipulates and emotionally tortures Xiao Feng with the excuse of ‘protecting her’. The more he made her miserable, the more his enemies would not hurt her. But the more she tried to get away from him, the more he tried to cage her in his palace. When he wants to, he’ll be nice to her and shower her with his love. But other times, he’ll outright insult her and label her as an evil and jealous woman. And this is why I hated Li Cheng Yin. He never cared about her feelings or what she wanted. He was possessive and only cared about himself. All that mattered to him was to keep himself satisfied. It was never about Xiao Feng or her happiness.

Xiao Feng and Li Cheng Yin

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To be honest, I loved Xiao Feng and Li Cheng Yin together in the beginning. I loved how they met, fell in love, and devoted themselves to one another. But I don’t think Li Cheng Yin ever deserved Xiao Feng. He was never honest with her and he never truly cared about what she wanted. He only cared about himself and what was good for him. Xiao Feng was just someone he could drag alongside him to keep him happy and make him feel good. Yes, he did love her and care about her. But Li Cheng Yin would always carry the title of the one who killed her grandfather and her maternal family. And, that’s why, regardless of how he tries to make it up to her, he’d never be able to.

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Another reason why Li Cheng Yin doesn’t deserve Xiao Feng is because of how he treats her when they were married. I know he wanted to put a show on for his enemies and that was why he always pretended that hated Xiao Feng. But his actions were always so mean to her. She was patient with him and endured him and always give herself reasons as to why he was doing those things to her. But, in the end, his actions weren’t necessary and just added to the sufferings that he had inflicted on her before.

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Gu Jian and Pei Zhao

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An interesting turn of events is that both of these men were in love with Xiao Feng. And, unlike Li Cheng Yin, their love was more selfless and centered around the safety of Xiao Feng.

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Gu Jian was Xiao Feng’s Shifu and has been with her for many years. He is also the first person Xiao Feng loves. Even though he reciprocated her feelings, his adopted father forced him to give up his feelings and let her go. When he realizes how much pain and suffering Xiao Feng had to go through because of Li Cheng Yin, he begins to regret and wish that he had taken her away. His regret becomes his only reason for living, as he solely devotes himself to only protecting Xiao Feng.

I think the reason I love Gu Jian is because he always put Xiao Feng first, except for when he got her entangled with Li Cheng Yin. But, majority of the time, Xiao Feng was always on his mind and the first thing he thinks about is her. And, unlike Li Cheng Yin, Gu Jian was willing to give up his life for Xiao Feng.

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Pei Zhao, on the other hand, was silently in love with Xiao Feng. I’m not quite sure when his feelings developed or how it developed, but there were feelings. He was always there to protect her and bail her when she was outside of the palace doing her own things. He was her companion who accompanied her when she was lost in her own thoughts during the middle of the night. He was also her friend in need, when she needed someone to talk to.

But while Pei Zhao was good at protecting her and listening to her, he failed at truly understanding her. He knew that her marriage with Li Cheng Yin was torturing her and he knew how much she hated to stay in the palace, but he never said a word and he always caught her back under Li Cheng Yin’s orders. He may have loved her and cared for her, but he would never sacrifice his life or betray Li Cheng Yin for her.

Ah Du

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I think the only other character that I truly sympathized with, other than Xiao Feng and Ming Yue, is Ah Du. This girl is sooooo pitiful. Her entire clan was destroyed and she, like Xiao Feng, was forced to come to the Li Dynasty. But, unlike Xiao Feng who has the luxury of not remembering her memories, Ah Du had to live everyday remembering everything that happened. Whenever Xiao Feng talks about how much she misses home and how much she wants to see her family, Ah Du begins to tear up because she knows that there is no home for her to return to.

I feel sooooo bad for Ah Du. She always has to stay strong for Xiao Feng because she’s the one who Xiao Feng comes to when she’s sad or needs someone. Ah Du is so selfless and always puts Xiao Feng first before herself.

The End

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If I had a word to summarize this entire drama, the word I would use is Tragic. From the beginning, Xiao Feng was never meant to live a happy life because she had to marry off into a kingdom far away from home and her romance with Li Cheng Yin was never meant to be good because he only approached her because he wanted to use her. Xiao Feng and Li Cheng Yin both were people who, in the end, fell victim to the struggle for power.

But even though this drama was a tragedy, I think it does a good depiction of political marriages, the struggle for power, and the sufferings of women who have to be sacrificed for the better good of the nation. In the end, happy endings are not always what happens and true love doesn’t always prevail. Lots of things happen, people change and become different from who they were, and happiness doesn’t always happen at the end of the road. And that’s what this drama touches on. Yes, it breaks our heart to see Xiao Feng suffer so much from Li Cheng Yin and struggle to live a good and happy life. But it all just symbolizes and represents that reality isn’t all just about happy endings

 

 

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Here we go, another review.  This is from a different pov.  Actually i think @Andzek was mentioning about the screens in LCY's room as a marketing ad but this writer actually like that.  So, this one is different. I dont accept this 100% but to an extent, i understand her review.  Somehow this drama  has gained the attention of more viewers for the actors who has taken as leads for the first time.

Series Review: Goodbye My Princess (Cdrama, 2019)

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It’s been a while since a trailer swept me off my feet and urged me to count down the days until it would finally be able to appear on my screen. Unsurprisingly, for those who know me, Goodbye My Princess based on Fei Wo Si Cun’s novel, Eastern Palace (东宫) was exactly this drama. A trailer that promised angst, two life times of suffering and an inevitable misery, what more could the tragedy lover in me want?

 

I loved this trailer so much, when the series’ December premier was delayed, I decided to read the novel. But I should have known, after being deceived by trailers time and time again, to not place such high expectations on the series. And here I was witnessing how my hopefulness anticipation would once again bite the dust. But this was a different kind of manipulation, one I believed was aimed directly towards those who had read the novel. I just wanted a faithful adaption, which I believed the trailer tried hard to emulate. But then reality struck and here I was watching a 30-episode series turn into 52 and an abundance of fillers and changes engulf this storyline I had come to love. What was presented, almost felt like a mere shell of what could have been.

 

For more,

Heres the link

https://www.avirtualvoyage.net/2019/03/series-review-goodbye-my-princess.html

 

 

 

 

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Ok, I've seen all the epis and felt the betrayal and the tragedy. 

I know that a lot of you fellow soompiers, have a love/hate relationship with LCY/GXW. I do, too!

But I also realized that he was dealt a really low blow in the fact that he was never given the chance to redeem himself.

Or at the very least, show his regret to XF. I know that what he did to her grandfather and his tribe was bad but he was able to make XF see his side of the story and she forgave him. This, for me, was actually one of the biggest wrongs that he did against her. 

Which leads me to think that XF could have forgiven his "wrong" of using her. I don't know if she could ever trust her after all his scheming but I really believe that she didn't have to kill herself if he had shown remorse just as much as he had shown over killing her grandfather. I feel like they could have worked things out like a modern married couple if there was just some remorse and honesty from LCY/GXW. Don't you guys think that  the betrayal of killing her grandfather is way bigger than the betrayal of using her to reach the Dan Chi camp? If she was able to forgive him for killing her grandfather then she could have also done the same for something connected to it. It's not like he planned to forget her or lose his memories.

 

I don't know how to explain this properly. Anyway, I know that this is the ending of the novel so they have to follow it but there could be an open ending out there. 

 

Just wishful thinking on my part. I really like their chemistry and I sort of feel pity for LCY/GXW in the long run despite his crimes. 

 

 

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40 minutes ago, therewillbeddl said:

Oh my god, Wei Qianxiang’s (guy playing GJ) birthday is tomorrow on April Fool’s. while CXX is today...this is too funny for some reason.

 

 

 

Peng Xiao Ran is a funny lady. I love the edit picture of CXX & WQX wearing wedding outfit & the edit poster of those two leaning towards each other back haha:lol: 

And it seem in the close up face pic which Chen Xing Xu wearing Dan Chi wedding oufit, there a earring on his ear. Looks the same like Xiao Feng's earring on their first wedding ceremony. Did Peng Xiao Ran make Chen Xing Xu wear it?

She really like to tease him like a mischief older sister LOL Remind me in one of the their bts video when she teased him about their bed scene until he gets shy:P 

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8 hours ago, ElleSor said:

Ok, I've seen all the epis and felt the betrayal and the tragedy. 

I know that a lot of you fellow soompiers, have a love/hate relationship with LCY/GXW. I do, too!

But I also realized that he was dealt a really low blow in the fact that he was never given the chance to redeem himself.

Or at the very least, show his regret to XF. I know that what he did to her grandfather and his tribe was bad but he was able to make XF see his side of the story and she forgave him. This, for me, was actually one of the biggest wrongs that he did against her. 

Which leads me to think that XF could have forgiven his "wrong" of using her. I don't know if she could ever trust her after all his scheming but I really believe that she didn't have to kill herself if he had shown remorse just as much as he had shown over killing her grandfather. I feel like they could have worked things out like a modern married couple if there was just some remorse and honesty from LCY/GXW. Don't you guys think that  the betrayal of killing her grandfather is way bigger than the betrayal of using her to reach the Dan Chi camp? If she was able to forgive him for killing her grandfather then she could have also done the same for something connected to it. It's not like he planned to forget her or lose his memories.

 

I don't know how to explain this properly. Anyway, I know that this is the ending of the novel so they have to follow it but there could be an open ending out there. 

 

Just wishful thinking on my part. I really like their chemistry and I sort of feel pity for LCY/GXW in the long run despite his crimes. 

 

 

You made a great point! I felt the same and I was waiting and hoping this exact thing to happen, was waiting for him to realized he was indeed her first lover and try to redeem himself. But that never happens so I think I somehow felt that I’m LCY as there is no closure when XF dies. You express it so nicely and it exactly how I felt too :) Thankyou xxx

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