[Mainland Chinese WebDrama 2020] Miss Truth 大唐女法医

[SC2019]

On 3/22/2020 at 1:20 PM, 40somethingahjumma said:

What did you think about her wanting to follow him into death? Did you feel that it was an extreme turn around? Or did you think it was consistent with her character?

I wanted to say I enjoyed your analysis of the show....just finished watching it with English subs recently. I enjoyed most of it up till the late 20s. Then when XS took a back seat in the investigations and when their relationship turned 'sour', which plot-wise was necessary, I felt a little less invested in the story.

 

To answer your question, I think the shock of hearing that he decided to marry her sister and realising that it was probably to get her out of jail and buy her, her freedom nailed the last nail into the coffin, so to speak. She confessed once that she wasn't sure if she was in love with XS or just grateful...and I think it finally dawned on her that she couldn't stand to lose him. But I find it a little extreme of her to resort to killing herself. She's always been so level headed. Perhaps, she isn't emotionally stable as she has just lost her master, and that thinks she has no one else she can rely on anymore. I initially thought that she had spoken to him in that manner as a way to remind him to keep safe. But when she really did the deed, I was a little shocked and couldn't quite accept it. Plotwise, though, it made sense that she did so, in order to hold his hand and discover the flower; though I am sure the scriptwriter could have found other ways to reveal it but they chose this avenue to do so.

 

On another note, I found his attitude towards her all of a sudden changed a bit too sudden for me. [Though, I am guilty of fastforwarding here and there]. I recall he was upset with her, eventhough his father told him to be more 'generous' towards RY. And then suddenly his coldness towards her changes when she smuggles herself into his room (when her shop is suspected of causing the death of the Consort). Did I miss something? And the last few episodes felt like they were taking turns to be thrown into the jail, one after the other, it felt a little overused. Even if it meant them taking turns to be worried about each other but, really? No other ways to up the stakes? Frankly, prison wasn't going to keep him in anyway.

 

And I am a little shocked that in the novel, it's a time travel sort of story where she is murdered in the future and ends up in the past (439 chapters long !) . I haven't read everything just the first chapter... So, I suspect this adaptation took the liberty to change quite a fair bit of the novel to suit the drama audience - time will tell as I read on.

[40somethingahjumma]

On 4/26/2020 at 3:13 PM, verna resurreccion said:

good day....have now read the thread for miss truth... you write your views eloquently that im now so interested with the drama...can you please share your thoughts with the last eps...33-36...tysm...

 

If you look at my signature, I have a blog where I've written all my thoughts on Miss Truth there.

[Dundee]

Just finished watching and love it mainly because the male lead XS, he is awesome.

I also enjoyed the storyline though it became quite dragging with unnecessary plot towards the end. Especialy the many scenes when RY was accused for something repetitively in short time. Lol 

 

Anyway how come XS can meet RY again after 1 year, didn’t the emperor forbid them together? He mentioned something about he had waited too long, it looked like he knew he can meet RY again after their separation. Did XS had already planned all along to change the emperor ?

 

I felt the drama editing is jumpy with scenes were cut abruptly and move iregularly to another scenes.

[crispachu]

Just finished this last night and I have to say I liked the first 2/3 of it better than the last parts. And there was ONE kiss in the whole show, wth?

[40somethingahjumma]

On 5/20/2020 at 11:11 PM, Dundee said:

Just finished watching and love it mainly because the male lead XS, he is awesome.

I also enjoyed the storyline though it became quite dragging with unnecessary plot towards the end. Especialy the many scenes when RY was accused for something repetitively in short time. Lol 

 

Anyway how come XS can meet RY again after 1 year, didn’t the emperor forbid them together? He mentioned something about he had waited too long, it looked like he knew he can meet RY again after their separation. Did XS had already planned all along to change the emperor ?

 

I felt the drama editing is jumpy with scenes were cut abruptly and move iregularly to another scenes.

 

I really think that Toby Lee is the main attraction of this. His acting was on point from start to finish. I agree with the choppy editing but that seems to be a problem because the show was "required" to reduce the episode number. 

 

When Xiao Song went to se Ran Yan after a year, he was being a rather naughty boy. He was undoubtedly disobeying a royal command.  It was the culmination of a pattern that the emperor himself noticed and that's why he separated them. XS had already been going against orders prior to this because of RY so it wasn't out of character and not out of the realm of possibility.

 

As far as RY being repeatedly accused of various crimes, it was part of the plot of the conspirators to put XS in a situation where he would have to do things he shouldn't because of her. It was never about her or him... as the show itself states. It was always about the emperor and a bid to bring him down. But with XS around, the job was twice as hard.

 

Despite its flaws, I still think this was a far superior show to the likes of My Roommate is a Detective and The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty.

[SC2019]

For those who are wondering how different is the novel from the TV series, it's quite different. The scriptwriters took the liberty to change Su Fu's character and role in the TV series to create more angsty moments and to give Xiao Song a run for his money, so to speak. In the novel, Su Fu was less active throughout the entire plot although he did appear here and there, often times to save Ran Yan. And as the novel put it, they were neither friends nor lovers but both felt comfortable and a strange kind of familiarity about each other. Though in her dreams, she did call out to Su Fu, to Xiao Song's jealousy (unfortunately he was present when she was talking out loud while sleeping) - those were ocassions when she feared for his life as a good friend would for another.

 

As for Ran Yan, in the novel, she died in the first episode at the hands of someone she knew at work. She was a forensic specialist in the modern times and when she regained consciousness she was in the body of a 16 year old girl, i.e. the Ran Yan we came to know in the TV series, in the Tang Dynasty. Due to censorship, time travel in TV series (not web-tv though) is not permitted so they had to remove the time travel portion. The original Ran Yan was a sickly girl, at death's door but with a new soul, Ran Yan fought her way, made a name for herself with her forensic expertise and caught Xiao Song, Su Fu and Sang Chen's eyes. In the case of Xiao Song, there was physical attraction but her wit, intelligence, calm personality and ability to solve cases caught his eyes. With Su Fu, as an assasin, he had learnt to trust no one but there was something about the way she treated him (stitched him up and covered up for him a couple of times), aloof yet courageous that gave him that confidence. With Sang Chen, he admired her courage, something he did not have, and in the novel, though he wanted to marry her, he realised later that it was admiration, even fear, more than love (Sang Chen was in the novel perceived by Ran Yan as a rabbit, often frightened and definitely not someone worthy of her consideration as a husband).

 

Xiao Song never got into the lengths of trouble as portrayed in the drama. And neither Ran Yan nor Xiao Song had to spend any time in jail. At each turn, they overcame adversity and outwitted their adversaries and Xiao Song was able to save her in the most dire of circumstances. They solve cases together and there were times when Ran Yan got into trouble because people wanted to harm Xiao Song as well as Su Fu, but it always was resolved well. Ran Yan was ambitious and wanted to make a career for herself. So she wanted to treat Li Shi Min's daughter who was asthmatic, to gain that kind of credibility and ultimately, she does manage to establish a career for herself.

 

At the end, one of Li Shi Min's princes staged a revolt and in order to save another prince, Ran Yan is badly injured - she receives more than 20 slashes and there is a deep wound near her spine. Doctors fear that she may never walk again. Here is an exerpt of Xiao Song's thoughts about her when he hears the prognosis.

 

"Xiao Song walked towards the bed (where Ran Yan lay), kneeling beside her,  then slowly lying beside her, and his tears suddenly burst out.

 

He was afraid.

At first, Xiao Song liked Ran Yan with the kind of love that a man feels when he is attracted to a woman, but as their relationship grew, the more he felt unable to extricate himself from those feelings. Since marriage, that love has not changed, in fact it has increased. 

 

Ran Yan is to Xiao Song, a lover, a friend, a loved one, a confidante. She can listen to his views on government affairs, understand her life as a man, and fight with him side by side, without having to doubt each other."

 

This was the sort of views Xiao Song had about her. He respected her, admired her courage, and was willing to even give his life for her. I felt that the show did justice to Xiao Song in some ways but in the scenes where he put her in hand-cuffs and threw her into prison with false accusations just to keep her around him, cheapened his character. Xiao Song in the novel respected Ran Yan too much for that and would never have put her through that ordeal. I recall, there was one incident when Xiao Song was extremely jealous - Ran Yan had stayed up for eight to nine days to save Sang Chen. She had to do live surgery on him as an arrow had hit one of his major arteries and she had to do blood transfusion for him. She collasped at the end of it all and was unconscious by the time Xiao Song found her (they were already married them). He was very upset with her but instead of taking it out on her, he kept his distance, prefering to focus on his work. He knew that if he spent time with her, he might end up saying harsh things and it would blow up unnecessarily. That was the Xiao Song who would rather suffer than to put Ran Yan through suffering. So, throwing her into jail and walking around with her on a 'leash' I think is unimaginable for the novel Xiao Song.

 

As a wrap-up, you would all be happy to know that Xiao Song and Ran Yan are married with triplets, two boys and a girl. In fact, he marries her somewhere towards the middle of the novel and three quarter of the way, has given birth already. At the end, there is evidence that she successfully builds her own career, even sets up a forensic department in the Tang Medical Academy. However, as a woman, there is some limitation to her being too prominent, so she partners with a person called Liu Qing Song who is a doctor and aspring forensics expert (he is very close to Xiao Song and is like a brother of sorts to him). Ran Yan with her knowledge of the future (based on the historical records she knows) meets a few people along the way who she recognises will become accomplished big-wigs and she is excited to see history unfold before her eyes. Overall, as an inept reader of the novel (as I had to rely on Google Translate), I must say the novel leaves a much more satisfying ending than the TV series...and fingers crossed the drama Gods will give us a second season with a more rewarding closure.

 

 

 

[raziela]

Thanks for telling us about the original novel @SC2019.  It sounds superior to the drama.

 

I liked this but I felt the first half was much stronger than the second half when they all went to the capital. I will admit I fast forwarded through a lot of scenes in the second half. The quality of the writing and editing seemed to degrade in the second half and i agree with @SC2019 that the scenes were he threw her in prison and had her on a leash were very distasteful and made me lose a lot of respect I had for the male lead and interest in the drama

 

As for the actors, I agree with @40somethingahjumma Toby Lee is the draw.  His acting was very good. The female lead actress was...OK. She wasn't terrible but she wasn't particularly good either.  She was just adequate, I guess. Whilst watching I kept thinking Ran Yan is a very interesting character so it would have been nice to see what a stronger actress could have done with the character but, alas, it was not to be.

 

Su Fu's acting was so one note there isn't much to say about him. 

 

I really enjoyed the sidekick characters: Wan Lu the maid; adorable, hapless Sang Chen; Bai Yi the right hand man and Ran Yan's teacher.