Huan zhu ge ge

I saw this about 10 years ago and I still love it! Quite a long series, but you go through just about every emotion while watching this. There are 4 main characters, and the series itself is family friendly for the most part. The plot is pretty solid, with plenty of twists and turns in each of its episodes.

One of the 4 Dan Actresses is in this film- "Vicky" Zhao Wei (the other more famous one is Zhang Ziyi of House of FLying Daggers fame), and this is the series that boosted her to that position.

This is definitely worth watching, and took China by a storm. Households everywhere have watched this and loved it.

(The series was so popular that it garnered Huan Zhu Ge Ge II and III, but it loses a few of the original actors and the plot becomes more and more filler-like, so don't bother too much)

A movie filled with romance, comedy, family entertainment, and also many touching scenes, Huan Zhu Ge Ge is definitely Qiong Yao's best work ever! I can't help but watch it over and over again. This story tells about a young girl named Xia Zi Wei who travels from Ji Nan To Beijing accompanied by her maid Jin Suo, to find her father after her mother died. Her mother leaves her a painting and a fan for Zi Wei to prove that she is the Emperor's daughter. In Beijing, Zi Wei seeks for help from a minister to meet the Emperor and meets Little Swallow, an orphan girl. Little Swallow agrees to help Zi Wei and they soon become sworn sisters. Little Swallow told Zi Wei that the emperor was going hunting on a mountain. After Zi Wei tries to climb the mountain and hurts herself, she begs Little Swallow to climb the mountain and tell the Empreror her story. Little Swallow climbs the mountain and soon gets shot by an arrow by mistake. When the Empreror sees Little Swallow's fan and painting, he convinces himself that Little Swallow was his long lost daughter.

The heroine "little swallow" is a character that has never been seen before in Chinese ancient costume drama in the 1990s. Although she didn't know Chinese characters, she was smart and had good qualities. There are not only sister friendship, but also sincere love in huanzhu gege. At the same time, it is mixed with comic plot. It is quite understandable that this TV series has been popular in the mainland, Taiwan and other places as well as overseas in the 1990s.

It tells an interesting story of Emperor Qianlong's illegitimate daughter entering the palace to recognize her father. At that time, the story was refreshing, the characters had their own characteristics, and the love story was very moving

It was a struggle for me to finish this mostly because of the too melodramatic female lead who delivers her lines like one of those coquettish concubines in other cdramas who slither (to make themselves look graceful and gentle?) and are always tearful (to invite sympathy?)

The other female lead, Xiao Yanzi (Zhao Wei), was the one who kept me going. Though her voice was rather too strident for me at first, once I got used to it, she won me over with her exuberance, sincerity and comedic talent.

The story is engaging enough. It's fun and succeeds in making the viewer interested to know how the leads and their friends would resolve their dilemma. The romance of Xiao Yanzi and Prince Yong Qi (Alec Su) is cute, and I wish it got more screen time. The romance of the other main couple is spoiled by the overly affected performance of the other female lead as previously mentioned.