The Rise of Phoenixes Recap, Episode 1

 Welcome.

Did I create a blog just so I could review a show on Netflix which most people will probably never watch? Am I going to painstakingly write recaps for this show that I'm not even sure I like?

Yes. Yes I did. Yes. Yes I am.

I started this thing and, damn it, I'm going to finish. If I'm going to watch this, I want a recap of it; unfortunately, basically no one else in the world watches this show (which is not the wrong decision, by any means) so I'm going to write it myself. And if you're in the same boat as me and you want to read the opinions of someone who has no background in film or in watching period dramas or basically any other expertise in the subject matter, then, uh, welcome I guess. Let's do this.

Episode 1

AKA "I'm 15 episodes in but I'm going to go back to episode 1 for completeness' sake"

 This episode sets the stage. The sixth prince, Ning Yi (our male protagonist), has been released from an eight year imprisonment; possibly because of his good deeds but probably because his father the Emperor is wary of how powerful the Chang family has become, in part because they are the family related to the other princes including the crown prince. The Emperor plans to marry the prince to the Qiu family and give him an alliance to protect him while also emboldening the Qiu family into conflict with the Chang family, but the Qiu family has no interest in gaining power that way. The princes, on the other hand, are primed and ready to enter into conflict with one another. The three elder princes are allied around the crown prince against Ning Yi who they see as a thorn in their side, but Ning Yi's plan is to turn them against each other in order to avenge the death of the third prince who was the brother whom Ning Yi was close to.

The marriage sub-plot sets us up to meet the Qiu family's niece Feng Ziwei (our female protagonist), whom they want to send in place of their own daughter.

Play by play

We open with a history lesson that explains that the former emperor was Evil and the current emperor overthrew him in a triumph of Good. If this were a US series, I would have some idea of how suspicious I should be, but I've never seen a period drama in full so I'm not sure whether I'm taking this at face value or if I should expect a convoluted plot point halfway through where it turns out this helpful historical context was really just propaganda and actually the emperor is evil. I really did watch over 10 hours already, though, so I can safely say that for the first 15 episodes at least, it's played straight.

Jump to present day when the Emperor's sixth son, Ning Yi (our protagonist) had been imprisoned in Zongzheng Temple for eight years. His father the emperor decides to release him from imprisonment. (There are purported Reasons for this which happen to also show that Ning Yi is a Good Person, but frankly those reasons aren't important.)

Ning Yi, drunkenly stumbling to see his father alone

We cut to the evening of his release when he drunkenly stumbles into his father's chambers to thank him, throws up on a poor attendant, and decides he is too drunk to greet his father that night. He looks genuinely distraught; the emperor looks conflicted when he is told that his son is too drunk to greet him that night.

While that is happening, the other three princes and the Duke of Chang (their uncle) have gathered to gossip about how Ning Yi's return throws off the power balance; the younger princes try to reassure the crown prince that Ning Yi does not have the means to do anything to the crown prince in a scene that assures us that the younger princes are very much committed to sucking up to their older brother.

Ning Yi, kneeling before his father the Emperor

The next day in the royal court starts with a minister praising the fifth prince for his generosity while Ning Yi kneels outside; the fifth prince turns it around to praise the crown prince and the rest of the court immediately catches on and sings the praises of the crown prince until the Emperor cuts it off by asking where Ning Yi is. The Emperor is informed that Ning Yi is outside because he does not feel that he deserves to come in until he is summoned; the emperor summons him.

As he walks in, we see Ning Yi overcome with emotion at seeing his father again... but he's also a man with a plan and that plan is to humiliate his remaining brothers and avenge the only brother he loved. His explanation for waiting outside and for being inappropriately emotional is a not-totally-subtle jab at his brothers, and the Emperor bites and reprimands the princes for their circle-jerk.

The Emperor then tries twice to give him what are fairly massive rewards: an opportunity to ask for anything that he wants and the position to run the Royal Exam. Both times, he insists that he just wants to be a tailor to the scorn of the court.

The Emperor, matching the throne room.

This scene is frankly beautiful and so much better than what I expect from this type of drama. Ning Yi is in all white; everyone else is in dark colors. The emperor is decked in gold and matches the room; the princes are in varying degrees of finery. Chen Kun kills it here. He may actually be overcome with emotion or he might be acting; I think he's actually feeling all the feels but he's fine with that and he'll use it to his advantage.

Moving on! In privacy, the emperor ruminates on how Ning Yi is in danger of being killed by the Chang family, who are too powerful within the palace for his liking. He plans to protect his son and to diminish the power of the Chang family in one go by marrying Ning Yi to another powerful family: the Qiu family.

The Qiu family, trying to get out of marrying their daughter to Ning Yi

The Qiu family are, to put it lightly, not into it. Not only do they want to avoid conflict with the Chang family, they also believe that Ning Yi will be sent back to imprisonment and they don't want that for their daughter. It's fine for their niece, though! So they plan to switch our female protagonist, Feng Ziwei, for their daughter.

Ning Yi and Xin Ziyan plotting together

Meanwhile, Ning Yi plots with Xin Ziyan, the headmaster of Qingming Academy who had decried Ning Yi very emphatically in court when the Emperor wanted to assign Ning Yi to the Academy but is actually an ally. They both cared for the third prince and want to avenge his death, but where that is Ning Yi's only driver, Ziyan wants to fulfill the third prince's request that he help Ning Yi become the crown prince. To that end, Ning Yi is reckless in not caring about his own safety while Ziyan is worried that the other princes will harm him.

Feng Ziwei with her mother, reacting to the news of the marriage

At the very end of the episode, we meet our female main character. Feng Ziwei learns about the marriage proposal and immediately thinks to take her family and run. She had been posing as her brother for years to go to school and can't bear the thought of being tied down by marriage after learning how big the world is. When we meet her here, her primary driver is to be free.

Parting thoughts

I'm not convinced that the writers know what they're doing, but I'm also not convinced that they don't. There's a lot to the drama that I like so far. They're doing something really interesting in playing with gender roles here; our male MC is a tailor while our female MC is a scholar and decent at martial arts. They don't go all the way--as we go forward, she spends a good amount of time being rescued by him--but they do place them in these flipped roles.

Our MCs are also not islands to themselves. They are the ones who have strong bonds with their allies (him) or family (her). The relationships between characters is genuinely engaging, especially our MCs and the side characters. They are not unreasonably good at everything and they are driven by understandable desires that have depth.

He wants to avenge his third brother who was wrongly executed; almost everyone who he loved has been killed and he blames himself for some of those deaths; he has been taught time and time again not to trust anyone; and he yearns for his father's affection even though he refuses to allow himself to hope for it.

She has had a chance to see how big the world is and she wants to be free to explore it; she loves her mother and her brother; and she is deeply, deeply loyal to the people that she cares about. She's smart and brave, but she hasn't grown up in the intrigue of the court and doesn't know how to navigate that kind of politics.

On the other hand, this show is 70 episode long which is far too long to have a cohesive story. The editing in the first episode is great, but there are going to be Sudden Cut to Flashbacks applied judiciously. Feng Ziwei is always getting rescued, which is appropriate to the character in the beginning when she's very much out of her comfort zone, but I'm worried that they won't allow her to grow into a character with agency.