The Legend of Anle: Epic Tragedy Begins as Screwball Comedy: REVIEW

Posted in: Review, streaming, TV | Tagged: Chinese drama, Dilreba Dilmurat, Simon Gong Jun, The Legend of Anle, wuxia, youku

The Legend of Anle, one of the most anticipated C-Dramas of the year, starts with a refreshing twist – by being a screwball romantic comedy.

The Legend of Anle is one of the most anticipated Chinese drama series of 2023, starring Dilraba Dilmurat and Simon Gong Jun, two of the biggest stars in China, playing an avenging princess-turned-pirate queen and a prince who team up and fall in love as they usually do. Chinese Streamer Youku premiered the first three episodes on their Youtube channel and streaming app this week, which new episodes to follow.

Dlimurat plays the former princess Di Zi Yuan, whose family was accused of treason by the emperor and massacred. Prince Han Ye, who loves her, petitions his father to exile her to the mountains, and she vanishes. Ten years later, Han Ye (Gong), still pining for her, hopes to declare her crown princess and marry her to right that wrong, but meets pirate queen Ruan Anle who aggressively pursues him, offering him her 30,000 men as a wedding dowry and an alliance with the court in exchange for the title of Crown Princess and his bride. Han Ye doesn’t realize that Anle is really Zi Yuan, who took the new name and hid her identity to build her own army of pirates with a plan to take revenge on his family and seize the kingdom. Anle becomes the talk of the imperial court with her scandalous behavior, combat skills, shameless pursuit of the prince, and naked political ambition. Nobody’s going to argue with her because she commands an army of 30,000 men that the emperor needs to fight an upcoming war. But Anle’s plans for revenge get derailed when she starts to have feelings for Han Ye. Chaos and intrigue ensue.

So why are we reviewing The Legend of Anle out of the dozens of other Chinese romantic fantasies out there right now? Because it’s fun! Dilraba Dilmurat has played demi goddesses and warrior princesses plenty of times before, but this time, she starts the series with something different – she’s playing it as a screwball romantic comedy. There’s a sense of glee and mischief in her performances as Anle as she takes every opportunity to flirt and mess with Gun Jun’s prince as he suspects, under his discomfort, that she’s playing a bigger and longer game that he knows he must be wary of. These early episodes have Anle accept the court position of Chief Justice to investigate crimes as a test designed to trip her up, and she pretends to be clueless as she effortlessly solves crimes and beats up murderers! They could have a whole series about her fighting crime alone! It’s rare to see the female lead of a historical drama having this much fun, and it’s infectious. Of course, the spoiler-ish scenes of later episodes in the end credits indicate things will get serious and sad later in the series as they go to war and people start dying, but in the meantime, let’s enjoy the romantic comedy!

Every princess whose family is massacred should go off and spend the next ten years becoming a pirate queen with a new name and then come back for revenge. That should be Life Lesson 101 for every princess, Disney or not. Hell, revenge should be a life goal for everyone who has been wronged. That is what Chinese and Korean drama teaches. The Legend of Anle is a better princess story than most Disney movies right now.

The Legend of Anle is streaming on Youku and its official YouTube channel.

The Legend of Anle

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Review by Adi Tantimedh

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8/10

What looks like another typical Chinese historical romantic fantasy comes with a refreshing twist at the start – leading lady Dilraba Dilmurat plays the avenging princess role as screwball fantasy in the opening episodes before the story turns serious later, and gives the series opening a greater sense of fun than most Chinese dramas.

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