The Trust (2023)

Put Your Feet in My Shoes

Despite a 7.9 rating here on MDL as of this writing, The Trust is a lovely drama. The idea of body switching is not new, but the execution of it is interesting and very funny. Imagine a distrustful couple, the lord of a city and his wife, switches bodies, and they must continue to perform the roles of the other as if nothing has happened. Putting their own feet into each other's shoes, they finally understand the other's pains, predicaments, and perspectives, and come to empathize with each other.

This is a story of political power struggle and harem cat fights, though at a smaller scale but as deadly. Political rivals scheme to bring down the other, and the City Master tries to maintain the balance of power while silently fighting against the onslaught of his own uncle who is ambitious and treacherous.

Xu Yu (Song Yanfei) is the daughter of the most powerful general in the land, guarding the northern border with a formidable army. Growing up in such a household, Xu Yu becomes very adept in sword fighting, horse riding, bow and arrow, but not so good academically. She is a carefree girl and in love with Xiao Jinyun (Zhang Haowei) whom she has grown up with. After marrying him, Xu Yu finds life not what she had expected; she becomes disillusioned and unhappy. Disappointed, she stops caring about all matters in the household, and doesn’t vie for attention from her husband, while others in the harem fight tooth and nail. With such an attitude, her mother-in-law does not like her and she repeatedly gets into trouble, and is always being framed and blamed for everything that she hasn’t done by her husband's concubines.

Having a heavy burden to carry for his city kingdom, a discord court of academic (文官) and military (武官) officials, and a big household to maintain, Xiao Jinyun’s demeanor is serious, uptight and unaffectionate towards his wife and concubines (he has at least 4 of them). This has led to his concubines vying for his attention by backstabbing each other, especially they bully Xu Yu who doesn’t care to fight back. He is suspicious and wary of Xu Yu’s father, General Xu and her two brothers because of the strong military power they wield, more so when fanned by the academic officials like his scheming uncle. On top of that, the military and academic ministers don’t see eye-to-eye on anything and always bicker among themselves over even the most trivial matters. Again and again, the academic sect tries to take down General Xu at every chance they get.

On that fateful day, through some magical force from some meteorite stones and an eclipse of the sun, they exchange bodies; Xiao Jinyun lives in Xu Yu’s body and she in his. Now living in a man’s body, Xu Yu is liberated. She/he goes to the brothel, gets drunk, attends court assembly to fend for her father when he’s being attacked; she even goes to war to help her father in fighting the invaders. To others, their City Master has suddenly changed in character, playful, impulsive, an excellent sword fighter and an archer. To Xiao Jinyun’s surprise, Xu Yu manages her role as the City Master in court very well as her way in handling the disarrayed court officials seems to be effective.

For Xu Yu with Xiao Jinyun inside, her change is just as significant; she becomes mature, responsible, and calm in dealing with everything negative that comes her way. For the first time, Xiao Jinyun realizes how badly Xu Yu has been treated by his own mother and concubines; they criticize, backstab, frame her, and lie about her to him. In General Xu's daughter's body, Xiao Jinyun knows that the Xu family is totally committed to him; their loyalty is second to none, One of the hilarious scenes is when he also experiences her menstruation pains. As Xu Yu, Xiao Jinyun manages to improve Xu Yu’s relationship with his mother and helps her in reclaiming her status as the main wife, gaining respect from everyone.

As they grow to understand and trust each other more, all their misunderstandings resolved. They work together to tackle a series of crises, politically and at home. Their romance is gradual and sweet, from distrust to trust with no doubts.

I have never watched any dramas by Song Yanfei and Zhang Haowei, but I find their acting very natural and convincing here. I love how they each plays both characters, bringing out the contrasting individual characteristics and demeanor. How Zhang Haowei becomes girly and rolls his eyes when he acts as Xu Yu is hilarious, while Song Yanfei as Xiao Jinyun becomes the one that always has a plan, and makes the first move. The scenes are cute and very funny, accentuated by playful background music.

There are at least two BL/bromance couples here. The Xu Youran (Li Junchen)/ Xiao Jinming (Cao Junxiang) pair is amazingly good looking with wonderful chemistry. By the way, watch out for the rabbit Xiao Jinming brought for Xu Youran to care. I presume this is a hint of their relationship. The other pair, Jiang Tang (Feng Mingjing) / Xu Jun (Li Ji), is equally interesting and fun to watch. Too bad they have too few scenes and dialogs together.

My Verdict

This is a very underrated series. It is a lovely story, cute with very funny dialogs. As unserious the tone as it is, the acting and the plot are serious. The script writing, directing, editing, and acting are all brilliantly executed. The court powerplay is not boring as we have great acting here by Zhang Haowei, and the harem cat fights are not infuriating as Song Yanfei’s portrayal is brilliant and very lovable.

I've come to realize that the low viewership (hence rating) is probably due to the poor English subtitles. It is such a pity because this is a wonderful series that deserves to be watched and loved. Strongly recommended.

BRAVO!

Anime link:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBakWosU0sfj2hkpghsp3loSDXl6w-P1h

Very good. Recommended!

Leggi di Più

It is better than I expected but missteps kept it from being great

I liked this show. It was entertaining and made me chuckled on occasions. If only the show knew when to stop and finish on a high and it would have been a surprise hit. As it stands, it is good but not great, funny and cringey in equal measure. A celebration of inconsistency that can be good, bad and meh.

The premise of the show is our leads soul swapped and have to live in each other’s bodies for a period of time. This brings about the usual sex change gags and innuendos. More importantly, they now realise challenges faced by each other. This understanding leads to mutual appreciation, and romance ensues. If all that sounds familiar that’s because it is a popular trope for contemporary as well as costume dramas. To top that off, the show has one of the messiest beginnings of any shows. It is quite possible for some confused viewer to drop the show after the first episode.

So I think it is best that we get the backstory straight now. The show is actually based on a graphic novel and the artist behind it is going through a sad divorce with her husband who is the publisher of the said novel. To mess with him, she deliberately introduced the soul swap plot, fully expecting the novel to crash and burn but the readers end up loving the plot twist. It is that novel we are watching as a live action show. To complicate things, we are dumped in the middle of the ongoing story without much preamble. There is little explanation of people’s behaviour nor their motivations upfront. However, the show does provide some background information later on. This means that for a casual viewer, the first couple of episodes can be bewildering and its overuse of zany sound effects and comedic devices only muddy the water even more. Let me assure you that it is not a farce even though it might appear so initially.

Once the dust settles, the show is actually better than expected. From my perspective, that is due to three key factors. Firstly, the script is quite clever. We have the usual tropes and there are plenty of them but the show work the tropes in such a way that it shows how the leads truly complements each other. They both have their shortcomings but by switching roles, they actually helped each other to overcome some sticky problems that have been festering. It also shows how their lives are more complicated than they thought. This allows a lot of character growth and breaking down the barriers between them.

Secondly, the acting of the FL is great. She truly played two roles. Her female role is quite stereotypical. Not bad but largely cliché for a costume drama. It is when she is playing as the king then she truly shines. She extrudes the gravitas and behaves regally.

Thirdly, the OTP's chemistry is good and their romance is swoon worthy. It is lovely to watch them grow closer together over time and find true love in an organic way. The path is not easy but it is a rewarding one both for them and for us.

This brings us to the not-so-good bits. The soul swapping part went on for too long. While I appreciate how well it set up the eventual growth of the leads, there are missteps so the longer it went, the weaker the overall show becomes. The show also relies heavily on tropes which is more obvious in the middle stretch. It doesn’t suffer from mid show drag per se but the pacing is patchy. The plot is mostly on rails.

The palace intrigue subplot runs the full length of the show. It was mostly predictable with standard antagonists filling the cliche roles. It is not particularly engaging. It was just there. Its conclusion is fairly predictable.

Another weakness is the ML’s acting. The ML is handsome in costume, and he does a decent job while playing the king. His behaviour while soul swapped is like a caricature of a girl and can be quite cringey. It makes the “FL” looks dumb and silly. I accept that she is not the sharpest knife in the kitchen but when she is in her own body, she does not behave like an airhead, so his portrayal seems unnatural and a bit off.

The link back to the contemporary storyline is a waste of time. In the span of 30 episodes, I think those scenes added up to around 20minutes. They are just snippets with a foregone conclusion to round things out. Other than making sense of the messy start to the costume drama and act as a postscript, it serves little real purpose.

The ending of the show is as sweet as you can expect but it is also contrived. It was the ending we have to have but you can feel that they took some serious liberties with the plot to get us there.

All in all, I enjoyed this show. The OTP's romance is swoon worthy. It can be funny and insightful. It did breathe some new life into the genre, but it is not consistent enough to be a breakout drama. It still have one foot firmly mired in tropes and it did the show few favours.

OST is not bad, but it does become repetitive.

Leggi di Più

One of the best of 2023

A lot of personnality and charm with the main leads, and others as well. Even some of the vilains are pleasant and funny to watch in this very good sentimental comedy. Those actors were a real discovery. It feels good to see such talented 'new faces'. The idea of the plot is very nice as well, mutual understanding between husband and wife.
Superb costumes and globally visually very pleasant. A bit of 'slow motion' by the start of the second half, but then it proceeds really well. In my opinion, easyly one of the best of 2023. A succes on every level! Not to be missed !

Leggi di Più

A pretty fable about trust, understanding in the couple

The story is well builded : 1 FL mangaka is going through a divorce with her (ML) editor husband. She draws a historical manga with a body swap between a cold, calculating and haughty king, and his main wife, whom he has ignored for 3 years. The body swap will allow them to see the other's point of view, to understand each other, to love each other and to settle internal and external issues.

Excellent actors, dynamic production (without length), very Comedy tone, "cute" OST (the classic type of OST found in all Chinese dramas to lighten the atmosphere :), a little boring after a while) . Lots of wired but well-choreographed action scenes (Chinese actors really have to go through intensive physical training to be able to pull off such performances!)

Nice series, not too long, not memorable either.
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Une jolie fable sur la confiance, la compréhension dans le couple

Story construite de façon intelligente : 1 FL mangaka est en instance de divorce avec son mari (ML) éditeur. Elle dessine un manga historique avec body swap entre un roi froid, calculateur et hautain, et sa principale épouse, qu'il ignore depuis 3 ans. Le body swap va leur permettre de voir le point de vue de l'autre, de se comprendre, de s'aimer et de régler les pbs intérieurs et extérieurs.

Excellents acteurs, réalisation dynamique (sans longueur), ton très Comedy, OST "cute" (le type classique d'OST que l'on retrouve dans tous les dramas chinois pour alléger l'atmosphère :),un peu lassant à la longue) . Beaucoup de scènes d'action câblées mais bien chorégraphiées (les acteurs chinois doivent vraiment subir un entrainement physique intensif, pour être capables d'effectuer de telles performances !)

Série sympa, pas trop longue, pas mémorable non plus.

Leggi di Più

Maravillosa historia

Este drama me encanto, para comenzar debo decir que el OST me fascino, la música era simplemente hermosa y por lo mismo era super pegajosa; en cuanto a la historia puedo decir que siempre me ha gustado el tema de cambio de almas/cuerpos y en este cdrama lo manejaron muy bien, en serio te creías que la emperatriz estaba en el cuerpo del emperador y viceversa, que gran trabajo el de los actores en este aspecto. Además la historia se me hizo bonita y divertida, la evolución de la relación de los protagonistas como pareja fue muy notable y hermosa, aprendieron el uno del otro y eso mejoro su confianza; los personajes secundarios también eran geniales; sé que no es un drama bl, pero ¡A MI NO ME MIENTEN! la química entre Jinming & el adivino, y el hermano de la emperatriz & el médico se notaba a leguas, me gustaba mucho la relación de ellos, especialmente de la primera pareja, eran muy graciosos cada vez que salían con sus ocurrencias. Definitivamente recomiendo este drama, te hará feliz, divertirte e incluso llorar y aprender algunas cositas importantes de la vida, no tiene pierde de principio a fin

Leggi di Più

The animation was so much better!

I might have liked this series better had I not seen the animation ‘No Doubt in Us’ first. Generally when I watch a good animation, I want to see a live action based on the same story. Here, I would say the live action was less impressive. One, because I already knew the basic story, so there was no suspense or element of surprise in this drama for me, second because I somehow didn’t find the chemistry between the leads convincing. The emperor, or city lord (emperor sounds so much better in the animation) is supposed to be in his early twenties, and his harem has women in their late teens..but the actors chosen looked visibly older and less convincing of the ages they were supposed to play. The drama didn’t follow the animation verbatim, I frankly don’t know what was made first, but I would still give more credit and appreciation to the animation, I am myself surprised I choose anime over live action, but in the case of this series, the viewers should watch No Doubt in Us too and then decide for themselves.

Leggi di Più

Невероятно изпълнение и великолепен саундтрак

Останах очарована от този сериал и снетърпение очаквам следващите епизоди. Благодаря на целия екип за професионализма! Химията между актьорите е невероятна и по мое виждане режисурата е на доста официално ниво. Не знам защо трябва да бъда многословна в изказването си,тъй като администратора изисква 500 знака,за да публикува ревюто,но когато човек е преизпълнен емоционално,не е в състояние да бъде подробен. Изкуството е именно е това да те зарежда,както мелодията постоянно си я подсвиркам.

Leggi di Più