Princess Silver Review

This Chinese drama is one of those long drawn out stories with palace intrigues, love, and revenge taking center stage. If you like a bit of twist and turn in a plot than a simple straightforward storyline, then Princess Silver (白发) might be your cup of tea. However, I also believe that this drama will not appeal to many due to a few reasons. The Princess Silver review below will give you a clearer idea why and you can decide from there if you can look through the drawbacks to enjoy watching this drama.

Type: Costume
Episodes: 58
Release Date: May 2019
Images Credit: Tencent

The Cast Of Princess Silver

• Sophie Zhang Xueying as Rong Le/Man Yao
• Aarif Rahman Li Zhiting as Wu You
• Jing Chao as Fu Chou
• Leo Luo Yunxi as Rong Qi
• Maggie Chen Xinyu as Hen Xiang
• Ashin Shu Yaxin as Wu Yu
• Wang Yu as Ling Yue
• Gao Shuang as Xiao Sha
• Huang Cancan as Chen Yu
• Tian Hai Rong as Fu Yuan
• Mi Mi as Xiao Ke

Main Characters

Rong Le/Man Yao

Rong Le is a princess from the Western Qi kingdom. She was trying to escape from the palace but lost the fight and fainted. When she woke up, she has already lost her memory. She was told that she is a princess and was already promised as a bride to one of the princes of the Northern Lin kingdom to seal an alliance. Rong Le is a smart but kind person. She often knows how to turn a situation to her advantage and save herself in dangerous situations. However, because of her position, she is often a target for others to spy on and at times. betrayed by those closest to her.

Wu You

Wu You is the 7th prince of the Northern Lin kingdom. He was the one chosen to marry Rong Le because the Emperor wanted cooperation from the Western Qi in the war against another country. However, Wu You is a cold and arrogant prince. Although he is clever and capable, he had no interest in managing the state’s affairs. In fact, he has a strained relationship with the Emperor because the latter killed his mother. However, the Emperor still regards Wu You as his favourite son.

Fu Chou

Fu Chou is a powerful general in the Northern Lin kingdom. He climbed up the ranks through victories in the battlefields. This made the Emperor wary of him and his intentions. Fu Chou can be ruthless and revengeful due to his childhood experiences. He was brought up as the son of Empress Fu Yuan. When he was 5 years old, he and his mother were ordered to be killed but he escaped. Lin Shen, his mother’s most trusted right-hand man, took him in and planted in him the need for revenge.

Fu Yuan

Fu Yuan is a princess from the Chen kingdom. She became the Emperor’s wife with the marriage being another alliance back in the days when Northern Lin was still weak. However, the Emperor favoured Wu You’s mother and loved her deeply instead. Later on, Fu Yuan was sent to the Cold Palace and subsequently, ordered to be killed.

Rong Qi

Rong Qi is the Emperor of Wester Qi and assumed brother of Rong Le. He loves Rong Le dearly and his heart is always hoping for her safety and happiness. However, Rong Qi is a sickly king and regularly needs a special medication for his ailment which is only available through his mother. Hence, he is constantly under the thumb of his mother to do her bidding including marrying off Rong Le to Wu You. He may seem distant but Rong Qi is a calm and rational person who only wanted the best for Rong Le.

Hen Xiang

Hen Xiang is close to Fu Chou and worked under him. She loves him but it is a one-sided affair as Fu Chou only loves Rong Le. They grew up and trained together under Lin Shen with the ultimate aim of revenge. Her mission is to seduce the crown prince and trick him to cooperate as well as become Rong Le’s imposter at times. Hen Xiang’s family was killed supposedly on the orders of the Emperor. Her father, Qin Yong, was a ministry official and teacher to Wu You. Qin Yong wrote a much sought after book that detailed how to achieve greatness for a nation but it was lost when he died.

Wu Yu

Wu Yu is the 9th prince and very close to Wu You. He is not as smart as his half-brother but is a happy and carefree prince. He willingly listens to Wu You and carries out his orders. In return, Wu You protects him and helps him out whenever necessary.

Ling Yue & Chen Yu

Ling Yue is the trusted servant of Rong Le. Her job is to see to the princess’ daily needs. On the other hand, Chen Yu is a musician bonded to a brothel. She was freed from bondage by Rong Le due to her supposed knowledge of Qin Yong’s book.

Xiao Sha & Xiao Ke

Xiao Sha and Xiao Ke are siblings. The former is the personal bodyguard of Rong Le when she was sent to Northern Lin to be married off. Xiao Sha would also report back to Western Qi what Rong Le might be up to as his sister was being held hostage at one point. When Rong Le managed to free Xiao Ke, Xiao Sha felt indebted to the princess and becomes her trusted underling.

Although Xiao Ke is a naive girl, she is also a talented physician. She ends up helping Rong Le with her amnesia and other ailments after being freed.

Synopsis

The drama begins with a bunch of people dressed as assassins chasing Rong Le. She fainted during the fight and her pursuers brought her back to the palace. When she woke up, she couldn’t remember anything about her past. She was told that she is a princess of Western Qi with Rong Qi being her brother. She also has orders to marry Wu You to seal an alliance with the Northern Lin empire in order to avoid a war.

Wu You is a former student of Qin Yong. He is chosen because Western Qi thought that Rong Le might be able to find out something about the book from her future husband. However, Wu You has no idea where the book might be. Furthermore, he has no interest in any marriage alliance. He refused to accept Rong Le when she arrived at Northern Lin.

While Rong Le awaits her fate on her marriage, she takes on a different identity – Man Yao. She pretends to be a teahouse owner and plans her missions for Western Qi from there. Being a tea lover, Wu You would often meet Rong Le at the teahouse and gradually falls in love with her and vice-versa.

The Arrival Of Fu Chou

With Wu You being opposed to the marriage with the Western Qi princess (he has never seen her face because she is always wearing a mask as per custom), Fu Chou steps in and offers to marry her instead. This is part of his revenge plan as he already knows Rong Le and Man Yao is the same person due to his secret cooperation with Rong Qi who ordered the new marriage arrangement.

When Wu You suspects Rong Le is not merely a teahouse owner, he tries to flush out her real identity which led to a disagreement. By the time Wu You finds out the Rong Le is Man Yao, it is already too late. Although Rong Le married Fu Chou as ordered, she has no love for the latter as her heart is with Wu You. It is a marriage in name only as she despises Fu Chou for his part in the conspiracy with her brother regarding the new marriage arrangement. However, Fu Chou still falls head over heels for Rong Le.

As the drama progresses, viewers are made to feel curious as to who is Rong Le exactly. What is Rong Qi’s relationship with Rong Le? Who would Rong Le choose in the end when Fu Chou loves her just as much as Wu You does? Did Fu Chou get his revenge?

Princess Silver Ending (Spoilers Alert!)

Does Princess Silver have a happy ending? Well, that depends on who you root for to be with Rong Le. Towards the end of the drama, we are given more explanations as to why certain things happened in the earlier episodes and the characters did what they did.

The Story Of Fu Yuan

It all starts with Fu Yuan. Due to jealousy over the Emperor’s affections for Wu You’s mother and the unforgivable sin he did to her, Fu Yuan plotted revenge over a period of 20 plus years. The Emperor forced her to take a poison pill and betrayed her by allowing the Wester Qi king at that time to take advantage of her. Thereafter, she fell pregnant and passed on the poison to her son to save herself.

In return, she laced the wine gifted by Qin Yong to the Emperor with poison which caused hallucinations. In his confusion, the Emperor stabbed Wu You’s mother to death. Due to her actions, the Emperor ordered Fu Yuan to be burned alive and her son, Fu Chou, killed. This is because Fu Chou is thought to be the son of the Western Qi king. However, both of them escaped with the help of Lin Shen.

More Than 20 Years Later

Fu Chou and Wu You are now enemies. Wu You knows that Fu Chou is also secretly plotting with Rong Qi against Northern Lin and the fight goes beyond the throne to include Rong Le, the woman they both love. Fu Chou also found his long lost mother, Fu Yuan. However, it is all a ploy by Fu Yuan. She wants to get close to Fu Chou to influence him to start a war with Wu You.

It turns out that Fu Chou and Wu You are twin brothers. Fu Yuan took Fu Chou away and raised him as her own when his mother passed out during childbirth. Fu Yuan’s own son is Rong Qi whom she bore with the Western Qi king. As she has been poisoned by Wu You’s father, she decided to save herself and pass on the poison to the baby in her womb. That is why Rong Qi is sickly and has to depend on Fu Yuan for his medication. Fu Yuan uses this to control Rong Qi and plot her revenge. Her ultimate aim is to let the Emperor see his own 2 sons fighting each other to death and weaken Northern Lin in the process.

Who Is Rong Le?

Rong Le is actually the daughter of Qin Yong. Therefore, she and Hen Xiang are sisters. Qin Yong and most of his family members were killed when he was engulfed in the poisoned wine scandal. Lin Shen took in Rong Le and Hen Xiang and told them that the Emperor ordered the killings in order to raise them for Fu Yuan’s revenge plan. They were brought to Western Qi to learn martial arts and other skills.

However, Rong Le and Rong Qi happened to meet and they fell in love. Caught by Fu Yuan, Rong Le was forced to take the same poison that is ravaging Rong Qi’s body if she didn’t want to see him killed. Rong Le took the poison pill and then tried to flee. She was knocked unconscious and lost her memory during her escape.

Rong Qi’s Pain

At the beginning of the drama, Rong Qi may seem like a distant person with a lot of schemings on his mind. But each action that he took is to protect Rong Le and keep her safe from Fu Yuan’s plotting. He loves her deeply but because of his health and his mother’s control, he has to let her go and marry another. Rong Le often misunderstands Rong Qi’s actions although he was only trying his best behind the scenes to ensure that she ends up happy with Wu You.

In the end, Rong Qi sacrificed himself to let Rong Le lives. As Rong Le has been poisoned herself and pregnant with Wu You’s child, the choice is either curing herself by passing the poison to the baby or dying with the poison and letting the baby live healthily. She chose the latter. By then, Rong Qi has found the cure and that is to take away all the poison out of Rong Le. Since he is sickly and doesn’t have long to live anyway, he decided to die to save Rong Le.

Final Episode Of Princess Silver

By the time we come to the final episode of Princess Silver, Wu You and Fu Chou have already reconciled since they know that they are brothers. So, they are working together to stop Fu Yuan and save Rong Le who has been kept hidden by Rong Qi to keep both mother and baby alive. Fu Yuan didn’t get to see Wu You and Fu Chou battling it out to death as they worked together to free the Emperor and Hen Xiang who have been held hostage in the Western Qi palace.

Hen Xiang also managed to save both her daughter (she is a product of a one-night stand with Fu Chou when Hen Xiang pretended to be Rong Le and seduced him while he was drunk) and Rong Le’s baby who have been kidnapped by Fu Yuan. However, both Hen Xiang and Fu Chou died in the ensuing battle with Lin Shen and his men. The Emperor also died as he has been held hostage for a while and it took a toll on him.

When Fu Yuan found out that Rong Qi has died and her revenge has failed, she committed suicide by dropping herself into the fire. Rong Le also became devastated when she found out that Rong Qi sacrificed himself for her. Her memories returned and she realizes who Rong Qi is to her. She grieves for 5 years in Western Qi before she puts it behind her and goes back to Wu You who has been waiting patiently for her. The ending sees Wu You and Rong Le being the Emperor and Empress. So, if you are rooting for Wu You and Rong Le, you will get a happy ending.

Why Rong Le’s Hair Turned White

When Fu Chou and Wu You were battling for the control of Northern Lin, Fu Chou thought of using Rong Le as a bait to get Wu You to surrender. He knows that Rong Le is Wu You’s weakness because of his deep love for her. However, Fu Chou also loves Rong Le just as much although it is unrequited. Hence, Fu Chou planned to use Hen Xiang to pretend to be Rong Le. He fed her poison and wanted Wu You to kneel to beg for the antidote from him. The poison would cause the victim immense suffering and she can only be saved with the antidote followed by sexual intercourse (which is, of course, not shown in the scene but written about in the novel).

Fu Chou was sure Wu You would save “Rong Le” and would also regret once he finds out that it is Hen Xiang that he has saved. But Rong Qi swapped Hen Xiang for Rong Le. So, the woman who was fed the poison and carried on a bed to the palace grounds in front of thousands of soldiers was, in fact, Rong Le.

As predicted, Wu You gave up the throne and his dignity to get the antidote and save Rong Le. But once Wu You fed the antidote to Rong Le and began kissing her, she hallucinated and stabbed him. The agony that she felt that she might have killed the man she loves and for the shame that she had to endure, Rong Le’s hair turned white as she emerged from behind the curtains. Fu Chou was taken aback that it wasn’t Hen Xiang. He ended up regretting and agonizing over how he had hurt Rong Le.

Princess Silver Review – The Verdict

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DO4E_a78CU4

I would say that Princess Silver is not too bad that it is worth spending the time to go through the entire 58 episodes. Maybe you can skip some episodes to make it worth your while, especially if you prefer to watch Rong Le with a specific male lead rather than all 3. The plot twists kept me interested to the end. The constant curiosity over Rong Le’s identity also made me plow on despite some parts getting a little long-winded such as the power play in the southern states ruled by Wu You.

So, I would say watch it for the plot. The various relationships among the different characters and what they might be up to could be a little complicated though. Hence, it’s preferable to watch it with subtitles if you don’t understand Mandarin. The plot starts to thicken after 12 episodes or so which means you must be patient enough to sit through the beginning to understand the later parts of the drama. I was able to do that without much complaint unlike Legend Of The Phoenix which I have to drop after the first 3 episodes.

What Might Put You Off

While Princess Silver is a drama that has a strong female character in Rong Le, the storyline might be a tad incredulous for some. Like the Heaven Sword And Dragon Sabre whereby the male lead has 4 female admirers, Princess Silver has 3 men who are willing to sacrifice everything for her. To add to that, all the 3 are royalty.

The acting too is nothing to shout about. The chemistry between Rong Le and Wu You is lacking to me which I think is partly why there are many viewers who also rooting for her with Fu Chou and even Rong Qi. Different people will have different opinions as to who suits Rong Le best.

I know Wu You is supposedly stoic and shrewd. But Aarif Rahman’s portrayal seems a little too stiff which fails to give the character more depth. On the other hand, Jing Chao manages to give Fu Chou different dimensions to this character as he is supposed to be neither all good nor bad. There are more subtleties to his expressions and body language which makes Fu Chou more interesting to watch.

Thus, if you do not like Wu You, Princess Silver will be a pain to watch. After all, Wu You’s character dominates the screen time in the first quarter of the drama before Fu Chou comes in. Even then, Wu You continues to show up in his battle with Fu Chou and meetings with Rong Le. Furthermore, Sophie Zhang’s Rong Le overshadows Wu You to some extent. That is why I find the chemistry lacking between these 2 leads that I don’t feel so invested in their relationship to be able to really feel the ups and downs of their romance.

Conclusion

In conclusion to this Princess Silver review as to whether it is worth watching, I’d say give it a go. It is a very intriguing story adapted from a novel that reveals how much a man would sacrifice for the woman he loves, how much one can hate for the wrongs done to them, and how painful it is to have regrets. Just look beyond the acting and you might just enjoy the drama with its twists and turns.