I never write reviews on short dramas because there isn’t a lot to cover. Today I decided to try and make a review on a short drama called Maid’s Revenge starring Chen Fang Tong, Dai Gao Zheng and Vincent Wei.
I’m sure you’ve seen people posting about the drama saying it’s great and they’re definitely right. I’m going to keep this review short like the drama.
First Impressions.
Talk about starting the story with a bang, no pun intended. I got hooked from the beginning with the massacre of the Dong family and the engagement between Tingyao and Fang Yuze. First, you wonder who targeted the Dong family and why did they do that? Was there a spy in the family? Then you look at the encounter between Tingyao/ Yan’er and Fang Tianyi. While you’re still at it, there’s an identity theft plot TingYao being Yan’er and vice versa. So far, they have opened a full of fat worms every bird would die to catch. There’s still a lot of things to cover like the flashbacks of Tingyao and one of the Fangs. I love the way they just builds the suspense with such a small detail. I already have my own conclusion about the identity of the boy in the flashbacks but I’ll wait till the drama proves me wrong.
Story.
It’s basically about Tingyao who wants to avenge her family. She believes Fang Tianyi is involved in the massacre of the Dong family. Yan’er pretended to be Tingyao in order to get married by Fang Yuze so we have “an imposter” situation. After a Small incident, Yan’er (Tingyao) pretends she lost her memory to investigate Fang Tianyi.
The story wasn’t enough so they tried to add fuel to the fire by turning nephew against uncle. It’s usually brother and brother fighting for a girl and they started bringing up the past events but it was good seeing a different version. Uncle (Tianyi) and Nephew (Yuze) are also fighting for the wealth of their family, so Tingyao was a contributor not the cause of the fight. If we are being a little realistic or use our brains for a second, the story doesn’t really make sense at some point.
Tingyao (I always type Tongyao), is seeking for revenge right? How can a person who seeks revenge achieve her goal without planning ahead? She just went to the Fang’s mansion and everything about the revenge went south. They focused more on building the romance and the feud between uncle and nephew rather than strengthening the revenge plot. What has Tingyao done to finally avenge her family? Nothing, she was busy deciding which one to choose between the uncle and the nephew!
Characters.
Yan’er (fake Tingyao) is the queen in the snow white story. She’s undeniably intelligent and quick witted but she wastes her talents on doing evil.
Tingyao (fake Yan’er), is brave and fearless. There’s a lot to discuss about Tingyao but I’ll end up adding spoilers if I go deep. Tingyao might be brave and fearless but she is impulsive and a little foolish. She made wrong judgements because she let her hunger for revenge blind her. After experiencing a lot in the Fang mansion, she finally managed to become an unstoppable force. She always had that domineering side but she needed something to corner in order to unleash it.
Yuze had the best entrance in the drama. The way he dresses, his posture is on a different level. He was calm in every situation and hardly argues with anyone. Before you make a conclusion on this guy, remember that looks can be deceiving. I really don’t understand his reason behind what he did. He’s just the grandson of the family, not the son which means that he won’t inherit his grandparents’ wealth while his uncle is alive. It’s natural for parents to spoil their children so why complain when your grandparents are taking care of your uncle? Any normal being cannot take the route Yuze took.
Tianyi is the most feared member of the family. He is the governor and also the head of the family. People say he’s ruthless but remember what I said about looks? He’s Yuze’s uncle and they apparently grew up together. This character is fine but I hate the way he would just pull out a gun and not shoot at anyone. Don’t get me, it’s not like I enjoy seeing someone being shot. Tianyi has pointed his gun to people countless times but he only pulled the trigger twice. It became a habit, whenever he takes out his gun I’ll be saying ‘ what’s the point since you won’t shoot?’
Conclusion.
Is Maid’s Revenge worth watching? Definitely. It might be a short drama but it felt like I was watching a normal drama. You just have to move away from the storyline and just watch whatever they do. The chemistry between the main leads was incredible, you can never get tired of their kiss scenes. The ending was both good and bad.
I expected a different ending and maybe witness the villain being tortured a little but it’s just a story at the end of the day. Normally I would say ‘I wish it wasn’t a short drama’ if the drama was good but today it’s different. From my point,the drama would’ve been a mess if it wasn’t a short drama. The story itself didn’t need any additional plots /arcs. Watching the drama just takes less than 4 hours, you should watch it whenever you have few hours to spare. I’m giving it 7.5 ratings, I didn’t like the ending.
