Republican-era China dramas have a way of turning power struggles into pure melodrama, and “The Lament of Autumn” is proving to be one of the most gripping examples yet. Set against the volatility of 1920s China, the C-drama weaves a tale of ruthless warlords, shrewd tycoons and an all-consuming romance that has viewers hooked. Here are three reasons you should be watching.
The Lament of Autumn (Credits: Soompi)
Ryan Cheng’s deliciously detestable warlord in The Lament of Autumn
The first reason is Yu Chang Xuan (Ryan Cheng), the drama’s male lead and the fifth son of the influential Yu family, military commanders running Nanhuai City. Chang Xuan is dashing, cocky and utterly self-assured, a man you hate to love and love to hate. His father, General Yu Zhong Xuan, dismisses him as a troublemaker and womanizer compared to his late eldest brother Yu Ming Xuan, who died in battle. But behind the mocking smirk and the cold stare is a layered man haunted by surviving a battle that killed his brother, secretly intercepting military alliances and craving the command his father refuses to give him.
When he saves his father from an assassination attempt, Chang Xuan strikes a deal to take control of the Nine Corps, claiming his brother’s legacy and seizing leadership of the family’s forces. He plays people the same way he plays war, patronizing an opera singer at his Xiangxi Hotel while toying with the wealthy Tao Zi Yi (Gao Yu Xin) for his own ends.
A heroine who fights back at every turn
The second reason is Ye Ping Jun (Xu Ruo Han), the drama’s proud and resilient heroine. A brilliant student from an ordinary home, she works odd jobs to pay her mother’s medical bills and stands for equality regardless of social standing. She gets caught up in an assassination bid against Chang Xuan, and that single incident becomes the course of her life when she turns into the object of his obsession.
Their dynamic is a psychological battle: he makes her sign a contract to catch the assassination’s culprit, then manipulates it to secure her employment at his hotel as a way of controlling her. But she defies him at every turn, and that defiance only deepens his fascination. He is a cruel savior, pushing her to the limit while shielding her from the attacks coming her way, and he hides his humanity behind irreverence, like tending to refugee children, only to snap when she calls him a saint: “Don’t try making me a saint. I won’t be able to take it.”
A world where love and power collide
The third reason is the world itself. In “The Lament of Autumn,” relationships serve military and business interests over love, and alliances between warlords and tycoons dictate who lives and who rises. The cold schemes of this Republican-era world gradually give way to a forbidden desire that is all too consuming, and the contrast between the grand power plays and the intimate obsession at the story’s heart makes every episode feel enormous.
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Source: Soompi — read the full story there.