The Legend of Kaifeng (2018)

An unexpected, pleasant surprise. Progressive, even.

This was my first ever Justice Bao drama. When I saw in the first episode that Bao Zheng was shunned when he was born due to unusually dark skin (probably due to some genetic reason) and people were calling him a "monster", I was worried about colorism.
Especially as a South Asian with a brown skin this made me unsettled. But only minutes after my worries went away when I saw how well-treated, loved and cared for he was by his guardians. Who did it for no obligation but simply because they were good, non-discriminative people.
And the story continues on like that. There are people who are initially shocked by/make comments on his skin color, but this doesn't upset me much because in the past it's no wonder, as people didn't know better/that varieties of skin colors existed. In my country too, it was the White people who were always gawked upon back then?. Now, it WOULD have been a bad thing if the drama made it into a running joke/made demeaning fun out of it but it never did! Those who bullied Bao Zheng due to his color were the bad people, and the good ones didn't even blink or if they used to before, they would soon realise they are wrong and turn around.
The original legend, stories and dramas based on it are actually a CELEBRATION of this "different" person and his intellect, how everyone loved and respected and admired him for his integrity and sense of justice.
It's actually ANTI-Colorism. And I cannot be happier about it.

If I am to talk about the rest of the characters- well, they are quite 3D. Some might not be likeable and frankly messed up, but NEVER because the "scriptwriter said so" but because it made sense for their circumstances. All in all, a really good drama. I wish there were more like this these days too.

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Had about as much as I could take

Unfortunately, you can't change what happens in history. I just could not sit through any more senseless deaths and power-hungry schemers. I just couldn't stomach any more egomaniac emperors and rulers, schemers, and senseless sheep doing nothing. Not for 54 episodes. Frankly, when they killed off the loyal guard so early, and then one by one killed off the people who had been loyal to the prince as a child - that was it. I skipped to the final episode just to see how they tied it up. I tried hard to follow the twists and turns - but in the end, they could have told the story with one third of the number of episodes and maybe I would have toughed it out. It just dragged on and on.

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