Guai Ge Ci Ke Zuo Tou Pai (2023)

A Merchant and Her Treasure

TLDR; A fun, cute, and surprisingly coherent minidrama with refreshing takes on the lead couple and quite an alright plot. Generally speaking, not bad at all.

Whump meter: ◭△△△△ (almost none).

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SHORT VERSION:

┊┊WHAT I LIKED:
►Unique FL with depth
►Cute, tsundere ML
►Endearing and refreshing couple dynamic
►Fun and quite thorough role reversal between the lead couple
►Palatable and rather restrained plot.
►Refreshing takes on standard plots
►Irredeemable villain + female villain
►Music, especially the end credits song
►Production quality was pretty good

┊┊WHAT I DISLIKED:
►Shallow worldbuilding.
►Rushed pacing (especially the end)
►Poor handling of more complicated themes shoved into the finale
►Every woman but the FL is evil/bad (and there barely are any women in general)
►Female villain is rather shallow

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LONG VERSION:

【!very mild SPOILERS below!】

►CHARACTERS:
LEADS:
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ Characters were fun and interesting, the best among them being the FL. She is strong, smart, and clever, written in a way I’ve not often seen before, much less in a historical setting. She’s a suave, money-oriented merchant who struggled a lot and is a bit too trusting of those around her. She’s cute and sweet in a way that feels mature, still keeping her dignity and flirty personality throughout the drama—a refreshing approach to the usual cutesy FL. She’s no damsel in distress, despite not being able to fight. She stands up for herself and what she believes, speaks her mind, takes initiative, protects those she loves, and uses her wits and skills to build her way up.

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ Then there’s ML, a suffered musician with a hunger for justice/revenge after extreme tragedy. He’s feisty, hot-tempered, and quite aloof. Sure, cold MLs aren’t anything new, but to me, the portrayal of him as more of a tsundere with an almost innocent longing to hope—his temper a mere wall he put up to keep himself from appearing weak and being taken advantage of—was endearing and refreshing. Despite his hard exterior, he’s kind and sensitive, caring deeply about his allies and living only to bring to justice those who wronged his people. He’s selfless, determined, and skilled in both fighting and music.

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ In the end (or the beginning for the drama), two individuals who had everything taken from them unknowingly join forces to take down a heartless ruler. What starts as a rocky boss-worker relationship leads to an interesting love story. They took the common trope of the ‘cold man/warm woman’ and added layers to it that made it refreshing and engaging. IT doesn’t feel like there is much of an imbalance when it comes to skillset; FL is eloquent, clever, and charismatic, while ML is the skilled fighter/enforcer. They work together well as a power couple rather than protector/protectee (even though I’m inclined to say FL is quite protective of him). Then there’s the added layer of FL being the one to pursue ML, not in the ‘seduction’ kind of way, but in the ‘trying to win him over’ type of way (in the way men more commonly pursue women). Highly underrated dynamic, their moments together were adorable!

VILLAIN:
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ Then there’s the villain. I don’t think I’ve seen a villain quite like her yet. Aside from the fact that female villains are already hard to come by, she was a flavour of unhinged, cruel, and heartless that is uncommon, especially for Cdrama standards (and even more so for a minidrama). Thankfully, she went down like a true villain. Unfortunately, though, she didn’t get much development, so she was rather shallow. What little development she did get was at the very end and at the cost of a better narrative, so not only was it still little but also even annoying. It was a particular shame that her relationship and dynamic with FL wasn’t explored more; they hinted at it but didn’t deliver…

THE REST:
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ Side characters were rather underwhelming all around. ML’s subordinates were fine for comic relief and added some interesting moments plot-wise, but weren’t particularly interesting. Other antagonists were fine for what they were, none particularly memorable, but I also can’t be really upset since more attention for them would’ve definitely taken from the leads.

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ One of the biggest downsides and something I honestly cannot excuse, especially not for a drama set in a matriarchy, is the sheer absence of relevant, much less decent female characters. Aside from FL, the only other prominent woman is the main villain, and that really is it. The lack of characters isn’t the issue since it’s a minidrama and less is more, but there’s only one decent woman in the entire drama. So much talk about feminism and equal rights, but they have only two female characters, one of whom is an irredeemable monster. I simply can’t overlook the sheer absence of women in a *matriarchy*.

►ACTING:
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ All prominent actors had a good standard of quality. None stood out as particularly wow, but they didn’t take away either. I’d say the FL was the best; she seemed comfortable in her role and easily pulled off the cute side of her character while still keeping her cool and flirty attitude.

►STORY:
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ Honestly, surprisingly good. Yes, it has all the usual issues these short minidramas have, such as things breezing by and everything happening extremely fast, but I think in this drama, it is balanced in a way that makes enough sense. Sure, the leads go from enemies to lovers pretty quickly, which isn’t exactly realistic, especially not with all the bickering they did, but the relationship still progresses in a somewhat believable way, so it doesn’t feel like a random 180.

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ The overall story is rather simple: a revenge story for the ML and somewhat of a recovery story for FL. It isn’t that deep, and it keeps it that way (for the most part, anyway). One of the few minidramas I’ve seen that sticks more to what can work in such a short format (that being romance as the main arc) and leaves the rest to be more of a capsule for the romance rather than the main point of interest. Kudos for that!

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ On a less positive note, nearing the end of the drama, instead of focusing the last few episodes on finalizing arcs, wrapping up the story, and maybe doing a slightly longer epilogue, they decided to add another arc to the story, that arc being real-world politics (specifically, feminism). Though a nice idea and something they did mention a couple of times throughout the drama, its sudden addition forced into the finale of the drama felt unnecessary, to say the least. This forced them to introduce new characters and locations, give backstory to a whole bunch of characters, and have yet another final monologue, all for an honestly mediocre conclusion that left the main arcs feeling rather lacking (like, the main leads were kinda just there for the entire big conclusion all to leave room for a random new character and the villain ?).

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ What started as a simple story of ML taking revenge and FL restoring her life ended with them both basically single-handedly saving the world and fixing deep-rooted societal issues that span decades upon decades. Wholesome, yes, but also cheap. I’m not saying it’s wrong, but I’m merely confused as to why it was necessary in this drama and especially in this way. So much for the simple story.

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ As for the portrayal of a matriarchy… Of course, I found it once again superficial and lacking. It’s definitely better than others I’ve seen, and it gets more of a pass because of its setup and backstory, that being not of a true matriarchy (spanning at least several years where laws, norms, etc. would be completely different), but rather a somewhat recent branch-off as a form of protest due to the discrimination women faced. The good thing, however, was that the drama focused more on the main couple within the matriarchy than the deeper social issues, something that worked in their favour.

►PRODUCTION:
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ Definitely one of the more passable minidramas. It’s by no means spectacular, but you can tell there was enough budget to get going, and it was used quite well. Shots are nice and meaningful too (like, surprisingly nice sometimes). Overall, pretty good!

►MUSIC:
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ I honestly enjoyed it! Worked well for the cutesy drama that it is and the ending song was very catchy!

►ANYTHING ELSE:
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ In the end, it's a short, enjoyable watch. The short length is both a good and bad thing for the drama. On one hand, with its current plot, any longer would’ve lowered the rating quite a bit, but with how alright the drama already was, I feel like had it been a bit longer, it could’ve as easily increased the rating by allowing more development for the overall story so it doesn’t feel quite as incomplete.

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◇ Was it what I was expecting? Yes, quite.
◆ Did it live up to its potential? Hm, kinda
◇ Would I watch it again? Definitely!
◆ Would I recommend it to others? Yes!

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