So I think the writer of Zhan Zhao Adventures also wrote Ming Lan, and it really shows in how nuanced the female characters are depicted in ZZA despite this being a male-centric story. But I also can’t help feeling there’s a throughline of aching pain through all their stories as well.
You have Huo Linglong who ran away to see the world and to escape an arranged marriage, who is innocent and positive in the way that she should be considered her sheltered upbringing, but also isn’t stupidly naive. She is the balance between Zhan Zhao’s principle and Bai Yutang’s chaos, reminding Zhan Zhao what his principled pursuit of justice is for and pulling back Bai Yutang when he barrels into self-destruction. I really like the way the drama subverts tropes with Huo Linglong. Even with the minimal romance angle for this drama, I wouldn’t have been surprised if they had tried to set up a conflict between her and Ding Yuehua as the two women with close interactions with Zhan Zhao in this story. But while it does set up a contrast between them, one fighting in the light and one working in the dark, in the end they are working towards the same goal.
I like that Huo Linglong is very clearheaded. She is obviously heartbroken learning that Bai Yutang’s brother might have killed her aunt, but she doesn’t take that grief out on Bai Yutang, which would not have been out of place as a trope. If anything, it made her even more determined to get to the real answer because now her friendship with Bai Yutang is also at stake.
But consider that Huo Linglong isn’t a unique name, but a name shared across generations of all eldest daughters of the Huo family. Considering the Chinese cultural naming taboo that would otherwise prevent younger generations even having a similar sounding name to the elder generation, the fact that they have this shared name for the eldest daughter is intriguing. Why share a name, and why the eldest daughter, instead of son? Is it a way to trap the women and their loyalty to their birth family, or is it seen as an honour carrying the family legacy? It’s not entirely clear to me what the in-universe intent is, but the audience effect is probably both.
I’ve seen people talk about how the plot of ZZA moves too slowly at first, but I really think the overarching plot needs this gradual and meticulous unravelling. A lot of the action in this drama is in an older, practical style with actors doing their own stunts with prolonged shots instead of relying on fast editing and slow-mo that sometimes is more prominent these days, but even the way the drama proceeds is quite old style as well. There is obviously an overarching scheme/plot to be revealed throughout the whole drama, but the drama is also made up of mini cases, that can be seen as separate but really are all intertwined.
With the women trafficking arc, I appreciate that it took its time to explore how such an elaborate operation could have grown, how many people are involved, working for this whole trade, either gleefully willingly like Hua Chong or forced into supporting it and turning a blind eye (pun intended) like Hanshui Palace. Because the victims of Zhongxiao Pavillion deserve this time and acknowledgement that it isn’t just the evil of one single man but a whole system that is oppressing them. You have to have time to dwell on Huidai’s fears that even if she does escape, she won’t be accepted anywhere because she had spent time in a brothel, and Bai Yutang trying to comfort her that there are people like Fan Zhongyu who only wants to find his sister and get her back safe. But the fact that Huidai died before she can be rescued, the fact that the question if her fears would have been true, that she would have become an outcast even if she escapes Zhongxiao Pavillion, is never answered, makes the whole tragedy that much heavier. It drives home the central questions of whether the pursuit of justice is even worth it to the people who died in the process, and the conflict between Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang over the methods of getting justice.
I was so prepared when Fan Zhongyu died that Fan Yulian would probably die at some point as well, and that would be yet another tragedy on Zhan Zhao’s hero journey. While I am relieved that they avoided fridging her for this purpose, she had also lost so much in the process.
Ding Yuehua’s entire arc is also heartbreaking. She left home to try and get justice for her maid who was raped and killed by Jing Yiming, but in the process had to be accomplice to robbing others of their agency, including Chang Hongbi to the girls at Zhongxiao Pavillion. I can’t imagine the mental journey she must have gone through in a very short amount of time, to go from recklessly confronting Jing Yiming face on, to forcing herself into a role working in the shadows in hope of tearing him down. She got her revenge in the end, but probably still has had to compromise her own values many times over on that journey.
One thing that stands out in this drama is while the men tend to be pretty black and white, in that you can easily sort them into good or evil, regardless of their methods (Bai Yutang might not care about due process and will kill people he thinks deserves it in his pursuit of justice, but he is also clearly on the side of good; Shao Jizu tries to mask himself in his initial restraint when dealing with Linglong but you can clearly see his desire to control her and his evil intents the whole time) - with the women, it’s a lot more difficult to sort them. I think this is a good way to highlight the fact that no matter what, this is a man’s world, where men have the social agency to act according to their values and morals (or lack thereof). But for women, they are often forced into certain roles by the social structures that also oppress them.
Yes, there is Ding Yuehua, forced to take part in imprisoning Chang Hongbi and the women in Zhongxiao Pavillion. But there is also the Granny of Hanshui Palace, who initially comes off as cold but you get a backstory that explains why she is so desperate to preserve the power she has attained in the world.
Both Xiao Furen and Fourth Aunt of the Jin family done unforgivable things and told unforgivable lies that cost at least Jin Xuewen’s life, and while you can question to what extent they really do regret their actions, but you can’t deny that they have been forced into positions where they have had to take these actions. You can acknowledge the horror of Xiao Furen having to listen to her husband ranting about how he just had to kill Linglong Senior because she wasn’t submitting to him, the terror she felt for fifteen years that prevented her from returning home with him, but also living so close to where her husband horrifically murdered another woman. The fact that Tang Ji, as horrible as he otherwise is, does actually care about Fourth Aunt and their feelings are mutual, for so many years, to me make it impossible to feel complete satisfaction at their very deserved deaths. Because you have to wonder what could be different if Fourth Aunt wasn’t a woman in this world, that forced her to marry someone someone she didn’t want to marry and forced her to spend her entire life upholding the honour of a family that kept her trapped. To what extent is her expression of genuinely caring for Bai Yutang sincere, and what extent is it guilt for what happened to Jin Xuewen? Can you really separate sincere care and guilt?
The contrast that is there between the different women is not whether they are wholly good or bad, but whether they stand with each other. We see even when Ding Yuehua was forced to work for Zhongxiao Pavillion, she still mourned Huidai and gave her a proper burial. Jing Furen was forced to be Jing Yiming's wife and suffers for so many years as his wife, but still takes care of Yulian and help her escape and stays behind to face her husband's wrath to give Yulian a better chance. Fu Feng risks going against Granny to help Yuehua. All these women supporting each other actually makes Xiao Furen's betrayal of Linglong Senior hit much harder later.
Beautifully choreographed fighting aside, Zhan Zhao is interesting taking almost an observer role in all these stories unravelling, but I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. That is kind of his role as the investigator, tugging at the right strings for the truth to come out, letting the injustices be revealed. I like how in this way, the way Zhan Zhao in the story is always quietly supporting the female character is also reflected in the way the story is being told.
(I have more thoughts on how Zhan Zhao as a character is depicted in this drama but that’s another post.)
