Review: The Imperial Doctress


I’ve told myself over and over again not to watch any historical dramas when the male lead is the Emperor. Unfortunately, I have an extremely soft spot for Wallace Huo and zero immunity against his good looks. Thus I ended up watching The Imperial Doctress.

The result was except for Wallace Huo and the last minute of the final episode, the whole drama made me felt nothing but anger at myself. That one minute in the finale which was designed to console the audience didn’t work for me. It failed to compensate for how depressed I was while watching this 50 episodes drama.

Although I love romance, watching a man who has a perfectly good wife falls in love with another woman is not my idea of fun. With how much I love the undying and unconditional love, I loathe both the homewrecker and cheater.

I know it’s not fair to call Liu Shi Shi (Tan Yuan Xian) and Wallace Huo (Zhu Qi Zhen) a homewrecker and a cheater for technically neither Tan Yuan Xian nor Zhu Qi Zhen blatantly act on their feelings. Nevertheless, I just can’t bring myself to root for them.


I can’t condone a romance that destroys a perfectly good marriage. Nor could I love a man who lets himself falling for another woman when he is already married and there is absolutely nothing wrong with his marriage. It goes without saying that I’m extremely allergic to anything remotely related to adultery and polygamy.

When I waste my precious and limited time to watch something, I want that thing to make me feel happy and not to raise my blood pressure. But there are so many things in The Imperial Doctress that suffocate me. One of those things is the plight of Empress Qian, Zhu Qi Zhen’s wife.

Let’s try to put ourselves in Empress Qian’s shoe first.


How would you feel when your husband is in love with another woman? Yes, he doesn’t leave you, but not because he doesn’t want to. He spends every minute and every second he is with you thinking about the other woman. And you have to pretend that everything is perfectly fine when you know for sure that his heart doesn’t belong to you anymore.


Of course being an Empress we should not forget that we have no problem sharing our husband with a bunch of other women. So, knowing our husband is sleeping with other women is actually not that big of deal because we know when he sleeps with them at least the only thing that involves is his body. The intimacy between them would at most only enable those women to get some of his favours. We could still console and fooling ourselves by saying that it’s us that he loves.

But that’s not the case with this particular girl Tan Yun Xian. Although they are not being physically intimate she already owns the very heart and soul of your husband. You can see that when he is sitting right next to you, his mind is miles away with her. And when he is away he doesn’t even remember to go home, you have to send people to look for him and ask him to come back. 


To make thing worse in the most intimate moment you can’t stop wondering whether you have finally become one of those women he casually sleeps with.

All that you have now is the mere shadow of the man that he used to be. All that he gives you are no longer enough to make you happy because you are no longer sure whether they are heart felt. But all that you can do is to pretend that everything is perfectly fine, because you have no other choice.


Simply horrible.

Women have to stay in a relationship without a way out. They are forced to share their husband with other women just to have a husband. They are seen as nothing but a tool to be used either to form a political alliance or as a baby factory.

I’m not saying that being a wife and a mother is the worst thing that could happen to a woman. On the contrary, I have nothing but admiration for women who decide to choose to forsake their independence and freedom to be someone else’s wife and mother. But the key word is ‘choose’.

Being a wife and a mother carry huge consequences and responsibilities therefore they have to do it on their own freewill. Women need to choose that they want to give up creating their own happiness and success and instead letting their husband and their children to determine them.

A woman who chooses to be a wife could never be truly happy or considered to be successful unless she is being loved by her husband and succeeded in making her children worthy to be admired.

What if a woman decides she doesn’t want to let her happiness and success to be determined by other people? Too bad for her, men create a system which makes it impossible for women to be independent. Throughout history it is easy to see that inequality has been systematically built by men to oppress women.

Even now in this 21st century women are still used as a sex object. If they want to be successful they are still required to use their beauty to please men. Women are competing to be the most beautiful in a beauty pageant by showing off their assets to win with not even the slightest sense of how degrading that is.

Why don’t we have a beauty pageant for men so we could see them parading on stage wearing only a pink speedo for our pleasure? Well, because we don’t rule the world. But even if we women rule the world I don’t think we would want to demean our men into a sex object. Women don’t lust after men like men lust after women, therefore women never see men as an object to be collected and used for their own pleasure.

We would never think to brainwash our men into thinking that using their body by parading half naked in front of us to gain our favours is actually an honour and a sign of how powerful they are. No men would buy that argument. Only women would believe that by giving men what they wanted for free is a good bargain and an honour.

Men might not want to admit it but their oppression of women is driven partly by their lustful nature. If they want to treat women as a sex toy then it is in their interest that those women stay stupid and powerless. Stupid women would never realize that they have lost their human rights and that men have turned them into objects. Powerless women could do nothing even if they are smart enough to realise that they have been robbed off of their rights and have become a second class citizen if not even worse.    

Now, let’s take a look at Tan Yun Xian the female lead. 


This is the first time that I don’t get jealous of the female lead who gets the love of all the male characters in the drama because I would find it extremely offensive if a married man who already have numerous wives and children confessing his love for me or wanting me to be a member of his harem. 

But men are blessed with thick skin or incredible sense of entitlement that make them feel that there is nothing wrong in wanting another woman to add into their collection.


Zhu Qi Zhen the Emperor of Ming Dynasty already has an Empress that he loves. No matter how much he loves Tan Yun Xian he can’t make her his Empress. She could only be one of his concubines, sharing the man she loves with other women. And he feels no shame in admitting that he already has a wife.




Zhu Qi Yu who loves her marry another woman in order to replace Zhu Qi Zhen as the Emperor. Not only he marries her for power, he also intentionally uses their intimacy as a tool to hurt Tan Yun Xian. He puts other woman as his Empress and gives Tan Yuan Xian no option but to be his lowly concubine. She becomes nothing but an outlet to vent his lust and temper. And a punching bag for both his Empress and mother.


Ye Xian the ruler of Northern Yuan who also wants Tan Yun Xian already has his own Empress as well as numerous concubines, again, the female lead could be nothing but another lowly concubine.


I feel nothing but pity for Tan Yun Xian. She is without a doubt one of the most pitiful female leads in drama land. Other male leads in other dramas compete to make the female lead their one and only true love, but her male leads only want her to be one of their women. Not only they couldn’t give her their full heart they couldn’t even give her the exclusive right to their bodies.

What makes thing more ironic is that she actually doesn’t need to depend on men to live. She is capable enough to support herself with an admirable profession. Unfortunately, the world she lives in doesn’t treat women of her profession kindly.

The same thing still happens in the 21st century. Women who try to work in the field which traditionally belongs to men face more hardship and challenges than men themselves.

The Imperial Doctress has royally screwed up in the romance department. Therefore they should have at least tried to be good enough in other department, for example in building the female lead character into a career oriented one. They should have expanded more effort in showing how she builds her carrier to become one of the best female physicians in the Ming Dynasty. Unfortunately, The Imperial Doctress also fails to do so.

I might be a little bit too harsh in my assessment because of how disappointed I’m with this drama’s romance but at least for people who look either for romance or another Dai Jang Geum I could say that this one would not satisfy you.  

Comments

Unknown said…
Amazing
You are truly wonder woman
You gave an awesome review which earned me to not watch this drama because it's annoying enough that kills a lot of time
I was just going to start watching it's episode 2 then I saw your article thanks for helping I can save my time now 😁😁😁🙏🙏
kimanjome said…
Thank you. I agree with many points you have made about how women, especially in olden times, had to rely upon men.

I really liked this drama, however. I think the portrayal of a woman physician who constantly faced challenges with men in her profession, was accurate. Also, I thought the female doctor (Hang/Tan Yun Xian) was portrayed accurately, because back in the olden times a woman was much more likely to have to comply with the standards of the day, ie, be constantly in a situation where she had to be dependent upon men. She would still 'need' a man more than a woman might now, simply because she would need protection. Also, I would think it would be more difficult to balance the desire with autonomy with adhering to social norms, meaning, belong to a man, as a possession. Especially when you are a woman who is a family member of a prominent family.

The only way I believe this could be avoided is to become a nun. Xian could certainly have chosen that route, and she could have practiced medicine while being a nun, but she did not. Instead, she chose to be a woman that was trying to do what most women now want" to have a career AND a partner. Not either/or, but both.

You also comment on how the Emperor (Wallace) "had a perfectly good Empress" and imply that he should have been satisfied with her. I don't know if that worked then, and it doesn't work now, for certain. I am a mother and I see some of the "perfectly good guys" my daughter is dating, and I think any of them would be a suitable match, but,my daughter cringes after a couple of dates. Besides, we do not always like what is forced upon us!

I loved the ending, but I do wish a few words had been spoken between them, or Xian had smiled. But I guess the jade bracelet said it all.
teresitafrias79 said…
I have watched this drama twice and couldn’t ask more. Wallace Huo and Cecilia Lu are my favorite Chinese actors. Their chemistry is so good but i wished the ending is not rushed. I want to see them, at least, reunited with an assurance of being together as man and wife. Zhi Quien abdicated his throne to pursue Yu Tian but will she be willing to be with him as a couple or will they just be together helping sick people? Although it’s obvious she also cares for the emperor, the fact that she used to be his former brother’s consort is enough reason for her to reject him.
Fixy said…
Thank you all for commenting. I might be too harsh in my writing because I'm so in love with Wallace Huo and I'm such a hopeless romantic. Some people might enjoy this drama without the afflictions that I have.

Wish you all the best.
Russell said…
An excellent though harsh review.
Anonymous said…
I think Yun Xian and Qi Zhen was perfectly written. Despite being in love with her, he fully loves her so much that he wants her to be free and happy in every aspect. He wanted to live a commoner life with her and her clinic. He had NEVER had the intention of hiding her as a consort unlike Qi Yu. Qi Yu has never shared her struggles, despite promising as a prince that he will let her have her clinic, he only ever want her to treat women cause of purity and integrity, he was weak and completely is manipulated by ‘virtuous’ woman and his mother.

Qi Zhen even before meeting Yun Xian never did like being in the palace, he was always roaming and hands on getting to understand his subjects because it was his job. He admire Yun Xian’s goal of wanting female physicians to treat women who can’t be seen by male because society deem it as violation. He went above and beyond to help her achieve this, giving her titles that allow her to start a pharmacy for the maids and eventually letting her take on pupils to be actual female doctors inside and outside the palace. He buried and hid all his feelings to fulfill his duty of being a good husband till his Empress’ death and his son was of age (he inherit the throne at 16 so he thought that is totally normal, not to mention he probably groomed his son properly.) In his eye, he did his job before finally chasing his dream of a normal life with Yun Xian.

Yun Xian only choose Qiyu in the beginning because she had to, she believe that he being single is the better husband and gave her heart away, convincing herself she cannot take the Emperor away from Empress. But Qiyu became so single minded in obtaining her became so twisted that he forced her to be his consort and rape her. Consequently even fell pregnant even when she wanted nothing more to do with her. She never wanted to be his wife/ Empresses but since she is, she had obligation to see it to his death. Then left the palace to avoid distracting Qi Zhen from his Emperor duties. I wish they explored her life outside the palace more after being a female doctor became a legal establishment but it is implied that she was humbly committed to her job while carrying her love for the Emperor silently via the gold bracelet.

As for his Empresses, she was literally raised with the Emperor knowing full well that her duty is to support him and give him heirs. They never married for love in the first place, that was her job. No doubt she also fell in love with him and she got jealous when she realized that he gave his heart away to someone else that wasn’t her. But her husband being constant by her side and probably never taking another consort after her son was born is probably her best comfort. I wished she could’ve had a husband for love her back but this was highly common place for the time period that most marriage was prearranged and you catch feelings through time spent together or you don’t and it’s just a partnership with someone till death. While tragic, she had the best outcome an Empress could have. She didn’t have to fight for favor and he stayed dutifully till death. As we see with the nun and the Dowager Empresses, her life could have been abandoned since she never got pregnant in the 8 years prior to Yun Xian appearing or been killed by another consort should anyone of them decided that they wanted to become Empress.

End of the day, polyamory and arranged marriages without love was the lifestyle and marrying for love was a privilege reserved for the poor. If you are noble or Royal by birth, your best hope is that you can harmoniously tolerate or even like your partner.