I believe many viewers have been cured by CP in the Chinese drama Lighter & Princess!
If you also watch Lighter & Princess, you will definitely be touched by the sweet love of the CP. A beautiful idol drama is like a piece of candy in life. Although it is short-lived, it still feels like fireworks blooming in your heart when you watch it. You feel like your whole body is warmed up and relieved of the harsh winter and icy life.
Starring Chen Feiyu and Zhang Jingyi, this drama is adapted from Twentine’s novel “dǎ huǒ jī yǔ gōng zhǔ qún”(打火机与公主裙, Lighter and Princess Dress). It tells the story of a love between the good girl Zhu Yun (played by Zhang Jingyi) and the programming genius Li Xun (played by Chen Feiyu).
Lighter & Princess Review
Teenage Genius “Bad Boy”
Just appeared Li Xun dyed a head of blonde hair, and very openly appeared in the university campus, this scene attracted the play passers-by frequently look back, but also surprised many viewers off the screen.
Li Xun, handsome, talented, powerful, arrogant, and rebellious, is a full campus bad boy image.
Li Xun, played by Chen Feiyu, is indeed full of youthfulness. He has the thinness of an adolescent boy, and his temperament and appearance also have the inherent advantage of playing a “bad boy”. He has a crooked smile, which is cool and bad.
But the bad boys in idol dramas are not really bad guys, but people who dare to break the rules and behave rebelliously.
They are either “bad students” who are naughty and do not study well, or they are “cool boys” who go their own way and are unique.
And Li Xun in the drama is the latter type of person.
Li Xun grew up in a poor family environment. His father died early, leaving behind a lighter, which became the support of his heart. He originally wanted to take good care of his mother and sister, but he failed to do so. Having experienced the death of his loved ones many times, he had already seen the desolation of the world. He wanted to be strong and unruly, and his blonde hair had become a symbol of his uniqueness.
He is arrogant and indifferent in school, but he is also the top scorer in the college entrance examination, a computer genius, and a true academic overachiever.
He is not the kind of punk who fights and fools around, but has an arrogance that is equal to his talent and a naughty one who loves to play tricks on people.
The teacher at the beginning of the semester asked him to introduce himself, and he cherished his words like gold – “My name is Li Xun, and I am the top scorer in this year’s college entrance examination.”
Two simple sentences, but so proud.
His classmates invited him to join an interest group on the grounds that they could learn from each other’s strengths, but he refused rather awkwardly – “Do I have any — shortcomings?”
Call him bad, what he did was indeed damaging.
At the class cadre election meeting, Li Xun took advantage of Zhu Yun’s distraction while she was staring at him writing code and tricked her into standing up and introducing herself. As a result, she made a joke on the spot——
“The life committee is equivalent to Sha Monk, Zhu Bajie(ugly pig demon)…”
Li Xun: “The teacher asked you to introduce yourself.”
Zhu Yun: “Hello everyone, my name is Zhu Yun…”(The Chinese pronunciation of “pig” is “zhu.”)
The premature separation from his native family allowed Li Xun to grow wildly like weeds, and his ruggedness, aloofness, and tenacity all came from this. He doesn’t accept his fate and doesn’t care about anyone.
At work, he speaks directly and harshly, hurts the self-esteem of others without mercy, and speaks harshly to his lover when he loses control.
It is this kind of character that makes the talented young man commit crimes for various reasons.
The Brave and Stubborn “Good Girl”
Zhu Yun is beautiful, brave, stubborn, and hardworking. She has always been a good girl, but everything surrounding Li Xun makes her stand out.
Zhu Yun, played by Zhang Jingyi, was cared for and grew up in the “Ivory Tower”, and she excelled in both studies and behavior from an early age. But behind the obedience of good girls, most of them have an arranged and controlled life.
Zhu Yun’s mother had arranged everything since she was a child. She even had to ask for her mother’s permission to be a class representative at the university.
Children who grow up in this kind of family have their inner voices suppressed because of their habitual arrangements. They are also confused and directionless about the future.
After meeting Li Xun, this man who was completely different from her aroused her curiosity and attention. She started fighting with him and then gradually became attracted to him.
Zhang Jingyi has a pure temperament and firm eyes. She is very convincing as a good girl who is pure, righteous, and stubborn at heart.
Although Zhu Yun has a non-aggressive face. But once offended, she never backs down easily.
When she learned that the project results of herself and her classmates were easily replaced by her senior brothers and sisters, her questioning eyes were not timid.
Zhu Yun seems to be a good girl nurtured in a happy family, but she also hides a rebellious heart under the overall control of her mother, which is awakened by the appearance of Li Xun.
She found a light to follow and gave everything for it, regardless of the consequences or the future.
It is precisely in this way that they have a bright future when they meet again later.
The Love Between a Bad Boy and a Good Girl
One is a proud, eclectic bad boy.
One is a good girl who is obedient but confused inside.
At first glance, they appear to be people from two different worlds. Both of them see qualities in each other that they do not have, but they are the same kind of people at heart.
Therefore, the two people will naturally be attracted to each other.
In the early stage, they were happy enemies, a pair of adolescent men and women who disliked each other and “fought” each other. In this kind of back and forth, the distance between them would become closer and closer.
However, happy enemies are often tough talkers. They are obviously attracted to each other, but no one wants to show weakness.
The more they “fought”, the more ambiguous the atmosphere became.
Zhu Yun was laughed at by Li Xun because of the welcome program she originally prepared, so she decided to do a talk show as an opportunity to mock him.
Zhu Yun mocked him as a “little native dog with dyed golden hair” in a talk show.
The next day, Li Xun dyed his hair back.
They can see each other’s inner desires and shortcomings hidden under the two labels of “bad” and “good”, and can give each other what they need. This is the truly moving part of this type of story.
Li Xun gives Zhu Yun the way forward, and Zhu Yun saves Li Xun with her softness.
Li Xun’s help in Zhu Yun’s growth is not an imposition, but like a catalyst, only influencing but not interfering.
He wanted Zhu Yun to grow up independently on her own.
In order to tease Zhu Yun, Li Xun installed a virus on her computer. Zhu Yun could not solve it no matter how hard she tried. Faced with Zhu Yun’s request, Li Xun deliberately refused to agree but changed the way to tell her ideas to solve the virus.
Even if he wanted to help, Li Xun would rather offer advice indirectly than directly reach out to solve any problem.
If we say that Li Xun secretly supported and guided Zhu Yun, Zhu Yun’s trust and understanding for Li Xun were derived from admiration.
She understood the good intentions behind every decision he made, and he was not as impersonal a bad boy as he seemed.
So later, even if others thought they were not compatible at all, Zhu Yun still confessed to Li Xun without hesitation and said: “Li Xun, you choose me, I will never betray you!”
King and Knight
“I have my king, and I am his loyal minister. I am willing to wave the flag for him, and I am also willing to die on the battlefield for him.”
“What kind of girl is a princess?” “Princess…, first of all, you must have a pair of noble eyes, and secondly, an innocent and fragile heart. Of course, it would be better if you add a little risk-taking spirit. “
Although these words may seem out of place, they are not inconsistent with the drama at all.
As a princess, Zhu Yun always protects Li Xun, willing to be the king’s knight. The king leads her into battle to kill the enemy and pursue the light.
Li Xun looks like a hard and rugged stone, but the princess has always been his weakness.
Before falling in love, Li Xun had an obvious tendency to self-destruct. He stayed up all night, got wet in the rain, and tried to play basketball, which caused his back injury to relapse.
When he fell in love during college, Li Xun warmed up a lot. He could communicate with her princess, make arrangements with Fu Yizhuo, drink with his friends and talk about his dreams, comfort his sister, and let her marvel at how her brother had changed.
But the death of his only relative made him stay away from everyone, give up everything he had, and choose the most extreme way to take revenge. He beat people in public and went to jail.
He dealt harsh blows to himself for failing to protect his family, But he still arranged everything for Zhu Yun.
He went home with Zhu Yun to meet her parents and deliberately did annoying things, forcing Zhu Yun to be disappointed in him and break up;
He transferred all the shares of their company, including Zhu Yun’s half, to Gao Jianhong, letting Zhu Yun leave him without any concern.
However, he misjudged his friend and underestimated Zhu Yun’s love for him.
After he was imprisoned, Gao Jianhong betrayed him by controlling all the shares.
After the breakup, Zhu Yun was arranged to go abroad, but her physical and mental state were very poor. She even wanted to end her life at one point, and the hope that supported her survival was because she dreamed of Li Xun.
After being released from prison, Li Xun no longer had thorns all over his body, but became calmer, loved to laugh, and knew how to be soft at the right time.
Facing Gao Jianhong who robbed his company, he chose to forgive, and he also forgave himself.
He forgave himself for not protecting his mother and sister, and he would never destroy himself again.
Li Xun is Zhu Yun’s king, and she is a knight.
She always firmly chooses to stand by Li Xun’s side. In this relationship, Zhu Yun has always been the more proactive party. She wants to bring down Zhang Xiaobei alone, stalks Li Xun, and takes the initiative to confess her feelings.
Three years later, she still stood beside Li Xun without asking, fearing that Li Xun would go astray and would stop him in time;
When her parents tried to stop her again, she stood firmly beside Li Xun and said to her mother, “This is our home. You have no right to interfere or make decisions.”
What makes people want to call her princess the most is that she took the initiative to publish the scandal video that made Li Xun compromise, and she didn’t allow him to bow his head.
She is brave, capable, loyal, perseverant, naive, and loves to be silly.
Li Xun was her all-or-nothing adventure.
She is his undying love.
Under Li Xun’s guidance, Zhu Yun slowly finds her true self, which is brave, independent, firm and tolerant, noble.
At Zhu Yun’s insistence, Li Xun gradually lets go of his hard shell and shows his softness. He has become gentle and caring, no longer radical. He has learned to let others go and let himself go. This is also a process of forgiving the original pain.
At Last
Many people say that you should never choose Li Xun in real life. Such an extreme personality may make your future life less stable.
This is indeed the case, and precisely because of this, we will admire the princess’s bravery even more. Only people like her is worthy of Li Xun, and of course, only people like Li Xun is worthy of Zhu Yun.
Zhu Yun said this in the play:
“He has everything I once lacked, confidence, courage, strength, freedom. He always has a firm direction and never doubts himself. Maybe he is a special existence to me.”
Perhaps there has been such a person in everyone’s life. Despite all his wounds, he still makes you look up to him. He wakes up and is still worthy of your following.
Therefore, the two have never let go of each other for seven years, and they are the most special existence for each other.
He is her king, she would be his knight, and she will always be his beloved princess.
Leave a Reply