Duke Su jumps into the air and lands on the chair back with graceful ease. He unfolds his bamboo fan, then glares at a salt smuggler held down by his men. The suave and arresting general is played by Wang Xingyue in The Double, a popular Chinese drama revenge thriller that maintains a tight, speedy yet unhurried narrative rhythm in 40 episodes.
Behind the scenes: Wang Xingyue studying Duke Su’s lines (Image from @wangxingyue0305)
The success is amplified by life-like protagonists Duke Su and Xue Fang Fei and antagonists Shen Yurong and Princess Wanning. Their gravitas, humor, and wit were conveyed in equal parts, by the actors’ expressive eyes and nuanced gestures, moving the storyline fluidly.
The people who betrayed Fang Fei (Wu Jinyan) learn too late that she isn’t a woman to be trifled with. She survives being struck with a spade by her husband Shen Yurong, who buries her alive, and the ignominy of being framed as an adulterer by Yurong and his mother.
A deus ex machina named Jiang Li serendipitously sets Fang Fei’s revenge in motion. Jiang Li was the Secretary of State’s daughter falsely accused of fratricide by her stepmother. She was exiled to Zhennyu Hall—a juvenile detention center for female delinquents—where she died after being paddled for breaking a rule.
Fang Fei assumes Jiang Li’s identity and returns to the capital to get justice for herself, her family (she learns they’ve been killed), and the real Jiang Li. Quick on the uptake on political goings-on, Fang Fei navigates the political intrigues and subterfuge effortlessly. Significantly, her equanimity keeps her judgement and principles unimpaired, and her plan of revenge on track.
Her fortuitous meeting with Duke Su at Zhennyu Hall is propitious. It gives her an advantageous partnership, with an ally with a similar past. Together, they go up against the kingdom’s political giants, with her settling a personal grudge and Duke Su preventing an uprising.
Fang Fei intrigues Duke Su, whose curiosity turns into awed respect when, as his pawn, she accomplishes his challenges with courage and sagacity. Tellingly, he realizes belatedly he’s her pawn as much as she is his.
Fang Fei’s fortuitous meeting with Duke Su at Zhennyu Hall is propitious. It gives her an advantageous partnership, with an ally with a similar past
Intelligent and trustworthy Duke Su doesn’t brook criticism or interference with his investigation of anomalies and corrupt officials, and intel gathering for the emperor. He has carte blanche in dealing with miscreants and dissidents, and thus, his reputation as a martinet of a general precedes him, his name striking fear and his presence doubling the trepidation.
Like Hamlet, Duke Su is a tragic hero. His childhood was devastating: His mother succumbed to grief after his father’s death, and he is estranged from his grandfather. His father, a general in the emperor’s army, died in battle, as the official story goes, but his sixth sense told him something wasn’t right. But unlike the prince of Denmark, he’s a wuxia, a martial hero of the bourgeois kind (the hero is typically plebeian), endowed with preternatural abilities in martial arts and championing justice. Wuxia is a portmanteau of wu, meaning martial or military, and xia, hero or chivalry.
A fan in the hands of Duke Su is a lethal weapon. (Image from @wangxingyue0305)
Duke Su is a martial artist extraordinaire, whether wielding a fan or spear. He’s avenging his father’s death, stopping illegal activities (graft, gold mining, salt smuggling), and preventing the emperor’s siblings from usurping the throne.
The heroes and villains make for fine pairings. Fang Fei and Duke Su are the golden couple with their equal footing, honesty, and resoluteness. Duke Su’s feminist inclination underscores a forward-thinking man, who doesn’t use gender to undermine Fang Fei. Instead, he encourages her to live her life and find happiness.
Princess Wanning’s undoing is her obsession with Yurong. (Image from @youkuofficial)
By contrast, kindred evil spirits Wanning and Yurong are deluded by love and power. Wanning’s obsession with Yurong triggers her dormant murderous streak; she schemes with Yurong to kill Fang Fei and, on her own, kidnaps and imprisons Fang Fei’s brother. She’d killed her father and colluded with sibling Lord Cheng to unseat their brother-emperor. But Wanning wasn’t born a monster. She was molded by a cruel father who sent her to a rival kingdom as hostage and endured inhumane treatment. Returning home, she faced continued disrespect.
Yurong’s amiable mien belies a shocking savagery. Seduced by a princess and offers of a distinguished career and luxurious life, he killed Fang Fei and went through the rigmarole of mourning her death. In the end, he sacrifices Wanning to further Lord Cheng’s rebellion while trying to reconcile with Fang Fei. He roils in jealousy when Fang Fei falls for Duke Su and, brandishing the fish talisman, orders the kingdom’s elite soldiers, Longwu, to kill Duke Su. (Longwu soldiers are loyal only to whoever holds the talisman.)
Jiang Li’s stepmother, Ji Shuran, completes the triumvirate of villains. Shuran hides her viciousness beneath the mask of a doting mother and loving wife. But once threatened, no one—not even a child—escapes her malevolence; she has learned at an early age that sentimentality only made people weak.
Like Wanning, she isn’t genetically evil. Her life was controlled by a father who pushed her and her sister to kill to get ahead, she the first wife and eldest daughter of her husband, and her older sister the emperor’s previous consort.
The appeal of The Double was strengthened by the meticulous attention to the details of the period’s makeup and costumes
Fang Fei, played by Wu Jinyan, wearing pearl makeup (Image from @youkuofficial)
The appeal of The Double was strengthened by the meticulous attention to the details of the period’s makeup and costumes. Fang Fei’s pearl makeup to special functions was historically fashionable during the Song dynasty, superseding the gold foil, paper, and feathers of the Tang dynasty, says content creator Phoenix (@achinesetranslator), adding that while the pearl makeup followed similar patterns, the huadian, forehead decoration, was distinct for each woman.
Phoenix explains that Ji Shuran’s décolletage also has historical basis. The V-neckline was common in the Tang dynasty, and women wore skin-colored tube tops under open-top blouses to create the look in the Song dynasty.
Ironically, while the low neckline was acceptable, the dictates of beauty standards in the Song dynasty called for slim, flat-chested women with small feet. Content creator Mia Yilin (@chinesewithmia) says women flattened their chests using a moxiong (cloth) for a skinnier appearance.
The Double didn’t depict the small feet—golden lotus or three-inch feet—which were symbols of beauty and social status among elite women up until 1912, when foot binding was finally outlawed. Yilin says the bound-feet fetish had three categories: golden lotus, silver lotus (four-inch feet), and iron lotus (bigger than four inches).
Duke Su cuts a sexy figure with his hair down. (Image from @wangxingyue0305)
Men’s aesthetics focused on maintaining their hair long. People were of the belief that hair was a gift from parents, and thus, shouldn’t be cut or damaged. Per Yilin, cutting the hair was considered unfilial, even barbaric. It was a punishment, second to beheading, for extreme crimes. Also, loose hair was considered improper and unrefined, and so the hair was swept up tightly in a bun on top of their heads and secured with a hair crown.
Duke Su looked immaculately gorgeous with a topknot or hair hanging loose, his look when the emperor grounded him.
A satisfying conclusion and adequate pacing are critical for the success of a revenge-thriller. The Double had both. Beginning with Yurong, he loses his career, power, wealth, and Fang Fei in one fell swoop, with the hardest blow being Fang Fei choosing Duke Su over him. Yurong is sucker-punched when Fang Fei arrives dramatically at the gates on horseback with her bow and arrow, ready to rescue Duke Su, who is surrounded by the Longwu soldiers. Fang Fei shoots him with an arrow to break his hold on the talisman. Broken, Yurong jumps off the gate’s ledge, his property confiscated, and his mother and sister banished from the capital.
Wanning’s comeuppance evokes a bit of sympathy. Learning that Yurong never loved her and wanted her dead, she dies by his hand, pushing the sword he held through her. Similarly, Wanning’s co-conspirators, the treacherous minister Li Zhungnan and son, are sentenced to death.
Happy endings are de rigueur in C-Drama series. First, Jiang Li is avenged, and Fang Fei and Duke Su are together. Depending on the streaming platform, Duke Su hurries home to Fang Fei after leaving her to fight the war—in Netflix—while Fang Fei and Duke Su are with their daughter, in Youku.
Society and justice don’t always enjoy synchronicity in the real world where justice is either delayed or subverted, but not in the fictional kingdom of The Double. Being righteous is paramount and justice is delivered by a wuxia, who gifts viewers with the warm yet brief thought that the world is copacetic.
