Juniper
This drama starts in 1908, just after the demise of the Guangxu Emperor and the powerful Empress Dowager Cixi. Master dressmaker, Su Jing An is summoned to the palace to present a ceremonial dress together with other top dressmakers to the surviving Empress Dowager who lived under the yoke of Cixi. He has a rival who was formerly his co-apprentice. This rival is Bai He Nian who hates Su Jing An as he thinks their former Master taught Su Jing An a secret technique called “Seamless Stitch” which was withheld from him.
Su Jing An has no sons, just a daughter but he has 2 devoted apprentices, Lu Yuan Zhi and Jiang Mo Sheng. Yuan Zhi is hot-headed and always spoiling for a fight, poking his nose into matters which he should stay out of. He gets into a fight on the street with another tailor who happens to be the godson of the Empress Dowager’s chief eunuch. The chief eunuch kills his godson and blames the death on Yuan Zhi as he wants to make trouble for Jing An. Chief eunuch and He Nian are plotting to bring down Jing An and his famous tailor shop.
Even in those last days of the Qing Dynasty, the Empress Dowager could order the execution of any of her subjects for the smallest of transgressions so everyone had to walk around on eggshells in the palace. Yuan Zhi gets into trouble time and time again, seems like he is always getting framed by He Nian and in exchange for sparing Yuan Zhi’s life, Mo Sheng is forced to be He Nian’s godson, declaring that he will no longer have ties with the Su family.
Yuan Zhi is saved more than once by Princess Kang Ning (her late mother was the former Princess Royal, sister to Guangxi Emperor). Kang Ning lives with her father and stepmother who hates her and vice versa. The drama is interesting because we see how eunuchs plot against their enemies, the depiction is quite evil in this drama.
The exquisite cheongsams which will be created by Yuan Zhi are yet to come, so far I have only watched 12 episodes. Yuan Zhi’s character is very rash, he gets into trouble because he never thinks things through. He has a helpful nature but that lands him in jail and almost sent off to a Tower of No Return. The once strong and unshakable relationship between Yuan Zhi and Mo Sheng is tested as Mo Sheng is showing signs of allegiance to his scheming godfather who wants nothing more than for the Su business to fail.
