What is this drama about?
Shanghai, Republican times in China. The young and beautiful singer Jian Ying attracts the attention of a local businessman, Du Jing Chuan. After a short acquaintance, the man marries the girl as his concubine. He doesn’t know that the girl specifically approached him to avenge her family. At first, it seems that Mr. Du’s young son will interfere with the girl’s plan, however, they get along. It turns out that he is not who he says he is, which she knows perfectly well, but she doesn’t reveal his secret to anyone. They share a common goal, so they start helping each other.
I started watching this drama out of curiosity. I saw a clip on the Internet and was very intrigued by the beautiful and mysterious main character. I was expecting a rather cheesy story like „Maid’s Revenge”. What was my surprise when after a few episodes I couldn’t tear myself away from this story. The drama “Provoke” is nothing like a bad story with a violent alpha male and screaming, innocent women. I have to admit the whole thing looks good. I like the way this drama is filmed. There are a lot of slowdowns, which gives the drama a mysterious character. Shots and close-ups of rubbing fingertips leave a slight shiver down your spine.
The main character is a very well written character. She is beautiful, calm and with a perfect plan for revenge. I feel like she’s a few steps ahead of everyone. Each episode is 15 minutes long, so the action moves along pretty quickly. There are no exaggerated characters, absurd situations and violence against women. There’s a really subtle relationship between the main characters, a good revenge plan, and smart characters who know what they’re doing.
The first scene of the drama misleads the viewers, but this will only become clear in later episodes. If someone likes short dramas with revenge in the background and in republican times, I recommend it. So far, there are only 18 translated episodes (the whole drama has 25).
