Are You The One (2024) Review and Ramblings

It occurred to me somewhere at the end of Are You The One that the show could be renamed Lie Your Way to a Successful Marriage. Deception being the name of the game. And the running gag. Unlike the majority of C dramas, the final act of this drama is quite likely the best part of the show. Everything the show has been building up to finally reaches its culmination and resolution. After some obligatory huffing and puffing the leads find their way back to each other after leaping through one hurdle after another, undertake the final challenge and then retire with minimal fanfare to their happily-ever-after. Are we to believe then that all is well with the world now that the baddies have been promptly booted out of palace politics? Apparently so. Because the emperor can now indulge in a bit of kite flying in his spare time with his unlikely empress. No one begrudges the emperor a bit of rest and relaxation when the looming threat has been banished and peace restored. It does however beg the question of whether the emperor and his lovely empress will bring forth progeny as confirmation of the fact that a transactional marriage can become an authentic one where genuine goodwill can lead to consummation.

Theirs is not a union of sweet tingly feelings and “I love yous”. It’s partly an alliance of political expediency and partly because she’s hard headed with zero expectations about the entire business. She’s not his first choice as his bride but grows into his only choice. To his credit, Ziyu is a lad who has his eye on the bigger picture. Which is why in a real enough way, everything works out for everyone. He wastes no time on pining over what could-have-been with Liu Miantang and gets on with the job of protecting his chosen empress. To her credit, Shi Xueji doesn’t get into her head that she can somehow replace Liu Miantang in Ziyu’s heart but does the hard work of supporting him thus earning his trust — which at the end of the day is far more important in a very long journey presumably spanning a lifetime. Rather than abusing their power (as it is possible to do so in such circumstances) the nation’s father and mother see themselves as stewards of the nation overseeing their wellbeing. In this instance, marriage is a vehicle to put the ship on the right course and steer it in the right direction generally.

As for the leads, theirs is an example of another kind of marriage. As it turns out, Miantang doesn’t object to the lying per se. She’s wise to the fact that Cui Xingzhou genuinely cares about her. What she takes issue with is the fact that the deception disregarded her agency. To use a very modern metaphor, she’s not content with being in the passenger seat led around without her permission. She’s not averse to marriage it seems but the fact that she was forced into one was a huge transgression/ imposition. She’s a very modern Miantang that values her independence and being someone’s fake wife is goes against one of her core principles. The point I’m almost sure is taken by the target audience although I’m far more inclined to believe that she spent all that time rebuffing him because he didn’t do enough heavy lifting the first time. My point being that she more or less fell into his lap. And according to conventional wisdom a man needs to experience the hunt, the thrill of the chase to never take his wife for granted. There’s a proverb in the Old Testament that insists that a man who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favour from God. Even a man of Cui Xingzhou’s status needs to prove that he’s husband material after undertaking a series of labours.

I wonder why they keep making these types of modern fables about modern marriages regardless of the setting. I thought the country’s content watchdogs were sticklers for historical accuracy. In the end, the historical trappings are just playing cover for something else. This is unfortunate because the show is never really allowed to rise above the didactic underpinnings of the story. It can’t be a complex story with complex characters because it is held captive to a kind of political correctness that its target audience will recognize. There’s nothing objectionable about schooling the viewing public on the realities of marital challenges and how to overcome them with the right communication tools but it is a shame that it can never be more than that despite the 40 episode tag. It seldom rises above a well-produced douyin trope fest even with such a talented male lead at the helm.

Zhang Wanyi’s idiosyncratic performance is undoubtedly a highlight in all of this. Because he is probably too good an actor for a role like this, he brings extra layers to his performance by knocking off the cookie cutter edges. Cui Xingzhou is a conscientious fief lord who also understands his responsibilities to the point that he has wanted nothing for himself until now. Until the pretence of being a husband becomes a reality. It isn’t as if he’s particularly good at being a husband to begin with but in response to her earnestness, it turns out that he rather likes being one… to her. That’s the discovery he makes under deception and Zhang Wanyi’s nuanced delivery allows the audience to follow the transitions with clarity. Cui Xingzhou un-deceives himself that he doesn’t need a woman to love during his web of lies. Once the bubble bursts, he is just like any man in pursuit of the woman he loves. Of course it doesn’t hurt that he gets some healthy competition from the emperor himself to go that extra mile to prove his sincerity.

Deception brings the leads together and deception is a necessary part of what allows them to hold on to each other as they fend off a national crisis with panache. The prince of Huaiyang and his consort are a type of Mr and Mrs Smith that are better together than apart. The country needs them to be. A couple can’t deceive each other but they can deceive other people for the sake of the greater good ie the country. Prince Sui, the Big Bad in this seems to be an intractable nuisance and the nation’s foremost power couple are called to be on the job. In reality there aren’t too many to choose from. Prince Sui seems to have a stranglehold on power. Patriotism is a scarce commodity. Only a handful can’t be bought. These leave the emperor few options.

The take down of the show’s greatest villain is largely a lesson on the good things that can result when a man and woman present a united front in their marriage. There are larger social benefits when marriages function as well-oiled machines. Serving as a contrast, there’s also a cautionary tale by way of Cui Xingzhou’s older sister of what happens when a couple don’t move as one. Brother-in-law brings a new woman into the household and it is, on hindsight, the beginning of the end for him. It speaks not only to commitment but character.

As much as I enjoyed it (I found myself grinning in many places), I wouldn’t say it’s a must watch. A tighter script would have improved the flow of the storytelling and the overall viewing experience for me. I’m not sure the third romance was really needed or dragging it out to the extent that it did was necessary. In some ways there were too many characters and in other ways, there were too few — considering the scope of the narrative.

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