My Fair Princess / Pearl Princess
Starring: Vicki Zhao Wei, Ruby Lum Sum Yee

I have no idea why they call it "My Fair Princess" in the Singapore / Malaysian region. Maybe because it has simmiliarities to "My Fair Lady". Go figure.

Set in the Manchu era (unfortunately, an era I avoid for some reason. Must be the weird hairstyles the guys wear). Xiao Yan Zhi (Zhao Wei), a thief bumps into Zhi Wei (Ruby Lin), a well-mannered gentleborn lady who claims to be the Emperor's illegitimate daughter. Carrying a scroll left by her dead mother, Zhi Wei plans to meet the Emperor and hopefully get some recognition from him.

Zhi Wei and Yan Zi becomes closer and eventually became "sisters". After their efforts fail to get the Emperor's attention, Yan Zi agrees to help Zhi Wei pass the scroll to the Emperor personally. So she sneaks into the palace gardens - and ends up getting shot with an arrow by one of the guards.

The Emperor finds the scroll on Yan Zi and thinks that she is his long lost daughter. He declares her " Huan Zu Ge Ge" (Pearl Princess). Zhi Wei finds out about it and is heartbroken. But somehow Yan Zi manages to bring Zhi Wei in as a maid.

So they have to keep their true identities secret and somehow try to tell the Emperor the truth in the end. It's not very easy - especially when the Empress is all out to get both of the girls out of jealousy.

What I think: I can see why the show is so popular - the suspense of the inevitable meeting between Zhi Wei and her dad is excrutiating. He only knows that she's the real princess at CD23, and he didn't react very well to it. Not unless you call a decapitation `well'.

Don't worry, it has a happy ending.

I'm not much into the romance aspect of the show - infact, I find it rather ridiculous. I like the show only because of Zhao Wei's endearing, albeit exaggerated acting. Then there's the whole "real princess" thing and the relationship of both characters to the Emperor. The author - who apparently wrote the script as well - keeps us interested (and frustrated) with numerous plots by the Evil One (the Empress) against our poor princesses.

What's iffy: The long drawn periods of talking. We'll see the characters stating the obvious and then bantering it back and forth between each other. Meanwhile, us viewers would hit our foreheads and wonder how stupid they could be.

Of course, story and character wise - there isn't much depth to "Pearl Princess". Yet, it's all good fun. The characters have the depth of a piece of paper, but we don't really care I guess. We just want to see how it all turns out in the end.

I give: * * * Watchable and addictive. But seriously lacking in depth.