Series Reviews

1. Things that I liked
2. Things I did not like

Sisterhood is a Chinese historical drama led by Xiao Yan and Dai Xiang Yu.
Set in the 1930s, it tells the story of the “Red Scarves”: women from a rural region of China who moved to Singapore to work in construction sites. In particular, it follows Ouyang Tian Qing, a Red Scarf with good business sense; Kuang Hai Sheng, a local gangster who falls in love with her at first sight; the Lu family, a rich family running the construction company; and Nan Lan, a rich lady who befriends the main characters.

Rating this drama is difficult, because it seems to be watching two different stories. On one side we have the Red Scarves, dealing with their issues in what seems to be a serious historical drama (I would have given this alone a 9/10); on the other, we have the Lu family, Nan Lan and her pirate admirer, and the gang fights challenging each other on who can push this drama more off-the rails.
Overall, I will give it a 7/10. Maybe I am even inflating this number a little, but the Red Scarves storyline had so much potential that I feel like giving it a 7 anyway.

I will now mention a couple of more spoilery things.

Things that I liked

• The Red Scarves, poor women in an unfamiliar place, working hard and struggling to survive and send earn enough to aid their families back home. It was a very compelling storyline, each woman with their own background and struggles, the scenes are more “gritty”: the girls are working, dirty and live in dark small rooms. You can feel their emotions, how stuck they feel in the situation, even when trying to be hopeful and whishing for a better future.
  If the drama was only focusing on them, giving more space to flesh out all of the girls and their romances, this could have been a perfect drama, I would have given it 9/10.
• The romance, while not the focus of the drama, was very cute: Kuang Hai Sheng, falling in love with Ouyang Tian Qing at first sight after she stood up to him to defend her friend, was very devoted to her and since their first meeting helping her and being with her became his main goal. He was a very sweet character, and was one of my favourites in the show. However, she did take almost 30 episodes before realizing that she too had feelings for him, but they ended up together, even having a cute wedding at the end.
• Nan Lan, a rich lady running an hotel, and her extravagant life, was not something that really interested me. However, the introduction of the whacky pirate that wanted to make her his wife really entertained me. The dynamic between these two completely unbelievable characters seemingly living in their own martial arts/borderline fantasy drama was very funny to me.
  Their storyline did take away time that could have been used to give more depth to the Red Scarves and their struggles, but at least it was fun.

Things I did not like

• The Lu family. This is what brought the score down to 7/10.
  It turned what could have been a serious historical series into a trashy melodrama with theatrical “bad” (exaggerated) acting and every plot-twist imaginable: secret child born out of wedlock; an apparent normal character going completely insane and turning into a villain (of course, complete with an hairstyle change to make them more evil-looking); character who everyone thought was dead for years was instead alive and imprisoned the whole time by a woman he rejected in the past; man cheating on her with everything that moves, and forcing himself on the maids; borderline incest (thankfully avoided in time) when one of the characters fell in love with his niece before knowing they where related; etc…
  The Lu’s storyline started out with a look at a boring rich family life and ended up going completely off the rails.
• The Gangs. I have nothing much to say about this point, other that it was just an unnecessary waste of time. Kuang Hai Sheng is a gangster, but he was at most a petty criminal at the beginning of the drama, and they could have kept his story more realistic and grounded by leaving him a insignificant member of a small local gang, and his struggles put his past behind him and offer a more stable life to the main female lead.
  However, once again, wackiness ensues in an explosion of gun fights and battles between gangs.
• The conflict in the main leads relation towards the end of the drama. Ouyang Tian Qing’s mother, after abandoning her when she was a child, comes back into the picture (she, of course, is now part of the lead criminal gang, because any semblance of realist has left the show) and shoves herself in between our leads. She decides that Kuang Hai Sheng is not good enough for her daughter, and somehow convinces him of that. And he leaves the city! Just when Ouyang Tian Qing had started to realize her feelings for him!
  I was so irritated by what was happening, I debated just dropping the drama. The leads relationship was one side of the story I was really enjoying, and now they suddenly get separated? For a whole bunch of episodes?!
  My irritation was strong, but I am glad I continued watching, because their romance had a very cute finale.

Overall, it was an entertaining drama, and if I had known in advance what to expect (a more dramatic and exaggerated story, instead of the serious historical drama I thought it would be), I would have for sure enjoyed it more.