神話織女 - 天涯織女 - 衣被天下 - Clothing The World - A Weaver on the Horizon

神話織女 (天涯織女/衣被天下/Weavers/Clothing The World/A Weaver on the Horizon) is a 2010 drama series out of Zhong Guo. The series stars Janine Chang, Yuan Hong, and Liu Shi Shi. The series runs a long 36 episodes (~43 minutes each). Other supporting cast members include Chang Pei Pei, Edwin Siu, Damian Lau, Tang Yi Fei, and Xu Qi Wen. The series is a fictional account of Huang Dao Po, whom is credited with helping kick start the Chinese textile industry.



The Story
The story begins with the younger Huang who is very poor and does whatever she can for her mom. The foundations of her character are set even at an early age. Huang's mom is sick and knows her days are number. The mom brings Huang to a textile store in the capital. After much suffering, Huang's mom dies and she's eventually accepted into the store as a student worker. The series flashes forward about 8-10 years and the store is having financial troubles due to the economic downturn. The Mongols are hot on the heals of taking over the country and buying expensive clothes is no longer a priority. A competition to enter the imperial palace is given to the top textile stores. Huang enters the store into the competition against her masters will. The gals get through the first 2 stages, but the last stage, they are helped by the master and lose. However, the empress likes them and brings them into the palace. In the palace, the girls along with Huang are faced with politics and succumb to it, eventually getting kicked out. After being kicked out, the girls go through another big trial and get married! The Mongols conquered the country and they make an escape to Yazhou where she learns to use cotton. After a bit of time learning cotton in Yazhou, Huang makes her way back Songjiang and helps to establish the textile industry there.



The Series
Amazing series. I didn't have high hopes for it when I first heard of it. Normally, ancient series for me are only for wuxia. The government politic seriously bore me and I avoid it with a passion. However, this one kept me captivated and on board the whole time. I really only picked it up for Janine Chang. Janine's first foray into ancient grab was awesome. Without Janine's warm smile and positive outlook, I wouldn't have been able to finish the series. And in general, all the main ladies were quite easy on the eyes which made it all the more easy to continue on.



My Thoughts
This may be my favorite ancient series of 2010 (even though I watched it in 2010). Even though it lacked the wuxia's fantasy element that draw me to ancient series, I was captivated and on board for the story to the end. Janine Chang, Liu Shi Shi, and Xu Qi Wen were the main gals and they were a doozy to watch. I didn't dislike anyone of the gals. In most series, if one gal or dood seems off or wrong, the series ends up being a chore. I would say that I spent the first 25 or so episode with my finger off the fast forward. The last 10-11 episodes, I was FFing about 25%.

The voices were in general dubbed over. Since I knew the voices of some of them, it seemed weird at first, but eventually I got use to it.