Netflix's murder mystery 'The Ghost Bride' based on Yangsze Choo's NYT bestseller set to capture audiences
Two women from two different times tell riveting tales of how lives were led in their respective time periods. One was politically charged, the other is clearly a murder mystery.
We are speaking of 'The Rise of the Phoenixes', a Chinese show that dropped on Netflix in 2019 which became one of the most followed shows. Despite it consisting of 70 episodes that were an hour-long, fans were invested in the plot because of its immersive nature.
Until the very end, the direction that the lead character Feng Zhiwei's life would take remained mysterious and the period courtroom drama's political scheming by the king to keep his throne, and the princes to take over from the king, made it fascinating. Then there was the romance between one of the princes Ning Yi and Feng Zhiwei, which played an equally important role in the show's popularity.
Now, the murder mystery is set in the 19th century. 'The Ghost Bride' is an upcoming Netflix original that is based on a popular novel of the same name by author Yangsze Choo. The show has been adapted into a six-episode TV series that portrays the life of a young girl Pan Li Lan.
The 20-year-old girl dreams of seeing the world, and she even has a crush on Lim Tian Bai, a son from an affluent family. The official Netflix synopsis reads, "Li Lan has been offered a marriage proposal from the wealthy Lim Family to become the 'ghost bride' to their recently deceased son. Her family will be saved from a lifetime of debt, but she’ll spend the rest of her life being haunted by the Lim family’s son. Desperate to get out of this ghastly arrangement, she soon finds herself wrapped up in a murder mystery and embroiled in other-worldly affairs much bigger than she could have ever imagined."
The trailer of the show features Li Lan getting threatened by the ghost of the son, who claims that he did not die of an illness. He uses Li Lan's father, who falls ill suddenly to get Li Lan to find the person who killed him.
He claims he was poisoned and also tells her she has only 10 days to find the person who killed him. If she fails to do as he asks of her, her father's life will end. In such circumstances, Li Lan finds herself involved not only in unraveling a murder mystery, but also supernatural beings.
Netflix has captured the attention of fans who love Korean shows in the form of 'My First First Love', 'Love Alarm' and most recently 'Crash Landing on You'. However, when it comes to Chinese shows, the one that truly had viewers' attention last was 'The Rise of the Phoenixes'.
The Mandarin show based on Tianxia Guiyuan's book 'Huang Quan' is not an uncommon attempt at period drama. While there are many courtroom dramas that portray kings being overthrown by princes with a lot of political scheming, 'The Rise of the Phoenixes' was successful because of putting the female character Feng Zhiwei at the forefront.
It is this factor that hints at the possibility of 'The Ghost Bride' being a successful outing for Netflix. The show is slated to premiere on January 24.
