'Where The Mask Ends' (Jia Jin Chai) premieres tonight: our substitute-bride and marriage-first romance collection
[Night novels · Collection intro] Tonight, October 16, the historical drama "Jia Jin Chai," released internationally as "Where The Mask Ends," premieres in China. It's trending on both Weibo and Baidu, so we're opening a substitute-bride and marriage-first romance collection.
About the show
According to The Beijing News and Sina Entertainment, the series is directed by Yang Long, written by Zhou Mo, and stars Tian Xiwei and Yan An. It's adapted from a novel of the same name by Xiao Jiaren on the Jinjiang literature site. It airs on CCTV-8 at 21:30 nightly, streams exclusively on Youku, and is also on Netflix. Tian plays two roles: A Chou, a poor girl who turns out to be the true heiress Wei Rao, and the spoiled false heiress Jun Dai. The story begins with a substitute marriage: Wei Rao takes Jun Dai's place as the bride of an injured heir, Lu Zhuo, played by Yan An. The director sums up the hook as "one face, two kinds of ruthless, three changes of fate."
Why marriage-first romance works
- The commitment comes before the feelings, so tension is built in from the first scene.
- Every step is a choice. The pleasure is watching "I have to" turn into "I want to."
- Identity twists make "who are you, really?" part of the love story.
Our originals
We don't rewrite or continue the source novel, and our stories have nothing to do with the drama's characters or cast. The first two originals in the collection are:
- "The Day the Contract Ends": two adults sign a one-year marriage, and either can call stop at any time.
- "The Sedan Chair She Chose": she takes the bride's place by her own decision, and she writes her way out into the marriage contract.
Every character is an adult, and all intimacy is clearly consensual.
