The Sleepless Princess (2020)

For all you bookworms out there who’ve spent too many sleepless nights getting swept away by a story, The Sleepless Princess 离人心上 is a quirky little web drama that could’ve been written with you in mind. Don’t be fooled by a title fit for a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale and its storybook-esque posters reminiscent of the story books from our childhood. That’s because Zheng Yecheng and Hu Yixuan’s princess isn’t kept wide awake by a pea under all her mattresses, no no, but by romance books and a childhood accident!

Like a story that can be found in her romance books, The Sleepless Princess tells us the sweet tale of an unloved princess and a cold hearted general searching for answers about his brother’s death that fate threw together. Hu Yixuan’s Princess Xu Chu Yue suffers from insomnia because of a childhood accident. To while away her boredom, she turns to her romance books to keep her company during the lonely hours she’s awake. Meanwhile, like a cat with nine lives on the battlefield, our hero General Xue Yao played by Zheng Yecheng may first appear to be black bellied and cold, but in reality nurses a loving and righteous heart. Granted, the romance angle isn’t revolutionary in any sense but the fact that it’s about a voracious reader really tickles my fancy. Let’s hope her “reel” life romance will measure up to the ones written in her beloved stories.

The 35 episode long The Sleepless Princess is adapted from the novel of the same name by author Lin Xiuqi and stars Zheng Yecheng and Hu Yixuan who are both familiar fixtures in the web drama scene. Joining the pair are Lin Xinyi as the cute maid Tao Yao, Yang Lin as the smart and cunning guard Xu Xingchen, Huang Cancan as proud and unruly Su Nanan, Zhou Dawei as the protective guard Luo Ji and Peng Biyao as the stunning and ambitious Na Xi.