This series has it all for me... Action, Magic and Intrigue with stunning scenery. The beginning did not 'hook' me in at first, but once the plot starts to develop intricacies it began to captivate me. The slow movement and stillness of the scenes provokes emotion and suspense coupled often with ethereal music that lends a timeless quality to understanding the character's motives and actions based on the causal events of the past. I find the series masterful and engaging.
Episode 40 & 41 - I love the alchemical use of the natural elements in the soundtrack, instead of background music episode 40 uses Rain and episode 41 uses Wind and of course there is the crackling of fire in the camp. So much majesty has been put into this drama, it is a work of Art, Frame by Frame.
Episode 47 - the soundtrack is amazing, the music itself takes you on a journey - it's an acoustical odyssey. Cherchez La Femme - it's interesting that they are using women each time as catalysts to ignite a reaction that triggers a turn of events or should it be Cherchez Le Sorcier? The cinematography throughout this drama is pure visual poetry, enchanting the viewer with the connection to nature; even in Ep. 66 the background noise of crickets chirping adds a layer of subtlety.
Ep. 71-74: There are a lot of fragmented flashbacks that seemed like a Bohemian Rhapsody: 'Is this the Real Life or is this just Fantasy, caught in a landslide, no escape from Reality. Open your eyes look up to the skies and See...' The costume, set designs and use of colour were also aesthetically pleasing. This should be the Flagship model that will hopefully lead the industry as an example for new dramas in the future. It's refreshing to view a mature series with such depth instead of the shallow young adult dramas with sappy dialogue and dysfunctional relationships that we have been over-saturated with for years. I will wait in anticipation for the next season to see what the artists conjure up next!
Was this review helpful to you?
If you are looking for a rich story, filled with three dimensional characters, that slowly draws you in, you should definitely add this to your list.
The story develops slowly and things are not always what they appear. The story is set in a fantasy world with a long and complicated history, a world where no one is simply "good" or "bad". The characters are complex and it may take a number of episodes for the viewer to fully understand their motives. Everyone exists to achieve their goals, whether it is for the benefit of their family/tribe, to uphold long-kept promises, or for personal ambition/advancement. Resist the urge the fast forward through episodes or you will be completely lost trying to follow shifting alliances and palace intrigues.
Visually, this is one of most lush and masterfully filmed TV shows I have ever watched. Much is conveyed through the use of color, framing, how long the shot is held, etc. The show is worth rewatching for the visual aspect alone.
For the most part, the cast is simply superb and brilliant. There are plenty of fresh, pretty faces, but also older actors picked for their abilities. The principal actors worked hard to help you understand their internal turmoil and deeper motives. Granted there are a couple of minor characters who were cast for their looks rather than their acting ability or perfect Mandarin pronunciation. But I'm just being a bit nitpicky.
Overall, this show is worth watching. Just know that things may be confusing. It may take some time for you to make sense of it all. Just like real life.
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
THIS IS MY COMPLETE DRAMA REVIEW. PLEASE REREAD MY EDITS.OVERALL: I hate dramas like this. 75 hours of literally dragging and waffling around waiting for side characters to advance the plot or for "chance" and "destiny" to finally kick in. I watched this drama SO YOU DO NOT HAVE TO. A serious waste of time. Battle scenes and premise are good. Story and plot are not. The story itself is interesting but cut the number of episodes and random tension and speaking scenes in half and we might have a decent drama. I don't want to watch the 60 different side characters talking to each other about power and power struggles. If I was to count how many hours were wasted (I give a very specific and relatively old scene as a reference at the bottom) than I would be so frustrated. The only reason why I do not give the plot a 1 star is because I believe that the premise itself is interesting and would make a nice 200-300 page book. Drama, not so much.
WATCH TEN MILES PEACH BLOSSOMS IF YOU WANT A MUCH BETTER DRAMA.
Disclaimer 1: I would like to say that I am a very analytical reviewer and usually value plot and character development far more than any other aspects and I can often forgive minor plot holes or minor character flaws. However, when they affect the entire plot or are used by writers to further the plot. That is when I have a problem.
Disclaimer 2: I would also like to point out that I generally have no like/dislike towards actors/actresses, writers or directors and am not afraid to call a drama terrible even if a vast majority like it.
Plot: This is basically 3 main story lines about three main characters that are intricately interwoven with the normal troupes. Every single cliche troupe you can derive is included: power struggle in royalty, destined lovers, death of ridiculous parent figures, magical powers that are explained through fancy CGI and still make no sense, bromance yet not bromance, brotherhood yet not brotherhood, loving the same girl, star-crossed lovers, and finally fighting or fulfilling destiny. The plot as a whole is interesting enough but that has very little to do with the actual writing. How many times can you see a main character stand in front of who they love and do absolutely nothing except ignore her or say ridiculous lines... For example, "you'll be unhappy with me" says who and why does the main character believe it so easily? Ridiculous. How many times can we hear the word destiny or stars or fate or whatnot to explain the actions of characters? That is a gimmick in itself. Overall a plot that had potential but was weighed down by the need to include overarching themes and troupes such as destiny or forever star-crossed lovers.
EDIT 1: Absolutely terrible. I understand that this drama is based off of a book but how can a drama be 75 hours and get basically absolutely nothing done. The last few episodes are extremely rushed and don't resolve anything and are essentially just a cliffhanger that does not seem to be coming anytime soon given that there is only one book and there doesn't seem to be plans for a second book to be written due to conflict among the writers. This drama is a waste of time and unfortunately the pacing and the dragging and the lack of coherent character development and plot heavily weigh this drama down. If you were hoping for a huge battle scene with magic and 3 sides battling it out than you are dreaming.
Characters: Acting overall was superb by all the characters and you can feel the emotions that each character has. If the plot and writing were better to enhance the character development than the actors would have shined through more. Even the villains were generally acted well and dare I say better because they did not need as much character development. Let me explain: you can watch half of the drama and observe that the kid actors and the adult actors have portray basically the same characters. There is no character development in the first 30 something episodes of this drama. Everyone is still a kid that whines and cries and acts out for no logical reason. Theoretically the writers could be portraying that even as young adults they haven't learned the harshness of life but with the trials and love and etc. that the characters go through, how is there no character development? How long can we watch one character yell about being King of the world and doing nothing except rely on the prophecy and getting lucky? How long can we watch a character mope about the world being unfair and him not being loved by his parents (please keep running away and telling the people you love that they should pity you more for no reason)? How long can we watch one person not understand his situation and do absolutely nothing except walk into other people's traps. The writing is what makes 2/3 of the main characters honestly unbearable to watch. But their acting is overall very good.
EDIT 2: Acting remains consistently good all around for all actors. Problem is that the characters literally do not change or do much of anything. If you want to start off liking a character and than quickly hating him/her for their decisions than please go ahead and watch this. This drama is the definition of frustrating characters portrayed by good actors. I think that the Muyun Sheng might be one of my least favorite characters in the drama due to how consistently weak he is even when he is actually not that weak. "Careful, don't drink wine. Drinks wine and complains/rants. Points sword around for some reason... Disastrous results." Other characters are just equally frustrating and it doesn't get better. At least they are acted consistently because I ended up hating many characters in this drama for their one dimensional thinking. Even the "smart and complicated and evil" characters weren't that well written or "smart" in their actions. The main reason I am saying this is that when the entire drama consists of stupid main characters that never change or grow than the side characters also do not have to be that smart. Which makes every character look pretty dumb in the end.
Another problem is that if they want to make a season 2 of this drama than they will have to wait multiple years. And that means it will be hard to recast everyone again. Acting carried this drama because tension and feelings are very clear for all characters, however, the decisions the characters themselves made were hard to act out.
Music: Suitable but honestly not impactful or noticable. Can't name an OST or even place where is belongs if there is one. Average costume drama music.
EDIT 3: Music is slightly more memorable and I actually think it improved. However, this does not effect my rating overall since my view of music in dramas is an accessory.
Rewatch value: Right now? No. Some scenes are aesthetic and CGI is done well, but often those scenes don't really mean anything. The floating stars are significant? Nope.
EDIT 4: I watched it so you did not have to. Don't watch this.
EDIT 5:
******Here is the key example of why I dislike the writing and pacing of the drama (potential spoilers so I will keep my example relatively old for Dramafever viewers): It takes about 5-6 episodes for one main character to even get engaged to his perceived "empress." Not 2, 5. Because every character had to show up and give their opinion and do whatever they wanted. My first problem is that the motive for him being crown prince is a jumbled mess with his father's motive being very muddled and unclear but the writers push it as if it is for his safety? For what reason no one can truly explain. Why do the characters act in such a way such as the priest or whatever for randomly listening to someone that is not his superior and believing him enough to cut his arm and give up all the tenants of his tribe. Just because there was a possiblity? Nonsense. He performed black magic cause some random character gave him a book and told him its possible? Pfffftttt. Why does the dad let his brother go when he knows he's plotting to kill him? "He's trying to take the crown and kill my favorite son but since he confessed to spreading rumors about the crown and he's my brother I should just let him go. Brotherhood!" Nonsense. The character's actions just don't make sense and they are always drawn out in such tedious lengths. 5 episodes. Jesus. It all ends up the same in which he reveals that he has a Charmer near him. Did we need 5 episodes to build up to a reveal of Pan Xi to the world? I don't think so. Literally 5 episodes that ends in weird family tension all over and Pan Xi getting taken away. 5 episodes/5 hours for something that could have been done in 1 maybe 2 with other scenes.
Was this review helpful to you?
... THE PROPHECIES
The first thing you need to know about this drama is that it's all about prophecies, and they are a big part of every episode and every plot decision. You won't ever have time to forget it, and "the storm of prophecies" is not in vain. This drama is a tapestry woven around three prophetic heroes: Muyun Sheng, the cursed prince who is going to destroy the Muyun Empire; Muru Han Jian, the abandoned son of the military heads of the Muru family, who is going to vie with Muyun for the throne of the empire and become its next emperor; and Shuefeng He Ye, the Iron Wielder who is going to unify the eight oppressed warrior clans of the northern prairie and take down the empire.
Basically, everybody knows that this generation will bring forth a great war to the world and everybody is making terrible decisions trying to stop or accelerate this fate.
... THE CHARACTERS
At the first one fourth of this drama everything is interesting, after all we are being introduced to the world: the Shuefeng clan of the northerns prairies at first. Then, we are introduced to the next big players: the harem and its bitter and calculative empress, the arrogant emperor and his regrets, the annoying court and its machinations, the inflexible Muru family and their tradition in military law and order, the jealous brother of the emperor who just can't let go of his ambitions. This is a drama full of side characters who have a lot of screen time for themselves, and they are often the ones running the show.
I must say that for me the only likable characters are the three heroes and their loved ones, but I loved to watch the first half of this drama even at the moments they weren't so present because the side characters were moving the plot along in interesting ways.
... THE CINEMATOGRAPHY AND MUSIC
The cinematography is awe inspiring on these first episodes - for real! And the plot is well paced too! There are specially wonderful scenes which are filmed really beautifully. So beautiful, in fact, that you might realize on the middle episodes the budget was blown at some point for some scenarios are badly done - specially the underground kingdoms.
And then the gorgeous cinematography makes a glorious comeback and your eyes are delighted again. :')
Now the music is a deception. They are good enough at the first third of the series, but then they become repetitive - many are used for more than one character so they become less distinctive, and at the 56th episode they are placed weirdly.
Not only that! I think that sometimes they had audio problem or something, so they rerecorded the dialogue. The problem is that the background noise is never the same, so these moments really stand out in a bad way and make the production seems cheap. I really don't know how they could let such an obvious mistake happen.
... THE PLOT
Being honest here: I love a slow paced drama. I do. And the first half of this drama is amazing, it' really really good! The scenes were wonderful in portraying the world building, the characters and the plot in a really good pace. I watched 50 episodes in three days and wasn't the least bit bored - so I strongly recommend the first 50 episodes. <( *v*)>
Now being completely honest:
We have 75 episodes. It isn't little. It's 70h of your life, and yet the series seems to be going nowhere after the 50th. There are a lot of people who complain about the pace, I agree and disagree with them.
- I disagree because I love to see the world building, I love to see my favorite hero (in my case it's Han Jian and his beloved Su Yu Ning) take things fully even if slowly. It's a big world they are building so I want to know the people and the culture - I love these fantasy elements of a novel.
- But! I agree with them that the pace is bad! AFTER THE 50TH!
If I were to elect the biggest flaw of this series is that the PLOT RETRACTS THE GROWTH OF THE CHARACTERS. The series drags a lot because one day the character realizes his stupid attitude and grows +10 points, and one week later he forgets everything because the plot demands so. -50 points!
How would it make you feel? It just makes me emotionally tired. We are 25 episodes to the end and stuff keeps going backwards???
Is the director experimenting with something? The drama is not well edited since the 10th episode but at this stage the pace can't suffer the amount that is suffering from the 50th-60th episodes. We should be walking to the climax of the story...
The drawback of the drama is that the biggest players are like this constantly, so the plot is always going back 5 steps back for every 2 going forward. You know what this means? This means that they have to spend episodes in the emotional wreck of the unlikeable character's lives because this is what the plot forces us. The director doesn't like going forward.
The characters who suffer the most for this are the women - from interesting characters on the first half they become passive and love fools on the second. (I didn't sign up for this, dammit (# o _ o)
This results in another week of a feast of suffering for the characters because events are being milked for all they are worth. I'm sorry, we have the 75-quota, guys ¯\_( 'u' )_/¯
I mean, I like to cry watching drama: I'm a big baby like that, but even I can't summon tears when even 60 episodes aren't enough to make the characters seem eye o eye in simple matters when they could just talk honestly with each other. Like han jiang and su yu nin. Or the muru father and first son. Etc.
Have you realized how weird is that? 75 episodes is enough to do the initiation of the characters, the big conflict and the resolution, showing us the characters and their daily lives, emotions, worlds and ambitions just fine. Instead, they are giving us reheated stuff over and over again.
Pardon my french but they completely lost the direction of the show in its second half. It's a trainwreck right now, wow.
That must be why if you glued side by side all the flashbacks that we are obliged to see again and again you would see that they alone are responsible for whole 20 episodes! I just... really want to punch somebody (p ° . °)_p
-------------------------------
TL;DR.
This is a too long series for the poor plot. The majority of characters are frankly unlikable but we are forced to watch them 60% of the time. The heroes suffer because this is a suffering feast. The women somehow degrade themselves into love fools who just do things for the men. The writers are slower than a beached whale because they drag the story so much that somehow 75 episodes are just enough to get to the middle of the story.
The worst thing is that the first half of the show was so great that even though I'm tired and I'm going to see how this ends because somehow I still like it more that I dislike it :')
Just saying that... If Han Jian and Su Yu Ning don't end up together, healthy and happy heads will roll.
Was this review helpful to you?
The attention to detail was out of this world. The casting was perfect, and the leads were fabulous especially the Crown prince.
I was screaming, clapping and jumping up throughout because the sequences, story line and characterizations were mind blowing. The characters also had depth.
I will be spending some time looking at other works of this production.
Was this review helpful to you?
UPDATE/2ND HALF REVIEW: TROUNCES NIRVANA IN FIRE IN THE FOLLOWING CATEGORIES (see below)
I'm writing this review after seeing up to EP38 (a little more than half of the show).
Where I am coming from, I have seen most of the popular C-dramas: Nirvana in Fire, Princess Agents, Three Lives Three Worlds, Fighter of the Destiny, Ice Fantasy, The Mystic Nine, Candle in the Tomb, etc.
Most above managed to slack off in quality about mid-way thru, I was surprised T&E remained consistent in quality like in the first Ep.
STORY: Well, what did ya expect? Novoland arose as a competitor to The Lord of the Rings. So any story set in Novoland is bound to resemble LotR. But since this is a Chinese work, it will also feature aspects from works of the revered Jin Yong mixed with a bit of Imperial Palace drama here and there. For example, I thought that MYS+Pan Xi looked very much like YG+XLN from ROCH. (I won't go into what happened to Pan Xi in Ep37, but she should return to MYS at some point later on, just like YG+XLN reunited after 16yrs separation..)
ACTING: A+
MUSIC: OMG, I put on my Sony headphone, and the soundtrack sounds just like in theater. One of few shows that actually does a high quality sound hardware justice.
REWATCH: Are you kiddin me? This is a 75epsx40min long movie (or pretends to be one). Even those lovely nature scenes are worth rewatching just for their sake...
------------------------------
This is my (updated) review after having seen all 75 pisodes.
TROUNCES NIRVANA IN FIRE IN THE FOLLOWING CATEGORIES:
The time has come to give T&E an overall assessment.
1. THEY ALL <removed expletive language> WANT TO BECOME KING/EMPRESS (or prophesized to become one) EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM. In NiF, most main chars are satisfied with being nobodies with some rank.
1 T&E
0 NiF
2. FRIGGIN EPIC BOSS BATTLE AT THE END. The next most friggin awesome boss fight was between YG and GWM in RoCH '83.
1 T&E
0 NiF
3. SHOW DON'T TELL. I don't want to hear about how some guy marched alone straight into the enemies' camp and talked them into killing each other. Show me in gory details what really happened. Likewise, I don't want to hear about the Sovereignty Seal/Soarers/Oceanides/Giants, etc. Show me what they really look like.
1 T&E
0 NiF
4. GORGEOUS CGI. OMG, half-way thru NiF keeps replaying that zoomed out village shot with some CGI birds flying across the sky and it looked like it was done by kids.
1 T&E
0 NiF
5. LETS YOU EXPERIENCE IMPERIAL LIFE IN A REALISTIC WAY. This drama shows you what it's like to be General, Emperor's guard, etc. Their social standing, and the conflicting decisions they must make. I took away none of this from Nirvana in Fire. In the Forbidden City, there are these creatures that eat gold and are made emblems of. T&E even has this version as a golden beetle that eats gold nuggets.
1 T&E
0 NiF
T&E does contain a lot of flaws. It's great as a standalone work, but next to Novoland: Eagle Flag, probably won't have 50% of the latter's glory and execution. The flaws:
- Bad editting
- To explicit (sexual/gory)
- Annoying chars (too abundant)
- Could never understand why some women fell for SFHY
- Could never understand Nanku Yue Li's obsession with being Empress
- Too many flashbacks
- Too few high fantasy figures (Soarers/mermaids/giants)
- Some stuff don't make sense (how can anyone survive without Vitamin D [sunlight] for so long?)
- Some Mary Sue type superwoman chars (Helan Tie Duo)
- Cheap-looking CGI in certain parts (black Dragon in MYS's nightmare)
- Wizard's staff looks yucky (it's just a stick with mounted metallic head piece)
- Overused some Imperial cliches (bad Queen/Emperor always gets attacked on a hunting trip, etc.)
Overall rating: Sorry to disappoint the naysayers, but still a solid 9.0/10.0 despite those obvious flaws.
Overall rating (my scale)
23.0/10 - A great RoCH adaptation
18.0 - A good RoCH adaptation
18.0 - T&E
18.0 - Ode to Gallantry 2017
17.5 - Nirvana in Fire
16.0 - Fighter of the Destiny
14.0 - Princess Agents
12.0 - Three Lives, Three Worlds TV drama
12.0 - Dragon Nest: Warrior's Dawn movie in 3-D
9.0 - Candle in the Tomb
7.0 - Ice Fantasy
Was this review helpful to you?
Was this review helpful to you?
Was this review helpful to you?
GUYS WE GET THE POINT! Can we please have advancement in the story line along with the millionth time we hear about the emperor's love for his dead wife?
Here is the breakdown. First 35 episodes were fantastic. The storyline had intrigue and was beautiful to watch. The middle was where the story starts to slow down and drag. The last 25 or so episodes have been grueling to get through. It is such a pity because the first half of the show was really good. I suggest that people start watching the first 50 episodes...then skip around to the end to retain your sanity.
I recommend watching this show for good actors/ actresses who play their roles well. The men were handsome, the women beautiful. The fight scenes were well shot. The CGI was pretty good. Lastly, the cinematography was top notch. Every shot looked like a movie.
However, I am warning you all that the last couple of episodes is beyond frustrating. The writing has suffered and the show has become ridiculous. People are acting in ways that I cannot or would not justify. WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME after I spent 70 hours watching this show!
Shawn Dou (adult actor that plays Han Jiang) and his handsome as F face is keeping me interested enough to finish this drama.
That's pretty much it.
Was this review helpful to you?
As with another drama this drama leaves you hanging with a conclusion that isn't. I f you are unaware that the series has 75 episodes, you'll be looking for 76-110 because it'll be obvious this was meant to continue. Because nothing important gets resolved and I mean nothing!!!
My naysayers will say, "What about this bad guy?" and "What about ----", I say who cares ? What was the original premise? How does it get resolved? It doesn't, so what's the point?
Pretty pictures, this is an ensemble cast so, it's bst to not go in saying this or that person is the lead. You'll only confused and get disappointed when your chosen lead doesn't show up for nearly entire episodes.
Who knows maybe the director or editing didn't like certain actors and gave another story more screentime unintentionally. Who knows?
Worth watching? Yes
But be warned.
Was this review helpful to you?
The story is really interesting but, since we have three main leads with totally different plots, there will be a long time in which you only see one of them, so you have to wait a couple episodes to know what´s happening to someone you may be more interested in than the character currently in scene. That´s maybe one flaw for someone.
I´m not going to complain about the flashbacks because I´m already used to that because other Cdramas, but if you really don´t like flashbacks you may be a little bit annoyed becuase flashback appear, all the time.
As for the characters I find their acting really good, the only two characters I really could not stand at were Muru Shuo and Shuofeng Heye, especially the last one, but it was becuase the character itself not the actors. Muru Shuo kind of reminded me to Bai Zihua in The journey of flower because of that annoyingly high sense of duty and I hate that because of the treatment toward my baby Hanjiang. On the other hand Shuofeng Heye only knows one freaking sentence: I´m the king of the world, and something similar, he´s just annoyning but some people really like him and every one has their own preferences.
I just wanted to see more fantasy and magical thinngs but the political plot is good.
Tribes and empires has a really open ending and a second season is not on the horizon, is really sad because I really want to see a proper ending to all those storylines.
So is this worth watching, I say yes but that freaking end reduces a lot my opinion of the drama.
Was this review helpful to you?
Shawn Dou is another actor I want to see more of. I love his personality and it shows in the character he played. I was very confused with this storyline at times but I won't go back to re-watch it. The visual effects were awesome with that alone I can give it a ten-point rating... but I won't. The other thing is the sound effects, I don't know... I tried to watch it on my phone, my desktop... it was still the same. Music over voice, bad... bad... bad! The costumes were also awesome. I wish I could give a better rating but that ending just threw me off.
Was this review helpful to you?
