Love in Between (2020)

The One True King.

This drama packs a powerful punch from the very first episode with frighteningly intense fight scenes that had me flinching at every viciously lethal sword stroke throughout. The dark and intriguing wuxia plot is like an addictive, multi-dimensional jigsaw puzzle that brilliantly seduces with a mysterious backstory and shadowy motives of the key actors. This is a very intelligently written drama that will appeal to engaged viewers who enjoy pulling at threads until all is revealed. 

Be warned - there may be mild spoilers ahead although I will steer clear of major spoilers.

Wen Siyuan, the suzerain of the information broker Shanshui sect is tasked by a gifted itinerant doctor Zuo Qingci to help recover a stolen defense map that was entrusted to marquis Yan. They enlist master thief Su Yunluo/Fei Kouer and the two top disciples of the powerful Zhengyang sect (Yin Changge and Chen Manqing) to aid them in this dangerous quest. It turns out to be a bonding adventure for them that results in a friendship and trust that can prevail over existing loyalties and conflicting agendas. It also drags them into a battle for the throne and reveals secrets relating to a decade old conspiracy involving their elders. 

From the start, that GOT callousness of characters dying at the roll of a dice probably made me protect my heart from caring too much about any of the main characters or couples. My favorite characters are the more peripheral ones - the Ghost Boy and the One True King. All of the characters in this drama are flawed and make mistakes. While Qingci and Yunluo are clearly the leads, there are many important, well developed and well acted roles. Our leads are both single minded to the point of obsession in their goals; Yunluo in a decade long quest to heal her shifu and Qingci initially with Yunluo and later on, with revenge. While I did not enjoy the obligatory angst, the overall progression of this relationship from an unhealthy adolescent infatuation to a mature and sustainable one was well done. Both young actors are charismatic and convincing but it is Zhou Tingwei's enigmatic Wen Siyuan that steals my heart and anchors the entire cast. Romance is not this drama's strongest point but the one between Siyuan and Manqing is sophisticated, witty and laced with just the right amount of spice to make the sparks really fly. The women are strong and independent and have their own agendas that can be higher priorities than love so they don't just meekly fall in with their men's plans. Best of all, they don't bore me with any high pitched squealing. The bro-mance between Changge and Zhuyuan is also very enjoyable although I don't love where the the story goes for both characters.

The real hook of this largely plot driven drama besides the satisfyingly bloodthirsty action is discovering hidden identities, motives and secrets, understanding Qingci's ruthless strategies and his end game and how he adapts when things don't go completely to plan. Which happens A LOT. Because the villains are just that cunning and that much more powerful that sometimes they win. The way tension and suspense is built in this drama is really masterful but can induce stress. The story is brilliantly written but unfortunately flaws and plot holes emerge towards the end. The first arc is really exceptional on all fronts but the excitement and ruthless brutality peaks there although the story continues to be absolutely riveting. From ~ episode 30, the story succumbs to crowd pleasing but unnecessary romantic tropes, some gratuitous deaths and imminent tragedies. While it builds to another climax the ending was only just satisfactory and did not meet my admittedly high expectations. There were too many holes and they unnecessarily wrote themselves into a certain outcome that they did not dare to follow through on with the same characteristic cruelty of the earlier arcs. I am left wondering if their quest was ultimately futile and if the high cost of revenge can be considered justice. To me, the true unsung hero of this story is the One True King who is willing to sacrifice for peace but is not king in name. This is the character that moved me the most. Does the legend of such a noble king make this a very dark wuxia or one that is bathed in bright light?

This is the most awesome wuxia of 2020, flaws and all. I initially considered it a 9.0 due to my high personal enjoyment but objectively 8.5 is more than fair given the messy ending.

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‘She Shen Qu Yi’

‘She shen qu yi’ (舍身取义) literally means sacrificing oneself for justice. This drama is about this ideology. Everything the main characters do is based on this belief. The current political turmoil in the real world makes this drama especially comforting, giving hope that there are still many of these ‘xia yi’ people out there fighting for justice and sacrificing themselves. It's this ideology that brings tears to viewers' eyes and to love the characters.

This drama has an amazing storyline with great wuxia. It starts with a nail-biting scene, and continues to be nerve-rackingly intense almost throughout. The intensity is so great that it’s hard to watch without a drama partner. Viewers are therefore advised to find a viewing buddy before beginning this drama. Having said that, viewers may also kick off the partner half way through as the drama slows down and the plot becomes less intense.

Zuo Qingci (Zhang Yao) is a sickly but brilliant doctor who wanders the earth, saving those who can’t afford a doctor. He also has a different identity and is the mastermind to save the Emperor and the kingdom from fallen into the devil’s hand. In his quest, he finds his long lost love, a girl who has given him meaning to live at the time when he loses all hopes. Together, they meet challenges testing their love and trust for each other, and in the end they’re rewarded.

The side couples’ stories are equally enthralling. To my content, the characters are well developed and their stories are well told, and even bring tears to my eyes. Other supporting characters are pretty well developed too and they really engage the viewers’ sympathy.

All the female characters are strong, determined, dignified and brilliant (there are no love sick silly girls who go all out to get the love from their men). Even with a physically sickly female character as in Xie Jiang Er (Xu Meng Yuan), she is sensible, strong and wise. Her words are comfort to all those around her. For many of the scenes, Su Yun Luo (Zhang Ya Qin) is disguised as a boy, Fei Kou Er. Her make-up is probably one of the best disguises I’ve ever seen in a Chinese drama with dark rough skin and tattered clothing, and no boobs. Zuo Qingci’s make-up reminds me of Mei Changsu (Nirvana in Fire) – white robe with fur. Probably such style gives the viewers a sense of simplicity and frailness.

I’m really impressed by the acting, in particular by Shi Yun Peng who portrays Zhu Yan, and Deng Yu Li who plays Shen Man Qing. They have totally convinced me and captured my heart.

The only qualms I have are perhaps how they've talked about and built up of certain mysterious 'da xia' (heroic) characters, and as soon as these characters appear on screen, they're being killed off without much effort. It's really bewildering because heroes are not supposed to die easily like ants. The overall suspense building up to the climax is ruined basically by the climax itself as it doesn't match up to the built-up -- it (the climax) is not exactly unexpected and spectacular; the climax is the anti-climax. After the climax, it leaves the viewers asking the question: "What is the point of all these?" A lot of the actions and decisions by the characters, seemingly futile, can only be explained by the "she shen qu yi" belief. Again, like many Chinese dramas, the ending is weak and feels 'forced' without much effort being put into it. The main characters become pedestrians, losing all their heroic appeals.

Despite all these flaws and plot holes, I've enjoyed this drama. It is through and through a wuxia story with all the wuxia elements and virtues – brotherhood, sacrifice, devotion, endurance. At the same time, it is interjected with romances to slow down the pace for the viewers to take a breather. The story is intriguing, the fighting scenes are beautiful and convincing.

If you're a wuxia fan, you'd love this drama. If you're a romance buff, you'd equally love this drama. Amazing story, amazing acting, amazing music, amazing cinematography. It’s a must-watch and deserves a rare 10/10.

Two thumbs up!

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a well-made drama

This is the type of drama that I like. Truly enjoy the interactions between the characters as well as their developments throughout the story. The casting in my opinion is excellent. My favorite couple is the ML and FL, but the other couples' stories are equally interesting to watch with the right amount of screen time for the romance part. Towards the last arc (the end), the story is a bit loosened and I don't quite grasp all that is going on, and the ending leaves me with questions too, but overall, each episode is well made and captivating, with music accompaniment at the right amount. This is a superb, enjoyable drama that I don't mind to rewatch again and again.

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Good start but went downhill

Okay I was so excited to watch this because all the high reviews seemed to praise it for the things that I like in a drama - great characters (bonus for great female characters because they are uncommon), great fight scenes, solid storyline and great cinematography.

It started off pretty good - the pace, aesthetic and the characters were really good. But around the 17-20 episode mark I just really started to lose my patience. Su Yun Luo was so good at the start - capable, calm and charismatic. But it was like once she removed her thief persona, she regressed into this completely irrational and irritating typical female character. All of a sudden she starts fainting and getting defeated by one hit. She keep harping on and on about saving her teacher to the point where she doesn't even listen. The moment he gets mentioned she brandishes her sword, even at the guy she's supposedly in love with. And don't even get me started on the martyr-like personality. Oh I don't want anyone's help but ok I'm going to endanger myself and put everyone else at risk to save me.

The plot also started getting draggy and the arcs started to feel pointless. I kept forgetting about what was supposedly happening politics-wise because of all these hidden identity arcs. It's like all of the characters have some hidden identity.

Maybe I just had too high expectations for this which is why the disappointment is so big. There's definitely some positives in the drama which have been mentioned in other more positive reviews. I'd say worth watching once but don't expect it to be Holy Grail drama level.

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I just wanted to say something before I go ahead and write a review lol. I honestly did not begin to watch this out of interest or anything like I just kind of watched it bc I was waiting for episodes of another drama to come out. However, after watching a few episodes of this drama, the other drama is on hold lol. This drama is that good!

Cast & Acting: The cast was great in my opinion. Everyone had chemistry whether that be love or friendship or hatred, there was a lot of chemistry. The ML was great and I honestly did believe that he was sick lol. The FL was great too and I really enjoyed her character development as well as her emotional scenes. The 2nd ML and 2nd FL was what I lived for. I enjoyed their scenes A LOT and I genuinely wanted them to have a happy ending, especially after watching AOL and ATWIL, the 2nd ML lead kept dying in those series so I was praying he wouldn’t have to die in this series. I really like the bromance that Chang Ge had with ZY and the romance he had with JE, very realistic and sad lol.

Characters: Now I shall be talking about the characters themselves (separate from the actors and actresses). I think that this drama had very likable characters, even the bad people. The bad people are bad but not the type of annoying bad you know like they add the right amount of angst and problems to th Elliot which was very neat. Now the ML character, I genuinely adore his character. I’ve never seen any other character like him where he’s just really in it for FL. I also really like how reactive he was to knowing how she wanted to kill him. Yes he is very petty but I think that that’s what makes me like him so much. If it was any other ML, they would’ve been like yes you can kil me but instead he got angry which was a twist I did not see coming. I also liked how I couldn’t understand his character like when he poisoned FL or faked it whatever, that was shocking to me. I also enjoyed how he was kind of vicious and literally gave no mercy, it was refreshing to see how determined he was with his plan. For the FL character, I love her lol. I love how she’s so determined to save her shifu and how she doesn’t really take anyone’s shit. Her character development was clearly shown in the series as she went from being isolated to trusting others and building friendship as well as confessing her love to ML, I really liked how both leads were strong in their own way and became stronger together. As for 2nd leads, the 2nd ML character was good. I think the only thing I didn’t like about him is how he lacks confident in chasing 2nd FL or maybe that’s just me. I feel like he should’ve explained everything to her instead of waiting ya feels and he shouldn’t have made an empty promise but eh. 2nd FL character was enjoyable. She’s strong and she’s cute, esp in the earlier eps when she was waiting for 2nd ML in the rain. Chang Ge character was good too, at first I thought he would be annoying but I actually liked his character and his romance with JE was cute. I like how honest he is and how he knows right from wrong and doesn’t accept his clans wrongdoings. ZY character was okay, I didnt really lik shim or dislike him. I did think his scenes where he was battling with himself was getting repetitive and annoying but he ugh in the end so it’s okay.

Plot: I admit, I did fast forward some scenes, especially in the beginning because when politic got involved, it was just kind of boring, the beginning was slow and I was confused on why FL looks like a guy. However, as I kept watching, around ep 4-5, it’s getting more interesting and I enjoyed it throughly. I have to say that I enjoyed watching them getting the medicine than them helping the king but nonetheless, the plot was fast paced and never boring. Like when you kind of get tired of seeing a certain arc, it jumps to another which is refreshing. I enjoyed the love between the leads but I still think that if FL had to choose at the end of the series to save ML or her shifu, she would still save her shifu and not him. I love their love story but there’s just something about it that I feel isn’t the most “genuine” I guess. But I also really like that aspect because they’re not blindly in love, they have different priorities and tasks so it really is the definition of two individuals falling in love. The second leads love story was also the definition of two individuals falling in love and being logical as well as mature. 2nd FL didn’t jump right back into his arms after knowing and he didn’t force her. They needed time mad they took the time they needed to become better and it was really nice to see. The proposal was also really cute lol. Chang ge and JE love story was the most innocent and most cute but ended up tragic and sad. Honestly, I expected it but I didn’t expect her to go there and did what she did so when she did what she did, I cried a river of tears. The love story tied greatly into the plot and the scheme that the ML had was great and honestly I did not see a plot hole. Although the plot was already really good. I do think that ML should’ve died instead of. A happy ending because it just isn’t logical and honestly would’ve made a better impact if he died right then and there like in Princess Weiyoung.

Cinematography: The one thing that’s annoying in this drama is the cinematography bc after seeing so many wuxia dramas that are filmed brightly, this one just hits different. A lot of the scenes are dark and there are a lot of close up scenes. But after a while, you get use to it and you almost kind of prefer it to the regular pastel bright wuxia dramas.

Overall, I did not have high expectations but I was blown away. The angst and sadness and logic was intense and well done. There has been so many cute light hearted drama that it’s honetsky driving me crazy. This drama was a breath of fresh air and had the right amount of sadness as well as sweetness. It’s kind of bittersweet and because of that I highly recommend it. The eng sub is really slow but I do know that they’re subbing it on YouTube. The raw is also on YouTube if you want to watch raw. Thx!!!!

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Story that got nowhere

After watching this drama from the beginning until the end, i have different opinion than the other reviewers here. To me, the story starting to get weird around eps28 (or as early as eps23 when the past is mentioned), and everything is like one big mess. The revenge that's more like a long makjang drama, with all the people somehow got involved in the mess. You will get confused on which revenge is this. Zhuo Qingci? Su Yunluo? Wen Siyuan? Shen Manqing? Zhu Yan? Or even Jiang Er? Like, what revenge we're looking at? It's just so unclear

And Su Yunluo, who was so badass in the beginning become such a weakling starting from eps15. She's either hurt, fainted, or getting poisoned. People mention about Zhuo Qingci's stalker behaviour, but they forgot about Su Yunluo's indecisiveness that's just so... indecisive. Do you like Zhuo Qingci or not? One moment, she'll be all over him. The next moment, she'll say "we have no relationship anymore". Repeat this by 10x (or even more), and their love story is getting repetitive. And she never really got better in the end (when she's supposed to learn some sword technique beforehand, but none of it is actually shown). This girl is either talking about helping her master or revenging her master. Yeah, do that when you actually have the skill. And not to actually just cry like a weakling

The only saving grace is Wen Siyuan. His character is good, his past is so well-written. I feel like he's more of the main lead than the actual main lead himself. The main lead has no good backstory that make me connected to him. After so long hating his father, suddenly he went: I can't let you die? Yeah. You don't convince me. I really love Wen Siyuan and his arc is really moving me. He's such a good character that's wasted on this weird drama that no longer make any sense starting from eps28

We also got this arc about Zhu Yan that's so long, so unneeded, and so unnecessary. His whole character itself is unnecessary. Why would you even keep him in the drama? He's like so not important. He's not even the second male lead (the second male lead is actually Wen Siyuan) but we got his whole backstory with tragic birth secret (that's so not tragic) and love story that didn't come to fruition (why you like Su Yunluo is a mystery to me because, yeah, that girl has been nothing but a pain). I would like to see more of Wen Siyuan than Zhu Yan, because really, his arc don't even have any relation to the main story. So why he was there? Just to make the story go longer?

Overall, I think I give this drama a high score already, around 7/10 because of the first 10eps that's just so good
Those who wanted to watch this, better be careful. This drama is really good in the beginning, then after that, well, I can say that it's a mess

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A great Wu Xia Drama that is worth your time. But ignore the ending!

Since it's been a while that I have watched this drama, I will directly jump into my seven criteria without wasting too much of your time (please refer to my definitions below).

1. "Sleepness Night": 4/5 ★★★★☆
This drama is very well made with the atmosphere, lighting, and shots of a movie. While romance plays a central role, this drama's dominant theme is political conspiracy revolved around Male Lead's family and the Female Lead's relentless effort to save his master. The first arc at which our main characters gather to retrieve the "Shan He Tu" extremely nerve-wracking. Most shots are taking with natural sceneries; the action scenes are enthralling, and you quickly start to fall in love with all characters. The later arcs started to have plot holes and became slower but still overall thrilling.

2. Emotional Rollercoaster: 5/5 ★★★★★
This drama has three very different couples. All three go through their own unique development, showing that every love story has its flaws and selfishness. My favorite pair is Wen Si Yuan and Shen Man Qing. Their love is mature, direct, and just very sweet at times. I have seen Zhou Ting Wei playing at Ashes of Love but was not that impressed with his role. But in Love in Between, Wen Si Yuan is a character you just cannot resist. Despite playing the silent Shan Shui Du Master, small facial expressions such as one jump of the eyebrow, teary eye, or pressing lips, reveal thousands of words. I enjoy that this show is using the original voices of the actors. Zhou Ting Wei has the perfect voice.
The main couple Zuo Qing Ci and Su Yun Luo are more painful to watch. While ZQC sacrifices quietly for the FL, FL had to learn to appreciate the ML while balancing off her duty of saving her master with her feeling towards the ML. The ML's behavior reminds me of Si Feng from Love and Redemption. His crying scenes are breathtaking. And he cries a lot!

3. Natural and Intelligent Story Telling: 3/5 ★★★☆☆
While the start of this drama was great, the later arcs were less smooth. Some development (such as tragedies and turning bad of supporting characters) felt forced and a bit unnecessary. I wished they would have stuck to the original external story.

4. "Loveable supporting Role": 5/5 ★★★★★
Most of this drama's characters are extremely well-written and developed. Besides the couples, my heart was struck by the anti-hero character Gui Tong Zi, played by both Wang Zi Run. His background story, acting, action scenes remain strongly in my memory and is one of the best anti-heroes I have seen in C-drama.

5. "Proper Pacing": 4/5 ★★★★☆
The drama could have shortened the last arcs.

6. Technicalities: 5/5 ★★★★★
Excellent and really nothing to complain about. Beautiful shots, great lighting despite that over 70% of the shots are taken at night. It gives the dark atmosphere that this drama needs.

7. Solid Finale: 2/5 ★★☆☆☆
That's really a shortcoming of this drama. It has a happy ending, which is really not logical. All flags and plot developments indicate towards a sad ending but it did not. I am tired of great drama trying to please the audience but forcefully ends happily. If this drama had ended tragic, it would have been so much more convincing and suitable for this show's overall tone. They should learn a bit from shows like Goodby My Princess.

Overall, my verdict is 8.5/10 given some of the shortcomings. I would still highly recommend the show: great actions, interesting characters, and an appropriate balance of politics, Jiang Hu conflicts, and romance.

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Kotori's drama review seven criteria definition:

After having watched many dramas and also written several reviews. I have detected that I rate dramas based on specific patterns. I formulated those into seven criteria.
1. "Sleepless Nights.": how much I have the urge to binge-watch this drama.
2. "Emotional Rollercoaster": the degree of how much my heart was moving from the acting, scenes, and story development (e.g., in pain, pounding, fluster etc.). The degree on how much I care about the fate of the main leads.
3. "Natural and intelligent Storytelling.": how logically the story was able to proceed and the roles are acting within their characters. I don't have a thousand question marks when watching the drama. The feeling that the makers take us viewers seriously and that we do not always think that this looks fake.
4. "Loveable supporting Roles.": how much I love and care about supporting characters. They are not merely tools to help the main characters but are 3-dimensional and have the proper motivation behind their actions.
5. "Proper Pacing.": how well the drama is pacing and not watered down to fill the number of episodes.
6. "Technicalities": professional camera works and shots, fight scenes, color grading, lighting, editing, music, sets, costumes, use of CGI etc. I try to grade this in relation to the drama budget, so a low-budget drama can equally get a high score when used at the right place
7. "Solid Finale": how properly the drama builds dramatic and finishes with a satisfactory ending. I have just watched too many dramas that start to lose their grip around half or 2/3rd of its way

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A rare gem

This drama brings forth some authenticity to the life of Wuxia fighters. Instead of glaring bright spot lights at night, we get soft amber candle lights flickering in the dark. Instead of knowing instantly that this is a female crossed dressing as a male, we get to stop and ponder for a second. I like the way the production of this drama tries to emulate how life in a Wuxia world may looked like. The production sets remind me of The story of Ming lan, another drama that I enjoy immensely.

While the plot twists and turns at every corner, I am stuck aware that some plots may be unnecessarily confusing and seems intentionally so to keep the suspense going. I have one or two occasions wonder why these strategies /actions are needed but it’s probably my fault given that my 21st century brain could not comprehend how a Wuxia fighter may behave as our life values are now different. Nevertheless I enjoyed the ride tremendously and I would say that this is a mature drama. Do not expect the popular niche of rom-com in this drama. But expect some mature thinking as the plot thickens. The juxtaposition of political strategy and the pugilistic world is what makes this drama a rare gem.

I like all the cast in this film. I particularly like the actress who played Shen Manching although this is the first time I have seen her acting. While the group started off each with their own individualistic goal, they eventually build a strong bond and cohesively get together to bring down the villain.

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Miserable disappointment!

I'm too disappointed to elaborate at length.
The show starts off REALLY strong - the opening map-retrieval arc is fantastic. The characters are cute and interesting, the acting's solid, the music's nice and there's loads of juicy wuxia action.
I can't say for what reason this great fortune turns sour, but my guess would be lack of funding and time?
Basically once we get past the martial tournament, it all goes to hell.
Actual plot progression is replaced by "convenient" melodrama, lots of angst and awful, just awful character development.
Characters who you grew to like turn out to be manipulative and terrible to their loved ones, "because duty".
Turns out the whole show's not about fun wuxia people doing a heist and falling in love. It's about stupid, annoyingly drawn out revenge ("justice") in a courtly intrigue type plot.
I HATE courtly intrigue plots. They suck ass.
The problem is that it's not even interesting as that. The drama is TOO LONG for its own good - towards the end there are like 5 episodes where things happen off screen and we're literally watching people talk in rooms. That's it.
The excellent and cool fights from the beginning? Gone. The fights are very few and far between, and they're terribly choreographed and performed.
The weak and predictable ending is just a rotten cherry on the entire pile of garbage.
Random notes:
- the actor of Ghost Boy nailed it. Menacing and had actual depth.
- the character of Shen Man Ching deserved a better show. She does NOTHING in the second half, just cry and get rescued.
- we get a few incredibly tame kisses and at least an implication characters had sex off screen. Wowiewowowow. That's something, I guess.

I was genuinely excited for this drama at first, but towards the end I had to fast forward through it.

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Disappointed

I watched this show because of the good reviews but was sorely disappointed. First 10 episode was good, then slowly it went downhill. The ML is so selfish and uses people without qualms. He lies so many times and FL keeps forgiving him. Reminds me of some who can’t break away from toxic relationships. A man trying to marry a girl he fancies by lying and manipulating is just unacceptable. ML said, SYL must not die, anyone can die but not her. What about the father and sister, whose lives depended on Su Xuan recovering? And he lets his father die for ‘greater good’? After the scene where he convinces Emperor Ai (harmless guy) to commit suicide, I lost all interest but continued watching for the supporting characters. I liked Wen Si Yuan and Yin Chang Ge and looked forward to watching their scenes more than the main leads. Then Yin Chang Ge was killed off, which was totally unnecessary. The romance between Yin Chang Ge and Jiang Er was not even believable. Two teenagers who spent a little time together decided to get married? They looked so awkward together. And why did Jiang Er gave him the poison? Shouldn't she wish him to live well? I'll never understand the selfishness shown as love in this show. Overall, only the lighting and music was good, everything else was just average.

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A drama that will keep you interested

I had my doubts at first to start it then gave it a try and wow. This drama is something I look for. A drama where you don't see bitch and jerk characters fawning over the male lead or female lead.

This drama talks about sacrificing one's self for justice. I fell in love with the male lead (Zuo Qing Ci) Everything he does is for the greater good. He may not be the strongest but he is the smartest. He's kind and someone who cares. He doesn't crave for power and wealth rather he hope for the health of people and the safety of the nation. He loves the female lead (Su Yun Luo) unconditionally. He is willing to do everything for her even if it means killing himself. He sacrificed a lot for her and it includes his chance to live longer. When it comes to her, he doesn't care about his safety which goes the same for her. He's often misunderstood by her because he keeps things to himself to not hurt her.

I liked the side characters as well and the side stories are as beautiful as the main plot. I want to praise and curse the writer for such matter. A lot of the characters in the story died especially Jiang'er and Changge, two characters with such wonderful personality. They chose death than betrayal. I wish they didn't die.

Zhu yan, another character I like. I understand why he did what he did. He suffered a lot. He lost everyone he had. He was pushed to the edge. He felt like he had no one. He was deprived of his right to have a family and enjoy having it. I hoped it ended better for him but the writer killed him like Jiang'er and Changge.

Shen Manqing and Wen Suyian/ Sima lang, two characters that I as well fell in love with. I liked how they had happy ending. Honestly, when I see others dying one by one in the drama, I thought all of them will die.

To cut it short, this drama will bring you to tears for many painful scenes. I like the music. I like the entrance song... I kept wanting to hear it so unlike other dramas, I didn't skip the song at the start every episode

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a wuxia mixed with political intrigue series that often feels draggy

this is a wuxia series on the pugilistic world interweave with court/political intrigues. the court/political intrigues serve more as a secondary to enhance the story telling. there are several key characters in this series, but i feel that maybe in the novel these key characters have better dialogues, story telling and character developments.

this series is not for all audiences. some audiences might like this series more than others.

for me, this series is something i regretted watching. it's simply not for me. it's one of those numerous CDramas i have watched that i have to skip and fast forward a lot. as a whole, this series is a huge drag, and the strengths observable in this series ultimately cannot salvage it. there is a semi-erotic scene in the series, but it doesn't make the series more enjoyable/endearing for me.

with the current form, i feel that this series has the potential to be more enjoyable with better preparations, stronger screen writing, focus on quality story design and character developments, better quality editing, better editing direction and management. the shortening and editing of the series down to may be 25 episodes could have helped, too. there is simply nothing spectacular/unique about the story telling, plot, performances, and dialogues.

//strengths//
incorporation of natural environments
building architecture
string-fu, martial arts choreography, and props
background music/sound arrangement
interior design and props
costumes, trinkets
dubbing
lighting quality
non-exaggerated make-ups
extras

//average//
dialogues
story telling
casting and performances
plots
special effects, CGI
romantic chemistry

//major turnoffs//
inconsistent editing
translation
oft time dragging
lots of redundant or superfluous shots/segments/dialogues/screen time
occasional logical flaws
occasionally too many candles

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