Ancient Detective (2020)

Underrated gem

I didnt know any of the actors in this except for Du Ya Fei from Jun Jiu Ling. It seemed like a low budget show with rookie actors. But wow, the story drew me in and i binged 5 eps the first night. The story was well-paced without useless filler side stories. I loved all the characters, especially Wang Ruo Shan who played Ms Zhan. Such poise, gaze and natural acting from a young performer. She made me feel the pain of being raised as an assassin. The love story between Ms Zhan and Jian Buzhi was subtle yet moving and pure. The theme OST was so good too and wasnt overused during the show. Ms Zhan's make up was minimal, depicting the true look of an assassin. Her outfits were plain but elegant. I just fell in love with her character, and was so impressed that she was able to ride the horse while it was galloping away. I HATE fake horseriding shots as it just shows the actors are lazy to learn and devote time to their craft. Highly recommend watching this show, very well done at 24 episodes. Heres hoping therell be a second season!

Read More

A great Drama that worth your time to Watch!

This drama is a yes! This show could go on for seasons if they wanted it. It promises and delivers so much more to the viewers all the way until the last second. I knew the truth, we all knew but the fact they didn't tell the main lead is honestly the best part. They keep us interested all the way until the ending and I honestly I didn't want him to know - yet.

The bromance was the best part honestly. Zhao and Jian are the cutest. Ming is a first class biatch but I have to respect her. She did good as a villain.

I didn't really feel the romance from the leads. The chemistry was there but it was so passive. I mean the female lead is so badass and Jian is so brave and smart that their romance should have been bolder instead of all the corny moments.

A sleeping kiss is all we get.
The actors really delivered in their roles. I want more.

The tub scene was fine because indeed there were many failed attempts on his life and he was banking on / secure in the knowledge that he/they will be safe because Shi Qi had called upon the trump card Bai with the rescue signal flare so they'll be OK.

The weak point for me was why when Wang (the spoiled brat/ plastic surgery young guy/ aging to long gray hair clan head) first saw Jiang, did not show any reaction at all, no surprise or fear or recognition and even promised to tell him the truth!

I liked it how it ends, i am amazed how they twisted the story telling at the ends.though there is no secret reveal.. but in this series made me convince that there are some that remain as secret forever .it didn't leave any chest pain..::) but hoping that there is a season 2 coming.. thanks for sharing here...Cheers!

Rewatch is highly recommended.

Read More

Well Written Story accompanied by Stellar Actors and supported by Great Production & Direction.

Going deep into this drama I felt like one of its great value lies heavily on the chemistry of the characters and their wholesome well-being. The drama's consist of stellar artists who was able to execute their characters in a very realistic way. Often times dramas may get dull because of a lackluster character or two but this drama is overflowing with good actors who played their roles exemplary well and I think it is one of its greatest strength.

Second is the Story. Honestly I was so ready to give it a "9" as an overall rating but I didn't imagine it to unfold with such overwhelming satisfaction so does explains my Perfect Score.

This story wasn't flawless at all but the difference of this drama among many others is its rationality and sensibility. One of the scenes I was very frustrated about was when JBZ break his brotherhood with ZWH because of his inconsiderate attitude and stubborness but then on the same episode we found him realizing his mistake and going after ZWH just to make up their friendship. That alone made me realize how interesting the characters and story is.

Another part of its selling point are the Main Leads themselves. They created and slowly completed this drama in a really satisfying sense without relying so much on the plot and twists it provides. It was a well written drama combined with stellar actors and great production and direction. I am highly satisfied.

Story - 10, No Arguments needed. I would be mad If someone actually slander this dramas phasing and story build up in any possible way. This drama just felt short of episodes and that's it— The main reason for that was even because it was so good you would want to watch it continuously even beyond the episodes it was set up for. Hoping for a 2nd Season.

Acting/Cast - 10, It has the most satisfying Cast I could ever ask for. Not that I know them but because they're so good in executing their roles you would be fascinated at how good they are. I don't even know 99% of them but this drama just made me feel satisfied and amaze on how good the acting and actors/actresses are.

Music - 9.0, Honestly speaking I don't even remember singing along to any of the songs played in this drama. But I must say that it has great Instumental BGMs which highlighted most of its Thrilling and Romantic scenes.

Rewatch Value - 10, I'm even willing to rewatch it right now if someone asked me to, without any hesitation cause this drama never made me felt bored and uninterested. In contrary it made me anticipate each of its episode till I realized I'm already on the finale.

Overall - 10, Well Deserving. This drama is outstanding in different areas no matter which side you tries to watch or look at it. You can clearly see that it is a low budget drama but it surely exceeded that limitation by giving more than anything its budget can provide us. It was a masterpiece and an excellent drama worthy of recommendation and high praises.

IF you find my review helpful please let me know.

Read More

A fun series of mysteries with excellent characters

An Excellent story. My biggest complaint is the detective does the overly dramatic trope of ending his "and the murderer is" speech looking at the person who isn't the murderer before finally pointing to the person at the other end of the line. It felt a little over used (maybe because I grew up on old black and white murder movies where they did that a lot). They do a good job of showing us the clues that the hero notices and they actually point out at least a 3rd of them if not 2/3rds so that we notice them too. but we do see them. I kind of regret they reveal the big secret at the end even though we viewers could probably all have put 2 and 2 together to figure it out with the clues we've seen along the way, and most likely some viewers would have been angry if it was not revealed to us at the end. I do hope they decide to make a second season because the characters were fun to watch and I would like to see them more. The costumes looked good, the sets are well populated and well decorated. The special effects were excellent and a most of the camera work is extremely well done.

Read More

FINALLY AN ORIGINAL IDEA!!!!??

I say this drama is one of the best and I clearly mean it. The drama itself is not any special from any of it's predecessors in the historical martial arts genre and it kinda looks the same as any other drama clearly but only a deeper insight into the drama opened my eyes.
One thing I'd like to put across is that this is probably te last drama of this type that we'll ever see. Don't get me wrong, there will definitely be better dramas than this but the storyline was one of a kind. I mean, it wasn't as stereotypical as the rest and I'd even stretch this to saying it was an original idea. You look at most dramas and all they encircle is a kingdom or a sect but this one just seemed to be hanging in the air with no or less strings attached to royal families and other ideas from the dramas before. It was a masterclass so to say for such a short drama that basically aimed at doing it's own thing and I rate that highly.
It's a very much worth your time drama and massively recommend it. I have nothing much to say but please watch this rare and distinguished drama. Trust me you'll love it.

Read More

Nice combination of wuxia and whodunnit

This series consists of a few connected mysteries with an wuxia setting. The story is really good here although there are some kinks in delivery every now and then. For example, the close friendship between the two male leads is developed from the start, but some time around Episode 16, Zhao Wo Huan seems almost as though he is jealous of or upset with his friend's lover, Zhan Shi Qi. Zhan also seems a little out of character in the same episode. Yes, the two male leads are so close that we see them embracing and holding hands at times, but the plot doesn't seem to be set up to suggest that either of them would be jealous of the other's lover.

Zhao Wo Huan, the second male lead, actually turns out to be the more nuanced character for most part. He is righteous but also has a bit of an inferiority complex due to his background. He is eager to prove himself and boast, but never to the extent of being annoying. His loyalty to Jian is admirable, especially in the part where the two friends quarrel but Zhao still risks his life to deal with a killer saving his friend.

The story has many conventional ingredients of wuxia, but it is not focused on the fighting between different set. Instead, the main character, Jian Bu Zhi, is a detective who know no martial arts. With his intelligence and the help of his good friend, Zhao Wo Huan, he manages to solve several mysteries.

There is also romance in the series, but I don't find the romance that nicely developed. It just seems too sudden that Jian and Zhan would fall in love. The doomed romance between Zhao Wo Huan and Ming Yue starts off a little better but we do not really see the depth of Ming Yue's love for the most part despite evidence of her wavering loyalty to her sect.

The series is one of the many that end with a major cliffhanger to pique the audience's curiosity in case it is commercially successful enough for a second season to be made. Sometimes this gets really annoying as the main conflict in the first season isn't resolved. This, however, isn't the case. The plot ends satisfactorily in Season 1, but a huge twist in the identity of Jian Bu Zhi (which many see coming, so it isn't labored at least) makes me wish that a second season would be made.

Comment involving a major spoiler:

Some understand the ending to be revealing that Jian Bu Zhi is not Jian Bu Zhi but the villain who kills Jian Bu Zhi's father eight years earlier. However, it is also quite clear that the ending does not overturn things more drastically than most fans are able to take. The guy we have been watching from the first episode (the so-called fake Jian Bu Zhi) is not really a villain--he's more like a living person who had been zombified and turned into a killing machine by some evil force. The events eight years earlier have caused him to lose his memory and think that he is Jian Bu Zhi.

Read More

Best Mystery Drama Yet

So this drama is amazing. by far one of the best ancient crime & mystery drama's i've come across. The only thing keeping it from a solid 10/10 is the last couple episodes (after they leave zhan shi er & yin gongzi). So somewhere around the ep 15 ish mark is where i kind of feel like shit goes slightly downhill. Of course, i'll always love every single moment of this drama, and keep every minute near & dear to my heart. but i do feel like the romance between zhan shi qi and jian bu zi wasn't rlly necessary. i think i would personally prefer a drama where zhan shiqi is just friends with jian buzi & they don't hv any type of romantic feelings towards each other.
i really really enjoyed the dynamic between jian buzhi & zhao wo huan in the earlier eps in huoyue shan zhuang & the kui lei li's island). the bromance between them was my favorite & the undying loyalty to one another. i just rlly liked jian buzi solving cases & the mystery surrounding each episode. not one episode was wasted & every one of them ended on a cliffhanger which made me keep watching for more.
it was brilliant every step of the way. from each deduction, to each crime, to each suspect. i was hanging on the edge of my seat, and the plot twists had me hooked. Not one time did i correctly guess the murderer behind each death. Not one did i get it right off the bat. The drama does a great job of giving u a little bit of backstory into each character, adding music and unfinished scenes to make it look like this person is a suspect. And just when u think u hv it- u don't. This "suspect" dies, and you're left completely blindsided.
Throughout the process of this drama, my favorite part was the reasoning & the murderers themselves.
Because i never thought it would be them. but yet, after listening to each deduction- all of sudden, everything makes total sense.

The ending too, was a masterpiece. 10/10 fucking spectacular. I'm not going to spoil it for yall, but god fcking dammit- this drama really said "sike you thought" on me once again.
Well played ancient detective.
I await ur season 2.

Read More

The story and case are good enough, but sadly they don't seem over

I hope the story continues at least next year, if more than that is unacceptable



The effect sound is louder than the dialogue

Basically the story of the solve case is the same, the case is different but the technique is same, from the beginning where one person is then killed then a few people, when they catch the killer they are also deliberately pointed and then say who the real killer is

Actually I had guessed from the start who Wang Hua was, and how he got the jade

What I don't know is what happened 8 years ago

and why wanghua can be a cruel killer

and also I feel disconnected from the age of the characters

but until the end there were still problems

and the story seems not finished yet ,, most of the Chinese drama stories are not continued for years, until all the stories are forgotten nor released which makes me lazy to watch hanging drama

and in the end 17 was not killed, even though the killer was very enthusiastic,although that's not what I want either


I really feel sorry for Wohuan, is he really not able to be with Ming Yue?
especially when wohuan asked ming yue to return the bangle, then mingyue said 'this is mine' it feels very sad


I hope the story continues at least next year, if more than that is unacceptable

Read More

This is one series that teaches, "don't go in with preconceived notions"

Imagine something like "Murder, She Wrote" or -- if you're old enough "Ellery Queen" -- meets a Wuxia show and you basically have the premise for this series.

Jian Bu Zhi (played by Tim (Ji Wei) Yu) is a man trying figure out the mystery of the murder of his father in his hometown and he has 4 people that were there that could hopefully give him the information for his father's fate. In his search for these people he frequently encounters death and murder and because he is incapable of learning Kung Fu (for reasons that weren't apparently through most of the series), instead uses his keen mind in deducing the clues left to figure out who did the killing in setting he's currently in.

Along the way he makes friends with Zhao Wo Huan (played by Wang Yan Yang), has a love interest Zhan Shi Qi (played by Rachel (Ruo Shan) Wang) and an assortment of others in the typical Wuxia/Custom Drama way that unlike series like "Nirvana in Fire" or "Battle Through the Stars"; "Ancient Detective" was a mere 41 main and supporting characters which were easy enough for this casual Wuxia fan to keep track of **and** remember all their back stories.

While I was somewhat off-put by the almost 1950s-like method of collecting the facts, having Yu look at one person that seemed to indicate was the culprit, only to turn to someone else and accuse them instead; by the second murder mystery plot (the one at the inn), I learned that all the evidence was clearly displayed for the audience to deduce who the killer was and all the audience would have to do is come to their own conclusions and then wait until Yu confirmed all the facts collected.

I was also impressed that in spite of the clear roles for many of the characters (from the assassins/information gatherers from the Ten Killing Gate) to the main and secondary characters, human nature prevailed through each of the character's introductions and interludes for their back stories given them a richness that allowed me the ability to immerse myself into the world and their influence on it and forget for more than a few moments that I was watching a series online. Also I would like to thank @ChineseDramaFan for their review as it included what the character names meant which gave it an added treat as to the irony of their characterizations.

This is a series that reminds me of the following quote: "...We are star stuff, we are the universe, made manifest, trying to figure itself out. As we have both learned, sometimes the universe requires a change of perspective..." And while the murder mysteries were in fact cut and dry thanks largely to the evidence presented, the characters being human are not. There's elements of good and evil, right and wrong, and a whole lot of gray area in all of the characters in this show. Because of this gray area, it strongly allowed for personal interpretation and personal attachments based on emotional chords. Case in point Madam Hei Wu (played by Peng Bo). While he came off like the stereotypical bitter queen of Western Archetypes, in judging that book by it's cover I learned how wrong I was about his attitude and that in spite of his bitter veneer underneath he was nothing more than a misunderstood compassionate healer spurned by the stereotyping society dished in his direction.

While not spoiling anything really, I have to say that I was surprised that not all the facts were presented until the end and because of this, I'm reminded of another quote I love seeing in action in shows (like this one), "...you're going to find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view..." I skimmed some of the other reviews and them requesting another season for this show, and I find myself in disagreement with the sentiment. Sometimes leaving something to the imagination of the viewer is better than explaining it in a second season. This being no exception of that rule.

Read More