I liked this drama a lot. Though most of the reviews range from 6-4.5, I liked this drama. I won't write too much as I am on a short amount of time, but this drama was good. The behind-the-scenes were cute, while there was romantic tension between the two characters in the beginning. Slightly frustrated but it worked.
Anyways, this drama was pretty good :)
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A tragedy wuxia. There are more tears than blood, more manipulation than actual combat.
I watched this drama to explore and appreciate Luo Yunxi's acting skill after watching him in Till The End of The Moon (2023) and Love is Sweet (2020). If you come to this drama for this reason, you won't be disappointed. Playing the ML, Shangguan Tuo, he is really skilled in managing emotional scenes as well as fight scenes, his facial expressions and gestures was on point. In addition, in this drama and his previous Runyu role in Ashes of Love (2018), Luo Yunxi has the best physical appearance (not too thin yet), IMO. He is definitely the king of costume drama. Wearing traditional clothes, his handsomeness and elegance is off the chart.***
Many viewers gave pretty low rating for this drama and I understand the reason. Without great patience, you won't survive this drama "boringness". Over the span of 48 episodes, under the tag of a wuxia, there are only few actions to enjoy. Instead of action, there are tons of talks about love and hate, jianghu politics, and mystery to solve. If you don't have the flexibility to change your expectation and set new watching goals midway, there are nothing left for you. You'd better drop this title and save your precious time. However, if you are able to realize the message the drama intends to convey, stay watching and you will reap the gem in episode after episode.
I like to focus more on the story. Actually, this drama is pretty good at lying the foundation for the main conflict. The conflict is not straightforward and is built up slowly. In early episodes, we think that the story is about FL's (Chong Wuezhi, played by Yukee Chen) quest to reconcile with other sects in jianghu who have grudge to her sect, Hall of Flame, and clear her father's name. However, the water is more deep than that with the introduction of Prince Lu (played by Patrick Quan) from the imperial palace.
Prince Lu is an impossible antagonist and villain. He is weak and sick, but has big ambition to control the jianghu. His power is immense because he is super intelligent to to collude with certain sects and achieve his goal. He is the master of manipulation. The Hall of Flame is just one of his victims. More interestingly, Prince Lu has a sound philosophy to commit his crime. He doesn't seek the throne like typical villains in wuxia-palace drama. He wants to maintain order in the land and increase palace control over chaotic jianghu. It makes an impression that he is the righteous one.
The story sets in the context where martial arts sects were flourishing but competing to one each others. The competition to be the strongest and greatest creates distress for society. Previously, the traditional relationship between palace/ government and jianghu is non intervening. Jianghu has the freedom to do whatever the sects want without government intervention, but people of jianghu is forbidden to participate in palace politics and imperial family business. The goal of people of jianghu is to achieve the greatness in martial arts, to be the strongest and the most influential among sects. Sometimes in the process, some people are killed and it creates grudge and prolonged blood feuds. From government point of view, this feud breaks peacefulness. The main goal of government is to maintain order by the rule of laws, but with traditional norm of non-intervention, government cannot punish people of jianghu to stop the disorder.
Prince Lu is the actor who wants to change this chaotic situation, in order to help his emperor father of Crown Prince brother in the future. Till this point, his reason is acceptable. Unfortunately, he solves this problem with suppression and unjustifiable killing too. For him, the sects are just the pawns, are disposable anytime. Later, after the death of his beloved wife, he experiences mental break down and turn to be a tyrant. He blames his life tragedy to Shangguan Tou and eagers to kill him and Chong Xuezhi who always try to stop him. His personal goal changes to be the controller of jianghu. He wants the power himself.
For me, the villain in this drama (Prince Lu) is the best in the wuxia so far. It is far better than Prince Red in popular Blood of Youth (2022), or even a drama with the similar vibe, The Flame's Daughter (2018), which the villains are just a brainless psycho. Prince Lu is a master of go and always several steps ahead. Several times, he causes desperation for the protagonists and set them into traps. Also, from the perspective of villain, it is very potential for a great plot twist. In the end, Prince Lu's crimes are exposed but he is just punished lightly, no beheading or exile or removal from princedom. It makes me suspect that actually the emperor knows the crime and quietly supports it by letting Prince Lu did what he did.
The story would be better if the author/ writer not easily let such a great villain to be crazy in the end. It is okay to suffer depression from the loss of beloved wife who doesn't understand his duty to his imperial father. This tragedy should be his moral reason to be more determined to control jianghu and strengthen the government power. He is the one who sacrifice for the future of the empire. From the palace perspective, he is the hero. From jianghu perspective, he is the villain.
However, this potential to improve the story is loss. Simply, because the story is using jianghu perspective. It doesn't try to balance the perspective. It is showed from the imbalance representatives. Too many people from jianghu are told, but less from the imperial family and government. It would be good to see how the emperor feel threatened as well as saddened by his trusted Imperial Advisor who has lenient view about the jianghu and let his son, Shangguan Tuo, to be part of jianghu, after his brothers leave him for the jianghu. It would be good to see Prince Lu the weak as the most filial, who is willing to live in faraway province to help his father and Crown Prince by doing the dirty works. If we have the balances view, it would bring more lesson for the ML and FL. After they win the struggle to free jianghu from Prince Lu's crimes, they should take more active role in strengthening the character of jianghu people, to prevent another chaotic period in history. But, in the end, FL leaves her sect and choose to live in seclusion with ML. With the power they have, they turn to be selfish and think only about their own happiness.
So, you know. I love this drama because of the complex villain. Even tough the potential is wasted, it enriches our imagination what future villain should be written. It is boring to see one-dimensional villain or crazy villain. The real villain is often normal people who have love, reason, and moral too, like the heroes. It is just their way to solve problem to be different from the heroes.
I hope in the future, there will be a drama that can portray a quality villain story. I hope there will be a writer that creates a grand story in which the right and wrong is not that easy to define, that concerns not only the love among man and women, but also the well-being of overall society, to take a certain social issue as the focus of the story.
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This review may contain spoilers
And the winner wasn't love!!
I'd watched the teaser and I'd heard it was a hit so I had very high expectations for this drama but I must admit that it hugely disappointed me!Unlikable MC with little chemistry, repetitive plot, mediocre story, weak, always damsel in distress FL and what the heck villain were the main reasons finishing it became a chore for me!
**Repetitive plot**: I don't like too much slow burn dramas or haters turned to lovers but at the same time I don't like love at the first sight as well, because in my experience dramas of this kind turn to ups and downs, obsessive, jealous love rivals and meaningless melos with a break up and make up every 3 eps to fill their timelines. ATWIL was no exception in this. MC were attracted to each other by the end of ep 2 and were already idiots in love by 10 So what to do to make it lasts through 48 eps? Throwing them into a loop.
**Mediocre story**: Main plot (Everyone being after top marital arts manual) isn't that original and it hasn't been handled very good. Characters aren't very deep and there are several characters who had no impact on story whatsoever, being introduced in an episode only to get killed shortly after.
Marital world plotting against FL is acceptable, but main villain targeting her and trying to kill her even before the start of their animosity was a bit annoying to me. I mean she was a nobody then, if he took a grudge against her after she humiliated him at his banquet it would make more sense.
One other thing that bothered me greatly was that for a wuxia drama it hasdso much talking and very little action. Every episode was full of long and repetitive conversations about the same subjects.
**Weak, always damsel in distress FL**: I started watching from ep2 and she had been saved like twice already. I stopped counting the times ML appeared to save her around ep 12. They stopped counting too, as we don't hear "I'm indebted to you again or it's the nth time you saved me, I'll pay you later" after some times.
She's been characterized so weak and fragile that her fighting scenes are such a joke. She was like, first scene was her choking on her own saliva and ML had to slap her on her back and in the next scene she was flying in the air defeating seasoned leaders of other sects left and right!!
**WTH Villain**: What was the matter with him?? He wanted to be a marital artist but was too weak to be? Or he just had gone insane from too few attention and wanted to do something big?? He made no sense to me. By episode 31 everybody knew he was the culprit but they did absolutely nothing. The ones that actually did something either get themselves killed or committed suicide.
**Acting**: I don't have much to say about acting. They were decent, imo. ML was better than FL though. I'm not sure if this was their first leading role or not but if it was, I won't be surprised, they were obvious. They didn't overshadow other people in the scenes. Secondary characters were far better than the leads, even though they didn't have much to do. I didn't like love triangle very much too, it made a fool of two unrequited lovers and they mostly did nothing but pining after the leads.
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I find that the female lead (FL) does a great job portraying a young mistress, cult leader that has never been exposed to the martial arts world and entrusted people through her journey to save her cult. she is not naive but just inexperienced to the world with traps. She starts out as innocent, sweet and weak as that is the character she portrays, a character that is not easily done but she has...This role is different from what she has done and she has acted as the character in the story. Eventually, she becomes strong.
The male lead (ML)is great in his character that shows love and protection, which is common in every love relationship. He is capable and with great martial skills to protect the person he truly develops to love during his protection to her. He is well experienced in the martial arts world, the schemes and untrustworthy of the people. Even, his character goes through misunderstandings and traps of his own. Both the ML and FM have good chemistry.
For those that rate less than a 7 is just unfair. Either he/she is jealous and doesn’t want to give a good review and bring the ratings down or he/she just wants to complain cause their life is bitter. Perhaps, for those who doesn’t have another nice to write , than don’t write it at all. A lot of the actors/actresses act accordingly to the director as this is how the story. No movies or dramas deserves less than that!
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This review may contain spoilers
so far i'm on episode 22. all i can say so far.. OMG im in love with this drama. the ML acting are on point. somehow since the 1st ep even though he keep smiling and flirting. i can't help seeing there is some kind of sadness and pain in his act. i didn't read the novel, but i see people who read it said it's way too different from the novel. for me, i'm fine with this story line. i watch c drama often and this one i can say easy to understand compare to AOL or the untamed (love this one too VERY MUCH, but i kinda lost for about the first 5 ep,, like legit LOST,,). i like the phase too, it's not dragging the small not important part, just big picture, small details, conclusion, next.i'm not someone who are fond with cheesy romantic drama. but this one...... KEEP CRAVING FOR MORE!! let me eat all the cheese and tears~
also i heard so many complain about FML being too childish here. don't worry. it's a character building. it's really build up a story how she grows and change after love, heartbreak, and being mature. she'll be matured as the story grow, but still act lovable in front of her lover UWU.
2nd lead in this drama... oh..... for real i can't talk about them. i like how this drama make me dislike the 2nd FML so much. so far in 2nd ML i can't say anything, he is OK, protect the FML, love her, not rude, but i have feeling he have something under his sleeves.
anyway i kinda stop watching in ep 22 not because i want to drop it. it's just my heart couldn't take it to wait for the next week (there will be some misunderstanding going on) this i couldn't watch.. i'll cry my heart out for next week to come faster. so i kinda stop and wait till the misunderstanding are clear.
this what i can say so far. it's alr so good, but i still wish it keep getting better for the next ep (idk how will they make every ep keep getting better) !!
ps: every time there is a sweet moment and ost sang by ML played. i paused, and re watch...... so many butterfly and unicorn in my stomach.
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Chinese Martial Art Love story
One of the most entertaining martial art love story drama with a satisfying happy ending. Fantastic storyline showcasing fantastic chinese martial arts moves. A mixed of sad and happy beautiful love story amidst challenging situations due to the rivalry among martial arts sects which depicts real life and happenings in Chinese martial art history. Fantastic cast led by the sexy and graceful but macho Leo Luo Yunxi... one of my favourite movie star. Leo's role in the movie as the master of Moon Valley gives him a neutral role in the martial arts world...but his role also depicts a mysterious power and brilliant moves in the political scene which is applauded.. His connection with the imperial family is subtle but gives him enough influence to finally implicate his gone-mad brother-in-law prince who is the main villain in the movie. Fantastic play by the main antagonist. Fantastic performance by main and support actors and actresses. I highly recommend this drama to all audience.. love the happy ending. Congratulation to the cast, producers, and directors.Was this review helpful to you?
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Average
Starting was good ,how the leads of the drama meet with eachother ,how they fall for each other ,they separate and again come together . So this part is good and this is common story which can be seen in many dramas too. That fall in love then separate and again meet.Story was just an average . I like few parts those parts balanced the drama otherwise there were many episodes which were bored.
Into my consideration ,I felt they were many flaws in the drama.
1. Character of Xia Qing Mei ,this character entry with the practice of Martial art ,so I thought this character must important part of the story. But this character disappointed a lot . The story didn't bring any good with this character . I think story did injustice with this character.
2. Hiding story of Shangguan Tou after his dead was useless. He wanted to hide himself . So secretly he took his revenge but first he appeared in front of his love because he loved her so much and missing her but pretend infront of her that he was not the one who she loves. But soon she came to know that he was the one and then he told her that he hide his identity because he really wanted that the evil believes that he is dead and they only believe when she is in immense pain but his identity revealed and slowly slowly important characters of the drama came to know about that he is alive ,so it was no use of hiding identity because his hiding story didn't do much .
3. Though it was consist of 48 episodes but I felt ending story completed in hurry . I think there should be one more episode of their story.
About watching this drama ,so can give a try.
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The character isn't strong n intersting enough to brings out the best in many.
I finds that the part where SGT dad n sis dying isn't that emotional ... it just skipped that part as if they aren't that important in his life.
Guess the director didn't brings out the best in them...
I just finished it for the sake of Leo. No doubt of his acting skills, i am looking fwd to his other upcoming drama : Broker & Love is Sweet.
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This review may contain spoilers
This is a drama with great possibilities that flat lined for the unnecessary use of repetitive dialogue, flashbacks, and an irresolute female lead, Chong Xue Zhi. Although it is a historical romantic wuxia, don’t expect a great romance. The male lead, Shangguan Tou, spent too much time restraining himself from staying close to Chong Xue Zhi with the commonly use of “for her sake/protection” cliché storyline and Chong Xue Zhi, as kind, loving, and understanding of everyone else in the story, could not come to trust the man that she claimed to love. The drama is full of inconsistencies regarding the characters’ martial arts abilities that are plagued with so many weak instances that it becomes very frustrating and an incredible amount of unnecessary tragic deaths. The drama’s name is an allegorical title used as a way to inject this drama with unending dialogue of moralistic teachings that, on the long run, failed to deliver a great drama. The female lead delivers very nice smiles but her eyes seem to lack the ability to show the right emotions. The leading male actor did much better with the character delivery that was expected for this drama. Although it is not a terrible drama, it is not one with high rewatch value. Was this review helpful to you?
? every sweet moment of ML and FL i want to rewachted again
I can say FL has Growth from young girl to a woman. The point' is the journey of chong xuenzhi. And Tou is very sweet as what he does and what he speak Its tooooo sweet... But the weakness is storyline, i don't like how their make many friends of the main ML and FL are died ?Yuqi and Leo have a great chemistry on air or off air ? i also watch BTS of this drama. If you watch it, their also laugh after acting ?
I hope their meet again and have a pair on another drama ?
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I had watched so many Chinese drama that I believe I am very desensitised and could hardly cry at emotional scenes. But no, I was wrong, I actually did cry when watching one of the characters died in the arms of his love - the emotion was very well built up and the actor acted it well.
There were a lot of flirting scenes between the male and female leads. Luo Yun Xi (Leo) acted the flirting male lead well. I am sure guys could learn a lesson or two on flirting from this. :) I must say Luo Yun Xi did not quite get the chance to display those emotions he did in Ashes of Love. If you are expecting this, you are likely to be disappointed with this drama.
But I cannot say the same of Yukee Chen - she was good but did not manage to stir up much emotions - we had to bear in mind that the female lead character was very young, so all she could do was to act shy but pleased.
The badass in the story was a psychopath. While he was probably right in expecting the pugilistic world to submit to the law and order of the country, but the way he went about it was absolutely psychopathic.
There were also illogical parts. How could the intelligent Shuangguan Tuo think that he could get away as someone else in front of people who knew him well when all that he did was changed the colour of his clothes? At least spot a moustache and bun up his hair for goodness sake. For this, I blame the make-up artists - they need a bit more creativity.
Also, I have seen this happens in Chinese dramas very often. The girl dressed up and then the guy/s started orgling. But when I looked at her, there was not much difference - should have been a bit more lavish with the hairpins, earrings, make-up and clothes to really transform her - again, make-up artists work harder.
About music, the starting theme song was a wrong choice and I dare say contribute to the lower rating of the drama. The theme songs are very important in helping to build the emotions before the start of the episodes but I felt it failed to do that. The starting theme song was a little of neither here nor there - not quite dramatic enough and not sentimental either. If the ending theme song was used at the beginning instead, it could help set the scene, especially with a title like 'The Winner is Love'.
Also the bland of the music was bad. At some points, the background theme music was clashing with the instrumental music that the character was supposedly playing, with two independent pieces running at the same time. It sounded real bad - I wonder whether the music editor had fallen asleep.
The overall drama was good but lacking in a lot of finer touches, some of which I had highlighted above. Nevertheless, it was entertaining.
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TSTL
Kudos for writing a story with good political intrigue. I personally have a bias for Luo Yunxi but I can’t really say anything bad about most of the acting in this show. My biggest complaint is, T-S-T-L. How can one writer create so many female characters that are just too stupid to live? The romantic plot suffered about halfway through the show because of something I absolutely loathe...a misunderstanding. An easily explained, easily forgivable misunderstanding. It felt ill contrived and annoying. It contributed to the childish persona of the main female protagonist, which made me add her to the growing list of women in the show that were TSTL.Leader Yuan - TSTL
Lin Fengzi - TSTL and babyish
Chong Xuezhi - TSTL and running around like a child pretending to be her parents.
Not sure if it’s the scriptwriting or from the novel, because I didn’t read it, but I feel like these female characters were treated poorly in terms of character development.
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