A Journey to Love (2023)

How to fail your main characters…

By making them the most boring part of the show. Quite honestly I found every aspect of the show more interesting than the leads, their individual stories and their romance.

As always, the biggest issue is the fact nothing was truly well established for them. We barely know who they are before their journey starts, they fall in love with each other out of the blue with no real reasoning either. They don’t have any real flaws they need to overcome, there is nothing to improve, nothing to change. They were painfully stagnant.

On the other hand, there were quite a lot of supporting characters with more interesting personalities and plots. Yu Shi San with his playboy, but good nature persona mixing goofy and surprisingly mature takes in an excellent manner. Yuan Lu, the loyal boy whom you just love and care for - the only one who had well established real stakes that made you worried. Li Tong Guang with his unhinged psycho motivations, who had to learn how to control his feelings and desire and mature for the role he was supposed to take. Even the Empress Wu and Prince Danyang who had barely any scenes were more interesting than the lead couple.

And then we have the true queen and main characters of the story - Princess Yang Ying. This is how you are supposed to write your characters! Having a lot of strengths and good points, but also flaws that need to be worked on. A character that develops with the plot, whose motivation changes as they gather more information. One that slowly establishes their goals and needs to fight many different setbacks and accept sacrifices to reach them.

Putting aside poorly written leads, the second crime this drama committed was not doing a good job presenting the danger and the stakes. Even when shit started to hit the fan by the end of the show, I felt nothing. Everyone miraculously survived too many times, now I actually just wanted everyone to die. You cannot make the drama feel like there are no real threats and then expect me to care when something actually goes wrong. They filled the show with fluffy flirty dates of Ru Yi and Ning Yuan Zhou instead of putting some effort into adding more details to the story and the characters.

The acting was good. I don’t think Liu Yu Ning is the strongest actor out there and putting that with mediocre character, it’s a fail for me. Liu Shi Shi is amazing and extremely beautiful, acing the role for both the badass and the vulnerable scenes. At the end of the day though, He Lan Dou did steal the show in all aspects. The character was cute, funny, moving, badass, desperate, motivated, devastated, brave, scared, angry, sad, happy - you name it and she gave it.

The production quality was fine. I did enjoy a lot of fighting scenes, I enjoyed less at times excessive slow motion. The editing in the first few episodes was trash though - I felt borderline motion sickness, but it did get better as the drama progressed. I don’t remember one song - nothing memorable I guess.

Overall, at least 50% of the drama was a whole bunch of nothing that felt like filler scenes. I wish they spent more screen time on the Wu court plot, because the final shenanigans just felt flat. Less cute bickering and flirting, more character development. They had 40 episodes and they did not use them wisely.

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'if this tragedy is end of our story'

this is one of the best c drama i have seen so far. the acting, writing, cinematography and the badass female lead and male lead with great visuals , strong characters with great character development nothing was miss for even a moment. i have to specially say the soundtrack was great just as the our female lead li yu shi shi as the ruyi and the liu yu ning as ning yuan zhou even though it's his first main lead character drama which was best start to him. the personality of the leads match perfectly just as they both fierce and skilled,stunning,elegent.
'one is ruthless and other is even more ruthless' as yu shi san said. this drama mainly started with the political war struggle of the An and Wu state,and the final struggle with beipan army which cause the tragic. the former scarlet guard left emissary named ruyi as FL who ruthless yet lethal and beautiful just as her and the liudao hall commander liu yu ning the skilled leader of 8 paths not least but he's brothers which was highlight in whole story and uncontrollably bond of them.the martial arts skilled was just nothing left to answer,absoulute the best.
the ending was tragic but the story is great yet best martial arts and teamwork,romance that 100 % worthy. definitelyyyy recommenddddd ! .
i cried long time as i came the end of the drama but still seem to can't get over with because i hoped for their happy ending every time, even though most of time the best c dramas ends with sad and tragic ending but this drama hit the spot.

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A VERY REWATCHABLE stoy: A beautiful and funny story of an Assassin's journey to finding a family.

Just caught up to ep 10 and I gotta say I'm really enjoying this show so far. The storytelling is good so far and while the pacing might seem slow sometimes, it's because they have a lot of things to introduce us to. The characters are still settling into their roles. I do like all the characters so far. So props to writers and director!


One thing I really like about this show is how the ML is not your typical cold, show no type of emotions ML. infact, though he's an assassina, he's the one teaching the FL how to be affectionate. And the actor playing the ML is really good in his role.

Our FL is such a BAD AZZ! Omg I really love her character. She DOES NOT HESITATE to kill or fight. Lol I was so shocked when she killed that guard on the spot. The first person on her list (you will know once you watch it). I really love that unlike other dramas, this drama don't just tell us the FL is smart or brave, etc... but we see it in action. Her character is written really well so far.

There's a lot of intriguing threads that have been introduced so far and I'm excited to see how it will turn out. Especially the sub plot with the third prince and the empress in the state of An. Lol that relationship is quite interesting...

I didn't think it would be so FUNNY. It's making me really laugh out loud, especially with the interactions between the ML and FL. Such a determined FL. Let's hope she gets what she wants?

I will update at the end

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A Journey to Love is intensely exciting and well worth your viewing time.

A Journey to Love is possibly the Chinese Period Drama Epic for the year 2023. It’s star, Liu Yu Ning (The Long Ballard), seems mostly to get the characters who are the odd man out. If most turn right, his character’s natural inclination is to turn left. This character fits the acting personality of Liu Yu Ning. At 6’2”, Liu Ye Ning has a full presence in each drama scene.

A Journey to Love Wuxia (Chinese Martial Arts Drama) does not have religious overtones. However, this drama does cover virtues or paths. The drama enumerates six and one each of the main characters in this drama embody each attribute.

Help for defining the different paths or virtues.

Liudao Hall was founded by Taizu. It specializes in detective work.

Characters: Yuan Lu, Yu Shisan, Ning Yuan Zhou, Qian Zhao, Sun Lang


The Three Virtue Paths.
1. The Heaven Path encompasses royal security. (Qian Zhao)
2. The Human Path monitors officials. (Sun Lang)
3. Asura Path monitors prostitution. (Yu Shisan)

The Three Evil Paths or Scouts
1. The Hungry Ghost Path are those good at making traps (Yuan Lu)
2. The Animal Path specialize in spying ¥¥¥ Ren Ru Yi / Ren Xin
3. The Hell Path are the assassins. (Ning Yuan Zhou)

There is great cinematography and great use of unique camera angles, which keep the mind busy.

The Story

The women of the Scarlet Guard are from the Animal Path. They do not specifically get intensive training in martial arts. This lack leaves them defenseless at times, when carrying out their duties. However, several do have acute Martial Arts skills, like Ren Ru Yi / Ren Xin (Liu Shi Shi from Sound of the Desert). From where does this come?

Someone amongst the Royals seems to be trying to wipe out this lowly rank, and almost succeeds. However, one escapes. She is exquisitely trained in knife or blade work. Ning Yuan Zhou (Liu Yu Ning) is a clear witted and cunning assassin from the Hell Path. Throw in the very handsome Allen Fang (The Long Ballard) playing a very unusual character named Yu Shi San. This story is intensely charming, complicated and entertaining. A Journey To Love is worth your time commitment.

There is much court intrigue, action, and romance in A Journey To Love. This is an insta-classic.

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over-rated drama

Just finished all 40 episodes of this drama and must say that I am surprised to see all of the 10/10 and 9/10 ratings it has received.

The drama started off strongly, I really liked the first 15-20 episodes or so. The plot moved along well with a great story line, liked the actors, also some good comedic scenes helped make the first 1/2 of this drama a decent watch.

Then somewhere around episode 25 this drama goes off the rails and just gets worse and worse until the awful ending. The last 15 episodes or so were terrible. Every episode seemed to have a 4-5 minute scene with the male/female leads being all lovey-dovey, sweet-talking each other with the obligatory love song playing in the back-ground. This got tiresome and repetitive. Every character seemed to experience a near death scene and then the other characters help them miraculously pull through. This got tiresome and repetitive. Each episode seemed to have 3 or 4 song interludes, starting to think the producers were either getting royalties or really trying to push the soundtrack. This got tiresome and repetitive. Each time a character died, there would be 7-8 minute montage of flashback scenes with that character, of course, with some song playing in the background. This got repetitive and tiresome as well. In addition, the drama had the worst ending of any C-drama that I have personally watched. It was like the script writers gave up and just wrote some nonsense to get this drama over with.

Gave this drama an overall rating of 2.0 solely based on the 1/2 half of the drama. Re-watch value should be 0 but apparently 1.0 is the minimum value I can assign. It was painful watching this drama once, can't imagine that anyone would go back and re-watch this a second time. This drama won't be showing up on any top 10 best drama lists, but wouldn't be surprised at all to see this drama on a number of top 10 worst drama lists though. Starting to think that the producers must have paid an army of people to give glowing reviews.

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Overall a worth watching character-driven and action-packed drama.

If you're looking for a drama that shows significant characters development, that can make you feel fully engaged with them and focus on their journey, then this drama is for you.

Everything that i enjoyed a lot in this drama:

1. Equally strong and smart leads

FL (Ren Ruyi) is THE lethal yet graceful assassin you'll ever see in Cdrama land. This is her story in finding a new purpose in life, to be more humane than just being a "killing machine," from a lone wolf to finally finding the wolf pack that can fight together with her.
ML (Ning Yuanzhou) is a former assassin and leader of the country's intel organization. The greenest of green flags ML ever. He's heroic, charismatic, affectionate to those he loves, not an annoyingly cold character but still ruthless and unrestrained to enemies.
Ability-wise, we can say they're the the birds of a feather that flock together.

2. Very mature and healthy relationship between the leads

The love line is a delight bcs they integrate modern approach in the dialogues about relationship and how men and women should treat each other. Their attraction toward each other started with seduction and temptation, but smtms all you need in a relationship is proper communication, warm/ tight hugs and little kisses. Props to Liu Shishi and Liu Yuning for delivering the emotional scenes in a very believable way and their off-the-chart chemistry, making them the type of couple that you'd want to root for along the way. I'm also glad that their relationship didn't turn them into a total love brain, they still stick to mission and priority till the last moment!

3. COMEDY

The comedy is gold, unexpected but on point!!! you can just watch for the comedy bcs its so worth it!!

4. Intense fight scenes

This drama gives everything that you want to see in a normal wuxia drama: Heroes with great martial arts, sword-fights, fist-fights, bows, spears, machineries, war scenes, solo and group fights. The fight choreographies are top-notch!

5. A group of likeable characters with their heartening/ inspirational relationship

We get so many likeable characters, be it bcs of their personality, character development or backstory. My fav female characters: Ren Ruyi, Yang Ying, Mei Niang, Empress of Wu, and Chu Yue. They're strong women in their own way. Fav male characters: Ning Yuanzhou, Yu Shisan, Yuan Lu, Sun Lang, Qian Zhou. They can do bloody fights, but can also make you giggle bcs of their cute friendship and humour antics! Special mention to Deng Hui and PM of Wu, they are also full of the complexity and arc of human nature. It's very rare for me to find a Cdrama where many female and male characters are equally likeable. Last drama i watched with characters like this was Nirvana In Fire.

6. High quality OSTs
The OSTs are just incredible, provided with high quality by both legendary veterans and rising young singers in Cdrama OST circle.

The minus:

1. Smtms there are poor cuts/ editing in some scenes, though it didn't bother me that much lol

2. I can accept how our beloved characters end that way, as long as its proved to contribute a lot for the greater good. I also found that the ending relates so much to the Chinese title and some of the OSTs' lyric. But i still wish the scriptwriter/ director concluded the ending in a better way. I wonder if the real ending couldn't pass the broadcast review, bcs this drama does touch sensitive topics. The story even started with both leads barely got loyalty to the crown and almost forsaking it..

Despite the 'uncommon' ending, there are still many factors that make this drama deserve the love and praise from audiences. I am also thankful to this ensemble of actors who dedicatedly brought their characters to life, we wouldn't be so invested to the story without their impressive acting!

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It was marvelous journey of love, friendship and life...

It felt like i lived with them. From start to finish, there was no boring moment or even a second, also i didn't skip or fast-forward even one scene!! I love everything about this drama!! Character.. god everyone is so good! I loved every interaction between the boys, them teasing NYZ, YSS flirting with ruyi, QZ pulling NYZ 's leg all the time, everyone taking care of Yuan Lu, I hated it since the starting how Sun Lang didn't have enough screentime!!! If we talk about chemistry, NYZ & YSS chemistry>>>> NYZ & Ruyi chemistry!!! I am convinced, YSS is NYZ 's first wife! The bromance between Ning & Shisan threw me off the loop. I never expected to see such a wholesome, beautiful display of friendship, comradeship, and brotherhood.! Even with one scene Yuan lu stole the show (that rooftop scene, which in my phone wallpaper rn??). And THE FIGHTS!!! Were majestic!!! It's so beautiful!!! The cinematography!!! French kiss! I hated LTG but felt bad for him at the same time! Yang Ying, i forgot she's princess, she lived as prince!!! Chu yue, wished she and YSS had more screentime!! QZ deserves more recognition! He's loyal and funny, that's rare!!!

The drama went from Political comedy to political tragedy.. still it's fine! I loved it so much!! It was a marvelous journey!!! Of LIFE and DEATH!! Of laughter and tears!

It's my first ever review in mdl, even for my most obsessed dramas i didn't write a review but this drama is something special! I started with no exception. I know no cast here ( I know singer LYN but idk he's an actor) I don't rate 10 unless there's atleast one favourite actor of mine acted in that drama. I had no idea who is who which made me enjoy this even more.. I'm gonna petition for LYN & AF bromance/bl/action drama.

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The FL I am looking for

let me tell you the FL is badess like she is smart capable alof and at the same time loving and the way she flirts ohhhh myyy goodness.....
it's so smooth ?
and that princess the way I am seeing her development in that character it's just wowwwww
now let's talk about ML.
he sure is something and he just look too handsome in historical costume
and they are basically power couple of they are together i swear no one can beat them

to be honest I like rearly write any review
and this one made me write this is just wowwww no other words

just go and watch this

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It's about the journey, not the destination

This is a great drama but definitely not without its flaws. The drama revolves around two competing assassins and their teams of members, each with diverse backgrounds and skills, embarking on a life threatening journey. Several themes of love are shown in the drama: romantic love, obsessive love, bromance/comrade’s love, self-love and friendship love. Note, pretty much the whole drama is about the journey to save the Emperor.

The male lead is a notorious assassin and is tasked with saving the Emperor who is held hostage at the enemy’s state. His four close comrades tag along for the journey. The female lead is one of the best assassins from the enemy’s state and on her personal path of revenge that collides with the male lead’s mission. We also have a Princess who disguises as a Prince and a disciple who is obsessively in love with his master (the female lead).

The drama has an engaging start, very boring and draggy middle (ep 18-28 virtually nothing exciting happens) and a spectacular ending that was brilliantly executed. The last 10 episodes absolutely kept me at the edge of my seat.

Objectivately, the drama ticks all the boxes. It has the right balance of action, politics, comedy and romance, with strong-willed main leads. The characters are intelligent and the plot makes sense. However I always felt something was missing but I can’t quite put my finger on what.

POSITIVE:
- Female lead is the best female assassin and seductress that I’ve ever watched. Smart, cunning and beautiful.
- A true assassin’s drama. People die. I mean, lots of people die. Like lots…. trust me on that one.
- Strong male and female lead. They are both intelligent and badass.
- Healthy relationships and healthy romance between the leads portrayed.
- Many awesome bromance scenes.
- Fantastic fight scenes (some are even 10 minutes long and are visually stunning).
- Acting and visuals are top-notch.
- High budget drama (and it shows).
- Last 10 episodes kept me at the edge of my seat.
- Spectacular ending - one of the best executed endings I’ve ever seen.
- Alen Fang is brilliant. I started watching the drama for him and his performance delivered. He brought the best comedy vibes.
- Many umbrella walks that are visually feast for the eyes.

NEGATIVE:
- I absolutely hated the LTG character that had an obsessive, unrequited love plotline. His plotline was so unnecessary and embarrassing to watch. It took way, way, way too much screen time (literally around 10 episodes, repeating the same thing. Him crying like a little boy and obsessively trying to get with the female lead who repeatedly rejects him). The only way I managed to watch his scenes is because the actor is a total eye candy and his acting is top-notch. But I’m seriously so done with these plot lines and wish the government bans them forever.
- Extremely boring and draggy middle. Ep 18-28 (basically 10 episodes) nothing much happens.
- Female lead’s revenge story felt lacklustre.
- The love story didn’t grab me. I don’t know what it is but I just couldn’t connect with it (which is rare for me).

OVERALL:
You will like this drama if you want to see:
1. a badass, assassin female lead
2. a group of comrades on a journey together
3. a balanced mix of romance, politics and comedy
4. many brilliantly shot historical/war fight scenes

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I found a masterpiece

I've just finished it, and I'll just describe in one word this whole wonderful journey. Unforgettable. From the first episode to the last, I was breathless. This series is a masterpiece.

Worth giving it a chance!!!

Although the ending confused me a bit, I loved it. It may be a sad ending, but I won't say I was disappointed. Yes, I experienced quite a few emotions during the last episode, and yet I wouldn't have imagined any other ending for all of them.

Congratulations to all the Journey to love team!!

All the actors gave their best and it has shown in the result.

I just expect Liu Yuning to work with Liu Shishi again because they have incredible chemistry on the show and I would love to see them together again.

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Don't miss this

It has been a while, I have not enjoyed a series like I have for this. I like main characters, the supporting crews.
The plot can be serious and entertaining the same time.
It covers romance, love and sacrifice for the country, friendship , with some touching and meaningful dialogue.
The love between an assassin and group leader started when the assassin wanted to have a baby with the group leader who has character, quality that fits her expectation, love developed as they worked together as team to save the emperor who was held hostage. I have to say this is one kind of love I would envy, more than some modern love stories I have watched lately. Supporting each other, trusting , respect with some meaningful and Not cheesy dialogue. I am convinced about their love.
The supporting crews are interesting too. The fighting scenes are well made.
I am glad to find this series to fill my time.
****Spoiler alert*******The ending may not be well liked and kind of rush, not as good as front part, but it is war time, no matter how great the fighters they are, they are still a small group against a huge troop army before the help arrives, it is a tough battle (I will not pick on few loopholes, as overall, it is well made). The little boy most likely from someone who named their kids , as remembrance of their heroic sacrifices and legacy (the boy mentioned uncle Ding, another squad member). They live in memory.

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