15/01/2023

This is all about an 18 year old female posing as her deceased brother in an all male military academy during the Japanese occupation to fulfil what he couldn't do, also, to understand him better.

This will likely be in my top 5 Chinese dramas for life!

All the main and supporting actors were well chosen and played their parts so faultlessly that as a viewer I found myself invested in each and everyone of them.

There is a decent amount of humour in the first 13-16 episodes and also others, but as it progresses it does get heavier once their training is almost complete as well as when they are sent on missions.

In addition, there is this "gay" undertone throughout it because even though we know she is a female no one else really does except her best female friend and Gu, her annoying room mate, by episode 5.

I really liked the main male lead, Xu Kai, as well as the second male lead , Toby Lee, as their characters were cool guys in every sense of the word.

Some favourite moments for me would be the unexpected contraband inspection being carried out in episode two, Gu's wake up call and get back tactic, Gu's refusal to have another person sleeping in the room, Xie when she performs in Romeo and Juliette, Xie kicking Li's butt in martial arts, Qu when she saves Xu on a motor bike, Xu when he declares his love and also when he plays the piano which was unexpected, heartfelt yet so hilarious when it came to a response.

There are a number of other moments I enjoyed as well!

Before I forget there are different love situations involving Qu, Gu, Xie, Shen and one or two others in a criss cross kind of fashion. Like Xu likes Xie and so does Shen and Xie likes Shen as does Shen's female friend from his school days whereas Qu likes Xu and Shen's brother likes Qu.

Do you see what I mean?!

I will leave it at that except to say that there are no heavy angst moments nor is anyone harmed due to anyone being jealous so it made me enjoy it just that bit more.

What else?

The one character I really really liked more than anyone else was Huang Song as out of all of them he was the most uncomplicated with a good heart and balanced temperament. A very humble, kind and beautiful soul even if not clever like the others. If I could choose anyone to watch my back it would be him! And it is because of him that I will never watch one particular episode again - not ever! One of my favourite scenes with him in it was when Xie, Shen, Xu and Ji came through for him to help him get out of this "black market illegal boxing circus" in which he had to "fight to the death." All of the goings on in that made the series even more interesting.

It is a well told story and a series that isn't boring at all even though there are 48 episodes. I'm not usually into war or romance yet this won me over no sweat because of the humour, drama, characters, costumes and even the cinematography. Maybe not some of the hair styles, but most definitely everything else!

It is re-watchable as I have seen it again within a short time of initially watching it plus I still keep returning to it just to revisit all my favourite scenes.

It is most definitely in a class of its own - there is nothing else like it so is highly recommended!



Main characters:

Bai Lu as Xie Xiang
Xu Kai as Gu Yanzhen
Li Chengbin as Shen Junshan
Wu Jiayi as Qu Manting

Support:

Liu Runnan as Li Wenzhong
Wang Yizhe as Ji Jin
Liu Sibo as Huang Song
Meng En as Zhu Yanlin
Shao Bing as Guo Shuting
Lin Yo-wei as Lu Zhongyu