Against the Blade of Honour 1995 is loosely based on a novel by Gu Long that translates into something like Curved Moon Sabre. There's many adaptations of this novel and few are truly faithful to the novel. The Director's just can't seem to stop messing with the story line when they adapt it into a TV drama. I was a fan of Louis Koo after watching The Condor Heroes 1995 so I watched this series. It's because Louis is in this series as Ding Pang that I kept watching it and I also have this series on my laptop despite the low rating. Ding Pang is such a complex character. The four main leads were pretty good. I also liked Noel Leung as Ching Ching. Eddie Cheung played a good villain in Lau Yuek Chung. I also liked Irene Wan as Chung Hor Ching, especially in the earlier episodes. Before all the betrayals, twists and turns and struggle for power. In the end, it's an okay series but not great. If you like a classic wuxia drama then you'll enjoy this.
The Shadowless Sword is actually one of my favourite Korean sword movies. It has a simple plot but is pretty entertaining. Evil forces have killed off the royal bloodline and there's one exiled prince left who can take the throne. The good guys send a lone warrior to fetch him back to the capital to become the King. The bad guys send a group to stop that from happening. The exiled prince doesn't want to become the King. That's the crux of the story. I really like Yoon So Yi as the main female lead of Yeon So Ha. She is a pretty girl and a bad ass. Is very loyal and has high morals. She really made the series worth watching. I loved the fight scenes that she was involved with. Most Korean sword films have very good cinematography which makes it feel like you're watching a live art show.
Sword in the Moon is one of the first ever Korean sword flicks I have watched. I was attracted to the film as I heard it was based on a popular comic. I'll try to do this review without spoilers. What I loved about this film is the vibrant cinematography, colours and action sequences. The soundtrack is to die for. Compliments the movie well. The story is pretty standard though. In a time of chaos, two friends who learn martial arts and sword fighting go on separate paths. Yoon Gyu-yup going to the dark side of becoming a government official and Choi Ji-hwan becoming an assassin out for revenge. The ending though has my head scratching. Something I have felt at the end of most Korean sword movies that I've watched following this one. It's like the heroes deliberately go out of their way to make poor decisions that lead to sad endings, LOL. At the end of the movie, I could have cited many different choices that our heroes could have made... I'll leave it at that. Is it worth a watch? definitely yes due to it's awesome soundtrack and the way the movie is presented. Is it the best movie ever? Nope...
Well this is the first Chinese drama I've watched in a while. The last Asian dramas I watched were the TVB series in the late 90's and some Chinese ones in the early 2000s to this series. About a 17 year gap in total. After the crap ending of Game of Thrones, I decided to research and give some Chinese dramas a try. My expectations were raised after I saw that this series had 58 billion viewers and a rating of 9.8/10. So I gave it a try and was blown away from episode 1. The movie like feel of the drama, the colors, the costumes, the scenery, the special effects, and the music. All this had me going 'WOW'. So the series didn't disappoint me and lived up to hype, which is rare. I have watched many other Chinese dramas since thanks to the positive experience from watching Ten Miles of Peach Blossom. The ending song by Zhang Bichen and some guy is something to behold. It's become a regular song on my playlist. Now to the cast. The last time I saw Zhang Mi, the main female lead, was when she played Guo Xiang in the Return of the Condor Heroes. In this series she's grown as an actress. I loved her as Si Yin the most where she did come across as fox like. Then naive and vulnerable as Su Su. Yang Mi also transitioned well to the high powered high goddess of Bai Qian . Mark Chao was perfect as Mo Yuan and Ye Hua. He has a heroic and noble feel about him. I think he's played Detective Dee in the movies. I liked Mark as Mo Yuan more though and I did feel for the character of Mo Yuan at the end. Poor dude without giving away any spoilers... I was rooting for you. As for the character of Yue Hua, I didn't really like him much. I thought he was a bit too aggressive with Bai Qian, but that's just me. I also hated the character of Yue Hua during the period where Bai Qian was Su Su and they were at the Celestial Tribe. But maybe its because I was rooting for Mo Yuan that I didn't like Yue Hau much, even though they look the same... I also enjoyed the bromance between Bai Zhen and Zhe Yan. Two people who did nothing but good during the series. The Star Lord, Si Meng, the kid Ah Li, and the Lian Song also deserves special mention. I loved their characters. There were head scratching moments in the series though. Like how no one could work out that Su Su was Ba Qian going through a mortal trial. Even her niece!! Especially as immortals go through trials in the human realm. Anyway, gripe over. I heard the sequel is solely based on the romance between the characters of Dong Hua Di Jin and Bai Feng Jiu... Oh god forbid, LOL. I just found Bai Feng Jiu to be too clingy and annoying... I'm also not found of young girls chasing grandpa like figures either. So I found them to be rather uninteresting and had to put up with them for a large part of the 58 episodes. Their own story is 56 episodes alone. Count me out of watching that sequel!!! But as for Ten Miles of Peach Blossom its a must watch. 10/10 period!
