Dafeng is worth it!

Guardians of the Dafeng is an amazing drama.
It shows the importance such simple yet vital values as relationships, camaraderie, fairness and love for life. And what I like best is that they manage to show it through the action and characters. It’s not pompous and they never actually articulate that, but you feel it through comedy, sentimental and tragic moments.
The plot is intricate. The story starts off in a very entertaining way. There is so much humour. I smiled and laughed almost every episode. I loved all the allusions to the modern world. Like, human nature doesn’t change no matter whether you live in a real world, or fantasy one. All the incidents that happen and characters that appear matter, as they will have to play their role later in the show. All things connect and matter. As the story progresses, things get grander and more menacing. The last episodes were heart-breaking. I cried a lot although I don’t often do that watching films nowadays.
Dafeng is a universe where there are various tribes and creatures although we are introduced to only a portion of them in comparison with the novel. But I believe that later we’ll learn about them as well. There are many characters in the drama, but all of them are distinct and there are so many bright ones. In the drama they showed the key feature of every character written for them in the book. Literally, I wasn’t bored by anyone. There is an amazing quirky family of the main lead. There are the guardians and Lord Wei. The jade mirror group – fun and cool at the same time. The alchemists. The bad guys were as atrocious as they were supposed to be. I think the cast is excellent. Also, they all got along so well, no wonder we have such a result on the screen.
The main lead, Xu Qi An, is the core of the story. He finds himself in this strange world and tries his best to navigate his way here. He’s such a lively character. He’s smart, but not a genius. He’s flexible, but has his principles. He can be cheeky and boastful, but played by Wang He Di, it looks funny and adorable. His aim is simple – make enough money using his knowledge of the modern world to live a quiet and comfortable life. However, he finds himself drawn in multiple events and becomes a key figure. Through the series we see his growth. He becomes stronger physically and his personality undergoes changes too. He is not someone who can tolerate injustice towards common or innocent people. His revenge is not personal, it’s done in the name of justice. I love the poem he often quotes. It’s really suitable. Wang He Di, you are amazing! What I feel about his performance is that he is so unrestrained. He is not afraid to look ridiculous and not to look perfect all the time. His transformation into Xu Qi An’s older self is awesome. His emotional scenes, especially, in the last episodes are his best in his career. I cried with him and for him!
Other things that are worth mentioning are good quality of production, good picture and CGI. The costumes are attractive but not over the top. I like the soundtrack. At first, it was quite unusual to hear such tracks in a costume drama, but later having read the lyrics I got to like the OST and never missed the opening.
I do hope we’ll get season 2 as the novel is very long. I hope we’ll get the same cast. Fingers crossed.

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