Singularity
This review may contain spoilers
Sword Dynasty began promising but is ultimately bogged down by a myriad of problems. The basic premise is centered a young man and his adoptive aunt seeking revenge against a king who had annihilated their entire sect over a decade earlier. The story is set in a world with multiple magic/cultivation systems with the main kingdom's cultivation being centered on sword technique. The setting seems to be inspired by pre-Qin China with multiple warring kingdoms seeking to conquer each other.
Sounds cool?
The show doesn't execute on most of it.
First off, the story and writing are both mediocre. The story unfolds pretty much as one would expect from the premise but the pacing is extremely irregular. The first half of the series is reasonable but the last 10+ episodes especially fly by in a blur. They characters zip from plot point to plot point and important events just kind of happen. Along with the weak pacing is weak characterization. Most of the characters begin and end as stock characters. Everybody has simple, singular motivations and very few develop complexity. Even the main character isn't significantly development other then slowly revealing his backstory. This world is also full of macguffins that just kind of appear and chaperone the plot along without anticipation or buildup. I think the story really needed more episodes for proper character and world-building.
The acting isn't bad but it is unexceptional. Li Yi Tong is fine but her character is written as reserved and cold which doesn't give her much to work with. Li Xian is a bit weaker but again, does not get many emotional or powerful scenes so it's hard to say. The supporting class pretty much all play archetypal characters and none really stand out.
The production is also fairly weak. The sword fights are fine and a bit flashy but they weren't anything spectacular. Since 90% of people fight with swords there is also limited creativity and variety in the fights. The sets, costumes, and props generally look good but there is a severe lack of extras, to the point where scenes seem to include exactly the characters that are plot relevant without any minor characters or random soldiers/functionaries around to give the scene a sense of realism. There's a dearth of scenes set among common people and scenes seem to happen in the same locations over and over and over. Battles are shot in close-up with a couple people running around tents. Basically, everything looks decent but it all feels like sets and scenes--not real places and real events.
And more then anything, there are just so many missed opportunities and things left unexplored. The MC supposedly has a super-move involving spider-threads but it's used exactly twice and left unexplored. The main character reaches the final realm of cultivation in the final episode but... he fights exactly like anybody else and it's super unclear what's so special about that realm. The other kingdoms all supposedly have their own fields of cultivation they are experts in, including one kingdom that specializes in some sort of dark/black magic but we see exactly two people from outside the main kingdom fight and we never see any techniques that are different from sword techniques. There is supposedly a climactic war in the final episodes but it pretty much all happens off screen.
Basically, this drama writes a lot of checks that it was then unwilling or unable to fulfill. The premise is ripe for an indulgent power spiral drama like Fight Breaks Spheres or Ever Night, exploring multiple cultivation fighting techniques and with the MC growing steadily more OP. It promises emotional drama between MC and the man who murdered his master, culminating in a final battle. It promises scenes of battle between nations. And what it ultimately delivers is... disappointing.
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Writes a check it doesn't cash
This drama is overall enjoyable but there is a large amount of dissonance between the first and second halves.The first half is basically a transmigration business comedy, where the main character helps his wife succeed in business and family politics. There are a lot of fun shenanigans and interesting moments despite the small scale of the story. However, the first half sets up viewer expectations for how the second half of the drama will progress and these expectations are not met.
The second half is more of a political story and despite the higher in-world stakes, the writing and plotting is much less clever. The story is also much less funny. The second half isn't necessarily bad and it could have been a good drama by itself but the amount of dissonance transitioning from the first to the second halves really hampered my enjoyment of the story.
Overall, the acting is good. The production is clearly fairly low budget but everything looks decent. The plotting is very contrived but the characters are charming and dialogue is well-written.
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Regarding the writing/plotting, the show starts out lightheartedly as we are introduced to the characters (there's a child actor in the first episode who's simply delightful). The first half of the season contains most of the more humorous moments but they remain to lighten the mood through the rest of the episodes as well. There is a fun blend of action/fighting scenes (which are generally well done with believable effects) and political maneuvering (which occupies most of the show). The political intrigue is well crafted and most developments are believable and fit together effectively. The dialogue is generally well done and scenes are edited together cleverly to tell the story. There is also an overlaying element of sci fi, which while not crucial to this season would be expected to become more important in future seasons.
Regarding the acting and casting, the performances are overall excellent. The main character is portrayed excellently. Most of the time he presents an intelligent and charming exterior but the viewer really gets a sense of his moral compass. The main character has several emotional and powerful scenes which are all very well done. The supporting cast are also excellent, with standout performances for the Intelligence Director, the Emperor, the MC's sister, and Duo Duo. The remainder of the cast is also high quality--I can't think of any characters that are miscast, and even the only character I disliked (Yan Bing Yun) felt as though he was purposefully portrayed as dislikable.
The only criticism I have is the ending, which is a pretty severe cliffhanger. I will not deduct points for this as there is a planned second (and hopefully third) season; however, if those fall through and the followup seasons never materialize I will be quite despondent indeed. And if there are followup seasons made, I very much hope that the director can reassemble as much of this cast as possible.
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This review may contain spoilers
Fun, cute characters, above-average cultivation drama. Terrible adaptation.
I came to this drama as a fan both the screenwriter Wang Juan (his previous work Joy of Life is in my top 2-3 favorite dramas) and the Douluo Dalu novel. However, I recognize that novels and dramas are two fundamentally different mediums and that it would like be impossible to faithfully adapt the novel into a visual medium, especially given China's copyright laws. I will try to give my thoughts on the drama on its own merits and leave the comparisons to last.
The good:
- The core cast (Shrek seven devils and teachers) play quite well together and they're really fun to watch. The scenes of teambuilding and the students just hanging out were probably my favorites from the whole drama and I'd honestly watch a slice of life drama with them just hanging out and bickering
- On a related note, the acting in general is good. Nobody was terrible although performances all around were a bit flat. Some people have objections to the FL's acting, I didn't mind it and found her cute.
- The CGI is good, especially for a c-drama. The show is very effects-heavy and fortunately most of the time the effects aren't bad enough to be distracting and occasionally the effects look really good (spirit rings being an example)
The mediocre:
- Fights were kind of boring in general. There were 2 good group fights but a lot of the minor fights featured most of the fighters standing there looking dumb while the fight happened around them. Also, there wasn't much strategizing, fights tended to be decided based on power.
- Plot was ok but really didn't give me much suspense or pathos. I mostly kept watching because hanging out with the Shrek seven devils is fun, not because I was dying to find out what was going to happen next. The overall plot felt very messy as well, the core question that the writer posed turned out to not matter at all and new questions were raised in the last episode.
The bad:
- The music was very random and didn't help build suspense or emotion generally. I think this was a big reason why the plot didn't click with me, the soundtrack really doesn't give much feels.
- Skips and does poorly soooo many characters/moments/plot points from the novel (more on this later)
Overall thoughts:
- As far as cultivation dramas go there are definitely worse. I'd give the drama an 8/10 as a standalone drama
- However, as a fan of the source material, I can't help but conclude that the screenwriter had no interest or appreciation for the novel, because very few of the interesting characters and plot points in the source material are preserved. 4/10 adaptation
Average 6/10
Comparison to the source material:
- Most obvious point is obviously that the character of the protagonist is very different. Novel Tang San is a strategist and inflappable due to his prior life. Drama Tang San is a normal young man as the drama couldn't show transmigration.
- The thing is that this may have actually been an opportunity, not a problem. Having Tang San start out innocent and wide-eyed allowed the chance for him to have a full character arc in a hero's journey type plot where he develops from his baseline into a character more similar to novel Tang San, smart and steady. This does not happen. Tang San is written very inconsistently and his character is poorly defined, even by the end.
- Related to this, one of Tang San's core skills, making hidden weapons is largely excised from the script. It's still present in some capacity but it is no longer focused on and barely even relevant to the plot, showing up in only 1 fight.
- So many funny and/or interesting characters were glossed over or cut entirely. Obviously can't show everything but seems like they went a bit far in culling characters. For instance, in the novel Shrek Academy has multiple teachers and Fei Lan De is just the principal. In the drama he appears to be the only paid employee of the school. Budgetary constraints? Maybe.
- Most of the fight strategizing is cut out. This is a minor point as I think it would be very difficult to translate fight strategizing into a drama.
- Worst for me is just an overall loss of hype. There are a lot of climactic moments in the novel that illicit a sense of awe or fear. The drama does an exceptionally bad job at translating these. Nobody in this drama has the sense of power or danger that they should have. Nothing feels like it has stakes. The villains don't feel dangerous.
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This review may contain spoilers
I went into this drama blind, having no familiarity with either the original novel or any of the prior TV series. Based on the title and the blurb, I had the impression that this would be about two brothers who are separated at birth and raised under different circumstances. And that's pretty much what happened!Handsome Siblings features two brothers separated at birth after the untimely murder of their parents. One brother is raised by a group of chaotic neutral villains while the other raised in one of the premiere sects, the Shifting Flower Palace, unknowingly by the same people who killed their parents. Through various plots, contrivances, and coincidences, the two siblings are driven into conflict with one another.
Regarding plot, the drama is overall quite predictable other then a few twists that popped out of nowhere. The general trajectory of the plot unfolds about as one would imagine. Unlike some dramas which feature interlinking small stories to give payoff at a steady rate, this drama went with the single large overarching plot route. This led to some annoyance during the drama when all the villains continually escape consequences but it eventually wraps up neatly and with satisfying emotional payoff. However, I would recommend not thinking about this plot too much as the whole thing is built on a rickety foundation of unlikely coincidences where major characters meet each other at precisely the correct times, out of blind luck. The plot is also chock full of wuxia tropes, with murdered fathers, falling into ravines, nefarious plots, secret underground palaces, ancient powerful kungfu manuals, and quirky characters aplenty. If you suspend your disbelief however, it works fairly well.
The characters are generally likeable although many characters are fairly flat and archetypal. The acting is overall reasonable but there is some overacting as again, many of the characters are archetypes who only have one or two defining traits so they play up those traits. The two male leads are both decent, with Yu'er especially becoming much more likeable as the story goes along. Hua Wu Que is fairly wooden but that's also how his characters is written and he does a good job of letting his emotions just barely peek through. The female lead (Tie Xin Lan), unfortunately, is also very wooden and is oddly vaguely characterized but the secondary female lead (Su Ying) is likeable and well-portrayed. The side characters, both antagonistic and side kicks, are all well-portrayed.
Production values are reasonable as well. The cast is fairly small with limited extras but this is a wuxia piece and not a historical piece so it's not terribly distracting. Sets and costumes look good. Music is forgettable but not bad.
Overall, I had a fun time with this drama. If you're looking for a "great" drama maybe this won't be it--a lot of the plot and characterization is a bit simple, tropey, and contrived. But if you just want to be entertained by likeable characters doing fun things, give it a try.
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However, I really did not like the ending. While it does kind of wrap up most of the dangling plot threads, I feel that the ending episodes were generally rushed and really did not provide an emotionally resonant conclusion to the drama. It also seems that the ending is hinting at a sequel and purposefully leaves some conflicts unresolved for this purpose. Even accounting for this I lost interest around episode 30 and had to drag myself to finish the series.
Good but not great due to an unsatisfying ending.
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