nori
Don't be blinded by beauty
My Journey to You had the potential to be one of the Great dramas, because it had the technical aspects in the bag. It's amazing production. The cinematography is beautiful. The martial arts choreography is absolutely mesmerizing, arguably the best I've seen in a while. The camerawork and editing are almost flawless. The styling greatly enhanced the actors' visuals. Not only that, the performances from the cast were terrific, most notably Tian Jiarui as Gong Yuanzhi and Jolin Jin as Gong Zishang, who gave off different energies in the series, but both made the show very entertaining to watch.
The biggest downside of My Journey to You is the writing. It starts off fast-paced and exciting, pulling the audience into the dark and dangerous world of martial arts. But then the story becomes too convoluted, and significantly slows down in the middle, maybe because they're really trying to establish the romance subplots. But this causes the story to lose hold of some of the built-up tension and intrigue, and it's difficult to pick back up. The series belatedly ups the ante again only in the last couple of episodes.
Also, the way Gong Ziyu's character is written is off-putting. It's not consistent: he is someone who is kind and sympathetic even to suspected assassins, but somehow could not extend the same kindness and understanding to his (admittedly shady) brothers; he is a character who knows he is undeserving of the power given to him yet is strangely very protective of it and becomes self-important about it. This makes it difficult to follow any proper character development. I could have enjoyed watching Gong Ziyu rise to power if it was clearly shown what flaws he was working on to be more deserving of the Sword Wielder title. Rather, it's framed like he could do no wrong; it seems his character is hastily scrapped together based on the formula of the male lead most likely to gain the audience's sympathy and awe. It works, mostly because of Zhang Linghe's acting ability, and also because the other characters have unique personalities to make up for GZY's rather generic one.
Yu Shuxin as Yun Weishan could have been given the opportunity to shine more, to show more of her ferocity as a fighter, so I'm actually hoping for a second season to this series so it could happen. Her fighting scenes here are nothing short of art.
Special shout-out to Young Master Hua, whose character arc, even though brief, made me cry a lot, which does not happen often.
The biggest downside of My Journey to You is the writing. It starts off fast-paced and exciting, pulling the audience into the dark and dangerous world of martial arts. But then the story becomes too convoluted, and significantly slows down in the middle, maybe because they're really trying to establish the romance subplots. But this causes the story to lose hold of some of the built-up tension and intrigue, and it's difficult to pick back up. The series belatedly ups the ante again only in the last couple of episodes.
Also, the way Gong Ziyu's character is written is off-putting. It's not consistent: he is someone who is kind and sympathetic even to suspected assassins, but somehow could not extend the same kindness and understanding to his (admittedly shady) brothers; he is a character who knows he is undeserving of the power given to him yet is strangely very protective of it and becomes self-important about it. This makes it difficult to follow any proper character development. I could have enjoyed watching Gong Ziyu rise to power if it was clearly shown what flaws he was working on to be more deserving of the Sword Wielder title. Rather, it's framed like he could do no wrong; it seems his character is hastily scrapped together based on the formula of the male lead most likely to gain the audience's sympathy and awe. It works, mostly because of Zhang Linghe's acting ability, and also because the other characters have unique personalities to make up for GZY's rather generic one.
Yu Shuxin as Yun Weishan could have been given the opportunity to shine more, to show more of her ferocity as a fighter, so I'm actually hoping for a second season to this series so it could happen. Her fighting scenes here are nothing short of art.
Special shout-out to Young Master Hua, whose character arc, even though brief, made me cry a lot, which does not happen often.
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