This review may contain spoilers
Director Li's aesthetics value is praiseworthy, but the storyline had gone haywire
Just my 2 cents, each for their own thoughts....
Pros:
-Beautiful colour grading which emphasizes a lot on red, suitable for the jiang hu atmosphere
-The world setting was very good, costumes are well thought of for different characters where different people have their own colours based on their personality, weapons are also uniquely created for each individuals, overall setting successfully depicted a wuxia world
-Beautiful cold location in the grassland during winter, as expected of Director Li who is famous for his beautiful sceneries
-Actresses are all beautiful, my favourite in terms of looks are Meng Ziyi who played Lei Chun and the actress who played Lei Mei
-Acting is fine across the board, with one or two exceptions, Meng Ziyi excels as Lei Chun, I haven't noticed her before
-OST is very well done
-Some nicely crafted characters such as Di Feijing and Su Meng Zhen, Di Feijing is my MVP
-Di Feijing's true brotherly love for Lei Chun, I feel it!
Cons:
-The story was interesting in the beginning and shouts 'wuxia!', but it went haywire soon
-This is a wuxia drama adapted from a wuxia novel, while the fighting is commendable for not having excessive slow-mo effect, the choreography is also not good enough. It's fine for typical action, but feels flat for a 'classical' wuxia action, besides why are some important fights skipped? I'm talking about DFJ's final fight against FYK, did Director Li forgot to bring his action choreographer to the field?
-Many things feel forced without development making it only on the surface and not deep enough, the main trio's friendship feel sudden and it feels like WR is always on the sideline, her affection with WXS also feels forced to be there instead of smoothly brewing, the three brothers brotherhood was said to be the main force for the novel but something is lacking about their bromance in this drama - it makes their ending not as impactful to me, other than that BCF turning bad feels forced too just for the sake of it
- Yang Chaoyue's acting is still weak and it didn't help that her character has the least importance in the main plot too among the main cast, she's always forgotten on the sidelines
-The romantic lines are not naturally written, as mentioned before, I feel forced
Overall, this is not a bad drama, it's still watchable especially for fans of the actors and if you miss wuxia, just keep your standards low for the plot and the wuxia choreography and it will be enjoyed better, the production values and picture quality are among the better ones in Cdrama these days, however I still feel the storyline is a bit out of control and this is coming from someone who haven't read the novel.
Pros:
-Beautiful colour grading which emphasizes a lot on red, suitable for the jiang hu atmosphere
-The world setting was very good, costumes are well thought of for different characters where different people have their own colours based on their personality, weapons are also uniquely created for each individuals, overall setting successfully depicted a wuxia world
-Beautiful cold location in the grassland during winter, as expected of Director Li who is famous for his beautiful sceneries
-Actresses are all beautiful, my favourite in terms of looks are Meng Ziyi who played Lei Chun and the actress who played Lei Mei
-Acting is fine across the board, with one or two exceptions, Meng Ziyi excels as Lei Chun, I haven't noticed her before
-OST is very well done
-Some nicely crafted characters such as Di Feijing and Su Meng Zhen, Di Feijing is my MVP
-Di Feijing's true brotherly love for Lei Chun, I feel it!
Cons:
-The story was interesting in the beginning and shouts 'wuxia!', but it went haywire soon
-This is a wuxia drama adapted from a wuxia novel, while the fighting is commendable for not having excessive slow-mo effect, the choreography is also not good enough. It's fine for typical action, but feels flat for a 'classical' wuxia action, besides why are some important fights skipped? I'm talking about DFJ's final fight against FYK, did Director Li forgot to bring his action choreographer to the field?
-Many things feel forced without development making it only on the surface and not deep enough, the main trio's friendship feel sudden and it feels like WR is always on the sideline, her affection with WXS also feels forced to be there instead of smoothly brewing, the three brothers brotherhood was said to be the main force for the novel but something is lacking about their bromance in this drama - it makes their ending not as impactful to me, other than that BCF turning bad feels forced too just for the sake of it
- Yang Chaoyue's acting is still weak and it didn't help that her character has the least importance in the main plot too among the main cast, she's always forgotten on the sidelines
-The romantic lines are not naturally written, as mentioned before, I feel forced
Overall, this is not a bad drama, it's still watchable especially for fans of the actors and if you miss wuxia, just keep your standards low for the plot and the wuxia choreography and it will be enjoyed better, the production values and picture quality are among the better ones in Cdrama these days, however I still feel the storyline is a bit out of control and this is coming from someone who haven't read the novel.
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