A middling family.

I came to this drama right after watching Are You the One (AYTO), which also starred Zhang Wanyi, because I hadn't seen him in anything else. He seems to play basically the same character, with much of the same facial expressions and demeanor, except he was funnier in AYTO. In both dramas, his character is not actually as close in relationship to the FL as it appears to her, and which he is to some extent along with some other things hiding from her, including for instance being the head of an influential organisation of some sort, and also playing himself down in so doing. The cadence of his voice was pretty much identical in several scenes, to the point that it felt the roles could have been interchanged without too much of an issue.

This is the first time I have seen Ren Min in anything, and I must honestly say I was not particularly impressed. I found her acting quite one-dimensional in that, in my impression, she seemed to have a limited set of expressions throughout the drama. Her younger self where she meets the character of Lu Jia Xue (LJX) in the villa does not seem much different from her portrayal in the rest of the drama, and even by the ending, there did not seem to me to come across a sense of maturation or growth. There was a lack of depth and gravitas as well as range in her acting that would have elevated the role and character, and I would be curious to have seen another actress in the role.

The story and execution could have been much better - the initial arc from the family drama to the later more broadly political arc felt to me like it had become another story. Even the arcs within the initial family drama did not feel like they transitioned smoothly for me; there was quite a clear initial Concubine Qiao arc, then the next bit, then the graduation to the broader politicking. When the first Concubine Qiao arc concluded, I found myself thinking 'What, already?', because it felt so short and almost abrupt. I was also not a fan of the way they used brief flashbacks and exposition perfunctorily to explain what had happened in the plot instead of having shown it as part of the story. There were also some loopholes that felt glaring to me and annoyed me significantly throughout, like the way no one even bothered to check on or treat Luo Shenyuan's back after he sustained a wound early on in the drama, including Yining herself or even the doctor he got to come treat the Old Madam. While arguable that this was to show how little he was cared for or thought of, I also thought it made Yining herself come across thoughtless towards him and selfish.

Yining was an annoying and selfish character to me overall - she tells Shenyuan off for not letting her in on what he's doing on more than one occasion, and then at one point declares that they will keep no secrets from each other, but at which point she had not even told him about her relationship with LJX herself despite him having asked previously. This really came across as a double standard that made clear it applied mostly one way to him, which really irked me. Thankfully he prompted her after said statement, at which point she reluctantly tells him. Additionally, despite her supposedly not being favoured in the family, she is clearly highly cared for by her grandmother/the Old Madam, and her stepmother Lin Hairu/the Madam, who look out for her in every way; this is not even mentioning Shenyuan. Sure, she is plotted against by Concubine Qiao and those half-siblings, but she still behaves recklessly and as she wishes well enough with the support of the Old Madam and the Madam, taking things over to Shenyuan and getting him into their good books and so on. Her selfishness with regard to LJX is also apparent and she also comes across as really immature in her having indulged in a dalliance with him but then never bothering to speak with him outright to clear things up, even after she comes to the conclusion of needing to face up to him.

Yining's makeup also seemed really thick on one or more occasion, and one close-up of her face with the really obvious false eyelash extensions really took me out of it. Ren Min's voice was also to me very grating and whiny-sounding. While these are no fault of her own, they added significantly to my annoyance of Yining.

The plot was so-so, nothing to write home about, it did the job. I don't think it needed to be 40 episodes though, and I felt there was a lot of fat that could have been trimmed off. The thing with the Princess' son, for instance, probably wouldn't have been missed at all.

I was not a fan of the brother-sister relationship basis and thought it could have done much better if the writers had included showing some conflict within Yining about her brother suddenly becoming no longer her brother, and the rest of the family she had grown up in as well. I also felt the show would have benefitted significantly if there had been more of a character transition shown between Yining going from thinking of Shenyuan as her brother to a romantic interest. Instead, she calls him Third Brother until the end of the show, and in fact when she does call him Guan Ren instead, that also felt weird. I would have liked if there had been some kind of change to at least maybe calling him with his name or something.

Because the whole premise of the brother-sister relationship felt wrong to me to begin with, the theme music for them annoyed me every time it came on. While LJX was absolutely basically a stalker, I did not find the concept of an older brother harbouring romantic feelings for their younger sister when said younger sister knows them solely as an older brother particularly compelling, personally, and am kind of surprised no one complained about it being predatory or the like. Again, I think this could have been done well if the writers had perhaps shown some conflict or at least processing in Shenyuan and Yining at finding out, and I would have greatly appreciated a good transition of Yining coming around to seeing Shenyuan in a romantic light as someone who would be a good husband/the way other ladies saw him and realising that her feelings for him were changing, because it was clear that she had thought of him as an older brother early on, e.g. with saying to find her a sister-in-law.

My favourite character turned out to be Duke Ying, who was a lovely character and a true heart of familial feeling. The rest of the actors did fine, and the acting was overall the high point of this drama. I also liked the styling, and the sets were pretty. Rewatch value is low for me because I did not enjoy the premise nor the execution very much, and found the storyline kind of draggy. It would have been better if they had chosen to focus on Shenyuan's machinations, but even that story bit took too much of a turn without adequate explanation at the end. There was much that could have been improved in the writing.

Finally, I found myself quite compelled by the LJX relationship aspect - I would have loved to watch another story, where the 'man is downtrodden by his older brother and has an eye illness rendering him temporarily blind, a girl comes into his life whom he falls in love with and then disappears, he searches for her for years, then finds her, not knowing there was a misunderstanding that has caused her to believe he harmed her' comes to a happy ending. I hope someone makes this retelling.

(The other compelling aspect for me was the older uncle's backstory and his feelings towards his childhood friend whom he did not get to marry, which was only a minorly-played point informing an arc. If there had been a swap between who had had to marry whom, things would have turned out much differently.)

Overall, this was a rather milquetoast showing with the exception of a few stronger standout points.

Read More

Dashed story.

This is a review mostly for me to remember why I dropped this drama, plus some frustrations.

So this is meant to be the prequel to The Blood of Youth, which I watched a couple years ago when it came out, and which I enjoyed quite a bit, mostly on account of Li Hongyi. That said, while it was enjoyable watching the stories of the forebears of the leads on TBoY being told and connecting characters to their older versions in TBoY, I wish this had been its own standalone story that could have gone its own way without being bound to a foregone conclusion.

I thought this drama started off well, and Baili Dongjun is your typical dashing youth with his whole life ahead of him, which is how pretty much, and as are, all the male characters in this story start. I was also very fond of his first master GC, and I thought the first part of the story was very moving, and the first half of the drama went as you would imagine a wuxia about youth to go. I did however note the very noticeable swapping out of BLDJ's 'first mate', if you will - we first meet Sikong Changfeng by his side, who then very conspicuously gets swapped out at intervals when BLDJ re-encounters Ye Dingzhi, and vice versa - if SKCG is by his side, then YDZ isn't. Or if YDZ is around, then SKCF comes back in. The only time both SKCF and YDZ are around at the same time is very briefly when YDZ returns to Tianqi in an attempt to save his bride, at least up until where I stopped in the drama.

While I understand that BLDJ and YDZ are meant to be foils of each other in terms of how their character progression goes based on what happens to them in the story, I found that the telling and execution of the story was just plain frustrating. A story that goes how it does because of daft reasons, or what feels like stupidity because of poor execution, is rarely satisfying.

So I got to episode 25 and that was where it became clear that they were just doing YDZ dirty because that was the way it had to go, pretty much; or that was how it felt like to me. I am aware that this is based on the novel of which this drama is an adaptation, and that we are somehow supposed to get to the events of TBoY as they stand there.

This is where, for me, I wish that this had been a triumphant story with YDZ as the lead of a completely different drama and story, where he gets to be the hero of it. I understand that this is my own personal bias and that of course the story isn't written specifically for me, but effectively this is a story about injustice that is perpetrated, as it stands. And I don't really find that compelling at all; in fact, it's depressing.

BLDJ and YDZ are best friends since childhood, who grew up together. BLDJ is shown to be politically aware - he says to his first master in early episodes that he knows that his grandfather spoils him for a reason, which is that the more his reputation is that of a flamboyant good-for-nothing playboy, being the grandson of the Marquis of Zhenxi, the more the emperor can be at ease. He then announces that he chooses to give this up because he has met people from jianghu who have shown him that you can be a dashing youth of the jianghu doing things of meaning and weight, but also because he has decided to take on the mantle of becoming the Sword Deity - on behalf of his childhood best friend whose whole family was executed on an imperial edict which everyone seems to know was simply an unjust excuse - as well as becoming a Liquor Deity, which was his promise with said childhood best friend; that BLDJ would become the Liquor Deity while his friend the Sword Deity.

This is the part where it becomes abundantly clear that this drama does not know quite what it wants to be, and/or just doesn't blend the political side of things with the wuxia/jianghu side of things well, if at all. The politics side of things is always present, but feels conspicuously separate somehow from the jianghu/wuxia side of things.

Even though it's clear that BLDJ cares for his friend very much, and even though it is also clear that he does not want to partake in politics, not once does BLDJ - nor anyone really, for that matter - seem to really express how unjust the execution of his friend's whole family was and is; nor to try to do anything about that. For a drama about - oh, I don't know - the bonds of friendship, that seems odd, to say the least. It's not that I don't get that BLDJ is a carefree character, nor that that is the spirit of jianghu. It's that it just really seems to reinforce just how divorced the political side of things is from the wuxia aspect.

YDZ, while wanting to cleanse the wrongs heaped upon his family, does not seem to do much about it either himself. He follows his shifu around learning martial arts and when we first meet him in the drama, has been travelling around by himself anyway away from his shifu for what sounds like quite some time. He even tells his childhood promised bride about his travels around the world, and it's made clear during the Academy initial examination that he lived in the north for several years during his travels. What are his moves towards trying to right the wrong accusation against his family? We don't see any of that. No political machinations, nothing. When he meets Prince Qing, nothing comes of that either. The arrest warrant for him throughout Beili does absolutely nothing as well to deter him from moving around within the country freely when he returns from Nanjue to try to stop the wedding between his childhood promised bride and someone else apparently, as all we see is him arriving without even a hat on to meet the person receiving him. Even when he meets Xiao Ruofeng, ninth prince of Beili, no emotional turmoil or anything is shown at being in such close proximity to someone of the imperial family who executed his own whatsoever.

So, despite this grievous injustice, BLDJ does not even offer to help right this wrong after finding out his childhood best friend is still alive. There is no mention of this thought even up until over halfway into the story. While I understand that their childhood agreement was to each become the Liquor and Sword Deity respectively and to wander jianghu making a name for themselves, this was before the execution of his best friend's entire family, including said best friend himself.

Then we come to the part where, for some reason, YDZ does not mention to BLDJ that he has re-encountered their other childhood friend Yi Wenjun, who is his promised bride - even though they all know each other. Somehow this never comes up at all. Nor does YDZ ask BLDJ for his help in helping her escape from her cage. ????????????? I thought these three were supposed to have been very good friends in their childhood. While they said that there was a forged letter telling BLDJ that YWJ had gone travelling some years ago thus why he has not been able to be in contact with her, I don't really understand why YDZ would never have mentioned meeting her again to BLDJ??? What is that???

The day of the wedding comes and the plan to save YWJ fails. She is about to kill herself and then XRF says to her that YDZ will be kept safe after she hears him crying out in anguish. She then says let's continue the rites. I've seen people commenting that this was to keep him safe and that this was a veiled threat by XRF implying that YDZ is in their hands, which, fair enough on the latter.

I stopped watching at this point because it's pretty clear that what happens to YWJ next can only be [TW/CW: rape and sexual assault] is rape. She's clearly not willing to marry Xiao Ruojin but this is where things are now.

Having gotten this far it wasn't a big guess as to the rest of the story and I've read the comments in the discussion about how everything is YWJ's fault and that she is a horrible terrible character who makes horrendous mistakes and is annoying etc. While I haven't watched the rest of the story, and while I don't doubt that there are terrible mistakes made on her part later on and can't refute if she does become a horribly annoying and frustrating character, what I don't understand is how this is more her fault than the imperial family and her father's fault for using her as a pawn and forcing a woman into a marriage.

So a) the emperor kills his sworn brother General Ye and his entire family, the Ye clan, including YDZ; b) YWJ catches the eye of XRJ, son of the emperor, and the emperor, knowing full well the implications of XRJ taking YWJ as a consort, appoints the marriage; c) YWJ is forced to become XRJ's side consort - not even the main consort at first, and later even only then the 'co-main consort', and which marriage means and almost certainly - and later on definitely, based on the comments [TW/CW again for mention of rape and sexual assault] - involves rape, and also being drugged for it, no less.

But somehow this is all YWJ's fault because she, after all of this happens, makes some very poor decisions.

To me, this is a story about how everyone fails YDZ and YWJ. I cannot see how this can be an enjoyable story at all. I mean, does BLDJ stand on YDZ's side? Sure. But does he do enough from the get-go to even ask after what's going on for YDZ? Hmmmmm.

If this story is supposed to be about the parallels between BLDJ and YDZ, then it seems clear that YDZ suffers what he does simply to accomplish this; because it is necessary for him to meet the extermination of his whole family and to lose everything simply so that he goes down a different path than BLDJ. The reasons are articulated rudimentarily - because the emperor was afraid and suspicious (as usual), and then because a prince liked the look of a girl - but never fleshed out with weight through being shown in the story, or at least not in anything up to episode 25 anyway; I can't say if this doesn't get shown later. Up to episode 25, XRJ and YWJ are never even in the same scene - even in the marriage rites scenes, they hardly even seem to be in the same frame. Up until that point, there isn't even a scene of XRJ seeing YWJ for the first time and falling in love with her or anything. The emperor sent down the edict to execute his sworn brother's whole family because he decided to, there was no show of his fears or considerations up to that point in the drama either. YDZ seems to be a tragic character solely because he has to be, because he was designed to be - because he was written this way.

It seems to me that this is more a story about how everyone chooses this mirage of jianghu and 'the carefreeness of youth' over doing the right thing. I found myself wishing that this had been Nirvana in Fire instead, and YDZ could get his family name cleared and to spend time with YWJ re-connecting again.

Instead, they dashed the story and wrote A -> B -> C. This was not compelling for me, and frankly there was no sense of what they were trying to accomplish in the story. The repeated emphasis and insertion of 'youth' at every turn was also incredibly irritating to me.

This drama treaded solely on superficiality for me, like the CGI used in it, empty hollow clouds conjured up of digitalisation and pixels instead of getting down to any substance and the meatiness of either a well fleshed-out story or fighting scenes. Like the many 'dashing youths' or the Eight Young Masters of Beili, there were many fleeting clouds who were there to look nice and do effectively nothing, ornamentally pretty but only serving to dilute and obscure the lack of a substantial story and weight. Many veils blowing in the wind that occasionally blew open enough to see that there was little there to really admire, much like Master Liu Yue or his way of entering with much pomp but little actual fighting; or Lei Mengsha - talk a lot, most of it nonsense.

The acting was alright and probably the strongest point for me, the music was fine; I cried at multiple times at certain things. Some of it was moving, and a lot of it pretty, but most of it was air. Rewatch value is relatively low for me because I doubt I would come back to this. I am being generous with the acting/cast aspect because Li Hongyi's cameo was a little high point and because I was fond of BLDJ and YDZ's shifus, and the overall rating is also thus bumped up in part. It's a shame because it was very enjoyable at the start, and I would have liked to continue watching this if not for the abysmal L of the story.

Read More

The cast deserved better.

Started watching because of curiosity, dropped it because the CGI and production as well as storywriting were really quite lacking. I understand from reading the comments that one of the producers pulled out or the like, so there were some limitations, but it being a xianxia, the low production value really pulled me out of it.

The writing was also not the best, one of the main roles who is supposed to be super powerful just suddenly dying because they went a pit before even 25 episodes in or less? That was clearly not going to stick, plus was unbelievable really (and kind of cheap, too).

I dropped this before Zhang Linghe went into dark clothes mode. No complaints about the acting, everyone was really good; but the writing and story let it down. I did not understand how the romance really came about, it seemed to happen really quickly and did not feel very well-developed to me before they were suddenly supposedly in love. This is also a personal and subjective thing, but Jing Tian is not particularly attractive to me, although I do recognise that she is pretty. While her acting is good and I find no faults on that front, her character suffers from shallow writing; which can be said for the whole cast. The cast is strong and all are veteran actors, but are let down by the writing and production not being up to par, and certainly not doing them nor the drama this could have been justice.

I cannot remember the music really so it gets my average of 7 points. I will not be rewatching this so low rewatch value as well.

Read More