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The #1 swordsman in all of Jianghu just wants to retire to a peaceful and simple life…but his hidden past awakens and does not allow him to do that.
Li Xiangyi carries a heavy burden, a poison that is slowly killing him. He has managed to escape death and his glorious past life as #1 in Jianghu. He is simply tired and wants to live out his life, however long that is. He does not want to die, but knows that it is inevitable. Yet somehow, he finds himself entangled with old friends, new friends, and a series of crimes that all seem connected in some weird way. But he just wants to retire as Li Lianhua, why can’t Jianhu just let him do that! But an innate part of him draws him into his new situation because he slowly uncovers a hidden secret that is entirely against his own morals, so he decides to pitch in whatever effort he has left to make things right again.
Cheng Yi’s masterful performance of Li Xiangyi/Li Lianhua brought BOTH personas to life. They are the same person, yet both have their own distinct characteristics. Li Xiangyi is a headstrong, upright youth who will put his #1 martial art skills to use to uphold his own morals. Li Lianhua has gone through *life* and has long given up on his youth. The only thing they both share is their chivalrous spirit. Li Xiangyi/Li Lianhua is the calmest, coolest person in all of Jianghu and Cheng Yi did an amazing depiction of that. The audience is able to understand Li Lianhua as much as Cheng Yi wanted us to understand, meaning sometimes we knew what he was thinking and sometimes we had no damn idea what was on his mind. As satisfying it was to watch him calmly solve cases like a natural born detective, it was just as satisfying to watch him explode into action and his CLEAN fight moves. Just as Cheng Yi said in an interview, Li Xiangyi’s character development is very unique in that in most cases, characters develop from a lower position into a higher position, but Li Xiangyi’s development went the opposite direction. Despite that, he still learned a ton in the 10 years that he traveled Jianghu. Even though his ultimate state was nothing like what he had 10 years ago, his entire outlook on life has completely changed for the better, and I think he got the ending he felt most suitable for him.
This drama was a perfect example of having a plot that builds upon itself. Even though the entire plot was basically case solving followed by case solving, there were clues cleverly and mysteriously hidden from the beginning. This drama does a good job of keeping the audience engaged because we have to actively remember clues that appeared several episodes ago (with a million things that happened in between) in order to understand the logic behind the progress of unraveling the hidden secrets. Many times throughout the drama I found myself saying “OH YEA, that happened” as I tried to piece together the information. Of course I gotta applaud the SEVERAL major plot twists (no spoilers here) that happen, damn I did not see them coming. But it’s weird because I feel like I should have seen them coming. I felt like I was walking in Li Lianhua’s shoes when the plot twists were revealed, and maybe that was on purpose.
Lastly I wanted to talk about the supporting characters. Fang Duobing and Di Feisheng are actually very simple characters, compared to Li Lianhua. We already knew from the beginning that Fang Duobing is Li Xiangyi’s #1 fan and Di Feisheng is Li Xiangyi’s #1 (fr)enemy. Fang Duobing’s character development was more on the side of him growing to become a better detective and martial artists. His chivalrous spirit was already there from the beginning. Di Feisheng is actually kind of the opposite. He was already a top martial artists from the very beginning, and his only goal was to fight his way to become the ultimate #1 in Jianghu. His character development is actually building his chivalrous spirit and becoming someone who not only wants to win, but also wants to win for the greater good of Jianghu.
My favorite supporting character has to be Jiao Liqiao. Aside from Cheng Yi’s performance, her performance was my favorite. Her character was so simple minded, dumb, yet smart too??? She wanted one thing and one thing only, and she had solid plans for getting it.
Unfortunately as the story went on, I found that I had forgotten most of the characters that appeared at the very beginning. There were just too many to remember, and most of the important characters appeared near the middle/end. I wouldn’t call this a flaw of the drama, but I just wish they made some of the supporting characters that appeared (or died) in the beginning few cases more memorable.
Damn this is a long review. Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed this drama from beginning to end. There were no dull moments, and the whole thing was very fast paced. A perfect example of an epic Jianghu story.
Edit: note to self so I can go back to it later. This drama perfectly integrated comedic moments, mostly coming from Li Lianhua and his ability to lie with a poker face haha. My favorite funny scene had to be the one at the beginning of Ep 13 when a certain puppy found out he got left behind again...
Li Xiangyi carries a heavy burden, a poison that is slowly killing him. He has managed to escape death and his glorious past life as #1 in Jianghu. He is simply tired and wants to live out his life, however long that is. He does not want to die, but knows that it is inevitable. Yet somehow, he finds himself entangled with old friends, new friends, and a series of crimes that all seem connected in some weird way. But he just wants to retire as Li Lianhua, why can’t Jianhu just let him do that! But an innate part of him draws him into his new situation because he slowly uncovers a hidden secret that is entirely against his own morals, so he decides to pitch in whatever effort he has left to make things right again.
Cheng Yi’s masterful performance of Li Xiangyi/Li Lianhua brought BOTH personas to life. They are the same person, yet both have their own distinct characteristics. Li Xiangyi is a headstrong, upright youth who will put his #1 martial art skills to use to uphold his own morals. Li Lianhua has gone through *life* and has long given up on his youth. The only thing they both share is their chivalrous spirit. Li Xiangyi/Li Lianhua is the calmest, coolest person in all of Jianghu and Cheng Yi did an amazing depiction of that. The audience is able to understand Li Lianhua as much as Cheng Yi wanted us to understand, meaning sometimes we knew what he was thinking and sometimes we had no damn idea what was on his mind. As satisfying it was to watch him calmly solve cases like a natural born detective, it was just as satisfying to watch him explode into action and his CLEAN fight moves. Just as Cheng Yi said in an interview, Li Xiangyi’s character development is very unique in that in most cases, characters develop from a lower position into a higher position, but Li Xiangyi’s development went the opposite direction. Despite that, he still learned a ton in the 10 years that he traveled Jianghu. Even though his ultimate state was nothing like what he had 10 years ago, his entire outlook on life has completely changed for the better, and I think he got the ending he felt most suitable for him.
This drama was a perfect example of having a plot that builds upon itself. Even though the entire plot was basically case solving followed by case solving, there were clues cleverly and mysteriously hidden from the beginning. This drama does a good job of keeping the audience engaged because we have to actively remember clues that appeared several episodes ago (with a million things that happened in between) in order to understand the logic behind the progress of unraveling the hidden secrets. Many times throughout the drama I found myself saying “OH YEA, that happened” as I tried to piece together the information. Of course I gotta applaud the SEVERAL major plot twists (no spoilers here) that happen, damn I did not see them coming. But it’s weird because I feel like I should have seen them coming. I felt like I was walking in Li Lianhua’s shoes when the plot twists were revealed, and maybe that was on purpose.
Lastly I wanted to talk about the supporting characters. Fang Duobing and Di Feisheng are actually very simple characters, compared to Li Lianhua. We already knew from the beginning that Fang Duobing is Li Xiangyi’s #1 fan and Di Feisheng is Li Xiangyi’s #1 (fr)enemy. Fang Duobing’s character development was more on the side of him growing to become a better detective and martial artists. His chivalrous spirit was already there from the beginning. Di Feisheng is actually kind of the opposite. He was already a top martial artists from the very beginning, and his only goal was to fight his way to become the ultimate #1 in Jianghu. His character development is actually building his chivalrous spirit and becoming someone who not only wants to win, but also wants to win for the greater good of Jianghu.
My favorite supporting character has to be Jiao Liqiao. Aside from Cheng Yi’s performance, her performance was my favorite. Her character was so simple minded, dumb, yet smart too??? She wanted one thing and one thing only, and she had solid plans for getting it.
Unfortunately as the story went on, I found that I had forgotten most of the characters that appeared at the very beginning. There were just too many to remember, and most of the important characters appeared near the middle/end. I wouldn’t call this a flaw of the drama, but I just wish they made some of the supporting characters that appeared (or died) in the beginning few cases more memorable.
Damn this is a long review. Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed this drama from beginning to end. There were no dull moments, and the whole thing was very fast paced. A perfect example of an epic Jianghu story.
Edit: note to self so I can go back to it later. This drama perfectly integrated comedic moments, mostly coming from Li Lianhua and his ability to lie with a poker face haha. My favorite funny scene had to be the one at the beginning of Ep 13 when a certain puppy found out he got left behind again...
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