This review may contain spoilers
6 Piece X-Men
Was watching SOTM and the actor (Wang You Shou) who played He Na grabbed my attention, and though I ended up dropping that show, this one with him was recommended to me and I decided to give it a go. I loved the 6 piece version of X-Men just without the fantastical elements. This drama didn't disappoint me at all.Pros: Loved the mystery and intrigue and how with the ML you never knew exactly what he was thinking and how many steps ahead he actually was. Also how even if he didn't have a plan, he could weasel himself or others out of nearly impossible situations under near death circumstances. There was a constant question of what was really going on but it never dragged until the end and nothing was what it seemed. My second favorite character was of course the reason I started watching or Wang Kuan played by WYS; man was like a walking Siri, encyclopedia Brittanica, and fortune teller wrapped up into one dude. He never told a lie, was loyal to a fault, and a wonderful friend and later on partner. Zhang Jian and Xue Ying were also great and I loved their strengths and weaknesses. Each character had flaws and that was very important.
I'd have to say my least favorite out of the 6 were Ya Nei because he was too flashy and though he did mature a bit as time went on, his arrogance just couldn't be tapered down. Also Ah Jing, she was the least qualified and though I felt that she did grow in strength as the series progressed, her outfits and the baby voice with which she talked made you constantly think you were leading a kid along on dangerous missions. It didn't make much sense. I wish they had evolved her more to fit a grown woman as the series continued. Even with WK by her side as protector and love interest, she still never came into her own. Hopefully that'll happen in part 2.
Other favorite characters from both the protagonists and antagonists side were Dean Lu, big bro of our Jack of all trades, old thief, instructor Liu, Old man minister of war, and even the creep Ding Er (I can't spell his other name). He really was the perfect antagonist and repulsively creepy at the same time. But it made him believable and therefore, he shall stay.
Loved the scenery, martial arts were awesome, OSTs, costumes, etc. just a nice round off of a lot of things.
Cons: With so much going on, many little variables were just left alone. Though the plot didn't drag until the end, it seemed many questions were left unanswered after each mission was completed. Like move on to the next one and the audience will forget. The last arc was an absolute mess. What was the point of any of it? To return Ding Er to annoy everyone and Dean Lu to have his final showdown, only to show YJX propose to ZJ and all be awesome and literally two scenes later in the same outfit and in the same location find out from the gang that the creep escaped from prison, kidnapped her, her father and sent a note to the team saying "he'll take good care of his wife and father" opening up the official season 2 approach. It was way too messy and could have been done way better.
All things considered a lot of the plots and subplots could have been executed tighter. That said, this is still pretty good for a lower budget 2019 drama.
Would I recommend it? If you like mystery, intrigue, light comedy, and great friendships, then yes I totally would. I'm very much looking forward to part 2 myself since they literally wrapped filming it a few days ago.
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I just can't get enough if this
At first, I thought this is just a boring romantic drama. But I soon realized that it's not like that. The plot very well written and very unpredictable, full of plot twists and I can say the person who wrote this is genius. I still can't get enough of it. After watching the last episode, what I thought was "this is just perfect!" Everything is the way I want a drama to be, including the ending. Full of genius characters with excellent strategies, no cringey scenes, the love stories are just the way I want them to be and it didn't affect the main story, a little bit of bromance, comedy is just the way it should be. The combination of characters, each of their personalities, the way they changed, their humor and acting, not staying in one story for too long, full of interesting stories, just amazing! I really want to follow the writer's other works.The places they used for the film are beautiful and the acting is very good. When I saw the main actor(actor who acts as Yuan zhong xin) for the first time, I thought maybe he is not that good as the main character, but soon I realized that he is perfect for the character and he became one of my top 5 favorite actors. I love his character and the way he acts. And I love all 6 main characters.
I will not have enough words to describe why I love this so much, but what I have to say is I have been watching so many Chinese dramas, mainly wuxia dramas, and this drama just became my 2nd favorite drama of all times.
Finally, This is too underrated and you must watch this, and I WANT SEASONS 2!!!
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This review may contain spoilers
Loved it so much
Young Blood was one of the black horse dramas back in 2019. There were certainly a few flaws but it didn't affect my enjoyment of the story and the joy it brought me.Things I loved about this drama :
- I think this is one of the few dramas that I genuinely loved every single character even smaller/less important ones. I found myself attached to characters like Tian Hu (the guard), Liu Sheng (the disciple of the 5th section) and Chen Gong (the weapons fella).
- I love the main group. All of them have flaws but you can clearly see the good in them. There was also character development happening which I really appreciated. Non of them were ignorant, stupid or self centred. Even characters I didn't like originally (Wei Ya Nei) I still grew an immense love to especially when he defended Xue Ying's parents and stabbed himself to retrieve the antidote for Zhao Jian. Even if Xiao Jing is a 傻白甜 character, she still isn't stupid. She is self aware and always tries to be as helpful as she can.
- The cp between Yuan Zhong Xin and Zhao Jian was sweet and heart-warming ☺️ They didn't just randomly fell in love which you gotta appreciate. They only started to realise the feeling they have for each other after getting along being friends and going on life threatening missions together. I liked how everyone in the group were making jokes about it and trying to get them together.
- The comedy was actually funny. The jokes that happen in this drama is genuinely so funny especially scenes with Yuan Zhong Xin 😆 Personally I don't find a lot of Chinese dramas funny, the only other drama that had me continuously laughing was Joy of Life.
- The distinctive costumes each character had is something I really appreciated. Even if you don't recognise any of their faces, you can simply tell who they are by looking at their outfits. They aren't the best looking but it is such a breath of fresh air from high budget drama that had character wearing similar costumes. Plus, it all matched their personalities.
On to the not so great things :
- Too many forced plot twist. There were a lot of "oh you thought this character was a bad guy?? No, he is actually a good guy" and vice versa. If there were only 1 or 2, it'd be fine but there was just too many in this drama.
- Some scenes that don't really make sense. There was this scene where the bad guys were chasing this dude and they're using crossbows to shoot at him. They surrounded him and he was forced to jump into a river. Because of this, they proceeded to shoot at the river but then it gets cut to the next scene with him laying next to the male and female lead behind a shop. Huhh?🥴 The river was skinny okay and if this happened irl he would have 100% died. There was also no way that he got up from the river and no one saw him as there were like 20 bad guys.
- The ending was underwhelming and really confusing. I know it's suppose to leave space for a second season but it definitely could have been written better. Plus it's been 3 years, where's the 2nd season???
- The kiss scenes were awkward and cringe. ML and FL had 3 kisses in total, 2 of them were accident kisses which I absolutely hate. 😒 One in the carriage and one when the FL got scared and ran into the ML therefore kissing him, doesn't help when she slapped him afterwards.
Despite it's flaws, this is a genuinely enjoyable, funny, entertaining drama to watch. I highly recommend people to watch it especially if you like character development and friendship. I personally loved this drama so very much and am looking forward to the second. Please when is it gonna come??? 😭
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A fun, stylish drama with quirky, lovable characters!
I enjoyed this drama a lot more than I expected to. While I found the actual plotlines sloppily executed (more on that below), it had wonderful characters, great chemistry between the entire cast, well-choreographed fights, and cool art direction. It had an almost retro, anime-ish style in the costuming and action scenes, but it felt fresh and fun rather than silly and over the top.Story: It had me entertained the entire way through, though some arcs were better than others. My one beef is that it tried too hard to be smart for its own good. Plot twists, misdirection, and unreliable narrators can be great storytelling tools, but used too much, and you're going to stop feeling invested. This definitely happened to me here. It got to where any time something supposedly shocking happened, instead of feeling actual shock I was impatiently waiting for the 'gotcha' moment because I knew it was coming. I thought the last arc was the strongest, as it focused more on the characters we'd grown to know and love, and the plotting felt tighter. Until the actual ending. That cliffhanger just seemed really unnecessary and tacked on. Fortunately, as of me writing this, filming of the second season has begun.
Acting/Cast: Where this drama really shines is in the characters. They were fantastically written, the casting was perfect, I loved the visually distinct styling and costumes, and the acting was great. Even the side characters that came and went were enjoyable and I got attached to them. The character development and evolution of their relationships felt natural and satisfying. I especially adored our main couple. The male lead was a clever, mischievous trickster who could fight but preferred to use words and cunning to get out of (or into) trouble. The female lead was a badass - cool, confident, ambitious, principled, an awesome fighter - and best of all, she stayed strong up to the end. No sudden incompetency for the sake of making her the damsel in distress, which was really refreshing! As for the romance - their chemistry was good and I liked how it developed, but it did rely on too many clichés (which it sort of tried to subvert - I think? - but badly) and the kisses were pretty weak. Frankly, it felt a bit forced, which is unfortunate because I really did love the pairing a lot.
Music: Probably fine - I don't remember being annoyed by it?
This could've been a 10 out of 10 if the the writing was tighter, the editing less choppy, and the romance better executed. Still, it was a fun watch - visually pleasing and I got very attached to the lovely cast of offbeat characters. Very much looking forward to season 2!
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Wang Juan is the best Chinese fantasy drama screenwriter
I will start this review by talking about the GOAT (Greatest of all times) screenwriter of Chinese fantasy drama. Not many people would start there review by talking about a screenwriter first. But after watching his dramas I just had to first praise this talented screenwriter and his team for creating such beautiful Chinese fantasy dramas. I first saw Joy of life written by him. But at that point I didn't gave much thought to the screenwriter of that drama. Then I saw Douluo Continent as I was a huge fan of that novel. So I didn't gave much thought to the screenwriter here also. Then a few days ago I started watching Sword Snow Stride and I found it a bit of similar to that of the Joy of Life. Be it the ML and a supporting actor or the story felt a little bit similar to that of Joy of Life. So after completing the show the first thing I did was to check the screenwriter of the drama. And I was awestruck to find out that he have written almost all of the Chinese fantasy dramas I have seen. So from here I came across Young Blood again and binge watched it in 3 days.I am not gonna lie but I have seen Young Blood's poster before and I was not much hyped about this drama. I had only seen 4 Chinese fantasy dramas before. But when I came to know that 3 out of the 4 dramas that I have seen were written by the same person I had to see his remaining works also. So I picked this drama. And God oh God I was not wrong about this screenwriter. He delivered in this drama also. Also fellow viewers don't be like me to judge a book by its cover. Sometimes one can miss a gem if he judges a drama by its cover.
Young Blood has many characters that I loved. Wang Juan usually focuses on the ML while writing his dramas which I don't mind. But here he was quite thoughtful of the other characters too. We have got ourselves a strong ML(Yuan Zhong Xin) which the writer has written in all of his previous works. But we have also got ourselves a strong FL(Zhao Jian) here. He has written pretty decent FL in Joy of Life and Douluo Continent but I didn't found them that convincing as compared to this drama. Our FL is quite strong here and fights toe to toe with the ML. She came off as a cold woman at the start of the drama but as the story progresses she also finds the love of her life. I also loved Wei Ya Nei's character. He started off as a spoil rich heir but as our story progresses his character have a huge development. I think Wang Kuan and Pei Jing's character were the only characters that remained the same throughout the series. Even Xue Ying character had a character development. I want to point out about Yun Ni 's character. Even though she didn't got much of a screen time. But I fell head over heels for her. She was too cute.
I don't think I have rambled so much while writing a review. But this drama deserved it. It is nicely written with good character. I liked how most of the characters have a character development. In the end I would like to say that Wang Juan is the GOAT of Chinese fantasy dramas and do give this drama a watch as I assure you would also love this drama as much as I did.
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WAITING FOR YOUNG BLOOD 2........🥰🥰
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good drama, good characters and acting. also good romance
TLDR; Despite being a long show, it was worth it because of the characters and how they each solved it differently. There were a lot of plot twists and turns that kept me wanting to know the truth. There's a fair bit of comedy and romance mixed in, and the acting separates the different characters, each with their own distinct personalities.Story: Because there are so many characters, it's sometimes hard to keep up with who relates to whom, but there's definitely an emphasis on mystery here. There are also some moments where they throw a lot of information at you, and I feel like some parts were a bit rushed. It's not always serious though and their comedy is just perfect to relieve some of the tension in the show. In terms of romance, this might be my favorite just because of how they interact in the beginning. I'm also a sucker for love-hate relationships because it's interesting to see their reaction once they realize they love each other.
Acting: I love the acting in this because each character has their own distinct personality and yet this group meshes well together because each can compensate for the other. I especially love the facial expressions and overall acting of Yuan Zhong Xin and Wei Ya Nei because they're probably the most expressive out of the group.
Music: The music definitely set the mood, and I could tell when there was a comedic scene happening or something bad was going to happen. I'll be honest though, it wasn't particularly memorable, but it wasn't terrible either.
Rewatch value: Out of all the shows I've watched so far, this might be the one I would rewatch because I feel like I could catch clues because of hindsight, but it also has 42 episodes, each at least 40 minutes long, so it is a bit of a commitment.
Onto season 2!
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Some fun dialogues and boredom
I had heard a lot of good things about this drama, so I approached it expecting something cool. Unnecessarily. Production level - cheap webdrama. Plot level - cheap entertainment. The heroes are so typical and so exaggerated that it can't be more.However, I have to admit that a few of the dialogue and scenes were a whole lot of fun and that kept me on this drama until about the 30th episode. I couldn't watch the next episodes, overwhelmed by the idiotic plot and boredom. In general, I like light costumed comedies about young adventurers, but I don't like cliche after banality and smart heroes who know absolutely everything from their own premises. Even the enthusiasm of the young actors could not cover the hundreds of shortcomings in this production.
But the actress playing FL - beautiful and quite talented.
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This review may contain spoilers
Pretty sure that they're going to do a season two based on the ending and them not having 'the end' appear. But I'm sure that all us iqiyi users are wondering; Who the hell is the "hot-blooded man" Zhang Xincheng? (Basically the plot is about this guy with a brother accused of being a traitor to the Song country. The first couple episodes starts off with him tricking three different parties to save his brother and getting the most benefits but ends up being tricked. He's then forced to join an academy that teaches them how to be spies and agents. He makes a few friends and is then forced to go on missions. His first mission is at a prison camp where they were told to find a lost list and they meet a Xia person named "Ding Er"(brought back later with a much more complex name). Then they go on a whole bunch of other journeys and missions and he and Zhao Jian fall in love. Wang Kuan and Pei Jing also fall in love. Then a whole bunch of other crap happens. Then Ding Er gets brought back. They're trying to ruin everything. They solve the issue, etc. Then we learn that his brother was actually a traitor and then he isolates himself from all his friends. Finally, a whole bunch of people die, he and Zhao Jian kiss, he proposes, and then we end with the news that Zhao Jian and her dad have been kidnapped.) Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
Fun to watch
Despite the low quality production, this is really a nice drama and i still watch it up to this day-! I think ive already watched it 7 times-! Its about a group of young kids solving mystery cases, critical thinking and detailed work. This drama shows friendship, growth and amazing character development which i absolutely love, definitely recommend for young kids or teen.This drama isnt mainly based on romance, but more to amazing adventure with each and every character. However, i did almost drop it at first as it wasnt as entertaining as other historical cdrama ive watch. This drama is less tense compared to others. The drama made me think about daily life more, and trained me to be more detailed and careful while doing anything. In each situation, i would practice to be careful in all perspective to avoid being cheated or scammed.
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Amazing character, Amazing storyline, Amazing chemistry. Go watch it !!
This is probably one of the best shows I have seen . Yang zhong zhin is probably my favorite character ever. It was so refreshing to see someone like him , mischievous, intelligent and not always honest with a heart of gold be the MC . His growth throughout has been worth watching.ziao jian , no more dumb damsels, she is equal intelligent as her counterpart, doesn't ever lose herself and is one hell of a fighter. I loved their relationship and even if it was a slow burn I never got bored
As for the other characters there each had a journey of their own , and the whole group dynamic was wonderful to watch .
Can't recommend this show enough
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