This review may contain spoilers
A drama which strongly relates to the period during japanese occupation. Very often, we have long forgotten the turmoil period which our ancestors had gone through. A good drama which paint a picture during patriotic period when many individuals tried to fight for their homeland. Drama involves other values such as kinship, friendship & romance, not forgetting your own roots. During japanese occupation, many people lost their lives, families and friends. These individuals had lives of their own and fought hard for their country Was this review helpful to you?
THE BEST POLITICAL-HISTORICAL DRAMA!
I don't know where to begin. Because, this drama had me floored. I regret putting it off for so long.Let's start with the cast. Lots of familiar faces. I loved Bai Lu in King Is Not Easy and Xu Kai in Falling Into Your Smile. I dare say this drama is Xu Kai's most exceptional work, though I haven't watched many of his dramas. The entire cast were good at acting. Personally, I liked Liu Si Bo and Hong Yao the best of all.
The story has so many powerful woman characters. First, there's Xie Xiang who is so brave to attend a military academy disguised as a man. She always finds a way around with her wits. She is also very dedicated and determined - the way she worked hard because she fell behind academically says it all. She doesn't wait for aid to arrive and handles issues single-handed. I was so impressed when she saved her best friend from the Japanese all alone and even managed to save another guy. Manting might come across as annoying sometimes, but she is as bold and brave as Xie Xiang. She is good at giving counter replies and she saved Yanzhen several times. Xiaoyu is another bold woman, best known for taking revenge. And there is Xianrong - though she is villain, sometimes I did see a heart beating beneath her....I really wished they shown us what happened in the past for her character to be so bitter. And the wardrobe collection of Manting, Xiaoyu and Xianrong should be appreciated...though I only liked Xie Xiang's men's outfits, not the dresses.
Ah...Xu Kai....Xu Kai. No wonder he won the Best Actor Award for his role. I really loved his flirty, childish, naughty and teasing character Yanzhen. I can't imagine someone else playing that role. Personally, I am not a fan of political/historical dramas but Yanzhen made the show very interesting. Even his micro-expressions were so re-watchable. I absolutely loved his character development - from the indifferent and irresponsible guy to empathetic and decisive man. When other's are at their wits end, Yanzhen saves the day. Next, Huang Song stole my heart. The moment I set my eyes on him, I knew that I am gonna love him. He was so intelligent academically and I felt so annoyed when his academy friends teased his stutter. He always helped Liangchen and I cried ugly after what happened to him - till the end, he was unaware about Xie Liangchen's truth. Ji Jin and Yanlin were also really good. Shen Junshan is the perfect second lead we often see in the dramas. Though I hated Lin Wenzhong in the beginning, I really loved his redemption arc and then they had to go and ruin his happy ending. He and the flower-girl looked like a nice couple. The academy instructors were hot and handsome too. Shen Tingbai's love made my heart waver - he is gentleman in every way.
Personally, I liked the friendship bond between Xiaojun and Xie Xiang and Xie Liangchen and Huang Song. And I also liked the fatherly bond between Gu and Xie Liangchen and Gu and Manting - I wish there were more scenes of them. Also, Manting and her assistant bond was amazing.
However, till ep 40, the drama's pace is relaxed. But, once we enter ep 40, the brutality of the war and politics come into play and suddenly the pace picks up. From here on, the scenes get a bit choppy, many of the characters get low or no screen time and loopholes begin to appear. There is no romance between the main leads, except for Manting. But, the chemistry between Xu Kai and Bai Lu made up for the missing romance. As a person who values story more than romance, this was a perfect drama for me.
The OST is such a groovy piece. And the other OST called Dreaming I guess - it was sung by Bai Lu and Xu Kai. I mean I know Xu Kai is a singer but I never knew Bai Lu can sing so well.
The cinematography and the early 1920's vibes make this drama unique and fantastic.
Overall: 9/10. I will re-watch it for Yanzhen and Huang Song.
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This review may contain spoilers
Sometimes you don't know whether to laugh or cry.
FL is supposed to be a confident, strong woman. A woman disguised as a man in a Military Academie.But at any time she is put down and humiliated by comrades. Every underachiever watches her, and looks down on her. But the guys gather around FL, despite her disguise as a man, and fall in love.
Although the boys are not supposed to be gay. FL is supposed to be a man, a soldier, an officer. To believe this balancing act even in a C drama is hard.
Lovey-dovey, flirting, eroticism like in a contact yard and that in a barracks, you have to come up with that. For now he/she has four admirers, why are not eight or twenty-two? What was going on in the Chinese army? Even if soft crazy rich big shot kids are the actors here and future officers.
Despite some ridiculous developments of the story, much was exciting and hard circumstances of the time would be hinted at. You could guess what bitter evil times are on the horizon for China. As for the drama, sometimes more seriousness would have been nice.
Because, unfortunately, some things are out of place in the story, considering how Sino-Japanese relations have developed historically, up to unimaginable cruelties of the Japanese in the Sino-Japanese War.
But love in times of war is normal, unfortunately we come up a bit short here.
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Sorry for my bad english..
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One of a kind in the Field of C-Dramas
Arsenal military is undeniably on a different level among other dramas. Most shows are either set in modern or in ancient times, but I rarely see ones that are set during the 1900s. Furthermore, its storyline does not mainly focus on a love story, but rather a journey about growth, friendship, bravery, and patriotism.This drama has one of the best cast I've seen. Everyone did a great job on portraying their given role, down from the main leads to the supporting characters. Bai Lu, the actress who played as the female lead, deserve all the recognition for her spectactular acting. Unlike most dramas that poorly executes cross-dressings, she really looked and acted as a man and was convincing, omitting the fact that she was quite short and petite. Xu Kai was perfect for acting as Gu Yan Zhen. He managed to portray a childish yet badass character flawlessly. Toby Lee as Shen Jun Shan was just amazing, despite his timid and upright character, I looked forward to his scenes everytime and amired his righteousnes. He showed the definition of a true gentleman. I can't imangine if Wu Jia Yi wasn't casted as Qu Man ting. She was one of the main reasons that kept the show interesting.
This show was well-produced as it was packed with great actors and wonderful OST that matched well with the scene. It was nicely setted with the clothes, cars, and infrastractures. The story progessed nicely, for as the characters underwent growth, it slowly turned from a romantic comedy to a political drama. Each episode was filled with wonderful plot showcasing the bond between military students as they bravely face struggles concerning life and death for their country despite going against those with power and authority. This drama was a a slow burn and I would have given it a higher if it weren't for some dull moments or if the scenes without much action or significance could have been cut short. I find myself speeding up some parts of the drama from time to time as some of the exchange of dialogues were delivered slowly and some transitions were filmed long.
XIE XIANG, GU YAN ZHEN, & SHEN JUNSHAN'S LOVE TRIANGLE:
Both Gu Yan Zhen and Shen Jun Shan whole-heartedly deserved Xie Xian. The main difference was that Gu Yan Zhen made Xie Xian laugh and comfortable, whereas Shen Jun Shan made her feel safe and taken care of. Since romance wasn't the main focus of the storyline, for me, it was more like choosing your bossom friend (Gu Yan Zhen) or your affectionate brother(Shen Jun Shan). Personally, I was rooting for Shen Junshan. However, Gu Yan Zhen definitely had the upper hand since he was Xie Xiang's roomate and knew first that she was just disguising as a man, so he was more clingy, flirty, and had more opportunities to protect and care for Xie Xiang while keeping her secret. On the contrary, Shen Jun protected and treated Xie Xian nicely despite not knowing that she was a girl. He repeatedly saved her and regarded her of great importance to the point that he thought something wrong with him since he had affection for Xie Liang Chen, who is said to be a man. Hence, he tried to distance to himself for a short while and didn't know how to act towards Xie Xian.
QU MAN TING, GU YAN ZHEN, & SHEN TING BAI'S LOVE TRIANGLE:
I would have love to see Qu Man Ting an Gu Yan Zhen together for they would have make a great couple especially with their similar personalites such as having a bold character. I admire Qu Man Ting's perseverance in pursuing Gu Yan Zhen, I truly believe that if they had met first without Xie Xiang in the picture or Xie Xiang ended up choosing Shen Jun Shan, Gu Yan Zhen would eventually fall for Qu manting. Sadly, Gu Yan Zhen was already in love with Xie Xiang. Hence, I felt bad for her and as well as for Shen Ting Bai since he truly loved and and did a lot of things for her, but she chooses to chase a man who doesn't even love her back. But thankfully Qu manting was moved by Shen Ting Bai's true love.
OTHER LOVE STORIES:
All the love stories present in this drama was really intriguing. Including Li Wen Zhong's. He was able to display his character development Through his affection for An Wen. Aside from them, I find Huang Song's one-sided crush toward Xie Xiang pure and cute. It's just a pity that he didn't get a chance to know that his best friend, Xie Liang Chen and Xie Xiang, the girl who he admire is the same person. We are well aware that Oda Xian Rong truly loved Shen Jun Shan. However, in no way was she deserving of his love and trust.
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This review may contain spoilers
So this is not the most perfect plotted drama but, this is one of the most scripted Chinese drama. I have been amazed. There are a lot of good Chinese drama in 2019.I know people can't escape the radar from Xu Kai. (I also was caught during Lanxi Palace) This is his second drama with Bai Lu. I am not complaining. I love the actress (She is my favorite actress in China now, since Untouchable Lovers). I don't usually watched the drama from that era. Because shooting is happening all the time without reason and I hate it.
But now that both Xukai and Bailu starred in the drama. I had to try for a few episodes. I was addicted since the first 5 eps. They are fun. The chemistry between the casts is amazing.
The first few episodes starts plotting, nothing major. But they show the chinese and the japanese relationship is starting to get intense and people are taking sides. Thank god, this is not forbidden romance like; each of heroine took different sides. So the main casts are students from the Academy. They trained. They get to know each other. They got on each other's nerves. Then they started to get punished together, went to missions together, suffer together and their bonds are getting stronger.
The 20-later episodes shows the evil ones. The ones from Japan. The plots are not perfect. Things happened so suddenly. I'm not sure I am convinced how a lot of people die or a lot of people escape. But it's okay. Miracles happened in drama right? But don't get me wrong. Storyline and plots are different and, I like the storyline. It's light, nothing heavy. No one is starved. No one is tortured. But some important casts die (I cannot tell who, watch to find out)
The deaths of characters made me tear-up a little, and mad a little. So, this drama would make a nice recommendation for someone who is interested in "enemies-to-lover" "girl-pretend-boy" "girl-in-boys-school" "slow-burn-romance" "romance-with-action"
So, Check the drama out!
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This review may contain spoilers
Not what I was expecting...
Firstly I have to say: I really loved Gu Yanzhen :D He was my favourite character!The first half of my review won't contain spoilers, so you can read it, I wrote down where I'm starting to write about spoiling things.
I finished this drama only because lately I just keep dropping and dropping dramas, and I didn't want also to drop this one. The story at the beginning looked good and promising, like we're going to see a woman pretending to be a man and join the army, which was a good starting point, but as the story kept going, the quality just kept dropping.
I would like to start with the story. A lot of things happened, which was meant to be exciting, but too much thing happened, and after a few episodes they closed every storyline, so it felt like nothing really happened at all. There was some plotholes and unnecessary scenes, and for some things we didn't get explanation or the explanation just didn't make sense. After a time it was boring, also because we knew everything, they told us every secret and every situation, which weren't surprising anymore when the main characters learned about them. Since I've watched quite some dramas, I always had the feeling that the creators just could've deal with the scenes somehow else.
Secondly, the characters. The main characters were mostly ok, I loved Gu Yanzhen, Xie Liangchen, Shen Junshan, Huang Song, and also Ji Jin, but for the others, they felt too boring, they were too annoying or I just didn't like them. Especially Qu Manting. I hated that woman. There were also times when the acting looked forced and a little cringy.
But to say something positive, the OST was really good. Sometimes we could hear that they cut together or apart the songs, but most of the OST's were good and I liked to listen them :D
Thirdly, I would like to talk about concrete things about the drama. It's gonna be full of SPOILERS, so don't read it if you didn't watch the show.
- How could Xie Xang pass the medical examination at the first episode? The doctor clearly said she can't pass if she's not going to get undressed, but she magically passes the examination? :D
- The two characters death at the end (I mean Huang Song and Li Wenzhong's deaths) was really unnecessary. I know they wanted it to be sad and emotional, but it felt like they killed Huang Song only for this reason. For Li Wenzhong's death, I couldn't understand at all. Why did he get himself killed? I get it that he felt bad for Huang Song, and he felt like it was his fault, but please, don't kill characters for this reason, it's unnecessary, Li Wenzhong could've done a lot of useful things instead of getting himself killed for nothing! -.-" This is really annoyed me.
Overally, I wanted it to be better, I wanted it to love more. But it is only a 6.5 for me...
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Great cast buy lack of romance
I enjoyed watching this drama. The cast, the music and the cinematography was great. It was very funny when the Male lead teasing the female lead, and the misunderstandings due to the cross dressing. However, the romance development was too slow. It's unclear how the female lead past the medical exams and be admitted into the academy; how can the female lead walked into the enemy's building so easily to save everybody. Some supporting roles deaths were unnecessary and unrealistic. I gave it a good rating because I didn't skipped any episode.Was this review helpful to you?
Not a show for me, but great castings!
I didn't gave this show high ratings not because they it's bad/acting sucks but because i am personally not a fan of such genre (military, war related). However i do think that Xu Kai and Bai Lu as well other supporting actors acted really well here. Bai Lu as a "man" in this show is very convincing, never was she weaker than most of the men in the military school & she never acted all girly infront of ML either. I also love Xu Kai's character here, very goofy and fun to watch. I fast forward a lot of the scenes related to war/fights because it's just not for me and I would say the romance part is very little here (it's not for you, if you're in for romance). FL and ML also have good chemistry together even though they actually don't have any sweet lovey dovey kiss scenes. 2nd ML was great too, just that i couldn't quite get his love for FL.Would still recommend this to people out there that wants a little romance, comedy, friendship and war/conspiracy. However, I will probably not rewatch this.
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MUST WATCH!!!!
One of the best C drama I have watched so far!!! I loved the pace of the story, the intense chemistry of Bai Lu and her two male leads, the theme which is for country and justice and the importance of friends and family. There is both humor and sadness and the rewatch value is very high. I loved how Gu Yanzhen was always around Xie Liang chen and always protecting him and never betraying the fact that he is a girl disguise as a man in the Army. The comraderie amongst the cast was also very good.Was this review helpful to you?
