Sword Snow Stride

This is an exquisite drama!!

It tells the story of Xu Fengnian, a son of an aristocratic family, who finally grew up into the king after suffering. Xu Fengnian played by Zhang Ruoyun is a man who pretends to be idle, but actually has a lot of responsibility. He loves Jiang Ni very much. He looks rich and handsome, others tease him as a childe without culture and ability, but he is actually full of experience, extremely smart and has a smart and exquisite heart.

Xu Fengnian's true love is a former Princess and today's servant girl. She is a timid and strong, lovely and stubborn, lazy but very talented. She is an admirable little girl. Her face is cold and graceful, her smile is sooo beautiful. I haven't seen Li Gengxi's TV play before. Although her appearance is not very amazing, her appearance is comfortable, so I like her performance very much. She is very suitable for performing this role.

The production of this play is also very exquisite, the picture is very grand, and the ancient costume modeling is also well designed, so I think this play is made with great care, and you must not miss it!!!

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A must watch if you liked JOL

I don't write reviews often, unless a show was really good.

For details please read below review written by peach blossom https://kisskh.at/profile/PeachBlossomGoddess/review/185693

The show often times feels like JOY and Blood of Youth I think, with similar names of city and mini stories like the wudang Mt disciples love story with the male leads sister.

The smart emperor in JOL is like xu Xiao lord of North Liang in this show.

Think of it as a complication of top wuxia dramas Brought together to create this masterpiece.

Looking forward to season 2

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A very good drama

I very much enjoyed this, an excellent show!

The ML put in a stellar performance, as we are used to when it comes to him. Most of the other characters were also excellent. Scheming, action, and the general interactions between characters were done well. The ending was good and it closed off all the plots.

As for negatives, the last few episodes seem a bit rushed and generally lower quality than the rest of the drama.

The FL was subpar in my opinion. Her acting was average, chemistry with the ML was almost nonexistent, and her presence seemed forced in most of the content. It doesn't help that the rest of the female characters in this drama are all excellent, I guess. The White Fox, Qing Nao, Qing Feng, the two sisters, Shu Xiu, and even Miss He He, they were all superb, even with less screen time than the FL.

Emotional moments were a bit hit and miss due to the lack of build-up. I imagine that they are more impactful in the books. I guess we can't blame this on the producers, who are forced to squeeze everything into 40 episodes.

My rating - 9/10

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Come into this Wuxia drama knowing that there would (should) be a second and/or even a third season and you will not be disappointed. This drama is about Xu Feng Nian (Zhang Ruo Yun) and his journey to find out who murdered his mother and to establish the grounds to inherit the Kingdom of Northern Liang. Throughout the journey, and with his father’s strategies in place, he meets and befriends people with different martial arts abilities that help him developed his martial arts abilities which he has refused to learn until his closest friend Li Chun Gang [God of Sword] dies. There is a love interest, Jiang Ni (Teresa Li) that doesn’t developed into any romantic plot line but it is hinted for, most likely, second season, that they will be together. Overall, the story and action well played and developed. The drama is interesting and entertaining. Enjoy it!

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Some nice characters but overall I didn't care for any of them

STORY/PLOT
This show suffers from having too many characters in general. They are introduced when the ML comes across them but then quickly forgotten and then later on "revived" when you've long moved on to other new characters that appear. There is not much backstory to most of these characters and so you're not really invested in what happens to them generally. The show also relies too much on flashbacks to fill in the gaps (i.e. stuff that wasn't shown before). For example ML when in a pivotal moment in a fight performs some new move - cue flashback to when the grandmaster showed him that specific move. Certain people are shown as being very important to the ML but because that relationship/journey has not been explored very much, I don't buy it.

The ML is introduced as a smart but stubborn character. He wants it all - to have his cake and eat it too. He is scheming and has his own agenda and seems to like going against his father's plans/wishes. That is all fine but the problem I have is he has just come home after 3 years gallivanting in the wilderness - I find it hard to believe how he has managed to have informants and loyal people under him when for all intents and purposes, he wasn't doing much for those 3 years.

There doesn't seem to be a clear FL in this show. Yes the ML has a servant he is interested in, and she has a backstory too. Their romance is as dumb as dumb gets - fake assassination attempts and getting paid to read books to him. Constant teasing like "You can't die because I want to be the one to kill you" is just eye-rolling.

One of the things that makes a show great is a good villain - one that creates chaos and can really hurt the ML. This show doesn't seem to have a good one. Everything was dealt with easily by the ML with the grandmaster at his side. For much of the show, the illegitimate prince is portrayed as the main villain but he was so weak!! His red armour that followed him around wasn't much help either. The master eunuch put up a good fight at the end but being outnumbered he should have eliminated them one by one to increase his chances. Overall this big fight turned out rather disappointing.

ACTION
There is a fair bit of action but I find that some of the grandmasters are just too overpowered and just takes the fun out of it. Having the grandmaster Li by his side also meant it was kinda boring because nothing much was going to happen to ML while the grandmaster was there.

Some of the powers of these grandmasters is just a bit ridiculous and not really of interest to me. I prefer more realistic type wuxia but I find this show is a bit more magical/fantasy type (e.g. magical flying swords, riding waves, tornadoes lol).

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Most excitedly waiting for season 2

I love this series so much that it redefined the wuxia genre for me.

The cast does an impeccable job of portraying the characters and direction is also amazing in capturing the emotions of scenes.

I heard the FL had to face lot of flakes by 'true fans' of the work but I absolutely loved her acting. She did exactly what that character would do and she did an excellent job. To be frank I even liked her character more than ML. I really really hope she returns for next sequels.
The ML also did an amazing job but was missing that masculinity. I am not saying beefing up but in some scenes you could see his clothing sloppy over his small shoulders. It could be a clothing/designer issue but they did an amazing job with other people so maybe ML need wider shoulder?

Anyhow this is a series worth your time. I promise you this is worth it.

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Everyone calls him a useless playboy, but in reality he is the mastermind

I want to start of my saying this drama was a fun watch, it was funny and had great characters, but seeing that the screenwriter was the same as Joy Of Life, both shows have many parallels and I just wanted to highlight some of them:
- The Cast: So many JoL characters appear in this show (Zhang Ruo Yun, Liu Duan Duan, etc.). It was like a cast reunion! It was amazing to see the cast come together and work on this show. All of the actors acted beautifully and really highlight how different the characters are, especially our Zhang Ruo Yun
- The Plot: What really put me off was how similar the plot is. We have Xu Fengnian who, like Fan Xian, has a bad reputation, but in reality is incredibly smart and cunning. Both don't follow society, and carve their own path of justice against their destiny in definance against the royal family and ancient chinese tradition. Both follow a path for revenge for their mother, and both hold family and friends dear. The fact that they are played by the same actor doesn't help either. We can't forget about Liu Duan Duan being the ambitious prince in both shows. This may just be because the author of the book coincidentally made the plot similar, but honestly I found it way too alike; overtime it became tiring to watch
- The Martial Arts World: The system is quite similar, with 9 ranks, but has different characters and martial art techniques which was a breath of fresh air. I think watching both really helped me understand the screenwriters martial art world.
Honestly, I really wanted to bring up and highlight the similarities because this is what truly effected the watching experience for me. It is slow paced which is fine, but having watched both shows, this style of plot gets tiring. Honestly Joy Of Life, had better built up and plot twists.

Overall, I recommend you watch this show to pass time, it isn't anything too special. Nonetheless, it is always fun to Xu Feng Nian humble people and deliver justice. If you have watched Joy Of Life before this, sword snow stride won't be anything special to you, so if you want watch this first and then JoL. I would still want to watch a season 2 of SSS though, I would love to see Xu Feng Nian as the Lord of North Liang with more unorthodox plans.

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I decided to watch this because of Zhang Ruo Yun; since he nailed his role in Joy of Life. He also embodied his role in this one.

The plot for this wasn't that interesting for me. Other than wanting to see his martial arts training and improvements, his relationship with Jiang Ni - i was disappointed. especially everytime he gets a chance to shine something always stops him short (but i think that plays into his role of not wanting to fuel voilence as future leader) or maybe theyre keeping it for season two, no idea.

Loved the father son relationship, huang, jiang ni, the characters were well written. Xu Xiao is a real chess king lmaoo you never know this man next move its crazy and frightening -- there were ALOT of familiar faces from Joy of Life that i liked. The fighting vfx were kinda annoying lmao but i understand the intentions.

Overall, it was a fun watch and experience. I wouldnt find myself searching to rewatch though.

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Interesting

In general, I don't watch wuxia much cause it's not really my genre. I only watch if I know the leads. This is probably my third wuxia I've watch in decades (Legend of Fei and Word of Honor). First thing I felt when watching SSS is the cinematography made me felt a bit nostalgic. Something about the color scheme of drama made it feel a bit old school which I liked. I did enjoy the overall story even though the pace was too slow compared to what I'm used to. I like the banter between Fengnian and Xu Xiao. Their dialogue was the realistic kind of conversation versus the long, draggy, poetic with an implied meaning conversation. Both father and son are smart and strategic. The whole time watching I'm always wondering what their next plan is or who plotted this or thought of this. Father was always thinking ahead of son. Just like Legend of Fei, I thought Fengnian was so lucky cause almost every master he encountered, he got something out of it. Every conflict he came across, there was always someone helping him because they were returning his parents favor. Everything worked out for him. Even people you thought was against him in the end wouldn't dare to touch him. Everyone had one goal and that was to keep the world at peace. There was very little romance which was okay. I would rather the lead characters don't become entangled in relationships in stories like these. I thought the last episode was really epic. I did not see that coming. Overall, I don't regret watching the drama.

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An amazing Wu Xia drama!

LIKE

When Li Chun Gang asked Xu Feng Nian and impressed that there were two choices in life

When Zhao Xun asked Zhao Xi Tuan if he felt unjust and Zhao Xi Tuan said something and laughed. Then Zhao Heng heaved and continued saying something - that was very touching

The hilarious Zhao Kai - his presense cracked me up all the time just like when he was in Joy of Life

How the entire Xu family men afraid of Xu Wei Xiong

Impressed with so many twists and turns which filled with grand masters of the Wu Lin

DISLIKE

I waiting for part two..

MUSIC

Nothing to my liking

REWATCH VALUE

A yes and I want a part two please

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A Family That Rules Together...

I loved the family dynamic in this story. I am really invested in seeing how it plays out in Season Two. I liked the characters (even the ones I didn't like weren't completely hateful). Mom Xu certainly helped enough people to pay it forward to her family. I didn't mind the slo-mo fight scenes, even when they were a little over-the-top. Amusing in places, very sad in other places. I can't wait for Season Two, and I really hope the producers won't let us down.

BUT! I'm a romance junkie, and there was NO. ROMANCE. AT. ALL!! I was bitterly disappointed about that and that's why it got an 8 from me. I already have my dream couples all paired up. ML & FL (although I was disappointed in this actress - hope she either warms up or gets re-cast). Ning E Mei (Army guy bodyguard) & Qing Niao (ML bodyguard). Chen Zhi Bao (Army guy) & Xu Wei Xiong (ML sister). Xu Zhi Hu (ML elder sister) & the Taoist guy. If Season Two doesn't heat up with some PDA and romance, I'll be even more disappointed.

Overall, this was a good series and I pretty much enjoyed it much better than Joy of Life (since everybody else is comparing the two).

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