Dashing Youth

Powerhouse of Handsome Men

This series is filled with handsome men. Lol. Eye candies gallore.

I watched this because it's a Neo Hou drama and I was not disappointed. I enjoyed this more than Back from the Brink because I am more of a martial arts fan than romance.

My favorite characters are:
1) Master Li. This op immortal is the best character.
2) Dongjun's Poison Master Uncle. Such carefree and cool uncle.
3) Dongjun's 1st Master, Gu Chen. He did well readying a young Dongjun in the jianghu.
4) Dongjun's family (mother, father, grandfather).
5) Xiao Ruofeng. He should have been the emperor.

My hated characters are:
1) Grand Eunuch. He is ambitious and dangerous.
2) Yue Qing. Every time she appears on screen, she irritates me so much. Truth be told she is more beautiful than Yue Yao but she is annoying af.
3) Prince Qing.
4) Li Hanyi adult version. She is no longer the cute little girl who always eat tanghulu.

My favorite scenes are BEWARE SPOILER
1) The appearance of Dongjun's giant white serpent. I wonder why it did not appear again. It could have been really cool
2) When he got his sword 'dustless'. He showed a great sword style but it never appeared again during his fights. Such a let down.
3) The kid with fire power who made the sword merge and fly. I guess he is a TBOY main character? Not sure. Haven't watched it yet.
4) Master Gu's fight. That was awesome. Sad he died.
5) The liquor challenge. This is a fun episode.
6) Master Li's regression to his younger self.
7) All scenes with Dongjun with his first and second masters. Master Li is a delight.
8) Master Li's fight with rain demon.
9) Master Li's fight with Grand Eunuch.
10) Every time Master Li appears. Lol

Romance is sub par. No chemistry at all for all couples.

Story progress is 7.5/10. I want Ye Dingzhi to win multiple times. I read a lot of manhuas/manhwas where I root for the demonic sect. He is just retaliating because of the unfairness of the world.

What I hate is what happened to Li Hanyi. She was an adorable person as a kid but became power hungry as adult. I also hate Ruojin for forcing himself to Wen Jun and she reluctantly bear a child.

Ending is inevitable. I still root for Ye Yun.

MAJOR SPOILER!!! This is from novel. Yue Yao was accidentally killed by Dongjun because he taught she is Yue Qing which is the dumbest sh!t ever! Dongjun lived in seclusion after that. So what's the point of having two powerful masters and learning some of the most powerful sword techniques when you just end up like that? Pathetic path and frustrating af.

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A little dragging

Dashing Youth sure was expected and had to face the fact, that many had already seen The Blood of Youth and therefore knew the end.

The "+":
I liked all the actors, not one was anoying. Most of the characters were fun to follow. Some.were just "décoration" ans didn't add anything to the plot, but not annoying.
We had some heartbreaking scenes (I won't spoil but those cries of his still resonate in my ears)

The "-":
All those "drinking" scenes got quickly on my nerve.
The romantic scenes were so slow and dragging, without ever getting real. I always fastforwarded, as we had to observe the lovers eyeing each other for 1 minute straight, every single time.
Why did thew need a pure white carriage? This "pureness" of the main couple was just too much for me.
The CGI in the battles were too much, as well. The fighting-scenes were just about that, one blow, use of the final move - CGI all over - and that was it.
Why ? I was looking forward to some great fighting-scenes, I got none.

All over I missed the flow of TBOY and the interaction of their group: In DY it was more each character on his own, they just met from time to time, they didn't really get to create this particular group-dynamic I hoped for.

I don't regret watching it but I won't rewatch it.

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Dashing Youth Indeed

just finished this a few minutes ago. as per Youku's production prior to this, it was quite a challenge for me to find a site to watch this comfortably (not in Netflix/wetv app or iqiyi which are usually the 3 sites I frequented for CDramas. Finally settled for watching in Dramacool site, despite the annoyance of having to filter all the popups *sigh

now, on with the drama's review. The plot is nice enough, intriguing and appropriately interesting. The idea of a carefree handsome youth (which is somehow an influenced wealthy heir to an important family) finding his footing in the big jianghu world really grab me in, and Neo Hao did a good job playing the role of BLDJ. I used to have a crush on him in his A Girl Like Me and yes, he was as enchanting and handsome as ever. His portrayal of BLDJ is also appropriate and endearingly captivating. in fact, all of the characters did a good job and that made the stories flow perfectly well in my opinion. Though it looks like BLDJ seems like the ML here, and it was clear during the first half (or maybe the until the third quarter) of the show, I can't help but feel that they put so much emphasis on YDZ towards the end, and BLDJ just kinda fades in importance towards the end. Love the idea of the so called brotherhood that BLDJ and YY/YDZ shared as the main point of this story, but I cant help but think, the brotherhood was only based on the same scene when they were about 9/10-ish year old and there's not enough brotherhood thingy going on between adult BLDJ and YDZ shared to convince me of such high paid effort that BLDJ seems to extend towards YDZ and vice versa ( albeit lesser for the YDZ's part towards BLDJ). I feel like BLDJ shared more moments of ups and downs with SKCF as brothers compared to YDZ.

Acting was quite top notch if I may say so, and this extends to almost all characters in the drama, so it was quite heartening. I definitely was amazed that the younger actor who carried the role of NGCS can keep up with the vibes set up by the older and more experienced actor for the older Mr Li , causing the flow of Li Changsheng character to flow smoothly even though there is a transition from one actor to another, as if the NGCS character was acted out by one actor only, just donning a face mask. lol. This gives me quite a contrast to Li Hanyi's character, I love little Hanyi, but the adult version was just annoying, I dunno what the Writer was planning for that character. How can someone being raised alongside NGCS and was then later sent to someone like BLDJ can possibly grow up to be that kind of irritating, hollier-than-thou swordsman I wonder. In fact, in my mind, the ranking for the most annoying female character for this series are YueQing > Yi Wenjun > older Li Hanyi. (and wenjun only slightly above in the list due to the fact that she appears more than the adult Li Hanyi. lol). YueQing was such a useless character with no redeemable value at all in my eyes. very close minded, all she did was whine and throw tantrum while making her sister's underlings did all the works. And don't let me start with Yi Wenjun. I can symphatized with her life as someone who basically had no choice at all from the beginning and had to be a sacrificial pawn in the political board of Beili, and I can even understand why she needs to leave her first born in the palace when she first left, I can even understand how she felt the need to go back for her supposedly dying first born later, but the way she did it, and her decisions ultimately caused all the downfalls of important and strong characters. The romance between her and YDZ was also not so well developed and I just cant get into the ultimate love story to pity their failed love. Totally agrees with Ji Ruofeng's comment "beauty that is causing the downfall of a country" (or something to that effect) and I'm glad that BLDJ blames her for his brother's death, even though he thinks YDZ don't. With adult Li Hanyi acting all mighty and self-righteous with no power/life experience to back-up her annoying self, this concludes my list of 3 most annoying females in Dashing Youth. lol

Back to ML and FL, I think this is my first drama of FL and I quite like her. Yue Yao was also someone who is righteous, but is not clouded with power and was able to see the bigger picture. She was a steadfast supporter of BLDJ and I think, for BLDJ to become such an accomplished swordsman, YueYao was at least half a reason for it. in fact, I think, if BLDJ were to lose YY and his entire Marquis of Zhenqi's mansion like YDZ does, I am sure the turnout would not be quite so different with YDZ tbh. BLDJ was just lucky he was able to happily end up with someone like YY and get to keep his families and as such, was backed up by such a powerful family. The romance between ML and Fl was plentiful in the first half and I was sad that viewers were robbed of the chance to see them back in Qiandong City and get married (I mean, BLDJ has been taking YY left right and center with him all this while, and he still hasn't married the girl yet? the heck were you doing Dongjun?? I'm pissed). and though it was mention times and times again that BLDJ inspires to be a Liquor Deity, while his brother wants to be a Sword Deity, it seems that that inspiration fades into the background by the end of the stories, nothing whatsoever about Dongjun finally being renowned for that feat, after the episodes where he won with his Seven Starry Nights. In fact, much of the plot tails end up like this, with no satisfying closure. Mr Li disappears with no trace, what with the Marquis's mansion fate, seeing that Dongjun is the sole son/grandson of the hereditary title of Marquis of Zhenqi, what's the point of Li Hanyi being the second city lord of XueYue, what's the point of Ye Xiaofan's character coming back (is it only to say hi to YDZ and lets him off? lol), what happened to the 8 gentleman's (BLDJ's shishiongs-poor Gu fella only appears in the first few episodes lol), I was even irked why the need to go to such lengths to introduce certain characters like Zhao Yuzhen then didn't do anything with him. lol. There's lots of other knickknacks left untied but I guess there's that. I was also left unsatisfied with how the emperor seems to be let off with no repercussions whatsoever and nothing in the palace of Beili seems to change for the good while YDZ had to atone for his strains of bad luck. I was in a hate love relationship with Xiao Ruofeng's character. while he seems to be quite upright and just, he also enabled such an undeserving man to own the highest power, when he himself can fit much better in the shoes. So it's fine for him to be selfish by allowing himself not to be tied to the throne but it was wrong for others not to let them be sacrificed for the greater good? yes, I'm talking about YWJ's case here.

OSTs were quite nice. And not to mention, hats off to the costumes team. they did a splendid job! I was always looking forward to see the next costumes the characters donned every time, and I'm glad that the dashing costumes were not only limited to the main leads only and all the characters' costumes appear to be so well thought of and beautiful, be it for the men or the women. BLDJ and YDZ's costumes were amongst the most beautiful I've ever seen in wuxia series. YueYao's also all flowy and enchanting *love love love. And truly, as per the series name, all the characters are dashing in their own right, it was literally a feast for the eyes. lol.


All in all, I probably will be looking around for this so called sequel of Dashing Youth -the blood of youth. Hopefully it can kept me watching till the end lol

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Story is not good

character design and clothes are nice however
story is not good
character emotion is not good
fighting skill is not good
character working out is not good
character design and clothes are nice however
story is not good
character emotion is not good
fighting skill is not good
character working out is not good
character design and clothes are nice however
story is not good
character emotion is not good
fighting skill is not good
character working out is not good
character design and clothes are nice however
story is not good
character emotion is not good
fighting skill is not good
character working out is not good

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Not good drama

drama is not good.

1. story fall off road.
2. ml is alcohol addiction, narcissistic behavior, spoil kid.
3. CGI moreover their skill was garbage.
hero didn't use skill well. usually 3 things about hero skill
1. dodge, 2.block 3. ultimate.
it is not always use ultimate.

This is bad for future drama if it keep doing like this.

promotion alcohol without warning the side effect.

most of chinese drama
when they drink alcohol?
1. party (many more than 1 cup)
2. swear loyalty (1 cup)
3. farewell (to battle or goodbye 1cup)

they are not invest so much to alcohol so much like this drama.

👉👉Dashing youth= alcohol+gambling+Cgi drunk.

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* spoiler alert ? Loved it overall but a little disappointed at the end.

* Completed.. Why sad ending!! Totally Unfair!! They all failed Ye Yun/ Ye Dingzhi & Ye Anshi!! * including Baili Dongjun & Sikong Chengfeng!! *[They all ——— him]!!! So disappointed at His love & his friends… Ahhhhhhhhh Ye Ding Zhi aka Ye Yun Ge… Don’t Like the people from Baili and especially not the emperor & people from palace…

Why ??!!! Ye Ding Zhi can’t die!!!!!
He was best character in the whole story!! Fair.. He just wanted Justice for his parents death!!! Why he suffered a lot??? His son’s gonna suffer too!!!


Totally unfair to them..
Not happy with the ending…
But Overall the show and the cast even the storyline was great except Ye Ding Zhi Dying & suffering…
Totally recommended!!
A great martial art series!!!

Drama was very interesting in the beginning( fight, enemies, friendship, martial arts, Character’s goals, brotherhood and so on), in between it was more about love stories kinda sad but also boring but in the end The most important and interesting and the best character died!!! So it’s a great disappointment otherwise I waited for this series and I think it worths waiting and watching!!


The cast is amazing, hardworking, they all are perfect fit for their characters….Love them!!

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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.

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Quite curious about this one. And now I've finished watch this, let's talk drama...

Story about Baili Dong Jun (DJ), the young master of the Marquis of Zhenxi's mansion . Despite of his status, he's one happy go lucky man that never care about join the 'family business'. His goal is to be the best wine brewer, because he like to drink & later we find out he also already made a promise with his friend Ye Yun (YY) to become Liquor Deity.

At first, DJ also not really care about martial art. But however, fate had other plan for him. His journey in martial art begin with DJ snatch the important sword & also the death of his master. DJ's master death, make him go to school of Li Chang Sheng, the top master in the world, and beginning to learn martial arts. Along the journey DJ find out he's born with special nature for practice martial art & there's a clan that already had an eye for him to practice their teachings.

Short story, in the martial art world, DJ find many friends & companion. He's also find his old friend YY, whose the world think was dead. And of course DJ also excel in his martial art & made quite a name for himself. But of course trouble also comes knocking the door. The more DJ excel in his martial art, the problem comes not only from martial art world, but also from politic that involve the emperor & other kingdom.

So how will they journey be in motion...

That's pretty much the story. Now what I like and don't.

What I like:
+ The interesting people. Start from DJ himself, to his teacher until YY.
+ The hidden BL. Oh come on don't lie to ourself this is not hidden BL. DJ's relationship with YY is more than friends in heart. Although they kinda cover it with the existence of the woman in their life.
+ No real bad guy. It's all about obsession in the end.

What I don't like:
- A little too much CGI nonsense of the martial arts moves.
- DJ is too pure for a man. Until feel so stupid, he never make his relationship with Yue Yao official for that many year.
- Times feel so damn slow. The most can be felt when YY child start to show up. That child seem not grow up. I know maybe they try to cut corner in hiring guess child actor. But that child from age 3 to age 5 doesn't change at all, is a little bit too much...

Overall this quite good martial art drama this year.

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Adventures. friendship, love, magic, betrayal, bad guys and swordplay , beautifully done.

I am rewatching Dashing Youth now. It is truly an adventure. Some of the scenes, like the liquor contest are outstanding and unforgettable. Hou Minghau is the perfect teenage brew master, sure of himself and well raised to be kind and loyal. He ventures out to be famous and discovers his multiple talents along the way. It is very inspiring and like real life in that aspect, because as we enter the adult world, our inner world expands greatly, exposing traits we never dreamed. Minghau's childhood friend's story is the lesson of obsessions which plague some of us throughout life, especially in romance, and lead to lifelong scarring. Thankfully, most survive wiser. Some don't.
In rewatching, I'm able to catch little things I missed the first time, and re-experience the adventures.

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