Guardians of the Dafeng

An Equivalent Exchange: I received a captivating drama and return it with a perfect score.

Guardians of the Dafeng was a surprisingly charming discovery for me. I had always known of its existence, after all, it was a much-talked-about and popular drama, but I didn’t know anything about the plot or the novel that inspired it. When it was released, I didn’t even consider watching it because I was focused on other productions. However, earlier this month, I decided to give it a chance... And I’m so glad I did!

With a captivating blend of fantasy, humor, and mystery, we are transported into the journey of Yang Ling, a charismatic young man who graduated from the police academy, and, through twists of fate, ends up starting his career in real estate. Everything seemed to be going as planned until, after a seemingly ordinary game with his colleagues, his life takes an unexpected turn: Yang Ling awakens as Xu Qi An in Dafeng, a kingdom filled with hidden forces and supernatural events.

Armed with his modern knowledge and keen investigative deductive abilities, Xu Qi An quickly stands out, attracting the attention of powerful institutions in Dafeng. Initially, he seeks only a peaceful, financially comfortable life, but his strong sense of justice drives him to face the abuses and injustices he witnesses. What he didn’t expect was that all of this was part of a complex scheme, in which he had been carefully manipulated as a key piece in a much larger game.

For me, the strongest point of this drama lies in the development of its characters and the relationships formed throughout the story. Each bond, every interpersonal dynamic is developed so naturally that it was impossible not to get involved. On top of that, the cast delivers incredibly convincing performances. Dylan Wang truly stood out as Xu Qi An, with his portrayal being so immersive that at times, it felt like we were watching Dylan live that reality, rather than just playing a character.

Charismatic, silly, intelligent, impulsive, and kind, Xu Qi An won me over with his essence. One line that I think perfectly illustrates his character is: "It's not about worth. Some things in life are greater than life itself." This line reflects the depth of his worldview because, despite being human and flawed, he carries a high sense of justice. He understands that there are values, principles, and relationships that cannot be measured by individual worth, and that, above all, there are aspects of life that are greater than existence itself, such as justice, loyalty, and truth. Xu Qi An knows that what really matters is acting with integrity, even if it means making personal sacrifices.

His interactions with the other characters were captivating, especially with his chaotic and eccentric family. These scenes were among my favorites because they combined humor and affection. Despite being clearly dysfunctional haha, there was genuine warmth between them. Moreover, his relationship with the Guardians’ team was also full of comedic moments. His friendship with some of the group members, especially Guang Xiao and Ting Feng, was incredible, as they shared the same charming energy, almost like partners in mischief, haha.

Another touching highlight was his connection with Lord Wei. There was a relationship filled with affection and respect, almost like father and son. It was moving to see the mutual care between them, something that stood out because of the sincerity and emotional depth in the dialogues they had throughout the episodes. Xu Qi An’s interactions with the Astronomical Department and the Yu Lun Academy also added a dose of humor to the plot. The “equivalent exchange” dynamic, where he would always ask for something but it would always come with some kind of demand in return, created hilarious scenes.

And of course, I can’t forget to mention his relationship with Princess Li An, which brought the sweet and romantic moments to the drama. Notably, romance isn’t the main focus of this drama, but I enjoyed what was portrayed, as the two had personalities with some similar traits, which made their scenes together ridiculously cute. I understand that not everyone may have sympathized with the princess’s personality, but personally, I wasn’t bothered by it. I saw in her a young woman still searching for true purpose, someone who, despite being spoiled, was genuine, loyal, and sincere in her feelings, which made me grow fond of her character over the episodes.

The plot of this drama isn’t complicated, but it’s important to pay attention to the political and social events throughout the episodes. At first, it may seem like the challenges Xu Qi An faces are disconnected, but in reality, everything is intertwined by a power game, involving several characters who build this complex network of relationships. The production maintains an engaging pace, with well-crafted and immersive sets and CGI. The costumes and soundtrack added a memorable visual and auditory touch. Additionally, the cinematography stands out, especially in the fight scenes, which were executed impressively. Honestly, I wish there had been more of these scenes, haha.

With 40 episodes, the drama managed to answer all my questions, both directly and indirectly. While many might find the ending rushed or lacking a clear conclusion, I thought the approach was quite interesting because it left a compelling mystery, sparking my curiosity about how the characters will handle the cliffhanger left in the final episode. That cliffhanger promises to add new layers to the plot. Now, I can only hope for a new season.

If you’re looking for an adventure drama with hilarious comedy driven by the characters’ actions and a touch of fantasy, this might be a good recommendation for you. Guardians of the Dafeng won me over with its lightness, even when dealing with chaotic situations, the genuine love and care the characters have for Xu Qi An, and the way, despite his imperfections, Xu Qi An becomes a symbol of the fight against the injustices in the kingdom.

"You can easily oppress the commom people, but you can't fool the heavens." — Xu Qi An.

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I Just Don't Get It

I may just not be the target audience for this drama. Maybe you need to have read the novel or be a fan of the gaming genre to appreciate this series. I found it confusing and boring and skipped through a lot.

The Good:
- Actors all did a good job for their roles, even the support cast did well, that's why I gave the series more stars just for the acting alone.
- Master Wei Yuan - loved his character. He is a veteran actor, he absolutely crushes every single role he plays whether it be good or villain role
- The dysfunctional but loving and loyal family dynamic with Xu Qi An's family was endearing
- High production quality and fight scenes

The Bad:
- Pacing was all over the place. Started out ok, then was boring and slow from episode 15-36. Then suddenly gets exciting in the last 3-4 episodes
- Confusing storyline at times. So many plot holes and unresolved character stories/endings. So what happened to the Emperor? So did Xu Qi An never exist or why/how did he get erased from everyone's lives? Why was the Celestial group there and how were they all related? And why did they not know what each other looked like? And why at the end did they introduce the Consort Princess the most beautiful woman in the world - but why? Her character served no purpose.
- Zero chemistry between the lead couple, but it seems their relationship and romance was a very minor subplot to the overall plot of the story
- The over the top slap stick comedy was not my favorite. It made it hard to take more emotional/deep scenes seriously. For example the Xu Qi An's cousin Xu Xin Nian - some parts they make him out to be disregarded as an utterly weak fool, but then some scenes they want you to believe that he's a well respected puppet master scholar that played an integral role in taking down the evil regime.

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Watched this because many people said this was a good one. And also there're Dylan Wang & Tian Xi Wei too. So I decided to watch this.

Story about Yang Ling (YL), a modern office worker, who is transported to the Da Feng Dynasty, where he becomes Xu Qi An (QA).

At first QA is a useless lad who is degraded in his family. QA lived with his uncle’s family, and his aunt really didn't like him. But since YL entered QA body, everything changed.

Soon YL gets introduced to this world, he quickly learns that in this world magic is a normal thing. Yet intellectuals & politics are still highly appreciated.

So, using his memories of poetry from the modern world, YL aka QA started gaining popularity among the scholars. Not only that, YL aka QA also uses his modern knowledge and reasoning to solve bizarre cases, earning the title of top investigator. QA started from the lower rank, a "copper gong", night watchman and soon promoted into the silver gong.

After sometime QA also starts to know some influential people. Among these people the one that really appreciates & thinks highly about him is Wei Yuan (WY). The more QA understands WY kindness and appreciation for QA, the more QA feels grateful & respects for WY.

And soon, QA also started getting entangled in a bigger mess in the kingdom, and started to deal and even offend the emperor himself. So, how will the QA journey enden in the end…? Will YL be able to get back to his world?

That's pretty much the story without giving the spoiler. Now what I like and don't.

What I like:
+ This is quite a funny drama. A few time they succeeded in making me laugh out loud.
+ The journey of QA is quite interesting to watch.
+ The crazy & messy political story you find nowhere else.

What I don't like:
- quite a boring plot for most of the time
- I don't d*mn care too much about the plot. If not because it suddenly becomes more interesting toward the end, I'm actually gonna rate this quite low.

Don't know whether to put it into like or not, but if you entered this with expectation about Dylan Wang & Tian Xi romance, you probably need to quick kick it from ur though. This is more like Joy of Life kinda situation, where politics are more dominant the whole drama.

Overall this is just another title on my list. Below I'll write some SPOILERS!!! Read it at your own risk.












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SPOILER ALERT!!!
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This is kinda an open ending, with a more confusing plot. I don't know I will watch this or not, if there's a 2nd season.

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Incredibly Hilarious, a Fresh Breath of Air

First things first, can we talk about Yang Yan? My Xiao Thor. He is an absolute baddie, I liked his portrayal of the character and charisma so much that I hanged on.

Second thing, I am a usually fast watcher, even if it is a fifty-episode drama, but this one took me a couple of weeks and a lot of fast-forwarding at times. However, it is super funny and has some genius storytelling (story of guardsmen in the sea lol). I think Didi did not just act the character but also reflected his goofiness into the character. His family is also a great foil to this plot. I laughed a lot and was not surprised much, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Got mad at FL many times, but the actress herself does a good job. From the bloopers, I could tell they had siblingly rivalry lol. I can actually imagine her acting with Chen Zhe Yuan, I think they would be a cute couple.

The third thing is the cinematography and special effects. It was obviously well done and well paid. And for the first time in my c-drama journey, I liked the whole OST. From the intro to the Atari (that is my take) remake in the sea story, songs were composed super intelligently.

It was a slow watch for me, personally. By any means, it was not bad at all.

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Awesome Watch! Enjoyed it…!

It was such an entertaining drama. Keeps a good hold throughout the episodes!
Definetly worth a good watch….!
Loved the comedic moments, emotional moments as well as the great action moments ….!
Dylan Wang is such a perfect actor for the character of Xu Qian. Not just him, the overall casting for each role was very well done.

If you have not watched it yet, then I would definitely recommend it.

Rewatch value usually lowers because the suspense is broken already, however it was such a fun and engaging watch that I won’t mind if I bump across the drama again! 👌

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Dafeng is worth it!

Guardians of the Dafeng is one of the best dramas I have watched recently. It's complex, beautiful, humorous and provides food for thought about things like, what is the meaning of life? What makes one life complete?

Yang Ling is a street-smart sales manager, who initially wanted to be policemen but life made its' correction. He is young, fast on his feet, pretty adjustable in social situations. After drinking party, he and his colleagues decide to play murder mystery game. That's how he ended up being in body of Xu Qi An, Chanty Constable who is in fact being imprisoned. That's how the story starts.

Story itself is very interesting. We start from case 1, and then we see it unfolding and connected to case 2 and bigger cases. While I was watching on-air, they constantly left us on cliffhanger, and I couldn't wait for another episode. Drama has a lot of easter eggs or details which makes interesting to me on re-watches. Complex world with magic, sects, taoist, artifacts and cultivation levels.

I like that drama has style, it explores and introduces quite complex world of Dafeng and connects us with characters through humor. Humor and a bit of hyperbolic style of acting might be not everyone's cup of tea. For me, it was highlights of Guardians of the Dafeng. I found myself to relate to a lot of situations. A lot of it touches work culture, relationships in family and society. I love visual aspects of the drama, CGI is extremely well-done, world building designs, it's amazing.

I love that drama has a lot of characters and they are all pretty well-written and have distinctive features about them and their own stage to shine. This is quite impressive considering how many characters are present in the drama.

This drama portrays absolutely beautifully the importance of family. Xu family is most chaotic and endearing family. Through humorous situations we get to know them, we see their bickering which depicts some real family dynamics so much. However, by the end of the series I found that I love them so much. There are so many moments when they stood for each other and showed genuine care and love for each other that it brought tears to my eyes. But at the same time, they provided some of the best comedic moments (like forgetting each other which ended up being connected to more serious note).

I loved romance storyline. I found that Xu Qi An and Lin An fit each other well. Romance is not the main plot but their moments were cute, endearing with spark of absolute chemistry. I think Lin An though by no means perfect is fitting for Xu Qi An. Lin An in the same way as Xu Qi An stood up to seek justice for her loved ones. Actually, the fact that both of them had their own lives and agendas made this line more realistic and healthy.

There's also significant story arc with Lord Wei and Guardians which shows the value of friendship, of people having your back and coming for each other. Some of the moments made me cry.

Overall, I think with portrayal of Xu Qi An's life they showed full spectrum of what makes one people's life full.

I have to talk about main protagonist and his character growth. Xu Qi An is a bit unserious and gives a lot of opportunist vibes at the very beginning. He is charismatic, charming and has his way with people. However, it's interesting and evident right from the first case that he is actually feels strongly about weaker people being oppressed. Interesting detail I noticed that he doesn't care much and can swallow if he is the one oppressed. And then he comes back to being unserious and being childish. I think Lord Wei described him: "You seem to be flexible on the outside, but you are rigid on the inside." I find interesting that guy that started from wanting to make money in Dafeng, spent large amount of time and efforts thinking about how to progress in the career and connecting with right people to what he did in the end of the series.

Cast is superb and everyone did a great job. Dylan Wang has showed his new side and how much he improved throughout his career. Portrayal of Xu Qi An is quite complex, he goes from being this hilarious character to heartbreak and to angry and just person. His gestures, body language, face expressions, tones of voice - just a great acting job altogether for a person that carried show. They showed scene where he goes from portraying young men, middle-aged man and old man - I couldn't believe my eyes. Great, great piece of acting. He also didn't get lost acting with much more senior cast and excellent actors.

I think everyone should give it a try of watching this. Dafeng is worth it a thousands times.

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Truly enjoyable from start to finish

Dylan Wang did an excellent job in this series. Xuqian has to be one of his best roles yet. I also loved how good he is at comedy which we were able to see in this series. he and that comedic flair that kept me laughing. I love how this series had all the elements I loved: family relationships, friendships, father/mother figures. Although it didn't focus a lot on the romance as it was a side plot, in the end it didn't bother me because what we got, I loved. Tian Xiwei and Dylan Wang had amazing chemistry makes me wish that maybe one day in the future we see them in a romance drama.
I loved how the series was action, adventure, mystery with a little bit of romance. It ticked all the right boxes for me. And I truly enjoyed it from start to finish.
10/10 from me.

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A Must-Watch for fans of the genre

1. For Dylan I decided to do something I never do (watch an incomplete drama) and I am glad I took the risk. While the wait for next season might just kill me, this show was so perfect I will die a happy fan. It was hilarious, it was heartbreaking, it was stressful and it was rejuvenating.

2. I might have started this show for Xu Qi'an and his glorious hair (seriously why was his hair so perfect) but someone else caught my eye in the very first episode (sorry DiDi 😜). The hair, the smirk, the expressions, the sass, the gold earrings and the fan- y'all know exactly who I'm talking about.

Gold Gong Guardian Yang Yan this is my formal proposal to marry you 🙇‍♀️

3. Coming back to the drama, I enjoyed all that was shown, and the way it was shown. There were a few icks (I don't like seeing good people being tortured so graphically) but it was sorted out soon (I like seeing the torturers get tortured and die painful deaths). There are obviously a lot of questions unanswered and I hope the next season comes soon.
On that note, not really sure how I feel knowing the next content is based on the faceless guy but we'll see.

4. Dear GOTD drama overloads- please get the same cast for everyone for the next season but especially Dylan and Fan Shiqi (and let their looks be the same too hehe)

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Drama full of laughter and good vibes

This drama is PERFECT if you are looking for a light enough drama that won't have you bust out crying every 5 minutes. It is so funny and has a unique sense of humor to it. Of course, this doesn't mean there aren't angsty or sad moments—because there were. But to me, it was well-balanced and made the drama even more engaging. The plot was amazing; there's not a thing that I would change.

As a main-character-centric drama, this drama did XQA justice. I love how they wrote his character. He's witty, unserious, and follows his own rules. But he's also loyal, compassionate, and so so kind. XQA gained the trust of so many people simply because of how good and admirable his character is. Not going to lie, he is like a rolemodel to me. XQA said and did all the things that everyone was too afraid to say or do.

I personally loved the romance. Yes, the misunderstanding was a little frustrating, but thankfully since romance is a subplot, a lot of the misunderstandings and second-hand embarrassment acted more as a humorous part of the plot rather than a conflict in XQA's life. And after the misunderstanding cleared up, they had good communication, and their relationship advanced quickly. I am interested to see more of them in season 2 (hopefully coming soon).

Now I have to give appreciation when appreciation is due. Dylan Wang was the PERFECT Xu Qi'An. I cannot imagine anyone else as this character. This is the first drama I actually finished of his, and it instantly made him one of my favorite actors. I just love it when actors can act well! He showed so many emotions and embodied XQA.

Overall, this drama was so so good. I will definitely be rewatching this in the future. This is actually my final drama until May since my classes start soon, and I am so glad it is. A very satisfied watcher; I am looking forward to season 2!! :)

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