A Journey to Love

A journey to love yourself.

This series is one of the last to come out this year, and I didn't expect to be hit with such a captivating story only a few weeks before the new year, iQiyi jealously guarded this gem. The story itself is rather simple about two assassins, Ren Ruyi and Ning Yuan Zhou from two warring and enemy countries, Wu and An. Of course, it wouldn't be exciting if the two didn't fall for each other.

The premise begins when in a bloody battle, the Wu state loses and the Emperor is taken prisoner to the state of An.

Yuan Zhou is the former leader of the Six Dao Hall, an assassin organization, who found himself accompanying Emperor Wu during this battle and one of the only ones to survive. Long story short, he is later pressured to accompany the delegation, with the Princess Yang Ying trapped by the Empress schemes into cross-dressing as a prince, and save the Emperor. At his side are other assassins who accompany him in his task, of course the audience is led to discover each character and fall under their charms.

As for Ren Ruyi, she is a former assassin of the Scarlet Guards who had to re-infiltrate the ranks of the organization to find the murderer of the Empress of An who was like a mother to her. Due to lack of luck, she finds herself having to abandon her scheme due to circumstances that will be detailed in the series, and she cross paths with Yuan Zhou while she tries to hide. Yuan Zhou agrees to host her and eventually, through other circumstances, she accompanies the delegation to enter the state.

I won't reveal more about the story, but I will touch on a word about how their love story was. First, it doesn't seem forced, then, refreshingly, it's Ruyi who runs after Yuan Zhou, who from a charismatic leader becomes timid in the face of these attempts. The two quickly learn to understand each other due to their unique position and much is conveyed emotionally through their gestures and facial expressions. It's mature and above all healthy.
Ruyi is probably the most badass female character I've seen, they didn't try to build her reputation too much, and on the contrary let her skills do the talking to later reveal that Ruyi is in fact a legendary assassin. Yuan Zhou is equally impressive, especially his wits and adept at playing mind games with his enemies. They are a power couple in all their glory and it is a pleasure to follow them.

The pacing of the story is really good, we don't dwell endlessly on misunderstandings, it's generally resolved within one episode and we stay focused on the main story. The secondary characters are just as interesting and often touching, they all have a story that is revealed. The overall production is really good and also the fighting scene, nothing on the level of "My Journey To You" (a series released this year whose cinematography is breathtaking) but really pleasant to see.

I have mixed feelings about the ending and the last episodes though, I think the writing could have been better and it's a let down by the writers.

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One of the best in 2023

Drama started very solid, good paced, good script... It's very rare CDrama to have so many characters written properly. I love the development of the characters, especially the growth of little naive princess, so so good, the actress also very good. I also love Alen Fang's character, I think this is his best performance to date. FL is also very good, stay true to it's character although out the series, (unlike every other ones that turned into a confused little damsel once the romance started, I really hate those). But it's still not as good as I hoped. I'm a very disappointed on the progress of the last 8 episodes, the drama kind of lost it's pace. Instead focusing to built a climax to the story, it felt like they're lost. I mean, couples that happily joked and tease each other and being lovey dovey in the midst of impending invasion/war, without a care, not even mourning the death their love ones , really?? Another ridiculous scene is when ML able to forged a new sword in a blink of an eye, what magic did he use 😞

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Identity reveal

Supererb assassin and team oriented group. The story is indeed great that you keep on waiting for next eps everyday. Each of them carries their own task but they work as a team. The cast/ writer/director/producers are good and they support each other. Hopefully the drama continues to give us great storyline. I'm so excited for the next eps and next fighting scene because it's really awesome to watch wuxia' making move. And, I hope the princess will learn something and grow more throughout their journey not for her mission but for the Team. Hoping to see growth to each members. Goodluck!

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Perfect for people who like the traditional way of fighting

This is one of the best series of 2023. If you like the sword fighting and martial arts you would love this drama. If you are someone who is attracted by someone's intelligence then u would love the characters also. The plot and twists are just worth the watch! You would not get bored if you rewatch it. Each character played by them portray a different feeling and emotion.
This is one of the best series of 2023. If you like the sword fighting and martial arts you would love this drama. If you are someone who is attracted by someone's intelligence then u would love the characters also. The plot and twists are just worth the watch! You would not get bored if you rewatch it. Each character played by them portray a different feeling and emotion.
This is one of the best series of 2023. If you like the sword fighting and martial arts you would love this drama. If you are someone who is attracted by someone's intelligence then u would love the characters also. The plot and twists are just worth the watch! You would not get bored if you rewatch it. Each character played by them portray a different feeling and emotion.
This is one of the best series of 2023. If you like the sword fighting and martial arts you would love this drama. If you are someone who is attracted by someone's intelligence then u would love the characters also. The plot and twists are just worth the watch! You would not get bored if you rewatch it. Each character played by them portray a different feeling and emotion.
This is one of the best series of 2023. If you like the sword fighting and martial arts you would love this drama. If you are someone who is attracted by someone's intelligence then u would love the characters also. The plot and twists are just worth the watch! You would not get bored if you rewatch it. Each character played by them portray a different feeling and emotion.

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Best Costume Drama of 2023

Things to like

- As an original piece there's no spoilers, or petty arguments as to whether it's true to the original, the plot line is well paced and the character development sound.
- Liu ShiShi has improved so much, thought it might just be rose tinted specs so actually re-watched brotherhood of blades and yup definitely a better actress than she was!
- The fight scenes, OK non of them are Jet Li but the fight choreographer did a stellar job translating the character's role into their fighting style, e.g. Ren Ru Yi is an assassin so she goes for precise cuts and slashes to the throat/head, thought has gone into this and makes it more immersive.
- No padding, so many dramas today are filled with silly flashbacks and musical interludes, so far the musical segments are there to help convey a scene's emotion and the flashbacks are part of the story rather than just re-editing old scenes to stretch things out. In fact there are so many details on screen and in dialog went back and re-watched the whole thing whilst waiting for episodes 19 and 20.
- Liu Yuning's commitment, he's not the best actor in the world by a long shot but you can see the effort he's put into this production, it's not like he's phoning it in (looking at you Ren Jia Lun!), don't really get the hate he's receiving. Shisan is the pretty boy in this drama and LYN's character is the leader of the hell path of a paramilitary organisation what do people expect some one like that to look like? if anything Liu ShiShi is way too pretty to play a crimson guard left envoy (that is until you see the fight scenes then it all becomes believable again!)
- Cinematography, its a 40 episode web/TV production rather than a movie so the budget only goes so far but a few green screen scenes aside it looks good.

Things I didn't like

- The silly sound effects acompanying the comedic moments

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so pissed off

All of the main characters died. Tell me how is that a show. The show was great until the last five episodes! I was really pissed when all the main characters started to get killed off like some kind of cult. also where is the child she tried so hard to have it’s so annoying. They get war and death but no baby and happy ending. I get it’s an aspect of reality and blah blah. But for someone that loves happy ending I was angry. If your into realistic well her coming back to life is stupid she dies like three times. Die and stop getting me hopes up! as a romcomer I really want to beat these writers up. I am so hurt because it took Andrew days to watch this. I’m not totally dissapointed. The acting, scenery and music was great!

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Live life to the fullest and without regrets. A journey to growth and loss.

I binged the entire 40 episodes in 3 days. I don’t mind the sad ending since sometimes it cannot be avoided in turbulence times like the world they lived in and with the corrupt government they had. But I wish they could have done differently with Wudi, Li Tongguang and Ren Ruyi characters. Firstly, Wudi could have lived and be a better ruler after his mistakes and the experience he had. Everyone put their lives on the line to rescue him but damn they had to kill him off. It felt like a betrayal to the Liu Dao Hall brothers and Yang Ying after all the sacrifices they made. Second, Li Tongguang character didn’t have much character development. He’s obsessed and impulsive until the end. His impulsiveness caused the death of Ning Yanzhou and Ruyi. Last but not least, the suicide mission that Ren Ruyi did. She went out of character, she’s one smart, strong and independent woman, she should have escaped after the assassination and could live well even without Ning Yanzhou.

To me, the romance is a secondary in this show. It was fun to watch Ren Ruyi chasing Ning Yanzhou in earlier episodes. But I was more invested in the entire Wu envoys camaraderies. Liu Dao Hall brotherhood, Yang Ying’s growth and Yu Shishan’s jokes are the highlights of the show. I have never cried so much for a drama like I have watching this one. Yu Shisan and Yang Ying are definitely my favourite characters. Yu Shishan, who always livens the mood with his jokes. I LOVE HIM! Yang Ying as a character has shown a lot of character development, from a timid little princess to a smart and courageous woman whose mission is to maintain peace between the two warring states. I’m gonna check their other works.

This is definitely a MUST WATCH drama for the reasons I mentioned in the second half of this review.

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The overall performance was mind blowing

I must confess, I developed a keen attraction to each and every one of them, the acting and directing was a 10/10, the ending was overly rushed I had to take a break. The Fl almost made me a lesbian lol , the male lead was something else he mad me straight again haha.. he is the love of my life
The princess growth is a thing of fancy I hope the actress gets good deals she’s really an item.
And to the producers thanks for breaking our hearts and making us fall deeply in love.
I think I should be employed to give this dramas a better name, cause the drama name wasn’t just it cause I am about to go Jeffery dhamer

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Ancient custom drama making reference to the Cold War !

This drama is a feast for those who like world history for it took titbits especially from the pages of the Cold War. New interest must had arose in the scriptwriter when in 2017, secret JFK records (US President John F. Kennedy, 1960–1963, assassinated on November 22, 1963—drama specifically aired few days later as remembrance of his 60th death anniversary) were made public by the National Archive.This gave fresh information to make historical conjectures about the past that precisely corresponded to the facts to expound on and comprehend why particular events transpired as they did. A captivating and illuminating drama results from combining some Cold War events with some of its colorful and charismatic characters, a masterful script, and the superb acting of all the protagonists and supporting cast members.
Spoiler Alert.
The ML, Ning Yuan Zhou, was a smart and visionary espionage chief who was demoted and sent to safeguard the Wu emperor in the war. He was the composite of 2 historical figures: JFK and the powerful Director of FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, whose 48-year tenure saw the assassinations of JFK and then his brother, Robert F. Kennedy (RFK), who ran for the presidency in 1968.
The FL,Ren Ru Yin, a cool and relentless vice section head of An female assassin espionage group who was frame for killing her benefactor, the An empress. She had to defect to Wu with state secrets, seeked asylum and assumed a fake identity as a Wu princess She was also a combination of First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, a benchmark for style and class among wives of presidents, and RFK, who, as Attorney-General in his brother's cabinet was known for his ruthlessness and toughness in combating organized crime.
The opening of episode 1, "The Central Plains was thrown into a century of chaos when the last emperor of the previous dynasty was killed, split into many countries; among them 2 were the most powerful, Wu and An."(The Cold War, which lasted 45 years, began with the competition and antagonism between the US and Russia after World War II.)
The An emperor seized 3 cities from Wu and the war with Wu started. ( Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were invaded under Russian leader.Stalin and incorporated into the Soviet Union)
The Wu emperor listened to ill advisers to lead the war and got captured by An, leading Wu to a state of turmoil.( JFK did not listened to security advisers not to ride in an open-air motorcar in Dallas,Texas and got assassinated which shocked and stunned the nation into national mourning.)
The Wu emperor was captured by an An general with a modern revolutionary principle of fighting to end all wars. ( Che Guevara, with his romantically Latin good looks and long, wavy hair , was a legend for freedom fighters and a Marxist-Leninist guerrilla leader, 2nd in command after Fidel Castro of Cuba in the Cuban Revolution.)
The standoff between Wu and An occurred when Wu emperor was taken hostage by An who wanted ransom for his released.( The Cuban Missiles Crisis ,the standoff when US demanded that Russian removed Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba )
The FL, as White Sparrow, and her friend LingLong were to seduce Wu officials for state secrets in a banquet.LL was betrayed by her secret An lover and killed. (John Profumo,  the U.K. secretary of state for war met a model at a party. Unknown to him , she has a secret KGB lover. When the affair was exposed, he resigned but the Conservative Party lost the general election the following year)
Prince Danyang sending his army to ambush and killed the Wu delegation, going to ransom back his brother the Wu emperor. Countrymen fighting against each other. ( The Bay of Pigs incident, when Cuban exiles funded by CIA, landed and attempted to overthrow PM Fidel Castro)
The stunning announcement of unlikely marriage between Li Tong Guan and Chuyue by the An emperor shocked them and everyone else. He was an illegitimate son of a princess, while she was a princess from a powerful tribe. (Jackie Kennedy shocked and stunned the world when she married Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, just months after the assassination of her brother-in-law, RFK. She was from the upper-class society of New York while he worked his way from telephone operator to tycoon.They lived separate lives, she lived months in America with her children, while he was in Greece with his children. She remarried for a variety of reasons, one of which was probably PTSD following another shooting death. She had sat beside her husband when he was shot,stood beside vice president Lyndon B Johnson, when he was sworn in to replace her husband and endured a two-hour trip back to Washington with her husband in a casket and her dress still smeared with his blood. The princess, depicted as a picture of forced composure with an interior full of agony and suffering, sat waiting for an audience with the emperor for hours on end in that scene, which was brilliantly enacted in epi. 22. )
The princess left the sheltered life of the palace as part of a delegation to An, where she witnessed the hardships and impoverishment her people had endured during the conflict.She was even occasionally thrown stones and rotten vegetables to help her comprehend the animosity and wrath, and she responded by promising to restore peace.(The involvement of US in the Vietnam War with actual landing of troops resulting in heavy casualties, contributed to a great deal of animosity and outrage that its leaders failed to anticipate. The scene where Qian Zhao held his mates' badges and forced the emperor to show respect for them was a poignant way for drama to honor the troops who lost their lives fighting in foreign soil. When Saigon fell in 1975, the Vietnam War came to an end. A few days before, there was a dramatic and massive airlift to rescue US citizens, South Vietnamese government officials,their families, and thousands of others by helicopters to the waiting US Seventh Fleet in the South China Sea.Depicted in the rescue of Wu emperor by aerial lift of cables from his island prison)
The drama dragged many episodes to rescue the emperor.From the tightly guarded pagoda prison with its many booby traps to an Alcatraz like island prison. (A parody of sharp contrast from the ridiculously easy fatal shooting of the lone assassin of JFK, Lee Harvey Oswald, to killing him at close range from another lone shooter, Jack Ruby, when he was being transferred from jail to court in police custody! Done in 2 days after the assassination and live on national TV! Real life is much weirder than friction! )
Betrayal was the drama's theme. The motive of the ML was to clear the bad reputation that his espionage organisation had betrayed the emperor in the war. While the Fl was to clear her name that she betrayed and killed her empress.The Wu and An emperors exploited and betrayed their people for their own greed and ego trips. The An Empress who experienced treachery from her father, son, and husband. The crown prince divulging his father's collaboration with the enemy country.There were innumerable such betrayals in the drama. ( In ancient times the punishment for betrayal was to pull out the roots.The writer put forth brilliant deductive speculation coupled with rumors of a connection to Marilyn Monroe, as both brothers did died of gunshots and JFK's only son died childless with his wife in a plane crash. The 2017 files also established that the Russians was not involved in JFK assassination, as they awkwardly put their defence on high security alert for attacks. The files also indicated that there was more than one shooter, as bullet holes demonstrated that the gunfire originated from multiple directions, confirming the conspiracy theorists' long-held belief. Writer theories were presented regarding the conspirators who ordered extermination with extreme caution in the ML statements of “gains and losses” and Zhong Sang ,Wu PM .This historical whodunit murder mystery can be solved upon all releases of secret files once FBI and CIA lift their blocks.).

BTW, the drama has OE like the JFK files. Is the writer venting on the viewers, or is it an act of betrayal?!!

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Well i think is still worth it

I loved this drama from the first episode. while it has some plot flaws like the ltg plot that was just bad, better storytelling could have emerged if they hadn't focused so much on his obsession with ruyi. overall, it's a very good drama, and i adore the dynamics of the characters and has a very good storytelling

My disappointment comes from the last episodes, not because of the deaths – i genuinely enjoy angst – but because of how it was executed. using the impact of sadness seemed like an overused trope in such a short time. up until episode 34, the pacing was excellent, but it felt rushed with the deaths. i'm fine with deaths in historical dramas, but wiping out all of them? it saddens me because there seems to be no point in doing this to the characters. it would be much better if they were better paced it reached a point that it lost momentum for it.
These were characters i truly loved and cared about, and it had the potential to be much better ending if we compare to the beginning, despite everything i will trully miss this drama :(

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