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Don't miss this
It has been a while, I have not enjoyed a series like I have for this. I like main characters, the supporting crews.The plot can be serious and entertaining the same time.
It covers romance, love and sacrifice for the country, friendship , with some touching and meaningful dialogue.
The love between an assassin and group leader started when the assassin wanted to have a baby with the group leader who has character, quality that fits her expectation, love developed as they worked together as team to save the emperor who was held hostage. I have to say this is one kind of love I would envy, more than some modern love stories I have watched lately. Supporting each other, trusting , respect with some meaningful and Not cheesy dialogue. I am convinced about their love.
The supporting crews are interesting too. The fighting scenes are well made.
I am glad to find this series to fill my time.
****Spoiler alert*******The ending may not be well liked and kind of rush, not as good as front part, but it is war time, no matter how great the fighters they are, they are still a small group against a huge troop army before the help arrives, it is a tough battle (I will not pick on few loopholes, as overall, it is well made). The little boy most likely from someone who named their kids , as remembrance of their heroic sacrifices and legacy (the boy mentioned uncle Ding, another squad member). They live in memory.
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The journey is all that matters
This drama is a truly a treat before the year ends. It has all the great things that you need in the drama. The cinematography, great characters, wonderful acting, amazing character growth, fabulous fighting scene, lovely romance, badass leads, np damsel in distress, intelligent characters. What more can you as for?I gave it a perfect 10 because this one has a really great plot. Despite of the create your own ending part, every episodes is a joyful to watch...I never get bored or fast forward because it was pure entertaining. The best part of this drama is the brotherhood. Gosh!! Our diplomatic team went to a journey in a rush, without much planning ,but because everyone is capable enough. they got through in all the obstacles. But more importantly your will LAUGH!!!
I just want to highlight my best Chief.. Ning Yuan Zhou played by Liu Yuning. My guy really improved a lot! And NYZ is the leader that was needed with full of people that was chaotic and got different personalities. He stand firm like a true boss. He was intelligent and strong. A true leader that you can count on. But when he was with his lover Ruyi, gosh! He was like a new person, sweet and know how to handle a strong woman. They truly are a power couple. They are really made for each other. No one can handle a strong, intelligent and reserve NYZ and the same with Ruyi which was independent and strong.
Such a wonderful drama and I can rewatch this without hesitation despite of the angst at the end because the acting is so touching and moving that I can watch them again and again while I'm sobbing in my pillow.
Do not hesitate.. It's a magnificent drama.
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highly recommended for those who like strong female lead + team work + action.
highly recommended for those who like strong female lead + team work + action.Personal Opinion : An interesting story series full of action comedy. Costumes, sets, and camera work were all very good. Everyone's acting was good, especially Liu Shishi's acting, expression is great! In short, Just looking like a wow😄.
I think the speed has been bumped up a bit to reduce the runtime, which I noticed at first. But after the 3rd episode, I got so immersed in the story that I didn't think about it anymore. Overall its an enjoyable series, I was never bored for a single minute.
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rushed ending but overall good drama
This is my first review..From episode 1, we can see powerful ML and FL and a bunch of other characters who are friends of the ML. I liked the way they wrote the ML and FL characters; the audience can understand their love and respect for each other without too much speech. Initially, this was okay. After that, it felt repetitive. I was like, "Stop with these dialogs. I want the plot to move forward." However, these episodes didn't seem like fillers, for that I have to praise the screenwriter; otherwise, I would have dropped this drama long ago.
Now, coming to this shipper squad, what's with all this eavesdropping? I couldn't help but wonder if anyone would feel comfortable with someone listening to their private conversations. Here, the screenwriter made it look like comedy.
One of the best character developments is YY. I like her very much. Still, I have another question mark: when did YL and YY fall in love? All the episodes we have seen, they were acting like siblings. I can understand from YL's perspective; maybe he had secret admiration or a crush on her but did not dare to say. Coming to YY, she loved another guy from the start, and knowing he betrayed her, she was left heartbroken. But when did she fall in love with YL to the extent that she can't forget him her whole lifetime? Just a few minutes of talk on the rooftop – no, their conversation felt childish. Here, the plot is lacking. The same goes for Yu Shi San and Chu Yu. I hoped their love story was given more screen time.
And what's with LTG? This is the only character I hated, loved, felt sad about, and had mixed emotions. In fact, I really cared about him. His character is creepy from the start, and I really hoped his character would have proper development by the end. I just want him to get over his obsession with his shifu. This guy won't even realize that what he has for her is respect and admiration, but not romantic love. We viewers can't see romantic love in his face. And the romantic love aspect was missing between YY and YL as well. The unresolved aspects of LTG's character, coupled with the rushed explanations, left me extremely disappointed. What's with that impulsive nature at the end?
And the wedding arc... Stop, man. I am tired of NYZ teaching LTG.
coming to the deaths of the remaining squad members . Why they wanted to kill each and every character??.
I hold the belief that a loveless marriage requires time to develop genuine love. I hope that eventually, LTG and YY can develop feelings for each other and build a happy family. Life should not come to a standstill because of one person; we must continue to move forward.
The ending, it makes sense that Chu Yu died after 10 years and reunites with other people.
My only problem is they rushed these last 6 episodes. The plot is moving very fast, difficult to catch up.
Overall, it is an enjoyable ride.
My score: 6/10.
Sorry, it has a lot of flaws. What I appreciate is it has good fighting scenes, and I literally enjoyed Strong FL here.
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Best chinese drama of 2023. Favorite Female Lead of any drama.
This was a beautiful drama, everything from the makeup and costumes to the fight scenes was done exceptionally well. Acting was on point the entire time, it wasn't overly funny and cutesy like china likes to do, and it wasn't boringly serious either, they hit just the right note.Ren Ruyi and Ning Yuanzhou are perfect main characters, they both stand briliantly by themselves, and form a perfect couple together. The Female Lead, unlike what is popular, is not dependant on the ML, and doesn't cry every 5 mins. She's strong, dependable, smart, and acts like a mature grown woman instead of a child. The ML is the best at what he does, but instead of being cruel like most other drama leads in his position, he is kind and affectionate towards his brothers. When they are together they form a beautiful sight.
The Princess is the one who really rises up throughout the show, it is so rare to see a princess show such growth, it was an amazing progression throughout the season. I would love to see more of her in a 2nd season.
The soundtrack was great, the combat music for the female lead is so hype it always gets me giddy with excitement.
I've already begun rewatching the show.
The only flaw to point out is the rush in the last 6 episodes, with the amount of content they rushed through, they could've done an entire 2nd season for the show instead.
Definitely watch this, you will not regret it.
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No, no, no
This is a disaster.Deadpan face female lead.
No chemistry between the male and female leads.
Action that picks up once in a while, but most of the movie is carried by exposition of feelings, rather than acting of feelings, with long pseudo dialogues which are in fact monologues.
Over the still water of countless cheesy scenes comes thundering down the music, overpowering dialogue, acting and everything else in its path.
Hard to watch are all sorts of stupid decisions on the part of the scriptwriter and director.
Imagine that the main protagonists are in the middle of full scale war, and for the purpose of professing their love, the whole battle around them simply disappears. Literally. What was a field full of fierce warriors becomes an empty set. And this is a recurring feat on the part of the scriptwriter and director.
Or script inconsistencies that show how long are the distances and how hard it is to cover them, to then see, in the blink of a cinema frame, how the main characters pop up in cities far apart.
Ridiculous.
I, honest to God, have no idea why the score for this movie is so high.
As viewers we are suspposed to suspend logic, to enjoy a story, for years or months do not pass in a few hours of movie.
However, once our heads are inside the story, having accepted the premise, we should not have our sense of logic and consistency trashed.
It is disgraceful.
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All was good until they started killing them one by one
I enjoyed the first part very much and the romance potential from different characters along with what seemed a great plot had me very interested. Then the second male lead starts going too crazy about his master and it starts to be a bit off. There are moments where he seems to recover and in the next episode loses it again. Then it's like "OK we had enough fun so let's start killing the good guys one at a time with so many twists that you get dizzy". The Best Actress award goes to the young princess.Was this review helpful to you?
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Life is unpredictable, live it to the fullest, die without any regrets
My favourite drama of 2023....if anyone wants to know whether to watch it or not then here are my thoughts on this:This drama has healthy relationship between main leads and other characters and heartwarming,funny, emotional,cute love stories.
It's about the characters journey to living their life to the fullest in the time of war and chaos.
It's about never giving up no matter how worse the situation is, it's about designing ur destiny with ur hands .
Spoilers ahead:
The ending gave me a real bad heartache though.... but it's understandable as the given situation of war...not much we can do about it.
My poor sweet boy shisan ❤️❤️
He was the sweetest....i hope he get more memorable roles like this I don't want to see him as a SML with a sad storyline and have a poker face always...he has so much potential.
Each and every character was fabulous
The female lead and her character is always gonna be my favourite one forever...the strongest female lead I ever watched and it didn't feel unrealistic...
I was little mad at qian Zhao and jiu'er that crazy guy 😒
They both were stupid as hell so many time obviously I m talking about the character not the actors.
Few things I felt were unnecessary but it doesn't really hold back this drama from being a wonderful one.
It was about their journey and we all viewers had this journey together with them we laughed with them we cried with them.....each and every character had growth and development...it was enjoyable to see them grow.
And the love story of chu Yue and shisan was my favourite part of this drama they got so little screen time together in this drama yet their chemistry was outstanding they made me wish for them to be together...and made me cry with them.
Each and every actor played their role very well...even the character of empress zhajie was so heartwarming even tho it was just for few minutes in the drama.
Tbh i wasn't expecting much from this drama but surprisingly it became one of my favourite drama of this year.
Really great work put by everyone ❤️❤️
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Stop watching after ep 34
One of the best Chinese drama of 2023.... but like most of the cdrama the ending was worse.. means like why do all the 5 men if L hall has to die and at last ruyi also dies.. why can't all of them life happily... and at the last what does the that ning shisan maens...re-watch value is high .. if i am going to re-watch it, i will watch till ep 34 only...
Its mainly the character development of ying and Li tonguang... like how both of them get matured...
*if anyone going to watch it for the first time then only watch till ep 34, otherwise you are going to 😭😭 to see your loved characters dying one after another*
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What a drama!
It's been a long time since i last encountered a drama that won't let me move on. Acting is on point, scenery is amazing, a high-budget drama indeed. The martial art scenes left me in awe wow, especially the scenes with the diplomatic team members. Liu shishi, liu yuning, fang yilun, and all the other supporting characters did a very good job executing those scenes. Also, the development of each character can be seen throughout the drama with the most noticable one is princess yang ying. I have never seen her in any other dramas, and she totally got me surprised with her acting skill! If only they had twisted the ending a little bit, i would have given this a full ten. Anyway, i won't say much more about the plot, just give it a watch. Just a reminder, prepare some tissues.Was this review helpful to you?
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The badass Female assasin & Liu Dao Halls' 5 elite squad assembled!
"I'm not consulting you. I'm informing you." - Ren XinI hereby declare personal grudge against the writer (Zhang Wei) of this story. I want to be impartial and just be nice because this drama has brought me so much happiness and entertainment; but, how can I do that when she turned such a promising and amazing drama into a stupid tragic path? I'm extremely dumbfounded at the same time furious over her disgusting and treacherous act. This drama could have been a happy ending but for some reason her crazy mind went wild and decided to kill the main characters one after another, continously... and even if she implied that Ning Yuan Zhou and Ren Ru Yi magically survived and is alive at the end—through their "kids". I still cannot take that to comfort me and make me feel redemptive over this excellent story that was unfortunately ended tragically. NYZ and RRY is parenting the entire squad like they're their own children and yet she decided to slaughter them one by one. Gosh! My Parents deserves better treatment!
I want to conclude this rant section of my review by saying, I got so much beef with the writer of this drama and I think it will last forever. She excels in making good story unfortunately she also got a strong obsession in turning everything into a tragedy.
Disclaimer: Even after all the things I stated above, I still won't deny how good of a writer she is. The script is exceptionally well written and god knows how blowned away I was watching the exchange of words from the characters of this story.
Moving forward, I want to say how much I enjoyed this drama as a whole. The intro was perfect and so does the suceeding episodes until the tragedy I mentioned above started. I love how their love story started naturally as strangers who accidentally encountered one another but didn't immediately fall in love; rather, they allow us to witness their suspicions that gradually developed into trust to mutual affection then finally, love.
In terms of chemistry, I'd say they're straight out insane! It's crazy how their very first interaction which was an intense scene turned out to be full of sparks and charisma; and don't even let mention how compelling their following future scenes are, because I might spend my entire time fanboying over how perfect they are together. I also want to mention here how Ren Ru Yi's 'I want to have a baby with you' to NYZ has lived and explored entirely free in my mind. My imagination runs wild with this two (NYZ as a surrogate Father lol). Also, their infatuation and indenial moments are the cutest! I cringe so much in a good way because of them.
Next thing I want to talk about are the supporting characters. I don't usually do this, but I feel like each one of them deserves to be acknowledged for their excellent role and portrayal in this story.
"You've trained a sparrow in a royal cage into an Eagle" - Princess Yang Ying
Princess Yang Ying/Prince Li Heng portrayed by He Lan Dou is the MVP of this drama for me. She went from a fragile and docile cub into a full grown tigress. This is one of those times I realized how good the writer is. She transformed the weak and damsel in distress Princess and made her a tough decisive one. Of course, this wouldn't happen without He Lan Dou's acting prowess and versatility. I love her a lot in this show.
Yuan Lu played by Chen You Wei is one of my favorite out of all the characters of this drama. He's cheerful, bright and overall entertaining. I'm so proud of this guy, he's the epitome of positivity and good vibes. I'm the most disheartened when the writer finally decided to kill him. Grr! I guess, I'm just grateful that he died full of pride and valiantly.
Li Tong Guang played by Chang Hua Sen by far is the most overrated character of this story. This man's emotionally unstable and I find it unbelievable how he broke down in the middle of a losing war. I admit that he's good looking and charismatic but his physical appearance alone doesn't fill the gap in his character for me. Chang Hua Sen's acting here is great though. I often find him amusing, specially during his mental breakdown scenes for his Master Ren Xin.
Yu Shi Shan played by Fang Yi Lun - This is my first time to watch him play a lively and carefree role and I must say he nailed it! It feels refreshing to watch him be annoying and mischievous almost all the time compared to the previous roles he's acted on.
Qian Zhao played by Wang Yi Zhe for me is the serious brother of the gang who played the role of a Vice captain whenever NYZ is not around. Wang Yi Zhe impresses me on how he portrayed this character so well.
Sun Lang played by Li Huan is the least favored character for me. I feel like the writer doesn't like him that much base on how little his screentime are the whole show.
Special mention to Zhang Song played by Zhang Lei. His acting on Episode 3 alone made me realized that Vetaran actors are a cut of their own cloth. The lines were written eloquently and provocatively but the way he delivered it gave me real chills. His control and command of his actions and facial expressions hightened the tension of his scenes for me.
I know this is getting lengthy so let me just mention some unpredictable scenes which I have mixed feelings of.
First is the pairings and love teams. It changes so constantly and unexpectedly that I don't know anymore what to expect. This aspect of the storyade me disappointed and dumbounded a lot.
Second is the death of the main cast! Dang! I still can't move on! I know that they all died in a reasonable way and with great valour but then, I still can't let go of my 'supposed' happy ending. (Sighs)
Lastly, I just want to commend this drama for its slick, refined and smooth exhibitions of their fight scenes. Martial arts choreography is Mad! Specially Liu Xi Xi and Liu Yu Ning's. My satisfaction of them is at its peak!
P.S. My favorite moments of this drama is when the Main casts are all together casually hanging out and having fun. + Why do I find them cute when they all finally assembled? Hahaha! What an adorable bunch. <3
Story - 9.5, Although I hate the fact that the entire Main cast was killed; I guess, I'm just glad that it was done in a logical and valorous way. Like I mention above I can never do this drama dirty just because I hate its ending, so I would still give credits where it's due. Also, it's one of those dramas where both leads are cool and highly skilled; and coincidently the two fo them wanted to live peacefully and normally but how dare the Writer give them an actual eternal peace!
Acting/Cast - 10, I believe my above sentiments is enough to explain how satisfied I am with the casting and acting on this drama. So, let me take this time to mention how great of a choice for them to cast both Liu Yu Ning and Liu Shi Shi. First of, I wanna say that I'm mad at those people who are hating on Liu Yu Ning just because he's not handsome enough? when his role doesn't require him to be one! and he's so damn fine from head to toe. So whatdaheck!? Liu Shi Shi on the otherhand is a full package for her role. Beautiful that's goddess-like and a real badass seductress! Her stares hypnotizes me to the point where I'm down on my knees every single time. Lol
Music - 10, I will boldly declare and claim that this drama's Music Team is on the same level of those in K-dramas. All the music used are endearing and perfectly fits each of the scene they're used for. This is also the first time in 2 years? where I literally downloaded and added the songs to my playlist for offline listening (Spotify).
Rewatch Value - 10, Honestly, I would still rewatch and will also highly recommend this to everyone. I mean, the cool and badass scenes each episode are enough to make me rewatch this. Not to mention how entertaining this show is as a whole.
Overall - 9.5, I still feel bad of the tragic ending but this drama is simply not one of those craps out there that I can derate solely for it's ending—because this is more than that! Nonetheless, I would like to encourage everyone to watch this drama to experience the entertainment and pleasure I felt when I was binge watching like crazy.
IF you find my review helpful please let me know
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wasn’t expecting this
I have to say I wasn’t expecting this drama to be so touching. I was astonished with the play of the main leads. It is indeed a journey for everyone- not only in real name of it but in growing up and discovering the meaning of true base of love, friendship and duty between characters. I guess like most of the viewers after staying in continuous pain from episode 35, arriving to the end was a challenge. I knew it already coming- unclear ending- our wish for the success of happy ending for main leads but actually happened to be only a dream fantasy. Life is cruel but we should stay grateful and make our journey the most valuable and meaningful. I love all the leading actors that could bring the best of them in this show to be memorable for me. thank you.Was this review helpful to you?
