the cinematography is crazy!
I found this drama from the teaser on the wetv application and decided to wait for it to air. I felt sad when I heard that this drama had problems being broadcast, but finally it was able to be broadcast.I've been watching it since the drama was released because I was waiting for it. I saw that the teaser was very good because I really like dramas with dark and cool tones. Very much my type!
I immediately liked the first episode, the actors' acting was also good. I like Esther's type of acting in this drama, I think she suits her role and she is very beautiful with a calm and cool character in this drama.
The story is good, I like the plot even though I felt confused about the family tree in this drama. But I always find it difficult to understand the family tree in historical dramas hahahaa
What I like most is the CGI, cinematography, visual effects, the shooting is very beautiful to watch! All the scenes are worth looking at more carefully because they are really good!
But I was very annoyed with the ending of the story, why does it have to be an open ending? And even the two main characters haven't had much time together
For the OST, I don't remember hearing any songs in this drama, maybe because I was too serious when watching it
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Painstakingly slow then kaboom! Then ??!
The title of this review is the arc of the whole show.Let me start with the good:
Amazing cast, music and costumes. The story is great too but I'll explain later why I docked points. Everybody plays their roles perfectly and believeably. It was my first time seeing Luyu Xiao in a semi-villainous role and wow, she killed it! I loved the intricate and complicated structure of the Gong family (back and front hill). Super cool and unique.
The bad:
So, the story itself is a 9. However, for some reason they paced it so slowly, which is why I rated it 7.5. Despite being only 24 episodes long, it really feels like a lifetime because a) the pacing and b) for some reason the director made all the characters talk.......like........this...... It's already a dark and moody show, there's really no need for the characters to speak at snail speed.
The story then picks up in the last 4-5 episodes leaving the viewer on the edge, only to end with great part of the storyline unresolved. It feels like you get tricked out of a reward for getting to the end and now I hear it doesn’t look like a sequel will happen. I wish more shows would end more cleanly without betting on whether or not they'll get a sequel.
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Gi start and then..
The storyline started with potential but quickly became predictable and repetitive. Character development felt shallow, and many emotional scenes lacked impact due to forced dialogue. The pacing dragged in several episodes, making it hard to stay engaged. Overall, it felt like a missed opportunity.Visually, the costumes and sets were appealing, but the script failed to capture the depth and complexity of the period. The plot relied too heavily on clichés, and some historical details felt inaccurate or oversimplified. Performances were uneven, with certain roles coming across as one-dimensional.
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Catch me if you can
I was actually surprised by this drama, as the description didn't give too much away and I avoided any potential spoilers, so I went into this blind.As for me, I loved the dynamic between the three brothers. Each had their own character and back-story and there was some character developement as well.
As for Yun Weishan and Qian, they both have been interesting as well, with the ladder being more complex, yet less likable to me. I appreaciated the tone of romance for both of them as it suited both their personalities.
The plot left me guessing until the end. I am afraid I am not so smart and I enjoy the plot twists as I usually do not see them coming. It was a gripping story, with enough suspense for me to keep binge watching. I love undercover stories, schemes and a good "cat-and-mouse" game.
The ending could have been executed in a better way, but after reading some of the comments, I kinda get it. Still, I think the plot is lacking in this aspect and some scenes dragged on too long.
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An Incredible Series Undone by Its Own Finale
My Journey to You completely hooked me — the atmosphere, the cast, the visuals were all incredible, and I loved watching these actors bring such a dark, intricate world to life. But the ending ruined it for me. After all that buildup, it collapsed into a confusing, open, honestly crappy finale that felt more like a cliffhanger than a real conclusion. Even the reviews say the same thing — anti‑climactic, nothing resolved, too many mysteries left hanging. And knowing they actually filmed a different ending just makes it worse, because that version could’ve saved the whole series.Was this review helpful to you?
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... the ending ruins it all
sorry for instant spoiler but i watched 24 episodes to see a resolution and not this cliffhanger sad stuff, seeing whatever main guys name is heart broken....other than that they talk a LOT. like it's 70% talking dialogue, 20% fighting stuff and 10% story. it was interesting enough to continue watching but i had several moments where i fell asleep.
i loved the cast and the characters so it was interesting to watch all of the side characters stories and the backgrounds.
the music was great, i usually dont care for that but i actually listen to the songs in my free time.
sometimes it was a bit confusing as to why some people could fight the badass people easily or not easily and that kind of stuff, like the skills were weird. why was that qian girl so good it in fighting jin fan but ran away when the sister showed up.
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A journey that goes nowhere
To begin, I have heard of this drama for a while since I got into K-dramas, then C-dramas, and decided to check it out.I was mostly intrigued by the whole female assassin plot and I already knew a good chunk of what this type of trope was (the spy sent to kill but falls in love with their target) I was rather curious about the execution.
It was disappointing because it loses its intrigue by the middle of the story. The beginning was good, the middle point it got rather boring and slow, and by the finale episode it got interesting again, and the ending was just what? That's the problem with Guo Jingming dramas, is that it's beautiful aesthetically and world-building-wise, but besides that, his writing goes nowhere, then somewhere, then ultimately nothing. Basically a nothing burger.
I liked seeing Gong Ziyu's character evolve; I mean, who doesn’t love an underdog story?
It was rather annoying how long the breaks were between each trial because I mostly felt it wasn’t taken seriously, and the constant back and forth was hard to keep up. Tho he is the master of his family now, so it’s understandable why they did that, but during the middle arc of the story, if it wasn’t for his older sister's comedic timing, I would’ve gotten bored quite easily.
The ending was just badly done. I did some research, and it is confirmed by the director that the ending was intended to be sad, and it seems he doesn’t have any plans anytime soon for a season 2.
I know this drama went through difficulties back then because of an actor who got into a scandal, but the ending was rather badly written. Because I interpret it as more of an open ending, probably like many others, but as an open ending, it had way too many storylines that they didn’t bother to wrap up. So if they plan to ever make an S2 in the future, I think it would be rather difficult to pick up where they left off without some weird/awkward pacing
The romance plot line was rather disappointing because I looked forward to the ZLH and YSX pairing, and it a shame it didn’t really do them justice (I hope they get reunited in a future romance drama together)
The 2nd couple tho! They stole my attention with their tension in every scene, like omg, I was invested!
I hope they reunite in another drama as leads as well!
YSX was so cool in this role!! that I wish she would get more opportunities to portray similar roles like this in the future, rather than the typecasting of a constant cute, adorable, sunshine, positive character
I mean, I have nothing against these types of characters, but it rather limits her abilities.
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Beautiful dark and riveting
I keep going back to how genuinely gorgeous this drama was. The colors, aesthetic, every shot was so beautiful and cinematic I couldn't get enough. I think a lot of dramas are beautiful but suffer from low budget and these days the 3D printed costumes and props are cheap and common. This drama doesn't rely on any of that but solely on the beauty of the environment and the actors themselves. God, every single person in this drama is beautiful. When Esther said that the director promised he would give her the most beautiful shots, he was not lying.Watching this show felt like reading a book in the best way possible. The plot was intriguing and I was obsessed with every character's thoughts and motivations. I will admit the ending fell and I was quite disappointed but I still very much enjoyed every minute of watching this.
I will be watching everything this director does from now on because he is my new Greta Gerwig.
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I watched this drama twice before writing my review
Let’s start with I like or love about this drama:1. OST - idk but it has me in a spell
2. Aesthetic/visual/cinematography - I saw the trailer of this drama and I told myself, “wow I’m going to watch that for the vibes”
3. Acting - I know how some didn’t like Esther here but this was a breath of fresh air for me. The dramas I’ve seen her in, she’s always the vibrant, cute character. Here I think she was able to pull the “no feelings, I’m supposed to be blank assassin” 😂. But really I think everyone was pretty good but Cheng Lei, Lu Yu Xiao, Tian Jian Rui, eldest young miss, Hanya Si, and the back hill boys stole the show for me
4. I love the characters, I think they all served their purpose. My Back Hill boys have a special place in my heart
What I didn't like:
THE FACT THAT THERE IS NO SEASON 2 OR CONFIRMATION OF IT!!! Because after watching this twice, that was the gate opening!!! What a literal open-ended ending
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ok
Welcome to the world of assassins and lords where drinking tea and poisons are your everyday meal. premier of the drama was interesting, assassins invading the area in disguise as a bride, but later felt the true purpose of the story was lost in too many side stories. the true plot and the mastermind behind all this was revealed at the very end, alwhile it was just events leading to it.my greatest disappointment was the lead chemistry, which seemed forced atleast on the FL part. the ML who was portrayed as a weakling was helped by the FL to pass the initial tests which seemed as a betrayal on the story to me.
and suddenly our ML becomes more confident and powerful with training, which seemed unbelievable.
the only thing that marginally saved this drama was the second lead and their Chemi, zishang and jin fan❤️, the plot of this drama which is also not 100% perfect, and had its own plot holes
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Intriguing story, complex characters, dark setting
The cinematography is beautiful like the costumes, the cast is fantastic and the story is deep, thrilling and dark.People aren't who they say they are, loyalties are uncertain and friendships can turn sour. This drama has all the suspense and mystery to keep you hooked with a beautiful cast and stunning visuals. The fight scenes are well choreographed.
I love the overall setting and theming. Its a very believable and compelling storyline that mellows out slightly towards the end. I loved seeing the two girls deceive each other and also work together for their own goals. the mail leads are stunning and experienced.
The main negative is the ending which is not complete, it is open ended and leaves you a bit confused at what they were going for story wise. There is also not too much romance but the rest of the drama carries it enough that it is not overly necessary.
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Great Action! Second Lead Couple Amazin!
It started off good. But then not much was happening, then something happened, and then back to not much, and then right at the end too much was happening.I love the action here! The fighting was impressive! To my surprised was seeing the actresses get dirty during those scenes were they are fighting in water mud through Wufeng's training ground or whatever, idk usually even until the character's death the director's would preserved their beauty or not to get their makeup ruined so I do appreciate little moments were actresses would get dirty for role/scene. I'm back to watching cdramas again so excuse me if this note was random.
I do like the second lead couple a lot more. There's so much complexity and depth into those two characters that made them so interesting to watch every time and how they are both unpredictable characters makes it also interesting to watch as compared to the main lead which they more stale, predictable and quite boring. As much as I wanted to root for the main couple since I loved these two in Love Between Fairy and Devil, I can't say the same for them in this drama. It's just they are too plain, though there were a few cute moments I enjoyed them! I lowkey have a ghost ship between Yun and Yuan Zhi, they would honestly make the best enemies to lovers ngl.
Shang Jue was a character that was supposed to be like an antagonist brother, idk what to label him anywho, even so, I couldn't help but agree with him a lot of the times even though he was making it harder for the ML. Even if I didn't like his attitude before I wouldn't hate the idea of him being the next Sword Wielder, in fact I be all for it because nothing he said was honestly wrong. His intuition and lead was spot on most of the time.
I do find the defeat of the Elder brother a bit underwhelming? I also felt like a lot of things were happening in an episode all at once during this battle which is understandable since lots of things can happen during a big battle however it was just a lot to take in idk. Especially the Young Master Hua's death, his character was so minimal his death was so unexpected especially when we barely just found out about his identity as a Young Master, and his little backstory that we are suppose to care about I mean it's still pitiful and sad, but like there's not much to build off his character and story ngl especially since he rarely ever gets scenes.
Honestly, this could be said with a lot of the character's death here, like the ML's father (the transition to his death wasn't impactful enough to make me feel sorry for the ML or the father, the only time i actually connected to the ML's father was when the flashback scene of him doing gardening for the ML's mother, seeing that made me empathize for him and how his love wasn't being send the way he wanted it to unknowingly. This was more impactful than him being a typical harsh father who pushed his son to success out of love. I think the bother, Shang Jue did a better job doing the emotional push to make the ML stronger. However what shouldn't have been surprising but was still surprising for me was that before the father died, his choice to pass on the Sword Wielder position was to Shang Jue cause typically I'm used to just the father always choosing the ML regardless of how unfitted they are for the position starting off.)
ML's mother death (personally, i didn't care about her, in fact I actually was really annoyed with her, like i get it, she misunderstood the ML's father's love nor did she wanted to understand it since she loved someone else, but all the talk from Wuji about how "even if she was emotionally unavailable to be your mother she still loved you", like i know deep down she cared about her own son, but truthfully i can't sympathize with her character. She gave birth to him so yah she's a mother, she showed him one act of motherly love in which he cherish that memory but like, that's only one memory of her not neglecting her child so of course he cherished that memory and mask which he doesn't care for anymore lmfao because it was brought up and never brought up ever again, but other than that TO ME she really hasn't earned her right to be a mother. But the ML loves her so what can I really say, if he recognizes her as his mother then I can't really say much about it only about the writing/character).
To my surprised was Shangguan Qian win against Jin Fan. Go girl. Honestly I think I have more to say but I'm going to leave it at this until the next season? If we do get it lmfao...
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