Blood River

Intriguing Storyline, Great Fight Scenes

Usually C-Dramas especially with wuxia and even xianxia dramas the fight scenes are so cringey to me and almost hard to watch. However, the fight scenes in this drama is very executed--great CGI and exciting to watch! Very good fight scenes, I'm impressed.

To premise I did not watch Dashing Youth nor did I watch The Blood of Youth, so I watched Blood River without any prior knowledge of this worlds/past characters. I came for my favorite Peng Xiao Ran and ended up staying for the storyline. Seriously, if you are looking for a storyline that's not draggy but is actually interested and will keep your interest the whole way this is the one. I will admit it is a little bit confusing when they reference other characters from DY but it did not negatively impact the storyline and I feel it is still understandable even if you haven't watched the other two dramas.

The romance is there although more subtle so keep that in mind as you're watching this drama. The focus is more on the bromance and the actually story so less of a focus on romance. With that being said the romance scenes are sweet and enough to satiate a romance lover. I knew this ahead of time before watching so I wasn't disappointed at all with the romance levels. I actually felt like it was nice that the romance wasn't too overly done. The story line felt more serious and I really enjoyed watching the companionship between the Blood River members--love them all so much! Their characters really grow on you.

I will say the ONLY disappointment I have with this drama was I was expecting my girl Peng Xiao Ran to be FL (the whole reason I started watching this drama). She didn't have as much screentime as I would've liked and I wish we could've watched more of her relationship with Tang Lian Yue (Zhang Shi An). Still worth a watch in my opinion!

Great drama, great script, great character development, and great ending! High potential for rewatch as well. ❤️

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The Best Adapatation in the TBOY Series

So amazing!!!! The peak level of friendly platonic bromance! And the constant subversion of expectations when your main characters are all bad guys just trying to be good.

THE CHARACTERS
Su Chang He (Chuang Hua Sen's character and SML) was PERFECCCCTTTTT!!! I know everyone is agreeing that he is the standout character/actor in this show. So complicated, but ultimately motivated by such intrinsic goodness and loyalty. So willing to lay down all power, control, prestige, for his friends. Gains everyone's following and the highest leadership title so early on, and yet forever acts subservient to others. A real humble king-like character: super OP, but always taking the humblest position.
Gong Jun's character really grew on me as well! It was nice that he was not always a goody two shoes, took justice into his own hands, trusted and understood SCH so unconditionally, and only really got murderous when it was to avenge SCH.

THE FLAWS
The worst 2 parts were 1) the romance, and 2) the unrealistic way that so many people lived for the sake of loving the "art of the sword", and treated every conflict like there were no real issues of life and death or strife in the world. Like when the city is under attack and the OP guys are somewhere playing chess and just commenting on how power is changing hands right now somewhere nearby (like why don't you do something about it and lend a hand???). People have important missions and they are willing to abandon them mid-mission just to fight a "worthy opponent" (unprovoked, not their enemy, just happens to be present). And if they get defeated, they just brush it off and fly away like it was not important to begin with. Most fights have no meaning, most people live so frivolously that you wonder how their society is functioning, because who is actually earning money, doing agriculture, running the city, building infrastructure, etc?
And the romance was just such an obnoxious deterrent from the ICONIC bromances going on, every last one. The only saving grace for this is that **spoiler** none of the CPs worked out in the end ;)

BETTER THAN TBOY
But this is so much better than the other stories in this world - The Blood Of Youth and Dashing Youth - b/c there was actually some MEANING to most of the battles. The Blood River folks had a purpose for their fights and power struggles. They never just fought to test out their skills (even though some non-Blood River people did), but they were fighting to the death to gain the title of the Patriarch, and then to free themselves from their patrons, and then to gain allies to help them re-write their name in society. Always a tangible goal, and always a fight that if it was not won and both sides made it out alive and unscathed, they could not allow the other to continue. Not like TBOY where **spoiler** they had so many fights in the first 10 episodes over the guy in the coffin, and then ultimately he just walked out on his own and kept going in the direction that everyone was trying to take him to (which was the SAME direction btw, I don't even know why they had to fight in the first place).
And also, the friendships here were so real, deep, and full of history, unlike the TBOY friendships that were formed on the fly in real-time and resulted in loyalty and proclamations of brotherhood that seemed to come out of nowhere and be rooted in knowing nothing about each other, very unrealistic.

All in all, so many positives that it cancels out all of the negatives and warrants a near perfect score.

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Man this show was such a letdown

i loved TBOY so much, then saw Dashing youth, I didn't love it that much at the start but somewhere around episode 10 i fell in love with it and even made me love Neo Hou as an actor

but this one was the opposite, I really loved it, till around the episode 20-25 mark when the whole Tang sect / tianqi arc started

it bored me to tears, i became so pissed off and used my free will to start to skip scenes at episode 30

just so much talking and the same boring fighting sequences

a better actor than gong jun might have carried this but damn he was stiff af (and trust me i love him alot)

this was just so underwhelming, and I had to skip 32 - 36, because it was literally torture

i guess this will be the only one in the series that I give a 5/10, solely for the first half

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Watch it - You're Welcome in Advance

As I'm writing this, I want to go back and rewatch... I really liked the chemistry between Su Mu You and Su Chang He. Their brotherly bond that transcends even their desire to survive. I love that nothing broke this bond. That was my absolute favorite part of this drama. Too often we get dramas where there is this bond that is supposed to be closer than family, but when tested, one betrays the other for whatever reason. I am SO glad this wasn't one of them.

I guess that's a partial spoiler..."

Gong Jun and Chang Hua Sen really work well together. I loved them SO SO SO SO much. I have seen more of them both in other dramas. I'd seen Chang Hua Sen in Whispers of Fate (a guest role), Moonlight Mystique, Are You The One, and Veil of Shadows. I've only seen Gong Jun in Word of Honor (you gotta watch this drama) before this. He didn't disappoint.

I had previously watched Dashing Youth, so I had some beginner's knowledge into Blood River. Other than the great brotherly bond (I know, I know, my fellow BL lovers will be reading into this bond, but it IS platonic) between them, I really liked the fast-paced action scenes, which balanced the emotional tension of the dialogue-heavy scenes. A romance this is not, and I am glad they didn't throw a useless FL into the storyline just because. The scenes are moody and dark, as fitting for the most feared assassin guild of the realm. Thankfully, I did not find the dark scenes too dark to view (you know, when the director doesn't provide enough lighting for viewers and you're questioning if anything is even going on in the scene? I find those highly irritating- especially when they last a long time. While I can understand the choice, as a viewer, I want to WATCH the drama, not imagine what may be happening in the scene.)

Overall, I recommend this drama if you like brotherhood and well choreographed martial arts scenes with appealing visual effects (plus that on screen chemistry between our guys is peak).

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Uneven Story. Great Visuals, but Heavy on CGI. Good Actors Underutilized, Except for Chang Huasen.

WATCH THIS IF:
--You enjoyed the donghua (anime) version of the same story called "Tale of Dark River". From what I hear, Blood River tracks pretty closely to what happens in the donghua, at least for the first maybe 10 episodes. BR also has a very anime look to it.
--You love CGI-dependent fight scenes. Many of the fights require CGI to make, for instance, building-height demons fight each other. Not my thing, but no judgment if you love this.
--You love dramas full of pretty people. This is a very pretty cast, the men and the women.
--You're an enormous Gong Jun fan who's happy just to see him onscreen doing anything. No shame in that!
--You're open to being wowed by Chuang Huasen in a "bad guy" role that I hope makes him a star. His is the most interesting, charismatic, emotionally complex performance in BR. I might've stopped watching without him.
--You're willing to suffer through several rough or "suboptimal" episodes early on to get to greener pastures in the middle and a bigger payoff at the end.

DO NOT WATCH THIS IF:
--You're hoping to see GJ in top acting form. WoH remains his best performance so far, by far.
--You're watching for Peng Xiaoran, who has very little screentime in an underwritten role (what a waste).
--You need a consistently strong story from beginning to end.
--You can't watch things that are very dark visually. This didn't bother me, and it does gets brighter about a third to half-way through, but some people have trouble seeing what's going on or enjoying such dark/dim visuals.
--You are a Blood of Youth purist who needs Blood River to line up 100% (I haven't seen BoY yet, but from what I hear, BoY and BR mostly line up, but some stuff in BR suggests things should have turned out differently in BoY).
--You want a strong ML/FL romance (zero chemistry, painful to watch).
--You're hoping for a strong BL romance. The two MLs have way more chemistry than the ML & FL, and this has BL overtones throughout, but I wouldn't call this a BL really.
--You'd be too  frustrated by having 100 characters you can't keep track of (it gets better maybe halfway).

MY REACTIONS:
I loved Gong Jun in Word of Honor and hoped in Blood River he'd prove that WoH wasn't a fluke. That didn't happen.

Instead, he plays everything with no emotion (except at the very, very end). As a viewer, I can't emotionally connect with and care about a character if they have no emotions. Bad choice for the star and main attraction.

The first third of the series (maybe 9-10 episodes) was too much of everything for me. Too big, too fast, too crowded, too explicit, too pretty. Fight scenes fly by. A million characters are introduced and almost as many forgotten. The CGI budget for the 1st few episodes seems larger than the GDP of some small nations. I like beautiful people, but it's odd to have an assassin organization where everyone looks scouted by a modeling agency.

What bothered me most though in the first third of BR was the weak writing. Cramming too much setup into too few episodes leaves no time for things to unfold naturally, and I hate it when characters explain things in forced ways just to get the info out. I almost abandoned BR then, but Su Changhe (played by Chang Huasen) had me hooked, so I kept going.

In the middle third, things slow to what I consider a normal pace. New characters slow to a relative trickle, so you're finally following along. Even before then, fight scenes rely less on CGI and display more of each characters' fighting skills, which I prefer. You also get more backstory so you understand things better.

Fast forward to the last few episodes. Surprisingly, I'd grown pretty attached to some of the main characters and even some minor ones I didn't notice or like early on. I even cried at one scene! Part of that was I'd invested so much time watching that I ended up invested in some of the characters too. But also, the struggle of these characters made more sense by the end.

Looking back, the premise of the series was a good one. I'm glad I didn't abandon BR, though I don't think I'd rewatch the whole series, just specific scenes I like. I do wish they'd put less time/money into visuals/special effects and more into the writing, pacing, and character development. Plus, they should've done a better job directing GJ!

By shifting their focus to storytelling essentials, this could have been a 9-star rating, especially with so much going for them with a solid cast, big budget, and the original novel author as the screenwriter.

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A refreshing take on the wuxia genre

Blood River does a fantastic job blending elements from both traditional and new wuxia genres to deliver its story. One of the most interesting thing about Blood River is that its protagonist is an assassin, which may not seem that unusual given that we've now seen many movies told from the perspective of the villain. But in the wuxia genre, having an antihero protagonist is almost unheard of.

Still, this is very much an wuxia story at its heart. With all the traditional core wuxia elements of freedom and justice. Gong Jun does a splendid job as Su Muyu, taking us on his journey of growth.

Blood River is sleek, fast-paced, with very impressive fighting scenes and special effects, and an extremely addictive story line. A must-watch for all wuxia lovers.

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