The Journey of Legend

A bot could have done a lot better!

The Journey of Legend (赴山海/Fù Shānhǎi) ambitiously reimagines Wen Ruian’s mid-1970s wuxia classic, The Heroes of China (神州奇侠/Shénzhōu Qí Xiá). Novelist Xiao Mingming, transmigrated into the novel’s world by a vengeful AI for daring to rewrite it with cheat codes, becomes the protagonist Xiao Qiushui. To return home, he must complete the hero’s journey in this sprawling martial world.

Wen Ruian’s novel is a revered masterpiece among wuxia fans, celebrated for its epic scope, literary depth, and genre-defining influence. Layering an AI-driven isekai conspiracy arc over its already rich plot and character-driven narrative is a daunting task. Screenwriter Liu Fang, however, is woefully unequal to it. Her juvenile writing and shallow dialogue clash jarringly with Wen’s sophisticated, poetic prose. The first five or six episodes stumble through Mingming’s integration into the novel’s world, hampered by cringeworthy attempts at humor. The pace improves as the story aligns with the original novel, but periodic AI-driven digressions disrupt the otherwise stellar plot and character arcs. Ironically in terms of screenplay, a bot could have done a lot better! This drama is watchable if you ignore the AI subplots—they’re unworthy of attention.

Set in the fictional kingdom of Daxi, loosely based on the Southern Song Dynasty post-Jingkang humiliation, the story reinterprets the shameful betrayal of patriot Yue Fei through an alternate lens. The Beihuang invaders, likely inspired by the Jurchens, loom large, while a disillusioned jianghu (the martial world) fractures under the rivalry between the ambitious Li Chenzhou’s Power League (权力帮) and the enigmatic King Zhu’s River Sect. As the empire faces a controversial decision, young idealist Xiao Mingming/Qiushui navigates a family conspiracy that spirals into national stakes.

Cheng Yi plays both Xiao Qiushui and Li Chenzhou, narrative parallels designed to look uncannily alike yet embody opposing ideologies. Qiushui champions righteousness and chivalry (义, yì), while the cynical Chenzhou wields power and control (权力, quánlì). Cheng Yi struggles early to settle into these roles, but his portrayal of Chenzhou—a once-idealistic figure hardened by betrayal—outshines the vanilla, righteous Qiushui. Chenzhou’s complexity ultimately steals the spotlight.

The sprawling cast, however, is a mixed bag. Few characters beyond Li Chenzhou are fully developed. Lui Suifeng’s arc starts strong but fizzles, though it’s the best-acted role. Cheung Chi-Lam’s Crazy Yan is another standout, criminally underused. Newbie actors, overshadowed by veterans, expose the uneven casting. The main villain, a dumbed-down Qin Hui—history’s most infamous traitor—reduces a legendary antagonist to a trite middle-child syndrome caricature.

The saving grace? The martial arts. The action sequences are electrifying, ingeniously staged to deliver edge-of-your-seat thrills and imminent peril absent from recent wuxia dramas. Unlike the overly stylized twirling of Mysterious Lotus Casebook, these fights are intense, muscular, and flinch-worthy. If only the budget had stretched to a competent screenwriter! A straight adaptation of Wen’s novel, paired with these action scenes, could’ve been a masterpiece, dated genre or not.

I held off on weighing in on the rating controversy surrounding this production until I’d finished and reflected. Everything I loved—the profound, lingering ending included—stems from the original novel. Despite some clumsy moments, the finale respects Wen’s work. Yet, evaluated holistically, this adaptation desecrates a classic. I’m giving it a generous 8/10, almost entirely for the re-watchable martial arts. The storytelling scrapes by with a 7/10.

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The Journey of Xiao Ming Ming as Xiao Qiushui:

After watching 40 episodes, titular challenges faced by our male lead encapsulates the transformation of a well-venerated 1980 wuxia novel incorporating clumsy ham-fisted insertions of modern transmigration ideas not in the novel. End result is a half-smouldering rainbow millefeuille cake of badly-botched icing atop layers of horribly questionable decisions during production and post-production by directors, at least one main screenwriter, and the post-production team.

Kudos to the choreographers for at least half the wuxia scenes which will naturally drain a gigantic portion of the budget, but could not save numerous issues plaguing this production, thus resulting in my heartfelt sympathies for the cast especially Cheng Yi.

For the first two episodes, camera work was languid, insufficiently varied, and insipid. These crucial episodes needed to convey a certain sense of unfamiliarity transformed into growing emotional intimacy and familial responsibility, exciting energy of the sect and household he found himself in, plus a sense of grandeur and urgency when the fight scenes with Feng Tianyi came in.

Xiao Ming Ming’s role is the most difficult and important to interpret for the first quarter of the drama, and certain nuances must be clearly conveyed through clever storytelling and intelligent editing. Specific directions needed to be given to the ML to nail the characterisation of a spoilt youngest son with notable inner workings eventually becoming the saviour of the pugilist world.

Scriptwriters and directors failed in these crucial aspects, which had me wondering why Cheng Yi was channelling at times Li Lianhua from “Mysterious Lotus Casebook” within the first five episodes of this drama. Xiao Qiushui needs to be wholly different from Li Lianhua for at least thirty episodes. A family meal demonstrating how Xiao Qiushui interacted with family members would give insight into good and bad aspects of his two brothers and save them from being one-dimensional victims of lazy writing, but also allow the ML to convey an inner monologue to the audience about a decision of recognising these strangers as people he will protect and honour as his own family and uphold their sect values for the sake of the pugilist world, even though this world confuses and unsettles him.

This would set a clear believable transition when Xiao Ming Ming from the modern era was not yet able to portray Xiao Qiushui as the leader he would eventually become, also helping viewers avoid the impression of Xiao Ming Ming unrealistically adapting without issues to a very different world.

These two crucial first episodes were further blighted by lighting and colour grading issues such as a flat midtone, resulting in green screens becoming obvious for certain types of scenes. Filters were overused, especially for Cheng Yi. The plot is not flowing coherently when one scene switches to a different scene. Too much music and unnecessary sound effects affected the emotional impact or energy or scenes. Main theme was overused until the final two episodes. Music cannot improve a problem with comedic execution eg episode 1, starting at 15:53.

Episode 3 is when Xiao Ming Ming’s arch-nemesis responsible for his fundamental emotional transformation enters the lives of the Shenzhou Sworn Brotherhood. Liu Suifeng’s story unfolds much more smoothly and strongly, in all its complex aspects and portrayal. Scenes not related to Liu Suifeng’s story demonstrate a fundamental problem of telling the audience what to know in a boring 1-2-3 manner or not having sufficient continuity, rather than creating an organic natural flow where one part of the story leads into the next stage with clear direction and purpose.

Characters needing more screentime were introduced and killed almost instantaneously or relegated to the sidelines, while certain characters should have their overall screentime reduced (Tang Fang and Qiushui’s two brothers). Reducing screentime does not mean a character’s complexity, importance and emotional connections to other characters cannot be conveyed.

This primarily depends on interactions with other characters and/or a specific short scene revealing a character’s motivations and values, to achieve similar objectives in clever storytelling and intelligent editing for the final results. There is also debate as to whether Xueyu, Tang Fang, Qiushui’s two brothers, and the Shenzhou Sworn Brotherhood should have been portrayed by different actors and actresses.

If I wanted a strong ensemble cast to match the stronger actors and elevate this drama, my answer is yes. However, given how poorly these characters were written and directed for this drama (unless you change all screenwriters plus directors early in the production stages or by the end of ten episodes), I do not want other actors and actresses to suffer what these actors and actresses did not deserve from critics for their hard-working efforts.

This drama does best when the transmigration elements are completely irrelevant.

Episode 18 was excellent. Emotionally rock-bottom after being wracked by all the losses he has had to witness and shoulder, Xiao Mingming realises the difficulty and responsibility of being Xiao Qiushui. No modern device or experience can prepare him for this episode. Qiushui has become completely fixated on Liu Suifeng in that kind of intense wuxia way (totally platonic) on a true rival and complete enemy. A vengeful unethical Liu Suifeng has poisoned him with unrelenting drive of zero mercy, playing a cat-and-mouse game to make Xiao Qiushui snap. Animosity and other emotions fuelling their duelling makes the excellent choreography even more unforgettable.

Cheng Yi is completely in his element throughout this episode. Embodying determination, rage, sorrow, despair, despondency, our hero does not have a single positive moment here. Your heartstrings will survive the melody of anguish triggered by his heartfelt understanding. Your neutrality won't survive until the end of this episode, if you must choose between Liu Suifeng and Xiao Qiushui.

Some wuxia concepts were thrown out the window within 21 episodes. Xiao Qiushui’s insufficient struggles in skill mastery plus incredible luck in obtaining the skills and power bestowed upon him made no sense. The all-powerful top pugilist Crazy Yan had once ingested the Infinite Pill. Despicable Shao Liulei possessing the Yang half of the Infinite Pill was introduced, only to be killed off quickly by a non-descript character after forcing Xiao Qiushui to swallow the Yang pill. Xiao Qiushui was saved from the effects of the Yang pill by the bite of a white serpent. Even though the "Yin" properties of snake venom is known in TCM (traditional Chinese medicine), that knowledge is not going to convince me Xiao Qiushui's woes from the Yang pill could be miraculously and permanently solved with one bite.

Once Shao Liulei was dumped from the drama in episode 21, I was convinced there were two MLs of equal importance: Cheng Yi and Xu Zhenxuan. ML levelling up with 60 years of internal energy and saved by a random snake bite was too much for me to swallow. In this same episode, we are introduced to Liu Suifeng's suffering and cause of loyalty, grounded in willingness to do anything and everything to get stronger and repay the debts to his benefactors. Engaging episode involving bad contrast decisions by the production team for the two MLs. The screenwriters, directors, and post-production team urgently needed to be replaced by this episode. This led to remaining episodes being put on hold, until enough episodes could be accessed together as a finish.

Episode 10 onwards is when Cheng Yi’s performance improved significantly, only to be continually plagued by unevenness of the first ten episodes whereby his portrayals of Xiao Ming Ming and Xiao Qiushui were not given crucial consistent directions needed from the Directors. Directors are responsible for fulfilling the creative vision of a drama or movie and in this case, there appears to be a disagreement during the process and at least one of them obviously had severe myopia. Xiao Qiushui’s character growth needed to be divided into four acts and Xiao Qiushui needed more scenes with specific characters such as Li Chenzhou included in this drama, which did not happen. Was Liu Suifeng originally supposed to have such an extensive role, and how does this extensive role benefit Fushanhai? Screenwriters, why did Liu Suifeng give up on his revenge? This change of mindset was not believable after episode 35, given the episodes that portrayed Liu Suifeng as an individual hellbent on his agenda and revenge for the sake of justice.

We have pugilist masters constantly channelling internal energy or skills to Xiao Qiushui. I could understand the Wudang and Shaolin masters doing so, given their plights. When it came to the eight pugilists transferring their skills to Xiao Qiushui in episode- Oh heck, I don’t feel like fact-checking this specific detail, because the story by this point was so uninspiring I could not care what happened to Xiao Qiushui, Tang Fang or any other characters in the drama including Crazy Yan. Xiao Qiushui’s fight with Crazy Yan was spellbinding, and Chi lam was under-utilised for this drama because his scenes also ended up on the cutting floor.

Episodes 34 to 40 are indescribable. I wanted Xueyu and Crazy Yan to have a story because they shared strong chemistry portraying a significant emotional connection in their few scenes together, only for them to be killed off in a lame fashion. Li Chenzhou and Zhao Shirong came to a sad end, which can also be interpreted as karma for all the evils carried out by the Power Gang. On one hand, I was touched to see Liu Suifeng and Song Mingzhu have a happy conclusion, but on the other hand I was puzzled as to why Liu Suifeng did not get retribution for all the evil things he had done. Why is the Power Gang excused for its evils by Xiao Qiushui? I am not even going to linger on the ultimate villain, because it is impressively mind-boggling as to how a noteworthy villain is rewritten into a generic forgettable character whose one standout factor is being icky to rouse your squash-the-predator-flat urge.

Too many production and post-production flaws from the crew result in one hyper-focusing on Cheng Yi, which means his ability to give a nuanced performance becomes unfairly lambasted in the scenes where the acting of his co-stars cannot rise to the criteria of a scene, such as the crying scene while Tang Rou was dying in episode 8.

Choppy editing and poor storytelling resulted in poor adaptation of the novel. A mess of subplots with too many loose ends and plotholes tying into the main plot lacking adequate deftness of interpretation and omissions from the screenwriters and directors delivered the overall fundamental and final blows to Cheng Yi’s Xiao Qiushui appearing inconsistent, including lines he had to deliver. Many of these lines were severely lacking in the richness and beauty of what could be conveyed in Mandarin from a wuxia novel. Seriously, find me something memorable or inspiringly noteworthy of his lines from the first twenty episodes in Mandarin. You'd have better luck fetching water with a sieve.

TJOL is literally the best showcase drama of how a ML’s portrayal of the key character and novel adaptation has been primarily botched by too many production issues and post-production decisions making me question the extent of the source material grasped by the screenwriters and directors, including the final choices of scenes to exclude or include for the drama.

By the time Cheng Yi walked off into the distance in peaceful white, I was relieved to see the end of this drama and him permanently free of an unsatisfactory ending. As to said ending, look at the scenes of Xiao Mingming before he finishes as Xiao Qiushui. “Vendetta of An” is a not-yet-aired drama that I believe will do justice to him, and I say this as someone who is not a fan of Cheng Yi but enjoyed seeing him alongside Joseph Zeng and Xiao Shunyao in MLC. I am also very relieved to stop seeing playing of the guqin being butchered by the likes of Sanchai.

All other criticisms pertaining to post-production issues being too numerous have already been touched upon, such as recycled costumes and too much applique on lightweight fabric resulting in cheap-looking wardrobes. All this, I place squarely on the shoulders of the production and post-production teams. Some people believe the cast is more important than the likes of directors, screenwriters and other crew members. I hold directors and screenwriters to be as important as the cast, which means I give them their due or otherwise.

Would I rewatch this? For the story of Liu Suifeng, yes. For the story of Xiao Qiushui and other characters? Only in the novel. In order to start and finish this series for maximum enjoyment, you have to know nothing about wuxia, or be a super-avid fan of one of the actors/actresses and/or watch everything while intentionally ignoring your inner critic.

That said, try watching this once. Any transmigration elements are alien to this world, the screenwriters were not up to the task in the writing of certain characters, and any irritating characters are part of Cheng Yi's journey to overcome as Xiao Mingming becoming Xiao Qiushui. There is always beauty to enjoy in a drama and despite flaws, you may find yourself inspired or thinking of details previously not considered.

If I were blunt about a title for this review? "Fifth Wall: How Cheng Yi's biggest obstacles in becoming Xiao Qiushui slammed into-"

This drama should have utilised the directors, screenwriters and teams of “Mobius”, “A Dream Within A Dream” or “The Tower of Whispers”. The camerawork and technicalities, storytelling, acting portrayals aided by excellent directing and riveting cinematography is much stronger in those dramas, and would have greatly benefitted this cast significantly needing strong specific directions for a very-complex plot and crucial characterisation layers.

For those who enjoyed this drama, that’s wonderful. For those who struggled to finish, I hope this summary helps you in trying for the finish line.

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