Huan Xuan's acting was perfection. Absolute perfection. The way he portrays Su Wenqian's character as an overall very calm, serious, detached (but somehow also incredibly emotional) person was simply a masterpiece. My beloved Chi Chi played Chi Tiecheng just as well. It's funny watching his expressions and his laugh because its all so familiar and i feel like i'm getting deja vu from the occasional twitches. I'm so biased toward Chen He it was impossible to fully hate Chi Tiecheng, but goddamn, it was a struggle.
The plot is honestly not super good (it's no Detective L or Joy of Life), but it's the kind of thing that leaves you satisfied and completely awestruck by the end. I'm glad the romance wasn't a big factor in this and I really enjoyed the odd love-hate relationship between Chi Tiecheng and Su Wenqian.
Of course, this is not a BL, but it can fool you for a couple eps ;) hang in there. I swear it gets better. You just gotta power through the first couple eps where literally everyone hates Su Wenqian.
It's worth it. 100%
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Massively Disappointed
So first of all, this is a much lower rating than most reviewers on mdl is giving. Bear with me, I'll give my reasons in a minute, but just wanted to put out a quick disclaimer that just because I disliked it, doesn't mean that you will too.1st, I disliked the pacing of the plot. There were pockets of mystery, but were countered by an extremely tedious romance between the second couple. Honestly I had to skip over their scenes after a while because i got sick of their pining. Morever, the main character is a little too obscure. I understand his main deal is that he's extremely smart, but I found his tricks to be boring because there's little explanation on how he crafts his web, and if there is, it's pretty half assed. You're basically in the dark the entire time, wondering wtf is happening, but then magically, everything gets solved by some twist in the end. Personally, this type of structure made it difficult to immerse myself in the mystery.
Second: for a drama built on intrigue, the villains seem pretty half assed, especially that other Ke (fml's brother), who feels like he should've collected his bento in episode 20. Even the main villain, whose supposed to be Yun Xiang's master, falls pathetically easily. I feel like for a guy who taught Yun Xiang everything he knows, it doesn't make sense that he gets outsmarted by Yun Xiang at every turn. What's the point of being YX's teacher then?
The 4.0 is solely for Mo Ye and Ke Qiao because they made me laugh and I loved them very much (ofc the scriptwriter killed them). Also the wuxia and fighting scenes were good, but nothing to write home about, given how most decently budgeted cdramas have good wuxia scenes.
Overall, it's not my cup of tea, but maybe it'll be yours. Be forewarned though.
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