This review may contain spoilers
I was honestly more interested in the previous generation.
With themes of classic wuxia series like heroism, chivalry, justice, camaraderie, responsibility of power & of course love this series could've been good if not for the many problems it had. As someone who really likes wuxia series I was happy to get something like this over the many more famous genres of recent years. Unfortunately, this series was just lacking in too many aspects that some of the good stuff never really stuck with me. I felt they never polished what they had & it eventually led a somewhat lackluster series overall.
Pros:
- OST is really good, especially "Intoxicate by Gentle Breeze" by Li Yuchun. It gave not only a very wuxia vibe, but just a very nonchalant free vibe making it a very good song. The OST heavily elevated the drama at times.
- Zhou Yi Ran kind of carried the younger actors of this drama. I don't think the drama would've been very good if he didn't give such a strong performance. Granted he did get better material to work with so...
- The older cast are good & a lot of them do really good with the material they are given.
- The world building is actually quite interesting & ambitious. This world has a lot of interesting ideas & stories going. One of the shows greatest strength was the 2 generations it focused on. It was always interesting to get into the history of the generation that came before & see what they had to go through.
- The show is cinematically very pretty, especially when they are in real landscapes. Then there are the slow-mo moments where we see they costumes flow ever so beautifully. I really like those moments.
- The fights are okay & fun, but definitely not bad. I do want to praise the actors, especially Bao Shang En for doing some of their own stunts. And it isn't just simple stunts, it's actually some pretty complex ones too.
Cons:
- So if you haven't noticed by now, for me the biggest problem is that a majority of the characters feel underdeveloped or have little material to work with. Even Cai Zhao & Cai Ping Shu, 2 of the most important characters felt off as characters. Much of Cai Zhao's character is her relationship with her Aunt Cai Ping Shu, but the problem is that we never get to see enough of their relationship together & thus we never get enough of emotional anchor for both. There are also things like Cai Zhao not wanting to join the jianghu, but they never explore anything deeper than the intro of ep 1. Eventually this causes Cai Zhao to have no real story of her own & she is just following her Aunt's old stories or following Mu Qing Yan's. Sigh~ a pity.
- Then there is the over abundance of characters & why it is best to not have so many characters. I think bucz they had so many characters, they couldn't really focus on any one & that left most of them being not memorable.
- Editing & some shot choices are weird too. At times I had an immersion break bcuz it was that bad.
- Most of the younger cast including Bao Shang En are rather weak. Bao Shang En at times felt like she was just reading the script rather than actually acting. I do think is a case of bad directing though so I won't be too harsh.
- As for the story it is unfortunately hampered down by the fact that the previous generation's story was way more interesting than the current gen. Only the 2 Lead's story were remotely interesting (mainly Mu Qing Yan) & even the twist villain was boring & cliche. And the story itself was too much, go on a quest & not enough of a big cohesive breathing world.
Overall, I wanted to like it, but it didn't feel like it was a complete story. Add on top of that an overly ambitious story spanning generations along with lacking production & it would be expected that this is the end result. I would have preferred if they took more liberties with the adaptation & cut more characters or even fix how certain story points proceeded. Bcuz what we got didn't really work in my opinion. However, as an inspiring writer I did get a lot from this series in how to approach a story like this or even characters like Cai Zhao so I guess that is a plus. LOL! Anyways, it was a decent show, but I just wish it would've been better.
Pros:
- OST is really good, especially "Intoxicate by Gentle Breeze" by Li Yuchun. It gave not only a very wuxia vibe, but just a very nonchalant free vibe making it a very good song. The OST heavily elevated the drama at times.
- Zhou Yi Ran kind of carried the younger actors of this drama. I don't think the drama would've been very good if he didn't give such a strong performance. Granted he did get better material to work with so...
- The older cast are good & a lot of them do really good with the material they are given.
- The world building is actually quite interesting & ambitious. This world has a lot of interesting ideas & stories going. One of the shows greatest strength was the 2 generations it focused on. It was always interesting to get into the history of the generation that came before & see what they had to go through.
- The show is cinematically very pretty, especially when they are in real landscapes. Then there are the slow-mo moments where we see they costumes flow ever so beautifully. I really like those moments.
- The fights are okay & fun, but definitely not bad. I do want to praise the actors, especially Bao Shang En for doing some of their own stunts. And it isn't just simple stunts, it's actually some pretty complex ones too.
Cons:
- So if you haven't noticed by now, for me the biggest problem is that a majority of the characters feel underdeveloped or have little material to work with. Even Cai Zhao & Cai Ping Shu, 2 of the most important characters felt off as characters. Much of Cai Zhao's character is her relationship with her Aunt Cai Ping Shu, but the problem is that we never get to see enough of their relationship together & thus we never get enough of emotional anchor for both. There are also things like Cai Zhao not wanting to join the jianghu, but they never explore anything deeper than the intro of ep 1. Eventually this causes Cai Zhao to have no real story of her own & she is just following her Aunt's old stories or following Mu Qing Yan's. Sigh~ a pity.
- Then there is the over abundance of characters & why it is best to not have so many characters. I think bucz they had so many characters, they couldn't really focus on any one & that left most of them being not memorable.
- Editing & some shot choices are weird too. At times I had an immersion break bcuz it was that bad.
- Most of the younger cast including Bao Shang En are rather weak. Bao Shang En at times felt like she was just reading the script rather than actually acting. I do think is a case of bad directing though so I won't be too harsh.
- As for the story it is unfortunately hampered down by the fact that the previous generation's story was way more interesting than the current gen. Only the 2 Lead's story were remotely interesting (mainly Mu Qing Yan) & even the twist villain was boring & cliche. And the story itself was too much, go on a quest & not enough of a big cohesive breathing world.
Overall, I wanted to like it, but it didn't feel like it was a complete story. Add on top of that an overly ambitious story spanning generations along with lacking production & it would be expected that this is the end result. I would have preferred if they took more liberties with the adaptation & cut more characters or even fix how certain story points proceeded. Bcuz what we got didn't really work in my opinion. However, as an inspiring writer I did get a lot from this series in how to approach a story like this or even characters like Cai Zhao so I guess that is a plus. LOL! Anyways, it was a decent show, but I just wish it would've been better.
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