This review may contain spoilers
Beautiful but slow. Interesting but biased.
Quite polarizing drama. It has as many very strong, even superb attributes, as well as a portion of well earned critique. It's hard to weight them objectively, so everyone should judge for themselves. It honestly can go either way for any viewer.
The strongest points of this production are pictures and acting. Scenery is gloomy, beautiful, giving justice to any wuxia classic. Well matched with beautiful and talented cast. If you see your favorite on the list, don't hesitate. There are no weak performances among them.
Premise of the story is also very strong. Martial art mafia infiltrates secluded stronghold of rival family by sending death soldiers as brides for new generation of young lords. Pared with :
1) quite unique rules and dynamics inside the sect
2) mysterious plot triggered by arrival of female assassins
3) compelling stories of 4 leading characters, that each have their own battle to fight
We're really hooked from the very start.
Would the girls survive and succeed? Will the boys fell for their tricks or catch them in the act? I could not even tell who I was rooting for.
And that's another huge strength of this drama. Unknown and ambiguity that keep us interested even through slugs. We don't know what anyone is thinking, but figuring it out is part of the fun.
Plus few satisfying reveals and we get overall well executed mystery.
As for weak parts, well it's simple. Middle part is just very slow and boring. Nothing new, but here it really made me skip forward quite a lot. It is abnormally slow paced for even the most tolerant standards. Easly we could've had 5 episodes less. It feels like
95% talking while drinking tea
4% everything else
1% proper action
As for the root cause, it's more complicated, but allow me this little rant.
Dead got more attention than a living.
Can't say I love watching song long flashbacks every time director wats to shove sad emotions down my throat. Also, ML and his dead father got more closure and resolution than our male leads after discovering their brides are spies. It's like director is scared of conflict and confrontation. It's called drama for mmm sake.
For the show that bored to death with side stories, too many arcs are left underdeveloped and unconcluded. Only in the end we learn that second FL actually all along had the same mission as the first FL. That means she really was acting on her own most of the time. I couldn't tell with all the choices she made in the end and how plain evil she seamed to be. So many of her motivation were presented as senseless.
That brings me to the root of all issues...
Sexism. In drama based around female story there is very little female perspective. We have brotherly love, fatherly love, puppy love, and patriotic love. Love for duty, and love for heroism. All the loves attributed to male centered stories. There is very little sisterly love, almost none motherly love, and all are tainted.
The only women in the picture are 3 assassins, 1 caricature and comic relief, 2 dead mothers, and the rest are faceless maids or nameless villains. While male characters are mostly pure and honorable, they all got to have their own interests, quirks and motivations. While women basically either live for evilness or for a man. To be fair, there are hints for something bigger. Forth house of the backhill, FL backstories, most elusive female boss of martial art mafia, and of course the ending. It all points to the women of the story being purposefully hidden from us. With a promise to be shown later. I'm just not sure if based on what we saw, it could've been really delivered to my satisfaction.
But if the second part was created, I would still watch it.
The strongest points of this production are pictures and acting. Scenery is gloomy, beautiful, giving justice to any wuxia classic. Well matched with beautiful and talented cast. If you see your favorite on the list, don't hesitate. There are no weak performances among them.
Premise of the story is also very strong. Martial art mafia infiltrates secluded stronghold of rival family by sending death soldiers as brides for new generation of young lords. Pared with :
1) quite unique rules and dynamics inside the sect
2) mysterious plot triggered by arrival of female assassins
3) compelling stories of 4 leading characters, that each have their own battle to fight
We're really hooked from the very start.
Would the girls survive and succeed? Will the boys fell for their tricks or catch them in the act? I could not even tell who I was rooting for.
And that's another huge strength of this drama. Unknown and ambiguity that keep us interested even through slugs. We don't know what anyone is thinking, but figuring it out is part of the fun.
Plus few satisfying reveals and we get overall well executed mystery.
As for weak parts, well it's simple. Middle part is just very slow and boring. Nothing new, but here it really made me skip forward quite a lot. It is abnormally slow paced for even the most tolerant standards. Easly we could've had 5 episodes less. It feels like
95% talking while drinking tea
4% everything else
1% proper action
As for the root cause, it's more complicated, but allow me this little rant.
Dead got more attention than a living.
Can't say I love watching song long flashbacks every time director wats to shove sad emotions down my throat. Also, ML and his dead father got more closure and resolution than our male leads after discovering their brides are spies. It's like director is scared of conflict and confrontation. It's called drama for mmm sake.
For the show that bored to death with side stories, too many arcs are left underdeveloped and unconcluded. Only in the end we learn that second FL actually all along had the same mission as the first FL. That means she really was acting on her own most of the time. I couldn't tell with all the choices she made in the end and how plain evil she seamed to be. So many of her motivation were presented as senseless.
That brings me to the root of all issues...
Sexism. In drama based around female story there is very little female perspective. We have brotherly love, fatherly love, puppy love, and patriotic love. Love for duty, and love for heroism. All the loves attributed to male centered stories. There is very little sisterly love, almost none motherly love, and all are tainted.
The only women in the picture are 3 assassins, 1 caricature and comic relief, 2 dead mothers, and the rest are faceless maids or nameless villains. While male characters are mostly pure and honorable, they all got to have their own interests, quirks and motivations. While women basically either live for evilness or for a man. To be fair, there are hints for something bigger. Forth house of the backhill, FL backstories, most elusive female boss of martial art mafia, and of course the ending. It all points to the women of the story being purposefully hidden from us. With a promise to be shown later. I'm just not sure if based on what we saw, it could've been really delivered to my satisfaction.
But if the second part was created, I would still watch it.
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