It's MID, unfortunately.
Listen.
I wanted to like it.
I enjoyed that this version of the jianghu was not immediately familiar, that I didn't recognize the sects and martial arts styles.
But in the end, it's not a good wuxia show.
Don't get me wrong - the fights are very good, pretty high above most competition.
But that's not it.
Wuxia needs to care about the jianghu and the wandering heroes - all of that in this show is used mostly as a "vibe". It's there in the background. People are constantly getting poisoned, but there's no quirks, no joy. You get a handful of pretty tame (=boring) sects involved in a political conflict/rebellion. There's no fun skills or techniques, maybe except for Ling Long's hearing. It's just swords and poison. Because it's not a fun adventure where wandering heroes solves mysteries.
This show is about how a patriotic cop used to be a vigilante and about courtly intrigues and plots.
Which (if you read any of my other reviews - you know) I hate. I hate stories about goody cops and courtly plots.
The fights are not enough, you need a cool engaging story and fun characters.
That's where this sad fart falls apart.
The story just keeps going, but there's no fun to be had, no suspense or surprises. It's not really a detective show either? The "cases" are relatively few and there's nothing much to investigate. I thought the last season of Strange Tales of Tang was bad, but this is even less interesting.
The characters are mixed, as is the acting.
To get this out of the way - yes, I think Yang Yang is a barely mediocre actor. Which isn't helped by his character being a bland limp noodle in this. He's just there, looking vapid, sorry - "stoic". He does well in the fight scenes, sure. But overall - *yaaawn*.
His whole Yaksha arc is also...nothing pretty much. Like at times they almost ask interesting questions about individual agency and personal freedoms vs. submitting to an authoritarian state. But then it's nothing, because the dastardly western Wei are involved! And we must all unite against an external enemy of GREAT CHINA!!!
(good grief)
I really liked Zhang Ruo Nan - she felt fairly natural - they allowed her to sweat a few times even, her hair was almost ruffled a bit and she gave a solid performance through the whole thing. (despite her character also not having that much to do.)
Alen Fang was also fun, his role felt slightly more wuxia-y and he did well with it.
I don't have much to say about the other cast, except Zhang Yu Xi - the hell was her plastic ass doing here?! When she had her emotional revenge, I was laughing out loud, because her fakeass face cannot actually emote. And she was stuck on that social media influencer plastic surgery permanent smile the whole time.
Oh yeah, Lenox Lu's Zhi Hua was almost an interesting character, I liked him.
To sum up:
It's just not good, dawg. In the second half I kept skipping ahead.
These very cool and goodly fight scenes should've been in a better show.
I wanted to like it.
I enjoyed that this version of the jianghu was not immediately familiar, that I didn't recognize the sects and martial arts styles.
But in the end, it's not a good wuxia show.
Don't get me wrong - the fights are very good, pretty high above most competition.
But that's not it.
Wuxia needs to care about the jianghu and the wandering heroes - all of that in this show is used mostly as a "vibe". It's there in the background. People are constantly getting poisoned, but there's no quirks, no joy. You get a handful of pretty tame (=boring) sects involved in a political conflict/rebellion. There's no fun skills or techniques, maybe except for Ling Long's hearing. It's just swords and poison. Because it's not a fun adventure where wandering heroes solves mysteries.
This show is about how a patriotic cop used to be a vigilante and about courtly intrigues and plots.
Which (if you read any of my other reviews - you know) I hate. I hate stories about goody cops and courtly plots.
The fights are not enough, you need a cool engaging story and fun characters.
That's where this sad fart falls apart.
The story just keeps going, but there's no fun to be had, no suspense or surprises. It's not really a detective show either? The "cases" are relatively few and there's nothing much to investigate. I thought the last season of Strange Tales of Tang was bad, but this is even less interesting.
The characters are mixed, as is the acting.
To get this out of the way - yes, I think Yang Yang is a barely mediocre actor. Which isn't helped by his character being a bland limp noodle in this. He's just there, looking vapid, sorry - "stoic". He does well in the fight scenes, sure. But overall - *yaaawn*.
His whole Yaksha arc is also...nothing pretty much. Like at times they almost ask interesting questions about individual agency and personal freedoms vs. submitting to an authoritarian state. But then it's nothing, because the dastardly western Wei are involved! And we must all unite against an external enemy of GREAT CHINA!!!
(good grief)
I really liked Zhang Ruo Nan - she felt fairly natural - they allowed her to sweat a few times even, her hair was almost ruffled a bit and she gave a solid performance through the whole thing. (despite her character also not having that much to do.)
Alen Fang was also fun, his role felt slightly more wuxia-y and he did well with it.
I don't have much to say about the other cast, except Zhang Yu Xi - the hell was her plastic ass doing here?! When she had her emotional revenge, I was laughing out loud, because her fakeass face cannot actually emote. And she was stuck on that social media influencer plastic surgery permanent smile the whole time.
Oh yeah, Lenox Lu's Zhi Hua was almost an interesting character, I liked him.
To sum up:
It's just not good, dawg. In the second half I kept skipping ahead.
These very cool and goodly fight scenes should've been in a better show.
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