This review may contain spoilers
Very good, despite being a Jin Yong story. ;-P
I loved this, most of the time.I'm not going to talk about how good of an adaptation it is, because I've not read the story and there are other reviews for that.
I'll say though - some people mention that the characters were altered and "wicked" ones were made more sympathetic. That it "dilutes" the story that was originally much more cynical.
Well thanks for that, thank goodness!
It's a Jin Yong story, so you know it's gonna end tragically, and it sure does. But I appreciated that it was made lighter and less depressing throughout.
I will also say that I still hate the everpresent wuxia concept of heroic sacrifice of life/happiness for duty.
OK, wuxia blasphemy over.
Overall thoughts before a list of random stuff: The show is well done and works on almost every level. Its look is quite striking - contrasty and mostly well and interestingly lit. The fights are well choreographed, but sometimes suffer from overly rapid edits and quick cuts, it's disorienting. The truly important moments deliver the impact. Music is actually memorable. The characters are well defined and most of them complex. The actors have great chemistry and even the child actors for Hu Fei and Xiaomei were very good and entertaining. There's some dodgy dubbing, Peter Ho's character for instance and the two little sons. Most main characters sound very good though.
Random thoughts:
- buddhism is fucking dumb and cowardly
- all this love and all of it unfulfilled, almost like that's one of themes. Still salty about it tho.
- poison girl is bae, in every adaptation of these stories I've watched actually. Loved her.
- Hu Fei has a thing for strong girls who tell him what to do. I can relate.
- Qin Jun Jie actually looks like he could fight, an extremely rare thing for a wuxia protagonist lately. Sad, but we take those.
I'll probably rewatch this someday, because it's genuinely good. But man, I might just turn it off a bit before the very end.
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Amazing fights and visuals, disappointing otherwise
It was a surprise for sure.1) The movie looks shockingly good. Yes, it was supposedly made for cheap, there are some instances of visibly lacking CG. But the way it's lit, shot, coloured etc. - amazing. Stuff is clear, visible, intentional, pleasant to the eye. Looks a lot like a 90s movie, but with a wider palette.
2) It's, unfortunately, a black tanktop vanity project for Donnie Yen. The guy cannot pass for a man in his 30s, effectively half his real age. Yen also does not have the acting range needed for this kind of character.
The funny/lighthearted parts are not that funny or lighthearted and the serious moments are awkward, feel extremely long and overly pathos-filled. (for an example, time the wine-bowl scene. That could've easily been edited down some, with more of an emotional impact.)
3) The story is whatever. The more wuxia/series movies I watch, the more I realize I don't enjoy Jin Yong/Jin Yong-style stories. It is what it is, I'm sure fans of the book are outraged about stuff.
4) The fights however, are incredibly good. Excellent, thrilling, fucking cool as hell. If you looked at the 90s wuxia and imagined a logical evolution with advances in filmmaking, this is what it would be.
No notes.
(also goes to show what you can do on a budget if you have real martial artists instead of celebrity idols in your cast)
Whatever the fuck the new Kung Fu Cult Master did with the flashy CG bullshit, this is the opposite of that.
5) Minor point, but I really enjoy this "gritty" portrayal of the jianghu people. Everyone's wrinkly, greasy and rugged. The costumes are very different looking and quite lovely.
It's not quite The Blade, but it's miles and miles from the usual "wuxia" you see in cdramas nowadays.
Overall: Meh, but watch it for the fights.
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Probably worth it if you like wuxia and have the time.
edit: I saw this pointed out in another review and remembered I also wanted to say this.This series treats almost all female characters pretty badly. Either they're portrayed as awful people (cold, hateful, bitter and bitchy), or they're "the few good ones" and their cool fighting abilities suddenly vanish. (of course, how else could they be saved by the male protagonists?)
The "awful" women also tend to change their personality entirely once they fall for a man.
And listen, I do enjoy a tsundere who will punish the protagonist for being a snarky little shit. So there were a few characters that did this kind of thing and I liked that.
But overall the women in this show are not handled well.
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As many other cdramas this is way, way too long for its own good.
The show has issues with pacing at the beginning and towards the end.
The overarching story is stretched too thin and it just doesn't support itself over 44 episodes.
You very quickly realize what has to happen at the end and then you're just expecting it to happen. Everything in the middle is supposed to be character development and a few training arcs.
But there's not that much development and not that much training. Some of the smaller story arcs are fun, but aren't amazing on their own and do little for the overall plot.
There is some nice foreshadowing, establishing of characters and setting them up for future events.
The fights are not as common as you might think and they vary in coolness.
Having only seen one other adaptation of Handsome Siblings (the 90s HK movie which is wildly different), I can't say if the issues I see lie with the material being adapted, or the adaptation.
There are a few uncomfortable plots and characters, but nothing too terrible.
I have to say one of the most villainous things one of the main characters ever does is chew with his mouth open. All the time.
Truly, the evilest man alive.
It's not awful, but I expected something better from a classic of the genre.
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Dull. (still)
EDIT:I originally dropped this after 3 episodes. Now I've finished the whole show.
(I'm leaving my original review below the line)
What do I say about this? It's still not great.
It's definitely been overhyped and at best it's sort of slightly above average.
The story is functional - you see where it's going from the beginning and it does indeed get there pretty much as you expect. Which is not a bad thing necessarily, it's just a bit predictable.
The bits I enjoyed the most were the case investigations. Sadly, there are two issues with that:
1) The cases are of fluctuating quality, and many of them are solved in a way you cannot do yourself. Because as in other badly done mystery shows - the show witholds crucial information from you and it is only presented at the very end, when the detective is explaining how he figured it out. That's just lazy and uninteresting.
2) The show insists on being a wuxia story about Big Things, and it constantly gets in the way of the fun.
My main problem with this show and why I still rate it fairly low is the premise and the main protagonist.
I am sick, so sick and tired of these Very Special Boys With A Mysterious Past. Li Xiangyi is VERY similar to the characters in "Love in Between", "Blood of Youth" and even "Nirvana in Fire" and "Word of Honor" to some extent - a soft sickly boy with lovely long hair and flowy robe and a fur lined cloak. And he used to be a powerful martial hero, the most specialest of them all, a real genius. But now he's sickly and disabled and look at the poor bunny, so cute.
And I get that this is a trope that people (especially lady fans of these idols/actors) like. I do not. It's tired now. I've seen it.
I think the story would've worked much, much better with older characters and actors.
So yes - I still put a lot of fault with Cheng Yi. He is older than Joseph Zeng, but it doesn't feel like it. They're too close in age and vibe. And he doesn't have the acting ability to pull this kind of character off, especially in the really dramatic moments. His serious delivery feels fake and flat.
In short - the only way we know he's this super special boy is because everyone keeps talking about it. He doesn't have that kind of charisma to make me believe it.
Joseph Zeng is mostly fine, he does the same thing in most of the dramas I've seen him in. He's like an ok piece of toast. Nothing you'd sing the praises of, but fine to eat.
The villains are kinda terrible. I get that the mustache-twirling evil-laughing villain is a genre thing, but they feel a bit out of place in a modern style drama. That said, I think Rain Wang is just bad, and she wasn't helped by the weird dubbing they did for her character.
The only person whose acting I enjoyed fully was Xiao Shun Yao - his Di Feisheng doesn't change a lot, but he pulls that subtle transition off pretty well. And at all times he FEELS like someone who could seriously hurt people, I believe when he fights.
Speaking of fights - they left them all for the ending, which was odd. They're...fine I guess. The bigger mass battles were a surprise, because the show had been so stingy with fights up to that point. They're all very modern wuxia cdrama in style - lots of flowy stuff, CG energy blasts and not a lot of blood. Compared to something like Sakra, or oldschool 90s wuxia it feels super sanitized. I wasn't impressed, but it wasn't offensively bad either.
In summary - this is a very run of the mill modern wuxia with all the typical flaws, or a mostly decent detective show ruined by also being a modern wuxia drama.
Don't believe the hype, but you might still enjoy some of it.
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Original rating: 3.5*
This is dull, incredibly dull. Just boring as hell.
I have to remind myself that cdrama hype is largely caused by fangirls looking forward to watching shows with their beloved idol/s.
Some episodes in this is just incredibly forgettable, entirely derivative and uninteresting.
The actors are bland as chalk bread, except for the main guy who's straight up bad. He's a bad actor, stop giving him roles where he's supposed to speak.
The premise, the story, it's all cliches piled on cliches, nothing cool or intriguing happens, the fights are not entertaining.
Just another super mediocre/bad wuxia drama.
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Fun and short!
So this was alright?I did appreciate the short length - the formula didn't have enough time to become stale.
It's just not at all what I expected from the title and poster - sure it was wacky at times, but then also surprisingly dark.
It kinda went places I didn't think it would.
Not sure why, but the cast in this was pretty cool and enjoyable.
Perhaps because they had so few episodes it was also well structured, things were set up and later paid off - it felt like a proper story with themes and stuff.
Yeah, I still don't think it lives up to the hype and silly high scores, but it's pretty good overall.
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Pretty decent oldschool movie!
Nothing complicated about the story - a taoist master vs. evil sorcerer cult.There's (almost) no supernatural stuff, so I wouldn't call it a taoist movie.
You might remember Luis Fan as the dual sabre milky eye man from Flying Swords of Dragon Gate, he's a solid actor and good at action stuff.
The action's great, it looks very good (kind of 90s the way it's shot and lit).
Very enjoyable oldschool style.
!****************************************************************************************************
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Oh, I see. OK.
Right, so this is not a season, not a spinoff - they just cut out 6-ish episodes of the third season of Strange Tales.Why? Because they were decent?
NGL, I enjoyed this a ton more, despite the stupid "episode" length of 15 minutes, because it's not all about the insufferable politics.
The emperor is a side character, nobody's constantly grovelling before obnoxious royals, there's only like one Uplifting Inspirational Speech about how the empire is the best and everyone has to gambatte.
They're "just" two decently fun cases. The first one has a bunch of Yingtao and Su Wuming's relationship, which I appreciated.
(they still have barely any chemistry between them, but I like both characters.)
Secret assassin guilds, weird cults, ominous paintings and gruesome poisonings.
This is the kind of stuff I watch detective shows for, not palace intrigue.
It's not a show, but it's also not absolute propaganda garbage like "season 3".
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Fun Times in the Cold
This is a rewatch review.I'm making my way through the Candle in the Tomb series again - and I remembered this as quite dragging and uneventful.
Not so this time!
I actually liked it a lot more than first time - possibly since I vibed more with how funny it is.
The positives for me: the locations are lovely and I appreciate that they actually shot in the winter and cold, in the mountains and the steppe.
The characters are pretty fun, with the exception of Hu Ba Yi's hair (which annoyed me) and Fatty (who's not really the right type for the role). Yan Zi is a sweet little bun and possibly my favourite.
In general it feels more juvenile than the other seasons, but that's appropriate I think - the characters are young here.
This series has always been a bit corny with the whole patriotic shtick, quoting Mao etc. Most of the time I find it endearing, because it largely feels like it's poking fun at itself. Here it's a bit too much at times, but bearable.
The tomb raiding is decent, though some sections did devolve into the classic running through tunnels for hours a bit.
A worthy entry into the genre and series.
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Great Adventure Fun With Young Revolutionaries
This is a rewatch review.Since this was the first ever tomb raiding drama I watched way back, I forgot a lot of it.
It does feel longer than its 21 episodes - it's definitely enough. And it manages to pack three entire arcs/subplots into those 21 episodes, of somewhat unequal interest.
I find myself appreciating the Northeast arc the most, because it brings back people and events from Weasel Grave (the prequel) and because it was shot in beautiful mountainous locations.
It also contains an actual supernatural creature that's not explained away as a hallucination - a sign of an early time for this genre when it was perhaps less policed by the censors. (something I grew increasingly annoyed with in later series)
While I enjoyed the parts on a glacier and in the desert less, they're still enjoyable enough - it's all solid tomb raiding and adventure.
I remembered the main trio as somewhat bland, but they're actually pretty good. I think it helps that acting-wise they're balanced and working at a similar level, so they work as a team and nobody stands out too much.
(in later seasons Pan Yueming stands out, then the new Shirley is a bit bland and Fatty is one dimensionally cartoony in comparison)
All in all this is a good season 1, ends with a cool hook and all that.
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Really weird, not in a good way.
There's little to like here, ngl.I've not read the books, but from having watched all the other movie and cdrama adaptations of Candle in the Tomb, this seems to have little to do with them.
The main characters are very different, there's no tomb raiding and for some reason - aliens.
One of the weakest "adaptations" of this series, for sure.
And not a fun movie to watch. (whether you're familiar with GBotC or not.)
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Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty II To the West
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Pretty good, still.
It's good fun whenever there's a cool creepy case to solve. Every time there's court intrigue or Liu Linfeng is being a cop, it sucks.Also don't play the game where you drink when they do the Tang bow, you'll DIE.
Yeah, it's really enjoyable, but I still dislike all the jerking each other off about how great the Tang dynasty is, all the nationalist crap.
Yingtao is still best girl, the only real one on the show.
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This review may contain spoilers
The First Bad One
On Rewatch I liked this season a bit more. I think at the time it was such a shock, coming from Worm Valley - the downgrade is definitely real. There are some mountain scenes that made me think of a travel agency commercial - so poorly and boringly shot compared to the previous seasons.Like I said in my original review - there are little sparks of past greatness.
The next season is undeniably worse.
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(OG review)
What a disappointment!
What happened here? Was it covid? The new director? (iirc they changed this time?)
There are still glimpses of the old series - some character moments for both the main trio and the supporting cast. The goons and side characters are unusually well developed, which is what this show does. But they still mostly get killed off. :/
The two biggest problems for me are the story and the visuals.
This series of Candle in the Tomb usually has a pretty tight, well thought out structure. This time it felt like things just sort of happened, never really explained or returned to, plotlines just dropped. This is more like every other tomb robber show, ngl I was thinking a lot of the various daomu series - their stories are equally badly told.
What was the deal with the wolves? I think they were there just so the Tibetan dude's arc could be wrapped up, but it all just fizzled out. Where did the giant monitor lizards come from? We never learn.
For the first time in this series I was seriously disappointed with the visuals - not only does the CGI look abysmal and is all over the place, the creative and tight cinematography is GONE. The Wrath of Time season starts with an awesome dynamic shot, or remember that crazy brawl in Lost Caverns, with the camera flying around and looping up and down?
We get none of this.
The colours are bland and dark, everything looks fake and boring. The Yunnan adventure gave us glorious monsters in rubber suits, here we just get ugly and badly animated CG animals.
And the actors...they don't seem to wanna be there. Did they get covid? Are they just tired of the show? Pan Yueming looks bloated and tired, like he'd break a hip if he tried to do any action.
And they don't (do any fancy stuff), the action's just confused and badly edited.
I'm honestly kind of dreading the next season, if it's more of this or worse.
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What on Earth(s)?!
After 12 episodes I'm dropping this.The two leads have decent chemistry and are doing ok acting-wise, but this drama is just meandering nonsense.
I'm not sure if it's because of censorship and that the paranormal elements were cut and written around, or if it's meant to be like this. But paranormal or scifi, this show is extremely unclear about where anything is going and why.
Characters travel to places and do things, and act like it's perfectly understandable and logical. But it really feels like one of those dreams where things seemingly happen, but when you wake up you realize it didn't really have a coherent plot or a story you could recognize behind things just...happening.
I just find it tiresome. Which is a shame, because the leads really are easy on the eyes and work well together.
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Not as good.
It's mid, in most ways.Not amazingly good, not too boring or super terrible.
Mid.
The story's super average - you've heard it all before. I am honestly getting quite tired of protagonists with mysterious non-commoner past and I hate how so many wuxia have to steer their story into politics and courtly intrigue.
I hate courtly intrigue! The scheming princes, the power hungry eunuchs, the troubled emperors and forgotten consorts.
Good grief, shoot me now, I can't take it.
For the most part the story seems to have a clear goal and an endpoint and the pacing forward is not bad. But towards the end it slows down and almost stumbles into the ending head first, trips over its own feet and stops suddenly.
It felt quite awkward.
The characters are fine. You've seen it all before, every single character is a stereotype. But they're ok.
The acting is serviceable, with the older actors carrying the young ones quite often. Ao Rui Peng was too cartoony and weird for me, I didn't care for Lei Wu Jie.
Li Hong Yi held a single note for the entire show and it was ok? He's a pretty guy and the script didn't ask much more from him.
Liu Xue Yi seems to have had fun? Question mark? Wuxin as a character is used weirdly, mostly not being present and having his own story arc in the background. Also cartoony as a performance, but a much better actor than Ao Rui Peng.
Neither of the two female leads convinced me, or grabbed me in any way.
Tang Lian was also there.
Shout out to Cui Peng as Luo Qing Yang, who gave an incredibly strange performance and I had to laugh every time his weirdo sulky face was on screen.
Last honorable mention goes to Hu Wei, who looks like he was animated by Pixar. Very cute tho.
A good wuxia has to have cool fights.
The Blood of Youth does have fights, sure.
OK, I won't talk around it - I hate this stuff. Not just the heavy use of CG, I dislike how uninteresting it is and how low stakes it feels.
There's no tension, there's no context for anything. How strong is this character? Who the F knows, I guess I'll wait for them to tell me.
The main problem is that everyone already starts quite strong and every single character that comes later is even stronger.
But there's no difference in any of the fights, the environment doesn't matter, nothing matters.
The characters will conjure up some CG effects, point their weapon or fingers against the opponent and stand there.
That's it. Every single fight ends up as a finger contest with magical auras clashing into each other. No clever use of techniques, or the battlefield, no smart cooperation between characters. No, just point at the enemy and hope you're stronger.
This kind of power creep is a common problem in anime, compare the fights at the start of Naruto to many later ones in Shippuuden. And here it's like that from the very beginning.
Overall I didn't hate it, but it's nowhere near as good as people claim.
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Does not deserve the hype.
I'll be honest upfront - Nirvana in Fire is not my cup of tea genre-wise, I just dislike palace intrigue dramas.I was told it also had wuxia elements and it kind of does, but they do not make up for how much I disliked the PI stuff.
It's mostly well acted (by a lot of older actors, I appreciated that), mostly solidly written (though the plot does feel convoluted at times) and the rare fights are ok looking. I think overall it looks a bit dated, but not bad. Just not amazing.
For me personally it just felt long and tiresome in places. It might've started (or at least empowered) quite a few drama tropes I am not a fan of - the sickly character with incurable health problems and a mysterious past, the moral message of patriotically serving the country or a cause even if it means your death, episodes mostly consisting of characters talking in rooms.
To me this did not live up to the hype, plain and simple.
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