This review may contain spoilers
Coming into this drama, i didn’t expect much, apart from it has really good production (and only watching a 1’30” trailer a year or so ago with all the wires visible!).Ep1: was slow but you can see the quality of the production, my problem was it feel sooo slow. The whole time I watched it, I have to keep remind myself it’s a wuxia, and they need to explain the conflict, and the backstory of the main character, but it was still testing my patience a lot. The music they used for the fight scene was out of place, and was taken from the flame daughter, which make me feel maybe the fighting sequence/director was the same as the flame daughter. The flame daughter fighting sequence was excellent and top notch (despite many didn’t like the drama), and the music works well there. But for this one, it is just not. The music is epic, however, the dude was fighting a bunch of minions, which doesn’t have a high and low moment of the battles, it’s just hitting, so that’s why the music was out of place. The highlight of ep1 was the kick in the fighting sequence. And then we met with a stubborn and rather stupid girl, or at least I felt the FL was just uh -.-!
Ep2: focus on the ML, his illness, FL and her sect brother, which gives a fault sense that they might develop a love story. The child actress was good, and even though her character annoys me, I like her and don’t mind seeing more of her. And the two leads meet again so soon, also recognise each other identity immediately, which is a surprise, no draw out like other series.
Ep3-5: somehow it went into hi, here are other 2-3 potential couples, here are the backstory of the father, here are more flashback of the FL (ep1 stuffs). And it just went down hill for me. Oh also, here is a 2 mins of the FL walk through a few rooms to deliver medicine to the ML, just so we can extend the drama time and showcase how beautiful the tower is. While I admit the set is beautiful, it does not make me feel like keep watching, if I want to watch beautiful stuff, i’ll Just turn on my Apple TV, let it go idol and watch earth from the space station or London from bird eyes view -.- or the Chinese farm ladder! Because of so many things being throw in, and multiple flashback (like 1 every 5-10mins), then switching between couples on top of that, it feels disjointed!
The main stuffs:
The love story between the two leads: so in ep1/2: it wasted our time trying to hunt there might be something between the oldest sect brother and the FL, just to end it with her do a pinky with the ML, hoping him to be well (at this point, it’s fine and we can put it as she has a good heart). But the second she saw him when they finally reunited, it seems that she’s totally concerned/into him >_>? No mention of the sect brother, while that sect brother seems to have another potential partner? Then why did you waste my time at the beginning with all that unnecessary dialogue and screen times???? And while I enjoy their scenes together (the FL and the ML), I just don’t feel the passion, the chemistry. He meant to be cold, but his lack of acting skill fail to demonstrate the complexity of his emotion, and her lack of character basically means two dead fishes delivering lines to one another, with the direction insert emotional cue actions so the audiences can “feel” their emotions for one another.
And this is another minus! Way too many of this! I don’t need a zoom in in the clench hand, the twitching eyes, the fluttering of the eyelashes to get what emotions the character meant to be feeling, yet I’m being spoonfed while feeling nothing from their eyes! It likes watching those daytime drama with really bad acting!
The fight scenes:
I love wuxia and love fighting sequence. I thought I would get decent one, but it’s rather a let down. Sure the production quality was good, but the sequence is too short and too simple. The only one worth while so far was the kick in ep1. The short dagger technique is too fast and therefore not really being displayed properly. For a wuxia, so far, I’m unimpressed with their fighting scene.
The female lead: for the first 5eps, she’s literally like a servant. Not a main character, a servant with a lot of flashback and screen time! She does nothing, totally useless (understandably why but still!). Her advantage? She looks a lot like ZLY. My main grip is why does she have to wear red? What’s the obsession with dressing the FL in red: the flame daughter, the legends, and now this. At least the two formal has a legitimate reason for it, and also explained in the drama. Whereas for this drama, I kid you not, in ep2, I was having a hard time figure out who’s the fl when two girls with same hairstyles and dress in practically the same clothes -.-‘
Should you give it a try? Possibly! Should you put your Hope up? Nope, possibly keep it as slow as possible. I didn’t have much expectation, only hey I might like this because it looks promising. But I come out totally not happy, but I will keep watching as I might be too hard!
If you have seen legend of qin, I think you should expect that same level. High production value, however, slow, uninteresting, with the occasional goodness, but overall, a big disappointment. At least that drama has good music, this one doesn’t >_<
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It’s a chore to watch the first 2 eps
This review is based on 2 eps, of course I’ll update it if I keep watching, if I can find the power to actually keep going!Is this a wuxia drama? No, not really. If you think the FL’s hand blocking 5-7 moves slowly (so slowly, so disjointedly that it looks more like acting than fighting!) qualify this as the greatest wuxia drama of the year, then you really need to go watch the 90s wuxia lol. In ep1, FL fights a bunch of bad guys, who is trying to kill this 1 dude, but all she did was knocked them unconscious (maybe, you see them unconscious but the number ain’t seem to come down really), or knock them away somewhere, so they proceed to kill the dude she tries to protect. So you wonder what’s the point? Or are you retarded? Like if your enemy is trying to kill, being soft just getting yourself killed? But whatever, let’s move on to ep2, where ML gets to show off his awesome kungfu skill, which show him fly up in the air, swing out his hands, and his enemies drop like flies. Again, I wouldn’t call this wuxia, I call this fantasy style fighting, where ppl just magically get defeated! All fight scenes end in like 1-3moves aren’t count as fight scenes, guys. If you claim yourself a wuxia drama, at least show us a decent fight scene.
Then we need to talk about the defying physics of the FL, she who stood on top of the bamboo tree (or some super tall tree, at least 3m, I’m being generous here, more like 5m, but let’s say 3m), talking to lowbies on the ground. Not only we see the trees sway like crazy, she stands perfectly still! Amazing kungfu! She’s not on the tree, she’s actually hovering up in the air! We also see how she can converse normally with those lowbies, who are at least 3m below her, without looking at them, or raising her voice, they can still converse normally like they are next to each other. Amazing kungfu those lowbies have! Pity they used their kungfu in the wrong area (strengthen their hearing instead of their fighting skills >_>). Or my ears just got that bad from wearing headphones! That I’m having trouble hearing ppls about 2m away if I’m in a forest with so much winds and leaves rubbing against each other sound, and I’m facing away from them!
Do the characters follow the book? I don’t care, and I doubt the leads’ fandoms care lawl. Do their costumes look bad, and not suitable for the S+ title the drama was supposed to have due to the amount of money invested in it? No, because they supposed to be jianghu ppl, they meant to dress simple. So I’m actually fine with their costumes. Do they have chemistry? To me, no. I’m baffling with the way they interact with each other. They were supposed to know each other for a very long time. FL seems to look down/dislike ML because he’s scheming and she doesn’t necessarily trust him. Yet next moment, if she gets the chance, she tries to play cutesie with him 0.o and those cutesie moments are forced, and not natural. Not only that, for someone who know each other a long time, I’m expecting funny banter now and then, instead I got nothing but bland, long winded dialogue that make me don’t want to read the subtitles. Or at least it questions whether I would like this series more if I don’t have to spend effort in reading and trying to understand where it’s going. If I know Chinese, I could have it on the background, and therefore enjoy it more?
TLDR: if you are a fan of either of these two, you MIGHT like it. If you are not, you won’t lol! And if you do, good on you! Nothing to drive home about this drama, at least based on the first 2 eps.
PS: spare me the whole you must give it 10eps, before it gets good! Some other series is either half way through by ep10 or near finish by then lol!
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The lead actress’s acting is overdone in a lot of scenes, the lead actor - meh >_> lacking the charisma, so far, the god of night was the only one stand out. plus the usual tropes in literally every scene -.-
I felt increasing bored as the minute goes on. Too much yapping, music is forgettable, the ending theme song has this kinda annoying voice but good backtrack, though I wouldn’t sticking around to finish hearing that song either. CGI is kinda bad, not great details, maybe if you have no life and could sit there to watch another 10hrs for it to get better, then give it a try?
For people who have watched a lot of xianxia/wuxia series, it is nothing they haven’t seen before
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