Was this review helpful to you?
Was this review helpful to you?
However, after watching episodes after episodes, I kinda like and enjoyed watching the second female and male lead story better than the main couple. Their character development, I thought is much better and you will see them grow and change as the story progresses. The other supporting characters, for me is also more interesting.
Overall, this is quite a good watch. The pacing is good, some episodes end with a cliffhanger to keep you interested. The politics part of the story doesn't interest me as much but I guess it's essential to the whole story. There are some cute moments, especially with Zhao Lu Si's and Liu Yu Ning's character.
Was this review helpful to you?
This drama is very short, only about 9-10 minutes for each episode with a total of 30 episodes. I finished it in just a couple of hours, skipping the beginning and ending theme. As the drama is short, it doesn't waste time on unnecessary side character story. Mostly just focus on the main characters. The story is nothing special, but it was action packed and leave you wanting to continue to the next episode until the end. The main FL and ML's acting is pretty good i thought, especially the ML. Bonus: he's super hot! I don't remember watching him in other drama, but he's apparently a supporting character in some of the dramas that I've watched, but not memorable. Overall, it's an entertaining short story with a gorgeous male lead!
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
I was looking for a drama series with Wuxia genre that has many fighting scenes. I thought since this drama series has a "Sword" in its name, i figured it would include sword fighting scenes. I was right. There are many sword fighting scenes throughout this drama. I am happy with the plethora of action scenes in this drama. Just what I'm looking for. And it's good fighting scenes too. The reason for the lower rating is because the storyline is confusing, I can't keep track of the many supporting characters. The first 1-2 episodes were really good, but when they start introducing one supporting characters after another, I got confused. I understand that period costume drama usually has a ton of characters, not just the main leads. But I failed to understand the connection of these supporting characters and their importance in the story. Oh and did I mention the ending? It is by far one of the worst ending that I've watched! The ending took so many stars of my rating in my opinion. It felt so rush and confusing that by the end of the series, I go "WHAT WAS THAT?" "IS THAT ALL?" and then the ending credit song would play. Weird ending indeed. If you're someone who doesn't really care of pay particular attention to the loopholes in the story, you would enjoy this drama for the fighting scenes alone. There's not that many drama that has these scenes nowadays. I might even rewatch this just for the fighting scenes whenever I feel like watching a Wuxia drama. Was this review helpful to you?
Was this review helpful to you?
Confusing and Complicated
What attracted me to this drama is that because it's part of iQiyi's Light On Series, a lineup of mystery and thriller drama produced by iQiyi and that the episodes are only 12, easy compared to most c-drama that are at least 30-40 episodes long. No need to invest a lot of my time in this, and each episode is only between 30-40 minutes, so in total, the whole series is probably only 5-6 hours long, like finishing three movies.The first Light On Series I watched was The Bad Kids, which blew me away! It was so good and few months after I finished the series, I still have goosebumps and think about this drama. It is that good! Unfortunately, Sisyphus did not live up to that drama. The first couple of episodes are interesting as they are still building up the story and characters, but halfway through the plot is very confusing for me. I don't know if it's just me who are struggling to follow what happened and why this and that happened, but many of the reviews of this drama that I read said the same thing. And the last couple of episodes are the most confusing ones, there are too many questions that are not answered. The Bad Kids also have unanswered questions (which I could probably find in the novel), but they wrap it up nicely so that it's not a big hole in the story.
Maybe in order to understand it better, I have to re-watch the drama. However, this drama left a bad taste in my mouth and I don't think I can go through being confused a second time. I have too many c-drama on my list (and they just kept on coming with new ones every week) to bother rewatching this.
My recommendation is if you like mystery or thriller, start with The Bad Kids (The Long Night is also good but i haven't watched it) and just skip this one.
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
Watching Princess Wei Young is like a rollercoaster ride of emotions. You can feel happy seeing cute romantic scenes between WeiYoung and Tuoba Jun but a few minutes later you feel so angry at the villains (oh there are so many villains in this drama) that you want to smash your TV screen (but I don't LoL), to feeling frustrated at WeiYoung for being so gullible at times. However, I think this rollercoaster of emotion is what glues me to this show and actually making it enjoyable. Story and Acting:
The premise of the story is nothing new. It's a story of betrayal, revenge, power struggle and rise to power. It's a bit melodramatic, that you need to prepare a few tissues. I think this is the first of Tiffany Tang's drama that I really enjoyed. I have watched a couple more of her dramas but she doesn't portray a strong female character, which annoys me. However, I really like her as WeiYoung, and her chemistry with Luo Jin's character. The cast that plays the villains did a good job too, at least in making me really really hate them and happy when bad things happen to them in the end. The costumes and color combinations are superb and really a feast for the eye. I thought they did excellent in that. The ending, although sad, is beautifully done. I cried my heart out watching the last episode during Tuoba Jun's last moments with WeiYoung.
Music:
I love love love the OST, especially the ending theme. I have put some of the OST on my Apple Music Playlist and have been on heavy rotation.
Rewatch value:
Definitely will re-watch this in the future, although i might skip and fast forward scenes (especially those containing Li Chang Ru and Li Chang Le; They are despicable!)
Overall:
Although there are parts in this drama that feels draggy, I really enjoyed watching this drama. Story, acting, costumes and setting combined make it worthwhile. I also like that there is some fighting scenes too.
Was this review helpful to you?
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
The only good thing about this drama is that it only has 24 episodes with 5-7 minutes per episode. I was able to finish this in one sitting. Nothing else however is good about this drama. All of the characters are unlikeable, even the wife as the main character. She started out as this meek housewife, then suddenly become very fierce. I guess that fits the title well. She gets so gung ho about revenge in the second half of the drama.
The murder mystery element makes this different than your typical man cheats on wife story.
Was this review helpful to you?
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
This is quite an addictive melodrama. My first time watching Ma Tian Yu in a drama and I find that he is quite handsome. I've watched a few of Zheng Shuang's other drama and I thought her performance here is the best one, even compared with her performance in O2O. I thought she portrayed her role here pretty well. However, I don't know why is it but it seems like in every one of her drama, her stylist is very bad. Her outfits are terrible LoL. I get it that in this drama she came from a poor family. But even after she started a stable regular job, she still dresses poorly and more like a college student not an office worker. Anyway, enough about the costumes... As for the drama, I really like the friendship and family elements, and how it deals with a different (and sometimes mature) subject matter, like suicide. This drama depicts real people's problems like poverty, unrequited love, and the struggle that normal people faces in life. If you like melodrama and are looking for some variety in your drama watching, I would recommend this one for you. It's a bit long, but there are only a few episodes that I found boring. The rest is pretty well paced and kept you interested.
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
Love it!
I won't write about the story line or character details because they have been written many times, so this is just my opinion for the series.I am not a fan of BL, which is why I have been putting The Untamed and Word of Honor on the to-watch shelf for a long time. I hesitated to watch this because of the BL storyline. But I didn't regret watching these two because they are one of the best chinese costume dramas that I've watched. The best ones in my opinion are Story of Yanxi Palace and Nirvana In Fire, but these two came close.
Word of Honor has all the elements that I like in a drama, good acting, handsome actors, beautiful costume and setting and wuxia scenes. Viewers are spoiled with beautiful colors in the costume, setting and cinematography as well as very amazing sceneries. There are plenty of WuXia fighting scenes in this drama that left you at the edge of your seats. There are also plenty of nice songs in the OST, I like the opening and ending theme and several others. That's why I always click "watch credit" and "play from the beginning" on Netflix for this drama because of the songs.
This drama is a rollercoaster of emotion for me. I felt sympathy for the characters, can feel happy, laughing at several scenes in the episodes, then change to feeling sad for some of the characters. The last three episodes in particular was a rollercoaster ride for me, like I didn't expect that to happen, why did it has to happen like that? Sad, then happy, and sad again.
I have to give a special shoutout to Simon Gong Jun as I thought he did a superb and excellent job as Wen Ke Xing. Huge kudos to Simon Gong!!!! I originally watch this because of Zhang Zhe Han, but Simon Gong stole my heart! He is so expressive and did very well in playing such a complex character. I first saw him in Begin Again, but after watching Word of Honor, I have just became a huge fan of Simon Gong Jun!!!
If you hesitate in watching this because of the BL element, please don't. It's there but it's subtle that I can just pass it on as true friendship and brotherhood. This drama is so much more than that, it is a story of friendship, family, loyalty, heroism and courage that it's very easy to overlook the BL element. It's there but in a subtle way, not "in your face" BL like those in Hollywood movies/series and Thai dramas. I would totally recommend this drama (and The Untamed of course).
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
Not for the faint hearted
This is the first Japanese drama that I've watched since the classic Ordinary People and Tokyo Love Story. I mostly just watch Chinese drama nowadays, but this one came up in my Netflix recommendation, so I decided to give it a try. Compared to c-dramas, this is very short and I was able to finish it in just one day. It has a 9 scale on a binge-worthiness level, but declines to 2 or 3 on a memorable and re-watch value. The story is interesting and the first four episodes I thought was very good and succeeded in catching my attention and pushing that "watch next" button on Netflix. However, the second part of the show was just so-so and I thought what happens after Arisu arrived at the Beach was weird with the organization, the parties etc were weird and a bit inconsistent and left me with many questions marks, and even after watching the last episode, I still have lots of question marks.This series is definitely not for the faint hearted. There are a lot of blood and violence and I wouldn't recommend it to you if the sight of blood on your screen leaves you feeling queasy. Acting is just sub-par I think. None of the actors or actresses are good in my opinion. They are just so-so actors with unmemorable performance. I don't watch many Japanese drama, so I am not familiar with the actors and actresses, but I am not impressed with their acting.You might like this if you are a fan of the manga or the actors & actresses and likes gory psychological thriller. As for me? i am only in for the psychological thriller part, but only like 50% of the series, not like The Bad Kids, which I thought was superb from start to finish and still leaves some impression even months after watching The Bad Kids. Acting of the actors and actresses in The Bad Kids are far superior compared with Alice in Borderland.
But, hey, we all have different tastes and opinions.
Was this review helpful to you?
One of the best
At first I hesitated on watching this because of the "BL" theme from the novel. And I thought it felt weird to watch Xiao Zhan and Wang Yibo play this BL character. But when I learned that the series is different from the novel and the BL element was subtle, I thought I would give it a try. And I did not regret it. I enjoyed this drama thoroughly and it's one of the best that I've watched so far. I thought the pace was good and not boring. The story line, the cast and the OST is great. This one definitely has a high rewatch value.Was this review helpful to you?
