Great heroine but somewhat messy execution
My favorite part of this show was Bai Fengxi, the female lead. She is a rare FL who is actually as strong and capable as her ML, even in fighting. I enjoyed watching her kick butt, handle situations, and be properly appreciated by her ML.
I very much enjoyed the first part of the show showing their adventures in the Jianghu. After that, they settle down in town for a while as court politics play out. Some people complain about the political arcs and I agree they are less interesting, but I found them still fun enough to watch. Unfortunately BFX is slightly sidelined here but I was always happily waiting for her to show up again.
Around halfway through is I believe when there was a shakeup in the crew and a bunch of people left. One unfortunate casualty must have been the choreographer because the great fight scenes of the first half are no more, replaced by some seriously lame sequences.
There are also some poorly explained plot devices, inconsistences, and logic holes, which seem worse in the second half. But since the script should be written before filming, I don’t think these are a product of the internal crisis. The plot holes are not as bad as some other dramas, I just always find it interesting how they can turn a book that makes sense into a drama that doesn’t.
I think dramas and their novels should be treated as separate entities, but in this case I do think some of the confusion and inconsistency comes from trying to hang onto some things from the novel while changing others. For instance, a lot of the novel centers on the rather complicated dynamic between the ML and FL. In the drama, Hei Fengxi has been edited to be more “likeable” and their relationship is simplified, which left me puzzling over things like why they are suddenly getting together now after 10 years of knowing each other, or the entire Hua Chunran story arc (which should have happened before they got together). Getting them together earlier is fan service at the expense of some logic, which I guess is ok. But if they are going to make a bunch of stuff up anyways (like all the palace politics), they could have done a better job.
For better or worse, they also added an evil mastermind villain for us all to hate. Personally I feel this cheapens the story a bit, turning it into another trite good-vs-evil deal. But it does reduce emotional turmoil for all of us audience.
Acting wise, I think Zhao Lusi captured BFX’s free spirit pretty well. Yang Yang always plays a certain kind of character, which just happened to be perfectly suited for this one. For the first half, the martial arts were solid, good choreography and technique from both of them. There is a part in the middle where they do solo forms, and it was fun to watch their different styles. Never mind that I had no idea what skill they were learning or why they were doing these forms.
If we overlook some garbled logic, this is still a fun watch, right up until the mess of the ending. They crammed the second half of the novel into 5 episodes. Granted, this was the less enjoyable half of the novel, however rushing through it without proper development didn’t help.
Also, FWIW, I thought the styling on this show was quite bad. All of the actors (especially male) looked a bit worse than they have in other dramas. Something about the helmet hair, or maybe it’s the makeup. This was one of the first Cdramas I watched and I was honestly surprised to see some of the same actors later, in other dramas, looking much better.
ENDING – READ AHEAD ONLY IF YOU WANT TO KNOW, CONTAINS SPOILERS
This show had a rushed and unsatisfying ending that could probably be considered bittersweet. They emerge alive but with a huge asterisk. It did not leave me feeling very happy.
In my head, I just sort of ignore the last two episodes. Whenever a show does “three years later”, I sort of roll my eyes. And without proper development and buildup, momentous occurrences feel cheap. The final battle lasting only a few minutes is not my major quibble, but still a good example of why the ending (and last few episodes) felt cheap.
Sometimes I read the book and/or its epilogues to get more closure. In this case, the novel ends a bit happier (without aforementioned asterisk), but I also found one of its epilogues to be super upsetting, so… not sure I would recommend the novel to bring happiness.
I very much enjoyed the first part of the show showing their adventures in the Jianghu. After that, they settle down in town for a while as court politics play out. Some people complain about the political arcs and I agree they are less interesting, but I found them still fun enough to watch. Unfortunately BFX is slightly sidelined here but I was always happily waiting for her to show up again.
Around halfway through is I believe when there was a shakeup in the crew and a bunch of people left. One unfortunate casualty must have been the choreographer because the great fight scenes of the first half are no more, replaced by some seriously lame sequences.
There are also some poorly explained plot devices, inconsistences, and logic holes, which seem worse in the second half. But since the script should be written before filming, I don’t think these are a product of the internal crisis. The plot holes are not as bad as some other dramas, I just always find it interesting how they can turn a book that makes sense into a drama that doesn’t.
I think dramas and their novels should be treated as separate entities, but in this case I do think some of the confusion and inconsistency comes from trying to hang onto some things from the novel while changing others. For instance, a lot of the novel centers on the rather complicated dynamic between the ML and FL. In the drama, Hei Fengxi has been edited to be more “likeable” and their relationship is simplified, which left me puzzling over things like why they are suddenly getting together now after 10 years of knowing each other, or the entire Hua Chunran story arc (which should have happened before they got together). Getting them together earlier is fan service at the expense of some logic, which I guess is ok. But if they are going to make a bunch of stuff up anyways (like all the palace politics), they could have done a better job.
For better or worse, they also added an evil mastermind villain for us all to hate. Personally I feel this cheapens the story a bit, turning it into another trite good-vs-evil deal. But it does reduce emotional turmoil for all of us audience.
Acting wise, I think Zhao Lusi captured BFX’s free spirit pretty well. Yang Yang always plays a certain kind of character, which just happened to be perfectly suited for this one. For the first half, the martial arts were solid, good choreography and technique from both of them. There is a part in the middle where they do solo forms, and it was fun to watch their different styles. Never mind that I had no idea what skill they were learning or why they were doing these forms.
If we overlook some garbled logic, this is still a fun watch, right up until the mess of the ending. They crammed the second half of the novel into 5 episodes. Granted, this was the less enjoyable half of the novel, however rushing through it without proper development didn’t help.
Also, FWIW, I thought the styling on this show was quite bad. All of the actors (especially male) looked a bit worse than they have in other dramas. Something about the helmet hair, or maybe it’s the makeup. This was one of the first Cdramas I watched and I was honestly surprised to see some of the same actors later, in other dramas, looking much better.
ENDING – READ AHEAD ONLY IF YOU WANT TO KNOW, CONTAINS SPOILERS
This show had a rushed and unsatisfying ending that could probably be considered bittersweet. They emerge alive but with a huge asterisk. It did not leave me feeling very happy.
In my head, I just sort of ignore the last two episodes. Whenever a show does “three years later”, I sort of roll my eyes. And without proper development and buildup, momentous occurrences feel cheap. The final battle lasting only a few minutes is not my major quibble, but still a good example of why the ending (and last few episodes) felt cheap.
Sometimes I read the book and/or its epilogues to get more closure. In this case, the novel ends a bit happier (without aforementioned asterisk), but I also found one of its epilogues to be super upsetting, so… not sure I would recommend the novel to bring happiness.
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