A high-budget production that sets off the imagination
I think what The Long Ballad does best is paint a picture of a time long ago, a land far away. It’s very evocative and really set off my imagination. It also inspired me to spend hours on Wikipedia reading about the Tang dynasty, the Ashina tribe, and so on… later when I checked up reviews, I realized I was not the only one! You know a show is doing something right when it inspires so many people to start googling.
TLB has a high budget feel. I saw some Behind the Scenes videos that discussed the production, set design, costume making, music, etc. A lot of thought and effort went into all these things. I really liked the music, both songs and BGM (which used instruments from around the world). Other details stood out too, like Ashile Sun’s furry costume which had Wu Lei sweating during filming. The presence of such fully produced BTS in and of itself is, I think, another example of all the effort that went into this show.
All the attention to detail really paid off in capturing a certain feeling of a bustling, distant past. This is a good example of lots of little details adding up to elevate a show.
TLB is not just set in a historical time period, but actually features real historical figures and events (thus inspiring my Wikipedia binge). Bold. In general, I think it’s hard for historical fiction to steer too close to real-life figures, because then it’s bound by recorded history. …this show sort of just tossed all that aside and bent history as necessary. I for one didn’t mind as I still enjoyed the story, and we don’t watch Cdramas for logic or historical accuracy.
Character-wise, Li Changge is the eponymous FL and much of the story follows her journey after her world is turned upside down. I personally found her character really irritating for awhile, as she does a lot of drastic, hostile things without first understanding the situation, which is clearly more than what it seems. Perhaps this is all we can expect from a child (the show is vague about her age, which I think is the right move; historically, an unmarried Tang princess would have been too young for this entire thing to work out). However, I’m not that interested in watching children be children.
Luckily she stops short of being truly unlikeable, because through it all she hangs onto her conscience and an overall picture of the greater good. And her difficult personality sets the stage for some character growth. She’s tough and capable, and after she grows up a little I began to see her more as lost than anything else, and then I could sympathize with her.
The male lead, Ashile Sun, is (as I saw somebody describe) the “perfect boyfriend”. He is really badass, but also so sweet to her and always watching out for her. As an aside, the number of coincidental run-ins he has with Li Changge in the first quarter or so of the show, across such a large city/nation, is a stretch even for a drama. Gosh, I wish I were also always randomly running into a hot mysterious stranger.
The thing is, with Changge, Sun, and the romance between them- all three of these things- I liked them and was invested in their story for awhile, but sort of lost interest as the show went on. Luckily, the second couple has a very sweet story that picks up as the first one is getting less interesting. I liked Li Leyan’s character arc because she never pretended to be extraordinary or even capable, but you can see how she was forced to grow. Props to Zhao Lusi for playing, as she herself said, a character very different from her own personality.
There are a lot of other characters in this show, that come, go, and sometimes come back. It’s a great cast and I liked most of them. Except maybe Mimi… sorry, Mimi.
And all the acting was quite good, both from main and side actors. Pay attention, for example, to some of the older actors- some of them were really exceptional.
Technique-wise, this show is not quite a wuxia, so while there are some stunts, there’s a minimum of flying people, flashy choreographed fight scenes with unnecessary spins, and so on. It’s more “realistic”. There is a little sloppiness sometimes (uncontrolled sword strikes, arrows shot from the chest, etc), but the archery at least is mostly solid, (almost) none of those funny arrow grips you see sometimes. I always find it fun to see who rides their own horse; several of the actors here seemed to be decent riders, and Wu Lei stood out enough that I googled and found out he’s been riding since he was young.
Stylistically, this show pays homage to its comic book source material with some manhua cutscenes at key points (still frames in sequence, not moving), as well as random scenes with actors in front of green screens. Some people liked them; I personally did not. But I’m here for the story, so something like that wouldn’t stop me from watching.
I’ll just close off by saying that this is not a lighthearted, feel-good show. It’s not as dark or depressing as some shows can be, and has some fun moments (like that whacko COVID dance), but I cried more than I laughed. After watching this, I had to cheer myself up by watching only lighthearted shows for several months.
ENDING – READ AHEAD ONLY IF YOU WANT TO KNOW, CONTAINS SPOILERS
The ending is mostly happy, and does sort of tie things up as well as give you a hint as to where some of the characters end up. I wouldn’t exactly call it satisfying, but by Cdrama standards it’s not that bad. I had read in some other reviews that it’s an open ending, so I thought they would just tie up the main conflict and that’s that. What we got I would consider to be a bit more than an open ending, so it’s already better than I expected… but that’s a low bar.
TLB has a high budget feel. I saw some Behind the Scenes videos that discussed the production, set design, costume making, music, etc. A lot of thought and effort went into all these things. I really liked the music, both songs and BGM (which used instruments from around the world). Other details stood out too, like Ashile Sun’s furry costume which had Wu Lei sweating during filming. The presence of such fully produced BTS in and of itself is, I think, another example of all the effort that went into this show.
All the attention to detail really paid off in capturing a certain feeling of a bustling, distant past. This is a good example of lots of little details adding up to elevate a show.
TLB is not just set in a historical time period, but actually features real historical figures and events (thus inspiring my Wikipedia binge). Bold. In general, I think it’s hard for historical fiction to steer too close to real-life figures, because then it’s bound by recorded history. …this show sort of just tossed all that aside and bent history as necessary. I for one didn’t mind as I still enjoyed the story, and we don’t watch Cdramas for logic or historical accuracy.
Character-wise, Li Changge is the eponymous FL and much of the story follows her journey after her world is turned upside down. I personally found her character really irritating for awhile, as she does a lot of drastic, hostile things without first understanding the situation, which is clearly more than what it seems. Perhaps this is all we can expect from a child (the show is vague about her age, which I think is the right move; historically, an unmarried Tang princess would have been too young for this entire thing to work out). However, I’m not that interested in watching children be children.
Luckily she stops short of being truly unlikeable, because through it all she hangs onto her conscience and an overall picture of the greater good. And her difficult personality sets the stage for some character growth. She’s tough and capable, and after she grows up a little I began to see her more as lost than anything else, and then I could sympathize with her.
The male lead, Ashile Sun, is (as I saw somebody describe) the “perfect boyfriend”. He is really badass, but also so sweet to her and always watching out for her. As an aside, the number of coincidental run-ins he has with Li Changge in the first quarter or so of the show, across such a large city/nation, is a stretch even for a drama. Gosh, I wish I were also always randomly running into a hot mysterious stranger.
The thing is, with Changge, Sun, and the romance between them- all three of these things- I liked them and was invested in their story for awhile, but sort of lost interest as the show went on. Luckily, the second couple has a very sweet story that picks up as the first one is getting less interesting. I liked Li Leyan’s character arc because she never pretended to be extraordinary or even capable, but you can see how she was forced to grow. Props to Zhao Lusi for playing, as she herself said, a character very different from her own personality.
There are a lot of other characters in this show, that come, go, and sometimes come back. It’s a great cast and I liked most of them. Except maybe Mimi… sorry, Mimi.
And all the acting was quite good, both from main and side actors. Pay attention, for example, to some of the older actors- some of them were really exceptional.
Technique-wise, this show is not quite a wuxia, so while there are some stunts, there’s a minimum of flying people, flashy choreographed fight scenes with unnecessary spins, and so on. It’s more “realistic”. There is a little sloppiness sometimes (uncontrolled sword strikes, arrows shot from the chest, etc), but the archery at least is mostly solid, (almost) none of those funny arrow grips you see sometimes. I always find it fun to see who rides their own horse; several of the actors here seemed to be decent riders, and Wu Lei stood out enough that I googled and found out he’s been riding since he was young.
Stylistically, this show pays homage to its comic book source material with some manhua cutscenes at key points (still frames in sequence, not moving), as well as random scenes with actors in front of green screens. Some people liked them; I personally did not. But I’m here for the story, so something like that wouldn’t stop me from watching.
I’ll just close off by saying that this is not a lighthearted, feel-good show. It’s not as dark or depressing as some shows can be, and has some fun moments (like that whacko COVID dance), but I cried more than I laughed. After watching this, I had to cheer myself up by watching only lighthearted shows for several months.
ENDING – READ AHEAD ONLY IF YOU WANT TO KNOW, CONTAINS SPOILERS
The ending is mostly happy, and does sort of tie things up as well as give you a hint as to where some of the characters end up. I wouldn’t exactly call it satisfying, but by Cdrama standards it’s not that bad. I had read in some other reviews that it’s an open ending, so I thought they would just tie up the main conflict and that’s that. What we got I would consider to be a bit more than an open ending, so it’s already better than I expected… but that’s a low bar.
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