lilmeow

A feel-good show about female empowerment

First of all, do not expect anything resembling realism when it comes to the female lead’s abilities or accomplishments. I read some other reviews beforehand which set my expectations appropriately, and this contributed greatly to my happiness. Do not wonder too hard if time runs differently in this universe, or how xyz is even remotely possible. Just sit back and enjoy the satisfaction of watching these women kick butt.

Now, let us begin.

While the overarching story sets the premise, this show is broken into many smaller standalone story arcs, some as short as a couple of episodes. I didn’t like every story arc, but overall I liked this structure because it meant lots of satisfying closures, and some room to breathe in between.

The theme of female empowerment is embedded throughout. There is a conscious focus on presenting women as their own people beyond their relationships to men (the point of the Bechdel test, actually). Sisterhood stands strong; we do get some typical cattiness, but the women in this story mostly end up very supportive of each other. The extent of societal sexism portrayed at times felt a bit overdone, like they were selling righteous indignation; but as intended, it makes it even more satisfying to watch our characters succeed.

Hua Zhi, the eponymous (Chinese title) FL, is smart, confident, fearless, and kind. She has lots of ideas, and everything she tries goes well. She is a great character to root for because you won’t lose. It’s gratifying to watch her constantly handle situations with skill and heart. But on the flipside, I wasn’t that emotionally invested in her. I was never worried about her; she’s got a ton of plot armor and it’s somehow really obvious from the tone of the show that she always wins.

I was more invested in many of the side characters. A strength of this show is its plethora of likable, multidimensional, and interesting female characters. Many of them get decent development in one or more story arcs, but disappear for the rest. I did hope to see some of my favorites a bit more, but there were enough characters to care about that I didn’t dwell too much.

We also get a lot of side couples, as different members of the household find their matches. A variety of different types of relationships and outcomes are shown. Happily, the show is free of silly love triangles, except the main one.

Not surprisingly, the male protagonists are all allies who support their women. At the beginning I was all for our poor SML, Shen Qi, who did everything he could. For whatever reason, he then went on to disappear for a long time, so I forgot about him. I do feel like he deserved a bit more screentime.

The male lead, Gu Yanxi, is a typical ML combo of badass but kind and supportive. I really liked his relationship with Hua Zhi. Many dramas have an overprotective, overdevoted ML, which I always found a bit much. Gu Yanxi and Hua Zhi seem more normal; they are supportive while each having their own lives. Their very healthy relationship is also impressively drama-free, even when you think there might be some drama.

That said, while I liked Gu Yanxi enough, I actually never felt that interested in him. And so, although I liked the dynamics of their relationship, it was two characters I was not totally invested in, so I wasn’t quite oogling over them.

As for villains… the emperor is the source of problems, but I’d hesitate to call him the villain. The ML is on his side, while Hua Zhi treats him more like a force of nature than an enemy. This emperor is a psychopath with too much power, a bad ruler and a bad father, but he’s also so… human. He’s an interesting character with an interesting role, and I liked that this show does not have a typical good-vs-evil plot.

In terms of acting, overall I think Zhang Jingyi did a great job. Her portrayal of Hua Zhi has been criticized for being too “perfect”. I do think there’s some truth to this, but I wouldn’t pin it all on acting. For example, on occasion she does something not-so-bright (eg mouth off unnecessarily to a powerful person). But it comes across as more heroic than anything else. A little remorse or recognition of “mistake”, by herself or anyone, would have gone a long way to making her a more multi-dimensional character. This could have been accomplished through writing, acting, and/or directing.

For Hu Yitian as Gu Yanxi, there were a few times I thought his expression maybe should have been something else. Overall he was fine, but I think he could work more on nuanced facial expressions. For whatever reason, I just couldn’t care much for this character.

Lu Yuxiao as Shaoyao deserves a special shoutout. It seems the show was going for neurodivergent, which is difficult to portray- I don’t really know what’s accurate, but she did SOMETHING well as I was very invested in this character.

But my favorite acting comes from Hai Yitian. His muted depiction of the emperor- lonely but such a difficult person- conveys a complex character that adds depth to the show. I especially love that momentary look of hurt he gets when somebody says something he doesn’t want to hear. It makes us hope again and again that he’s finally reflecting on himself.

In terms of world-building, this story occurs in some unspecified historical time period, which gives lots of leeway, but they couldn’t seem to keep things consistent. For example, for a society so conservative that unmarried women can’t show their faces, Hua Zhi sure goes on a lot of public dates. In fact, what women are and are not allowed to do is rather inconsistent. However, costumes and styling were fairly good… in particular I thought many of the young women looked very pretty.

Also, for a feel-good romp this show was surprisingly brutal and violent. For example, lots of bloody beatings. And background characters get slaughtered left and right… the choreographer was not messing around, the deaths are fairly graphic. Not gruesome per se, just vivid depictions of stabbing or slicing accompanied by little spurts of blood.

Sidebar rant…this show likes to show off the ML’s fighting prowess by pitting him against many enemies all at once. Such fights are notoriously difficult to choreograph, as in real life a person cannot counter all directions at the same time. The solution? He fights with a few people in front of him while everyone else stands around at ready, conveniently out of focus. …come on, let’s just save the bravado and put him in more realistic situations. I did not swoon for this ML winning 1 vs 50, I just rolled my eyes.

Then again, based on other reviews, it seems everyone else swooned. lol. Well… Hu Yitian’s sword technique seemed ok to me, not bad but didn’t stand out (eg it’s still a little sloppy at times, which is understandable with that many sword strokes). His fist fighting is more MMA style which I personally don’t like as much. I won’t say he’s a good or bad fighter, I just am not sure why so many people are raving about his fight scenes.

Finally: I didn’t know where to fit this in, but I loved the music! Especially those beautiful cello solos. I was so happy to find the instrumental BGMs on youtube so I can play them on repeat.

ENDING – READ AHEAD ONLY IF YOU WANT TO KNOW, CONTAINS SPOILERS





Of course this uplifting, feel-good show has a happy ending, it’s just a matter of how well it’s pulled off. And I’ll say first off that, in terms of closure, it’s one of the better Cdrama endings I’ve seen. We get a good half episode of wrapping things up and telling you where everyone goes. I was satisfied.

MORE MAJOR SPOILER AHEAD





Shows often like to insert some heartache near the end, and in this case I would say it’s the Hua Rong story arc. Although one couple is a relatively small sacrifice, I still found it extremely upsetting. I was really rooting for them. Her death was unnecessary; it did not even follow the themes and patterns of the rest of the show.

And as for the actual ending… well, I really liked Hao Yue. In this show about female empowerment, it’s only fitting that it’s a woman who packs the final punch. And her tirade against the emperor was so on point.

I’ll admit that, for somebody who played such an important role, she did come a bit out of nowhere. I would have liked to see her developed a bit more, and I really wished for a better ending for her. As is, by the end she is neither friend nor foe- more like a disposable plot tool.

Do I wish that, instead of a random assassin showing up in the last few episodes, the emperor finally came around and reversed his rulings? …sure, but that is totally unrealistic. The emperor is that person in your life who will never apologize, will never even recognize that they need to apologize. It’s so brutally realistic, and I think his death was the only way to solve Hua Zhi’s problems.

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Entertaining with good cases and solid historical backing

The third installment of this show is currently trending, so I decided to start from the beginning.

As the name implies, this is a detective show set in the Tang Dynasty featuring cases with eerie, fantastical elements. The supernatural elements are more a reflection of the common peoples’ interpretations than reality; this is ultimately a historical and not a fantasy. While some things are left unexplained, and some explanations are plausible but not actually realistic (eg very specific drugs or human skin masks), there are no actual ghosts or monsters.

I have to thank another review for informing me that Detective Di was a historical figure who inspired lots of detective stories, otherwise I would have wondered why they keep namedropping a random person who never shows up. He is only alluded to, but this show does feature other real historical figures like the Crown Prince and his aunt the Princess. Their power struggle is not the central storyline, but our protagonists can’t help but get caught up in it; it is woven skillfully into the story.

All the necessary historical and political background is adequately conveyed by the show, but it’s still fun to read up and compare (Princess Taiping’s wiki page is helpful, if anyone’s interested). The show seems to stay pretty true to history while embellishing around the details. I especially like the portrayal of these historical figures- calculating, ruthless, decisive, but still human, a mix of good and bad. Unlike caricature rulers fabricated by dramas that can, they are exactly what I imagine real historical rulers to be like.

Su Wuming, main protagonist and disciple of the famous Detective Di, is very likable. He is smart, thoughtful, and calm, the kind of person who always says and does the right thing. He is also lowkey hilarious, like BS-ing his friends with a straight face kind of funny. He’s the kind of character you aren’t worried about, since you can’t imagine him ever failing.

On the other hand, the other main protagonist, Lu Lingfeng, is not so likable. He is arrogant, prejudiced, and rash, and some of his initial work is classic bad investigation. It didn’t bother me too much, though, because with Su Wuming around to gently guide him, he rarely gets away with it. Jerk behavior is much less annoying when it gets called out. Overall he’s not that bad- think difficult person who’s trying to do good- and is willing to admit mistakes, clearly a total setup for character growth.

As for other characters, Pei Xijun gets off to a rough start in terms of audience likability. She is obsessive and rather bratty at her introduction. She later improves and even finds a way to add value- the screenwriters come up with all sorts of creative ways to utilize her artistic abilities (some of which were a little hard to believe, I'll be honest). I ended up finding Xijun tolerable, but she never really grew on me. Probably because her annoying habit of fawning over a guy, though significantly toned down, continued to persist, thus so did my bad first impression.

Xijun’s romance is not that important, but I found it a little cringe when it did show up. I didn’t really like how the male characters have so much going on, but female characters come with romance plots attached. Perhaps this is more historically accurate though, when marriage was a relatively bigger part of women’s lives. I did not particularly like the romances in this show, but at least they aren’t too played up.

The band of friends also includes a few other characters with distinct skills and personalities. Chicken Fei, for example, is the doctor and resident drunkard; Xue Huan is the cute and lovably earnest kid; Yingtao joins later, and it’s nice to have another capable female character but her role isn’t that big.

The characters are decently crafted and some have progression. But for some reason, I had a hard time feeling any particular emotional connection or investment in them. I liked them enough but did not particularly feel for them. So this show ended up being, for me, just about the curiosity of the mysteries and watching them get solved, rather than an emotional, inspiring, or thought-provoking journey.

The plot covers 8 different cases. With 4-5 episodes each, none of them are simple; I enjoyed watching the methodical investigation and the intricate truth slowly emerge. They are interesting, well set up, and well presented, with enough details given for the audience to follow along.

The cases are pretty much independent but have an overarching umbrella in the progression of the characters’ careers and any personal growth. Maybe because of this structure, the show stays strong to the end, finishing with just another case rather than trying to tie up some grand plot.

That said, the last case was not my favorite. Its villain isn’t really developed as a character so I had no strong emotions, besides feeling a little sorry for him. Like the rest of the show, it’s more about watching them uncover clues and solve the case.

Overall, although the cases are entertaining to watch, I still felt like this show is missing something, perhaps some greater depth or meaning. It seems more procedural. I’m not sure if it’s just me not connecting with the characters, or maybe the lack of any consistent themes- the only one I can maybe think of is “Serve the country”, which isn’t really that interesting. Or Lu Lingfeng learning not to be a jerk, which is obvious. Some of the cases have decent emotional depth within them, for the characters involved, but it only lasts for those episodes and then they are gone. There's no common thread or deeper insights carried beyond. I think such a vibe makes sense for a show like this, but personally I like something more thoughtful and personal.

Acting-wise, I thought everyone did well. Yang Zhigang as Su Wuming is notable; his slow and distinct speaking style is good acting, but it also kind of took a long time and I found 1.25X speed is perfect for listening to him talk. This doesn’t have idol drama vibes so there is thankfully not much of actors trying to look cool, overacting, slow mo scenes, etc.

The fighting is not too flashy or elaborate, but it’s pretty solid. The costumes are realistic. Some of the CGI looks fake, but it’s not a big deal. The background music is pretty good for setting the tone, but I don’t actually remember it that much; the music didn’t really stand out. Maybe more music would have helped me feel more emotionally connected, but it’s hard to say.

This show is definitely worth a watch if you like mysteries or relatively accurate historicals, just don’t expect some emotionally deep or thoughtful journey.

ENDING – READ AHEAD ONLY IF YOU WANT TO KNOW, CONTAINS SPOILERS





Not surprisingly, happy ending, the case is solved and Lu Lingfeng gets great honors. 20 min or so of wrapup, including a few minutes of cute vignettes at the end that might have been cuter if I actually liked the love stories.

This show already has a sequel and a threequel, so clearly the fun continues. It doesn't really matter how satisfying an ending is when you know there's a follow up.

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Short but not that inspired

This is a short drama that I found somewhat mediocre. It’s got a little silliness to it, but I wasn’t that amused and I don’t think it’s meant to be a comedy. I’d say it’s a straightforward romance story.

The FL is a goddess jumped into a mortal body. She is sassy, has attitude, and stands up to bullying, but unfortunately she lost all her powers so she’s physically not that strong. She’s likable enough, I guess.

I’d consider Change Feng and Fu An to be ML and SML, if only because they both like the FL. What’s more unusual is that they share one body- you sometimes have to guess who’s currently present in said body, based on bearing, attitude, and voice. I think the actor did a pretty good job, but sometimes I guessed wrong.

The two of them have very different personalities and separate consciousness. I never fully figured out how it works or what’s going on, but they are definitely different people. Yet even with distinct personalities, I didn’t have too many opinions about them. Just not that emotionally invested.

The falling in love part is rather abrupt and I’m not sure when, how, or why it happened. I think there is a half-assed attempt at enemies to lovers. I did like watching the ML all flirty after they get together, and they have pretty good chemistry, it’s just that the relationship is not built on much. There is the SML sadly pining on the side but nobody seems to care.

The show is a little confusing and chaotic at the beginning, but they do manage to convey enough necessary information to follow along. Considering its length, it was actually less choppy and rushed than I expected. It ends up being fairly straightforward; the FL’s mission is not that complicated, and there aren’t too many twists and turns. I actually never quite figured out what was going on with the sacred fruit, but in the meantime, there are some evil humans to counter and defeat. There is even a “touching backstory” that gets revealed, but it’s too short and underdeveloped for me to really care.

At 8 min x 20 episodes, I was excited to be able to binge an entire show in one evening. But after seeing what I got, I think I should have just picked a well-rated movie instead. It’s not bad for mindless entertainment, but afterwards I didn’t feel great- it felt like I’d just watched a couple hours of filler.

And right, the subtitles are not good and can create confusion. Knowing some Chinese is definitely helpful. The subs aren’t the worst I’ve seen, and the wording is not the most difficult; just some knowledge of conversational Chinese, paired with the English and Chinese subs, should be enough.

ENDING – READ AHEAD ONLY IF YOU WANT TO KNOW, CONTAINS SPOILERS





I think this is a happy ending, but I’m not totally sure what happened. The ML dies, and apparently the FL gives up immortality (poor sifu, guess she doesn’t care about never seeing him again). I think this act somehow revives the ML, though the terms of this deal are unclear and for some reason it takes a chance meeting for them to reunite.

I have no idea what happens to the other guy in his body. I guess he is supposed to live.

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Girl pretends to be boy, shoots lots of guns

This is the first Republican drama I watched, and I found it so interesting to see the portrayal of China in the 1910s. I know the image of the West (or at least America) during this era, and it was fascinating to see those influences in China of the time.

To be honest, I didn’t think this costume/hair/makeup styling was the most flattering for anyone, either male or female. But still interesting. And for me, seeing the costumes, sets, and culture of 1910s China was actually the highlight of this drama. I thought everything else about it was just ok.

As others have mentioned, a big portion of the story is fluff. It’s largely about Xie Xiang, the FL, navigating life in the academy as she pretends to be a boy.

Xie Xiang is sensible and likable enough, and it’s easy to root for her. It’s fun to watch a strong female lead overcome odds with hard work and tenacity. I also like that she doesn’t have some grand patriotic goal; instead, her motivation for doing this difficult thing seems to be more just being lost, confused, and sad, which is a lot more relatable.

That said, it’s completely unrealistic that she would be able to pull it off, and they get around this by just glossing over all the details. We never find out how she passes the entrance medical exam; her wardrobe/wig transitions happen lightning fast, often with no place to change; she somehow survives training by overtraining; etc. The whole thing is less impressive because it’s too fake.

As for the male leads... well, I could not stand Gu Yanzhen. He reminded me of every single annoying guy in my life, it was almost triggering. I don’t think he’s a poorly written character- he has a distinct personality rather than generic hero. He just hit too close to home for me. His self-centered, irresponsible, and/or love-brain behavior made me so angry, and the worst was when the FL actually seemed to like it. No joke, I took a year-long break near the end of this show because I found him so frustrating.

I was on Team Shen Junshan all the way, but unfortunately, I already knew from reviews who is ML and who is SML. Well, at least this character is fairly mature and not frustrating to watch, and he stays in the game for a long time.

Qu Manting is listed as a lead too, but I don’t think she's as central. This show has lots of characters like her who have their own stories, which I think is nice, because then if you don’t like one there’s always the others. Plus, real life is more like that- everyone is the star of their own story. As for Manting herself, I found her sometimes admirable but mostly annoying.

While momentous world events are happening, our leads and their friends are preoccupied by a ridiculous number of love triangles. Love triangles are not my favorite, but I found it entertaining enough. It’s at least not that stressful. The students do have some military exercises, but they are low stress due to heavy plot armor. It feels kind of like a video game, the way they mow down NPCs but nobody with a name ever gets shot.

The last 10 or so episodes are when things start to get serious. There are lots of gunshots and explosions. After being coddled by fluff for so long, I didn’t quite enjoy this. I also liked Xie Xiang a lot less near the end, partly because she’s dating a loser, but maybe also partly because she becomes less important- she just doesn’t do as much to help herself or those around her.

That said, while I was not too enamored by the plot as a whole, I did enjoy the side character friends. The other students at the academy, for instance, don’t always play huge roles, but it’s fun to watch their banter and camaraderie. My favorite, though, is probably Tan Xiaojun, Xie Xiang’s best friend. Xiaojun is not particularly special or heroic, but she’s a good friend, and that’s all most of us can strive for in our own lives.

Acting-wise, everyone is praising Xu Kai... well, I guess he did a good job, but I was too busy being annoyed by his character to notice. I thought everyone did fine.

I very much liked the background music to this show, which is heavy on piano and solo violin. It’s quite lovely and fits in with the mood and period. The actual songs aren’t used very much, which on the one hand is good because it means fewer cheesy filler scenes, but on the other hand seems like a shame- I really liked that second closing.

As a final note, I was afraid there would be lots of propaganda, since we’re seeing China on a modern-ish world stage. And there was indeed a lot of patriotic talk and nationalistic pride, especially towards the end. But mostly this is still a show that’s meant to entertain. It’s historical fiction, telling the story of a group of people as the world moves and shakes around them.

ENDING – READ AHEAD ONLY IF YOU WANT TO KNOW, CONTAINS SPOILERS





There are three hard-hitting deaths as we approach the end. Probably carefully chosen for emotional impact. Everyone else gets to keep their plot armor, including several heavily injured people who somehow escape from an exploding building.

The wrap-up only lasts maybe 5 minutes, so it’s no wonder that not everyone is covered satisfactorily. Most disappointing, our lead couple literally goes walking off into the sunset, no indication to where. Well, I didn’t like them that much anyways, I guess. At least Shen Junshan seems to turn out ok.

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Very shounen

Duoluo Continent reminds me of an RPG, or maybe shounen anime. Courageous young man embarks on life-changing adventures with his friends to get stronger, uncover the past, and save the world. It’s a classic shounen formula. (They don’t quite get to saving the world here, but you can tell it’s coming, in some sequel we’ll probably never see- afaik the listed sequel is not actually a sequel to this drama.)

What I like most about this show is the world-building, which is particularly RPG-esque. There is a set framework to the Soul Master system, but everyone has their own spin. It’s always fun to see what a character’s martial soul is or what new skill they’ve acquired.

They do try a little too hard to be cool sometimes- like strike a pose and show off your rings, which as far as I can tell, is the equivalent of flexing. It looks cool until you consider its nonexistent functional purpose. But that’s a minor quibble. I still think the system is well-structured, letting everyone have their own unique identity within a set framework.

The world itself is also beautiful and imaginative- lovely forests, sweeping CGI cityscapes, an exotic-feeling desert town, etc. And it is enhanced by some great music. I really like the instrumental BGMs, and the uplifting, pop-y songs (like that boyband-sounding opening). Altogether it invokes strong vibes of grand adventures, epic journeys, and lifelong memories.

What I like less… I wonder if it’s because I’m neither young nor male, so the shounen formula doesn’t quite do it for me anymore. The show just somehow feels a lot more simplistic than what I’m used to. The relationships and emotions all seem pretty straightforward.

The main character is Tang San. He seems to be your typical shounen lead: strong for his age but still needs to level up, a good guy trying to do the right thing, mysterious and special family lineage, etc.

Except, he is also really weirdly overprotective of Xiao Wu, to the point that it’s a little frustrating. It makes no sense and he behaves really stupidly sometimes. It was starting to make me like Xiao Wu less, even though she didn’t do anything wrong.

Xiao Wu, to her credit, just responds back: I can protect you too! She somehow manages to be cute without being annoying, which I consider a rare feat. I think it’s because she comes off as genuine; credit should go to the actress. However, as a character, she’s still not that deep. She has her secrets, but the show didn’t quite build up around it the right way to make me feel emotionally affected.

The rest of the band is nicely gender balanced (which I appreciate!) and they’re mostly paired off. Each person has maybe one or two characteristic personality features. Team spirit / loyalty / teamwork is a huge theme, but you know they all love each other and will stick together through anything. It’s got the same vibe as teenagers together on a sports team.

There are also some pretty great adults. The headmaster, for instance, is kind of hilarious. But in the end, the show isn’t that much about them.

The plot itself is fairly linear, one quest after another. Lots of stuff like, fighting to prove themselves, or overcoming obstacles through determination. I occasionally felt frustrated watching what I thought was stupid behavior, but framed as praiseworthy (eg returning a baby alpaca to its mom- I don’t understand the fuss, just give it back. Or, charging into another school and attacking people for no reason- how is this not recognized by all as a punishable offense?)

Aside from that, though, the plot is interesting enough. I was captivated for a while, but eventually my interest began to wane. I think I just wanted something deeper from the characters and relationships. I believe they were all children in the original (which I didn’t watch/read), so that might have made it all make more sense.

Acting-wise, I like Xiao Zhan as much as anyone, but I felt he overacted a few times (eg sobbing at his dad rather than trying to reason with him). It’s not just him, though- some other actors also felt kind of unnatural at times. It might be more about the script, or the fact that I didn’t emotionally connect to the story. Then it’s just weird to watch actors saying flat or cheesy lines so earnestly.

I think the actress playing Xiao Wu must have some dance training but not martial arts. Her movements have dance-like flourishes- suitable to her name, and pretty to watch- but some of her kicks were not real kicks, which made me want to facepalm.

The fighting overall is not bad though, very CGI-based. It’s more fun when they still are showing Martial Souls. Towards the end I think they got a little lazier and resort to things like blasts of energy.

Overall it’s not a bad show, I just think shounen is not my thing anymore. Maybe when I was a teenager I would have liked it, but now I want more depth and connection to the characters, which I found missing.

ENDING – READ AHEAD ONLY IF YOU WANT TO KNOW, CONTAINS SPOILERS





The ending feels more like a beginning. There is a whole donghua/manhua series behind this show, and I don’t know how much it’s true to them, but you can imagine that the story goes on and turns into an epic saga. This is clearly just the first chapter. The characters resolve the major conflict of the season, and all major secrets previously hinted at are revealed, but there is obviously more.

I would say it’s satisfying enough. I always find it frustrating to have to drop a story partway, but at least you know that the saga continues, which is better than an actual bad drama ending. Personally, I didn’t like the story enough to pine after it or even look up all the material behind it.

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Enjoyable with some suspension of disbelief

There are so many things that don’t make sense in this show, I won’t bother calling them all out. Enjoying this show for sure requires some suspension of disbelief. But why not just take it easy, give up on logic, and try to enjoy it?

The main thing I had to get over was the FL’s characterization, which honestly gave me some cognitive dissonance. With her background, you’d expect He Yan to be dark and angry. But NOPE! She is somehow bubbly, bright, and down-to-earth, constantly babbling her way out of trouble. For a moment I wondered if it was just Zhou Ye doing what she does best, but I don’t think the actress has that much agency.

He Yan really has no business being so spunky and cheerful, even as an act or pretense. And yet, despite my confusion, I still very much enjoyed watching her. I really like a down-to-earth FL. Just some of her expressions alone made me laugh out loud. And there were many situations that seemed about to get dramatic and sappy, but she defused it with some ridiculous comment. It’s great.

At the same time, she’s also smart, quick-witted, brave, morally upright, and after some hard work, incredibly skilled at combat (classic Cdrama where overtraining somehow works).

It’s not realistic, and the badass and endearing parts of her character aren’t blended well. But it happens to be a combination I really like, so after mentally compartmentalizing my confusion and setting it aside, I found her very enjoyable to watch.

The ML is Xiao Jue, a slowly melting ice cube with whom the FL shares a touching history. He starts out so angry, I enjoyed watching him get softer as He Yan rubs off on him. Their interactions are cute, and their relationship develops well- assisted by drama tropes, it's still not too sudden or too easy, and has some good banter along the way. I liked the romance in this one.

And then there is Chu Zhao. For a while I was wondering where they were going with him, since he seems to have streaks of both darkness and light. He is an interesting character for sure, but I was pretty much worried about/for him the entire show, and not sure I liked that.

There are some pretty great supporting characters, like the FL’s band of army friends, and the two doctors. It’s nice to see other strong female characters, rather than the FL just being an anomaly. These lovable support characters get a lot of screentime earlier in but fall away afterwards, almost to cameo level. It’s really too bad- I wish they’d continued to develop them.

As for the villains, there are some easy-to-hate antagonists that let us root for our leads without complication, at least for most of the show.

Plot-wise, there is a good amount of fluff as He Yan is climbing her career ladder in the army. Again, not what I expected, but solidly enjoyable.

At a certain point, it gets more serious. The fun part of He Yan’s character fades away, and only the badass remains. She’s finally acting like a general. Even though this is finally the character I expected, I still found it less fun to watch.

As the leads tackle their main conflict, there is a lot less challenge than I expected. The cartoon villains are no match for them. I still liked watching them succeed, but I didn’t quite enjoy it as much as the earlier fluff.

And then. I was wondering why everything was resolved with still 4 episodes remaining. Surely they wouldn’t throw some random, rushed, and poorly conceived last-minute drama at us, right?

…of course they did. There are a number of pieces to this last story arc and I found almost all of it stupid. Sometimes if I find a show’s ending dumb enough, I’ll just pretend it didn’t happen, but in this case I think it would have been too easy for the leads otherwise. So I guess, all I can say is: weak ending.

As an aside, this show also has a weird streak of female empowerment. Now, I love female empowerment, I agree with everything she says, and it’s so great- and all too rare in these shows- that a woman who’s broken through, thinks to look back and try to lift up others.

But it just doesn’t quite fit. Not just because it’s an anachronism, but also because it isn’t properly developed as a theme. It almost feels like they’re just missing a few lines here or there tying it all together and explaining why this is a meaningful topic for our FL.

Acting-wise, Zhou Ye excels at outgoing and down-to-earth characters. Cognitive dissonance aside, I very much liked her cute and lovable He Yan. Her badass and authoritative He Yan was a little less convincing to me. Cheng Lei did a pretty good job as a melting ice cube and I thought side actors were fine, even the AI face (Cheng Lisu). Zhang Kangle did a good job as Chu Zhao, showing both darkness and light, but… sometimes talked a little too slowly for my patience.

The fight choreography is really flashy. It’s more spins than solid blows, but very creative, lots of interesting moves. Technique seems fine, though it’s hard to tell between all those spins. I haven’t seen Zhou Ye fight before, and trying not to be biased (because I like her, and also don’t think of her as a fighter), I thought she did a good job. They went a little bit overboard at times, though… especially the very last battle, now wtf was that? This is a battleground, not a dance hall.

Finally, I know there are a lot of complaints and hate for this show out there. I think it suffered from too much hype and too high expectations, as well as comparisons with the novel. From what I read, I can very much believe that the show doesn’t quite do the novel justice. Having a real rebirth would already smooth out the plot and remove one subset of nonsense. Unfortunately, rebirth is banned for dramas, so they had to fudge around it.

However, judging the show for what it is rather than what it isn’t, I still liked it. Weak ending aside, massive and constant plot holes aside, not being what I expected aside, I still very much enjoyed its soft, fluffy interior, and had fun watching it.

ENDING – READ AHEAD ONLY IF YOU WANT TO KNOW, CONTAINS SPOILERS





It’s a happy ending, but one of the worse I’ve seen. The leads get married and their careers remain intact, but we don’t find out what happens to anyone afterwards.

I was afraid they would kill off some of the lovable side characters, but the emotional impact sacrificial deaths are pretty much limited to Yingxiang (Chu Zhao’s underappreciated maid) and Yan He (their general friend). Both of these deaths are lame, unconvincing, very abrupt (or was that my 1.5X speed?), and also things people wouldn’t normally die from.

I honestly think the last three episodes are really dumb. Chu Zhao, no matter how much the actor tried to sell his mental breakdown, is still way too smart to think that what he did was a good idea. Xiao Jue, despite being so supportive of the FL, doesn’t even consult her about their future together. The emperor, who has been dumb the entire show- nice one minute and horrible the next- once again shows that he’s all too easily manipulated. These three idiots decide to make the FL’s decisions for her.

But it’s so poorly conceived, the entire plot just yoyos back and forth, backtracking on itself and hopping around.

And then the final climactic battle is just too cheesy and over-the-top… she literally rides in on a white horse to perform a choreographed battle dance with him.

I was particularly unsatisfied by how Chu Zhao’s story resolved. They don’t really show him at the end- we get no insight into what happened, whether he turned himself in, how he felt about his fate, etc. For somebody whose mental state has played a decent role in the story, it’s really anticlimactic.

I mean, I know this entire show is fueled on plot holes, so there’s no point picking at a few towards the end. I’m just doing it because I didn’t like the ending. The plot holes in this show really just provide too easy fodder when you want to criticize it.

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A decent watch with good thematic focus

This show is a decent watch, but for me it didn’t quite move beyond just decent. I enjoyed it, but it didn’t set off my imagination or make me fall in love the way my favorites do.

Let’s start with characters. To begin with, I really like Mu Qingge. We get about 5 episodes of her upfront. She is always smiling; nothing can ruffle her. It works so well because it’s paired with a good deal of confidence, ability, and a sort of infallibility. Altogether, you get a warm and kind character who truly loves the world and can save it, too.

Her adopting Su Yishui as a disciple feels a bit like a good-hearted person taking on a difficult foster child. Their relationship really does resemble parent and rebellious child, and later Su Yishui gets a taste of his own medicine. It’s a fun joke in the first third-ish of the show.

While I love Qingge, the FL is more accurately Xue Ranran. An interesting thought exercise: if you take the same awesome personality but strip it of its amazing abilities, what do you get? The answer is, apparently, a really cutsey type character with too many doodads in her hair and a penchant for babbling about her crush to strangers.

Don’t get me wrong. As far as FLs go, Ranran isn’t bad. She’s quite smart- with or without abilities, she’s able to use her plot-armor-level intelligence to work her way through many situations. She’s brave, uses her abilities well, acts with kindness, and is anything but useless.

But she is also really cutsey. At first I thought they changed voice actresses, because her tones were so different from Mu Qingge. It’s not the worst cute-acting I’ve seen, but enough to annoy me. She is also totally obsessed with her crush. I mean, I get that she’s a teenage girl, but it doesn’t make me admire her.

Gosh, I think I missed Mu Qingge as much as those two guys.

Unfortunately, I just couldn’t quite get behind Xue Ranran, which took a lot away from my enjoyment of the show. To be honest, I would have been disappointed if Su Yishui just fell in love with Ranran for who she was. Luckily for me, there’s room to interpret it as him being into Qingge rather than this cute-acting teenage sap. But still- at the point they did get together, I actually lost interest and took some time off watching.

On the other hand, I found Su Yishui, the ML, to be a very compelling character. I’m used to a gradual reveal of backstory, but here we already know the “past” even as the protagonist (Ranran) is still figuring it out. I liked this because it allowed me to appreciate Su Yishui as simultaneously the cold, knowledgeable, and strong figure of authority that Ranran sees him as, as well as the traumatized, guilt-ridden, and despairing lost soul who doesn’t actually have all the answers. It makes for quite a complex character, and I really empathized with him all along the way.

The villains are sort of a rotating cast- including some characters you feel sorry for despite rooting against, leading to some mixed feelings- until the final villain is revealed about ¾ of the way in. The late-reveal final villain works here because it’s foreshadowed throughout, and also ties in well thematically. This villain has the setup to be thought-provoking, but ends up being somewhat one-dimensional and lame by the end, which is too bad.

Characters aside, the plot is decent. It gets a bit loopy at times, like people sacrificing for each other back and forth and back and forth, but “sacrifice” is sort of a theme so I guess it’s only fitting.

And one thing this show does well is maintain good focus on a few decently thoughtful themes. Sacrifice, for example: pretty cliché, practically the definition of drama. But here, as we’ve been with Su Yishui on this entire journey and watched him deal with the aftermath, we start to think a little deeper. By the time he’s lamenting his lack of choice, we’re ready to clap for him because it’s something we’ve started to realize, too.

Other themes and concepts explored include regret and repentance; and the idea of how much a person’s memories make them who they are. These ideas fall obviously out of the main premise, but then later come back in different ways, which is pretty neat.

Overall I give the show a thumbs up for the themes, but by the end I felt like they were beating me on the head with them. These ideas get discussed so often towards the end that they lose some of the original subtlety that made them so thought-provoking.

In terms of world-building, xianxia has never been great about logic and consistency, but I’d say this show ranks in the top half in terms of nonsense. For example, cultivation terms are thrown out helter skelter with no explanation. World truths are introduced and forgotten as needed. Many spells and charms are so specific they could only ever work in the exact context in which they show up, clearly tailored to advance the plotline. etc.

But at least, the constantly shifting tangle of who knows who is whom got so complicated that I couldn’t keep track, thus I was unable to identify any plot holes or inconsistent behavior related to it.

In terms of execution, I thought the acting is quite good. With all of Su Yishui’s personas, Deng Wei convincingly shows quite a bit of range- not just happy vs angry vs cat, but also various levels of cold and authoritative. For Julia Xiang as the female lead, while I found the cute-acting as Ranran a bit annoying, I think that’s more the story / director’s vision and voice acting than the actress herself. I like her adorable smile and her Mu Qingge (I also like the VA’s Mu Qingge). The supporting actors, like Chen Xinhai (Su Yu) and Deng Kai (Wei Jiu), also have good performances, with great facial expressions.

The fighting is ok, a bit of sword fighting and spinning (decently executed) but mostly just arm waving and CGI. The CGI is overall decent- in the better half of what I’ve seen- but sometimes a bit too much, especially in the battles. There is way too much blood spitting.

The settings and music are both not bad, but nothing I kept thinking about after the show was over. I found the costumes to be nice-looking if sometimes highly impractical… so many floaty layers and long trains.

Finally, for better or worse, I didn’t feel as worried watching this as I do with some other shows, probably because there’s a decent amount of plot armor and the show itself just doesn’t feel that dark. Therefore I’d still classify this as light-hearted, despite having some sad stuff. I do wish it had more humor- there were some laughs, but I think they could have done more with this material.

ENDING – READ AHEAD ONLY IF YOU WANT TO KNOW, CONTAINS SPOILERS





This show has a happy ending, including a full half episode of epilogue-type stuff like scenes of their wedding and their happy married life together. It’s not quite at the level of Legend of Shenli which gave us an actual fun story, but still satisfying. Most of the side character stories also get tied up to some extent, though not quite all to my satisfaction.

Mu Qingge comes back for the last 5 or so episodes, both her memories (therefore her person, imho) and her abilities. Apparently this is a break from the novel, where she doesn’t get her memories back until the extra. I’m glad for this change; I would have rated the entire show lower if it were Xue Ranran to the end.

At first, Qingge and Ranran seem more like a split personality, but I think the Qingge traits ended up dominating. This allows her relationship with the ML to evolve into a really amazing, actually equal partnership, which is a joy to watch.

I’m not too big a fan of Ranran, but here I’ll admit she was necessary. Despite the show trying to hint at it, I refuse to believe Mu Qingge fell in love with Yishui. So the only way SYS could get Qingge was for her to also have this dual personality of Ranran.

Su Yu, the crown prince, is the character that left me feeling most conflicted. His good-bad duality is a bit exaggerated and overdone, but I still fell for it and felt bad for him. Ultimately I was satisfied by how his story ended; being able to reclaim his dignity was more than I had expected for him.

I still think the setup of the main baddie and how he’s defeated are lame, and the last two episodes have too much cheese. But I guess the show can’t be deep everywhere. Nothing like a good save-the-world plot to lighten everyone’s mood.

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Surprising dose of wit and humor in a clever revenge story

The Double was one of the top hits of 2024. Everyone was raving. I was afraid it would be really dark, since it is a revenge story, but I ended up surprised by its excellent sense of humor. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a lighthearted story, but it’s definitely got some really funny bits.

The dialogue between the ML and FL is particularly clever and witty, and really fun to watch while you gush over them. There is a lot of wordplay and elegant speech, so unfortunately much of it is lost in translation. The language is also on the fancier side, making it harder to pick up if your Chinese isn’t as good (like mine). But translation aside, I think some of it is also hidden meanings. A lot of the dialogue felt like it had some double or triple meanings, and I felt a little dumb as I struggled to follow it all.

Both the FL and ML in this show are really admirable. I’ll refer to the FL as Xue Fang Fei (XFF), though she goes by a few things. She is brilliant, eloquent, and has her head screwed on straight. Her schemes are complicated and clever, and although she can’t control everything, she thinks quickly and always pulls through (some plot armor doesn’t hurt). There were definitely some really sad parts in the story, but I felt comforted knowing that my girl XFF would take revenge on those who deserved it.

XFF shows some strong emotions- not a robot- but she never behaves stupidly. Although the revenge is hers to take, she still acts with compassion, so I had no hesitancies about supporting her 100%. She pretty much just stands up for justice. Any of her enemies that I felt bad for, she seemed to feel a little bad for also.

I also like that she has random moments of being carefree and cheerful, reminding us that she was once a normal person and can still feel joy. Not like some archetype of a femme fatale.

For the ML… I feel like a lot of MLs are written to be as attractive as possible, like they are always handsome, smart, good fighters, supportive of FL, etc. But they really outdid themselves here- this one is a total dreamboat. Xiao Heng is lethal, capable, and composed, a mastermind playing chess (it’s a theme… XFF is smart; she won’t get used against her will).

I’m convinced that a lot of this show’s popularity is due to Xiao Heng fangirls obsessing over him. I totally get it, but also… why bother? Someone like this is way out of my league.

But you know who’s in his league? Xue Fang Fei. So while the two of them are not relatable to average mortals like me, they are such a great match, making it a delight to watch their interactions. They’re not mushy, they have some great banter and a mutual respect, and they are actually good enough for each other.

The side characters showed a lot of promise, but ultimately I was a bit disappointed. There were so many characters I’d liked to see more of- for instance, her pack of four friends- but they mostly just disappeared beyond their story arc. Even recurring characters, like the Ji boys, don’t get much development for themselves. It’s a shame that they made such likeable side characters, only to deny them any extensive stories of their own.

The villains is where I think they put more effort into making multidimensional characters- for better or for worse. It creates some complicated feelings. I personally liked this, although I wouldn’t say it made me feel good. It’s a little spoiler-y so I’ll hide my rant at the end of this review.

As an aside, this emperor is refreshing. He’s young and a real friend to our ML; even more, he’s playing politics like everyone else rather than just wielding a lot of power. This makes him a more sympathetic character than most emperors.

Plot-wise, in addition to the ongoing saga of injustice and revenge, this show relies a lot on squeal-worthy interactions between the ML and FL. These fade a bit in the last quarter or so, and the show gets darker. Like so many other shows, I enjoyed this one a little less as it was approaching its end, but the effect was not as pronounced as some others.

Acting-wise, this cast did well. Wu Jinyan looks a bit older, I think it is hard because a lot of other actors are younger. But she did well- so many lines to memorize! I also don’t think her styling was the greatest- she looks prettier as herself- but the end result was as they said in the show, “not bad looking and your own unique look”.

Many other actors did well too, but I think Wang Xingyue as Xiao Heng stood out. He is a young actor and his career is on the rise after this. He has great facial microexpressions. He also has great presence, and he does this kind of confident, commanding character well. And he did his own voice- that sexy drawl is his own! He could probably work on swordfighting a little, it wasn’t as clean and crisp as I expected.

Stylistically, the director liked to shoot close-ups of peoples’ talking heads with a sort of fisheye lens look. At first I thought he was trying to capture a certain feeling, like the viewer is a little disoriented or the person is too close to their face… but it happened so often, I think it was just director’s style. Personally I wasn’t a fan, but I got used to it.

There are also some plotholes… too many coincidences… I don’t know why I bother mentioning it; it’s every show.

ENDING – READ AHEAD ONLY IF YOU WANT TO KNOW, CONTAINS SPOILERS





I had read some other reviews which warned me I might want to ignore the second half of the last episode. But I figured it couldn’t be that bad, since there is also a 5 min special showing them happily married afterwards.

Well, the reviews were right. The ending is really wtf, like big things happening out of nowhere. The new conflict introduced was only peripherally related to the other 39.5 episodes, but it had big consequence for our beloved characters.

In the book, it’s an entire story arc, much better developed and with a better outcome. I don’t know why the show thought it was a good idea to cram it into 30 min. But on top of this, they seemed to also really want an open ending, so they forced one. IMO, it wasn’t even so much an open ending as it was incredibly confusing and leaning towards sad.

Then, for whatever reason, they tried to backpedal with a Happily Ever After special that completely doesn’t explain how we got there from the ending.

This is one of the worst endings I’ve seen, so I decided to ignore it. I read some summaries of the book ending (and am reading the book now) and will stick with that.

While I’m here, I’ll just rant a bit more about the villains. This show really spun things around in circles. I started out feeling sorry for Shen Yurong, but he kept making so many bad decisions. XFF is fair; she understood he had no choice about some things, but pointed out that he did for others. Although I disliked him by the end, I still appreciate that he is this sort of realistic character- not inherently bad, just made some bad choices that led to more bad choices.

On the other hand… both major female villains, Ji Shuran and Wanning, started out as classical archetype evil characters, not very interesting. I was ready to just hate them 100%. But this turned around too. It was an interesting choice to make them both victims of men… they made choices too, of course, a sad backstory doesn’t absolve them, but I still sympathized.

Wanning’s story in particular hit me hard. Her theme song fits so well, with its major-minor key changes. Although I’m always on XFF’s side, and Wanning was a real psychopath, I still felt that trick with the drug was pretty cruel.

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An existentialist Jianghu adventure

MLC is what I heard somebody described as classic wuxia. It’s got adventure and mystery, good-looking heroes with impressive martial arts abilities, and well-choreographed fight scenes. It's also got a good dash of humor.

I was a bit hesitant going for this show because it has no female lead. I don’t particularly need romance, but I do like a strong FL to root for. However, after watching another show where I felt the romance detracted from an otherwise enjoyable story (Ancient Detective), I decided I could set aside my feminist leanings and just enjoy this story about men.

Ultimately what I really love about this show is its underlying existential crisis. From the beginning, Li Lianhua is waiting for his death. He just wants to tie up a few loose ends first. As I watched, I desperately hoped it would not happen, but I also understood that he was already on this path and it would be a win if he survived rather than a loss otherwise. At least his friends were right there with me, hoping and trying to turn this around.

This show contains a series of mystery cases strung together with an overarching storyline. I felt the cases themselves were a bit of a mess… they were so convoluted that they were hard to follow. There was often no chance of the audience solving it together with the characters, if only because the answer often involves strange magical feats. That aside, it just felt unrealistic that any detective could identify and then put together such a random set of clues to come up with such complicated explanations. But hey, our boy is a genius, so whatever- I just sat back and enjoyed watching them kick butt.

The three main characters are really loveable and where I think a lot of the fanbase lies. The brotherhood and also the humor between them is really great. Li Lianhua’s casual lying is hilarious; people have complained about Cheng Yi mumbling (they all dubbed themselves) but I think it captures Li Lianhua well, and not a problem if you use subtitles! Fang Duobing is sillily naïve and lovable, and Joseph Zeng’s anime-like expressions had me laughing. Xiao Shunyao as Di Feisheng unfortunately gets less screentime, but he is so grumpy badass when he shows up. I think all three actors did a great job capturing the spirit of their characters and making them likable, and their looks and styling all suited their characters well.

The show doesn’t have a female lead, but it does have some female side characters who are not too useless. Fang Duobing’s mom is a fan favorite. Qiao Wanmian, who is Li Lianhua’s ex, got a bit of hate but I actually really sympathized with her situation. I felt her arc was handled very well, a breakup she doesn’t want but has to accept- like the rest of the story, it's sad in a realistic way. I just feel she got a little shortchanged because they could have let her show off a little more. Her one sword strike showed no technique at all. Su Xiaoyong, I saw one snippet from the actress saying “I am you, the audience!” and that’s a good description- Li Lianhua’s fangirl. But in the end, neither she nor the princess actually factors in much (not that I would have wanted some random love story muddling the waters). Probably the strongest female character is Jiao Liqiao, who is batshit crazy and whose sole purpose in life seems to be to get the man she likes. So, across 40 episodes, I’d say this one might not even pass the Bechdel test. But I guess that’s ok, it’s a story about men in a men’s world.

The fighting in this show is well choreographed, aside from a few nonsensical sword strokes. In general it’s also fairly well performed. Unfortunately Di Feisheng doesn’t really fight, he just swings his sword and everyone goes flying. Fang Duobing’s fights look great- this actor seems pretty athletic- but as a character, he leveled up a bit too quickly. I find it unbelievable that he was a sickly child… but, who needs logic.

In all these fight scenes, especially towards the end, I do think there was a bit too much strike-and-pose with hair blowing in the wind. Once upon a time I might have thought it was cool, now I find it cheesy.

Once again, I think the main draw of this show is its existential undertones. I really appreciated, under the very well-done humor and swashbuckling adventure, the sadly realistic tone of the entire saga. Li Xiangyi was a genius and admired by all, but also a legit difficult and arrogant person. Such a character is very realistic, reminding us that people at the top are not always perfect. Li Lianhua lives with guilt and memories and needs to find his peace; this is also something that we ordinary people struggle with. The realistic, life-isn’t-perfect message resonates with us as we navigate our own lives. This alone, to me, gives it a high rating, despite other flaws like nonsensical cases, dismissible female characters, and too much posing.

ENDING – READ AHEAD ONLY IF YOU WANT TO KNOW, CONTAINS SPOILERS





The ending is, controversially, a forced open ending. I think it broke a lot of peoples’ hearts, but at least it gives you the option to believe what you want. Lengthy critical analyses abound on the internet arguing one way or another, I could totally see a high schooler writing a 5-paragraph essay for English class.

Personally, although I wish it were simply a happy ending, I also think that would have been too forced for a show like this and might have cheapened it a bit.

…that aside, I don’t see why he couldn’t have just eaten the flower and then saved everyone else afterwards using yangzhouman. The Styx flower was not even in the book, it was a gimmick added to the drama. It gave us all hope, then was ultimately used to generate dramatic flare. Honestly, the self-sacrifice theme was so overused and tired by this point. In this context, the whole plot device of the Styx flower was also a bit cheap.

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I only liked it at the end

This drama took me almost the entire show to get into it. I kept leaving and coming back for lack of better options (at least these two MLs were pretty good looking, hehheh). Only at the end did I start to like it, just in time for it to be over.

This show features three distinct mysteries in three closed systems, tied together by an overarching plot. The three contained mysteries are done fairly well, with a straightforward structure (a menu of characters from whom to pick) and enough clues to follow along. They were enjoyable to watch, though I might have liked it better if fewer people died. The overarching plot is also a decent story. If you like a show where you can solve mysteries alongside the characters, this one is for you.

My main issue with this show is characters and relationships.

We’ll start with Jian Buzhi, the eponymous (Chinese title) ML and the main character. When I think about how I feel about Jian Buzhi… I just come up blank. He doesn’t have much personality; it’s just fun to watch him solve mysteries.

Zhao Wohuan, the SML (not love triangle SML, just less important male lead SML), is such a puppy. He’s endearing, but just a bit too dumb for me to like that much. At the same time, his fighting development was so unrealistic. I felt almost offended at how quickly he skyrocketed to the top… what a dump on everyone else who worked so hard for so long.

I thought both MLs were acted well. Jian Buzhi looked so happy whenever he solved a mystery, it was adorable. And Zhao Wohuan’s actor captured the puppy feel well. I just didn’t quite like the way they were written.

Relative to the two MLs, the FLs are much less central to the story. Zhan Shiqi (I’ll just call her 17) is the main FL. I found this show for having a strong FL, but she ended up being my least favorite character. I think she’s trying to be an ice queen beauty; but she’s trying too hard to be cool, like she herself thinks she is badass. Too much glaring.

Besides being too cool, Zhan 17 doesn’t have much personality. The bits and pieces of character development she does get are incohesive. Her only notable feature is her whole thing about… wanting to wear pretty clothes? That’s pretty vain, especially for a punchline. On top of it all, I thought her styling was bad (fabulous feather dress aside). Something about it didn’t look good with all the glaring, and this actress has looked better in other shows.

I’ll consider Ming Yue the SFL, although she doesn’t play a huge role. I didn’t care too much for her for most of the show, but at least she’s not around that much.

So I didn’t quite connect with these characters, but the feeling was compounded by some poor relationship building. The bromance between the two MLs was cute- I do love a good bromance- but it came out of nowhere. It was so strong that I mostly forgot it was built on nothing, but once in awhile I’d do a double take and wonder how we got there.

The main romance was even worse. There were a couple overly dramatic scenes and then suddenly they were mooning after each other. Their relationship was founded on nothing, I couldn’t imagine why either one liked the other, and the scenes between them were cheesy. They both needed more personality for this to work.

The romance wasn’t critical to the story, so I did my best to ignore it. But at one point when it got in the way of the bromance, I was so angry I actually stopped watching for about a month. This situation never resolved well; later I learned that the director had deleted some key scenes. Either way, I didn’t buy into their relationship and I didn’t like 17, so I could only do my best to overlook all parts involving them.

The second relationship is based on the SML’s desire to protect a weak and helpless female. The reasons for attraction are all male chauvinist; the only saving grace was that it’s not actually true. Even so, I found it cringey and couldn’t root for it- until I ended up surprised by how well I liked its resolution.

What this show does well, is side characters. New side characters are introduced throughout the plot (eg all the candidates within each mystery), usually with interesting backstories or premises. And happily, several of them stick around or come back after their case is over. This was a huge plus; I don’t like getting attached to characters just to watch them disappear.

Like the bromance and romances, a lot of the friendships became too dedicated too fast. That said, by the end I found myself liking this show quite a bit, and I think it’s because the side characters got more development and I was invested in their stories. The male doctor and female doctor were probably my favorite characters overall.

On the flipside, many other side characters revealed a tragic backstory and then simply died, leaving me feeling sympathetic and sad. And I was looking forward to humanizing all the assassins, but they just kept dying. Lives were a bit too cheap in this show.

In terms of execution, this show was a smaller production, not very high budget. For example, there is only one song- which I happened to really like. A lot of the scenes also conveniently occur in deserted settings, obviating the need for extras. I think they found a good forest and worked it (it’s a nice forest, I agree). Budget is what it is, and I think they did a great job skimping on things that matter less.

I also really liked the fighting style. It’s full of flashy spins and well-done wirework, but I liked best that the moves are clean and solid rather than just having a lot of them in a flurry, like some other shows. Using daily items as weapons is a unique premise, but I think it’s just too hard to make an umbrella look deadly. The actress’s performances weren’t bad, but I thought the umbrella fights looked fake. And what could that umbrella possibly be made out of to be so indestructible?

Overall, I think this show does some things well- especially given their limited budget- but other things less well. Other people seem to really like the character development, so it might just be me personally not connecting with them.

P.S. I know the names are supposed to be ironic and funny, but who would ACTUALLY name their kid 不知 (Don’t Know) or 我還 (I Return)?

ENDING – READ AHEAD ONLY IF YOU WANT TO KNOW, CONTAINS SPOILERS





The show ends in a fairly satisfactory and happy way. All is resolved, no further hard-hitting deaths. The answer to the overarching mystery is also a nice plot twist.

I only say “fairly” satisfactory because it ends on this cliffhanger hinting at a second season, which never came. It looks intriguing, they suck me in, and then… poof. How annoying.

My interest in this show picked up towards the end, I think partly due to the side characters getting more airtime, and partly because I liked how the second couple’s relationship (which I didn’t care for until the end) was resolved. I was afraid Ming Yue would lose her head like some lovestruck girl, but it was nothing that cliché. Their final scene was quite sweet, and I would have liked to see where it went from there.

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Classic xianxia with some great humor and pathos

Legend of Shenli has been described as a classic xianxia, full of tropes. I guess I haven’t watched enough xianxias (<10) because I didn’t really notice.

First of all, I thought the humor for this show was pretty great (at least, right up my alley). Xingzhi, and Shenli’s interactions with him, are lowkey hilarious. There is a lot of random funny stuff. And that chicken is so cute!

Of course, there are also some really sad parts. And this show has an underlying pathos and nostalgic sadness that hits in a gnawing, existential way. But for the most part, I still think of it as a light-hearted show with great humor.

The two main characters dominate this show. For Shenli, the eponymous FL, I liked some things about her and not others, which I guess makes her realistic! I like that her head is screwed on straight and she’s sensible- no chasing after the ML after getting rejected, for example. I like less that she’s so hotheaded. She’s quick to fight and kill; she saves people, but doesn’t seem to have much kindness or compassion. So I wouldn’t say she’s always likeable, but I did really feel for her at times.

As for the ML, Xingzhi… ok, I loved him. It’s not that he doesn’t care about the world… he does. But he is also so full of crap. He is so bored and so cheeky and I found him hilarious. He’s kind of a troll sometimes, but it’s always harmless; he still takes care of things when push comes to shove.

Actually, underneath it all, Xingzhi’s situation is quite sad. But he holds his head high and has accepted it all long ago. It makes for a lovable and sympathetic character you want to root for, and I’m glad he met Shenli.

The show spends some time building up their relationship, which is cute to watch, although the plot pattern of Shenli getting hurt and Xingzhi saving her does repeat one too many times. They end up having a sweet and supportive relationship- mainly him supporting her. Classic, but it’s done well here, with proper character development and buildup.

There are several side characters, some of whom are quite loveable. However, none of them got enough development for me to really be invested in them. I wanted to see more of them, but it didn’t happen. Even the villain is a bit lame- although they do throw a (slightly predictable) wrench in there to make you feel more sad. The main conflict doesn’t win points for originality or interest. In this show, I was most invested in the relationship between the main leads.

In terms of acting, Zhao Liying as Shenli does the action scenes remarkably well. Her fight scenes are fast, crisp, and clean. They are a mix of CGI and choreography (I saw in the BTS that even her spear is CGI!), but still, some of the best I’ve seen. I saw her before in Legend of Fei and wasn’t too impressed (stopped watching, actually), but here she really stood out, even among all the other shows I’ve watched.

I was less enamored with her acting. I thought she was a bit stiff and wooden, which is great for the fight scenes but less great for everything else. After I read the book, I realized that sometimes she really is supposed to look blank. Still, I think she could rely less on looking cool and try to be more natural.

For Lin Gengxin as Xingzhi, I really liked his calm, casual delivery of all those hilarious lines. And once in awhile, a hint of a deeper sadness- I thought he did a good job. Unfortunately I wasn’t a huge fan of his styling… he looks better as himself than as Xingzhi. Many of the side characters looked great (both male and female) so I don’t think it’s general about the show, they just could have done a better job with him.

In terms of world-building, this is an imaginative xianxia world that, as typical, you can’t think too hard about lest you start uncovering holes. There is some beautiful CGI and imagery, highlighted by high-contrast vivid colors. The mortal world from the first arc in particular is so lovely, both Shenli and I look back nostalgically on her time spent there.

I do wish this world had more gender balance. Shenli is a woman in a man’s role, a total anomaly (which nobody seems to find odd); I would have liked better a world where women are just empowered, but I guess this is the author’s choice. There are a few other strong female characters (demon lord, the awesome snake serpent) but in general, despite the strong female lead, this is not quite a show for championing feminism.

Somebody’s critical analysis on reddit thought this show has a focus on gender and sexuality. I think this is because there are some bisexual characters in the book, but they were toned down for the show (censorship, I guess) so it’s harder to see. Actually in the book, Furong (the divine lord fiancée) kisses Mofang and has a thing for him, so in that context some things make more sense. In general this show sticks remarkably close to the book, and I think does an excellent job at adapting it to screen; of the changes I saw, the vast majority were improvements.

Finally, I liked the music… songs were great, really help to build the nostalgia for this beautiful world, and I really liked their fight BGMs too.

ENDING – READ AHEAD ONLY IF YOU WANT TO KNOW, CONTAINS SPOILERS





There is a lot of sad stuff at the end- I saw a BTS where they said it was an entire day of crying- but it all turns around for an ultimate happy ending (minus some sacrifices).

In fact, this show has one of THE best endings, because they devote an *entire episode* to an epilogue from the book! Epilogue = watching them happily living their life after the main conflict is over. I don’t know why more Cdramas don’t do this; look how happy all the fans are. It is so great to get this kind of closure for the characters you get so attached to.

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An entertaining detective story, no major complaints but didn’t fully captivate

Chu Chu, the imperial coroner of titular fame, is a bit annoying at the beginning of the show. She comes across as young and wide-eyed, but my major issue with her is that she kept fangirling the ML. She kept gushing and I was so embarrassed for her. It could be either the delivery or the character. I almost stopped watching, but then I read some reviews which validated my annoyance and assured me it would get better, which it did. The fangirling sort of fades away.

The story actually seems to be more about the ML, Xiao Jinyu, who is one of those super-smart MLs who’s constantly outsmarting everyone. He’s also a stern prince, which is a bit tropey, but he’s sickly, which at least is not tropey. Chu Chu has her expertise and presents the evidence; it’s Jinyu who does the deductions and solves the mysteries. He’s also the one who wants them solved and directs their operations… she’s just his very capable coroner. It’s not quite a story about her as the title might imply.

The merry band of friends has other loveable characters (Jing Yi, Leng Yue, and others), each with their own personalities and backstories, though nothing too multidimensional or complicated. The main four are neatly split into two couples with no (or minor) silly love dramas, which is a plus.

The love story between the ML and FL is actually not bad. I did find it weird to watch a child be in a relationship, and found it helpful to try to forget about some of her earlier behaviors. And I liked that the show didn’t focus too heavily on their romance. Many of the conversations between them are just business, nothing too mushy. This left me focusing on the mysteries, which is always fun (and I thought done fairly well in this show), and the political backstory, which required some untangling.

This show is set in the Tang dynasty. Somebody else’s review explained some of the history of the emperors, and I had to keep referring to it as I was watching to avoid total confusion (thank you, fellow drama watchers). This show does use real life historical figures, which is a bold move. I think the story is fairly correct about the overall climate with the eunuchs and power struggles, as well as of course the actual tangled mess succession of emperors, but it makes up things around it.

I did google briefly, but I wasn’t inspired to research to the same extent as for e.g. The Long Ballad. It might be because the historical figures didn’t factor as prominently, or I found them to be less interesting (like srsly, bunch of people killing each other), or maybe just the show was less beautifully done so it didn’t quite set off my imagination. It has a bit of a darker palette, which is not inherently bad but not my preference. And it is, after all, not really a high budget production.

The show doesn’t have a low budget feel per se, though I did notice things like the emperor always being in one room. I think they did well with what they had. The actors and actresses are also less well known, but I think they did fine. A lot of them went to film school, can’t be too bad.

This was a show I enjoyed, with decent humor and fun sprinkled throughout, but the story and characters didn’t fully captivate me. I was entertained but not obsessed. Only as it was nearing its end did I realize how much the characters had grown on me, and that I had enjoyed this show maybe more than I realized.

ENDING – READ AHEAD ONLY IF YOU WANT TO KNOW, CONTAINS SPOILERS





It’s probably not even a spoiler to say that they solve everything and defeat the enemy, and everything works out. I guess the show was not that suspenseful because I don’t remember ever doubting that they would triumph. But if I recall correctly, the ending was even fluffier than I anticipated, with minimal sacrifice. You don’t even feel bad for the enemy, like there was a whiff of that and they snuffed it out. And Chu Chu even gets to keep her job (which was in doubt for a minute). You know what, I don’t mind, sometimes I just want to feel good.

I wasn’t too concerned by lack of resolutions because I was convinced that there was a second season. I wouldn’t have thought this show needed a sequel, but S2 has a page on MDL. Only after I finished and went to look for it, did I realize that it doesn’t exist yet. As of Q1 2025, there are still fans regularly hyping up S2 on MDL… but I’ll believe it when I see it.

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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.

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Main relationship grows well, rest of it is alright

I almost stopped watching this show. I was expecting a smart and capable female lead, but within a few episodes she was screaming and wailing while still being full of herself. Maybe it was supposed to be funny, but I didn’t find it funny. At the same time, I found the male lead to be rude and unlikeable. Even though the FL was legit obnoxious and annoying, the total contempt he directed at her still made me angry. And I don’t think this was the best styling for Allen (ie he didn’t even look good while he was being an asshole).

I’m glad I stuck it out, because it did improve significantly. It took me almost 20 episodes to get into this show. Both characters grew on me, and their slowly building relationship ended up being a highlight. I even started to find the ML better and better looking, haha.

Strong female leads are my jam, and Jinxia did alright. She becomes more down-to-earth and likeable, just a cheerful person trying to do her job… I think she’d be an excellent coworker. And she is shown to be capable in her own right. Unfortunately her abilities are pretty much overshadowed by the ML’s at all times. Ah well.

I wasn’t sure at first how I felt about their boss-subordinate relationship. There’s a reason these are problematic and banned in modern times- unequal power dynamic, relationship affecting work, etc. Luckily it’s handled pretty well. Even as she idolizes him, she keeps her head screwed on straight, and he also maintains his professional bounds. Whether the screenwriters actually considered it or not, I did notice that he confirms it’s mutual before doing anything (otherwise the unequal power dynamic is a problem). His love feels very selfless; no need to assert. After they get together, their dynamic becomes more typical overprotective and overdevoted ML, which I liked less, but it happens fairly late in the show.

More problematic, perhaps, is the male characters who do not go away after being rejected. Personally I found it very irritating. Xiao Xie is annoying but mostly harmless, actually thought Jinxia handles him pretty well. Yang Yue, on the other hand, should have a restraining order against him and be arrested for stalking. Some of the things he says would be modern day sexual harassment. In real life his behavior would be considered creepy and inappropriate; is it supposed to be cute just because it’s in a show? I’m actually a little upset that his unwelcome and disrespectful behavior somehow paid off. I understand it was a sexist society, but as a viewer I had a hard time rooting for this character who’s supposed to be a “good guy”.

There’s also quite a lot of mention of sexual violence in this show. I have no opinion about it, I just found it somewhat surprising because I haven’t seen it much in other shows.

As for the actual story… it’s alright. There are many story arcs but in the end it all comes together under one villain, Yan Shifan, who is not particularly morally complex (eg I never felt sorry for him), but who is quite crafty and also very smarmy. There is the mystery of the FL’s past, which is interesting enough as it unfolds, but in the end I have to subtract points for it (see section on the Ending, contains spoilers).

I feel the strength of this story is really the main couple’s relationship. The story arcs seemed most interesting as a mechanism to watch their relationship develop, leaving a slight void after they finally get together. I wish they had developed some side stories a bit more, especially with many potential great side characters who came to nothing. For example, I would have loved to see more development of the sisterhood between Zhai Lanye and Shangguan Xi.

Stylistically, I was not a huge fan of the director’s style of shooting peoples’ eyes up close. I saw people making comments about Allen’s X-rated stares, I honestly think it was just this stylistic choice which personally I was not a fan of. That aside, I do think Allen did a good job and I could see his character’s emotions evolve. He’s able to convey subtle emotions without overacting.

Technique-wise, the fighting is flashy but decent, and many actors and actresses in this show seem to have some degree of training. Some are better and some are worse; Seven Tan has a nice crescent kick, great flexibility. The choreography doesn’t exactly display supposed skill differentials (eg FL is a great fighter until suddenly she gets beaten badly) but that’s a minor quibble.

World-building is well done. This show is set in the Ming dynasty, which means it’s in the past but not too far back. It’s fun to see signs of modernization that aren’t in more historical Cdramas, like the beginning of guns. I also like that there is no random supernatural phenomenon or unexplained plot devices; although there are some logic leaps and unbelievable developments, at least everything supernatural has an explanation. A little realism is more suitable for a show like this, which dared to declare a specific historical period. And the costumes were gorgeous, especially the embroidered uniforms that give this show its title in Chinese.

ENDING – READ AHEAD ONLY IF YOU WANT TO KNOW





In typical Cdrama style, the story gets a bit rushed at the end with too many rapid fire twists and turns. Although I saw it coming, I was a little upset they killed off a well-loved character for seemingly not-great reasons. And the final defeat of the main baddie is more a whimper than a bang.

The ultimate ending is happy, but we only get about 10 seconds of seeing them happy together. I had to find the novel online and read its appendices to get closure. I recommend doing this, it made a huge difference for me.

MORE MAJOR SPOILER AHEAD





My main issue is with how the story of her past plays out at the end. I felt very frustrated watching it. Perhaps I just have a hard time resonating because I didn’t grow up in a culture like this. The concept that, because of familial ties, people can be guilty for things they didn’t do or even know of, is so clearly ingrained in all the characters that I’ve tried to accept it as a premise, but I still have a hard time sympathizing with their choices.

Why did he break up with her without telling her- why not let her make her own decisions? But her reaction when she found out- was that really her character all along, and what about their relationship that I was so invested in? And why did he feel the need to pointlessly self-destruct? Could he maybe have done a better job trying to figure out what she actually wanted?

I think the book handles it a bit better (not just her giving him the cold shoulder), but the full-blown last-minute implosion is actually right from the source material. Not an excuse, though; dramas can and do change things. I do think I would be less frustrated if I also felt, intuitively, that family guilt should be inherited, but right now I just feel like I’m missing something that would make all this make sense.

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A forgettable little story with too much out of nowhere

Wanru’s Journey is not the worst show I’ve started, but ranks low on the ones I’ve finished. I probably wouldn’t have finished it if it hadn’t been so short. But by the time I was ready to give up, there were only so many episodes left… might as well see it through and learn the mystery behind her past.

First, characters. This show was recommended for having a smart female lead, but actually I found her kind of annoying. There are a lot of eating scenes where her slurping and chomping noises are really loud, and she’s extremely, exaggeratedly, rude and uncouth. Maybe it’s supposed to be funny, but I just found her unlikeable, which makes it hard to root for her. She’s also a bit dopey-looking- I think it’s the way she acts, not the actress herself.

All of this later gets better when she starts to show signs of competence, but this transition is done so poorly. If she were really smart and capable (and can fight that well), it should have come through earlier, even if she hid it from everyone else.

Her romantic endeavors are likewise sudden- no explanation, out of nowhere. One leg of her love triangle is worse about this than the other, hate to love in the blink of an eye. It was so ridiculous, I didn’t feel anything about this pairing. We do, however, get the longest kiss I’ve seen to date in a Cdrama.

The two male leads were more likeable, but I still didn’t care too much for either, and I couldn’t decide how I wanted their love triangle to resolve. I did think the bromance was well-done. People kept wondering if this is BL… come on, can’t they be really good friends without it being BL? *rolls eyes*

As for the plot, I guess at the core it’s about everyone killing each other for some secret manual. Not the greatest premise, but they could have pulled it off better. There is too much random stuff pulled out of nowhere. Lots of vicious mass massacre scenes that make little sense. And as we get closer to the end, a giant mass of scheming and plot twists. It’s honestly a bit of a hot mess.

I normally care less about production, but scene transitions were bad enough that I noticed them. That and the too-loud sound effects makes me think it was just a lower budget production.

What did it do well? It does have some legit good humor that had me laughing. In general, the humor is more slapstick which is less my style, but at least it has a nice lighthearted feel- for half of the show or so. Also, I still finished the show, so it at least had enough intrigue to keep me going.

By the way, normally I would hide this in the “ENDINGS” section, but I feel it is important to state early on in case anyone is strung along like I was, slogging through to the end out of curiosity about her past: you never find out. It’s such a tease, SHE finds out, you don’t. I think it’s scriptwriter laziness, they hyped it up so much that they couldn’t figure out a good enough truth and left it open instead.

ENDING – READ AHEAD ONLY IF YOU WANT TO KNOW, CONTAINS SPOILERS





Happy ending. Somehow, despite all the twists and turns, it all works out.

Somebody on reddit said “if you’re a woman who likes to have your cake and eat it to, you’ll like this ending!” which made me really curious and excited. Ok, turns out it’s about the love triangle, she chooses neither and they go traveling. I happen to like this because I couldn’t pick, either. However, I was so irritated that they didn’t reveal the secret of her background, that drowned out whatever appreciation I had for their unconventional resolution of love triangle.

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