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No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
Nobody in Remnants of Gold seems particularly interested in being a hero.
Useful start.
Pu Ying probably comes closest. He gets beaten up.
Zhang Luyao is considerably more formidable. It doesn't make her happier.
Yu Hou would very much like to survive.
Unfortunately, he knows people.
This is the sort of wuxia where character tends to reveal itself at inconvenient moments.
Someone keeps a promise when breaking it would be smarter.
Someone betrays one for reasons that almost make sense.
An enemy behaves decently.
A decent man does something stupid.
Nobody stops to explain the moral.
Much appreciated.
The performances understand this.
Chen Kun never asks for Yu Hou to be forgiven. That makes him much easier to enjoy.
Xin Zhilei keeps Zhang Luyao's grief somewhere behind the machinery. You see the cost before she tells you about it.
Yin Fang is allowed to look thoroughly unheroic while doing heroic things.
And Gao Weiguang's Ban Cha is wonderfully difficult to pin down. Relaxed without being foolish. Principled without becoming righteous. The kind of man who seems to have made peace with the world mostly because he understands exactly how unpleasant it can be.
That one stays with you.
The whole drama is a little odd like that.
People say less than expected.
Appear later than expected.
Die earlier than expected.
Occasionally the plot explains less than expected too.
Not always charming.
Xu Bing can mistake patience for unlimited credit, and thirteen episodes eventually send someone to collect.
But there is very little desperation here to make wuxia look impressive.
No immaculate heroes required.
No grand speeches every time someone chooses correctly.
No guarantee that choosing correctly will help.
Just a collection of strange people trying to decide what they're willing to live with.
Thirteen episodes isn't very long. These people have a way of making it feel much too short.
Some do better than others.
Naturally, those are not necessarily the ones who live.
Useful start.
Pu Ying probably comes closest. He gets beaten up.
Zhang Luyao is considerably more formidable. It doesn't make her happier.
Yu Hou would very much like to survive.
Unfortunately, he knows people.
This is the sort of wuxia where character tends to reveal itself at inconvenient moments.
Someone keeps a promise when breaking it would be smarter.
Someone betrays one for reasons that almost make sense.
An enemy behaves decently.
A decent man does something stupid.
Nobody stops to explain the moral.
Much appreciated.
The performances understand this.
Chen Kun never asks for Yu Hou to be forgiven. That makes him much easier to enjoy.
Xin Zhilei keeps Zhang Luyao's grief somewhere behind the machinery. You see the cost before she tells you about it.
Yin Fang is allowed to look thoroughly unheroic while doing heroic things.
And Gao Weiguang's Ban Cha is wonderfully difficult to pin down. Relaxed without being foolish. Principled without becoming righteous. The kind of man who seems to have made peace with the world mostly because he understands exactly how unpleasant it can be.
That one stays with you.
The whole drama is a little odd like that.
People say less than expected.
Appear later than expected.
Die earlier than expected.
Occasionally the plot explains less than expected too.
Not always charming.
Xu Bing can mistake patience for unlimited credit, and thirteen episodes eventually send someone to collect.
But there is very little desperation here to make wuxia look impressive.
No immaculate heroes required.
No grand speeches every time someone chooses correctly.
No guarantee that choosing correctly will help.
Just a collection of strange people trying to decide what they're willing to live with.
Thirteen episodes isn't very long. These people have a way of making it feel much too short.
Some do better than others.
Naturally, those are not necessarily the ones who live.
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