This review may contain spoilers
A Mixed Bag (Of Mostly Good?)
I had mixed feelings after finishing this drama, but overall my feelings leaned more heavily on the "I really enjoyed this" end of things.
To be precise, there were arcs, moments, and scenes I LOVED while others made my eyebrows go up.
I never would have thought I'd say a drama from 2018 felt like it had "not aged well" in every way, but it seems to be true of this drama.
THINGS I LOVED:
1. Ning Que - I love watching characters grow (I'm a sucker for it, actually), and Ning Que has some big growth moments in this drama (and boy, is it needed!). I know a lot of people had some issues with him and Sang Sang going more romantic at the end (and I can see why; it's parts of their story that, as I said above, haven't aged well), but apart from a few gripes I have (I'll talk more about them below 😅), Ning Que choosing Sang Sang over Mo Shan Shan actually ended up being one of my favorite arcs (to my surprise!). I loved that he had to learn what it meant to truly value Sang Sang as a person, not as a pet, possession, plaything, servant, little sister, buddy or any of the other things he at some point "thought" of her as in his dense jerkness. And not just any person, but THE person he loves, values and depends on most. It was Ning Que's close friend, Chen PiPi (more about him below, too!), who helped rip the veil from Ning Que's eyes and who forced him to see how deeply precious Sang Sang was to him and to take responsibility for that realization. It wasn't until Ning Que owned up to this reality did he finally embrace Sang Sang for who she was (and he then had to learn to TREAT her like that instead of taking her for granted!). I actually thought the romance was not the central component of Ning Que's realization, but more the naturally inevitable maturation of their deep bond as they grew from comrades as children into an adult man and woman. And the way NQ humanized after this epiphany was actually really lovely - I mean, you have to see others as human before you can be one yourself! It was also great getting to watch him grow with his cultivating; he truly was like a cockroach, never letting anything phase him for long without bouncing back almost immediately. 😅 The guy certainly had resilience! Arthur Chen was obviously pretty new to acting when he filmed this, but he still worked for me. He was completely convincing as the young, cheeky, brazen, immature, arrogant, brilliant, loyal imp that is Ning Que.
2. The Score - Wow, Roc Chen's music was glorious and perfect! He captured so many moods and set the tone for all the various scenes throughout the drama, reflective scenes and epic fighting sequences alike (my favorite BGM was "Longqing (Theme-Sad)").The track from the OST that I liked best was the one by Tan Wei Wei that would always play when he was with Fu Zi's disciples (but the best version was sung by the male singer--Spotify only has the Wei Wei version and all the titles are in Mandarin so I have no idea what they are! 😅).
3. The martial arts - I had this recommended to me as a drama with second-to-none action sequences, and it did not disappoint. Beautiful, stunning--even breathtaking at points. It didn't let the supernatural elements overpower the actual hand-to-hand combat, either (nor was the supernatural, CGI element used as a way to cover up sloppy choreography), which grounded the fighting immensely. Truly amazing in this respect, and all the actors/stunt doubles really, REALLY sold it.
4. The Two-Story Building Crew of Tang Academy - Oh my gosh, I adored all these characters (but particularly Chen Pi Pi--he was a true friend to NQ despite all the bluffing and fake grumbling! He was adorable, and my only gripe was not about his character, but about how many comments about his weight they wrote into the script 🙄🤨😖). The way they really became like big brothers and sisters to NQ was so sweet, wholesome, and heartwarming. I loved the montages of NQ learning from them and bantering with them (particularly in Episode 51--one of my favorite episodes, for sure!), and their sweet, nonjudgemental, quiet empowering of him. NQ finally found his family, and watching him thrive under their love and guidance was just lovely! They were the only characters in the drama where I felt like I could root for all of them and their decisions (Mo Shan Shan and Chao Xiaosu were the other two lovable characters, and Yan Se (sort of; as a mentor at least)).
Which leads me to...
THINGS I DISLIKED:
1. Ning Que - 😂 I know, he made both lists! Sometimes I wanted to grab the guy and shake him--narcissistic, self-obsessed, oblivious jerk that he could be! Goodness gracious. The way he sometimes treated Sang Sang was truly terrible and inexcusable--like, duuuude! C'mon! Have a heart? And he was so obsessed with revenge, no matter the cost (even being willing to "leave" Sang Sang who supported him regardless), and all his panting for other pretty women while Sang Sang looked on--ack, I didn't dig that AT ALL. He just sometimes gave massive, conceited jerk vibes. He drove me nuts because I couldn't always root for him. 😅 The only thing that softened my bristles over his treatment of Sang Sang was the way his jabs and put downs would just roll off Sang Sang's back like she wore impenetrable armor against his meanness. My interpretation of this was that Sang Sang could separate the way Ning Que treated her from the way he actually felt about her (which is why she ran away when he tried to bring Shan Shan home--she had to show him his own heart, because it was time for him to face it and no longer avoid the elephant in the room 😅; this dynamic couldn't exist in real life, but they made it work for me here). Sang Sang knew more than anyone how important she was to Ning Que, and that allowed her to put up with a lot of immaturity and mistakes from Ning Que. So, at times it can almost feel like Sang Sang is Ning Que's doormat, but that's very much not the case on closer inspection.
2. Right and Wrong portrayed as... Unclear 🤷♀️ - I'm not up on Yin Yang and the Eastern view of good and evil (and I don't know if this drama has anything realistic about that view that it's drawing from and accurately portraying in this drama), but what I saw in this drama was a muddled, slippery moral standard. Outside of Fu Zi's gang and a few other choice characters, it was really hard to know how I was supposed to think and feel about some characters and their choices (certain sects and cultivation arts, too, were cloudy) because there wasn't much of a moral compass on what was acceptable or unacceptable behavior or choices, and I found that disappointing and at times maddening. I know some might call it nuance and subtlety, I see it as sloppy and muddled because I don't think it was navigated in a subtle way at all. There was no established standard of right and wrong, so it made so many events ambiguous, and made the actions of some characters feel arbitrarily "good" because they did not exist within a moral context. So many of the cultivator's standards seemed purely arbitrary and based on what their master said was "okay," and I didn't like that. Mentors and Elders should be respected, but that doesn't mean they always have a corner on the market of Wisdom and should be trusted above all else to always know what can and should be done. (For instance, at one point, NQ's first teacher, Yan Se, says about NQ, "I don't care about his faults, crimes or the mistakes he made in the past, I will defend him against anyone because he is my student." 🤔 Oh? Just because he's your student, he can do no wrong? He should always be defended and trusted? I didn't agree with that; mentors are also meant to critique and hold their students accountable, because their students aren't perfect!). I also found almost everything about Xiling (moral standards or otherwise) confusing. 😅
So, to sum up, Ning Que's secret to success is not something from within HIM, it ended up being due to the people who loved, supported, and fought for him (i.e. Sang Sang, Yan Se, Fu Zi, Chen Pi Pi, his 3rd Senior Sister (and Fu Zi's other disciples), Zuo Er, Mo Shan Shan, Ye Hong Yu). And if he had one virtue, it's that he's fiercely loyal.
So, the true hero of this drama is actually Friendship.
Friendship is the heart and soul of this story; it turns an average (even at times, problematic), coming-of-age revenge story (with some EPIC fighting) into a sweeping, poignant, and heartfelt story about a nobody finding his place among the great and glorious, all because of those who empowered him.
To be precise, there were arcs, moments, and scenes I LOVED while others made my eyebrows go up.
I never would have thought I'd say a drama from 2018 felt like it had "not aged well" in every way, but it seems to be true of this drama.
THINGS I LOVED:
1. Ning Que - I love watching characters grow (I'm a sucker for it, actually), and Ning Que has some big growth moments in this drama (and boy, is it needed!). I know a lot of people had some issues with him and Sang Sang going more romantic at the end (and I can see why; it's parts of their story that, as I said above, haven't aged well), but apart from a few gripes I have (I'll talk more about them below 😅), Ning Que choosing Sang Sang over Mo Shan Shan actually ended up being one of my favorite arcs (to my surprise!). I loved that he had to learn what it meant to truly value Sang Sang as a person, not as a pet, possession, plaything, servant, little sister, buddy or any of the other things he at some point "thought" of her as in his dense jerkness. And not just any person, but THE person he loves, values and depends on most. It was Ning Que's close friend, Chen PiPi (more about him below, too!), who helped rip the veil from Ning Que's eyes and who forced him to see how deeply precious Sang Sang was to him and to take responsibility for that realization. It wasn't until Ning Que owned up to this reality did he finally embrace Sang Sang for who she was (and he then had to learn to TREAT her like that instead of taking her for granted!). I actually thought the romance was not the central component of Ning Que's realization, but more the naturally inevitable maturation of their deep bond as they grew from comrades as children into an adult man and woman. And the way NQ humanized after this epiphany was actually really lovely - I mean, you have to see others as human before you can be one yourself! It was also great getting to watch him grow with his cultivating; he truly was like a cockroach, never letting anything phase him for long without bouncing back almost immediately. 😅 The guy certainly had resilience! Arthur Chen was obviously pretty new to acting when he filmed this, but he still worked for me. He was completely convincing as the young, cheeky, brazen, immature, arrogant, brilliant, loyal imp that is Ning Que.
2. The Score - Wow, Roc Chen's music was glorious and perfect! He captured so many moods and set the tone for all the various scenes throughout the drama, reflective scenes and epic fighting sequences alike (my favorite BGM was "Longqing (Theme-Sad)").The track from the OST that I liked best was the one by Tan Wei Wei that would always play when he was with Fu Zi's disciples (but the best version was sung by the male singer--Spotify only has the Wei Wei version and all the titles are in Mandarin so I have no idea what they are! 😅).
3. The martial arts - I had this recommended to me as a drama with second-to-none action sequences, and it did not disappoint. Beautiful, stunning--even breathtaking at points. It didn't let the supernatural elements overpower the actual hand-to-hand combat, either (nor was the supernatural, CGI element used as a way to cover up sloppy choreography), which grounded the fighting immensely. Truly amazing in this respect, and all the actors/stunt doubles really, REALLY sold it.
4. The Two-Story Building Crew of Tang Academy - Oh my gosh, I adored all these characters (but particularly Chen Pi Pi--he was a true friend to NQ despite all the bluffing and fake grumbling! He was adorable, and my only gripe was not about his character, but about how many comments about his weight they wrote into the script 🙄🤨😖). The way they really became like big brothers and sisters to NQ was so sweet, wholesome, and heartwarming. I loved the montages of NQ learning from them and bantering with them (particularly in Episode 51--one of my favorite episodes, for sure!), and their sweet, nonjudgemental, quiet empowering of him. NQ finally found his family, and watching him thrive under their love and guidance was just lovely! They were the only characters in the drama where I felt like I could root for all of them and their decisions (Mo Shan Shan and Chao Xiaosu were the other two lovable characters, and Yan Se (sort of; as a mentor at least)).
Which leads me to...
THINGS I DISLIKED:
1. Ning Que - 😂 I know, he made both lists! Sometimes I wanted to grab the guy and shake him--narcissistic, self-obsessed, oblivious jerk that he could be! Goodness gracious. The way he sometimes treated Sang Sang was truly terrible and inexcusable--like, duuuude! C'mon! Have a heart? And he was so obsessed with revenge, no matter the cost (even being willing to "leave" Sang Sang who supported him regardless), and all his panting for other pretty women while Sang Sang looked on--ack, I didn't dig that AT ALL. He just sometimes gave massive, conceited jerk vibes. He drove me nuts because I couldn't always root for him. 😅 The only thing that softened my bristles over his treatment of Sang Sang was the way his jabs and put downs would just roll off Sang Sang's back like she wore impenetrable armor against his meanness. My interpretation of this was that Sang Sang could separate the way Ning Que treated her from the way he actually felt about her (which is why she ran away when he tried to bring Shan Shan home--she had to show him his own heart, because it was time for him to face it and no longer avoid the elephant in the room 😅; this dynamic couldn't exist in real life, but they made it work for me here). Sang Sang knew more than anyone how important she was to Ning Que, and that allowed her to put up with a lot of immaturity and mistakes from Ning Que. So, at times it can almost feel like Sang Sang is Ning Que's doormat, but that's very much not the case on closer inspection.
2. Right and Wrong portrayed as... Unclear 🤷♀️ - I'm not up on Yin Yang and the Eastern view of good and evil (and I don't know if this drama has anything realistic about that view that it's drawing from and accurately portraying in this drama), but what I saw in this drama was a muddled, slippery moral standard. Outside of Fu Zi's gang and a few other choice characters, it was really hard to know how I was supposed to think and feel about some characters and their choices (certain sects and cultivation arts, too, were cloudy) because there wasn't much of a moral compass on what was acceptable or unacceptable behavior or choices, and I found that disappointing and at times maddening. I know some might call it nuance and subtlety, I see it as sloppy and muddled because I don't think it was navigated in a subtle way at all. There was no established standard of right and wrong, so it made so many events ambiguous, and made the actions of some characters feel arbitrarily "good" because they did not exist within a moral context. So many of the cultivator's standards seemed purely arbitrary and based on what their master said was "okay," and I didn't like that. Mentors and Elders should be respected, but that doesn't mean they always have a corner on the market of Wisdom and should be trusted above all else to always know what can and should be done. (For instance, at one point, NQ's first teacher, Yan Se, says about NQ, "I don't care about his faults, crimes or the mistakes he made in the past, I will defend him against anyone because he is my student." 🤔 Oh? Just because he's your student, he can do no wrong? He should always be defended and trusted? I didn't agree with that; mentors are also meant to critique and hold their students accountable, because their students aren't perfect!). I also found almost everything about Xiling (moral standards or otherwise) confusing. 😅
So, to sum up, Ning Que's secret to success is not something from within HIM, it ended up being due to the people who loved, supported, and fought for him (i.e. Sang Sang, Yan Se, Fu Zi, Chen Pi Pi, his 3rd Senior Sister (and Fu Zi's other disciples), Zuo Er, Mo Shan Shan, Ye Hong Yu). And if he had one virtue, it's that he's fiercely loyal.
So, the true hero of this drama is actually Friendship.
Friendship is the heart and soul of this story; it turns an average (even at times, problematic), coming-of-age revenge story (with some EPIC fighting) into a sweeping, poignant, and heartfelt story about a nobody finding his place among the great and glorious, all because of those who empowered him.
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