This review may contain spoilers
A Journey to Love and Loss
A Journey to Love is a wuxia romance that will probably go down in history as one of the better dramas in the genre despite its controversial ending. After all, it has an engaging story, endearing characters, superb fight choreography, and a great balance of humor and drama with found-family tropes and heartwrenching emotional beats. I put off watching this for three years, knowing how divisive the ending is. But I finally gave in when I decided to go on a Liu Yuning drama binge. I have to say, I'm glad I did. The ending did indeed disappoint a little, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
The story starts off with Ren Ruyi, an elusive and enigmatic spy/assassin set on revenge and determined to unleash hell on those responsible for her demise. By chance, she meets Ning Yuan Zhou, a former rival and the indomitable chief of an opposing organization, and perhaps the only one who could best her in a one-on-one face-off. She finds herself going on a critical diplomatic mission with him and his chosen team of elite warriors to accompany a timid princess for the sake of a kingdom. Not gonna lie, this plot reminded me somewhat of Star Wars and that's one of the reasons I was drawn to it. But it proved to be so much more! It has two of the best-written female leads I've seen in a while and one of the best performances from Liu Yuning.
Princess Yang Ying and Ren Ruyi represent two types of strong female characters, one is a seemingly weak political pawn who learns to take control of her own life, and the other is a fearless warrior who shows vulnerability, and admits her loneliness and desire to rely on others. I rarely see that in C-dramas or in any medium these days. It's always the badass Mary Sue who is basically a woman written with male characteristics or the damsel in distress waiting to be saved. Yang Ying's character development is the best I've seen to date. She grows from being the frightened princess that everyone bullies into a powerful leader and strategist. He Lan Dou is a revelation to me in this role. I certainly would want to see her in another project again.
Ruyi, on the other hand, may have the prowess of a male character, but she keeps her undeniably feminine charms, and displays weakness and emotional turmoil. She realizes that she's not indestructible and has to depend on others in times of distress. Liu Shishi is brilliant as the best assassin of the Crimson Guard. She absolutely sells the badassery of the character and she does look like a true martial artist, reminding me of Michelle Yeoh when she was younger. Her relationship with Ning Yuan Zhou is the foundation of this drama. Similarly, Yuan Zhou is an interesting well-fleshed out character. Despite his obvious masculinity and dominance, he is not the least bit misogynistic like most men of his time. He is not embarrassed to be bested by a woman or follow her orders because he judges people based on their characters and capabilities, not their gender or station. He is, in all sense of the term, a good man. As Ruyi states in one scene, there is only one Ning Yuan Zhou, a truly rare gem, and a feminist at that, among manly men of that era. And Liu Yuning shines in this role. No wonder this is considered his breakthrough performance that garnered him acting awards and critical acclaim as an actor.
But the real draw of this drama to me is the found-family trope, and the boys of Six Realms Hall completely endeared themselves to me. Fang Yi Lun, who kinda looks like a cross between Hyun Bin and Yamapi, is the standout for sure! He almost steals this show from Yuning... almost. He is so adorably flamboyant that I just couldn't help but love him. I had to rack my brain to remember where I've seen him before, later realizing that I first saw him in The Longest Promise. Chen You Wei as Yuan Lu is my second favorite among the bunch. His chemistry with He Lan Dou half carried the show for me. They were my ship!
The production in this drama is not particularly outstanding, but the fight choreography is impressive. I don't see these kinds of fight scenes in wuxia dramas anymore. These days, they rely too heavily on special effects that wuxia dramas feel more like video games than the ones I used to watch as a kid. I'm not overly fond of this change. Although I did notice that in some scenes, Yuning was moving strangely due to the injury he suffered while shooting the series, it didn't hinder me from enjoying the drama.
The music is one of its strong suits. I can still hear the cool Ren Xin/Ruyi theme playing in my head even as I write this review. And of course the songs from Yuning and Jason Zhang are now included in my C-music playlist.
But as all war stories go, this does not end well. Personally, I don't mind the tragic ending. I actually like that there are real stakes involved and no plot armors for the main cast. This was a suicide mission from the start and they knew it. My complaint is not how it ends but how they come to that conclusion. The last few episodes felt like they were written by a different screenwriter. It's as if the original writer left them in a lurch and someone had to take over and quickly end the drama. The narrative style changed as well as the pacing like there were key scenes missing but were purposely taken out to meet the 40-episode limit. And that ambiguous dream sequence-ish ending seemed totally out of place. Just tell us they died and became heroes! Period. If they really wanted to go that route, then at least put the right characters in that scene not Chu Yue who barely knew the main characters except Yu Shi San, and wasn't even introduced to the story until much later. They could've at least chosen to show Princess Yang Ying and Li Tong Guang with the boy. The dream could've been a symbolic passing of the torch from masters to their pupils. That last scene was just off no matter how hard they tried to make it emotional. That was NOT it! The drama would've been one of the best C-dramas ever made if they had only managed to stick the landing. But even so, I would still consider this an accomplishment. As a whole, it is still a great watch and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good wuxia drama with compelling characters.
The story starts off with Ren Ruyi, an elusive and enigmatic spy/assassin set on revenge and determined to unleash hell on those responsible for her demise. By chance, she meets Ning Yuan Zhou, a former rival and the indomitable chief of an opposing organization, and perhaps the only one who could best her in a one-on-one face-off. She finds herself going on a critical diplomatic mission with him and his chosen team of elite warriors to accompany a timid princess for the sake of a kingdom. Not gonna lie, this plot reminded me somewhat of Star Wars and that's one of the reasons I was drawn to it. But it proved to be so much more! It has two of the best-written female leads I've seen in a while and one of the best performances from Liu Yuning.
Princess Yang Ying and Ren Ruyi represent two types of strong female characters, one is a seemingly weak political pawn who learns to take control of her own life, and the other is a fearless warrior who shows vulnerability, and admits her loneliness and desire to rely on others. I rarely see that in C-dramas or in any medium these days. It's always the badass Mary Sue who is basically a woman written with male characteristics or the damsel in distress waiting to be saved. Yang Ying's character development is the best I've seen to date. She grows from being the frightened princess that everyone bullies into a powerful leader and strategist. He Lan Dou is a revelation to me in this role. I certainly would want to see her in another project again.
Ruyi, on the other hand, may have the prowess of a male character, but she keeps her undeniably feminine charms, and displays weakness and emotional turmoil. She realizes that she's not indestructible and has to depend on others in times of distress. Liu Shishi is brilliant as the best assassin of the Crimson Guard. She absolutely sells the badassery of the character and she does look like a true martial artist, reminding me of Michelle Yeoh when she was younger. Her relationship with Ning Yuan Zhou is the foundation of this drama. Similarly, Yuan Zhou is an interesting well-fleshed out character. Despite his obvious masculinity and dominance, he is not the least bit misogynistic like most men of his time. He is not embarrassed to be bested by a woman or follow her orders because he judges people based on their characters and capabilities, not their gender or station. He is, in all sense of the term, a good man. As Ruyi states in one scene, there is only one Ning Yuan Zhou, a truly rare gem, and a feminist at that, among manly men of that era. And Liu Yuning shines in this role. No wonder this is considered his breakthrough performance that garnered him acting awards and critical acclaim as an actor.
But the real draw of this drama to me is the found-family trope, and the boys of Six Realms Hall completely endeared themselves to me. Fang Yi Lun, who kinda looks like a cross between Hyun Bin and Yamapi, is the standout for sure! He almost steals this show from Yuning... almost. He is so adorably flamboyant that I just couldn't help but love him. I had to rack my brain to remember where I've seen him before, later realizing that I first saw him in The Longest Promise. Chen You Wei as Yuan Lu is my second favorite among the bunch. His chemistry with He Lan Dou half carried the show for me. They were my ship!
The production in this drama is not particularly outstanding, but the fight choreography is impressive. I don't see these kinds of fight scenes in wuxia dramas anymore. These days, they rely too heavily on special effects that wuxia dramas feel more like video games than the ones I used to watch as a kid. I'm not overly fond of this change. Although I did notice that in some scenes, Yuning was moving strangely due to the injury he suffered while shooting the series, it didn't hinder me from enjoying the drama.
The music is one of its strong suits. I can still hear the cool Ren Xin/Ruyi theme playing in my head even as I write this review. And of course the songs from Yuning and Jason Zhang are now included in my C-music playlist.
But as all war stories go, this does not end well. Personally, I don't mind the tragic ending. I actually like that there are real stakes involved and no plot armors for the main cast. This was a suicide mission from the start and they knew it. My complaint is not how it ends but how they come to that conclusion. The last few episodes felt like they were written by a different screenwriter. It's as if the original writer left them in a lurch and someone had to take over and quickly end the drama. The narrative style changed as well as the pacing like there were key scenes missing but were purposely taken out to meet the 40-episode limit. And that ambiguous dream sequence-ish ending seemed totally out of place. Just tell us they died and became heroes! Period. If they really wanted to go that route, then at least put the right characters in that scene not Chu Yue who barely knew the main characters except Yu Shi San, and wasn't even introduced to the story until much later. They could've at least chosen to show Princess Yang Ying and Li Tong Guang with the boy. The dream could've been a symbolic passing of the torch from masters to their pupils. That last scene was just off no matter how hard they tried to make it emotional. That was NOT it! The drama would've been one of the best C-dramas ever made if they had only managed to stick the landing. But even so, I would still consider this an accomplishment. As a whole, it is still a great watch and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good wuxia drama with compelling characters.
Was this review helpful to you?
