This review may contain spoilers
A xianxia drama that is quite good!
I often dropped yangyang in his modern series but I persisted in watching this drama. It's so obvious I love watching xianxia( mythological dramas). It is more apt for him to play cultivator roles, imo.
Cultivation is part of Chinese daoist mythology. In xianxia, they are everywhere. There is a long process in attaining immortality. Lowest in the rungs is having innate qi, then establishing your foundation, then forming your core and finally becoming divine-like. Benefits are longevity( one can go living to hundreds of years young), superpowers and becoming immortal( as long as you were not struck dead by another immortal)
Cultivators are like priests or monks in the ancient times. They have to renounce any worldly desires except for the pursuit of attaining immortality.
Hanli got into cultivation because it might bring money and food to his family. He got to see his younger sister married off and i presumed his parents died out because they were never mentioned after being accepted as an " intern-cultivator". He thought he had an innate talent because his shifu said so, not knowing that the latter wanted to use hanli's inner qi to regain his younger body. Shifu was only 36years young but looked like twice his actual age. Shifu was killed instead by hanli so he continued his journey to join any cultivation sect.
As a viewer it was quite a disappointment to see that hanli in fact has no " qi root" in his body. In short, he is like any mortal. (If he is an ordinary mortal, it will take him very long years just to level up. Then why could he fast track his cultivation skills if he possessed no "qi root"? I find this to be the one of the 2 flaws in the story.
I love watching the drama because it is a story with no love interest ( so far in season 1. There is another season 2 coming up. Dunno if they will inject a love interest to it).
We can see that 4 ladies were smitten with him. They are The daughter of his shifu( mo), 2 sect-sisters and 1 core cultivation master by the name of nangong wan. 2 were subtle with their feelings while the other 2 had openly declared their love towards him But he is unmoved because of his desire to reach the top in cultivation, besides being free spirited. He is not a person without feelings. He has a strong brotherhood feeling towards his neighbor friend who went with him to practise cultivation. He is kind to his sect mates and respectful towards his masters. But he did not allow " worldly love" into his life yet so he won't be distracted with his meditation, his herb gathering to make elixir and power pills and he can attain becoming a "core practitioner" faster. What i also admire hanli about is his flexibility not to go into a difficult situation if he knows he can't win it. Like he won't risk his life joining the battle if his opponent is a "core cultivator". He deals with anyone of the same level skills he has or lower than his.
Also in
daoism, not all things are in absolute black or white. Black and white are together just like evil and good. One does jot exist without the other, so we see in some dramas that good immortals can be devious and some bad immortals can be kind too. Since mythology is pure fiction, authors of mythology novels write their characters like they have human attributes( not far from Greek mythology,isn't it?)
This drama is packed with long minutes of " xianxia battles" taking up almost a whole episode. Lol. The cgi effect is ok( I am easily pleased). What i don't like is their sword-riding ( Cgi effect isn't that great for this). in chinese mythology, sword riding is part of a cultivator skill and it is NOT a borrowed concept from Harry Potter at all. The most powerful cultivators have their mythical beasts as carriages, FYI!
I love also 2 songs of this series, namely " a moment" and " Mayfly aspiration. It somehow,imo, likens hanli to a Mayfly ,a lowly insect and has a very short life span who wants to fly "higher"( attaining an almost impossible task?)
The 2nd flaw i found is ... where he got his skills when at the last episode his powers were ABSORBED by nangong wan. Maybe the manhua mustn't have touched on this topic but was not delved too much on the screen?( It was hinted that he should lose his powers 3x before he could reach the more powerful " core power").
So far this drama is quite entertaining. It has a good rewatch value.
Cultivation is part of Chinese daoist mythology. In xianxia, they are everywhere. There is a long process in attaining immortality. Lowest in the rungs is having innate qi, then establishing your foundation, then forming your core and finally becoming divine-like. Benefits are longevity( one can go living to hundreds of years young), superpowers and becoming immortal( as long as you were not struck dead by another immortal)
Cultivators are like priests or monks in the ancient times. They have to renounce any worldly desires except for the pursuit of attaining immortality.
Hanli got into cultivation because it might bring money and food to his family. He got to see his younger sister married off and i presumed his parents died out because they were never mentioned after being accepted as an " intern-cultivator". He thought he had an innate talent because his shifu said so, not knowing that the latter wanted to use hanli's inner qi to regain his younger body. Shifu was only 36years young but looked like twice his actual age. Shifu was killed instead by hanli so he continued his journey to join any cultivation sect.
As a viewer it was quite a disappointment to see that hanli in fact has no " qi root" in his body. In short, he is like any mortal. (If he is an ordinary mortal, it will take him very long years just to level up. Then why could he fast track his cultivation skills if he possessed no "qi root"? I find this to be the one of the 2 flaws in the story.
I love watching the drama because it is a story with no love interest ( so far in season 1. There is another season 2 coming up. Dunno if they will inject a love interest to it).
We can see that 4 ladies were smitten with him. They are The daughter of his shifu( mo), 2 sect-sisters and 1 core cultivation master by the name of nangong wan. 2 were subtle with their feelings while the other 2 had openly declared their love towards him But he is unmoved because of his desire to reach the top in cultivation, besides being free spirited. He is not a person without feelings. He has a strong brotherhood feeling towards his neighbor friend who went with him to practise cultivation. He is kind to his sect mates and respectful towards his masters. But he did not allow " worldly love" into his life yet so he won't be distracted with his meditation, his herb gathering to make elixir and power pills and he can attain becoming a "core practitioner" faster. What i also admire hanli about is his flexibility not to go into a difficult situation if he knows he can't win it. Like he won't risk his life joining the battle if his opponent is a "core cultivator". He deals with anyone of the same level skills he has or lower than his.
Also in
daoism, not all things are in absolute black or white. Black and white are together just like evil and good. One does jot exist without the other, so we see in some dramas that good immortals can be devious and some bad immortals can be kind too. Since mythology is pure fiction, authors of mythology novels write their characters like they have human attributes( not far from Greek mythology,isn't it?)
This drama is packed with long minutes of " xianxia battles" taking up almost a whole episode. Lol. The cgi effect is ok( I am easily pleased). What i don't like is their sword-riding ( Cgi effect isn't that great for this). in chinese mythology, sword riding is part of a cultivator skill and it is NOT a borrowed concept from Harry Potter at all. The most powerful cultivators have their mythical beasts as carriages, FYI!
I love also 2 songs of this series, namely " a moment" and " Mayfly aspiration. It somehow,imo, likens hanli to a Mayfly ,a lowly insect and has a very short life span who wants to fly "higher"( attaining an almost impossible task?)
The 2nd flaw i found is ... where he got his skills when at the last episode his powers were ABSORBED by nangong wan. Maybe the manhua mustn't have touched on this topic but was not delved too much on the screen?( It was hinted that he should lose his powers 3x before he could reach the more powerful " core power").
So far this drama is quite entertaining. It has a good rewatch value.
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