2025’s Biggest Scam Disguised as a ‘Wuxia’ Drama
I went into The Journey Legend hoping for a real wuxia drama, but what I got is nothing short of insulting. They brag about a 300 million RMB budget (over 40 million USD), yet the result looks like a cheap train wreck project. Where did that money go?! It was not spent on sets, not on costumes, not on CGI, and clearly not on training the cast.The director deserves to be called out first. This is not his first time messing up with fake-looking productions, but somehow he keeps getting projects. Scenes are lifeless and flat, fights lack any weight, and the endless green screen shortcuts kill every trace of immersion. Instead of building the world of rivers and lakes, he reduces wuxia into a cartoon backdrop with no soul. He cannot stage action, cannot handle pacing, and his “vision” is just filters and fog covering up flaws. Covering wireworks with Microsoft paint level of fogs was not only lazy but straight up trash! With that kind of trash direction, no one in the world can save the final product.
And then there is Cheng Yi. He is completely exposed in this drama. His performance is unbearable, his face bloated, his energy off, and his line delivery so unclear that audiences joke he sounds like he has phlegm stuck in his throat. He tries to act youthful and lively, but his exaggerated grimaces just look clownish, while his age and tired appearance make the attempt even more painful. Worst of all, he relies on green men and wires for almost everything. The irony is brutal: a supposed physical ‘fit’ ’martial’ actor who cannot even get on a horse by himself. For a self declared martial actor, that branding is beyond embarrassing.
The styling only adds insult. Costumes look like 100% polyester, flimsy and cheap. Pink robes, weird braids, and nude-colored manicures on a male lead destroy any sense of jianghu spirit. It feels like cosplay done with no understanding of what wuxia aesthetics should represent.
And then comes the most shameless part: the data bragging. Yunhe Data itself posted on Cheng Yi’s Weibo supertopic 🙄 Many who follow data saw the numbers jumping by millions in seconds or with views being adjusted in real time 😂 . That is not popularity, that is botting. That is blatant data manipulation. And it raises the ugliest question of all: is this where the 300 million budget went, not to production, but to buying fake numbers to fool the public. Chinese netizens on Red Note are already calling it out and planning to report it, and honestly, they should. Because the poor quality we see on screen screams louder than any fake statistic.
This was marketed as an S+ wuxia epic, but what we got is a scam dressed up with plastic visuals and inflated charts. Poor direction, cheap production, an exposed lead, and a disgusting reliance on fake hype. Instead of elevating wuxia, The Journey Legend drags it straight into the mud.
⭐ Overall: 3.5/10
Not for the production, but for the sheer audacity of serving this kind of garbage in 2025 and thinking the audience would swallow it.
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