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Went in with zero expectations and ended up loving it
I decided to watch this after enjoying Li Hong Yi's face card in Shadow Sovereign. Since I was in it purely for his looks I didn't have any expectations about BoY being good. But to my surprise I ended up absolutely loving it and I'm in the middle of a rewatch.
Plotwise It's a pretty classic wuxia: heroes wander around the martial arts world making friends and leveling up their skills until they're strong enough to confront and defeat the big bad. But the execution makes this special. It's true that if you're a martial arts purist you won't enjoy the CGI heavy fighting but I thought the CGI was well done and the fights were well choreographed.
The drama has a huge cast of characters and a fairly complex plot yet somehow manages to keep you engaged and invested even in the early stages when you're meeting dozens of new people and don't exactly know how they're going to figure into the story.
The core friends group is fantastic and it's so much fun to vicariously participate in their adventures almost as if you're another part of the party.
My favorite character was Wu Xin who is played to snarky perfection by Li Xueyi. He has some of the best lines and also the coolest martial arts skills. my only complaints are a) he's way too old to play a 17 year old, and b) he mostly disappears from the story in the second half which is a shame.
My second favorite character is Xiao Se. It's true that Li Hong Yi was mostly stone faced through the story but it works for the character. Xiao Se is a character type you see a lot in Chinese dramas that you don't see in other countries: a complex, manipulative and scheming good guy. It's fun to watch him use his scheming for good.
Lei Wu Jie is a lot of goofy fun and Ao Rui Peng is perfectly cast. He brings a lot to his fight scenes too.
Unfortunately, even though there's two women in the core friends group, they have fewer scenes and aren't as well with developed as the male characters. I did enjoy Ye Ruoyi as the female version of Xiao Se but Sikung Qianluo was flat and boring with no chemistry with Xiao Se.
Though they weren't part of the core friends group I really enjoyed Hu Wei as the super rich, conceited and generous Mu Chun Feng and Ai Mi as master healer Hua Jin.
Another thing I loved about this drama was the writing for the older characters. As an older fan myself I related to how they felt about passing the torch to the younger generation. a older actors are seasoned veterans and added a lot to the story.
I have a few minor complaints. One is how the female characters were put in the backseat. Another is Deng Kai acting like a stereotypical mustache twirling villain which was not very interesting. the plot also gets a little dragged out in the end and some of the plot developments don't make a lot of sense.
But overall this is a super fun drama with really appealing characters that's entertaining from start to finish. If you're a newbie to this genre, this is a great introduction.
Plotwise It's a pretty classic wuxia: heroes wander around the martial arts world making friends and leveling up their skills until they're strong enough to confront and defeat the big bad. But the execution makes this special. It's true that if you're a martial arts purist you won't enjoy the CGI heavy fighting but I thought the CGI was well done and the fights were well choreographed.
The drama has a huge cast of characters and a fairly complex plot yet somehow manages to keep you engaged and invested even in the early stages when you're meeting dozens of new people and don't exactly know how they're going to figure into the story.
The core friends group is fantastic and it's so much fun to vicariously participate in their adventures almost as if you're another part of the party.
My favorite character was Wu Xin who is played to snarky perfection by Li Xueyi. He has some of the best lines and also the coolest martial arts skills. my only complaints are a) he's way too old to play a 17 year old, and b) he mostly disappears from the story in the second half which is a shame.
My second favorite character is Xiao Se. It's true that Li Hong Yi was mostly stone faced through the story but it works for the character. Xiao Se is a character type you see a lot in Chinese dramas that you don't see in other countries: a complex, manipulative and scheming good guy. It's fun to watch him use his scheming for good.
Lei Wu Jie is a lot of goofy fun and Ao Rui Peng is perfectly cast. He brings a lot to his fight scenes too.
Unfortunately, even though there's two women in the core friends group, they have fewer scenes and aren't as well with developed as the male characters. I did enjoy Ye Ruoyi as the female version of Xiao Se but Sikung Qianluo was flat and boring with no chemistry with Xiao Se.
Though they weren't part of the core friends group I really enjoyed Hu Wei as the super rich, conceited and generous Mu Chun Feng and Ai Mi as master healer Hua Jin.
Another thing I loved about this drama was the writing for the older characters. As an older fan myself I related to how they felt about passing the torch to the younger generation. a older actors are seasoned veterans and added a lot to the story.
I have a few minor complaints. One is how the female characters were put in the backseat. Another is Deng Kai acting like a stereotypical mustache twirling villain which was not very interesting. the plot also gets a little dragged out in the end and some of the plot developments don't make a lot of sense.
But overall this is a super fun drama with really appealing characters that's entertaining from start to finish. If you're a newbie to this genre, this is a great introduction.
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