Reviews

Enemies to lovers done right

Maybe it was the Bad Buddy vibes I got from the trailer that made me want to start Match Point in the first place, and honestly, I'm so glad I did. Enemies to lovers is already one of my favorite tropes, so this had everything to catch my attention from the beginning, but I didn't expect to enjoy it THIS much. The story is actually pretty simple, yet everything works so well that it never needed to be more complicated. The pacing is probably one of its biggest strengths because the story is spread perfectly across the 10 episodes, nothing feels unnecessarily dragged out, and thank god Bay and Sun don't take an eternity to understand what is happening between them. I absolutely loved these two together. Their little fights, the teasing, the rivalry slowly becoming affection, and all those moments where you can clearly see their feelings changing made them so much fun to watch. And BAY!!! That man is an entire green forest. I loved the way he cared for Sun and how naturally his softer side came out once their relationship started changing. Sun is such a vibe on his own, and somehow their completely different energies fit each other perfectly. Their chemistry was there from the start and only got better. The whole series is cute, funny, romantic and ridiculously easy to get attached to, while still having great production quality and a storyline that kept me invested beyond the romance.
Even the family side was so much fun, especially their fathers constantly fighting like they were the ones with the rivalry. They made me laugh every single time and added so much to the comedy of the drama.

Those Bad Buddy vibes might have been what brought me here, but Bay and Sun are definitely what made me stay. Match Point took a trope I already love and gave me exactly what I wanted from it: great chemistry, hilarious bickering, two characters who match each other so well and a romance that doesn't take forever to actually move forward. I really wasn't ready to say goodbye to them after only 10 episodes.

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I Came for the Affair, Stayed for the Thriller

I genuinely loved this drama! It’s such a good combination of thriller, romance and comedy, and I think that balance is what made it so enjoyable for me. There was enough suspense to keep me curious about what was going to happen next, but the comedy gave the drama some lighter moments and made it really fun to watch.
My only real issue was the slow beginning. It took me a while to get into the story, and there were moments where I wondered when things were actually going to pick up. But once it finally got going, IT GOT GOOD. The suspense became much more interesting, and I found myself getting completely invested in the story.
I also really loved the cast. Everyone suited their characters so well, but the chemistry between the leads was definitely one of my favourite parts. Their chemistry was TOO good! There was something about their interactions that made me want more of them.
And honestly, I wish they had explored their relationship a little more. We got the chemistry and the moments that made me want to see more, but I felt like there was so much potential there that could have been explored. I would have loved to see more of their relationship develop and get a little deeper instead of having some parts feel rushed.
The comedy was another highlight for me. It worked really well alongside the thriller elements and stopped the drama from feeling too heavy. I loved those little funny moments that came in between all the tension and made the characters even more enjoyable.
Overall, this was such a fun watch. The slow start almost lost me, but everything that came after made up for it. The thriller aspect kept me intrigued, the comedy kept me entertained, and the chemistry kept me invested. I just wish the romance had been given a little more room to breathe.

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Sometimes less drama really is more

I really wanted to enjoy this more, because the premise had everything needed for a messy but entertaining relationship story. Unfortunately, there was simply too much drama for me. Every time I thought the characters were finally going to communicate or move forward, another conflict, misunderstanding, or problem appeared and sent everything backwards again. After a while, instead of making me more invested, it just became exhausting. There were still moments I enjoyed, especially when the story slowed down and focused on the characters and their feelings, but I wish it had trusted those quieter moments more. With fewer unnecessary complications and more time dedicated to actually developing the relationships, I think I would have connected with it much more.

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Not compelling enough

This will be one of my short reviews. I realize that it's a waste of time to try to give all the reasons I didn't like something, so I prefer to focus on what I like and write long reviews for the dramas I loved. So from now on anything that gets less than a 7 gets a short review.

I liked the premise and the first episode. Solid 8 for me. Then the FL got there and she ruined everything. No chemistry between the leads, no logic development on her character. How does she go from someone abrasive to someone coy? Ridiculous. It didn't help that I found her unattractive and looking older than him, although it seems she is quite younger.

Oh, well, I'm sure others will like it. The premise isn't bad and the ML is quite good. It just wasn't for me.

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"We can only change destiny if we spare no effort"

A drama that teaches us about persistence.

I started this drama without much expectations, and it was better than my expectations.
It showcased a good overall theme of letting go of your regrets and inner demons. And how you must keep persisting even if you see no hope before you.

Each character had their own story which contributed to the overall picture.

The only thing I found not good about this drama is that it has many inconsistencies throughout the story.

Also, the villain in my opinion is not a villain enough. Like the term Dark Phantom was much more powerful than the actual embodiment of the Dark Phantom. Also, he was one dimensional, I didn't fully understand why he was the villain and why he turned out that way, his writing was poor.

I also think that Suying was given plot armor everytime. How can she with her cultivation level do things which others can't? She can extend life, and possibly bring back Lu Musheng's life which was a bunch of crap for me.
And I didn't get Lu Musheng's story as well, if he was in love and married to his wife Princess Yunxi, how did he meet Suying and save her and promise her everything?

One thing I like about this drama which is different from others is Bai Xiaosheng. He is supposed to be the second male lead, but he does not let his feelings for Yanhui get into her and Tianyao's relationship, infact he encourages and supports their relationship while at the same time keeping his feelings for Yanhui different and still protecting her.
Also in the scene in which they are going through the trials for obtaining the Ghostly Eulogy, we can see that Yanhui and Tianyao came out on the other side because they trusted each other, and I absolutely love the fact that Bai Xiaosheng turns back because he can only trust himself, and he clarifies with Yanhui that he left her abandoned because he had been abandoned by his mother all those years ago and struggles with trusting people easily.

I absolutely love the character of Yanhui. Zhou Ye always picks best female characters. She showed absolute resilience throughout the drama. Also, she was a person who always stayed true to herself, like her master Lingxiao told her. When she felt love towards Tianyao at the beginning, she confessed to him, and even his rejection she took it with a stride. When Tianyao tried to kill her, and then came back to her life, she stayed away from him, and did not go back once trust was broken. She only wanted to live her life peacefully, and not even love can be of greater importance than protecting herself, which is respectable.

Overall a good drama, but some inconsistencies are there, which can be overlooked and enjoyed nonetheless.

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Don't Be Too Fooled

This series is such a disappointment. From the beginning, it lures you into thinking it is one thing only for the rug to be pulled out from underneath you. Frankly, it is detestable that the way it diabolically makes you think that one of the protagonists is a devilish creature, granting wishes and if you do not fulfill the contract, he takes your ‘soul’. Not literally of course, but something negative or bad will happen to you. Even the way he makes you sign his contract is creepily ghoulish and satanic. It takes a while for one to discover, it is all a ruse – a con game, being played by someone who has a lot of money and who gets cheap thrills out of granting wishes to sappy and/or hapless individuals. And then when the creature cannot fulfill their end of the bargain, which is usually the case, he destroys them. And has the audacity to think he is a moral integrant and parades around with righteous indignation if someone questions his ethical scruples. Unfortunately, the whole story turns laughably bad near the end. I could not believe how cliché and trite the plot became. The whole series and subsequent plot feel flat as it appeared initially to be deeper and darker than what it actually was. Frankly, I was not sure what it was except for a rich petulant guy who went around granting unrealistic wishes to people who knew they were wrong and then enjoyed parlaying the consequences of their inabilities to fulfill their end of the contract. That was sadistic. And he felt immune to all of it and felt he was in the right. You can read the rest of my review of this disappointing series at BLBliss.com.

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Keeping Up with the Xie Family

Someone on TikTok said that Lord Yan walking into the Xie family’s house looked like he was watching his own reality show unfold in real time, like At Home with the Kardashians.

A family can be complicated, full of drama and conflicts, with members who can't stand each other because, after all, you don't get to choose the family you're born into, you just end up stuck with them. But the Xie family? Every single member must have done something really terrible in a past life to be born into that family. You probably wouldn't have been bored if you were a servant there; every day brought a new dram and I could understand the male lead every time he couldn't resist watching yet another one unfold. I absolutely loved the moments when he walked into the family's ceremonial hall and watched everything that was happening with the exact same satisfaction as us. It must have been really fun for the actors to film some of those scenes.

I wouldn't recommend choosing this drama if you're looking for an extraordinary romance story. Even though romance is present throughout the story and many of the conflicts stem from the characters' one-sided or mutual love stories, it isn't the central part of the plot and you won't see more than a handful of truly romantic scenes. But sometimes less is more.

This drama is, first and foremost, about betrayal, about the schemes people devise in their pursuit of power. A single action from the past can ripple into dozens of consequences in the future that you could never have foreseen.

It is a story about friendship, alliances, revenge and, ultimately, forgiveness. I liked the female lead’s perspective that “children are not responsible for their parents’ actions” and the way she was simply looking for answers and rightful revenge, while she approached her relationships with her brothers and sisters without any ill intentions. Qingyuan perfectly reflects the behavior of her siblings, and I really enjoyed the relationships between her and her older sister, as well as with her brothers, especially Zhenglun. Zhengjun also had some really good character development.

Almost every character had a story of their own. Even Marquis Li’s heir, although he was very persistent and sometimes annoying (and honestly, if he lived in modern times, the female lead would definitely have told him to back off), was a good character with sincere intentions. There were many characters I really liked. Even the antagonists had very well-developed stories. And all the supporting and guest actors acted VERY WELL.

I really enjoyed watching the relationship between the female lead and the male lead, from their initial bickering to the way they gradually started helping each other, began to appreciate and respect each other more, while still pursuing their own plans at the same time. I was also genuinely interested in the story of their parents.

The characters were quite realistic, with each of them having their own strengths and weaknesses. I noticed that some people complained about the female lead, but I found her to be a believable character. She's intelligent and analytical, but she doesn't have any martial arts skills and that proves to be her weakness A LOT. She started out knowing very little about her case, only what she had seen when she was just a child, but gradually discovered a lot of things with the help of other people (or by analysing the people she interacted with). She made mistakes and learned from them. She also had her doubts about what she did.

Last but not least, there were many plot twists towards the end that I didn't see coming. Even though the last few episodes felt a little rushed and somewhat boring to me, the secrets were revealed at a fast pace and I was very surprised. I didn't notice any loose ends in the story. Everything was wrapped up by the end.

I do have to say, though, that I would have preferred to see more scenes showing what happened behind the scenes and how certain events contributed to the characters' plans. Sometimes, instead of actually showing us what happened, we were simply told about it, or we would reach a certain point and have to figure out for ourselves what steps had taken place without actually seeing them. I couldn't really explain this without giving spoilers, but it was something that irritated me.

Also, lol, the cinematography was beautiful, but there were quite a few scenes that felt repetitive, especially when they kept showing the characters' reactions over and over again, like those Bollywood movie memes where something dramatic happens and you get a close-up of everyone's shocked expression.

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one year of scamming and that's it?

The first episode really hooked me, and I was enjoying it up until Pai found out that Tim was a scammer. After that, the series went downhill for me. Like, why was Pai so quick to forgive Tim? He had been scamming him for an entire year, and then suddenly he was just that soft toward him. He didn't even let him suffer for a single day before forgiving him and even agreeing to let him stay with him.

I actually liked Tim's personality before he revealed his true colors. I was genuinely attracted to both Tim and Pai at that point because I liked how they were presented before everything was revealed. But once Tim showed who he really was, I couldn't see him the same way anymore. In my head, he just became a scammer, and that completely ruined the attraction I had toward his character.

Honestly, I also didn't really like how the poster and the series didn't seem to match. Even the intro felt kind of off to me. I know the whole wedding theme is supposed to fit the story, but something about the way it was presented just didn't feel right and looked a bit distracting compared to the actual vibe of the series.

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Great premise ruined by dumb ending and exasperating ML

The initial story premise is very good and Kelly Yu as the quirky FL is great, but the rest of this production is a wreck. The ML character is just awful. I won't necessarily blame the actor because maybe he was directed to portray Jiang QingLiu this way and certainly a lot of it is in the script, but the ML character is just not a likable male lead. First off, he's just plain incredibly stupid and gullible through most of the show. He's also mostly incredibly emotionally detached and seems to be sleepwalking through most of this. He is absurdly incapable of actually doing anything right to completion, either as the FL has to finish or fix everything he does again and again. Worst of all he is way too often oblivious to the suffering his wife is going through. The story has a good overall plot with potentially interesting villains but the editing and delivery are very choppy along the way so the story often jumps from event to event in seemingly nonsensical ways. And the final two episodes are just awful - especially the last one which leans so heavily on the Noble Idiocy trope for absolutely no good reason. You have to resist the urge to punch the screen and well, probably could just skip most of the last couple of episodes other than the victory over the bad guys and then a brief happy moment reunited with the baby in the final episode. Just stop watching at that point.

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ZZA. When Contrast Creates Chemistry… and Makes You Wonder What an Idol Actually Is

Zhan Zhao Adventures is not an outstanding drama.
It has charm, a pleasant adventurous atmosphere, some very good action scenes and a cast I genuinely enjoyed watching. It also has a problem fairly typical of long Chinese dramas: there is simply a little too much of it.
Some storylines could have been shorter, some episodes tighter, and there are moments when the story clearly loses momentum. This is not one of those dramas that left me thinking I had just watched something extraordinary.
But it did leave me thinking about something I hadn't expected at all.
Acting, stardom — and what the Chinese idol industry actually rewards.
And it started with two actors who could hardly be more different. One stands still. The other circles around him.
Fang Yilun is pure energy here.His character is quick, clever, reactive, slightly cheeky and wonderfully fox-like.
Foxy Mode: 100%. He has the energy of a man who has just had five ideas at once, three of them are probably terrible, one is dangerous, and he is already halfway through trying the fifth. But what I particularly enjoy about Fang is that he never stops participating in a scene. When he talks, he acts. When he listens, he acts. When somebody else is talking, he reacts.
Information arrives, something changes in his face, a thought appears, another one replaces it. Sometimes you can see the idea before the character says it aloud. Fang doesn't need dialogue to give the camera a reason to stay on him.
And next to him we have Yang Yang.
Almost his complete opposite. And paradoxically, this is precisely why they work so well together.
Yang is restrained and controlled. His physical awareness is genuinely impressive, and his fight scenes can be beautiful — precise, fluid, almost balletic. He understands line, posture and movement extremely well.
This man knows how to look good in a frame.More importantly, he seems to know exactly how to look good in a frame.
The problem, for me, begins approximately from the neck upwards. His face sometimes behaves as though it has been treated with metaphorical Botox. Metaphorical. 😂
Facial movement appears to have been granted a very limited operating licence, while the eyes occasionally seem subject to even stricter regulations: DISPLAYING UNAUTHORIZED EMOTIONS IS PUNISHABLE BY DEATH.
And yet — or perhaps partly because of it — Fang and Yang have chemistry.
One brings movement, the other stillness. One throws energy into the scene, the other absorbs it.
One is the fox. The other is an exceptionally elegant pillar of salt. And somehow: contrast creates chemistry.
The more I watched them, however, the more their contrast made me wonder about something much larger than either character.
Because Fang Yilun can act That sounds ridiculously simple, but it matters.
Fang can be funny, emotional, quick, dangerous, romantic, physical, clever. He can make a scene feel alive without demanding that the scene revolve around him. And Shadow Punisher later gave me an unexpectedly useful test of this observation.
Take away the fox. Take away the humour. Take away the hundred-ideas-per-minute energy.
Give Fang a quiet, serious, disciplined character who stands so unnaturally straight that swallowing a broomstick would probably improve his posture by no more than two degrees.
And the person inside is still there. He listens. He processes. He thinks. He doubts. He decides.
You can watch information travel through the character. Apparently, Fang Yilun can play a human lamppost without switching off the human being inside it.
Which brings me back to Yang Yang.
Because asking simply whether Yang is “wooden” suddenly seems far less interesting.
The more interesting question is: What exactly does the Chinese idol market reward?
Yang Yang possesses another kind of skill, and I don't think it should be underestimated.
His level of physical self-control is remarkable. And I don't mean general posture.
I mean control of detail. The angle of the head. The shoulders. The back. The hands. The chin. The way he stands.
The way he sits. The way he turns. The line his body creates during movement. The profile presented to the camera.
Nothing seems accidental.
At times, it feels as though somebody installed a metaphorical stick up his backside years ago and the poor man has been maintaining perfect posture ever since. And frankly, the stick deserves a supporting-actor credit. 😂
But that control is also part of what makes him so effective as an idol.
When I look at younger Yang Yang, I see more spontaneity and youthful energy. And it makes me wonder whether years of functioning as one of China's biggest idols gradually strengthened that extraordinary self-control.
Perhaps the industry taught him not merely how to look good in front of a camera, but how to never stop looking good in front of a camera.
Those are two very different things.
And something enormously useful to an idol may occasionally become restrictive for an actor.
Which brings me to three men who, for me, represent three completely different kinds of idol presence.
Zhang Linghe — BEHOLD, I EXIST.
Zhang Linghe's greatest idol asset, to me, is presence itself. He is extremely tall, extremely slender, highly photogenic, spectacular in costume and blessed with a face the camera clearly enjoys. He can enter a frame, stand there, and an image already exists. That is: BEHOLD, I EXIST.
Not necessarily: What am I doing? Not yet: What am I feeling? First and foremost: LOOK. I AM HERE.
Sometimes, with Zhang, I get the impression that the idol gets in the way of the human being.
As though there is an additional layer of premium packaging between spontaneous human behaviour and the outside world — and he himself doesn't always seem entirely sure what to do with it.
I imagine Zhang arriving at an awards ceremony.
Where is my chair? There. He sits. He looks good. Task completed successfully. Does he need to find the camera? No.
The camera has eyes. It will find Zhang Linghe.BEHOLD, I EXIST.
Yang Yang — I AM THE BLUEPRINT.
Yang's idol presence feels completely different. He doesn't simply photograph well.
He sometimes seems extraordinarily aware of how he is being photographed.Camera. Light. Profile. Shoulders. Back.
Chin. Hands. Legs. Posture. The Stick.
Everything is under control.
Down to the smallest detail.
And that is why I AM THE BLUEPRINT feels like the perfect description to me.
Not merely: I am beautiful. But: This is how an idol is supposed to look. Pure perfection, by design. If Zhang's presence says “Notice that I exist,” Yang's seems to say: “Notice how correctly I exist.”
And this is where I would reverse my observation about Zhang:
With Zhang Linghe, the idol sometimes gets in the way of the human being.
With Yang Yang, the human being sometimes gets in the way of the idol.

Because some of Yang's most interesting moments, for me, are precisely those in which that extraordinary control briefly disappears. He laughs naturally. His posture loosens. Something surprises him.
He reacts before apparently remembering that he is Yang Yang. And suddenly there is a spontaneous man where the perfectly constructed idol had been standing. Then somewhere deep inside the system:
WARNING: HUMAN DETECTED. RESTORE THE BLUEPRINT. 😂
At our imaginary gala, Zhang has already found his chair and is sitting peacefully, trusting the camera to locate him.
Yang enters. He finds the camera. Checks the light. Calculates the profile. Sits. Back straight. Shoulders correct. Chin perfect.
Hands positioned. Metaphorical stick firmly operational. I AM THE BLUEPRINT. 🧍
Arthur Chen — I AM ABOVE. And then there is Arthur Chen.
A third kind of presence entirely. This is no longer:“Behold, I exist.” Nor:“This is how perfection should look.”
The energy feels closer to: “I assume you have noticed that I have arrived.”
This is: I AM ABOVE. 👑
If Zhang Linghe enters the gala and finds his chair, and Yang Yang checks which profile will look best while sitting on his...
Arthur Chen enters. The chair positions itself for Arthur Chen. The staff adjusts. The camera focuses. The atmosphere reorganizes itself. Is the camera ready? That sounds very much like the camera's problem.
And suddenly these three actors become interesting to me not because they are the same kind of idol, but because they aren't.
They represent three very different ways of occupying celebrity space.
Zhang Linghe — BEHOLD, I EXIST. Presence itself is the event.
Yang Yang — I AM THE BLUEPRINT. Presentation is perfected down to the smallest detail.
Arthur Chen — I AM ABOVE. Status seems to arrive in the room before the performance does.
All three forms of presence are extraordinarily marketable. On a poster. At a gala. On a red carpet. On a magazine cover.
In a luxury campaign. And none of them is exactly the same thing as acting.
Which brings me back to Fang Yilun.
And where does Fang fit? He doesn't fit neatly into any of those categories for me. He doesn't carry the same superstar status.
The room doesn't seem required to reorganize itself when he enters. I don't constantly feel that every second of his screen time has been engineered to remind me: THIS IS AN IDOL.
But when the scene starts? There is an actor. And suddenly the question I have been asking for years —
“Why isn't Fang Yilun a superstar if he is such a good actor?” — may be the wrong question.
Because that question assumes that the idol industry creates its hierarchy primarily according to acting ability.
Perhaps it never promised to do that.
Acting may simply be one component among many others: beauty, height, proportions, photogenic presence, recognizability, fandom, marketing power, commercial value, image control and that difficult-to-define ability to remain a STAR while doing absolutely nothing.
And that is what Zhan Zhao Adventures, despite not being an extraordinary drama itself, unexpectedly made me think about.
It put a very good actor next to a very big idol.
Their differences created chemistry. But their differences also made me wonder whether:
“Best actor” and “biggest star” are even competing in the same competition.
Perhaps they aren't. And maybe that explains at least part of what fascinates me about the Chinese idol industry.
Sometimes an actor's job is to make me believe in a human being. Sometimes an idol's job is to make me unable to stop looking at him. And occasionally, someone manages to do both. Those are probably the really dangerous ones.
And somewhere in the background: Zhang Linghe is sitting. Yang Yang's posture is flawless.Arthur Chen's chair has moved itself seventeen centimetres to the left.
And Fang Yilun is still acting.

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All vibes, no substance

I finished My Journey to You this morning, and while I knew going in that the ending had left a lot of viewers dissatisfied, I honestly didn’t expect it to be this bad.

For most of the drama, I was completely seduced by its atmosphere. The cinematography, production design, costumes, music, and overall aesthetic are gorgeous. It has this dark, dreamlike quality that makes almost every scene feel like a painting. There is clearly a very strong visual sensibility at work here.

My Journey to You often feels like it has been built around vibes rather than substance.

Guo Jingming clearly knows how to create an image, a mood, a character entrance, a beautiful tableau. But the further the story progresses, the more I found myself asking: Where is all of this actually going? The drama introduces intriguing characters, complicated relationships, mysterious factions and plenty of potential for a genuinely compelling story, but too much of it remains underdeveloped or sacrificed for atmosphere.

The ending is where that becomes impossible to ignore. It doesn’t feel like a conclusion so much as the story simply stopping. After investing so much time in these characters and their conflicts, I wanted some sense of narrative payoff, emotional resolution, or at least a coherent direction. Instead, I was left with more questions than satisfaction, and not necessarily the good kind of questions.

What makes it particularly frustrating is that I can see the drama’s potential. There are moments when it feels like it could have been something truly special. The world is fascinating, the visual identity is distinctive, and several of the characters are genuinely compelling. But beautiful imagery can only carry a story so far.

This is actually my first work by Guo Jingming, either as writer or director, so I’m curious to see something else of his before deciding whether this particular combination of style and storytelling is representative of his work.

For now, though: My Journey to You is one of those dramas where I admired what I was looking at much more than I was satisfied by what I was watching.

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Absolutely in Love with this one!!!!!

This one really got into my heart. I finished it in just two days, because i just couldn't stop watching. It is really moving and full of adrenaline, both of which i love. The plot is also amaying, perfection. (I'm not too much of a picky watcher so yes, i am easily satisfied).

I already knew many actors from before and i was surprised to see so many of them in it, but this just made me love this drama even more, because their acting skills are perfect and i like all of them!

I cried a lot during watching. First, because the story of the FL and ML is really sweet, but at the same, and probably mostly because of this, really tragic. But i'm happy that everything works out between them in the end. Because i could not live with sad ending. Second, idk why exactly, but i feel like this drama really made my heart flutter. In good and bad ways. I got too emotional whatching the sad moments, but also really happy when watching happy ones. I guess i want some kind of similarity in my life, some action, something happening, not just boring life. And watching all of them together having fun, i want that as well, watching the love story of the main leads, i want that (okay, the happy moments, not the tragic ones). I know it sounds delusional, it might be, but i felt like that. I really want to rewatch it, like now, when i had only just finished it. I like it that much. But i probably won't be able to put myself through all this thoughts again. At least not for some time.

Well, most importantly, the male lead... AGGHHH, I CAN'T.... He is just so perfect. He reminds me of so many actors i know. He is like he took different facial characteristics from each of them. Somethimes i really thoguht that i am watching that other actor/-s and not him. I love this characteristic about him. Like, he has all the traits of an ideal man (that's my opinion and my taste in men). But i know that is just my ideal type of a person and that i souldn't expect something similar in myy real life. He has the looks and he has a really caring personality. I think this is a winning combo. (Just so we understand each other, i am talking of the character he plays, when it comes to personality, because i don't know what his personality is in real life. As for the looks, well, that one he has in real life as well, of course.) One more thing and then i shut up, his hair style that i personally prefer a bit more, is the one which he had at the beginning. They were just a little longer. But his later one is also very nice. Makes his eyes more visible.

That's it. I don't have anything else to say. Enjoy watching, if you haven't already.

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Pursuit of Jade — Beautiful People, Beautiful Costumes, and Three Very Reliable Facial Expressions

Pursuit of Jade is a beautiful drama.
Sometimes genuinely, breathtakingly beautiful.
The cinematography is gorgeous, the costumes are luxurious, the locations and sets are carefully composed, and there are scenes that look as though every fold of every robe was personally negotiated with the wind before filming began.
And there is a lot here that I genuinely enjoyed.
Tian Xiwei as Fan Changyu does an enormous amount of the dramatic heavy lifting. She gives her character energy, warmth, determination and emotional range. She reacts, thinks, gets angry, gets frightened, makes decisions and — rather inconveniently for some of the men around her — repeatedly gets things done.
The supporting cast is also one of the drama's greatest strengths.
Deng Kai's Qi Min/Sui Yuanhuai deserves a special mention. With his silver hair, unpredictable energy and wonderfully unsettling presence, he became one of the most interesting characters in the entire story. He could be amusing, dangerous, vulnerable and slightly unhinged, sometimes within the same sequence. Whenever he appeared, I wanted to watch him because I wasn't entirely sure what he was going to do next.
And then we have Xie Zheng. Our male lead. Who is beautiful. Very, very beautiful.
So beautiful, in fact, that after forty episodes I am no longer entirely convinced that Pursuit of Jade was created as a drama.
I suspect it may have been an exceptionally expensive luxury fashion campaign that accidentally developed a plot.
Because whether Xie Zheng is standing on a battlefield, suffering from terrible wounds, confronting his enemies, protecting the woman he loves or contemplating his tragic destiny, he invariably looks as though he has just walked out of a Gucci salon and somebody has whispered:
“Wonderful. Now suffer — but premium.”
Hair: immaculate.
Robes: immaculate.
Jawline: immaculate.
Blood: aesthetically positioned.
Cape: wind machine ready.
Lighting: apparently negotiated directly with the moon.
Expression?
His emotional range can occasionally be summarized in three highly reliable settings:
BEHOLD, I EXIST
For authority, dignity, political intrigue and simply entering a room.
IM ANGRY/FUCK OFF.
For enemies, irritation, danger and situations requiring approximately 12% more jaw tension.
BUUU. 🥺
For love, pain, heartbreak, confusion, physical injury and virtually everything else.
And to be fair:
all three look magnificent on a poster.
The problem is that the drama repeatedly tells us much more about Xie Zheng than I can actually see in the performance.
Other characters tell us how dangerous he is. The script tells us how intelligent he is. Enemies tell us how frightening he is.
The music tells us something important is happening inside him. The camera tells us to LOOK AT THIS MAN.
At times I expected a passing horse to stop, look directly into the camera and explain:
“Please understand that the Marquis is currently experiencing an extremely complicated internal conflict.”
Thank you, horse.
Because I wasn't entirely getting it from the Marquis.
And this becomes particularly obvious when he shares the screen with characters whose thoughts seem to move naturally across their faces.
Tian Xiwei doesn't merely show me Fan Changyu's final emotion. I can often see how she gets there.
Qi Min can change the atmosphere of a scene simply by reacting.
With Xie Zheng, too often I see the finished photograph rather than the emotional process.
And acting, for me, happens largely between the photographs.
It happens between hearing something and understanding it. Between understanding it and deciding what to do. In that tiny transition where a thought crosses the face before becoming an action.
Xie Zheng, meanwhile, can be three arrows away from death and still look ready for the cover of:
Ancient China: The Suffering Collection — Autumn/Winter.
And speaking of arrows…
At some point, Pursuit of Jade also asks the audience to develop a rather relaxed relationship with the laws of physics, geography, medicine and occasionally time itself.
This is fine. We adapt. We do not ask how characters suddenly appear, seemingly within seconds, in exactly the place where they are needed to rescue someone.
We do not ask when our heroes developed immunity to fire, or how they can emerge from extremely dangerous situations with their premium robes apparently covered by an ancient Chinese comprehensive insurance policy.
We certainly do not ask how many arrows a human body can reasonably accommodate before somebody should perhaps consider lying down. We do not ask how people survive arrows, falls from cliffs and other inconveniences that would normally cause a doctor to become involved.
This is drama. We understand.
And when the final confrontation arrives, we understand even harder.
We do not ask where exactly the bow and two arrows suddenly came from. We do not ask how an arrow can solve a hostage situation faster than the knife already pressed against the Prime Minister's wife's throat.
We do not ask exactly what strategic purpose is served by the magnificent duel between the Marquis and the Prime Minister.
Because LOOK AT IT.
The scenery!
The composition!
The capes!
The wind!
Those capes did not spend three hours in wardrobe and another two negotiating their relationship with the wind machine just so we could ruin everything by asking questions about tactical necessity.
Respect the capes!
We also do not ask how the Prime Minister's son apparently grows directly out of the ground at precisely the correct moment to take an arrow intended for our ML.
Nor do we ask where he disappears to immediately afterwards. Continuity is temporary.
A beautiful shot is forever. And naturally, the archer politely refrains from immediately firing another arrow, allowing our Marquis sufficient time to stand over his uncle and activate:
I AM ANGRY — PREMIUM EDITION.
This is basic battlefield etiquette. We move on.
Nor do we ask how Qi Min manages to survive long enough after being shot several times and falling from approximately the fifth floor. Because Qi Min has unfinished business.
Specifically: he still has a beautiful emotional death scene to perform in the arms of the woman he loves.
And you know what? I forgive this one.
If you're going to violate medicine, physics and structural engineering, at least give Deng Kai enough time to act the hell out of his death scene. He earned it.
What is slightly harder to ignore is that our supposedly terrifying and extraordinarily capable Marquis repeatedly needs Fan Changyu to do an astonishing amount of the actual saving.
She fights adversity. She saves him. She protects other people. She pushes the story forward.
And somewhere along the way she seems to acquire responsibility for saving approximately the entire known world.
At some point I stopped asking whether Fan Changyu needed Xie Zheng and began wondering whether Xie Zheng should perhaps put her on the payroll.
Still, I can forgive a lot of this.
Historical and fantasy dramas don't need to operate like documentaries. I don't require a medical report after every arrow wound. I don't need Google Maps to verify travelling times. I am perfectly willing to accept a miraculous rescue, an implausible survival or even an archer patiently waiting while the ML finishes looking magnificent.
Sometimes dramaturgy wins over logic.
That's fine.
My bigger problem is that after all those episodes, beautiful locations, gorgeous costumes, battles, political intrigue, romance, suffering, blood, revenge and enough wind machines to alter the local climate…
I was left with the strange feeling that the entire drama had become an elaborate advertising environment for its male lead.
And what an advertisement it is.
He looks spectacular.
He wears historical costumes spectacularly.
He stands spectacularly.
He suffers spectacularly.
He bleeds spectacularly.
He has possibly one of the most photogenic BUUU 🥺 faces available on the Chinese drama market.
But I finished Pursuit of Jade with a question I genuinely cannot answer:
Does this actor really have only three facial expressions — or did this drama simply never ask him for a fourth?
Because those are two very different things. Maybe there is more there.
Maybe another director, another character or a production less determined to preserve his face as a national luxury asset will eventually show it to me. I'd actually like to find out.
Because Pursuit of Jade gave me a wonderful FL, a memorable silver-haired Crown Prince, excellent supporting performances, beautiful cinematography, gorgeous costumes and several scenes I genuinely enjoyed.
And it gave its male lead something too:
a forty-episode luxury photoshoot.
BEHOLD, I EXIST. 😐
I AM ANGRY/FUCK OFF. 😠
BUUU. 🥺
Three expressions. One spectacular profile. Several indestructible premium robes.
And an entire fictional world working overtime to explain what the beautiful man standing in the middle of it is supposed to be feeling. The photos are excellent. I'm still waiting for the fourth expression. 😂

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