Noble Aspirations (2016)

Different aspirations,goals and destinies

This drama is primarily based on a story of 2 friends played by Cheng Yi and Li Yifeng.
Both of them hailing from the same village,join in the same sect after a disaster strikes their village.The post events that take place in their lives forms the latter part of the story
Both the actors were quite good in their roles.
Yang Zi,Qin Junjie and Zhao Liying were also good in their roles.
The pace was good.There were not many twists and turns and the villains are the typical antagonists that we see in any drama.
Though the plot is not so intense, but still it is watchable.
A good wuxia drama.

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Love the entire cast! Have seen some of the actors/actress before.

Superb acting and delivery by Li Yifeng (Zhang Xiaofan), Zhao Liying (Bi Yao), Mao Zijun (Qin Wuyan), Yang Zi (Lu Xueqi), Chen Yi (Lin Jingyu), Qin Junjie (Zhang Shushu)

The theme of the story was held from the beginning to the end, which is an extremely rare gem in any type of series shown globally. The creatives usually stray, but not here.

Li Yifeng rocks his character as Xiaofan. Xiaofan is good, strong physically and mentally, he possess the qualities of a good leader.

The boy who everyone looked down on, was the smartest of them all, he just need space to adapt. Zhang Xiaofan was the the light of good shining through the darkness of the righteous Sect, What an irony. The stage is set for the unraveling of the answer to the theme question, "What is righteous? What is evil? We see the answer unfold in so many ways. Even Xiaofan says it clearly, their is only good and bad; if you do bad, then you are bad, if you do good, then you are good. Your actions has to be for the better of the world. We see through the story how the little boy grows up in age and skills, both physical and mental evolving into a hero. He is clear on what it is right and what is wrong and he has a clear conscientious to do what is right and abide by it. Xiaofan demonstrates this time and time again. He even refuse his love, Bi Yao to give her the Heavenly Book or to leave his sect for her, with her.

I have seen a few show with Yang Zi and she definitely has acting skills, the versatility is there.

Lu Xueqi has a lot in her closet that comes out little by little. Seems that she also like Bi Yao has a connection with Xiaofan. Hidden under her cold personality is a somewhat free spirit trying to come out and play a little. She is smart and a good fighter. She is the first to recognize and acknowledge the growth and strength within Xiaofan, whom she has developed a good relationship with. You can tell by her actions, dialogue, and they way she looks at Xiaofan, that she love/falling in love with him.

Bi Yao is somewhat naive, but eloquent and knows who she loves. And her love for Xiaofan has no boundaries. Just like Xiaofan being caught in between his love for her, his sect; she is caught between her love for him, her father, and being the heir to the Ghost Sect. Her father is relentless in his plans of taking revenge for loosing a hundred year old war, his diabolical plan of resurrecting the beast god, to taking over the righteous sect, that he indeed fails to take good care of his daughter as Xiaofan so righteously told him.

Zhang Shushu was my comic relieve. However, his moments with his grandfather was heartfelt and I especially enjoyed the scene with him and his grandfather telling him a story at night. Zhang Shushu grows up after his grandfather's death. He is forced by this accept his place as City Leader of Yudu and he commits to it. His growth is also shown when he encounters Qin Wuyan.

I have seen Mao Zijun in a few shows and he definitely has versatility in his acting. Would like to see him in a lead role. He has already proven to be a good villain.

Qin Wuyan is cruel and manipulative. He is willing to do anything for himself by hook or by crook. He even after Bi Yao and her father for his and her marriage.

Lin Jingyu is a good friend indeed. He correct the mistake he made once for not believing Xiaofan. However, Jingyu has always been by Xiaofan's side. He is definitely an expert fighter, but unfortunately lost all his powers due to being framed by a so-called righteous sect member scheming to be the successor to lead the righteous sect and works with the evil sect. It is at this point that he realizes Xiaofan was right, you are good by deed and bad by deed, depending on which you choose to do. He later finds out the his teacher was actually a traitor to the righteous sect, that his teacher was actually from the evil sect.

Following the revelation of Jingyu's Teacher being the traitor. He airs the dirty laundry of the so-called righteous sect, where practically all of the leaders, are not so righteous including their own leader, who is bad by his actions and by his heart. He was always preaching of righteousness along with the others, but they and him were the biggest traitors to the righteous sect. The righteous sect leader want to punish Xiaofan for no reason and he breaks his promise to Xiaofan's teacher to wait a few days. The Fen Xiang Valley, another so-called righteous sect actually acts evil doing bad deeds in Yudu, and other places, yet they blame everything on Xiaofan. And Although Xiaofan saved them so many times, the righteous leader yet wanted to murder him in the midst of the biggest battle they were having. And it is here that Bi Yao sacrifices herself for Xiaofan. This leaves Xiaofan heartbroken on many different levels. He later helps a very much wounded father of Bi Yao to extend her life so he can take her to the sacred mountain. However, Qin Wuyan volunteers to go and help Xiaofan in Yudu. Will he really help or just create more issues as he is always scheming.

Bi Yao, who is from the evil sect, is actually good as she has not done any bad things whereas the righteous sect leader and Fen Valley whom are in the righteous sect are evil by doing bad deeds. What an irony!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And Zhang Xiaofan, who has always side with the truth and good was in the process of being killed by his sect leaders for his righteousness. What an irony!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Enjoyed Ren Jialun (Liu wei) and his little brother.

Now to find Noble Aspirations II to see. However, it is very difficult to locate C-Drama with complete episodes and with English Subtitles.

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This is a great show for those of them that likes the typical cliche storylines, but I liked it from the start to the end. However, it didn't end quite the way I wanted it too, but there is something about this kind of Wuixia stories that I damn well enough like to torture myself through.
It okay, enough to watch for those that want to watch something.
There's actually a lot I can say about this story, about its plotline and everything really, and as I haven't seen the Legend of Chusen 2, so I can't say for sure if everything will be ready and dandy in the next chapter of the story.
The actors are doing a great job of being convincing but I loved the side characters more than I did the main characters because they did such a better job at convincing me that it was worth the imbalance of the whole storyline.

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Dragging, nothing special

The best number of episode should be only around 30-35 episodes. I literally need to force myself to continue to watch this, almost dropped the series.
Well overall not a bad drama, but not those series that make you want to know more and hook you into. And this is definitely not for those looking for old times sword fighting thingy, this is only a drama with a lot of special effects bearing swords, without nice actual sword fighting, all edited with special effects. In short is a so called costume drama with special effects. Watchable for those fans of the actors and actress, but don't expect for extraordinary story. Not love story, not fighting story, not mystery, not thriller.. just flat story of the good and evil sects.

Comments on the drama:
1. There's no couple feeling between the main leads, not sure if this is the way to portray love between them? There's no love expression at all from both. Only the actions, sacrifice, without that...both like no feelings at all.

2. The story line like jumping and unreasonable, example: just out from Hu Qi mountain then suddenly can bump into Zheng Shu Shu in Yu Du? Are this two places adjected?? And so many other unreasonable things. Like some story being cut and fast forward without notice, but still the series is very long with slow pace? Something wrong with the screenwriter!

3. The flying scene, absolutely unnatural and can see very fake. And I even can imagine the wires wrapped around their body while their maintaining that kind of posture.

4. The make up, especially the eye lashes... OMG...so fake! And to think that this is costume drama, which was supposed happened like donkey ages ago.. there should not be such things like eye lashes extensions?

5. The title is Legend of Chusen, but the whole story... not really about the legend of Chusen. Chusen only appears on the last episode and being mentioned few times before that? The whole series talking about the evil vs good sect, and the emphasis not even to the Chusen but to the Blood Pearl?? So may as well change the title to Legend of Blood Pearl?

6. Irritated with Bi Yao Character, sooooo stupid and stubborn!

7. Kudos to Qin Jun Jie acting, after seeing his acting here and Listening Snow Tower, his acting really good!! And his character here is really refreshing and entertaining

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Yang Zi!!!

Too many episodes but I think the writers needed to tell everything about these two young men's life who have undergone what I call Post Traumatic Syndrome in watching their parents, family, and their community destroyed and murdered. The writers took them to join the heavenly sect which at the end of all of it in this piece was not so heavenly. I couldn't understand why the writers decide to have the sect leader eliminate Xiao Fan without explanation. I have to watch the last episode again. Demons and Righteousness sects have always been in our existence in this present day but in different forms. What this has told me is that you don't need to belong to a sect to achieve one's goals. Looking forward to watching the 2nd part of this to see how the two young men have overcome the demons within themselves and continue with a righteous path. Thanks for throwing the emotion of Love into the mix. Love can always sway a person from right or wrong. Thank you to all the cast, writers, producers, etc. Great Job! Yang Zi... I loved her in this.

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Finished it. And boy.
I just wanted to write a comment but it kept getting longer so here.
Overall I liked the underlying themes of abuse of power, fighting discrimination and advocation of equal treatment. Should a person be descriminated or even hated because of their back ground with even being given a chance?
We also saw a romeo and juliet doomed love with the main leads.
It was an enjoyable though exasperating watch with a lot of long conversations of them not saying anything to advance the plot or just the same talking points over and over again, a lot of face palms and I have no idea how many times I asked my self 'are you kidding?'
Could this have been shorter by cutting of a lot of unnessary scenes? Yes. I had to do the editing job myself with the help of the fast forward button. And still we had a non ending.
The acting was only limited by the writing of the characters and I'm going to put a heavy burden on the directing.

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Recommended watch

Finished watching Season 1 and 2 of this drama. I must say it was worth all 73 episodes. I started season 2 as soon as I finished season 1 as I wanted to know what happened to Xiao Fan and his brothers. I would say this is one of the C-drama that has a high re-watch value as long as you are willing to sit through all 73 episodes.

The storyline is not complicated and easy to follow. Slight love triangle, but not too excessive. The drama let you follow Xiao Fan's journey from being an undecisive young man to a mature, know what he wants grown-up. He does looks good in the Ghost Sect outfit. The bonds between brothers are so strong in this drama and certainly make you rooting for happy ending for them. The unspoken love between Jing Ping'er and Jin Yu is heart breaking ( I kept yelling at the TV for them to just tell each other how they felt, even just at the end).

The Righteous Sect annoys me in this drama. They are actually worst than the Demon Sect and think very highly of themselves. They are not that good, in fact they are spiteful and unforgiving sect.

All the casts done a really good job in this drama, they acted their character beautifully, not to mention the beautiful surrounding and clothing (the Demon Sects wore more dazzling clothing!) Jing Ping'er red dress and the Azure Dragon outfit was so beautiful and of course, Xiao Fan's black and red robe!

Watch this if you are into good versus evil story line, everlasting love, unspoken love, unrequited love, lots of fighting, awesome magic and martial arts.

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Great story purely executed

Great actors and it is defensively worth watching but I don''t know what is wrong with script writers as some things are just, to put it mildly, not believable even for this genre.
Just one of the examples, One of the protagonists is holding a "mystical" pearl in his open hand starring up in the sky while two guys are fighting to get it. 3rd guy swoops in and picks the pearl from his hand and everyone looks surprised?! Then 5-6 episodes were spent fixing that mistake.

Growth of two main characters is carried out very well and it is nicely executed by cast members. Remaining cast is just a good. Chemistry between them is great and very often quite emotional.
Choreography is more of a dance then real fight as focus in on the magical cultivation and CGI effects.
Music is on the spot for my taste, except for a closing song - From my point of view is a bit out of touch and cheesy.
I compare all c-drama shows to "Joy of Life" which is in my opinion a master peace and we will not see anything that good any tie soon...Perhaps Legend of Fei...

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I normally really like fantasy type of dramas like this, but this one fell short. Perhaps it was too long (55 episodes) and dragged out too much? I ended up watching to episode 32 and contemplated on dropping it. I ended up skipping to epiode 47 and it really picked up the groove, and from the subtitles I must've missed two arcs where Zhao Xiao Fan and Bi Yao/Xue Qi all go through life/death situation that follows the other arcs. The ending was a terrible cliffhanger situation, but you're like THANK GOODNESS it's over. I don't think I'll watch season two.

Story - too long, boring, not creative or unique.

Acting - The cast grew on me. At first I thought ZXF was ugly asfk (still do). I thought JY and CSS were more likeable and liked whenever they had screentime. The female cast is great, and they're all very pretty. But too many annoying romances that you don't get to dive into and clear up what happened i.e. Senior Brother Wan & You Ji (Bi Yao's aunty). IDK why, but the Azure Dragon (William Yang) really caught my eye.

Rewatch value: NOPE.

Note: I kept reading reviews and comments, and so many people kept labeling this as "bro-mancey" with ZXF and JY, I mean yea they were pretty bro-mancy but there is obviously love between Bi Yao and Zhang Xiao Fan!

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