Looking at the drama in a broader perspective, the pacing was very good and the build up allowed to a lot of conflicts to develop together. The story was definitely encompassed more than just the main leads' life and romance. However, this created a very simple male lead character - kind, pure-hearted, and naive. He really doesn't change. Other side characters actually had more character development than he did. In a way, he is supposed to be the rock of pure energy that brings harmony to this wretched world, but sometimes it was very frustrating to see him struggle to understand that not everyone's thoughts and actions were as innocent as his.
The reason I didn't give 10/10 on story was because the ending wasn't as satisfactory. It completed the romance and the world conflict. But the way it redeemed his naive nature with one 'not-as-stupid' action seemed insufficient. I still don't forgive him for how many facepalms I did throughout the drama. I would have liked to see some more growth but I don't know if that would have tarnished the purity of his character.
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Based on :hidden secrets of martial art in two swords
I decided to watch this drama because of main male lead ,he is ultimate . I had seen all his historical based drama and in every drama he just nailed it.Come to story .
As I written in title the story about to find the secrets of two mentioned sword because of this some people selfishly killed the innocent people and the male lead thinks that to save the innocent is his obligations. So when he was doing this many people come across in his each phase of life and in each phase of his life he lost his important person.
At the end secret reveal and it went under wrong hand but everything went fine at the last .
One thing disappoint me that the chemistry between the leads started at the end's few episodes . As I like love story so I wanted to see their scenes equally than other scenes.
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This is a very good wuxia adaptation based on the third edition of the novel The Heaven Sword and Dragon Slaying Saber by Jin Young. This drama has great special effects and it is packed with great action scenes; it gives the viewer revenge plots, two devious and willful women as the leading ladies, a righteous male lead character (Zhang Wuji) that is too naïve for his own good but, with the help of Zhao Min, he becomes more assertive by the end of the drama. Although the drama is also under the romance genre, don’t expect the romantic plot to come with a thunderbolt. Although there is a developing love triangle and lots of misunderstanding stemming from Zhang Wuji emotional immaturity and naiveté, the romantic chemistry is not there. The last episodes are rushed and the ending, although it is a happy one, is very anticlimactic. Even so, the drama is entertaining if the viewer is not expecting a great romance. Was this review helpful to you?
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The ending was okay but I wish Zhang Wuji married Zhou Zhi Ruo instead of the Mongolian princess Zhao Min. All in all, it was a pretty good tv show. Seems like there will be a follow up cause the ending seems they will talk about the Ming jiao. I hope they make another one to follow it up cause it was a really good show! :P i will be watching the new remake of the return of the condor heroes when it comes out. ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Was this review helpful to you?
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The ups and downs of life
Cast:The child actors that play Wuji in this series are talented and very cute. They executed their role like a boss! Love it!
The child actress also did a good job with their characters.
Joseph Zeng plays Zhang Wuji and he does an awesome job!
Yukee Chen Plays Zhao Min and she handles the character with style and confidence.
The other actors and actress do a good job with portraying their character.
Story:
The story is very twisted in that fate will take you where you need to go regardless of where you want to go. A few real life themes are illustrated in this series: a person will not reach or achieve unless it is meant for you and when it is meant for you; people will always try to judge and deceive you to achieve their gains or to make themselves look better or both. And mistakes matter because the cost a great deal!
We see how each character’s mistake is a domino effect that happens in the series. The journey shows how wuji’s grandfather was envied and betrayed brutally by his teacher. And he, committed so many sins in the name of taking revenge on his teacher and failed to think of future consequences. His actions cost Wuji’s parents their lives, they gave their life up to protect Wuji’s grandfather’s location. Many sects wanted to take revenge on him for the brutal killings he committed. We also get to see how loving and caring he is to Wuji and his parents. And we also get to see his atonement for the sins that he committed.
Going further on this journey we see how Zhao Min’s entitlement attitude and deceptive behavior costs her to be misunderstood and hated by the sects. She invites Wuji and his friends to lunch and then she poisons them. She then kidnapped and physically abuse the sect members using Wuji’s Sect name. These deceptive actions along with other deceptive behaviors leads Wuji’s sect and other sect members to hate her and want to kill her. We also get to see the enlightened side of Zhao Min. She falls in love with Wuji and him with her. She stands up against her family for Wuji and she travels many different places with Wuji and we learn that she knows him better than anyone else.
In contrast, along this journey we see how Wuji’s childhood friend and love, Zhou Zhi Ruo, seems quiet and obedient and sweet in the beginning. She pretends to be Wuji’s friend yet stabs him in a fight that wounds him, and he got hurt because he does not fight back. Wuji continues to blindly love and forgive her. She later kills his cousin and attempt to drown Zhao Min. She also manages to convince Wuji’s grandfather and Wuji that Zhao Min is the one that killed his cousin. We later see how she practices black magic and yet, she continues to play somewhat helpless. Until their wedding day, when Zhao Min barges in and asks Wuji to full fill one of the two remaining wishes he gave her. Zhou’s claws and literally her poisonous claws come out and she injures Zhao Min and Wuji. And Wuji forgives her yet again. We later see how she confronts him at the challenge and Wuji lets her win. She later goes back to being good.
Wuji’s Cousin fell truly madly in love with him upon their first encounter at a tender age. Wuji was in Butterfly Valley trying to cure his cold illness he got from his kidnapper. Wuji practice medicine with the doctor their and help the doctor and his wife escape Granny. She wanted to take Wuji with her and Granny, but Wuji did not want to go with her and bit her want. Not knowing that the boy was her cousin and not knowing whether he survived his cold illness, she wondered aimlessly looking for Wuji, the man of her heart. Fate brought them together, only to tear them apart. She did not die and was able to dig herself out of the grave but was not mentally okay. Wuji got to know that she was his cousin.
Wuji is smart, kind, and easy going. Wuji was educated by his parents and grandfather and they each taught his martials arts and he himself learned various styles. Wuji managed to handle many complicated situations from a young age and he did a magnificent job. His easy-going nature made way for people in his own sect to act according to their own accord. They did not always respect his wishes and Zhao Min warned him of this. He eventually learns all of this the hard way and he restores justice and goes with his lady love, Zhao Min.
Unfortunately, the story bumps when one of the Wudang Brothers marries his dead lovers’ daughter from another man. It also slides downward because of Wuji’s constant forgiveness, lending a blind eye to Zhou constant deceptions. To drag the story further down is Wuji’s state of depression when he hears that Zhao Min was murdered by her father. This occurred during the time that they were at war and many of the Ming soldiers die due to Wuji not showing up. Although Wuji’s cousin got her memory back, she did not let anyone know, except Zhao Min by accident.
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One of my favorites
I enjoyed this drama very much though I thought the 1st eposide had bad cinematography and wondered if this was just a heavy Wuxia story as I had never read any of the author’s novels nor seen any of the prequels or older regions of this drama. Once I got through the first episode, which actually sets the stage for the rest of the story, I was hooked. This drama has Wuxia, romance, intrigue, politics, and fantasy. It helps to know that the drama took place at the end of the Yuan dynasty.Spoiler:
I was particularly excited when Yukee Chen, as Zhao Min, literally bust onto the scene wearing red. Wow. She appears only in the middle but what a strong female character with good fighting skills, ruthless with her enemies but kind to the down trodden and willing to sacrifice for love. Yukee has grown much as an actress since Princess Weiyoung. Joseph Zheng is so handsome. He did a great job as the lead but I though his character was too kind and compassionate to the point of waffling and indecisiveness but I guess that’s how his character was written.
There are a couple of songs in the drama that I liked - beautiful with a touch of melancholy . I liked the drama so much I decided to watch older versions because some reviewers said they were good but the cinematography of the two I tried watching was so bad I dropped them. Yes, the CGI here could be better but overall, it’s not bad at all compared to poor cinematography and poor acting.
I will rewatch after a while when I have nothing else to watch using the fast forward button ?
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Outstanding
***** I will start without any spoiler here *****As someone who was born in the 2000s I never read any of the condor trilogy novel and only watched the newer version of the condor trilogy which are Legend of condor heroes (2008 and 2017) and Return of condor heroes (2006) and I would like to say that this HSDS is the best compare to the other. and You don't need to watch any of those before watching this.
The strongest point in this show is their casting. Chen Yuqi really did an outstanding job portraying Zhao Min, I who never cried for watching movies/tv cried quite a few times because of her. Chen Yuqi might be my favorite actress in the world because of this series.
Visual wise, they also did a great job. It's not too colorful like 2014 Roch which was very annoying, that's one of the reason i didn't watch it till the end. But here, you just have that right amount of color and beautiful scenery. The costumes also fit perfectly dominantly by white color. It really made me feels like living in the medieval China.
There are some dragging in the plot presumably to fulfill the 50 episodes, also the fighting scene and choreograph isn't the best compare to the previous installment. I feel that action or martial arts isn't really the focus point in this adaptation. they are more like a side-dish.
Other people told me that this adaptation really differ from the novel or that the 1986 version was so much better. But if you never read HSDS or watch any other adaptations before, I don't think you would mind some alterations here and there. Besides, 1980s Chinese tv series really had a bad quality camera and Cantonese language that I'm not used to.
Anyway I'm just crazy for Zhao Min hehe.
****** Spoilers ahead *********
First of all Chen Yuqi is a goddess dang. Finished this series at 10pm and the next day I woke up, I still can't move on from her and feel really sad. This series has turn me into Yuqi's fan lol.
The story starts of pretty lame. It took me a whole day to finish episode 1, but Yang Xiao's appearance brought new wind to the series. I really like those calm but almighty characters and Yang Xiao is just that. But, the pacing still feels little bit too slow until ZWJ went to butterfly valley. Now, that's where things got interesting for me because he finally learn something amazing.
But yeah, zwj feels like using a cheatcode here. he's already become the best in the world after mastering heaven and earth great shift. this is why I think that HSDS is more about romance rather than martial arts unlike 2 previous installment. Also, poison is so overused in this series. After Fan Yao appear, suddenly Yang Xiao is nowhere to be seen. Even in Ming's sect meeting he's not there anymore, also after ZWJ got matured, it feels that YX got nerfed. YX from the early episodes was a badass but he turns to be pretty useless.
Then Zhao Min came, and she really blows my mind with her personality and great acting from Chen Yuqi. If i were wuji, i would definitely fell in love when minmin asked him to a first date in Wan'an pagoda.
Some people keep complaining that after eps 40, her personality changed and keep relying on wuji. but i found that to be okay and that's called falling in love. in fact I had watery eyes several times after eps 40, and rewatch some specific moments after eps 50. although it's a happy ending , it still made me quite sad. because her last real dialogue was a hot-headed argument, I really hope that at least there would be a marriage scene or some romantic moments. Really want to see a happy zhao min, she really makes me feel like i'm in the story and experiencing things with her.
After searching through the wiki, i found out that actually beyond eps 40++ are differ from the original work but that's fine. I also noticed that most people who has watched 1986 adaptations or read the novel said that this show isn't that good but people who are new to HSDS give really positive feedback toward this show. So, i would say that this show is really good if you didn't compare it to other adpt or the novel
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Literary massacre.
Since this is a remake, I was obviously expecting something fresh that would make this title stand out against previous ones. Sadly, CGI and choreography were worse than previous versions. All the other aspects fell short too, with acting being the worst. I couldn't bring myself to feel any sympathy for the characters because there was no reason to, they looked like puppets with no facial expressions.Storyline: I cannot understand how a novel adaptation could be so badly written. You already have an outline, how do you fuck that up? Who are they hiring to write these? From the dialogue to character development to the actual sequence of events, everything was terrible. I could not find a single redeeming factor for this show to make me continue. Throughout, I was hoping it would improve, but it got progressively worse. Halfway through, I knew the only way to end the torment was to turn blind or turn off the show, I chose the latter and left my boyfriend to watch it on his own.
Cast: Not a single person on this cast could pull off their characters. XuDan looked like a doe-eyed, constantly frowning figurine, pouting throughout the entire show. Regardless of whether she was supposed to be happy, sad, evil, she looked the same. You could replace her with one of those life-sized sex dolls and no one would know the better. Just put some eye drops on the sex doll for the crying scenes and you're golden! If I had the power to extend my hand into the screen and slap some facial expression into her, I would. The ML was just as bad. I watched him in this role before his other shows, so he did not leave a very good impression. I have to say that he did well in the other show, therefore, I know for a fact that he is not the worst actor out there. It is simply poor directing, poor writing, coupled with poor development for the ML. I actually thought YuQi did quite well, but it isn't because she is a particularly outstanding actress. The rest of the cast did so poorly, she stood out as the best one.
Music: Best if one could just pick up the OST for this show without having to sit through endless, neverending visual and mental torture.
Conclusion: Dropped it, so make of that what you will.
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Acting: I do appreciate the actings which brought by some actors, specially the seniors. Joseph Chang did quite well as Zhang Wuji, but not the best, still lack of emotions and the love chemistry between the lead characters. However I like the act which Bambi Xu brought as Zhou Zhiruo. She’s did it brilliantly.
Music: I love the OST, specially the song This Life For You (Ci Sheng Wei Ni) by Zhou Shen. It’s addicting.
Rewatch value: not really fond of this version, so perhaps won’t rewatch it
Overall: I like the cast of most characters, they depict the characters impressively , with the love and hatred that are so genuine. Not to mention the story is always be a legendary wuxia story which never to be missed
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Action sequences start off with a lot more slo-mo than you can handle but it gradually balances better later. Acting is fine for the better part of the series, but climax scenes tend to drag on longer than necessary.
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Average
Heaven Sword is one of my all time favorite Jin Yong stories. While this 2019 adaption is overall done well and quite watchable, I am still disappointed because the story is so gripping and epic that properly executed it could have and should have been a 10. I feel that way about most of Jin Yong's stories and I am time and again disappointed with C-drama's inability to turn the gift of a fantastic storyline into a kick-ass 10.The first problem is that riding on the gift of a great storyline, the production team was very sloppy with the cast and the casting of the key roles. It was obvious from the start that many of the lead actors struggled to get into character: Zhang Cuisan and Zhao Min notably. And while I think Zeng Shunxi is a very promising young actor, at 21 he is too much of a boy still to fully pull off Wuji. He wasn't bad but his chemistry with both female leads was little more than warm and friendly. That's just not good enough as Wuji's two main love interests are bad-ass, devious and willful women; a handful for any man much less a boy. To make matters worse, they saddled him with the worst man bun that highlighted an unflattering roundness to his features - many times I thought the Pillsbury doughboy was going to burst right out of him! It wasn't till the much later episodes they fixed his look in a good way. In addition to the main leads, poor chemistry between the couples is a consistent theme throughout this show. Whoever paired up the actors must surely be the matchmaker from hell. The initial flat romance between Zhang Cuisan and Yin Susu almost made me give up on this early on but it somehow clicked once the fantastic child actor playing young Wuji was brought into the mix.
While it seems I will still have to wait for a version of this epic story with the A-list cast it deserves, some of the roles were played by quite strong performances (Yangsiu, Zhou Zhirou, Xie Xun, Song Qingsu) while the others were good enough (Wuji, Zhao Min) that the uninspired ones (Xiao Chao etc) were drowned out and it still came together well enough to be quite enjoyable. And the action was quite good although they went a little bit overboard with the slow motion that made the many good kung fu scenes a lot less exciting. While it is definitely technically much better polished than my best loved 1986 version, the A-list 1986 cast wins hands down when it comes to breathing life into the main characters.
While this version broadly sticks to the original storyline, it digresses meaningfully from it in a very subtle way. This is a more politically correct version that dials down the cruelty of many of the darker characters and deals with them compassionately, offering them a path to redemption. In the case of Song Qingsu, it was well done because he is just a weak character that strayed off the wrong path. But in the case of Zhou Zhirou, I really didn’t see the point – this is an ambitious, selfish and cruel character that is innately much more bad than good, it is fundamental to the plot. Zhu Xudan is an actress that is naturally blessed with a mal-contented expression – she would have been an even more brilliantly wicked Zhou Zhirou if they didn’t try to make her slightly nicer. But what was even more criminal was they kind of tuned down Zhao Min, one of my all time favorite Jin Yong heroines by making her less sassy towards the end to the point of being almost like the clingy and pathetically devoted Xiao Chao (yuck). It was as if they were flirting with the idea of a shock alternative ending where Wuji ends up with the Zhirou and then thankfully chickened out at the last minute. Two thumbs down is all that I can say. And they didn’t stop with Zhirou and Qingsu, they pretty much made excuses for and/or tried to make all the bad guys slightly less bad. Boring and tiresome after awhile and it had the overall impact of diluting the passion and vehemence of Jin Yong’s characters both good and evil.
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Love and hate relationship
i watch the old version back then in 90's and i like it very much. I have high expectation on this remake but somehow it doesn't impress me so much like the older one.Story. it's not fully adapted similiar to the novel - but yeah still connect to the stories.
From ep 1~22 interesting. We have to wait until ep 5 or 6 (i forget this :p) to Wuji make an appearance.
From 23 - end, the story starts to slow pace and some parts is draggy, makes me forward it occasionally. it happened when in Snake Island - Wuji 's trapped along with 4 beautiful girls. Lol...he's harem. Too soft hearted with girls and make them fall in love with him. Somehow i prefer Wuji end up with Xiao zhao.
Finally the ending (which is happy ending) it doesn't leave the feeling "empty" after watching a good series.
I kinda forget the older version ending, but this version Dragon slaying sabre only show off to cut Emperor's seat ? seriously ?
Acting - best acting goes to actor of :
- Zhang San Feng (Wang De Shun) : he looks like a real character alive from novel. Wise great leader and teacher for Wudang Clan.
- Cheng Kun (Terry Fan) : he reprised a role of good and a bad guy in one character very well.
- Little Wuji (Han Haolin) : can't imagine he's just 9 years old when it's shooting but he's acting very good. Cute and smart boy.
- Yang Xiao (Lin Yu Shen), I like his charisma as a wise leader and glance of his sharp eyes.
Music : not impressive. They can do better with epic classical music.
Rewatch : only episode 8,21, 22
Overall :
Hate it because of i can't get chemistry between Wuji and Zhao Min. ( i used to be a fan of Joseph Wang)
and the fight scenes too much slow motion. Best fight version of HSDSS is Jet Li as Chang Mo Kei.
Love it because of the story which has been well known worldwide - great writing by Jin Young master.
You must watch it especially if you're a fan of Jin Young master. Otherwise, still go watch it ^^
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