Guardian (2018)

Excellent bromance for an overall very disappointing drama

I started watching because this is one of the danmei drama adaptations I've seen being recommended the most. I was also encouraged by the rating here on the MDL page for the drama.

I can say that I understand why I saw it being recommended it so much. For anyone who is a fan of BL or bromance dramas/series, this is gold: the two main characters are great actors and have excellent chemistry with each other. While it doesn't get as shameless as in other dramas I've watched (namely Word of Honor), this show still makes it very easy for me to read between the lines and consider it a full-fledged love story rather than a bromance. Shen Wei would make it very hard for anyone not to fall for him whenever he lets go of his calm and collected attitude to help Zhao Yunlan in any way possible, and the Guardian himself is unable to act all cool and detached for long before starting to care for Shen Wei deeply.

The problem of this drama is just... everything else. The story felt very chaotic and hard to follow from the get-go to me, to the point that I had to stop myself from dropping the drama altogether after the first two episodes. The events of the story are not very appealing, so even when I had to feel worried for the characters or excited to see what would come next, I wasn't able to feel much. Unfortunately the same goes for the cast other than the two protagonists; even the most important secondary roles didn't feel much relevant nor interesting. Even the main villains of the story felt more annoying than actually charming or threatening in any way.
All of this was made worse by a very fragile worldbuilding, with obscure rules for supernatural and sci-fi elements that often made me ask "why isn't this character using their power on this occasion?", "if that character had been able to do that all along, why didn't they do that sooner?" and similar.
The pacing of the story was also off, with elements of the plot and some characters that would have benefited from having more time to better explain their situations, and moments in the story that were made unbearably slow and detailed for no real reason.
If all of this wasn't enough, a huge flaw of this drama was the production, which felt... cheap, for the lack of a better word. I usually don't mind lower budgets at all and I hardly even point it out when I notice it, but this time around it was just too annoying. The CGI and other digital effects made me feel like I was watching an early 2000's movie, most of the props and the costumes looked too fake for me to suspend my disbelief, and often times even the audio quality was bad and distracted me from the story further.
While the acting of the main characters was very good, I can't say the same for the rest of the cast. The best I can say for them is that it was decent most of the time for some of them, but in many instances I felt like the acting was too exaggerated and dramatic, or just very stiff and unnatural, depending on the actor or the scene.

I chose to give Guardian a 7 out of 10 because, despite struggling toward the end, I was able to watch the entire thing, and I actually enjoyed myself when I was focused on Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan. They're the only reason why I would recommend this drama to anyone: it's a good bromance and the fans of the genre will definitely love it. My only warning is to lower your expectations in terms of plot and setting: if you're looking for a good fantasy/sci-fi drama, you should look elsewhere.

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OVERALL:
Wow, just wow. I really can't believe how good this was. I'll be honest and say I didn't have high hopes for this drama when I first added it to my 'to watch' list but I was blown away. Everything from the acting, OST, storyline, and production value was 11/10! The characters were brought to life so well, it's hard not to love all of them. I do have to warn anyone who is interested in watching this drama, it is NOT for the weak of heart. Do not watch this if you are just looking for a happy-go-lucky bromance. There are so much heartbreak and pain (not just for the main characters). This show will build you up just to tear you down at the very end, but the happy, carefree moments in between are so worth all the heartbreak. I highly recommend this! Especially if you loved the untamed!

STORY:
I'll start off with the storyline. You can tell so much thought was put into this, and seeing as I haven't read the novel I don't know how well they kept to the original storyline but this plot was weaved together so well. It is hard to not binge-watch all the episodes in the span of a couple of days. At least, that's what I did.

ACTING/CAST:
Amazing, they couldn't have chosen a better cast in my opinion. The characters each person played were so complex and had many times where they had to show different sides of their character and the actors/actresses were phenomenal! I hope everyone enjoyed the casting as much as I did for this drama.

MUSIC:
The OST for this drama brought tears to my eyes. I downloaded the opening and ending songs after the first episode, I was so in love! The lyrics are perfect for the drama and the atmosphere the music sets in this series is so beautiful and sometimes heartbreaking but in a good way.

REWATCH VALUE:
The only reason I am not saying 10 is because the ending is something I don't think my heart could take again. But I will be rewatching select episodes because I just love the characters too much.

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I've loved this drama deeply, I watched it in 4 days because it is addicting! It's based on an online BL novel, understanding where it has been produced (China) the choices orientated on the bromance are understandable, I'm intentioned to read the online novel which is currently being translated on wattpad as it has a different ending and also different dynamics in the relationships between the characters and I understand from what I've been told, it has also discrepancies within the plot. That said, I had expected to be more disappointed about the ending, but it is more of a bittersweet ending, depending on how everyone chooses to read it. I've loved Zhu Yilong's acting, also his and Bai Yu chemistry and interactions were lovely, funny and well thought. I have to admit I've lost focus during some episodes, but mostly because I was tired and in a hurry to finish it due to personal matters, but I believe it could have shortened a bit maybe, that said it is very entertaining and interesting! Also the soundtrack is terrific! I really love the opening and ending songs! I would definetly reccomend it!

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I think I enjoyed the story but for sure loved the actors

Ok, let me be honest my love for how the characters are portrayed is making up for more than 60% of this rating. The acting was solid. I have seen Zhu Yilong and Bai Yu in other project since then and adore their acting. I fell in love with the way they portrayed their characters and grew attached to the characters. The actor who played the villain in the beginning...I laughed at him way too much. I could not take him seriously for real I enjoyed the cases and the basic storyline. Unfortunately some story lines were dragged out too long and some were way too short for me. People have complained about the CGI and I see what your talking about haha. But they did run out of budget so I do not think it is terrible enough that it had an effect on the way I viewed this drama. This drama will always be a gem for me but it is not perfect.

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Should watch!!!

1) Actually I was not so interested in this genre .....but as the story continues from ep 1 onwards this series creates and exictement and eagerness to know what future holds for these characters .
2) The story itself converse with audience.
3) Once u started u can't hold it in the middle.......! 4) The viewer itself holds upon a curiosity.....which is utmost important for a web series to be popular.
5) the bonding between two main leads is the best part......for which i was looking for.
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.at last I just wanna say......this was one of the best among my choices....and the acting of actors was just amazing and excellent.....so I thought I must give a small compliment , even if I know my compliment is not going to reach them but ......but still I wanted coz I saw and appreciate their efforts ....... thankyou

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One of My Favorite Adaptations of a Priest Novel

Where to start to unpack this series? First of all, the main leads Bai Yu and Zhu Yi Long are magical together! Even though this is a censored adaptation (thanks china) you can see and feel the characters love for each other. Somehow this series got away with a lot more physical contact then others I have seen 💖lots of touching of hands and shoulders and even my favorite scene in the car with Zhao Yunlan sleeping on Shen Wei's shoulder! Yep, magic. Oh my, the necklace! 🥲 That one got me.

The rest of the cast is pretty much a hit or miss. The purple-haired villain was so bad I was waiting for him to say "And I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for you meddling kids!" I would have loved to have had more Cat (Da Qing) story, who wouldn't like to know more about the Cats? Would love to know more about Chu Shuzhi too! What a cool ability with the puppets! The delusional snake lady's story really didn't add much to the series and they could have taken it out completely. And I really wish that the Guo character would have died a horrible death, sorry. 😂He just irritated the hell out of me and by all rights should have died early in the series. The rest of the team pretty much sank into the background for me so not much to say.

The actual story itself was kind of all over the place, probably because of all the changes that had to be made to satisfy the censors. Read the novels! I'll admit I got lost a few times and had to rewatch some episodes to try and figure out what the hell the story line was. The FX was either really good or really bad, like they ran out of money and had to half-ass most of the special affects! And the sets were either really good or really bad too, money again?

So even though this series had some issues with cast and story and FX and production, it's still one of my favorites and I will still give it a 10 because of the leads and will rewatch it over and over.

And the ending, oh boy, be prepared to cry. However, I believe they ended up finding each other again, someday.

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Need more of this awesome storyline.

Even though it's supposed to be about the 2 main guys being in love... yes they changed it to be a bromance, you can still see the deep feelings between the 2 guys.
I definitely think they need to make more. I can't get enough. It has been a true rollercoaster ride of twists and turns that kept me wanting to see way more depth to the bromance.
So I want to see way more then 40 episodes. I'm sure they could make this last into 80 to 90 episodes if not longer. I love both main lead guys.
Ok so I cried my eyes out at the end when both leading men died. They need to finish this storyline because they left it open for more episodes because ShenWei and YunLan made a bet that they would meet again no matter how long it took. That's love that crosses both time and space in my opinion.

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NOT A BL, BUT THE CHEMISTRY WAS UNDENIABLE. (READ THE NOVEL FOR BL)

I came across this drama as I was looking for more BL dramas to watch. So, my first point is EVEN THOUGH THE ORIGINAL WORK IS BL, THIS DRAMA IS ADAPTED TO A BROMANCE VERSION. Well, THEY ARE MORE LIKE SOUL-MATES BUT THEY GIVE OFF BROMANCE VIBES MOSTLY.
If you're into Chinese BLs, you know we always get platonic version of their love. In case of UNTAMED, I knew before watching that it's BL. So, while watching, even though it was platonic, I didn't get the "bromance" vibe because of the chemistry they had. Next I watched WORD OF HONOR. It too, did not give Bromance vibes. It was a BL with soul-mates / platonic lovers vibe. Same goes for KILLER AND HEALER. It did give Bromance vibes to certain extent but we could see they were platonic lovers. But this drama, GUARDIAN, GIVES THE BROMANCE VIBES. BECAUSE, THROUGHOUT MOST OF THE DRAMA, WE COULD SEE THAT IT WAS ONLY ONE OF THE MALE LEADS (SHEN WEI) WHO SECRETLY LOVED HIS CO-STAR (ZHAO YUNLAN) FOR MORE THAN 10,000 YEARS. ZHAO YUNLAN HAD NO IDEA OR MEMORIES ABOUT IT. SO, YUNLAN CONSIDERED HIM AS A BROTHER ( MORE THAN BROTHER TBH, BUT HE PORTRAYED A CHARECTERS WHO IS A CHEEKY, WORKAHOLIC, DOESN'T INVOLVE IN LOVE OR ROMANCE, SO EVEN THOUGH THEY DID LOVE EACH OTHER, THEY VIBE THEY GAVE WAS OF BROMANCE/ SOUL-MATES). BUT BUT BUT, OH WHAT A CHEMISTRY AND ACTING SKILLS THEY HAVE!!!!
THE LEVEL OF COMFORT, CONFIDANCE, UNDERSTANDING AND SENSE OF SACRIFICE THEY HAD FOR EACH OTHER WAS SO PLEASING TO WATCH.

COMING TO THE PLOT, In the first half of the series, it's like a fantasy murder mystery solving drama. (Like detective shows). In each episode, there's a new villian and Zhou Yunlan and his team (SID) fights against them. Shen Wei is always mysteriously involved with the cases. Though he helps out the SID team as Black Envoy, he gets into their suspicion as Professor Shen. IT WASN'T THAT INTRESTING BECAUSE EVEN AS A KID I HAVE SEEN MANY SUCH SHOWS OF SUPER HERO VS SUPER VILLIAN. I WAS WAITING FOR THE ACTUAL STORY OF SHEN WEI AND ZHOU YUNLAN TO START. It starts towards the later half of the series. Like I said, the drama has no romance elements between the leads but their chemistry, relationship development was still beautiful. Time and time again, we see Shen Wei's love filled glances and actions towards Zhou Yunlan. But Zhou Yunlan was always playful and more like "hey bro" (Just saying about the vibe he gave). Because even at the point when Shen said Zhou "I have been waiting for you for 10,000 years" in a serious tone, (much like a confession), Zhou just laughed it off, lightning the entire mood. But yes, both indeed loved , cared and respected each other.
I HATED THE ENDING THOUGH. IMAGINE HAVING TO WATCH 40 LONG EPISODES ONLY TO GET A SAD ENDING WITH BOTH MLs DEAD!!!!! SERIOUSLY, WHY DOES CHINESE BLs ALWAYS END IN A DISAPPOINTING WAY? THIS DRAMA AND KILLER AND HEALER HAD SUCH AN UNFAIR ENDING. ITS A FANTASY DRAMA, WHY COULDN'T THEY HAVE A HAPPY ENDING AND DIE JUST LIKE THAT? AFTER SO MUCH HARDWORK AND SACRIFICE, THEY DIDN'T DESERVE SUCH AN ENDING. THEY SHOULD HAVE ATLEAST REINCARNATED AND LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER AGAIN. :(
ANYWAYS, IT WASN'T SUCH A WASTE TO WATCH IT. I WASN'T SATISFIED WITH THE ENDING AND LACK OF BL, SO MOW M GONNA READ THE NOVEL VERSION OF THE STORY TO SATISFY MY HEART :)

Updated Review- NOVEL VERSION
OK so m done reading the translated version of the original work by Priest. Gosh!! I LOVEEEEDDDD IT SO MUCH!!!! TRUST ME IF YOU LIKED THE CHARECTERS IN THE DRAMA AND WISH IT WAS A BL, JUST GO AND READ THE NOVEL. THE STORY OF THE NOVEL IS MUCH MORE INTENSE AND INTRESTING AND VERY DIFFERENT TBH. PLUS THE ZHOU-SHEN COUPLE IS ONE OF THE BEST BL COUPLES I'VE EVER COME ACROSS. I WON'T GIVE SPOILERS, JUST READ THE NOVEL. YOU'LL GET A HAPPY ENDING AND YOU'LL FEEL SUPER SATISFIED. T

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Egy próbát megér...

Overall, I liked the series, although some of the details and characters weren’t elaborate enough, the ending was confusing and kissing. I’d rather not go into detail about the CGI effects, I would just say that they did surprisingly poorly in some places, but there were scenes where it was done well.
Of course, there was a directorial and screenwriting flaw in this series, but a flawless piece never exists. The music ... both the opening and the closing were only divine, the opening music has been a big favorite ever since.
And there were the more meaningful, more dramatic scenes where music was also well chosen. There were weaker episodes, but there were some very emotional, dramatic and already a bit romantic episodes where you essentially showed who was most important to him. There was a sense of camaraderie and teamwork, but sometimes I also saw a pull apart.
I don’t deny I liked the chemistry and connection between the two protagonists (which of course makes everyone “faint.” All the actors did a good job compared to the character, there were only a few characters that became (for me) forgetful (Da Qing, Zhu Hong, the ghost couple, Jin Ling), because they were basically just there, but I didn't experience any character development and they added quite a bit to the story.
What really caught on in this series is the relationship between Guo and Chu. I found myself starting to love them and their relationship more than any other character. Somehow I noticed the contrast more than them and then the process as they fell in love with each other. Real bromance, even a secondary pair. I would have rather put an end to the way Little Guo gets hurt, because maybe he would have been much more "fit" systematically into the story, I think
So, all in all: the end could have been better worked out (like Guo how he became a leader, why he leads new people and not the old team, why Yunlan's father suggested that it might be, Guo saves the world .. I would have been happier if Yunlan and Guo had even talked to each other because Yunlan was dying, last wish, something like that, it could have been a more emotional end to Chu and Guo's completion, it could have been the hug, not in the dream., and..Lin Jing's character was redundant he thinks to bring it back..because he said goodbye..so it was stupid.And that torment on the part of Shen Wei and Yunlan ... argh..etc. So the end is very confusing for me ...
Well, this series isn't necessarily spectator for me again, because of the mistakes mentioned above ... and the excessive torment of the main couple in the end ... and that last scene ... absurd ...!
I prefer to look at the Guo and Chu scenes again because they showed a lot of character development and I was better able to identify with them, and as I may have written before, their relationship is much more realistic and elaborate than that of a “perfect, fateful main couple”.
Sorry for the long writing.Good health everyone.

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Overall enjoyable, with some very strong moments

Some people might think my rating is way too low or way too high, but I have mixed emotions about this show. One weakness is the special effects- however, I usually don’t judge a show too much on this, because of course they do the best they can with the budget that they have. I also enjoyed the show throughout, but sometimes the plot seemed to get a bit off track to me... like the ghost couple were sweet and cute but then they suddenly died and that was that.

However, there were many aspects that I personally found very interesting plot wise; I thought it was quite emotional with Yun Lan lost his sight, for instance. I also thought the hospital games scenes were pretty intense, as well as many of the Underground scenes. I also loved the relationship between Shen Wei and Yun Lan, obviously. It was fun to see Yun Lan regard Shen Wei as a normal meek professor...then to become suspicious of him...then to find out his secret and watch after him...

I was surprised how much I ended up loving the relationship between Guo Chang Cheng and Chu Shu Zhi. I loved their “enemies” (or timid kid annoying and being scared by an angry man) to brothers progression. When Shu Zhi thought that Chang Cheng died, that was really quite brutal and emotional.

The most impactful part of the show for me was the ending. I hadn’t read the novel and didn’t expect the ending to be that depressing. It gutted me on multiple levels; even just from how it was filmed, with Ye Zun suddenly appearing in a different room when he and Shen Wei died. I didn’t even realize they actually died at first. Of course, the two leads meeting in heaven or space time or whatever it was, before continuing on, just broke me. Another one of the most heartbreaking moments was when they showed Yun Lan continuing to live and work with his team- I thought that he had somehow ended up surviving. Then it was explained how his body is just being possessed by that other man, and that he really is dead.

For me this show was never unenjoyable at all, but there were a lot of ups and downs and moments that were just that- enjoyable but not much more. But, this show also had a lot of very interesting, emotional, and impactful parts as well. I watched this a while ago, but even now, the introduction song makes me nostalgic and the closing credits song makes me full on emotional. Overall this show wasn’t perfect, but it was still special.

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Good actors maketh not a good show without good execution of the story.

The graph of my interest in this show will definitely resemble the cracks left by an earthquake if I ever plotted it. So why/how did I finish 40 episodes? Because this show is strangely addictive. Even if you want to bash your head or pull your hair out for forty minutes, you are eager to see what happens next (no matter how cliché or absurd you know it's going to be) and that is this drama's strength. And that comes from the marvelous performances of the cast, who make you believe in their emotions when the story doesn't. Because the story doesn't do anything here. The only one holding all the cards is the writer/director and we see the scenes they wish to show us, how they show us and when they want to show us. That is this drama's downfall. Maybe the three directors took a thread of the story each and went their way with them and faltered when it came to tying them all up. Add in poor screenplay and editing and this is a recipe for disaster waiting to happen.

Yet, the story is engaging. The main plot is scattered in pieces somewhere in between all the mess that happens but manages to take an integral part in the episode so it doesn't feel like we are wavering away from what we embarked on. The cases could have been better written or at least better presented. They often began in the last one third of an episode and continued till the first one third of another. I can't reason out why, unless it was dole out some cliffhangers and make the audience wait. Well, it worked. Episodes 10-20 are easily the best in the show. Midway through, you can take guesses at how each character's ending is going to be so it's not that shocking when the end does arrive. There are heaps of things we could have done without, though.

The actors are all amazing and the characterisation is one of the few good things, be it the two leads, SID, the humans or the Dixing-ians. I like how everyone has their quirks unrelated to the job they do. Those at SID are well sketched, but not well shown. In that respect, Zhu Hong, Sang Zan and Wang Zheng are the weakest. They appear when the directors want them to appear instead of always being a part of the group even if it's just standing in the background. Wang Zheng's story was drawn out a bit too much, and the Crow tribe leader's too little. Still, everyone is given a chance to tell their story and that keeps the plot going when the writers have used up their repertoire of cases.

Music is good and I'll only re-watch the edited portions of the two main leads for their sparkling chemistry. It's there right from the moment they first make eye contact with each other and I rewinded plenty of their sweet scenes to gush over them. This was a BL despite the lack of explicit or implicit words of romance between the leads and despite the love triangle they tried to build. I mean, if someone did for me what Shen Wei does for Yun Lan, he is definitely going to be tied to me for the next seven births as well. Shen Wei is open but silent about his feelings and Yun Lan openly and silently enjoys all the teasing he gets. Their love for each other is scattered in the story just like the plot has been. However, I'm disappointed that some of the most emotionally charged scenes are haphazardly placed at the end, which in itself is a mess.

In a nutshell, this show left me wanting for some actual BL scenes so much that I watched two others in succession but I still remember how the cat behaves like a cat even in his human form and how Guardian was reminiscent of a bad cross between Power Rangers and Supernatural. It's worth watching for the two leads, though.

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I'm not ready.

For the past 18 months I have watched and re-watched Guardian three times. Every time I stop watching I'm theast four episodes. I once saw a spoiler that broke my heart and really put me off, because it screamed, "TRAGIC ENDING".

I think I'm ready now, for that ending. Although it will be painful and give me puffy eyes, I'll still watch it. I have to and you have to if you're reading this review.

Everything leading up to the last few episodes is amazing. The characters are funny and sweet and caring and such a lovely little family, that I'll make the finale all the more special. Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan are soulmates and Zhu Yilong and Bai Yu really worked hard to show that to the audience. Even though this is hella censored (what with the obvious script changes when character's mouths, voices and words don't match and along with the bts parts that should have been added to make the show 10x better), they did the best with what they were given.

It's time to say goodbye.

If you read this review: watch the show or don't watch the show. Idk. Idc. But I know I'm gonna re-watch everything for the 4th time and finish it. Then come back here and write all about it.

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