Listening Snow Tower (2019)

"I nearly dropped this show because I judged if based on a few episodes. Before Jing Rong became a skilled fighter, her character annoyed me... But I picked it up again and was rewarded with amazing martial art skills and sweet butterflies in my stomach every time Yi Qing calls her 'Ah Jing' :D (*fingers crossed* this ends happy) "

I wrote those words after episode 20-23 (if I remember correctly). Nearly 20 episodes later, this review is about to take a complete 180.

Yes, main couple are still going strong (he even regards her as his second in command of Snow Tower), but that is the only thing that's going well.

Characters:

The second female lead inlove with male lead (his martial sister) and the supporting character inlove with the martial sister are SO ANNOYING. O.M.G. These two are awful: her, because she is siding with the bad guys to try and win male lead and him, because he will do ANYTHING to win over martial sister. I mean, COME ON. Can't you just move on. The girl is not interested. I knew from the VERY BEGINNING that martial sister would be a problem and as episodes went on, I was proven right. How she went from trying to protect Snow Tower to backstabbing all of her martial brethren.... IDK. IDC. I skip over her parts.

Music:

Loved the soundtrack. I have every song. That, and the beautifully choreographed fight between Ah Jing and Yi Qing in the rain, was worth watching the drama for. Everything else.... meh.

Overall:

I skipped the last 5 minutes of the drama....................









MAJOR SPOILER










My dude is in a wheelchair and unmoving while Ah Jing takes care of him, then he disappears, she looks for him and finds him standing by a waterfall or something. WJAT THE HECK KIND OF ENDING IS THAT. He is physically injured in the final battle, so much so that he cant live on his own and she wouldve spent her whole life catering to his needs. If he had not miraculously recovered.
(Nothing wrong with that, of course, give the fact that in the book they both die. However, after all the crap they put us through, they could not have given much better ending????)

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A Victim of "Good Drama, but Ruined by Annoying Characters"

After not finishing a proper Chinese costume drama since December and not enjoying one in a long time, I placed a lot of hope in Listening Snow Tower. And it did, for a short while, live up to my expectations. The introduction to the characters, their backstories, and the relationship between each of them were all done properly at the start. The world-building was intriguing, and so was the set-up for each characters' motivations. However, as the story progressed, it began to leave a bitter taste in my mouth as a result of several frustrations.

The supporting characters and the side storylines are undoubtedly the highlights of this drama. The side storylines were all distinct and enriched the supporting characters. You understand their motives, and you root for them as you watch them grow. They were so entertaining, and they made the drama fast-paced for me. Many people have commented on how slow this drama is, but it wasn't slow at all for me. Although I liked the supporting characters, there were two exceptions: Chi Xiao Tai and Gao Meng Fei. Seriously, was the writer high when they created the two characters? Chi Xiao Tai practically went through zero characterization. While Gao Meng Fei went through terrible characterization. Like What? You have great characters like Hong Chen, Gu Guang, Ren Fei Yang, etc... and then you have these two cockroaches?

To put into perspective how terrible Chi Xiao Tai is, I want to say that Hao Chen (from Love and Redemption) is a saint compared to her. If you know Hao Chen, then you now understand my hatred for Chi Xiao Tai. Chi Xiao Tai is like a hair strand that you find in your food that makes you lose your appetite, and you feel completely disgusted by it. She's like the spider in the corner of your room that you want to kill. She's like a vexing bug that just won't ever leave you alone, and you wish it didn't exist. Girl was like possessed throughout the entire drama. She was so selfish, obsessed, manipulative, delusional, and any other terms relating to the aforementioned ones. She never changed. She only grew out of control because no one was willing to do anything about her behavior.

As for Gao Meng Fei, I just didn't understand him. He degenerated into this obsessed and deluded man. His motivations were valid initially but quickly devolved into absurdity. He contradicts himself frequently and was a hypocrite. The drama attempted to evoke pity for him at the end, but I was completely unfazed by it.

As for the leads, they were fine. I liked their slow-burn romance, and it was fitting with the story. Xiao Yi Jing reminded me of Mei Chang Su because of his illness, calm composure, and strategic thinking. He's certainly not in the same league as Mei Chang Su, but he's a great and complex character nevertheless. Qin Jun Jie was exceptional. I actually think he was the best actor in this entire drama. On the other hand, Yuan Bing Yan was alright. When comparing her performance here to her performance in Love and Redemption, you can tell she has definitely improved in L&R, and that's great. She played Shu Jing Rong, and the character was underwhelming as the female lead. I mean she wasn't terrible, but I believe the writer wasted potential with her character. Ming He definitely outshined Shu Jing Rong for me. Despite falling into a love obsession, she exudes a powerful aura and is noteworthy as a villain. Angela Yuen did a good job portraying her; at times, her acting felt a little off for me, but overall, it's nothing to complain about much. The rest of the cast had standard acting. It wasn't intolerable, but it wasn't exceptional either.

Lastly, I want to throw out a few more things I didn't appreciate. There were a lot of missed opportunities with the characters and the plot. Especially, towards the end, the supporting characters weren't used to their full potential. There were also a lot of flashbacks around the 50 episode mark and after that, which were all skippable. Some things were also unnecessary. Overall, I don't recommend this drama. After watching 56 episodes, it didn't give me a rewarding feeling of "it was worth it." If it weren't for the annoying characters, perhaps I would have rated this drama a 7.5 or an 8 which is good/great in my book.

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Slow-paced, too many side plots, can't be compared to Fuyao

9/6/2021

Listening Snow Tower is not a widely-recommended or talked about drama, and I got to know about this as I read an article comparing it to "Legend of Fuyao". I also read comments that it's a wuxia drama with great fight scenes. Fuyao is my one of my most favorite dramas and Snow Tower is not even close to the brilliance of Fuyao. (My review of Fuyao: https://mydramalist.com/profile/voicelesslove/review/152877)

The reason why I stuck with this drama and not drop it is because of our male lead Yi Qing. I have never watched Qin Jun Jie in any drama before and I am a fan now (got Spy Hunter on my PTW list). His portrayal of our sickly ML is great, though I don't find him particularly handsome/attractive at first. He shows the vulnerable side of our lead when he's not feeling well, but you can see his determination and stubbornness in his eyes as well. I feel his love for our FL when he's looking at her with quiet admiration and adoration. Even though he appears pale and sickly throughout the show, you can feel his presence as the Tower Master. He has that charisma that people will listen to him whether he's coughing up blood or just sitting quietly reading. I don't think I would continue with this drama if not for Yi Qing and wanting to know that he could succeed. I root for him and want him to have a happy ending so badly.

I enjoy the romance between our leads. I like a mature, quiet romance where our ML is showing his love through actions and not just cheesy lines. This type of romance might not be for everyone. There isn't any fluffy cute romantic scenes or banter, or big gestures to declare their love for each other, except maybe self-sacrificing themselves so the other won't get hurt. I love that our ML supports FL quietly and secretly, by helping her get stronger, and never try to change her. They understand each other's actions without saying it out loud. As much as I love this type of relationship, I do feel the chemistry between the leads could have been better. I think I am just not feeling it from FL to ML.

I like the general plot of the drama. Unfortunately, there are too many side characters and each of them have their own little romance/story. Do we need so many love-at-first-sight romance? I am fine with a decent supporting cast, but I just feel it's a little over-the-board here. This takes away from the main plot and slow down the pacing of the drama. There are so many times when they capture their nemesis, threaten to kill them, and then let them go. This drama does not have to be 56 ep long. I lost my attention in the middle of the drama, and the pacing only picks back up towards the last 5-7 episodes. Speaking of the supporting cast, I am most impressed with our villain Ming He, played by Angela Yuen. As a newcomer, she did a great job in her portrayal of Ming He/Ye Huo.

One of the most disappointing thing is the editing of the fight scenes. I really hope to find a good wuxia drama that gives me great fighting choreography. The fight scenes seem to be better in the first half of the show than the second half. I appreciate the lack of slow-mo spinning that are so prevalent in many shows. I wish to see longer fight scenes and faster movement. Our actors seem too weak when yielding their swords. There are times when some expected good fights were starting and they were cut short or transition out to something different. Our FL is supposed to be one of the top 3 fighters in the show, and we barely see her in action, or the fight scenes are so short that they don't her prowess. The best scene she had was her fight with the ML in the rain. Other than that, there's nothing memorable.

There's blood spitting/coughing everywhere. I wonder if our ML rivals Si Feng in "Love and Redemption" in the number of times these two MLs spit blood. The dubbing is not good either. There are several times where the supporting cast is speaking out the inner thoughts of the leads and explaining why they do certain things. I wonder if there's a better way of conveying the same kind of information. I don't expect any passionate kisses in a wuxia drama, but I was hoping to have at least one decent kiss from our leads. The kisses that they have are all life-saving kisses, but not a romantic kiss. The other two kisses by our supporting cast are surprise/unwilling kisses that are quite unnecessary and really did nothing to the story.

It sounds like I hate this drama, but I really don't. I have high hopes but am disappointed. There are times when MDL ratings are wrong with shows that have sub-8 ratings. Unfortunately, this time it's correct. I like it enough to not drop it but it took a lot of willpower.

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The no-Romance Romantic Wuxia

if you are looking for skinship or romance don't bother checking this out because there is no actual romance scene but this drama gives it all
Beautiful swords movements, beautiful casts, wonderful costumes omg I love the costumes so much(it is a top tier costume)
the chemistry between the leads is so beautiful

the male lead has to be among the wonderful and powerful sick ml of all time, when I saw that he was sick" I was like urgghh boring male lead" but NO even though he was sick, he was 10x stronger than a healthy person.

overall not a perfect drama but has a high Rewatch value from me

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Watched over 5 times

This drama is very beautiful and very factors combined perfect ! Less love scene but alway have a warm feeling in my mind. I will describe in short that why you need to watch it.

Actor :
Actors show their feeling nice especially all main roles. I fell in love with the situation when they had eye contact and help together. Yi qing and Ah jing is good chemistry. I hope to see they have a drama together again.

Story :
I absolutely tell you that this story connect the point sharply. Some ep. few slow but they try to explain the characters toward their act in the story. Even I don’t like the characters of “xiao tai” but if you try to understand her, you will know the jealous of normal human.
In addition, this drama show the concept of love in many angels like the truthly love, real love, respect love and self-love. They show the angels of human through the story. The most scene that I like is “blind with doctor” that make me feel warm and unexpected feel.

Music :
I like every music ost from this drama, but i have the best one which Yi qing and Ah jing sang together.

I hope you will enjoy this drama like me and share your warm feeling to others?

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This drama is a Greek tragedy

Listening Snow Tower depicts a world of scheming, misunderstandings and revenge. The plot revolves around the male & female leads complicated love story.

Everything that can be toxic in any relationship is used in this drama to make you doubt, hate, cry for the characters. No characters is actually sane & well balanced.

What I liked ?
It is a slow pace drama with a lot of sub characters that help to build the entire plot & explain the complicated feelings that ML & FL feel for each other.
Great fighting scenes with amazing choreographies.
The colors and the way it’s filmed changes from your typical wuxia (same director than The Destiny of the White Snake with zoom-in on the eyes of character to emphasize on a feeling).
The story background with the eternal fight between the sects is typical in wuxia drama but a good one.

What I didn’t like?
This drama is like a Greek tragedy!
A’Jing & Xiao Yiqing love each other deeply, yet alwaya doubt each other words & actions. Yet, as soon as, they are wounded, poisoned, captured (happens every 2 episodes), they’ll spend their time risking their life to save the other one. After few episodes, this scenario becomes too redondant.
I’m a bit tired of this kind/naive character that turns evil because they don’t get what they want, which only proves they were selfish to begin with.
Gao Mo Fei is the character I understood the least! Why does he want to hurt, even kill, his sister? All of this because he was tired of pugilistic world & fell in love with a woman who doesn’t love him?

It is a betrayal after another ... and this is how the entire plot is unfold all along the drama.

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A MUST WATCH

I don't know how many times I've watched this series. But I absolutely love it.

1. The personal growth of each of the characters, from their youth to their adulthood, especially our MFL, SJR. The way she turned into an innocent young girl to a strong woman is really interesting. Most important aspect I really liked is how she doesn't turn greedy and keeps this innocence and loyalty she had when she was younger. I like how the MML, XYQ pushes her to become stronger while doing everything to protect and preserve her.

2. I like the political dynamic of the drama. You see the power struggles of each main sects and you even end up pitying the antagonist characters.

3. Like a lot of drama, some characters were frustrating, but surprisingly, I could understand the attitude of the major characters towards them.

This drama is really entertaining, from the constant romance throughout the story to the intense political struggles

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Nice acting, normal story,, bad editing

I REALLY REALLY HATE THE EDITING, NOT PASS, I THINK THE POINT ACTING AND SCENE NOT BE SHOWING,, JUST WASTING THE ACTOR'S EFFORTS


All incident are only shown after they have happened ,, it is not shown how and why it happened


drama scenes seem unrelated, but like several separate chapters but 1 story

showing too many scenes is useless, but related ones are not shown and are skipped instead,, the type of drama i hate ,, skip and jumping scene,make the watcher confuse ,,It's a pity that one work was destroyed.,,The actor's hard work and effort are in it,. It can more perfect ,at least the storyline isn't messy


The editing of the scene not pass,, flip over, and minus,,, it confused the watcher

It's not that I want to dislike it, but the editor is .... Maybe newbie,, all the point scene they didnt show it ,,show the rubbish scene more than the point


Didn’t you say that you want to treat Jiaruo with azure azalea? , But it doesn’t seem to be, and his flower is to cultivate moon god flower?



I dont think shi ming yan not worthy for guo se sword,, Because she doesn't know martial arts at all.


What my question is:
1.why ah jing give guo se sword to people who doesnt know martial arts?
2. If he practicing xuanying sutra to cute the poison of holy lake, at the last he said to ah jing that holy lake god flower core can cure the poison of the holy lake,, so for what he practicing xuanyin sutra and got counteracting poison of the sutra? And go to long family to take the azure azalea flower to cure the counteracting,, i think it can more faster if she search for the azure flower to cure the holy lake poison
3. And at the end is that xiao yi qing jue yin zhi zhen being cure or not? ,,if the sickness can be cure with the inner power i think its to easy to cure it





Ep 10 ,can live with such a big explosion,and the boom beside gu guang and qing lan,, are you kidding?

Ep 12 story make me confused the meaning ,the timing and the story just them and the director now ?,,
There are so many scenes that haven't aired in those 3 years,,, make me confused because of the flashback,not know which is the current time, which is the flashback,,,,, and "yong zhou battle " what is it?



Episode 15 is very strange, and insist on stealing, don’t be so obvious, gaomeng fei still said "hurry up"

Long family story little weird ,,how hong chen go to the island?,

Isn't Ah Jing already save by Xiao Yiqing, why should ming he ask Gu Guang to kill her?,,and guguang can meet up with ah jing?
,su wu kidnap,,, are you kidding me? ,its still make a sense if the maid and madam long pretending a hallucination ghost when the smoke working , but I still don't understand why SU WU want to cooperate with them
It was knocked down by his mother before taking she drink the antidote, and she woke up unexpectedly?


Ep 34-35 There are more and more weird plots, so suddenly jumping around, if you don’t see it online, who would understand, all happened suddenly，The more you watch, the more tired you are!,,, jia ruo suddenly already mastered xuanying sutra ,zzz



Every poisoned person has two kinds of poisons. It's complicated,



Ep 37 ,,, the skip scene very obvious, i dont know indeed so or being cut for some reason ,but 1 eps 44 minute ,,, suddenly they fight with ren fei yang in "yi hong yuan" ,just a part of little secne of they fight,, and then suddenly miss shi not together with ye feng sha ,and ren fei yang run? What a fucking editing? ,, chi xiao tai suddenly faint? ,feel tired now


Gao Huan's ending is a bit pity.


Ep 44 ,, are you kidding me? (29:00) happen nothing but shimingyan ,, chi xiao tai ,and nan chu here and jia ruo ,injury? The scene is the same as not,, no point ,,the point scene not been shown

When xiao yi qing ask jia ruo about the golden needle ,,jia ruo remember about left guardian assasin ,,but that time xiao yi qing havent know about the golden needle ,so its imposible xiao yi qing ask him to do like that , and what happen about left guardian assasin?

Ep 45 jiaruo want to go out without ming he knowing ,but WHY SUDDENLY! AND MINGHE BESIDE HIM! AND GAOMENGFEI MEET HIM?! O mai got!


ep 46,jia ruo and ming he still say that xuan ying sutra make jiaruo poisoned ,,but in ep 11 ming he ask xuanyin sutra from xue wen because the sutra can cure poison and regenerate body,, i just think thisnis useless better not practicing the sutra,, holy lake poison cure but he got xuan yin sutra counteracting poison???



And i still dont understand about the blood bug? Why ah jing father blood bug just like puppet but the others nothing happen?



Ep 48. Wasn't it said to Ming He from the start that Ren Fei Yu went to the listening tower to Save Boss Qiu,l from listening tower ,and ming he didnt care ,why at the last they said he betray moon sect? I think the deal was decided after Ming He and Ahjing meet


Ep 54 even i know nan chu got hit by blood bug, but its to sudden to attack yi qing

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Story where all the bad guys get happy endings

As a story goes, it held my interest despite moments of yelling at the screen in frustration and disgust. I liked many of the characters, but many of them died off, and only a few deservedly so.

I read from the reviews that people liked the couple Qing Lan/Jia Ruo and Ye Huo/Ming He, liked their 'love story'. He was really not an evil villain as such, but he did some pretty terrible things. SHE on the other hand, was a selfish, vicious, evil, wicked... well, you get the idea. She was the devil and she made him do all those terrible things. And? They got love and ended up 'together'. Chi Xiao Tai - another selfish, evil bitch - came out smelling like a rose - too sorry too late! And worst of all, the little weasel Shi Ming Yan - not only gets away with her evil deeds but gets rewarded too!

And what's with killing off so many good guys!

The ending was a little odd for me - I kinda knew they were keeping something back, but they could have spent a little more time developing it instead of the long goodbyes and crap.

56 episodes is a long haul, but I kept wanting to go back for more to see what happens next, so it was worth it for me. Have to admit I fast-forwarded through a lot of the fight scenes and some of the scenes with the evil bitches. But the stone-faced ML grew on me (although his selflessness and righteousness kinda got old real fast) and I didn't care for the FL - she just seemed pouty and bullheaded all the time. There was more chemistry between the secondary couples (and there were quite a number of them).

Can I just say for the record - that the best character for me was Nan Chu - and he deserved much, much more than he got for being such a loyal, stand-up guy! But, as I said in the title - mostly the bad guys got it good in the end.

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I will admit that I started watching this drama because... I liked the poster!

So I wasn't expecting anything from it, but the truth is I ended up loving it. I really, really loved it.
It has action, romance and most importantly, a good story.
The story focuses on the love of the two main characters and a rivalry between two clans. However it has other clans coming together and we get to see how the problems are dealt with. It also talks about the principles and what is right or wrong and the perspectives of it, as well as the sacrifices that we need to make sometimes, even if we don't want to.
I noticed then that I love Yuan Bing Yan, she's an excellent actress and I've seen some of her dramas in this kind of drama, and love them. Qin Jun Jie I've never seen him before but I hope to see him again soon.
The rest of the cast is also good, and it was good to see Han Cheng Yu again, I think he's a good actor, and here was no exception.

Visually it's very beautiful and all the sets are well done, as are the fight scenes.
Ost is beautiful, really. I usually skip the intro of these dramas so as not to see spoilers, but this time the opening music was so beautiful I couldn't resist!

About the ending, I liked it. For those who want to know, it's a happy ending. And I was so scared until the end.

I'll probably watch it again. But my list of dramas to watch is giant!!!

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

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