This review may contain spoilers
The peace & people-loving Hei-Feng Bai-Xi and their mighty & passionate conquest for love.
From now on, we'll be drunk together (referring to kissing) - Feng LanxiMy desire to get highly critical with this review is strong but I have decided to let my fun-loving drama passionate side stay rational by giving this production an impartial and honest feedback. So, rest assured that all informations stated are base on how I genuinely view this drama as a whole.
Plot twist, revelations and overall scheming - Most of the time I spent guessing with this dramas outcome was really satisfying and unpredictable. Kudos to the writers for making sure that we're still getting the elements of surprise throughout the solving and brain racking moments.
Pacing went too fast and felt too rushed. Sequencing may seemed alright but it's rather lacking as well. I feel like more than anything else this drama needed more time and episodes to make a lot of its scenes more detailed and effective. They dwelled so much in imperial struggles and throne infighting that they kinda forgot how much episodes they've wasted on it already and how many more is left for the climax and finale.
Fighting scenes - Most of the early fights were flawless, extremely good and greatly executed specially with our Main leads. However, towards the end everything just felt lacking and unimpressive. It feels like they were short of budget to make it 'actually' happen or simply because they got limited resourches to do so. Overall I'm still grateful and glad that we still got a lot of decent and even great combat scenes.
CGI, Graphics and Editing - This production survived because of their magnificent editing team. CGI is outstanding and I'm impressed on how detailed and well coordinated they all are. It's just that they have 'too much' of it that it gradually felt lackluster. They off-screened a lot of supposed great scenes and it's just a huge missed opportunity from them.
Climax and ending - Full of Recaps, Cuts and Off-screens... Climax should've been the most detailed and eventful part but it overall felt rushed and disappointing. The way they transition the events felt like they wanna wrap it up in the best way possible while still showing the necessary contents; although it kinda worked out, it still felt wrong the more you think about it. Ending is good and quite reasonable but I think they could've done it a lot better than that.
Main leads relationship and chemistry - It was refreshing to see that both of our leads have a pre-established connection through rivalry and countless interactions during their introduction as it served as the greatest foundation to further develop and strengthen their relationship. + Their constant bickering was more than enough to make me go insane!
Feng Xiyun / Bai Fenxi - What made this character really unique is her ability to befriend and attract anyone just by being carefree and unbothered. Not to mention how brave, skillful and sassy she is that made her even more interesting to watch.
Feng Lanxi / Hei Fenxi - I just wanna say that I really love his simply yet classy carriage. Hahaha! It contributed a lot to make his calm, composed and intelligent character be even more convincing and attractive.
Other character rants (mostly about Lanhua & Sect leader Bai) - This two character made me uncomfortable and rolled my eyes 10x or more. I feel like for a leader, Master Bai seemed so weak, fragile and vulnerable. While Lanhua just didn't deserve any screen time she has had in this show. Her character is the greatest downside of this story and I just hated how immature, unprogressive and stagnant she is even when the show's halfway done.
P.S. This drama doesn't need any skips because they do it for you. /Sighs/
Story - 9.0, Story flow is actually good and considerably packed with details. It's just that they spent 3/4 of the show to build up the climax and finale only to become unimpressive due to the lack of episode, countless recaps and off-screened scenes.
Acting/Cast - 9.5, Impressive main and supporting leads, specially Zhao Lusi, Yang Yang, Zhang Haowei, Lai Yi and Liu Ruilin. I just think that some of the side actors/actresses felt weak in showing the approriate emotions and body language.
Music - 10, Overall BGM were properly placed and in-synced to every scenes and I just love the songs they used in this drama. Lots of good ballads I'll surely add on my playlist.
Rewatch Value - 9.0, Despite all the rants I mentioned above, I still won't neglect the fact that this story is enjoyable and exciting to watch. Heck!!, I finished it in 3 days. Just be wary on the countless off-screened cuts that may spoil your watch experience.
Overall - 9.0, It could've been more impressive and satisfying if they could've added atleast 10 more episodes to it. It felt too compressed and rushed that I feel like something important is missing. It may have wrapped up 'decently' but this drama deserves better. Specially since it has Zhao Lusi and Yang Yang in it.
IF you find my review helpful please let me know
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One of the Most Incredible must watch Cdrama in 2022! ❤️
The storyline was amazing! 10/10! I have seen Love and Redemption, Untamed, Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms, Princess agents, Ashes of love, and many more. From Episode 1 to Episode 40 is worth to watch. It is not draggy and had a lot of twist in each episode. It was a really great Cdrama were both the FL and ML were STRONG and CLEVER.Each actor portrayed there character very well. Zhao Lusi is a really great actress I had watch her in a lot of role and this one she nailed it again and portrayed the character very well! She had a great chemistry with Yang Yang. Hope that they will have another drama together. I have re-watch this two times already because it was so awesome.
If your thinking if you should watch this. Now this is the time my dear to start and watch it. This was a perfect combination of Romance, Political, Hatred, Friendship, Wuxia, and Family story. They did a great job in each fight scenes, there are no dull moments.
What I also love in this drama is that there was NO stupid misunderstanding, and there are a lot of scenes for the FL and ML. The phasing of each stories was really good were you will not be confused, you can follow the flow of the story really fast.
I highly recommend this drama. I had enjoyed the whole episodes. Thank you writer, directors, actors, crews and all the people behind this amazing drama. ❤️❤️❤️
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Just peaceful
I only write reviews for dramas that deserve it.Two of my all-time favorite actors are in this drama so of course, I had to watch and it did not disappoint! No need to mention these two are the top all-time best actors out there plus an interesting plot that is never boring, sappy, or dragging. I have nothing to complain about this drama other than the fact the ending was bittersweet but in a way, peaceful.
This drama is not your typical romance, sweet drama but also focuses on war, battle scenes, and a lot of fighting. I love the fact the two main characters are cunning, clever, and equally strong.
Totally recommend watching if you are into xianxia and just an overall good drama that will never bore you!
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Wanting More After 40 Episodes
The Male LeadThis is the first time I completed Yang Yang's drama and even wanting for more. His acting here was really good. I really felt the chemistry between the couple. Although I felt it was a little lacking on the romantic area. They could have put more on that aspect. I was longing to see more of them together in a cute and romantic way so I think 40 episodes would not be enough to fill in these gaps. I just love looking at his eyes, they were very expressive and I have seen more of his acting skills in this drama.
The Female lead
This is one of my favorite drama series of Rosy Zhao. She always makes a bond with her male lead. She always builds chemistry and makes my heart flutter. Her acting here was far way from her other dramas, where sometimes I would get annoyed with how noisy she could get. Here she was mostly elegant and acted mature. She acted well with Yang Yang.
OVERALL COMMENT:
Rosy Zhao has these charm that most of the time she could build that chemistry with the male lead. Yang Yang has this potential but somehow this is the first time that I was interested to watch the entire 40 episodes because the couple really look perfect together. Apart from that I have been a fan of wuxia so I guess that is also one reason why I was hooked with this drama. Like honestly, I subscribed for WeTV channel just to watch the latest episodes even though I already have Netflix. I just hope to see them again in the small screen. I have been waiting to see them together for months and I would not mind waiting for the next one. Good performance for all the actors. They all did well in this drama.
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Great Actors! Great Quality! Amazing plotline!
This was my first cdrama after a long while and safe to say - it didn't disappoint.The actors did great. The chemistry was the kind that i am absolutely in love with. It's the not the one that makes you weak at your knees and nor is it non existent. Its the perfect soft, intimate kind of chemistry where they look at each other and you can just see how much they love each other.
The wuxia part of the drama is not that relevant tbh, the scenes are not the best but also above average. The plot focuses mostly on political aspect and slowly building the romance on the way.
The pacing had some issues around ep 35+ but honestly? understandable because you can only fit so much in 40 eps. Everything makes sense though so thats of no matter.
(The wedding scenes made me so giddy, thats how much their interactions mean to me.)
The strength of the ML and FL is equal and the writers did a good job showcasing that. You save me - I save you, You protect me-I protect you is nice change from the common, "You are my wife, I will protect you - ok."
The music was amazing, every singer and composition fits the theme extremely well.
Overall - It is definitely worth a try and try to watch till ep 7, I promise you won't be able to stop.
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Great Start, lagging middle, lame finish
LIKES:Great costumes for the most part.
Strong female lead for the first part of the drama; beautiful, smart, skilled in martial arts and sword fighting, kind.
Scenery was fitting and beautiful. Cinematography was well done, including colour pallet.
FX: the flying scenes and some of the graphics were really good, see dislikes for parts that weren't.
ML chasing after FL for once.
Potential for ML & FL romance.
Step-mother as a villain, although cliche, she was hateable.
DISLIKES:
No solid foundation for the ML & FL to show their chemistry for romance.
Issues with PACING; too much plot twisting that didn't help the end. The political stuff started to get boring, especially the step-mother's schemes. When over done looses it's impact.
WRITING: got lost with it's concepts. First part FL is strong, independent and smart, second part she is just about the ML and constantly needs rescuing. Also in the later parts FL is often deferring her ideas to the ML's ideas. They lost what little chemistry they had in the second half of the show.
The male villain was lame and way too obvious.
Another bad writing section is the step-mother scheming was too much and got boring. Then we have the male villain who's hate for ML & FL is ridiculous and groundless.
The ENDING was very rushed and made no sense, but it was probably due to pacing issues.
Bad EDITING. Choppy PRODUCTION & terrible FX for the waring states (really bad graphics to the point of very smelly cheese, when the two sides clashed. The areal view was so lame, or the running horses were as good as a super old school video game).
OVERALL:
I would rewatch the first half of the drama and even recommend that part. Some would like the ending too. I don't understand why Netflix keeps screwing up/rushing the endings of their dramas. Is it their fault or the writers or both?
SPOILER ALERT DISLIKES:
The costumes for the wedding of ML & FL were so UGLY! And their kissing was not convincing as lovers.
Also the eldest brother should've been made the King at the end, because making ML the king and then he throws it away is just dumb. IF eldest brother was King, then the two main leads could have their alone time together, maybe even showing FL with a son. Or even kill off the ML completely, would have had more impact.
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The most boring romantic historical drama ever
I was so bored most of the time ,, I struggled to finish it for Yang Yang's acting but the plot was so slow and so boring most of the time,, the ending was ridiculous in every way it defeated the purpose of the whole dramaapparently who rules the world is none of the leads so what was the point exactly ?
Other than good visuals of the actors ,,, there were nothing interesting at all
the wuxia fights were more like Xienxia's fantasy fights ,,,, over the top and laughable compared to actual wuxia dramas
the court politics were predictable and boring
the romance wasn't good , the chemistry between the leads was off and their characters was more like partners at work not love
overall it wasn't good for me and i didn't like it at all
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This review may contain spoilers
The anticipation of greatness ended with a bafflingly horrendous sequence of episodes at the end.
*MAJOR SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW*I'm not even sure where to begin with this one. I just finished the show and felt the need to write down my thoughts, especially considering the very high MDL rating of 8.7 this show has.
Who rules the world certainly had potential to be a fantastic show. It gradually builds up the story untill around the 30th episode mark where everything starts going downhill. Really, really fast. It's a sequence of episodes where everything happens super fast. People are dying left and right and sometimes even within minutes of eachother despite being in entirely different situations. Timetables that aren't kept to whatsoever, promises that aren't kept for no real reason. Imagine being the king of whatever the hell ML's place is called ( I'm sorry I'm horrendous with the names of everything in this show it all kinda blurred together ). You watch your sons and even your wife fighting for the throne. You order your wife to forcibly commit suicide and one of your sons goes proper insane. You finally abdicate the throne to a trustworthy son who promises you to take great care of his nation..... Only for him to ditch that entirely two days later because love conquers all. Now mind you I didn't actually dislike the ending. I'm talking about the final 10 minutes of the last episode that is. It's fitting for both of them to bow out of the world of royalty and politics and live as they always wanted to live, freely. Not only that but entrusting their once enemy to be the emperor because they have a shared worldview was great. This worked very well, the road to get there not so much but hey, atleast the ending was alright.
Speaking about living freely, why the hell did the female lead have to be a princess? How in the living hell was she ever allowed to just roam the lands as a commoner? this was never explained. This kind of inconsistency happens all throughout the show. The rules of the royalty were used at the whim of the writer, whenever it was necessary to be flexible or not.
The entire character of the female lead is about being free and adventurous. Yet she didn't bat so much as an eye when she was forced by circumstances to rule her nation. Her brother dies, a minute later her father dies to illness despite having been projected to still have a month left to live by the court physician. The father somehow knew the brother died despite the female lead being the only person to have received that news and soon after the female lead ends up leading the nation instead. Perfectly of course, despite having zero court experience and knowledge of ruling. Which gets me to another issue of the show.
The leads were way too perfect. They had absolutely zero flaws. They were kind, smart, calculative, gorgeous, witty, you name it and it's probably one of their character traits. We follow them because they're the leads but why we actually should root for them is beyond me. There's never a single doubt that they're going to end up victorious or excell in their respective fields.
Lastly, to reference the title of this review; ''greatness ended with a bafflingly horrendous sequence of episodes at the end''.
This war that started happening around the 32nd episode mark was horrendously displayed. The following sequence of events happened nearly 10 times in a row with only the ever so slightest of deviation to the point it might aswell not be relevant.
- Forces stare eachother down on a fat barren wasteland.
- A tiny percent of the forces end up fighting while the rest looks on.
- Random comments from either side about some impenetrable famous formation
- Retreat
- Cue the night time encampment talks
- Back to the first point.
This was actually just horrific writing. I've never quite witnessed a sequence of events in any show that was this bad.
To go from an okay show in the first 30 episodes to the last 10 episodes being so disproportionally bad shows that the writers had no clue how to end this story. Baffling, really.
Some minor points about the show that didn't sit well with me;
- Female lead dies twice but not really because of some random shit that can revive her, okay why not I guess.
- Antagonist thinks he's won when hes being confronted 1v3 by the world's strongest fighters while having no basis for that confidence whatsoever.
- Tianshung Sect's Lanhua stabbing female lead for suspicion of having killed her father despite them having a very close relationship and her obviously not being that kind of person. Doesn't think it through whatsoever just stabs the sword through. her heart.Just lmao... And all is forgiven because she was revived by a deux ex machina flower. Why not.
- Oldest prince becomes injured to the point where he isn't in contention for the throne anymore and male lead just completely forgets about him. After this happens there isn't a single scene of them together anymore. I thought they were so close? I guess not.
- Non existant OST.
- The same static pictures to transition between city states for the entirety of the show. Trees don't move, birds don't fly. It's literally just a picture. How boring and immersion breaking.
- Why did we need a childhood connection between male and female lead? Nothing was even done with it.
For the sake of having SOMETHING positive to say about the show here's the things I DID like;
- Female lead up untill episode 30 ish. Her character was well acted out and very charming.
- Female lead and Qi Wu's relationship. I was dreading the love triangle but this never happened and they pretty much became best friends. Some of the show's best scenes are them just interacting while male lead is a sidekick.
- The early episodes of Hei Fengxi and Bei Fengxi running into eachother while adventuring and slowly falling in love.
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COSTUME Drama
After a great start, the drama feels dragged with the sense of showing the main leads in different costumes and romance.In Public who love the couple may be able to handle the whole show.
Those people who prefer strong plots this drama is not for you. This drama lacks a solid plot.
I personally prefer a strong plot as I have seen on JOY OF LIFE. JOY OF LIFE IS MY FAVOURITE Chinese drama.
Before proceeding to watch this drama let me make it easy for you. Just ask questions to yourself?
Is the main lead your favorite actor? if yes
Do I Like drama that is entirely focused on the main leads with a dragged plot? if yes
Do I like drama that doesn't have any solid storyline? If yes
Do I like drama that doesn't deliver anything except romance? if yes
If you can answer all the above questions yes so you can watch the drama and you surely like it.
Now, if you really want to see it and wondering what this drama delivers to you?
The answer is lots of costume and romance. After the first 10 episodes which are so good, this drama falls apart.
Thanks.
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More of idol drama than wuxia
Rant: Not expected from a high budget drama with good cast. Casting is the best thing here. Acting is good.Got many pretty faces to waste my time.. I don't care if you're willing to watch this drama for your idol. All casts are pretty honestly but heck, I didn't watch this drama for that sole reason. If that's the case, then I can just follow them on IG or search their face on google.
Too much plothole especially the political plot. Can feel that they try hard to make it like NIF that they forgot it's wuxia. Some character write ups are so bad like the queen.
Fight scenes are not good especially for ML. He just sways his fan then kaching. But he looks cool though haha. I believe he could do more. He has nice physique.
All in all, it lacks so much effort on fight scenes.
Some fight scenes are also so mindblowing. I sometimes think they hired a xianxia choreographer for an wuxia drama.
The plot is tolerable from the start then it went downhill.
Very Disappointing and insulting because they say it's wuxia.
*Not everyone is like me so take this opinion as a grain of salt cause I lot of people are willing to watch a drama for eyecandy cast. If you're not really after the plot, this is going to be fine cause the cast are really pretty. Can't deny that.
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Xianxia show that tried to be Wuxia and Historical Drama and was not anything
Story---terrible. The story plays out to taking forty episodes to stall around and up to one scene. The first episode was the context establishment and the last episode was the plot point---which is a situation that needs to be solved and not the ending but it's the last episode. Basically the writers told themselves, "we know we want to have a powerful prince and another powerful princess who disguises themselves to go out into the world. Then after years of bonding, their identities are eventually revealed and they lead their respective kingdoms to ally and fight another power." Sounds intriguing.Now ideally, the reputation of the established characters would be introduced in the beginning, check. And they would show their journey and how they walked to this day, sorta-not-really check in that they've known each other for years as they walked Jianghu (which is just told to the audience and never really shown or seen through their character development as the throughout the show they're bonding so basically they never bonded before). The rising action and climax is they need to use their real identities to solve problems while maintaining their aliases to deal with each other. The fight between kingdoms would take place before the climax, after which the third power is revealed, and the falling action would be an acceptance of each other, and the end would be dealing with combining and bringing peace to their kingdoms and their two identities.
Then how they executed this is they introduced the characters in episode one and the fight doesn't take place till the last episode. The in-between was I-don't-know an investigation show? A historical political show? A wuxia show? All of those. Oh and a 'tianmi' romance. No. It was not.
This leads me to discuss production.
Production---TERRIBLE. They took a scriptwriter for a Xianxia show, and placed the characters from those shows into a Wuxia show, except the execution of the long fighting scenes and rival clans was non-existent. They tried to have a historical political setting, except none of the characters carried the attitudes of royals. What kind of prince (first prince) is not interested in the throne? What kind of prince (third prince) is so ineffective and shallow? He would have died long ago by the schemes of the court members and not even needing the main character to take him down. As for the main character, what kind of prince can extract themselves from the fight for the throne so cleanly? The only way you are not part of the game is if you die. What kind of king doesn't care about his sons? He needs a successor! What is the point of being king if your kingdom cannot last past you? But he is somehow against the main character because...why? The scriptwriter could not come up with a reason! And the main character had some existential crisis that his father the king hated him or something. Have some respect for the authority of a king and the law. It IS a crime to lie to the king, and you lied about being sick and you feel like he doesn't care about you when he wants to find out the truth?? As a person with a right to the throne, the scheming WILL risk your life AND the lives of your supporters. Why are you so people ARE against you?? In conclusion, the writer tried to be deep and combine aspects of wuxia and period dramas into what is really a xianxia drama and did not achieve the authenticity of either, making it a disgrace to both genres.
Acting---I had a good impression of Yang Yang after watching him in the Once Upon A Time movie with Liu Yifei (the movie version of Ten Miles Peach Blossom) which gave me the impression he was a top-rated actor because of his looks, his casting partner, as well as being chosen for the role however this show has completely reversed that perspective. His acting in the show is terrible because he doesn't hold the gravity of a prince, nor the gentleness of a love interest and he gives the impression he's constantly mocking, which lessens the dimension of his character---because that's just himself and not the character written in the script. Zhao Lusi created some character development in the first episode with her attitude, but that was quickly doused away after episodes of intensive dialogue lines where she quickly fell into a role of recitation.
Music---All the music in the show sounds copyrighted, namely the ost from Ten Miles Peach Blossom and Pirates of the Caribbean for the adventure and sea scenes.
The only thing watchable about this show is from the visual effects. This is due to the well-known actors of Zhao Lusi and Yang Yang being the face of the show, and the editing which makes appealing effects that don't appear too fake.
Out of the 34/40 episodes I watched, the best scene was in episode 34 (?) when the third prince failed at executing a coup and grab for power. Just before he was brought away, when he confronted his father about the way he treats his sons, those were the most logical lines ever said in the whole show. Except, funnily, it comes out as ironic---because it's so logical it seems out of character. It makes him seems omnipotent and not present in his character and the situation. (You'd have to be a god to say facts so true in this cringe of a situation the writer forced the characters into).
Truthfully, in the beginning I thought the third prince would become king because he was being manipulated by his mother and his advisors but he had good character. I stand by this statement by the fact he spoke such truth (as I mentioned above), but sadly he was written into insanity by the writers. RIP
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Must watch Chinese drama
Zhao Lusi and YangYang were amazing. Both the Male and Female leads did a fantastic job. Eaxh episode made me want to keep watching for more. They have an excellent chemistry and they look great together. Their acting was superb. Even though Zhao Lusi is young, she was able to deliver her great acting skills.This drama ha a great storyline.
One of the things I love in this drama is the martial arts; it was well orchestrated, great effects and sounds.
All supoorting actorand actresses were amazing too. I re-watched this drama several times. Highly recommended 👌 👍
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