This drama is highly rated, so I guess I have some explaining to do. That's one reason why I am writing this review - seeing that so many people absolutely adored this drama, I want to offer a somewhat different point of view. The other reason is that I feel like I want to sort out my thoughts about it.
So, did I like it at all? Yes, I did. Not because I thought it was very beautiful or extraordinary or anything, and not because I was swept away by the romance. No, on the contrary I found this drama to be very, very silly with too many plotholes, and even though I generally enjoy teacher/student romances I didn't feel a lot of "chemistry" in this drama. Part of it can be explained by the fact that the man lives in "The Hall of Emotionless", above everything else. But even so… At first I was disappointed with this drama and thought to myself: "What ever is this?!" but I learned to take it for what it was and enjoy iy as such. I saw this drama as light and fun, not a comedy but definitely impossible to take seriously, some things annoying and some things delightfully enjoyable.
The thing is, many things in this drama don't make a lot of sense, especially not the details. Things happen without reason or explanation all of a sudden and the characters are saying and doing irrational things sometimes. At Chang Liu they honour vitures like being "emotionless" and without desire and ambition. Yet all of the characters - except the male lead, sometimes - display all kinds of very human emotions all the time - like distrust and suspicion, jealousy, and a lot of importance is placed on the times when the disciples have to compete agains each other. They have to do their best to win, because there can only be one winner of course. I fail to understand how it is possible to fight for the spot as the sect leader's disciple without having any feelings about it. Also, it is against the rule to fall in love, but some people break the rule with no consequences.
The writing is definitely lacking, it does a terrible job at explaining the details and even the greater lines that would make the context - the setting, the basics of this fantasy world - come to life. We know that there are some "demons" and some "immortals" and some "humans". And there is some great, dark danger that is threathening the existence of the whole world. How and why I have no idea, but the "deity devices" that are spread out among the various sects (what is the purpose of these sects and what are they doing there?) can keep things in check. Of course, the bad guys are trying to steal these devices. All of this is sketchy at best. It seems like someone wanted to write a teacher/student story in a fantasy world, but didn't have enough imagination, and decided to roughly copy the manual of "Fantasy Story 1A". There they are "cultivating", which in some way or another means that they learn magic skills that mostly consist of being able to fly on the edge of a sword, push people away with a flash of light or create a shield around them, and make all those wuxia moves. The good guys live in golden halls, the bad guys live in dark, cave-like places, and their soldiers seem to be retired orchs who are sometimes very, very useless fighters. I really hated how boring and pointless the whole fantasy setting was. There is not even any real feeling of Good v/s Evil.
I liked, no, I adored many of the "bad guys" in this drama. I don't often fall for the characters that belong to or turn to "the dark side", but if it's done the right way, there is something about it that appeals to me. I liked Sha Quian Mo, aka Sha Jie Jie, from the start. I like the way he's so powerful and has almost complete control over his subordinates - he has quite a bit of that awesome great power that makes some people kind of hot - and yet he's so emotional and soft on the inside. Or at least a part of his inside... He was my favourite and with a better story, he could have been a wonderful character! Purple Fairy, too, is a character who is strong and proud and elegant, sharp and powerful. Too bad this is mostly ruined by her foolishness, her obsession with love that makes her kind of stupid, and weak. Even so, I always adored her and stayed a little bit on her side even when she did bad things. (As for the bad guys, Ni Man Tian was one I did not like at all. She was just a spoiled brat who was mean for no reason. No fun at all.) Dongfang was also an interesting character and one that I liked more and more, once I got past the first few annoying episodes. I also liked some of the supporting characters. (Yes, I'm saying that I like the supporting characters more than the main couple, but… I find that to be pretty okay. It's too bad the supposedly great romance didn't sweep me off my feet this time, but looking at the rating and the other reviews, I guess that's just me…)
It reverses good and bad, in a way. The people in the golden and pastel coloured castle are the good guys, but often they are colder and more cruel than the villains. Well, this is at least true about some of them. There are some lovable cliché good guys (minor characters who are sweet and give the leads support in the right moments) and some cliché bad guys whom you love to hate. Because of this "reversal" in the characters attitudes and actions (or should I say that some characters are actually rather multi-layered) it is sad that the setting is still so cliché. I dislike how they use colours so stereotypically, especially knowing that some c-dramas can be really beautiful. (I've heard that this is actually pretty good for its genre, but seeing as this is my first Chinese fantasy drama I can't compare it. It does have a few pretty sceneries but nothing special, in my opinion.)
This drama is like a big bowl of candy. Not premium quality, stuff, but sweet and colourful. Too much, but it kind of looks good. Even though you know it when you bite into it, that there's really not point in eating it, you just can't resist it. You just take another piece. And another, and another, until you're full and had enough. You shouldn't have started eating to begin with. But another day, you come back for more!
That's what this drama was like for me. I dislike a lot of things about it. I wouldn't recommend it for the romance - as much as I have a soft spot for teacher/student relationships, this couple did not move me. Even though I have to admit there were a few sweet moments, overall I find this romance utterly unromantic with no chemistry to speak of. Bai Zi Hua is a very stupid man whose decisions don’t make sense a lot if the time.
Well, there's one thing about it - this drama, I found it amusing! I was disappointed at first, because I had expected something grand and beautiful and exquisite (well, who can blame me, the second c-drama I ever watched was Nirvana in Fire and it kind of set the bar and made me have unreasonable expectations). I found this to be ridicilously silly. It really is. But once I accepted the silliness, embraced the comedy (although I'm not sure if all the things that made me laugh were meant to be funny) and tried to ignore the stupidness of a lot of the plot, The Journey of Flower quickly became my guilty pleasure. If I hadn’t had that feeling about it, I would have dropped it after four or five episodes… but I did watch the whole thing and didn’t skip anything except a few figthing scenes in the last half of the drama.
Tonight I also watched a few of the cut scenes on YouTube. They are... interesting, but including them (the ones I watched) would not have made the drama better in my opinion, only more frustrating.
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STORY:
The story is one of the strong points of this drama. I rarely watch a drama without skipping at least a few minutes, but there was no need to do that with this one. Entertaining things and characters were going on everywhere and at all times. There are plot holes and very strange moments where something really weird happens, but I found out that 4 episodes worth of material were cut from the aired TV version and the cut material would've made everything make more sense. Overall though the beginning and middle of this drama were almost flawless and the story flowed well and kept you watching... even in the middle of the night XD If the cut material had been included the end part of the drama would've been excellent as well.
ACTING/CAST:
The cast was also great! I especially enjoyed the main actors. Huo Wallace (Bai Zi Hua) did a wonderful job portraying a godlike, statuesque man suffering constant inner turmoil. It is too bad that I don't think his real voice is used in the drama, but I guess this is often done in Chinese dramas. Zhao Zanilia (Hua Qian Gu) was the first female character I've encountered that managed to pull off that perfectly "innocent" & "pure" woman that is so often portrayed in Asian dramas, without being the least bit annoying. She also made her character feel strong at the same time. The supporting cast was also great and certainly offer the female viewers some good options in the male department ;)
MUSIC:
I enjoyed most of the music. Especially the end credit song was a really melodramatic ballad that built the mood of the entire series. There were also some really nice flute themes played throughout the drama that helped you immerse yourself in the story.
REWATCH VALUE:
I've read that there will be a DVD version of the series that will have all the material that was cut out. I will definitely watch this entire series when I get my hands on that DVD... especially since I know that most of the things cut out were cut because they were too risqué! ;)
OVERALL:
You might think that this series does not deserve a 9/10 since they sort of butchered a lot of their good work by cutting out important scenes, but still I was glued to my screen until the very last moment and this series opened the world of Chinese dramas to me. Some of the special effects are terrible, but I don't think they took away from the storytelling. Watch the first episode and you should know if this is for you or not!
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P.s ... don't know why the summary says Sha Xian Mo was a love interest of Qian Gu's... because to Qian Gu he was just her big "sister" and he looked after her with an affection and love seen between siblings.
Anywho, I'm sure you'll all thoroughly enjoy the drama without me hoping you will, as long as you give it a try :) trust me, the heartbreak, agony and tears you will experience throughout will all be worthwhile in the end!
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Saved by the long haired devil in Prada.
This is one of those dramas with many, many flaws but somehow still manages to be so very enjoyable to watch that it commands higher ratings than it deserves. It is also one where for me, a secondary lead playing a dark character completely steals the show and wins my heart.This is the story of Hua Qiangu (Zhao Liyang), a cursed orphan who has a tendency to attract demons. She is rescued from angry and fearful villagers by a powerful immortal Bai Zihua (Wallace Huo) who after many trials, reluctantly accepts her as his disciple. Of course they can't help falling in love but if the master disciple relationship is not obstacle enough, she is also fated to be his calamity and it is his duty to suppress the demon goddess within her by killing her. They come regularly in conflict with factions of the Demon Sect, who are out to steal a number of magical artifacts that when put together unleashes the demon forces. When her master Bai Zihua is mortally injured, Hua Qian Gu goes on a quest to recover all of the artifacts regardless of the consequences. This is a result of the machinations of a mysterious antagonist that results in a good surprise plot- twist.
As a couple Qiangu and Zihua would have worked better if Wallace Huo had not appeared to be icy-faced practically all of the time. He is a good enough actor that he must have just been a bit lazy in this role. As a result, his Bai Zihua came dangerously close to crossing the line of being cruel and indifferent to Hua Qiangu. I was still rooting for them as a couple but there were many moments where he really angered me. This made Hua Qiangu seem a bit silly for being so devoted to such a cold fish when she was surrounded by so many other more worthy suitors. Huo's rather flat performance left the door open for the secondary leads to steal the show and indeed they did. Andy Zhang was really very convincing as Dong Fang but it is Kyle Ma's Sha Qian Mo that shocked and awed.
I would probably have given this show a 7 or 7.5 without Ma's Sha Qian Mo. He was equally compelling as the fearsome and deadly Demon Lord as he was as Hua Qiangu's tender and protective Sha Jiejie. He is a total fashion diva that embraces his feminine side, pulls off these colorful, exotic and unambiguously female outfits and hilariously exchanges beauty tips with Qiangu. He would sadly advice her not to love her callous sifu so much despite sagely knowing she wouldn't be able to help herself. This was one of the characters from the show that really resonated with me and saved the drama. I'd like to see this actor again in some better roles!
The overall story-line is very interesting it moves at a nice pace for the most part and then at the end the story gets garbled, a bit confusing and then it ends abruptly. It is as if they ran out of time or something. This is really absurd because they wasted hours and hours on this super annoying, whiny CGI caterpillar character that turns into a noisy, talkative and thoroughly irritating girl. The directors and scriptwriters really deserve to be spanked for wasting time they did not have on this now hopefully unemployed actress. This could have and should have been a much better show. Still while rushed, the ending was not as terrible as some have described as the two leads did manage to click well in the finale. Its is still overall enjoyable and worth watching.
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This is not a romance. This is not even really a love story. This is a sparkly wuxia tale of destructive and unhealthy relationships. Right up until the last episode where it desperately tries to redeem it. Like most others, I started this thinking it would be a reasonably light drama with great actors and fun fantasy elements. Maybe I read too much into things, but this was nothing whatever like I expected. While it certainly starts out that way- This took something I usually applaud- good not really flawless, bad not always evil- and does it in almost every wrong way… and STILL somehow end up with characters that are ridiculously, rigidly “good” or intrinsically and unsalvageably evil. So annoying.
I was able to sympathise right off the start with Hua QianGu, even though she’s rather helpless and damsel in distress throughout most of the show. If you are looking for Chu Qiao in Princess Agents all over again, stop now. But if you can tolerate the idea of her starting out and mostly staying vulnerable to the nth degree, you may be ok. You mostly end up thinking of her as a little sister type. This made the story that much more painful. It’s like watching your bff or whatever start a self destructive relationship and not being able to do a thing about it. Really, that’s what troubles me the most. Guy or gal, if you are in a relationship that even remotely resembles this one up until the end, gtfo. Please. For your sake and the sake of everyone that loves you. And none of that “you can’t help who you fall in love with”. Love is supposed to bring joy and light and life to your world, not destroy it. At some point much earlier you just have to stop and ask yourself if this is good for you. Do we make mistakes that hurt each other? Of course. But the essence of it needs to be rooted in positivity. It scares me that some people may watch it and feel justified staying in an unhealthy relationship. That was my predominant thought watching this show.
This is one of those that ten episodes in, I’m wondering how the hell almost any of the good characters can be considered good. They’re either self righteous jerks or actually inherently evil. I mean, once they make decisions towards the dark side shouldn’t they become dark sect? The judgy pool should at least acknowledge that, right?
The bad guys are either truly decent people or the stereotypical utterly evil. I enjoyed the relationships between Dong Fang, and Sha QianMo, with our girl so much more, and both are technically supposed to be dark side.
The little caterpillar. So cute. Speaks at a decibel that stabbed ice picks through the headaches this show had me experiencing most of the way through. I actually had to watch this in fits and starts because it really did make my head hurt.
This was my first time seeing Wallace Huo and by the end I had and almost unbearable urge to poke him in the face to see if it moved- which gave me fits later because I watched Love Me if You Dare soon after, and the lead actress DOES poke him in the face. Very satisfying. Not saying he’s a bad actor because it was the role he was playing, and he did it very well. Even if you wanted to jab him. Really, really hard.
The OST is beautiful. The music is so catchy it gets stuck in your (aching) head. The lyrics are absolutely perfect for this, too, which is amusing, because destructive relationships are much easier to handle in a song than to watch them progress slowly and painfully each episode.
Upside: Everyone is shiny and beautiful (on the surface at least) and if you can get past the many, many flaws and watch it for entertainment value alone- probably want to be as drunk as a nine-tailed fox too- then you’ll be fine.
Downside: If you’re like me and you need the main relationship to stay inherently healthy and nonabusive, it’s going to hurt. Emotionally, and probably physically.
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The plot is simple. Everyone is obsessed with someone or something to the point they turn cuckoo. Almost everyone hates HQG, blames her for everything that's gone wrong in their lives, and wants her to die. Multiple powerful men like HQG and want her alive. HQG just wants to be left alone with BZH who wants to protect her just because she is his disciple. I guess…
The flow of the plot is sometimes jumpy. Information is revealed out of nowhere without any hints in the earlier episodes. Disclaimer: I watched the DVD version, whereas the uncut had more episodes. Maybe the missing content could have filled in the blanks, but I don’t care enough to know what it is. I don’t think it’ll help this poor mess in any case.
The first third of the drama is actually bearable and enjoyable. This particular arc depicted a progression of how HQG turned from weak to strong in terms of power. I did like this journey because it’s the usual rise from underdog to top dog. Outside of cultivation, however, HQG regressed to the point of no return, literally.
By episode 20, I questioned why I was still watching and what I was watching. It’s not exactly an epic love story between two people who are tied by fate. If so, they failed to convince me. There was an extreme lack of chemistry between HQG and BZH to even call their relationship remotely romantic. I deduce this is due to how poorly their characters were written. I wasn’t even touched by their teacher/student bond. I watched the lengths they went for each other but felt nothing at all.
A little past the midway point, HQG got even more and more annoying with her obsession over her teacher. She lost her brain cells and made stupid, reckless decisions driven by her persistence to be by BZH’s side. If I did drink and if I played a little game called “Take a shot every time HQG says, ‘Shifu’, then I would’ve quickly died of alcohol poisoning. After finishing the drama, dying before getting to the end does sound quite nice.
The list of pros of JoF is short, riddled with buts. I liked Dong Fang, but, well, you know. I liked the caterpillar (spirit bug), but it turned into a human. I liked the man who liked to be called Jiejie, but he turned a bit meh. I liked the OST, but I wished they added it as background music during scenes more often.
The list of cons is long, longer than I would care to write about. The crux of it all is the unlikeable, one-dimensional characters. They were all annoying in their own right. In some dramas, I could turn a blind eye and pass supporting characters off as endearing. Nope, not in JoF. I could not bring myself to like or root for anyone in this drama. It’s amazing in a horrifying way.
Conclusion: JoF had me looking for a playback speed that exceeded 2. The tearjerker tag doesn’t make sense. Snoozefest fits best.
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First I fell in love with sceneries, landscapes and all the journey they have gone through, then constant battles, adventures, travelling, and wonderful music followed in every important scene and the last I was mesmerized by villains or supposed to be villains. You'll start this drama most cause of Wallace and Zanilia (which was the case with me too, I love them so much) but then you'll slowly start to notice others and put the main couple somewhere behind, I didn't think not even slightly that I won't like Wallace and that he'd be so unimportant to me. But it happened that way.
Cause Sha Qian Mo aka Jiejie and Dongfang have to be the best characters ever. I got too attached to them, I was excited and so impatiently waiting for next episode just so that I could watch them, their interactions with Hua Qian Gu, their ideas, thoughts and actions. Some of the best lines in this drama come from them, there were two lines which have engraved in my soul for the rest of my life. One was said by Sha Qian Mo: "Bai Zi Hua, if you dare hurt her for your sect, I will slaughter your entire sect. If you harm her for the world, I will massacre the people of the world!”- this scene was for me so powerful that I got goosebumps all over my body; and the other one said by Dongfang: "You must live on, even if no one in this world loves you, you need to love yourself."- my favourite sentence in this drama.
Let me tell you about those two guys- Sha Qian Mo a Holy Ruler, the strongest demon and the main evil guy but oh boy how he was everything else except evil. I loved him cause he was all for fair game, for no games and tricks, how he saved many times most of the characters in this drama and how he wasn't hypocrite, he was honest and loyal till the end. I can only bow to him, sweetest jiejie. Ma Ke did a brilliant job in portraying him and his costumes, hair, gestures, beauty- simply he was the most beautiful character; beside him the one who conquer my heart and the one whom I love the most is Dongfang- the most intelligent and clever creature in this drama. I could write all day about him but I'll only say a few words. Cunning, dangerous, calculating, manipulative villain who used people only to get what he wanted and to satisfy his thirst for revenge. Yes I admit he was like that but I can only admire him cause from all of them he was the only human without any divine and real power, he was a human being who had to use his own strength and brain to survive and in all the process he did hurt some people but actually he didn't hurt nor kill anyone innocent. He protected, loved, took care of Hua Qian Gu by any means and nothing wasn't more important than that, not even his revenge. His chemistry with Zanilia was amazing, their simple touches, hugs, natural behavior, conversations, I rooted for them and they are one of my fav. couples for sure, somehow I didn't feel that much chemistry between her and Shifu, I guess it was cause they didn't show us that strong and powerful love like it is in the novel. Anyway Dongfang will stay forever as one of the character I love the most, for whom I cried, laughed and cheered the most. ?
And in the end about our two main characters- Zanilia was so cute and sweet, she did a good job in acting and even better she was as a Demon Goddess, I think she should take more roles like this one to get out from the image of sweet, innocent good girl like in most dramas. Wallace was good as always, his character was like that- so cold, emotionless, ruthless and brutal that at times I was thinking how she could fall in love with him in the first place. I only saw his endless love for her at the very end and I think their love was too destructive and wrongly portrayed, I couldn't involve in their story almost at all, only at times I cheered and enjoyed in their scenes together.
As for the rest, I think that everyone did a decent job in acting and what I loved about this drama is how nothing is what it seems. The ones who were evil demons actually were more humans than the ones who supposed to be good immortals and leaders of sects. I hated all those hypocrites in sects, I won't name them but some of them deserved to die in the most horrible and terrible way.
I enjoyed in this drama so much, it has many flaws and things which bothered me very much but because of those characters I came to love and because of wonderful landscapes, music and costumes, I overlooked them.
Definitely from my point of view drama worth watching and after watching you'll see why I said all this, its details, side happenings and characters are what made her to be this addictive and one of the finest in xianxia and wuxia genre.
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Ok, the story was long, but the idea and message was learned without struggling to finish the drama. I believe I spent more time shouting at the character for so many stupid decisions than asking when it will end. Plus i love love the music mainly the first opening song; in fact I'm listening to it right now "Fire of the heart" this works well it makes one cry. Overall, a definite re-watch but only for your favourite scenes cause be don't want you to be upset over mind boggling actions.
I recommend for you die-hard romance and fantasy lovers who would enjoy a deep development between soul mates and the hard choices that come with weighing their destinies in the balance.
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This review may contain spoilers
Painful
When I was looking for another sweeping drama after Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms, this title caught my attention. But now that I've made it to the end, I have to say my overall experience with this drama was painful.The leading man, Bai Zi Hua, is an immovable rock, and not in a charming way. His persistent disciple, Hua Qian Gu, the leading women, suffers continually simply because she was born to be a trial for him.
I wanted to root for the pairing but making my way to the end I had to endure the most confusing editing chops. Vital scenes were cut, (even sexy ones at that, I looked it up after I finished) and random unnecessary character deaths all around. I suppose the last few scenes were meant to indicate a happy ending but... Zanilia Zhao's character Hua Qian Gu, was left in a vegetable state and as for Bai Zi Hua, he was practically a broken man. This drama broke him, I'm sure.
The only character I really gravitated towards the most was Sha Qian Mo. He was quirky and tragic and somehow, the most sympathetic.
I will stick with my overall feelings. This drama is painful. I was hesitant to watch another with Zanilia but thankfully, my opinion completely changed after finishing 'The Story of Ming Lan.' She is incredible in it.
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What I Liked:
1. As my first 'wuxia' this series opened up a whole new world for me. I loved the costumes, the fantasy, and I enjoyed learning about things like cultivation. It wasn't until later, watching other series, that I learned these are common themes and essentially define a wuxia. Prior to this, I almost exclusively watched Kdramas. Not so much anymore.
2.The subplots were all entertaining; I enjoyed that the Holy Ruler was not the actual villain of the show. I also enjoyed his shameless narcissism. In many ways he is a foil to Bai Zhu Hua. I liked the sets, the costumes.
3.This drama is able to achieve a nice balance between comedy and melodrama, I think because they left most of the comedy for early on in the show and then steadily built in plots that increasingly made the show more serious. Once things became serious we saw hardly any comedy.
What I Loved
4. The transformation of Bones from a sweet, adorable, at times extremely dense girl into an extremely resilient woman, overcoming some of the most awful trials, all because of her ill-fated love. I mean people really have it in for her. This transformation continues as she also turns into a very direct, at times ruthless woman, something that she didn't necessarily wish to be but was forced to become in order to survive. She finally reaches a point where she eschews the rules and values of everyone else in order to protect herself.
5.The steady deterioration of Bai Zhu Hua's image. He is the leader of a sect dedicated to protecting the world. Words like pure, perfect, god-like, and selfless are constantly used to describe his person. But as the series progresses we see that there is an extremely dark side to his personality (very subtly presented): his selfishness and greed can be compared to no one. He does everything in his power to keep Bones at his side, even if it means placing her in painful situations, insisting he is doing it for her, but truthfully he is doing it for himself. He can't let her go, he can't allow anyone else to have her, and so he traps her in this hell all the while presenting himself as her respected Shifu. Very devious. Even more so because he believes his own lies. I mean it isn't like he is two-faced, pretending to be nice and then behind the scenes the mask comes off. He really believes his own b.s.
6.The final confrontation produced feelings that I have not felt from any other dram. It was extremely satisfying because I think it showcased who Bones was, and where she was coming from, and it also completely showed Bai Zhu Hua's true colors.
What I hated
7.This series has the annoying trope of 'every man loves the female lead'. Those who don't fall in love with her (with the exception of maybe two people) are either in love with someone else or despise her for reasons that are never really explained.
8.The women in the show (with the exception of one or two) all detest the female lead. If they don't in the beginning they wind up hating her. And with the exception of 1, it is never really explained. It seems to be a case of stereotypical female jealousy. I would be exhausted hating someone for that long.
Final Notes
This may be the only drama that I have seen where I would have been okay with the leads never getting together because Bai Zu Hua was such a great villain. He was meticulously created and I think designed to make the viewer at first like him but by the end you hover between feelings of revulsion and outright hate. He is just unforgivable and the best part is he is so subtly evil! This isn't a guy who is violent or disrespectful to our leading lady. He has hardly any lines. But he is just...awful. If you watch 3 Lives 3 worlds 10 mile peach blossom you might see parallels between Fengjiu and Bones and Mo Yuan/Shifu (in terms of personality; these characters have no romantic links).
This show is based off of a popular novel. I am still looking for a full translation, but here is a link to what I have found so far: https://dorayakiz.wordpress.com/2014/10/24/the-journey-of-flower-author-fresh-guo-guo/
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I really enjoyed this drama and watched it in a couple of days. The cast did a wonderful job portraying their characters and bringing to life this fantasy world.
What I liked:
I loved that everything wasn't just black and white and each character had depth which help describe their actions. Although the main characters did a great job, the side stories were very interesting and I wasn't upset when the attention got redirected from the leads. Although not the ending I expected, I am satisfied with the ending.
What could improve:
There was a critical turning point in this drama, which I believe they dragged it...for I don't know how many episodes. I don't understand why they did this, but after this critical time has pass the direction speeds up a bit.
Also, if I could get a nickle every time Little Bone said "Shifu" I could start my own mid size business. I was so glad when she finally said his name...even if the circumstances weren't all that great.
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This review may contain spoilers
when ur dad neglected u for his job and u put all of ur spite into making this drama
listen... im the kind of person who knows what kind of show i will like and what i won't and generally try to avoid what i already know i won't enjoy. the concept of master/disciple romantic relationships is one of these things, i'm sorry but i'm on the side of the orthodox sects w this one - it's a gross power imbalance, may as well be parent/child incest, and literally disgusts me. despite the fact that shen diao xia lu is one of the most formative stories of my childhood, as an adult i have my values and much more perspective. it is basically a relationship between an adult and the child they raise and i will never enjoy this in any piece of fiction. i watched the entirety of hua qiangu at 2x the speed in a fit of masochism while isolating after getting covid just because i wanted to understand modern xianxia as we know it and i knew that this show had a big impact at the time. i wanted to understand the context that would precede 3l3w and the xianxia wave, so basically i did this for research and i don't regret that.anyway, upon finishing this absolute dumpster trash fire of chaos and senseless tragedy porn, i didn't feel empty, or upset, i just felt blown away by the deep spite that created this. like wow, the pettiness, the immaturity, the deep desire to cause as much emotional pain and regret as possible. i was almost impressed, i have never seen something with such a clear emotional impact, w the emotion being vindictiveness. this was the definition of the childish fantasy 'my parents are so unfair im gonna run away and something horrible will happen to me and THEN they'll be so sorry and so sad that they EVER hurt me!!!!' it's like when you start fantasizing about your man neglecting you while other people are bullying you or hurting you and you are this victim who never did anything wrong and you sacrificed everything for your man but the world is against you and you indulge yourself and get lost in this brain hole where the fantasy has extended to the point where all your friends and family died for you and the man you love still didn't believe in you and killed you and then you were DEAD and he spent the rest of his life feeling sorry and regretting it and devoted himself to you and there you go you've made the whole drama. like 3l3w has that vindictiveness in it but jeez this show takes the cake, they literally have bai zihua's final lines be like 'i'm giving up my sect, im giving up the world, i'm giving up my values, i will live for her and be whatever she wants me to be.' like what the fuck????? in what universe is this anything other than a ridiculous, childish, spiteful fantasy of making ur bf who hurt u live for u because he feels so bad??? esp when the writer CLEARLy has deep daddy issues stemming from her dad neglecting her for his job??? like.....i cant really respect this work, but i really am almost impressed by the ability to be fueled by spite for so long that you write a whole novel motivated by it.
ok so the plot is really quite bad. i actually was really enjoying the first half of the show, it wasn't well written, but it was entertaining. it had a lot of genre elements i love, i love all the kids testing to get into the sect, being disciples together, going to investigate cases, martial competitions, etc. i thought it was cute that qiangu, who had never had friends before suddenly had a big bunch of sweet and silly friends, and i LOVED ni mantian.... i love my arrogant prideful girls who only care abt winning but are actually sympathetic, so it was sweet to see her be friends with hua qiangu. (i do not ship in general but IF i did then yes i would ship this) of course the show destroyed that after like 10 episodes and ground mantian's character into the dust because they are allergic to complex characters. it was still shoddily written but i was able to compartmentalize and pretend it wan't gonna be a master/disciple romance and just a nice story about a hero's journey story and her cold but caring shifu who is her new dad. anyway it all went to shit as soon as bai zihua got poisoned and the rest of the show flew into a torrent of absolute senselessness. im not someone who can't take pain and angst and darkness in shows, in fact i love it- but it has to be well written and meaningful. Pain in stories has to exist for a reason- sometimes, the writer is trying to communicate that pain IS senseless, that horrible things happen to good people, and situations can happen where no one does anything wrong but it all goes to shit. and that is a way of talking about and processing the reality of life, because pain IS senseless, and it's a way to understand and make peace w that grief. i respect that. and that is 1000% not what hua qiangu is trying to communicate.
hua qiangu very successfully created a story where a bunch of characters are involved, and no one person technically did anything wrong, but everything horrible still happened anyway, and everyone died, and the reason for this is so that specifically qiangu and zihua can remain above blame for whatever reason. like it literally feels like nothing matters, no character matters, everyone is already simple enough but they reduce everyone to be even more flat and exist only to serve the writers goal of causing qiangu as much pain as possible so as to cause zihua as much pain as possible. what happened to mantian who was ambitious and competitive but also under a lot of familial pressure and needed a friend? why is shuo feng a rock and suddenly relevant and has to sacrifice himself?? why is qingshui suddenly stabbing qiangu in the back after being a stable friend for the entire series?? why is shiyi tricking and trapping tangbao??? why is there a sudden RANDOM new character who didn't need to exist who is now qiangu's little brother after 3 days of interacting??? why the fuck did the guy who killed jiejie's sister here too???? no reason for any of this other than to set qiangu on the path to her jokerfication. what is the point of the jokerfication? to make zihua feel bad and regret forever. it's literally just senselessness for the most stupid, petty and childish message, for that satisfaction of having zihua finally realize after he killed qiangu how wrong he was for caring about a single thing other than her. like she literally TESTED him to see how much he loved her at the end and the test was her LIFE like?? jesus the spite... grow up...
qiangu as a character i don't even necessarily hate or think she has nothing going for her. i think the idea of a 'pure' girl who is motivated purely by emotion and is capable of ditching all moral values when anything threatens her shifu to be fine enough by itself. it could be interesting to see someone who is previously only kind and naive, literally try to kill her classmate because she wanted to reveal the pinup drawing she did of her master. like i don't have a problem with that desperation and sudden abandonment of moral values, and it would've been cool if the point of it was to express how deeply she depended on her shifu, who is the first real figure of family, authority and care after her father died, and how desperate she was to stay in changliu- the first place she belonged after suffering a childhood of isolation and ostracization. but like no, it's nothing interesting about her character, it's about romantic love. it's literally just about how much she would sacrifice for love and literally lose her morals and not care about anything and almost enable the apocalypse and plunge the world into chaos..... because of love... and it's ok and you can't blame her because she did it for LOve. i hate this childish romanticization of sacrifice for love... truly i do.....
zihua on the other hand, i also actually don't hate either. he's pretty annoying at times, but honestly compared to 3l3w's yehua i actually don't hate him. like yehua did wrong by susu because he was bound by his role in his sect and his responsibilities, but his love for susu and their relationship isn't wrong or immoral, and susu is entirely innocent. it's his sect who is wrong for forbidding love between immortals and mortals. whereas zihua is completely different in that he stands by his moral values of righteousness. while im generally raring to go hating on the orthodox taoist sects, the rules of changliu are not wrong. it IS wrong to try to assemble the 10 fantasy objects for the fantasy apocalypse and literally put all of humanity in danger for ONE man, and it IS wrong to have a romantic relationship between master and disciple. like??? zihua isn't wrong for standing by his values on this one because qiangu isn't innocent?? and while of course i disagree w punishing qiangu for loving her teacher and the torture and all that, etc. etc. zihua didn't do anything wrong by repeatedly rejecting her, and in fact that was what he SHOULD do??? every time he's like 'even if you don't see me as a master, you will always be my disciple' 'even if i love you i will never be with you because you're my disciple' i am like YES. Good. that is Correct. but of course my opinion is the exact opposite of what the show wants you to feel. the show wants you to think he is wrong and horrible for putting his morals and values above love, because love should be more important than anything else even when his love is wrong. like this isn't love between a mortal and an immortal, or two people of separate fantasy races, or a god and a demon. this isn't love that is wrong in their universe based on the rules of said universe, but doesn't matter to us in reality because it is fictional. this love is wrong in REALITY also!!!!
their relationship itself......... like god i already went off on why it's wrong to sacrifice everything for love and devote yourself to one person but god......................... my god........... the degree to which this writer wants to be both a baby daughter and a lover who is the center of this man's world is deeply concerning. like she is literally a child for most of the series and acts like one, their relationship LITERALLy feels like a father/daughter relationship, the love and care and gentle guidance that zihua shows her again and again, is not that of a lover, but of a father?? like although ofc i have problems w shen diao xiao lu, at least i didn't feel like i was watching INceST. they took all the necessary steps to make the relationship feel equal, and like it was happening between partners, and master/disciple was just the initial stage or a meaningless label, xiao long nu was only four years older, and was incredibly naive and childish, deeply socially inept and isolated. it made it FEEL more equal. whereas zihua is 1000s of years old and has the vibe of a 40 year old, he's lived through so much already, is sect leader and has the highest position of authority, power and responsibility over qiangu as well as their sect and the entire cultivation world. and he meets qiangu when she is a 16 year old baby who doesn't know anything, doesn't have any family or friends, and had a devastating and traumatic childhood. like she is so incredibly vulnerable and dependent on him, and what she needs is essentially a parent and a teacher. their relationship never has a marked change to that of equals, except possibly the literal last two episodes, there isn't a time skip where she's grown up now or smth and things are different, and they develop a relationship as adults, they never feel like partners. everything he does for her is perfectly valid and what a master SHOULD do for a disciple. a master SHOULD sacrifice themselves for their disciple, and they SHOULD take punishments for them because they are their responsibility. the way he teaches her, tries to give her life advice, admonishes her.... it is literally all in the exact way that a father would. so it genuinely makes me feel sick and sad to see them have romantic feelings for each other, ESpecially on his part because it is just wrong?? a child having a crush on a teacher is far more acceptable but whenever he admits to his feelings i want to throw up!!!!
ok only pros i wanna give this show is for jiejie aka sha qianmo!! unexpected gender nonconforming ICON!! they might be the head of an 'evil' sect but they never really do anything reprehensible on screen, we mostly see their devotion and sisterly care for qiangu. they have such a sweet found family siblingship also that was like a balm in the disgusting sickness that was qianguxzihua. major trans vibes, very rare to see gender nonconforming 'villain' not have their gender presentation be a homophobic and transphobic shorthand for disgusting perversity. they are very powerful and in control, but not 'scary' or 'gross.' so i really appreciated that, and also the pleasant surprise of their subordinate being clearly in love with them. so the trans/queer vibes were actually nice to see here!
anyway that's absolutely it for pros there is literally nothing else good about this show. i feel like i understand xianxia better now so this was a worthy 36 hours of my time even if it brought me pain it helped me get through my covid isolation so im chill w that. i don't love xianxia but im glad that so many better titles have come out after this.... hoping for the continued development and betterment of this shit genre.
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