This review may contain spoilers
Who is the Dark Lord - the hero or the villian?
I watched this drama because of Joe Xu, after encountering him in Journey of Flower and Lost Love in Times. He acted really well in all these 3 dramas, besides being good-looking. He brought out the mischievous yet scheming character of the hero in this drama. This drama was entertaining and I burst into loud laughter during the comic scenes although some were quite slapstick. It captivated me to keep 'chasing' episode after episode. Overall, as with a lot of well produced Chinese drama, acting was excellent, story was interesting and scene setting was great. It is interesting to see how the hero of the story tricked the bad guys and upheld justice. The final episode was somewhat disappointing and more of an introduction to a sequel. Until the final episode, I still could not figure out who is the dark lord - the hero or the villain - since both were cunning and underhanded.
To give some feedback to the production team if they were to read this, some areas could be improved. Music was not that great - the attempt to reproduce music of the south was dismal - it was neither opera nor folk music.
The tricks of the hero were quite underhanded and somewhat brutal. For example, he killed the five serial rapists - while I agree that since they were so unrepentant and arrogant, they might as well be dead - it is a little harsh by western standards - even though I am not a fan of western standards. I am highlighting this out of concern about the influence of such dramas on the moral values of young impressionable generations. Working in a university, I have seen some bad behaviours and questionable moral values. Themes of successful dramas tend to be emulated by later dramas and the consistent re-enforcement of this value is not necessarily good. I can tolerate the occasional drama for entertainment value, I am not keen on seeing a perpetuation of such production.
To give some feedback to the production team if they were to read this, some areas could be improved. Music was not that great - the attempt to reproduce music of the south was dismal - it was neither opera nor folk music.
The tricks of the hero were quite underhanded and somewhat brutal. For example, he killed the five serial rapists - while I agree that since they were so unrepentant and arrogant, they might as well be dead - it is a little harsh by western standards - even though I am not a fan of western standards. I am highlighting this out of concern about the influence of such dramas on the moral values of young impressionable generations. Working in a university, I have seen some bad behaviours and questionable moral values. Themes of successful dramas tend to be emulated by later dramas and the consistent re-enforcement of this value is not necessarily good. I can tolerate the occasional drama for entertainment value, I am not keen on seeing a perpetuation of such production.
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