Pimesidu

Oh yeah, and to add on to that, theres some talking, way less than this drama and good action to make everything nice.

This was a good drama, but yeah the complexity is slightly confusing. I have to recommend Joy of Life if you like historical political with a nice touch of wuxia. Its historical as the setting is ancient china, political (you will love the scheming I promise), and there is martial arts (no clans/sects - its just martial arts like swords and fists). The plot and storyline is very very good, you won't feel bored at all. I promise you that it is easy to understand, everything is very fleshed out and the complexity lies in the fact that there are twists and turns that will keep you binging and not like the complex-weird schemes of NIF. Don't get me wrong, NIF is a masterpiece, but the plot did throw me off a little bit (perhaps too little wuxia)?

Also Joy of Life does have comedic moments thrown in with seriousness and the main lead is pretty smart, but not like overpowered.

Ninja Edit: I meant dialogue isn't the biggest problem, but the only thing I didnt like about dialogue was that half of it wasnt really necessary.

The dialogue is not the problem. The problem is generally the plot in general. In a book like Game of Thrones or basically any complex book with multiple storylines, its fairly easy to follow. However in chinese dramas, this is one of the only shows that have 3 different storylines cutting back and forth with little overlap between the three main leads. It seems really fragmented and even when the leads overlap, the scenes don't make sense, for example the three sworn brothers thing, I think that Qiao Feng meets the monk in like episode 40+? So it seems that these individual plotlines are moving horizontally and not vertically and then it collapses in the end. This is just my opinion though, but a more concise version of what Im talking about is in my review. Also I get this is wuxia and the characters aren't supposed to be political geniuses, but the characters are pretty dull in my opinion, like Duan Yu is just a kid who finds a martial art book, monk is just a monk, and qiao feng is just this overpowered martial artist. There wasn't anything exciting because the characters didn't really grow that much and there was no real resolution.

I think that there are more negatives than positives here.

The reasons:

Storyline - Lacking in general, everything seems rushed/disorganized and if you haven't read the novel or watched a previous version, you have little clue what's going and the significance -

Sworn brothers (all 3 of them) are only together for like one episode in the end - I get that their going on different paths but adapting that into a drama makes the drama seem like 3 separate shows later combined to one

No intelligence - No complexity at all, it was easy to see what was going to happen next, there was no suspense

Dialogue- excess dialogue or unnecessary dialogue

Acting - alright, but the bad storyline makes the acting seem bad

Old look - Old style is fine, but when combined with bad plotline the whole thing looks like it was done on a budget of 3 bucks.

I mean, this drama is pretty lacking in storyline and seems just...awkward. I really wanted to like this drama because it would have been a really classic wuxia but there are several flaws, especially compared to wuxia dramas like condor heroes and I don't know if this counts but political wuxia dramas completely overshadow this (joy of life, Nirvana in fire).

The plot is really simple and is not really connected, despite that their are three sworn brothers, there is little overlap between the three until the end. The acting shows little chemistry and seems a little forced and the pacing was pretty bad. In the first few episodes they really dragged out the dialogue.

Furthermore, it seems like Duan Yu is really weak compared to Qiao Feng who is like a ultimate powerhouse that wrecks everyone through sheer power. I mean remakes are fine in general and I think this is the best one so far for the mandarin ones, but remakes tend to fall flat like condor heroes 2014 vs Liu Yifei one.

Maybe its because I dislike the plot in general, but the show in general was not really good as the flaws just kept appearing. As someone who watched shows, I want to see unpredictable and be hooked in, but this was just fight scene after fight scene and excess dialogue filler.

Oh yeah, the first 10-15 episodes can be a little confusing (they are good, but the last half really ramps up after knowing the story), but after watching the whole show the first few episodes fit the arc perfectly. Its really nice how there are little hints throughout the show that lead up to the finale.

I can confidently say that it gets even better and better and better as it goes on. .. the acting and storyline is the best

https://dramacool.ai/demi-gods-semi-devils-episode-1.html

Its in mandarin with engsubs

Dream of changan and song of youth seem to be too silly to me, they define flowery, romantic dramas with no substance. Shockingly, those dramas are rated in the 8+ on MDL. The Legends is another drama that was more romance than seriousness. Im a fan of comedy but only when mixed with seriousness. However, Ancient love poetry had a nice blend of i guess romance (a little bit) with some xianxia in it. Honestly, there needs to be depth and acting in a drama but there are just too many "fluffy" dramas (now I know some people like fluffy but I want some vigor or excitement in my shows), I think Word of honor, although it casted ZZH, had a unique story with some pretty good wuxia but sadly faded just a little near the end. I would love to watch older shows like prior to 2010 but the quality just throws me off maybe because Im too spoiled to 1080p. Now, this dosent deserve a 7, to be honest its more like a 8.2. If the legends with a lackluster plot and so much filler it resembles the gmo in a frito can score a 8.3, then this deserves a 8.2 at least. Also, I generally will dislike any drama that is rated under an 8.5. Unfortunalty, that just leaves nirvana in fire, woh, jol, eternal love left. Xianxia is too fluffy unless played well and ancient love poetry is the best one yet until the very last episode. I love a logical unexpected plot twist and some heavy characters (3d characters) and when I see an esports drama I have to roll my eyes because its always the same thing. I sound like a old grumpy haha lol. Yeah you summed it up perfectly, nowadays historical dramas/wuxia are filled with just romance and little flavor. Wheres the intrigue, the backstabbing, the hidden unexpected plot twists, the complex characters who bring the drama to life, heck wheres the smart characters like in yanxi where all the characters were multilayered and had their own motives.

I think that episode was alright, but as someone who has seen all of the adaptations, a pure wuxia drama is hard to come by. I think the 2008 Legend of the condor heroes (the first in the series) was as close as you could get to pure wuxia, but every other drama seems to have romance more than wuxia. As far as this drama goes, its better in terms of screen quality and I guess the acting is fine, it has grown on me a little bit, even though my previous comment dislikes this drama. Im just a sucker for more "deeper" dramas like joy of life that has many layers of intrigue but I do like pure wuxia as that has been my favorite all along.

The best part is as you have said, this is a drama that isnt too dull with a ton of romance (like dream of changan which is so hard to watch or even the long ballad which is more surface level than anything ) and does have some nice characters.

Yeah, thats pretty much what I thought. There arent any wuxia dramas and I had high hopes, but this just seemed off.

Episode 1 was ok. Once you got to 3 and 4, the drama felt sluggish and low quality. It just seemed off for some reason. I think that this adaptation wasnt really good to be honest. The acting is better than the 2003 and 2013, but I would not recommend to anyone as the plot is poorly articulated and throws me off.