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The Long Ballad chinese drama review
Completed
The Long Ballad
7 people found this review helpful
by Cykodramaqueen
Nov 5, 2021
49 of 49 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 8.0
Story 8.0
Acting/Cast 9.5
Music 9.0
Rewatch Value 4.0

LONG and repetitive... but good:)

Do you like historical dramas with lots of conspiracies, power struggles and epic battle scenes? Then this is the one for you.

Let’s start by saying the production is very good. The cinematography, the costumes, the sets... all very well done. The music background and OST is very memorable and well-suited with the characters and story. The actors all portrayed their roles very well, with a few annoying characters and typical Chinese hahaha evil laughs. Wu Lei who plays the male lead Ashile Sun imo carried the whole drama. He’s only 21, so him portraying this character was amazing. He’s definitely one actor to keep an eye out for. Plus he’s also very good looking ;) and yes there is a shirtless scene;);) Lol.

As with all too-many-episodes dramas (this has 49!!) the storyline became repetitive. Every 5+ episodes there will be an introduction to a new town, new characters, new problems... but same ol’ greed for power. It can get rather confusing with so many different names.. unfortunately towards episode 30+ I started skipping forward. The plot is predictable- you know who will die, when they will die, and the good guys usually outsmart the bad guys. Haha...

The last episode was DISAPPOINTING. many characters and side plots were left unfinished, and of course the main couple love story did not have a great ending. It was a happy one, but no great epilogue. It is true there is hardly any skinship... there are lots of hugs✔️, intensity✔️ and chemistry✔️, but no kiss ;) You do get a great view of two birds kissing though lol. BUUUUTT, this was way better than One and Only.

Another character I liked was Hao Du, how he evolved from being a goody-two-shoe always following instructions but not using his common sense- to learning to think for himself, sacrificing himself and fighting for the woman he loves!

The fight scenes are the best!! Well choreographed with lots of Kung fu style movements and intensity. There’s also a legendary football match in Epi 1, which is fantastic how they set it in ancient times and infused martial arts into it. What I didn’t like was most of the huge battle scenes were shown using anime... I don’t know why it was done that way. I read maybe it had something to do with Covid restrictions at that time.. or maybe time or financial constraints.

All in all, a definite recommended watch although I hoped it could have been better. :)
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