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This review may contain spoilers
True Blue Wuxia; Our 3 Musketeers Triumphed at the End.
This is my favorite genre, so it ended up on my watchlist as soon as I found out that's what it was going to be about. I really wanted to see how the three leads would be able to pull something like this off. No romance at all, so please move on to something else if that's what you're looking for. I didn't know that this whole thing was a franchise and that there were quite a few actors prior to YY that played the same character and that this show was popular back in the early 90s.
Pros: I have to give YY serious props for those fight scenes. They were absolutely incredible and so intricate. When you see the way the director and the choreographer showed him every single one and how he tried to do each scene in one take because some of these scenes required many other actors or goons, and it had to look good. I would have to say that the fight scenes were my absolute favorite. The storyline flowed very well and at first, I also didn't understand why the male lead or ZZ didn't kill and then someone explained who knew the entire franchise and the history of Judge Bao (who sadly didn't make an appearance in this one); I will actually add in here what she wrote about the whole subject to maybe make other people who read this review understand as well. But I will credit her because she explained it so very well.
As written by @JieJie:
It all comes down to Judge Bao’s Philosophy.
Zhan Zhao isn't just another lawless rogue wandering the jianghu. He is a 4th-rank imperial guard who serves under Bao Zheng—the most famously incorruptible, legally strict judge in Chinese lore.
* The Rule of Law vs. Vigilante Justice: Judge Bao’s entire mission is built on the belief that no one is above the law, and justice must be absolute and decided by a court, not the blade of a sword.
* Upholding the Code: If Zhan Zhao plays executioner in the middle of a forest or a rain-slicked alley, he becomes no better than the criminals he's trying to stop. He strips away the chance for a fair trial, which is exactly how you uncover the larger, deeper conspiracies.
* True Chivalry (Xia): His restraint isn't a sign of weakness; it's the ultimate show of control and discipline. He possesses peerless martial arts skills, but he chooses to apprehend or disarm rather than slaughter because he answers to a higher moral standard.
Once I understood all that, it became even more interesting to me like the storyline made more sense; why he would just break arms and legs, and what not and leave the person alive because he ultimately wanted to bring the big wolf to testify against who was the largest villain or Prince XY as I called him. There were four underlings or 3 1/2 really including his own illegitimate son and we had to strip away, who each one was and their code names. Not once did the storyline drag for me. He killed one time and one time only and that was to trigger the mechanism at the very end to kill Prince XY. The prince basically mocked ZZ about him getting caught and being jailed for just a little while because no one can kill a royal uncle. His exact words were "no blade in the world could kill a royal uncle" and ZZ agreed that no blade in the world could, but that he was willing to be that blade because of all the innocent lives that were taken, and there were just so many during the show and even before the 15-20 years he was an operation for his rebellion how many people he killed or had killed. And the prince was all like well, you have to respect me this, that, the next thing and ZZ before he swiped the candle said "I respect justice." That explained literally his mindset during the entire show. The idiot Prince had his entire fortress booby-trapped, that even the slightest wave in front of a candle and a leaf set off an arrow straight into his heart. That was instant karma for him if I ever saw anything. Also, DJ's karma how ZZ told him that he had sacrificed so many innocent lives for his own ambitions but how would he feel if he was told or asked to do the same? Cut to a few episodes later and Prince XY does exactly that with him just before his old guard really does kill him. I love how we slowly got the backstory of all the characters that were important even ML had his existential crisis moments before he saved MZE. I'm guessing he met JB after that and really honed his skills in justice. Losing that kid was very sad. I think it broke something in him a little bit; he was willing to do anything, including take the blame for setting fire to the kids families's house, killing everyone just to save the kid from regaining his repressed memory that he himself accidentally did that, but in the end, the memory still came back.
Another thing that made me very happy was that the show had no romance. It might've reflected on the ratings here not that I cared, but this genre when it's just the genre is perfect. It should be focused on a storyline and the incredible fight scenes, which is exactly what it was focused on. Some people were not happy because there weren't instant results but that wasn't the point. The point was to really get into the storyline, the point was to see the characters as all having flaws and things never being what they seem or that simple. I love the friendship between as I called them; the three amigos or the Three Musketeers; they always fought together, they always had each other's backs, they never let the other just hang, and they would do anything for each other. They were their own version of the iron triangle. Even though ZZ did spend most of the series either injured or poisoned as BYT pointed out in the post credit scene; neither BYT or the kid from the Tang clan ever gave up, trying to find a cure for him and finally they did. That post credit scene was just hysterical. I first watched it with Janky subs than good ones, but you could still tell BYT with his leg all bandaged up, looking really screwed up but the rest of him he either was wearing bandages under his clothes to show that he was really tough and he could handle all those arrows that hit him and then you have ZZ who's only wearing an arm sling but in reality has cuts and gashes all over his body also acting so tough and the two of them talking about just having dinner with the emperor and ZZ agreeing to another job and obviously BYT is going to be dragged along and possibly HLL as well, even though he's all bitching and complaining that he's not going and then them to pretending to do another fight, even though BYT passes out after the third glass of alcohol. And it ends with ZZ holding the badge from the emperor saying I want to, but I can't. I'm too tired. And I agree with him. He's just spent all of this time running around hunting this case, being poisoned and injured and he needs to rest before he takes the next case and I hope he really does that. And it really makes me hope for a season two; them going to Western Xia for the emperor. Costumes, sets, OST use all of that was great and it fit every single portion.
Cons: I think the only real issue started to happen at the very end, but I attribute that due to the three cut episodes during review. Editing was choppy especially in episode 37. I really wish that post credit scene was shown pre-credits. I know they were at least I'm assuming setting up possibly for a season two but it still would've made a lot more sense. There were other things like I wish we had seen how MZE was fatally injured before he managed to gallop off to his young master. I wish that SJZ's death was less of a cop out and that HLL had killed him instead of some random dude from the other country that showed up in episode 36 and 37. I wish we had seen how BYT was rescued or whatever happened how he got because obviously he got out and I thought they should've had a reunion scene when the two of them using the original fake names that when they had met HLL to tell her at her manner in a way to bring back it all full circle instead of just doing that. They were running short of time and then it's like cut to next scene when you see ZZ walking up the steps in full uniform with the special sword all gilded out. Like show that the particular information was intercepted, cases is overturned make the ending more rounded. It's just these small editing scenes that would've made a big difference, even though I still believe that the show was an HE despite all the choppiness. Those three episodes would've made a huge difference and it's a shame that they had to cut them.
Would I recommend it? 150% this was one of those shows that I anticipated each day, because I loved every second of it other than the choppy parts of course. This is my favorite genre; the fight scenes were impeccable even the very last one which was you would think so imbalanced because ZZ just had a sword and the bad guy goon had this massive sword weapon thing that was the size of his own body, but still ZZ won and he ended up getting cured from his poison and all of his friends were all right. This is a true blue wuxia, for fans of the genre so I definitely recommend it. I really hope all of you enjoy as much as I did.
Pros: I have to give YY serious props for those fight scenes. They were absolutely incredible and so intricate. When you see the way the director and the choreographer showed him every single one and how he tried to do each scene in one take because some of these scenes required many other actors or goons, and it had to look good. I would have to say that the fight scenes were my absolute favorite. The storyline flowed very well and at first, I also didn't understand why the male lead or ZZ didn't kill and then someone explained who knew the entire franchise and the history of Judge Bao (who sadly didn't make an appearance in this one); I will actually add in here what she wrote about the whole subject to maybe make other people who read this review understand as well. But I will credit her because she explained it so very well.
As written by @JieJie:
It all comes down to Judge Bao’s Philosophy.
Zhan Zhao isn't just another lawless rogue wandering the jianghu. He is a 4th-rank imperial guard who serves under Bao Zheng—the most famously incorruptible, legally strict judge in Chinese lore.
* The Rule of Law vs. Vigilante Justice: Judge Bao’s entire mission is built on the belief that no one is above the law, and justice must be absolute and decided by a court, not the blade of a sword.
* Upholding the Code: If Zhan Zhao plays executioner in the middle of a forest or a rain-slicked alley, he becomes no better than the criminals he's trying to stop. He strips away the chance for a fair trial, which is exactly how you uncover the larger, deeper conspiracies.
* True Chivalry (Xia): His restraint isn't a sign of weakness; it's the ultimate show of control and discipline. He possesses peerless martial arts skills, but he chooses to apprehend or disarm rather than slaughter because he answers to a higher moral standard.
Once I understood all that, it became even more interesting to me like the storyline made more sense; why he would just break arms and legs, and what not and leave the person alive because he ultimately wanted to bring the big wolf to testify against who was the largest villain or Prince XY as I called him. There were four underlings or 3 1/2 really including his own illegitimate son and we had to strip away, who each one was and their code names. Not once did the storyline drag for me. He killed one time and one time only and that was to trigger the mechanism at the very end to kill Prince XY. The prince basically mocked ZZ about him getting caught and being jailed for just a little while because no one can kill a royal uncle. His exact words were "no blade in the world could kill a royal uncle" and ZZ agreed that no blade in the world could, but that he was willing to be that blade because of all the innocent lives that were taken, and there were just so many during the show and even before the 15-20 years he was an operation for his rebellion how many people he killed or had killed. And the prince was all like well, you have to respect me this, that, the next thing and ZZ before he swiped the candle said "I respect justice." That explained literally his mindset during the entire show. The idiot Prince had his entire fortress booby-trapped, that even the slightest wave in front of a candle and a leaf set off an arrow straight into his heart. That was instant karma for him if I ever saw anything. Also, DJ's karma how ZZ told him that he had sacrificed so many innocent lives for his own ambitions but how would he feel if he was told or asked to do the same? Cut to a few episodes later and Prince XY does exactly that with him just before his old guard really does kill him. I love how we slowly got the backstory of all the characters that were important even ML had his existential crisis moments before he saved MZE. I'm guessing he met JB after that and really honed his skills in justice. Losing that kid was very sad. I think it broke something in him a little bit; he was willing to do anything, including take the blame for setting fire to the kids families's house, killing everyone just to save the kid from regaining his repressed memory that he himself accidentally did that, but in the end, the memory still came back.
Another thing that made me very happy was that the show had no romance. It might've reflected on the ratings here not that I cared, but this genre when it's just the genre is perfect. It should be focused on a storyline and the incredible fight scenes, which is exactly what it was focused on. Some people were not happy because there weren't instant results but that wasn't the point. The point was to really get into the storyline, the point was to see the characters as all having flaws and things never being what they seem or that simple. I love the friendship between as I called them; the three amigos or the Three Musketeers; they always fought together, they always had each other's backs, they never let the other just hang, and they would do anything for each other. They were their own version of the iron triangle. Even though ZZ did spend most of the series either injured or poisoned as BYT pointed out in the post credit scene; neither BYT or the kid from the Tang clan ever gave up, trying to find a cure for him and finally they did. That post credit scene was just hysterical. I first watched it with Janky subs than good ones, but you could still tell BYT with his leg all bandaged up, looking really screwed up but the rest of him he either was wearing bandages under his clothes to show that he was really tough and he could handle all those arrows that hit him and then you have ZZ who's only wearing an arm sling but in reality has cuts and gashes all over his body also acting so tough and the two of them talking about just having dinner with the emperor and ZZ agreeing to another job and obviously BYT is going to be dragged along and possibly HLL as well, even though he's all bitching and complaining that he's not going and then them to pretending to do another fight, even though BYT passes out after the third glass of alcohol. And it ends with ZZ holding the badge from the emperor saying I want to, but I can't. I'm too tired. And I agree with him. He's just spent all of this time running around hunting this case, being poisoned and injured and he needs to rest before he takes the next case and I hope he really does that. And it really makes me hope for a season two; them going to Western Xia for the emperor. Costumes, sets, OST use all of that was great and it fit every single portion.
Cons: I think the only real issue started to happen at the very end, but I attribute that due to the three cut episodes during review. Editing was choppy especially in episode 37. I really wish that post credit scene was shown pre-credits. I know they were at least I'm assuming setting up possibly for a season two but it still would've made a lot more sense. There were other things like I wish we had seen how MZE was fatally injured before he managed to gallop off to his young master. I wish that SJZ's death was less of a cop out and that HLL had killed him instead of some random dude from the other country that showed up in episode 36 and 37. I wish we had seen how BYT was rescued or whatever happened how he got because obviously he got out and I thought they should've had a reunion scene when the two of them using the original fake names that when they had met HLL to tell her at her manner in a way to bring back it all full circle instead of just doing that. They were running short of time and then it's like cut to next scene when you see ZZ walking up the steps in full uniform with the special sword all gilded out. Like show that the particular information was intercepted, cases is overturned make the ending more rounded. It's just these small editing scenes that would've made a big difference, even though I still believe that the show was an HE despite all the choppiness. Those three episodes would've made a huge difference and it's a shame that they had to cut them.
Would I recommend it? 150% this was one of those shows that I anticipated each day, because I loved every second of it other than the choppy parts of course. This is my favorite genre; the fight scenes were impeccable even the very last one which was you would think so imbalanced because ZZ just had a sword and the bad guy goon had this massive sword weapon thing that was the size of his own body, but still ZZ won and he ended up getting cured from his poison and all of his friends were all right. This is a true blue wuxia, for fans of the genre so I definitely recommend it. I really hope all of you enjoy as much as I did.
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