A joy to watch despite lacking originality in the story line

“Once We Get Married” (OWGM) is the latest contract marriage trope c-drama. Knowing the this is all about contract marriage, I guess you have already covered three-quarter of all storylines, sub-plots, plots twist, and ending. Two (2) strangers are forced into a contract marriage. The ML is a successful rich businessman/CEO/President, while the FL is a naïve, but smart and resourceful young girl from an average family. Along the way, both protagonists experience many ups and downs in their relationship and life in general. Love eventually blossoms and finally they get together for real - a happy ending. Simple enough storyline and plots that have been repeated numerous times in Chinese dramaland.

Add a few more familiar sub-plots and you have a story that is both average, and forgettable. You have the second ML, who is also a successful businessman/CEO/President and perfect in every sense of the word who secretly likes the FL from childhood. A sad character!! Then the second FL who is also a beautiful and successful career woman/businesswoman who would do anything to win the love of the ML. Evil woman personifies, bending on destroying Cinderella’s relationship with Prince Charming. Then you have the ML’s grandmother who just adores the FL. Finally add in the office romance between the ML’s male friend and his staff as a filler to ensure that the series is long enough for 24 episodes.

Then why am I watching this series despite all the tropes and cliches in the storyline and subplots? One word – Wang Yuwen. The female lead is an absolute joy to watch. Her character as Gu Xixi – a naïve yet resourceful young lady – fits her to the tees. She is funny, adorable, cute, sweet, bewitching, etc – you get the drift. Her tall and slim physique matches well with the ML and second ML. When they are together, they look like a perfect couple. To me, she has the perfect height and body types for a leading lady in Chinese dramaland, and she is young enough to pull the cutesy role off. Gu Xixi is a perfect role for Wang Yuwen, and she is the star of this drama.

A miscasting will make a drama unwatchable. Too many examples to mention such as Zhang Ziyi playing a 15 year old girl in the “Rebel Princess” or Tang Yan as a 17 year old girl in the “Legend of Xiao Chuo”. The selection or casting of the actors is OWGM’s biggest strength that somehow compensates for the lack of ingenuity and originality in the story line and subplots. This drama brightens my day! Score 9/10.

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Great chemistry from the 2 lead characters

This is my second BL c-drama after “The Untamed” but in the latter, I could not get past the third episode. Simply put, I am not a BL lover, and could never enjoy such genre. The idea of handsome men cozying up to one another - despite the lack of physical intimacies - is rather disconcerting and impeding my enjoyment of the drama. I would rather watch gorgeous leading ladies strutting their stuff on screen; looking cute and lovely when needed or crying their heart out at the slightest of tragedy. So it was with trepidation that I watched “Word of Honor” as it premiered just as I completed watching “Weaving a Tale of Love” and “Douluo Continent”. Suffice to say that I have not been disappointed with this choice, and “Word of Honor” exceeds my expectation of BL c-drama .

The storyline is nothing to get excited about. Once you get past the ogling and amorous look from Simon Gong towards Zhang Zhe Han, and flirtatious behavior from the two male leads, this is just a normal wuxia-theme costume c-drama by a popular web writer, Priest. It details out the adventures of two (2) soul mates in jiang-hu where both of them goes through various trials and tribulations. Nothing special in the storyline to be honest. Had it not been for the BL genre, and you take away either of the MLs and replace him with a leading actress, this would be an average costume c-drama. But with two handsome MLs in this series, you have a storyline that caught the eyes and attention of nearly all female c-drama fans. That is the secret formula pioneered by “The Untamed” and it has become a trend among drama producers. “Word of Honor” is no different. The strength of this low-budget production is the chemistry and flirtatious behavior between two extremely good looking males. It might turn off some male fans, but it is a sure magnet for female fans. The douban rating of 8.6 from over 280K reviewers means that this is a highly popular and acclaimed historical costume drama of 2021.

Gu Xiang/Zhou Ye’s introduction as a maid gives me the creep. It is her 1st historical c-drama . She reminds me of Li Yan character (Zhou Jie Qiong) in “Legend of Fei” but with slightly better martial arts skill. She looks like Zhang Ziyi in her younger days, at least to me. But as the series progresses, I am beginning to warm up to Gu Xiang character. In fact at the very end, I wish they could have more scenes featuring Gu Xiang. She is a fresh face in this industry, just like Wu Juanyi in the “Douluo Continent”. Sometimes you get bored looking at Yang Mi, Yang Zi, Tiffany Tang, Zhao Liying, etc reprising the same roles repeatedly. The chemistry between the two (2) MLs is evident for everyone to see. Simon Gong’s lustful and lecherous look at Zhang Zheyan takes a bit of getting used to, but it is cute and funny at the same time.

I am a few episodes from completing this series, but the ending will not change my mind about this series. Because of “Word of Honor”, I will give “The Untamed” a second look. Overall 8.5/10.0 score and that is purely down to Simon Gong/Zhang Zhehan chemistry.

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Only for hardcore c-drama fans - not a complete dud!

The first thing that struck me was the title – Renascence. Should not it be spelled “renaissance” instead? Regardless of this pointless conundrum, the two words have the same meaning – rebirth or born again – and that is the gist of this whole 36-episode C-drama. A near dying Yao Mo Xin switched body with her younger sister and the born again Mo Xin in Mo Wan’s body plotted her revenge for her purported injustice.

While not qualified to judge whether the acting was great or not, there were several scenes that gave me absolute chills. When Jun Qing found out that Mo Xin had died, the wailing was so over the top. Rather than feeling sorry for him for the loss of his true love, I tried very hard not to burst into laughter. Similarly, Jun Qing’s nonchalant reaction when he finally got to meet Mo Xin in the final episode was forgettable and reminded me of a scene from “The Love that Last Two Minds” when Alan Yu – the epitome of bad acting – stood expressionless as he was reunited with Chen Yuqi.

The first c-drama that I watched with Li Mozhi as the leading lady, and her performance has not converted me into an instant fan yet. Like all leading ladies in c-drama, she is a beauty. To be honest, I prefer Eva Cheng (Mo Xin) as the FL. I thought Chen Zhe Yuan’s performance in “Handsome Siblings” was much better with a likeable happy-go-lucky character. Here, he was a miserable soul who engaged in an illicit relationship with his brother’s wife – unabashedly amoral and not cool. No A-list actors here with none featured in the Forbes China Top-100 celebrity list; so straight away c-drama fans knew this is a low-mid budget drama.

This drama lacks character development and depth. Other than the main leads and the Emperor, all other supporting casts suffered from superficial character development and appeared trite. This flaw was probably due to bad editing from 70 episodes to almost half, or the overdependence on the 2 main protagonists. I prefer c-dramas like “Ever Night” or “Novoland – Eagle Flag” where there were various main plots, and screen time is shared across all actors. Significant characters were introduced midway, or some characters were killed half-way like “Nirvana in Fire 2”. As a hardcore historical costume drama viewer, it is easy to get into the drama in the beginning. The story is fresh and you are anticipating plot twists here and there with unexpected turns of events, but as the story matures, it gets harder to keep the interest up. That is why unexpected ending like “Goodbye My Princess”,”Sword Dynasty” or “Bloody Romance” is very much welcome. This story however has an expected banal ending.

This C-drama was filmed mostly at Hengdian World Studio and some of the shots like the high-wall corridor (entrance to Qin Imperial Palace), buildings, parks, etc should be familiar sights to C-drama buffs. When the actions ventured outdoor, the scenery was mostly uninteresting and nondescript. There was no beautiful mountain scenery, breath-taking lake, lush green forest, clear blue river, etc - just shrubs and bushes in secondary jungles. In short, the c-drama setting was average at best and I could hardly remember any scene that could make me to revisit some of the episodes.

Now, to what I consider the weakest aspect of this drama – the storyline. For some reasons, c-dramas always suffer from shoddy writing, disjointed storyline that is short on common-sense, outright ridiculous plots/subplots and plenty of self-sacrificing (suicides). The story relied heavily on the 2 main characters, which meant that there was an over-exposure to them. In my view, a c-drama losses its appeal once the lead couple, who should invariably be in love, hogs the airtime. The main characters fell in love, had a fallout, fell in love again, had a fall out again, (you get the drift) and finally a happy ending. Interject that love dance with a bit of palace drama within the harem motivated by Mo Wan’s revenge, the rebel uprising by the rightful heir (Jun Qing) basically, you get the whole gist of “Renascence”.

For god-sake, the Emperor had plenty of opportunities to kill Jun Qing, but just did not have the brain power to execute the simplest of move. When Jun Qing was stabbed by Mo Wan and was dying, the Emperor inexplicably saved him. The ending was telegraphed from episode 31 onwards after Jun Qing survived a meek attempt by the Emperor to kill Jun Qing with his own hand/sword. The Emperor had countless opportunities to kill Jun Qing easily but chose the most inopportune time when Jun Qing had the protection of his henchmen – Ben Lei and Yin Xue. Talked about stupid timing! Throughout the 36 episodes, the Emperor behaved like a retard; somebody who couldn’t even plan and execute the easiest of move to get rid of his rival, whereas Mo Wan executed all her moves to perfection. With such screen-writing, no wonder I just could not get into the drama, and completing 36 episodes was just a perfunctory exercise. Drop it? Not an option especially after I went past 10 or more episodes.

Don’t get me wrong – “Renaissance” is not a complete dud. If it is, I would not have completed the drama. But I would not re-watch it; I would rather take my chance on a new historical costume c-drama.
Story - 7.0/10
Acting - 8.0/10
Music - 7.5/10
Rewatch value - 5.0/10
Overall - 7.5/10

Overall Verdict 7.5/10. Only for hardcore historical c-drama fans (like me) who don’t have anything better to do.

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