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Word of Honor chinese drama review
Completed
Word of Honor
2 people found this review helpful
by Kannadin
May 20, 2024
36 of 36 episodes seen
Completed 2
Overall 4.5
Story 3.0
Acting/Cast 7.5
Music 6.0
Rewatch Value 1.0

Not terrible just mediocre

So...
8 episodes to the end and the most accurate reviews go to people rating it 7 or below.

I was pretty invested when I started this show but ultimately the show fell flat.
It's a BL with a plot which is rare. But as a story, romance-wise, plot-wise, wuxia-wise, execution-wise, production-wise etc. it lacks on all fronts. Though I have to mention that given China's censorship, I wasn't expecting anything from the BL aspect no matter how much people lauded the BL aspect of this show. I'm glad I did because, the few flirtatious lines felt more like two friends teasing each other than anything else which is 100% ok btw, I don't see the problem. My problem is people advertising this show as one the greatest BL of all time when there's just two friends teasing each other.
On that front, I'm sure I'm part of the minority since everybody's saying the flirting is pretty explicit... which is true... But I don't know maybe its because I'm French. I personally consider such teasing pretty average. It's more a matter of interpretation than anything else. If you take them seriously it's flirting. If you don't, it's just teasing each other by pretending your relation is really really close... which I've seen many of my perfectly heterosexual male friends do. There's this mention of "soulmate"... But very early on, it's established that it doesn't necessarily mean in a romantic way so here.

Also I don't remember when the switch happened but at some point, there are so many characters and subplots and the supposed main leads take such a backseat that we spend more time with the villains plotting whatever convoluted plot has been written (which is very complicated... for something actually pretty simple) that I started to wonder if this show was really supposed to be about Ke Xing and Zi Shu since they are hardly featured in there. As mentioned by other reviewers, it feels like they're both literally watching the story from the sidelines instead of actively participating in it.

Anyway... I'm finishing Ep 28 as I'm typing these lines... but I've been struggling with this show for more 13 episodes now.

I'm still going to finish it since I'm too close to the end to give it up... But my advice for people who want to watch this show is...
Lower your expectations A LOT to avoid dissapointment. If you have a blast, good for you, but if you don't, just know that you're not an exception at all.

I'm usually not the type of person that screams "overrated" since lots of shows which are very loved on MDL are shows that I personally hated so I understand my taste doesn't necessarily always align with others ( though most of the time it does)...
This being said, here I'm forced to say overrated.

It's not terrible... But it's very very bland and again too much plotting, too much talking, not enough time with the leads, too many side characters. I haven't seen an immense amount of wuxia so far... But I'm getting really getting familiar with the genre, and out of all of them, this one is at the bottom of the bottom of the bottom of the barrel in terms of fighting scenes.
I don't particularly mind the low production value, but when low production value is combined with a mediocre story, it just ruins the experience even more. It just doesn't work as a story period. But as a BL from China... I guess you could say you'll have a hard time finding something that's better ( and no I haven't seen the Untamed yet... or rather I dropped it at episode 19 but I'm planning to give it another go... for the story not for the BL aspect as I've read the first 3 volumes of the novel).

At the time I'm writing these lines... I'm heading towards a rating of 6.5 at most... But I'm leaning more towards 6 or 5.5. It started ok but it quickly went downhill. Even if I did my outmost to be generous, this show would never get more than an 8 (and that would be being generous with generosity itself) , calling it a "masterpiece" is just ridiculous.

Also... Something I've noticed with a lot of Chinese shows I've seen so far. They drag things out A LOT and then the end is just rushed leaving you with a very unsatisfactory ending. Why not use time more efficiently instead of feeding the audience with boredom and useless scenes that do not contribute to the plot, featuring characters we don't care about? This unfortunately has also been done in Word of Honor.

Again, not terrible... just mediocre.

EDIT: Final Ratings 4.5. I Just can't give it even an average ratings. Don't even get me started on the bonus episode. All the final scenes that were supposed to be epic just didn't resonate because of the poor production value and very very average and bland filming. There was no cinematic flair and it was toped by some terrible acting.. Only sheer will helped me finish this as I just can' t use the fast-forward button for the life of me.

This drama has drained me so I'm going to stay away from Chinese productions for at least 2 months... and be sure to carefully really carefully choose my next Chinese drama because I just don't want to go through the same ordeal twice in a row.
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