This review may contain spoilers
Terrible, amateurish writing - Good fight choreography
This show doesn't have an original bone in its body. It reeks of the writers throwing a bunch of tropes at the wall to see what sticks. Massive shame because the martial arts scenes are very well choreographed, and the actors obviously put in a lot of training. Unfortunately the writing is incredibly amateur.
I'd recommend if you're just gonna watch fight scenes. Unfortunately, the romance stuff is so long-winded that the tai chi plot is sidelined. Characters are soooo inconsistent. Most of them do not have half a brain, making everyone unlikeable except for Melissa Ng who is the only consistent character.
One moment someone's angry, next moment they're laughing. (Examples: Kenneth abandons Melissa for Selena, then later accuses Vincent of stealing Melissa from him. Kenneth accuses Selena of seducing him. Selena breaks down. She finds out she's pregnant. Kenneth becomes accepting of Vincent and Melissa's relationship. And nothing is ever acknowledged between Kenneth and Selena. What??? Where is the flow?) That is just ONE instance.
(There's the whole mess of Vincent's shifu lying to him that he killed his father to improve Vincent's "martial arts" just for Vincent's immediate go-to is try to poison him instead of a 1v1 confrontation LOL). That part was laughable.
There is absolutely no flow or subtlety in anything. If you care for angst at a very very surface level, well this series if FULL of angst. I love angst if it makes sense, not when it's inconsistent at the expense of the characters.
Other things that don't make sense:
Sorry, but Myolie is not pretty enough to play a character where Raymond is unreasonably infatuated with her. It's not like she's unique or impressively intelligent/ambitious as a woman in the Chinese Republican times. She just showed up out of nowhere and he's head over heels. She doesn't have enough charisma and charm to play this role. I understand her character isn't supposed to be redeeming until the end, but this was a terrible miscast. I believe Selena could've pulled off this role a little better.
Kenneth and Selena have no chemistry. That's when you know the script is bad because these two have played a very successful pair in other shows but here, both are equally annoying. I still question if Kenneth ever truly loved Selena and why in the world does an independent and clever character like Selena would fall for a bumpkin like Kenneth so easily.
There are several deaths that are absolutely terrible I laughed at my TV screen. The writers were like "We're near the end. We need someone to die to create some tension. Oh, her. She's important but not important enough. Let's just have her throw her nimble self in the midst of a random fight and get one-punched to death."
Thugs show up at the most convenient times.
Just a few tropes I can think of at the top of my head:
Love triangles (every romantic storyline is a love triangle!!!)
Memory loss
Forced marriage causes girl to runaway
Drugged & slept with the wrong person
Failed wedding
Dirty cop
Fake deaths
Lost child reuniting with parent
Tense mother & daughter in law relationship
Avenging father's death
Falling for the daughter of your father's killer
The shifu sacrifices himself for student
Scornful one-sided lover
Very convenient pregnancy
Shunning one away for their "safety"
Misunderstandings because of poor communication
I'd recommend if you're just gonna watch fight scenes. Unfortunately, the romance stuff is so long-winded that the tai chi plot is sidelined. Characters are soooo inconsistent. Most of them do not have half a brain, making everyone unlikeable except for Melissa Ng who is the only consistent character.
One moment someone's angry, next moment they're laughing. (Examples: Kenneth abandons Melissa for Selena, then later accuses Vincent of stealing Melissa from him. Kenneth accuses Selena of seducing him. Selena breaks down. She finds out she's pregnant. Kenneth becomes accepting of Vincent and Melissa's relationship. And nothing is ever acknowledged between Kenneth and Selena. What??? Where is the flow?) That is just ONE instance.
(There's the whole mess of Vincent's shifu lying to him that he killed his father to improve Vincent's "martial arts" just for Vincent's immediate go-to is try to poison him instead of a 1v1 confrontation LOL). That part was laughable.
There is absolutely no flow or subtlety in anything. If you care for angst at a very very surface level, well this series if FULL of angst. I love angst if it makes sense, not when it's inconsistent at the expense of the characters.
Other things that don't make sense:
Sorry, but Myolie is not pretty enough to play a character where Raymond is unreasonably infatuated with her. It's not like she's unique or impressively intelligent/ambitious as a woman in the Chinese Republican times. She just showed up out of nowhere and he's head over heels. She doesn't have enough charisma and charm to play this role. I understand her character isn't supposed to be redeeming until the end, but this was a terrible miscast. I believe Selena could've pulled off this role a little better.
Kenneth and Selena have no chemistry. That's when you know the script is bad because these two have played a very successful pair in other shows but here, both are equally annoying. I still question if Kenneth ever truly loved Selena and why in the world does an independent and clever character like Selena would fall for a bumpkin like Kenneth so easily.
There are several deaths that are absolutely terrible I laughed at my TV screen. The writers were like "We're near the end. We need someone to die to create some tension. Oh, her. She's important but not important enough. Let's just have her throw her nimble self in the midst of a random fight and get one-punched to death."
Thugs show up at the most convenient times.
Just a few tropes I can think of at the top of my head:
Love triangles (every romantic storyline is a love triangle!!!)
Memory loss
Forced marriage causes girl to runaway
Drugged & slept with the wrong person
Failed wedding
Dirty cop
Fake deaths
Lost child reuniting with parent
Tense mother & daughter in law relationship
Avenging father's death
Falling for the daughter of your father's killer
The shifu sacrifices himself for student
Scornful one-sided lover
Very convenient pregnancy
Shunning one away for their "safety"
Misunderstandings because of poor communication
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