Yes, this drama consists of some sexual assault scenes of one of the main characters, and viewers be warned to decide if you want to pursue this story or not. It's very rare to have a Chinese costume drama that has the women being violated. Nonetheless, aside from those rather upsetting scenes, the overall drama is consistent with how wuxia dramas generally play out: adventure packed, revenge, pride, justice, brotherhood, friendship, self-sacrifice etc.

Wang Xiaoshi (Zeng Shun Xi aka Joseph Zeng) leaves the mountains where he lives, and begins his journey of exploring the world. He meets Wen Rou (Yang Chaoyue) and Bai Choufei (Liu Yuning) and they become best friends and travel together. Wang Xiaoshi is upstanding, easy going, truthful, kind, positive and always sees the best in another person, whereas Bai Choufei is ambitious, ambiguous, cruel and has a shade of darkness around him. As Wang Xiaoshi just wants to see the world, Bai Choufei wants to make a name for himself. Just as they are going from places to places, they unwittingly embroil in the politics of “jiangfu” and meet Su Mengzhen (Chen Chuhe aka Baron Chen) who is the leader of the House of Sunset Drizzle, a powerful upstanding organization helping jiangfu by bringing justice to the poor and weak. Su Mengzhen is sickly and he needs talents to help him. The three men become sworn brothers and vow to stand by each other. However, as the story unfolds, Bai Choufei becomes dissatisfied to come under Su Mengzhen and he strays; he wants to be the number one.

I really like Joseph Zeng. He has an irresistible charisma that attracts viewers. As Wang Xiaoshi, he has really brought alive the character as a positive and unsuspecting personality, and later becomes mature and solemn. His transformation is great and Joseph Zeng has successfully executed the role convincingly. He is a wonderful actor.

Liu Yuning’s acting is equally amazing, from a cold, rather selfish character, to a half crazy, power-crazed lunatic, Liu Yuning has had a great performance. Every snicker he makes sends chills down my spine, that’s how good he is.

Chen Chuhe’s Su Mengzhen is painful to watch. Every time he coughs, my heart goes out to him. Despite being sickly all the time, his character is strong and amazing to watch when he fights. The acting is simply authentic and convincing.

Though she doesn’t, every time when Wen Rou is around, I dread she messes up other people’s plans. Yang Chaoyue’s acting here is a lot better than she was in Dance of the Phoenix and I hope she continues improving her acting skills.

My Verdict

This is a through and through wuxia drama. However, the screen writing is less than desirable with rather childish logic at times, multiple plot holes and tons of inconsistencies. This is supposed to be a story about brotherhood, that's why Wang Xiaoshi is guarding so protectively over their relationship, and that's why he's so devastated when he loses his brothers. The script writing has not really brought out the brotherhood essence strong enough but just bypassing it. What an opportunity lost. The story can get very slow as the love triangle develops, and the replacement of the “lou zhu” at the end feels very random. As in most Chinese costume dramas, almost all the characters that appear at the beginning of the story perish by the end. Having said that, the wirefu acting, martial art sword fighting are all very well executed and convincing.

All these shortcomings become trivial as we dwell deeper into the message of the story: it questions the purpose of life, the difference between living and surviving; it advocates for freedom of ideologies, and denounces authoritarianism; it is very political. The story seems parallel to today’s world in politics: power blinds as in Bai Choufei; government corruptions hurting its own people as in Prime Minister Cai (Lo Ka Leung). And we need heroes like Wang Xiaoshi and Su Mengzhen to clean up the rot, one by one.

This is a great drama for wuxia fans. Great watch!