Wu Xin: le Tueur de Monstres (2015)

Story: This is the story of Wu Xin - a man with many pasts, an immortal body but with no inkling of who or what he is. The story started off with Wu Xin wandering around as a poor, starving monk. Through an accident where he fell into a ravine, he met Yue Ya - a woman who was fleeing home in order to escape an arranged marriage to an old man. Out of the goodness of her heart, Yue Ya shared half of her bun with the starving Wu Xin. In order to repay her kindness, Wu Xin followed her around and created opportunities for the both of them to make money from fighting supernatural beings. Along the way, they became fast friends with a loud-mouthed, ambitious but well-meaning Lord Gu, and a cowardly and prideful Taoist priest. Wu Xin also makes an eternal enemy out of a powerful and immortal female demon, Yue Qi Ruo and her loyal partner-in-crime who loves her, Zhang Xian Zong. This drama aired two episodes per week and each week, Wu Xin and gang will be dealing with one case of a supernatural being while juggling harassments from Yue Qi Ruo and her cahoots. I enjoyed the 'fighting supernatural beings' premise of this drama and would have given the story a higher rating if not for the rather abrupt open ending. I felt that in the end, there are still many things about Wu Xin that were not explained. In one final episode, important characters were killed off and everything was essentially back to the starting point. The ending did leave a rather poignant feel, especially with the ending credits and OST running - you cannot help but sigh heavily, feel a little sad, cheated and a little stumped. Until episode 18, the story was going well and then suddenly, bam! it ends. It certainly felt as if the funding for this drama ran out and they absolutely have to end it at episode 20. A little more thought and a gradual entry into the end would have help improve the storyline and the overall rating of this drama. Maybe another 2-4 episodes more, definitely more revelation of what or who Wu Xin is and a more dramatic showdown with big bad girl Yue Qi Ruo would have been good. If you are after a romance drama, you will be disappointed as the romance is not the main focus of the drama. The main focus is the lead character himself: Wu Xin.

Acting/Cast: My favourite character besides Wu Xin is Lord Gu. The interactions between the two of them (aka Bromance) is downright funny. Lord Gu is a loveable character and I am sure many who had watched this drama would remember his character well above others. My least favourite character is ironically, the female lead, Yue Ya. This is purely personal preference as I don't quite like Yue Ya's practical, no nonsense, bickering, bossy and some what annoying character. Although I like dominant female characters, for reasons unknown, I dislike Yue Ya's character. I feel Yue Ya has a rather boring, flat and one-dimensional character and to build an epic romance story around such a character does not make sense nor did it appeal to me. Granted, she and Wu Xin do share some touching scenes together and some of their interaction is quite entertaining, the chemistry that I get from them is more of a long-time good friend rather than the passionate and hot attraction of lovers. In fact, the evil Yue Qi Ruo exhibits more passion and chemistry towards Wu Xin than Yue Ya. Too bad she's evil and suck people's spirits to maintain her youth and beauty or I'll be in camp Qi Ruo and Wu Xin. And to those of you who got suckered in by Mike D'Angelo's beautiful pose in the poster, Mike has a very small and minimal role in this drama - only appearing occasionally at the last 2.5 episodes of the drama. His appearance is so sudden that one could even call his character as an afterthought to prepare for the abrupt ending.

Music: Some people might like the slow and poignant music. I am impartial to it. As far as I'm concerned, it suited the feel of the drama.

Rewatch value: No hurry to re-watch. No unforgettable romantic scenes to re-wind to. Although the demon and monster fighting parts are nice, I do not know anyone who would re-wind back to those scenes unless they get their kicks out of watching supernatural beings running amok and people getting murdered?

Overall: Despite the weak ending and the lack of lovers' chemistry between Wu Xin and Yue Ya, I did enjoy this drama for the monster killing, the mystery and the investigative parts. And although the mystery of Wu Xin hangs in the air like an unsolved mystery even to the end, I liked the character Wu Xin and the potential for a Season 2 (if they want to continue with it). Otherwise, this is the end and life just continues to go on (forever) for our monster killing hero, Wu Xin.

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This is what I call a sleeper- one that nobody expects it to be as pleasant as it turned out to be. The acting is strong overall with several decent performances and this is impressive in my opinion, despite being a young cast made up of fresh faces. This series may just be the break needed for some of these young actors. The story is interesting, packed with good monster-fighting action and develops at a good pace. Most unsuspecting however is how emotional the story actually is.

I am so glad this series exposed me to Elvis Han who's got this sense of charming maturity and appropriate acting chops to give a very honest performance in his Wu Xin role. But who am I kidding without the following mention: the boy's got abs !!! But the best (and also favorite) performance probably goes to Ian Wang as Commander Gu Xuan Wu. The series wouldn't be the same without him - he is as loyal as a friend as he is obnoxious and grandiose, a comedic relief and above all a refreshing contrast to our main male lead Wu Xin. He dominates the screen with his humor and charisma and his expressions are such a treat to watch.

I did not expect myself to like it as much as I did, since track record for this kind of genre in the past seemed more about eye candy than anything substantial. If that's what you were thinking then be prepared to be proven wrong and taken in for a pleasant surprise . Although categorized as action/thriller and for some - horror, I really enjoy the humor in this. It is smartly done and appropriate. Where they managed to insert humor in the most unlikely or random of places is something audiences do not expect but will thoroughly enjoy.

The soundtrack is great, I particularly love 'The Longest Journey' by Li Qi and the beauty of its lyrics.

Overall I am glad I gave this a chance (the fact that it's a short 20 ep series sold me on it to be honest) and here I am now hoping for a sequel. "Don't judge a book by its cover" is best way to describe this series - get ready to be taken in for a surprisingly eventful and emotional journey, you will not be disappointed. I can promise you that you will be getting more out of it than you ever expected .

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