The King of Blaze 2 (2018)

Good modern 2nd part of a Wuxia

Personally, I enjoyed this 2nd season, less "painful" than the 1st part of the era where everyone suffers and dies.

STORY:
It is relatively realistic for Fantasy, even if sometimes the coincidences are too obvious. The "evil characters" are too super smart and super powerful :)
There are of course some cliché: car accident, amnesia (again!!), but in the midst of all these reincarnations, it works...
The secondary characters (very numerous) are well developed.
I love Happy Ends, but the sudden final repentance of "evil characters" always shocks me! Not believable after years (hundreds or thousands of years) of stubbornness.

ACTING:
The cast is identical. Good, I really like Chen Bo Lin :)
Consequently, as certain comments have indicated, the age of the actors does not always correspond to their character or their status (Zhang Yi Jie is very young for a doctoral student-researcher, even a genius, for example).

TECHNICAL:
The pace is fast: it is necessary to enjoy this saga of 61 episodes.
The special effects are quite successful and the OSTs are, as we like them, epic, with sometimes a little Star Wars or Irish side for the parts located in Iceland.

Overall, I had a great time, and I recommend this drama for the long winter evenings :)

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Personnellement, j'ai apprécié cette 2e saison, moins "douloureuse" que la 1e partie d'époque où tout le monde souffre et meurt.

STORY :
Elle est relativement réaliste pour du Fantasy, même si parfois les "ficelles sont un peu grosses". Les "evil characteres" sont trop super malins et super puissants :)
Il y a bien sûr quelques clichés : accident de voiture, amnésie (encore !!), mais au milieu de toutes ces réincarnations, ça passe...
Les personnages secondaires (très nombreux) sont bien développés.
J'aime les Happy End, mais le repentir soudain des "evil characteres" me choque toujours ! Pas crédible après des années (des centaines ou milliers d'années) d'entêtement.

ACTING :
Le casting est identique. Tant mieux, j'aime beaucoup Chen Bo Lin :)
Par conséquent, comme l'ont pu indiquer certains commentaires, l'âge des acteurs ne cadre pas toujours avec leur personnage ou leur statut (Zhang Yi Jie est bien jeune pour un doctorant-chercheur, même de génie, par exemple).

TECHNIQUE :
Le rythme est rapide: il le faut pour faire passer ce roman fleuve en 61 épisodes.
Les effets spéciaux sont assez réussis et les OST sont, comme on les aime, épiques, avec parfois un petit côté Star Wars ou irlandais pour les parties situées en Islande.

Globalement, j'ai passé un excellent moment, et je vous conseille ce drama pour les longues soirées d'hiver :)

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Be ready to suspend some of your disbelief, otherwise it'll be a long ride.

I will start by mentioning that this was actually the sequel of another show with the same title. This had little to do with the Wuxia universe of the original show, however. It was set in the modern world where the main cast fought each other through their multimillion business and not martial arts. Leave it to the Chinese showbiz to put the two genres under the same franchise. This was all the more mind-blowing considering the magnitude of the production: the show was shot both locally and abroad (Iceland). Not sure what the sponsors had in mind when they gave the green light to this period-Wuxia-modern day drama.

The original show was... digestible, given that the characters were the reincarnation of their past selves. Incredibly, this season dealt with the reincarnation of that second reincarnation. The plot just ran away with it and never found its way back to consistency. The writing itself was... over the top and redundant (repeated amnesia, seriously?) The story dragged even at the best of scenes. One can very well see the struggle of the story, but that's expected from the outset.

The show used the same cast as the original season, but produced a whole different effect. While the cast fit well in the last season, the same was not true with modern day setting. Lei Hao, who was supposed to be a scientist in his early 30's in the show, was played by Zhang Yi Jie who couldn't be more than 20 at the time. That's asking a lot from the viewer. This is not to say that their acting was not good, however. That said, the only saving grace of the show was probably the acting and the expensive productions.

In short, there's nothing wrong with writing a daring story. But since it was not successful, awkward story was the result.

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