Try the World (2022)

Great Actors! Great Quality! Amazing plotline!

This was my first cdrama after a long while and safe to say - it didn't disappoint.

The actors did great. The chemistry was the kind that i am absolutely in love with. It's the not the one that makes you weak at your knees and nor is it non existent. Its the perfect soft, intimate kind of chemistry where they look at each other and you can just see how much they love each other.
The wuxia part of the drama is not that relevant tbh, the scenes are not the best but also above average. The plot focuses mostly on political aspect and slowly building the romance on the way.
The pacing had some issues around ep 35+ but honestly? understandable because you can only fit so much in 40 eps. Everything makes sense though so thats of no matter.
(The wedding scenes made me so giddy, thats how much their interactions mean to me.)

The strength of the ML and FL is equal and the writers did a good job showcasing that. You save me - I save you, You protect me-I protect you is nice change from the common, "You are my wife, I will protect you - ok."

The music was amazing, every singer and composition fits the theme extremely well.

Overall - It is definitely worth a try and try to watch till ep 7, I promise you won't be able to stop.

Lire davantage

The main couple is definitely the best thing about WRTW

Indulging in this drama proved to be an emotional rollercoaster, leaving me torn between conflicting opinions throughout its 40 episodes (which I watched at an astonishing pace) and made writing a review quite irresistible.

I love long dramas, but for me to stick to it, it has to have something that really catches my attention. In this case, it was the exceptional chemistry between the lead characters, Hei Fengxi and Bai Fengxi. Their individual personalities immediately drew me in, and their synergy as a couple was nothing short of mesmerizing. The compelling dynamics made me drown into them and want to devour the entire drama in one week just to get more and more.

While the leads undoubtedly stood out as the highlight of this drama and kept me invested throughout, even this remarkable couple couldn't shield me from my numerous grievances with the narrative, particularly from episode 20 onwards. One aspect that immediately caught my attention in a negative light was the disregard for several plot threads that I had expected to unfold continuously. I'm going to give three examples of this (spoiler alert! Not major ones but I thought I should give a heads up):

1. Han Puo, a character I anticipated having a family dynamic with the leads, mysteriously faded into the background after the "avenging" of his family, resurfacing sporadically as a seemingly inconsequential figure until the middle episodes and finally regaining importance in the last two episodes.

2. The birds, although understandable in their limited relevance to the storyline, left me wishing they had been mentioned again instead of appearing randomly in the background of scenes.

3. The portrayal of Feng Lanxi and Feng Chang's brotherly bond emphasized their deep love for one another and their status as each other's sole family. However, this important relationship was only briefly explored before Feng Chang's sudden disappearance, mirroring Han Puo's storyline. Although he did reemerge in the final episodes with some significance, it lacked the lasting impact one would expect.

Additionally, the recurring pattern of schemes and their swift resolution by the leads left me somewhat disillusioned. The court dramas were a never ending cycle of: Villain plots against Feng Lanxi → Feng Lanxi takes action → Villain triumphantly reveals it was all part of their trap → Feng Lanxi counters, it was his plan all along.

I also struggled to form attachments to any of the side characters, as the drama overwhelmingly focused on the leads, particularly Feng Lanxi for the initial 30 episodes. The lack of development and investment in the supporting cast diminished their impact.

Moreover, there was an imbalance in the storytelling, with the narrative heavily weighted toward Feng Lanxi, relegating Feng Xiyun to a secondary character status during the middle portion of the drama.

The final five episodes were just insufferable to me. The emphasis on war became overbearing, saturating the storyline with an excess of battle scenes that grew monotonous. The resolution felt too conveniently simplistic after enduring six years of tedious warfare and Yu Wuyuan's plotting during the entire drama, only to have his demise happen in a brief five-minute battle.

To exacerbate matters, the bittersweet ending felt gratuitous and unnecessary.

Upon reflecting on both the positives and negatives, I acknowledge that the overall rating should likely be lower. Nonetheless, the drama, at least during its initial 30 episodes, provided a really enjoyable experience, which ultimately holds significance to me.

I don’t think I would rewatch WRTW (maybe the very beginning), but I would definitely recommend it to someone who just wants to feel warmth from a main couple that loves and would do anything for eachother.

Lire davantage

The anticipation of greatness ended with a bafflingly horrendous sequence of episodes at the end.

*MAJOR SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW*

I'm not even sure where to begin with this one. I just finished the show and felt the need to write down my thoughts, especially considering the very high MDL rating of 8.7 this show has.

Who rules the world certainly had potential to be a fantastic show. It gradually builds up the story untill around the 30th episode mark where everything starts going downhill. Really, really fast. It's a sequence of episodes where everything happens super fast. People are dying left and right and sometimes even within minutes of eachother despite being in entirely different situations. Timetables that aren't kept to whatsoever, promises that aren't kept for no real reason. Imagine being the king of whatever the hell ML's place is called ( I'm sorry I'm horrendous with the names of everything in this show it all kinda blurred together ). You watch your sons and even your wife fighting for the throne. You order your wife to forcibly commit suicide and one of your sons goes proper insane. You finally abdicate the throne to a trustworthy son who promises you to take great care of his nation..... Only for him to ditch that entirely two days later because love conquers all. Now mind you I didn't actually dislike the ending. I'm talking about the final 10 minutes of the last episode that is. It's fitting for both of them to bow out of the world of royalty and politics and live as they always wanted to live, freely. Not only that but entrusting their once enemy to be the emperor because they have a shared worldview was great. This worked very well, the road to get there not so much but hey, atleast the ending was alright.

Speaking about living freely, why the hell did the female lead have to be a princess? How in the living hell was she ever allowed to just roam the lands as a commoner? this was never explained. This kind of inconsistency happens all throughout the show. The rules of the royalty were used at the whim of the writer, whenever it was necessary to be flexible or not.
The entire character of the female lead is about being free and adventurous. Yet she didn't bat so much as an eye when she was forced by circumstances to rule her nation. Her brother dies, a minute later her father dies to illness despite having been projected to still have a month left to live by the court physician. The father somehow knew the brother died despite the female lead being the only person to have received that news and soon after the female lead ends up leading the nation instead. Perfectly of course, despite having zero court experience and knowledge of ruling. Which gets me to another issue of the show.

The leads were way too perfect. They had absolutely zero flaws. They were kind, smart, calculative, gorgeous, witty, you name it and it's probably one of their character traits. We follow them because they're the leads but why we actually should root for them is beyond me. There's never a single doubt that they're going to end up victorious or excell in their respective fields.

Lastly, to reference the title of this review; ''greatness ended with a bafflingly horrendous sequence of episodes at the end''.

This war that started happening around the 32nd episode mark was horrendously displayed. The following sequence of events happened nearly 10 times in a row with only the ever so slightest of deviation to the point it might aswell not be relevant.

- Forces stare eachother down on a fat barren wasteland.
- A tiny percent of the forces end up fighting while the rest looks on.
- Random comments from either side about some impenetrable famous formation
- Retreat
- Cue the night time encampment talks
- Back to the first point.

This was actually just horrific writing. I've never quite witnessed a sequence of events in any show that was this bad.
To go from an okay show in the first 30 episodes to the last 10 episodes being so disproportionally bad shows that the writers had no clue how to end this story. Baffling, really.

Some minor points about the show that didn't sit well with me;

- Female lead dies twice but not really because of some random shit that can revive her, okay why not I guess.
- Antagonist thinks he's won when hes being confronted 1v3 by the world's strongest fighters while having no basis for that confidence whatsoever.
- Tianshung Sect's Lanhua stabbing female lead for suspicion of having killed her father despite them having a very close relationship and her obviously not being that kind of person. Doesn't think it through whatsoever just stabs the sword through. her heart.Just lmao... And all is forgiven because she was revived by a deux ex machina flower. Why not.
- Oldest prince becomes injured to the point where he isn't in contention for the throne anymore and male lead just completely forgets about him. After this happens there isn't a single scene of them together anymore. I thought they were so close? I guess not.
- Non existant OST.
- The same static pictures to transition between city states for the entirety of the show. Trees don't move, birds don't fly. It's literally just a picture. How boring and immersion breaking.
- Why did we need a childhood connection between male and female lead? Nothing was even done with it.

For the sake of having SOMETHING positive to say about the show here's the things I DID like;

- Female lead up untill episode 30 ish. Her character was well acted out and very charming.
- Female lead and Qi Wu's relationship. I was dreading the love triangle but this never happened and they pretty much became best friends. Some of the show's best scenes are them just interacting while male lead is a sidekick.
- The early episodes of Hei Fengxi and Bei Fengxi running into eachother while adventuring and slowly falling in love.

Lire davantage

COSTUME Drama

After a great start, the drama feels dragged with the sense of showing the main leads in different costumes and romance.
In Public who love the couple may be able to handle the whole show.
Those people who prefer strong plots this drama is not for you. This drama lacks a solid plot.
I personally prefer a strong plot as I have seen on JOY OF LIFE. JOY OF LIFE IS MY FAVOURITE Chinese drama.
Before proceeding to watch this drama let me make it easy for you. Just ask questions to yourself?
Is the main lead your favorite actor? if yes
Do I Like drama that is entirely focused on the main leads with a dragged plot? if yes
Do I like drama that doesn't have any solid storyline? If yes
Do I like drama that doesn't deliver anything except romance? if yes
If you can answer all the above questions yes so you can watch the drama and you surely like it.
Now, if you really want to see it and wondering what this drama delivers to you?
The answer is lots of costume and romance. After the first 10 episodes which are so good, this drama falls apart.
Thanks.

Lire davantage

Xianxia show that tried to be Wuxia and Historical Drama and was not anything

Story---terrible. The story plays out to taking forty episodes to stall around and up to one scene. The first episode was the context establishment and the last episode was the plot point---which is a situation that needs to be solved and not the ending but it's the last episode. Basically the writers told themselves, "we know we want to have a powerful prince and another powerful princess who disguises themselves to go out into the world. Then after years of bonding, their identities are eventually revealed and they lead their respective kingdoms to ally and fight another power." Sounds intriguing.

Now ideally, the reputation of the established characters would be introduced in the beginning, check. And they would show their journey and how they walked to this day, sorta-not-really check in that they've known each other for years as they walked Jianghu (which is just told to the audience and never really shown or seen through their character development as the throughout the show they're bonding so basically they never bonded before). The rising action and climax is they need to use their real identities to solve problems while maintaining their aliases to deal with each other. The fight between kingdoms would take place before the climax, after which the third power is revealed, and the falling action would be an acceptance of each other, and the end would be dealing with combining and bringing peace to their kingdoms and their two identities.

Then how they executed this is they introduced the characters in episode one and the fight doesn't take place till the last episode. The in-between was I-don't-know an investigation show? A historical political show? A wuxia show? All of those. Oh and a 'tianmi' romance. No. It was not.

This leads me to discuss production.
Production---TERRIBLE. They took a scriptwriter for a Xianxia show, and placed the characters from those shows into a Wuxia show, except the execution of the long fighting scenes and rival clans was non-existent. They tried to have a historical political setting, except none of the characters carried the attitudes of royals. What kind of prince (first prince) is not interested in the throne? What kind of prince (third prince) is so ineffective and shallow? He would have died long ago by the schemes of the court members and not even needing the main character to take him down. As for the main character, what kind of prince can extract themselves from the fight for the throne so cleanly? The only way you are not part of the game is if you die. What kind of king doesn't care about his sons? He needs a successor! What is the point of being king if your kingdom cannot last past you? But he is somehow against the main character because...why? The scriptwriter could not come up with a reason! And the main character had some existential crisis that his father the king hated him or something. Have some respect for the authority of a king and the law. It IS a crime to lie to the king, and you lied about being sick and you feel like he doesn't care about you when he wants to find out the truth?? As a person with a right to the throne, the scheming WILL risk your life AND the lives of your supporters. Why are you so people ARE against you?? In conclusion, the writer tried to be deep and combine aspects of wuxia and period dramas into what is really a xianxia drama and did not achieve the authenticity of either, making it a disgrace to both genres.

Acting---I had a good impression of Yang Yang after watching him in the Once Upon A Time movie with Liu Yifei (the movie version of Ten Miles Peach Blossom) which gave me the impression he was a top-rated actor because of his looks, his casting partner, as well as being chosen for the role however this show has completely reversed that perspective. His acting in the show is terrible because he doesn't hold the gravity of a prince, nor the gentleness of a love interest and he gives the impression he's constantly mocking, which lessens the dimension of his character---because that's just himself and not the character written in the script. Zhao Lusi created some character development in the first episode with her attitude, but that was quickly doused away after episodes of intensive dialogue lines where she quickly fell into a role of recitation.

Music---All the music in the show sounds copyrighted, namely the ost from Ten Miles Peach Blossom and Pirates of the Caribbean for the adventure and sea scenes.

The only thing watchable about this show is from the visual effects. This is due to the well-known actors of Zhao Lusi and Yang Yang being the face of the show, and the editing which makes appealing effects that don't appear too fake.

Out of the 34/40 episodes I watched, the best scene was in episode 34 (?) when the third prince failed at executing a coup and grab for power. Just before he was brought away, when he confronted his father about the way he treats his sons, those were the most logical lines ever said in the whole show. Except, funnily, it comes out as ironic---because it's so logical it seems out of character. It makes him seems omnipotent and not present in his character and the situation. (You'd have to be a god to say facts so true in this cringe of a situation the writer forced the characters into).

Truthfully, in the beginning I thought the third prince would become king because he was being manipulated by his mother and his advisors but he had good character. I stand by this statement by the fact he spoke such truth (as I mentioned above), but sadly he was written into insanity by the writers. RIP

Lire davantage

Definitely a worthy watch

My two favorite actor and actress together.

Definitely met my expectations.

Both FL and ML were awesome. The storyline kept me engaged and didn’t drag. I think the writers did a really good job with the character development.

As for the FL and ML, great combination. Great chemistry between them. She’s a strong and mature woman but also not over bearing. She portrayed very well by Zhao Lusi that she strong, compassionate and no nonsense lady. ML also did great and well portrayed by Yang Yang. He’s arrogant but is not afraid to be tamed by FL.

For me, it’s a semi-sad ending because they only had 10 year together.

Lire davantage

Interesting Start and Finish, but Slump in Between

This show started off pretty interesting - with two characters in the martial arts world. It became less about martial arts and more about political power struggle. Somewhere in the middle it dragged with the evil stepmother scheming in Yongzhou. I would’ve rated it lower if it kept going the way it was. I kept watching just because it was something to do and sometimes you just stick through it, but certain episodes just ended at moments where I didn’t really feel compelled to binge forward.

That being said, I think by the time I got to episode 34 it was worth the payoff. I laughed out loud at the bitch slapping.

One other point of hilarity is that the main antagonist gets to roam around freely and no one suspects a damn thing for the longest time. Every time he showed up on screen I laughed at his shifty eyes and how NO ONE got it until the last quarter of the series. In fact the female lead almost dies because her dumb sworn sister blames her for something our grand master antagonist in plain view does.

The female lead was a strong bad ass, so that was a plus. The side characters don’t really get much of an ending - it’s all about Hei-Bai Fengxi. That being said, I really liked Feng Chang and wished he had some sort of concluding send off scene.

All in all, the show was entertaining despite the dragging middle.

Lire davantage

Realistic development of romance, great chemistry, impressive fight sequences

This was an impressive romantic wuxia. Yang Yang and Zhao Lu Si had chemistry onscreen. It's undeniable that they had fun shooting this series. Since I didn't let bad press influence my decision to watch, I thoroughly enjoyed it in the way it was intended. As much as I appreciated the storyline, there was a slight disconnect with how the 4 main characters failed to show that they knew each other since childhood. It was also noticeable how many changes the script underwent. I have watched it many times now that I see the errors in the directorship. It was well cast and the acting was superb overall. No one was overt or exaggerated in their actions. The action sequences were impressive. I loved it when FL properly used the ax kick to deter the bully. I enjoyed the comedic rapport both main leads had with each other. This is a story where both main leads fell in love with each other slowly and supported each other in times of pain and sorrow. I love the differences in the dynamics of family in the 5 royal families. For Xi Yun, PmXie Yue and Lord of Qingzhou, they were extremely close and tight knit. For Lan Xi, Ju, Chang, Madame Bai Li and Lord of Yongzhou, it was full of intrigue, in fighting, sabotage, distrust, plotting and jealousy. Lan Xi and his half brother Chang were evidently close. I loved how the birds of prey were used at crucial points in the series. Yang Yang's acting prowess was seen when his facial expressions were sublime and not overt because it fit the character. In the scenes where his emotions, sorrow and suffering needed to be expressive, it was. I hope he gets nominated and wins an award. Yang Yang deserves it. I felt his absence when Bai Feng Xi was going thru her emotional challenges. When Feng Lan Xi went thru his emotional and physical challenges, Bai Feng Xi was seen supporting him. I think there appeared to be a rewrite at this juncture. I believe the director had problems with a few scenes because it was evident who dropped the ball. Overall, it was exceptional because the actors made it believable. The fight sequences were impressive.

Lire davantage

Watch this for the chemistry between the main leads

I had never seen Yang Yang’s dramas before, and Zhao Lu Si, though I had seen her in two or three dramas before, I always felt her dramas were either a hit or a miss for me because I tended to have that ‘trying to be funny, but actually not funny at all’ feeling when I watched her acting.

However, this drama made me take a different look at her. She had great acting here, in fact I was most impressed with her among all the leads. I think she really did her best. She acted as Bai Feng Xi, a legendary martial artist wandering in the martial arts world in disguise, but was actually the only daughter of the King of the Qing state. She was good in martial arts, intelligent, resilient, spontaneous, fuss-free and would heartily enjoy a meal any time. Zhao Lu Si was a natural in such a role. I liked her character here. In fact, Bai Feng Xi had become one of the female characters in historical dramas I admired after watching this drama.

Her chemistry with Yang Yang was amazing, one of the best couples I enjoyed seeing in Chinese historical dramas and because of this chemistry, both carried the show to top notch. They were totally comfortable with each other and I love watching such dramas. As Bai Feng Xi and Hei Feng Xi, they were on par in terms of intelligence and martial arts skills and complemented each other perfectly. There was no damsel in distress in need of saving, rather, they saved each other from dangers all the time. This was almost rare in any historical dramas. I enjoyed their interactions so much that I put other dramas on hold and looked forward to every episode during its airing period.
If I were to name a reason to recommend this drama, it would be the sizzling chemistry between the main leads.

Yang Yang acted as Hei Feng Xi, another legendary martial artist, who set up House of Jade and Fountain of Abode, an information network with branches all over Dadong Empire behind his family’s back. This was supposed to be his disguise. He was in fact Feng Lan Xi, the second prince of the Yong state. I really enjoyed seeing Yang Yang as Hei Feng Xi more than Feng Lan Xi. He looked better when his face was thinner and longer with fringe and a ponytail. I have to give kudos to the stylists for doing an amazing job when styling him in both characters. They looked so different that I thought they were two people from the trailers at first.

As for the acting of the rest of the cast, I would say there were good and bad, but at least those who did not act particularly well had little scenes. Special mention to the two who acted exceptionally well were Feng Qi Wu played by Xuan Lu and Huang Chao played by Lai Yi.

This drama had a bit of everything. Romance, martial arts fighting, palace schemes, war battles. The martial arts fighting scenes in the first 15 or so episodes were impressive, the kind that you want to hold your breath watching. Quite a bit of ‘flying around’ scenes, but I personally enjoyed watching them because they were gracefully done.

After 15 episodes or so, we had the palace scheming and then the war battles in the last few episodes. There were some martial arts fighting in the last few episodes or so, but were not as impressive as the first 15 ones.

Romance between the main leads was slow burn, but it was not so slow that you would feel nothing was happening. I enjoyed the development from their good rapport with each other, to gradual liking, love, marriage and above all, unconditional sacrifices for the other half.

What was refreshing to me was that the romance during the development stage did not have the usual tropes that I have seen in so many Chinese historical dramas such as rolling down the hill together, one landing on top of the other, locking eyes for a moment, female lead falling in the arms of the male lead, etc. This drama did not have all of these. The only cliché scene was the mouth-to-mouth medicine-feeding. I thought this drama would not have any of such romance cliché scenes, but well, when the scene came on, it was a small blemish. Was that really the only way to feed medicine to an unconscious person?

And commenting about the ending, without giving any spoilers, I would say that it was not the most ideal, but an almost ideal ending to any romance in a historical drama to me.

Finally, about what I did not like about the drama.
The special visual effects created using computer software such as animals in the hunting game, the ship on water, etc. all looked fake, this was usual in most Chinese historical dramas, I have seen before even more fake-looking ‘ship on water’ scenes in other dramas and that particular scene in this drama was not a major one so not much of a big deal.

The palace schemes were rather predictable and repetitive and the last 10 episodes were rushed, everything seemed to be happening fast and randomly with scenes cut. And when you have scenes cut, illogicality often sets in.

The battle scenes in the last few episodes were not the best, an experienced general of an army troop could be so easily killed with a mere few strokes of the sword and so-called ‘divine army’, purposely trained and had specialized war equipment looked like few packs of tofu in the battlefield, so easily swashed off with one stroke of the sword at one go. These are just two examples.

You could definitely feel that they wanted to do away with unnecessary scenes and end within 40 episodes.

Furthermore, there were comments that the palace plots seemed to be plagiarized from the drama, Royal Nirvana which I have not watched so I have no comments on that, but the palace schemes were nowhere creative, I was only impressed by Feng Lan Xi’s brilliance in always managing to plan a step ahead of his haters and then there were comments that the last episode had scenes reminiscent of dramas, Ten Miles of Peach Blossom and Princess Wei Young. I have watched these two dramas before and yes, when I saw the scenes, I could not help but be reminded of what I saw before. Not that the scenes affected the story in any way, but points deducted for originality.
Was this the result of having two amateur directors who could not think of new ideas? (The original director left with the scriptwriter halfway through the filming, according to rumors.)

All in all, despite the flaws of this drama, it was, without a doubt, a very pleasant watch for me. I looked forward to seeing Bai Feng Xi and Hei Feng Xi every episode, simply because the dynamics between them made this drama worth-watching. I do not usually mention about re-watch value in drama reviews unless there is really value in doing so and for this drama, yes, I will re-watch the scenes of the main leads and only those scenes. (In fact, I was already doing so when the drama was airing.)

Lire davantage

Basically McDonalds, but I'm kind of loving it?

OVERALL
This drama is fast food. It's cheap but it also tastes good, so it's an easy watch. Give it a try if 1) you're looking for a cute love story without any of the annoying clichés, 2) you like political intrigues, 3) you like free and capable female leads. If you 1) can't stand huge plot flaws or excessive CGI, 2) hate Chinese fantasy, 3) are in search of sizzling chemistry, then I recommend skipping.

THE STORY
I have to start by saying that I write fiction and I study fiction. That's my job. Some people can watch dramas without caring about the quality of the plot, I can't. Coming in to Who Rules The World with that background, this drama really isn't that great. People die when convenient, don't die when not convenient. People are sick one moment, and standing healthy the next. People want something the whole time, only to give up on it when it suits the plot. The drama is just full of inconsistencies and cheap writing, I couldn't take it seriously. The CGI (special effects) is also excessive and fake-looking, which might not be an issue for some but for me really pulls me out of the story, and the ending is a let down. It's too easy, too convenient, too incoherent.

That being said, I binged the first half of this drama and watched the second half religiously, so it's not THAT bad either. What saves it is a strong and likeable female lead (I just can't with the childish FLs C-dramas throw at us all the time), a nice male lead (I also can't with the misogynistic MLs so he's much appreciated), and the love story between the two that develops slowly and feels natural. I liked the representation of women in general in this drama, which is very progressive. The political intrigue is also quite nice, and I think part of the reason why I pulled through was to see what would happen. I almost wish this had been a historical rather than a wuxia drama, I think it would have helped avoid lots of problems with writing and production.

The bottom line is: watch it...if you can. It's nowhere near my best drama list, but it is definitely a top-tier filler.

THE ACTING
I like Zhao Lusi and Yang Yang. I don't think they're amazing actors, I just like them, so I had no problem with their acting. Not much chemistry between them, but they were still cute together.

THE MUSIC
What music? I guess it wasn't bad haha

REWATCH VALUE
Average. I might rewatch it at some point in the future...or I might prefer rewatching Story of Minglan, Rebel Princess or Nirvana in Fire for the nth time. There're just better dramas out there.

Lire davantage