A Journey to Love (2023)

Ancient custom drama making reference to the Cold War !

This drama is a feast for those who like world history for it took titbits especially from the pages of the Cold War. New interest must had arose in the scriptwriter when in 2017, secret JFK records (US President John F. Kennedy, 1960–1963, assassinated on November 22, 1963—drama specifically aired few days later as remembrance of his 60th death anniversary) were made public by the National Archive.This gave fresh information to make historical conjectures about the past that precisely corresponded to the facts to expound on and comprehend why particular events transpired as they did. A captivating and illuminating drama results from combining some Cold War events with some of its colorful and charismatic characters, a masterful script, and the superb acting of all the protagonists and supporting cast members.
Spoiler Alert.
The ML, Ning Yuan Zhou, was a smart and visionary espionage chief who was demoted and sent to safeguard the Wu emperor in the war. He was the composite of 2 historical figures: JFK and the powerful Director of FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, whose 48-year tenure saw the assassinations of JFK and then his brother, Robert F. Kennedy (RFK), who ran for the presidency in 1968.
The FL,Ren Ru Yin, a cool and relentless vice section head of An female assassin espionage group who was frame for killing her benefactor, the An empress. She had to defect to Wu with state secrets, seeked asylum and assumed a fake identity as a Wu princess She was also a combination of First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, a benchmark for style and class among wives of presidents, and RFK, who, as Attorney-General in his brother's cabinet was known for his ruthlessness and toughness in combating organized crime.
The opening of episode 1, "The Central Plains was thrown into a century of chaos when the last emperor of the previous dynasty was killed, split into many countries; among them 2 were the most powerful, Wu and An."(The Cold War, which lasted 45 years, began with the competition and antagonism between the US and Russia after World War II.)
The An emperor seized 3 cities from Wu and the war with Wu started. ( Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were invaded under Russian leader.Stalin and incorporated into the Soviet Union)
The Wu emperor listened to ill advisers to lead the war and got captured by An, leading Wu to a state of turmoil.( JFK did not listened to security advisers not to ride in an open-air motorcar in Dallas,Texas and got assassinated which shocked and stunned the nation into national mourning.)
The Wu emperor was captured by an An general with a modern revolutionary principle of fighting to end all wars. ( Che Guevara, with his romantically Latin good looks and long, wavy hair , was a legend for freedom fighters and a Marxist-Leninist guerrilla leader, 2nd in command after Fidel Castro of Cuba in the Cuban Revolution.)
The standoff between Wu and An occurred when Wu emperor was taken hostage by An who wanted ransom for his released.( The Cuban Missiles Crisis ,the standoff when US demanded that Russian removed Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba )
The FL, as White Sparrow, and her friend LingLong were to seduce Wu officials for state secrets in a banquet.LL was betrayed by her secret An lover and killed. (John Profumo,  the U.K. secretary of state for war met a model at a party. Unknown to him , she has a secret KGB lover. When the affair was exposed, he resigned but the Conservative Party lost the general election the following year)
Prince Danyang sending his army to ambush and killed the Wu delegation, going to ransom back his brother the Wu emperor. Countrymen fighting against each other. ( The Bay of Pigs incident, when Cuban exiles funded by CIA, landed and attempted to overthrow PM Fidel Castro)
The stunning announcement of unlikely marriage between Li Tong Guan and Chuyue by the An emperor shocked them and everyone else. He was an illegitimate son of a princess, while she was a princess from a powerful tribe. (Jackie Kennedy shocked and stunned the world when she married Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, just months after the assassination of her brother-in-law, RFK. She was from the upper-class society of New York while he worked his way from telephone operator to tycoon.They lived separate lives, she lived months in America with her children, while he was in Greece with his children. She remarried for a variety of reasons, one of which was probably PTSD following another shooting death. She had sat beside her husband when he was shot,stood beside vice president Lyndon B Johnson, when he was sworn in to replace her husband and endured a two-hour trip back to Washington with her husband in a casket and her dress still smeared with his blood. The princess, depicted as a picture of forced composure with an interior full of agony and suffering, sat waiting for an audience with the emperor for hours on end in that scene, which was brilliantly enacted in epi. 22. )
The princess left the sheltered life of the palace as part of a delegation to An, where she witnessed the hardships and impoverishment her people had endured during the conflict.She was even occasionally thrown stones and rotten vegetables to help her comprehend the animosity and wrath, and she responded by promising to restore peace.(The involvement of US in the Vietnam War with actual landing of troops resulting in heavy casualties, contributed to a great deal of animosity and outrage that its leaders failed to anticipate. The scene where Qian Zhao held his mates' badges and forced the emperor to show respect for them was a poignant way for drama to honor the troops who lost their lives fighting in foreign soil. When Saigon fell in 1975, the Vietnam War came to an end. A few days before, there was a dramatic and massive airlift to rescue US citizens, South Vietnamese government officials,their families, and thousands of others by helicopters to the waiting US Seventh Fleet in the South China Sea.Depicted in the rescue of Wu emperor by aerial lift of cables from his island prison)
The drama dragged many episodes to rescue the emperor.From the tightly guarded pagoda prison with its many booby traps to an Alcatraz like island prison. (A parody of sharp contrast from the ridiculously easy fatal shooting of the lone assassin of JFK, Lee Harvey Oswald, to killing him at close range from another lone shooter, Jack Ruby, when he was being transferred from jail to court in police custody! Done in 2 days after the assassination and live on national TV! Real life is much weirder than friction! )
Betrayal was the drama's theme. The motive of the ML was to clear the bad reputation that his espionage organisation had betrayed the emperor in the war. While the Fl was to clear her name that she betrayed and killed her empress.The Wu and An emperors exploited and betrayed their people for their own greed and ego trips. The An Empress who experienced treachery from her father, son, and husband. The crown prince divulging his father's collaboration with the enemy country.There were innumerable such betrayals in the drama. ( In ancient times the punishment for betrayal was to pull out the roots.The writer put forth brilliant deductive speculation coupled with rumors of a connection to Marilyn Monroe, as both brothers did died of gunshots and JFK's only son died childless with his wife in a plane crash. The 2017 files also established that the Russians was not involved in JFK assassination, as they awkwardly put their defence on high security alert for attacks. The files also indicated that there was more than one shooter, as bullet holes demonstrated that the gunfire originated from multiple directions, confirming the conspiracy theorists' long-held belief. Writer theories were presented regarding the conspirators who ordered extermination with extreme caution in the ML statements of “gains and losses” and Zhong Sang ,Wu PM .This historical whodunit murder mystery can be solved upon all releases of secret files once FBI and CIA lift their blocks.).

BTW, the drama has OE like the JFK files. Is the writer venting on the viewers, or is it an act of betrayal?!!

Lire davantage

Well i think is still worth it

I loved this drama from the first episode. while it has some plot flaws like the ltg plot that was just bad, better storytelling could have emerged if they hadn't focused so much on his obsession with ruyi. overall, it's a very good drama, and i adore the dynamics of the characters and has a very good storytelling

My disappointment comes from the last episodes, not because of the deaths – i genuinely enjoy angst – but because of how it was executed. using the impact of sadness seemed like an overused trope in such a short time. up until episode 34, the pacing was excellent, but it felt rushed with the deaths. i'm fine with deaths in historical dramas, but wiping out all of them? it saddens me because there seems to be no point in doing this to the characters. it would be much better if they were better paced it reached a point that it lost momentum for it.
These were characters i truly loved and cared about, and it had the potential to be much better ending if we compare to the beginning, despite everything i will trully miss this drama :(

Lire davantage

This is the Best Depiction of a BADASS & SHAMELESS Couple

I've never expected much of this drama, but after reading the synopsis, I was hooked up entirely. Assassin-themed plot is my favorite and given the visuals of the supporting casts, I was more than encouraged to start this. Alright, let's just begin, shall we?

A Journey to Love was set in two fiction neighboring countries, An and Wu, who have borne longtime grudge. Okay, so the reckless Emperor of Wu decided to attack the An and look what it had become... he was kidnapped by the An who put a bounty on his head.

Meanwhile, a retired leader of Liu Dao Hall - Ning Yuanzhou, was requested to seize back his position and immediately lead the Wu diplomatic team to negotiate with the An with the hope of getting back their emperor. Aside from that, Ning Yuanzhou also encountered a badass yet shameless former An assassin (Scarlet Guard), Ren Ruyi aka Ren Xin. She grudgingly agreed to become the part of the diplomatic team after he ensured that she could leave wherever she wanted as long as she explained all sorts of things regarding the An.

Eventually, their teams consisted of the flirty Yu Shisan, the clever teenager Yuan Lu, the stoic Qian Zhao, the cheerful Sun Lang, and also the lonely princess of the Wu, Yang Ying. Together, they embarked on a journey and shared the moments of joy and sorrow together. At the country of An, their band expanded to the brave Chu Yue and the delulu Li Tongguang.

Eventually, the mastermind would be the Emperor of An and the second prince of An whose mother was Ruyi's former superior. It is quite predictable, but of course, we need evidence and proves to make sure they're the culprit. Nonetheless, it's still very twisty, though.

The bloodbath in the last episodes was unnecessary at all. Why should you kill those characters who only had their developments after venturing into An? To me, it's unacceptable. However, the writers perhaps thought that they've died as patriotic heroes and have no regrets to die for the country. In my opinion, Ruyi and Yuanzhou could've been dead after the attack of the Beipan. I previously thought that they were going to live in seclusion after everything was settled. But fate was playing a cruel joke on them. That's my only disappointment, though.

Acting is bearable and I've got no trouble regarding it. In fact, I didn't feel the main leads' chemistry despite their flirty actions. On the other hand, I would like to appreciate Liu Shishi for playing such a badass girl like Ruyi. She is fit for this kind of character and I'll will be waiting for her in 'Kill My Sins' and 'Fox Spirit Matchmaker 2'. Liu Yuning did perfectly in his first ever lead role and he looked charismatic too. The MVP here might be Yang Ying, portrayed flawlessly by He Landou. She has the most character development here, from the shy and lonely princess to a brave and decisive prince. Special mention for Chang Huasen who played the delusional Li Tongguang too perfectly. I really rooted on him and couldn't help to like him. The master-disciple dynamic between Ruyi and him is one of the good aspects of this drama. I can even feel their chemistry. :)

Opening OST is the best, which is sung by Liu Yuning (aside from beautiful voice, he's good in acting. He's an excellent all-rounder (reminded me of Mo Qingcheng in Love Me, Love My Voice)).

Despite the bloodbath, I still love this series. Overall, a ten out of ten. However, I need to use fast-forward button in order to watch quickly (due to my tight schedule and exam last year). If you love this kind of plot, you won't regret this. My suggestion is to give this a shot and you'll be entertained in no time. Good luck in watching.

P.S.
Surprisingly, I didn't use the fast forward button in Li Tongguang's scene. He's just too pitiful to be skipped forward. Wkwkwkwkwk.

Lire davantage

This was a very entertaining show as Liu Shi Shi does not disappoint. She's definitely a big name in the Chinese cinema industry and her acting was phenomenal in this work. Liu Yuning was also very good despite what other viewers might have said about him. Although I have to stress about how the show ended and how it could have ended.

Ren Ruyi is a former top assassin of her old organization, the Scarlet Guards of the State of An. She soon teams up with dashing Liudao Hall leader Ning Yuanzhou and his homeboys of the State of Wu to get revenge for her former benefactor, the Empress of An. Sounds enticing doesn't it? The first half of the show was filled with twists and turns, plotting and scheming among political organizations and assassinations. Unfortunately, the drama falls short of expectations. So many major characters don't make it till the end, leaving so many viewers rather confused as to why they lost their lives. Ruyi's disciple, Li Tongguang, played by the very handsome Chang Huasan, was done wrong by the screenwriter. He starts out as the talented military leader who manages to take down the Wu Emperor and his army despite being so young. We later realize that he is just a petulant child with stalkerish tendencies towards his former master, and he continues his behavior into the very end. Not to mention, his military prowess suddenly disappears into thin air and he is responsible for the State of An's shameful defeat in the early stages of the war. They did my homeboy wrong, and for no reason. Towards the end, the State of Wu also tumbled and their crippled prince tries to kill his siblings to take over the throne. The drama was also filled with some inconsistencies with many people switching alliances. Initially, princess Yangying is betrayed by her older brother Danyang, but he later becomes emperor and is supported by the entire main cast. As if his betrayal wasn't obvious earlier. They also killed off the rest of Ning Yuanzhou's brothers, which was uncalled for. But alas, I guess the fate of these detective like agents in historical time periods is pretty predictable.

Nonetheless, I find this show to be very enjoyable because of its theme. Ruyi is glorified as the most feared assassin throughout the world and even in the end she still goes out with a bang. Literally. No joke. The theme of the imperial court and its clandestine organizations is petty neat and I like the idea of covert operations in ancient times, as well the comical moments of the brothers of Liudao Hall. It was overall a great show and I hope to watch more like this one.

Lire davantage

Definitely worth watching...

This was beautifully done. I would recommend it to anyone. I gave the series a 9.5 overall, because of two factors. I needed to confirm whether I got the ending correct and the explanation that I read in My Drama List coincided with what I thought, but quite frankly it was not believable. So I would love to see how they explain it in a sequel. There were two possibilities. One was that Chu Yue killed herself at the end or that Ruyi and Ning faked their own deaths and had children. I wanted to believe the later (but frankly they were both so badly injured, there is no way, not eve through willing suspension of disbelief), because I wanted them to live and have that child. In addition, I would have liked to have seen way more passion between Ren Ru Yi and Ning Yuan Zhou. So took off .5 because of the lack of passion, and the ending was a bit squirrely.

Lire davantage

Great Casts with an Okay Story Line

I loved all of the characters in this drama. Every person played their role right. I have no complaints and this is one of the best drama of 2023 as well. I'm really in love with Liu Shi Shi's role and she looks like a HOT MAMA (if you know what I mean). Liu Yu Ning did his best and I really appreciate his acting growing each day. Yushisan stole the show, I'd really want to watch more of his backstory. All of the Liudao Hall characters stole my heart. I really wished the ending was better that was the only down fall of this drama. Highly recommend to watch and yes it's a bad ending.

Lire davantage

The ending killed my love

This story started so well, making us fall inlove with the strong character of the female lead and the shy but also strong male lead.

If i can fast forward, all happened naturallyz there are those crazy disciples like Li Tong , part of the story.

The shy princess who makes it her mission to bring her brother back from captivity with the help of the so fine male leads, becones strong but funny at the same time when she is with her trusted companions. Her friendship with Yuan Lu, on my God how i wish they had a chance... crying after episide 34. The Leads die one by one. I felt sad guys, you have no idea how much i cried after QS and L die. Then YL dying in YY arms. i broke dowm.

My question to authors... mara why vele. none of them were spared but couldnt they have a happy re union together instead, the heroes die and we are left with the tomboy princess at the end. .

The way Ning died, and the FL,, im mad . the person who was supposed to have the memories at the end is princess YY cos she was there from the begining. Honestly. I loved the story until ep 34. The tears i shed from then on are ridiculously painful. The script writer and editors... what were you thinking giving us those last 6 episodes of killings

Lire davantage

Great show but the ending ruined it.

The show was good until the last five episodes. The main leads were hilarious, extremely strong fighters, and had great chemistry. I loved when Ruyi just grabbed Ning and kissed him, totally taking him by surprise. His reaction to the kiss and all her attempts to seduce him were hilarious, I could not stop laughing at their antics. The fight scenes were amazing with a lot of martial arts. The show contained a good message for girls. But the last five episodes just ruined it. The show was all about the groups journey to the state of An to rescue the Emperor of Wu, that was taken captive. I loved the banter between the main people in the delegation. The acting was great. I really enjoyed the series until the last five episodes. The main characters finally rescue the Emperor of Wu through a lot of trouble. They make him truly see the cost of what his foolish actions have led to, and what it really means to be the emperor. Just to kill him off five episodes later anyways. If that is not bad enough one by one, they kill off the main character of the delegation. Including both the Male Lead and the Female Lead. The group rescues the emperor with the princess and the Female lead being left behind. The Male Lead gets the emperor out of the capital and on the way back to the State of Wu. Then turns around, leaving the emperor with his friends to escort him home, and returns to save the Female Lead. After they separate, another state trying to invade An, so the emperor and the others join the battle to help the people fend off the attack. During the war, the emperor is killed along with the main leads and their friends. All happening in the last FIVE episodes. So, if you are like me and want to see the Main couple have a happy ending, then don't watch this show. It is heartbreaking watching these amazing characters killed off one by one, every single one off them goes down fighting with their last breath. Though if I choose the most heartbreaking one it would be teenage Yuan Lu. He was such a lovable character, even though it heavily foreshadowed that he will most likely die, it didn't make it any less heart breaking. It was very sad, we were given teasers of romance blossoming between him and Princess Ying, to have him dying in her arms while professing his feelings to her. The actress playing the princess does a marvelous job showing her anguish and pain with his death, but also not letting that stop her from doing what needs to be done. I was iffy about her character in the beginning, as she was really whiney and timid. Doing whatever someone told her to do. To slowly discovering her inner strength with Female leads help. I loved the show, but it makes me so mad that they killed everyone off. The Female lead let me down, she was amazing throughout the show, teaching other women to be strong and showing them didn't need a man to be happy. Then at the end the Male Lead dies and she just gives up. Yes, she killed the enemy by blowing them up along with her, but there were other ways to accomplish that then by killing herself with them. The ending just didn't make sense to me, I think they destroyed all the work they did with those last episodes. But that is my opinion as I like happy endings, with the leads together at the end.

Lire davantage

Just WHY!?you said in title it's Journey To Love!- how come it became A Joyrney To Death!?

I loved the drama so much especially the beginning til middle part. Every character is very interesting to watch. The fighting scenes are just WOW. The character development of a'ying (prince Li) is very commendable . There's no annoying 3rd party or closed-minded parents etc. I like how they portray those main leads as smart, loyal, and have their own super strength. They made us fall in love so much with their friendship/ camaraderie that it breaks our hearts too much when they started dying one after another 💔 I cried so much especially from Qian's death to Ruyi's death. I just can understand the ending that much. That young boy named Ning Shishan- he said his parents are Ning and Ren. Are they our main lead couple???they didn't die?!then why princess imagined the fallen 6 riding their horse together?

Lire davantage

If I could rate this drama a 15/10 I would

I was hooked on this drama from the first episode. I’m usually a very BIG fan of xanxia dramas but this wuxia drama has stolen my heart and has easily become my favourite drama. I’m only on episode 17 but I already want to go back and rewatch the episodes. I’m SO obsessed. The acting, the CHEMISTRY, the action, the plot, the characters themselves are all so good. The fl especially is different from your usual soft fl. Shes a notorious assassin and she’s good at it. It has comedy and everything just comes together so well. Also Liu Yu Ning >>>>>>>> OBSESSED with him. He needs more recognition and more dramas.

Lire davantage