Honesty finds loyalty

Thanks to @PeachBlossomGoddess, they sum up pretty much all you need to know about this drama and points to consider before starting the 36 eps. Due to works, I tend to look away from anything that is longer than 16 eps…and usually, a Chinese Wuxia genre rarely has anything goes less than 24 eps…a good ones with great plot lines is well over 60+ eps.

So what I often do is invite my mother to join in the journey, and skip parts when I ain’t available to watch. I will then ask her to sum up main details for me. Great tactics plus, a way to find ‘activity’ to share with my mother.

This drama was almost not the one. She started this drama accidentally on one of our purchased movie platforms. I caught on with her till ep 4 or the ep with the fireworks, which YunXiang (Chen Xiao-my fav actor) plays and annoys the f out of the masked men. It was quite boring to us both. Too much talking, the story was quite slow and the fact that the protagonist dressed like a beggar and has no superior martial art skills. Like what?! I dropped at ep.4. My mother carried on for 2 more eps. That was the end for “The Ingenious One”.

I go through several K-drama before there is another urge for Chinese Wuxia…I go back on A Dream of Splendor, another Chen Xiao’s great drama, skim through my fav scenes with Liu Yifei and him. TIO pops up again on the channel. I decide to give it another try since there is no new drama from him this year. This time, I watch carefully, listen to the dialogues, understand his motives…Oh my Gosh! There are deception, scheme within scheme, twist plots after plots…I am shook. Director Patrick Yau, and screenwriter YanXi, do what they do best, got us deep into the support characters’ stories, know their back stories…then kill them right before the story comes to a close. Damn, I know this is there often use trick yet, my heart wrenches when ******Spoiler Alert*****Mo Bu Fan takes the poison pill, doesn’t care for life after his one and only innocent Kang Qiao is knifed. Or when Jian Biao, Ten Teals of Gold, scarifies himself for the protagonist (he is a bit annoying at this point).

It is a happy ending…though doesn’t satisfy my thirst for unfolding mysteries behind the sects, what did happen to Qi Tian Feng? Would Nam Gong Fang (he murders the f out of his role, so good!) return and take revenge? The cleaning up….besides that, I’m so happy that everyone is coupled up nicely. Superb!

Btw, the OG actor Huang Hai Bing (Qian Rong) is only in a few scenes but his aura fills the set. When you watch other actors, you can tell they don’t have the core power for martial arts, more like a dance in the sky showoff that looks nice. However, his moves are the sh**. Beautiful and powerful flavor!

I rate the rewatch a bit low because once you know all the answers, there isn’t thrill left to the story, which loses it focus as the FL and some other “main roles” need much improvement on their acting skills.

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Loyalty, Trust and Respect are the base of a strong relationship

This is on my Top Ten High-Valued Rewatch Drama. I haven’t watched many dramas as of late because of how long most dramas are. Quite time-consuming. Movies are a quicker solution to entertainment and thrill. So when a drama has a second, third rewatch value, that drama has to be top-notch in my E-collection. This drama is one of a few.

I need to apologize first if my words seem stumble and chaotic as I stay up from 10pm to 7am to reach to the final ep. For 3 days straight, I get up, do house chores, study, house chores, make dinner, study and spend the rest of the evening from 11pm to 6-7am mowing this drama. My brain is temporarily fried but I need to write my reviews now while the passion, the love and the excitement still in my blood streams. Otherwise, if I go to sleep, I might not come back to this. I get lazy. I want to support the cast, the crews especially, the intelligent screenwriter Zhang Ying Ji, the producer Zhang Xiao Bo and talented director Chen Chang for this beautiful, exciting drama, which I haven’t seen in the market in a long while.’

My mother and I were watching this drama and Amidst the Snowstorm of Love back to back however; I dropped half way and my mother were 20 eps in then jumped to the last ep.. I admire Leo Wu for his professionalism, he is great in both physically active dramas, which both are produced in 2023. How is that possible? He must have trained days in and days out for these two, hence, the juicy biceps…excuse my drools. Though, I find these two have almost identical plots, a genius with a brilliant athletic ability struggles with childhood trauma, which has him stuck in life. Lost parents at a younger age. Psychological challenges (both ego and self-confidence). Meets the light at the end of his tunnel, falls in love at first sight. Those two grows through various stages of life, supports each other through each failure, injuries, win medals, secret love, challenge from the FL’s parents, ML received support, admiration from his teammates, and adopted parents (teacher, step dad), etc. Many more but it will become a spoiler. With all of these similarities, my love leans towards this drama because of its maturity in acting and how the cast’s emo-intelligent growth are showed each passing stage. I find some of myself in FL’s decision in life: a career driven woman but has self-doubts and is played by her own boss, who she gives her all for 6 years (of her career and received nothing but a kick out of the company), because of her mother’s failure in marriage, she shoves hate, projects her own negativities onto her daughter …but FL is determined to live her life, to share her light with others, lives with dignity and thirst for a meaningful life.

As woman in her 40’s, I can understand her decision in works, hesitation in love and how happiness is put in a corner, but is scared to ask for. Sometimes you want to speak up, to scream for the unfairness but for the sake of others, you can’t. You go home and blame it on yourself. That guilt can eat up anyone. Fortunately, God or the screenwriter sends Song San Chuan to light up her life and she gets to open a new door for him. These two love and support each other in a level of respect, maturity-not though common jealousy type you see in drama lately.

The leads are wonderful. I don’t care how others say they don’t have chemistry…what else you want.? Their age difference is 20 years, they can’t be lovey-dovey always. Career. Goals. Financial stability. Health. Are put before all that cute huggings, kissings and nonchalant. Although, I laugh silly watching these cp kiss and being playful (finally gosh, kiss some more). Leo Wu is wonderful at showing his vulnerability, a slight shaky lips, nose when he tries to cover his tears. The goofy, silly boy in love then to a determined athletic, who works hard for his dream, takes on responsibilities and admits to his shortcomings Wonderful!

The rest of the supporting cast is on par with their characters. Another point I adore this drama, character development-you can see the why, when and how, not a sudden change or a stiff bad guy-good guy role. The portray of cold big fish eats small fish is accurate to the bone. Smart dialogues.

Before ending this long review, I wanna note another extra plus plus plus points for this drama, pls note this is extra but not necessary the sweet spot to me liking this drama: Them Sweat on bare skins, Them Shorts, Them sweaty boys running in shorts…Lord, help me! Uhmmm, very hot….I mean, very professional :))

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A new outlook on villainess(es)

I was on a search for time traveling story plot right after watching A Time Called You with Ahn Hyo-seop and Jeon Yeo-been with a great twist compared to regular time-traveling dramas these days.

I watched two of Zhou Ye’s previous works and loved her sparkling eyes, her acting needs some improvements however. So
I ventured on another one with her acting as a main lead hoping this will be something that would make a mark. And it did. More than expected. The feeling of overachieved is so much better than a disappointment. FR!

I didn’t think I’d have liked it as much as I do, probably 2 eps and left. Well, I finished 11 eps in one night. Needless to say, though I could hardly stay awake the next day, I couldn’t wait for the night to come so I could continue with her time-traveling adventures.

The story isn’t new yet how the director’s and script writers’ new takes on villainess(es) was beautifully done. The viewers get to see the reason behind the villainess(es)’s action. They are not a bunch of bad eggs. Sometimes, circumstances and their over-achieved character aka passion for love drive them to a rather darker road especially, when there are no one who would wait for them in the other end. The villainess(es) can change once they realize the ugly truth thus, knowing they are loved, care for like every other person.
On the other hand, the so-call kind and smart protagonist such as Mu Yao, Zhong Ye Lan could be so annoyed and heartless when the camera rolls are on them. The situation makes us viewers feel sympathy towards them however; their stubbornness and silliness (with a weak nature) are part of many reason we feel frustrated towards their decisions and actions. How could you be so one dimensional and still be loved by many (male partners?!)

This storyline gives me hope in a smarter, calculated yet kind and strong characters. For those that not naturally evil, they simply are strong-willed and know what they want, and go get it. As human, we all make mistake. They can change the path if they are given a new start. Though not everyone is lucky enough to have that. The same goes with Hua Qian, she thought she was given a second chance to revert her action and be a better person, to fix almost everything.
*******Spoiler: however, it was only a dream. She still needed to wake up and deal with the consequences. She was lucky to have someone who cared and stood by her the entire time. Some were perhaps not that fortunate.

I wish there was a couple more ep to really define a happy ending and how she recovered from her mental breakdown, start over. But, I understand how the writers wanted to leave it at that for us to linger, to imagine and to wish her a new start with her man, who had loved her since the beginning of time.

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