Zhu Yan (2023)

Great Watch, you went be disappointed.

If you like fairy tale drama your will love this.
The chemistry between the main lead was great, It pulled me in like a sucker, earning for more, the fight scene was good too, I lt was refreshing to see actual fight scene without the use of too much magic, I can't take the smoke and mirrors style fighting!!! so I was happy to see some kick ass fight scene in this.
I particularly liked when the main lead tried to hide his affection for the female lead knowing he is falling for her! Then when another line interests came into play, he started getting jealous, typicall men in real life lol.
I wont write too much, but give this drama a watch, you won't be disappointed. 😉

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No love chemistry between the cast

I dropped the drama at Episode 30. I looked forward to this drama because of Xiao Zhan, but the non-existent love chemistry between the ML and FL made me drop the drama— the feeling of shifu and his apprentice is too strong that I can’t see them in a love light. I pay attention to love chemistry since I love romantic scenes but this drama is simply not it 😢 The drama did not do a good job in portraying the ML’s secret feelings of love to the FL, and it felt a bit forced and sudden when ML confessed out of nowhere. And I thought Shi Ying’s powers has reached a high level but at some point he still looked weak and lost— I had high expectations but it turned into a disappointment. In overall the acting is pretty good except for the lovey dovey chemistry.

No hate to any of the casts, this is just my personal feelings. I wonder if I should finish the drama or not lol

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Another Generic Xianxia Romance - Mid-Season Review

As an FL-centric drama, TLP meets the criteria of the genre perfectly. FL has 50% of the screen time, the story unfolds around her goals, her development and her love story. ZY is not a combination of a spoiled princess and a feminist who not only fights for the right of equality, but also constantly rescues our ML, who despite being one of the most powerful cultivators in history can't handle three assassins. Fortunately, Ren Min is a talented actress and plays her role superbly. She is 100% believable. My impression is spoiled by the dubbing, but ZY is played great.

Even better is Priest SY, where Xiao Zhan again proves that he can bring history and realism to any character he plays. His eyes, as usual, are so vivid, able to bring joy to watching his character. Unfortunately, the script is not in favor of his character. His plot is completely focused on a love conflict. True, it's mentioned that he should come down from the Mountain and save the kingdom, which is in crisis, but the drama didn't show us a single scene of suffering citizens or any real threat to them (the epidemic scene doesn't count, it's a generic local incident serving only to strengthen the ties between FL and ML). This brings us to two interconnected points.

"Show, don't tell" and "stakes." Drama is a visual medium in which we should learn about events not from the characters telling us about it but from the scenes shown on the screen. We constantly hear that the kingdom is in danger, but we don't see it, making it have virtually no stakes, no real internal conflict for ML. Why would he come down from the Mountain and rescue people who don't need help? There are no refugees from war-torn regions. There are no pogroms of civilians. There is nothing. The existence of the prince, who committed the crime of lying to the emperor and hiding his identity for about 7 years, is suddenly revealed to the world and... nothing. No one wants to bring him to justice. The father does not crave revenge nor is he moved to see his son. His reaction is simply bland. So what was the point of hiding? Why was there a need to expose SY identity when exposure changed nothing? There were no stakes, no point that could engage the viewer in the ML story. All we got was solely his dilemmas about the love affair.

Visually, the drama makes a very good impression. You can see that adequate funds and efforts went into it. The music, however, is dull, flat, bland. It fails to raise the adrenaline in a fight scene. It doesn't support the touching aspect in tragic scenes. It does not portray anything that is not a sweet romance. Thus, it fails to fulfill its primary function.

In conclusion, this drama perfectly fulfills the requirements of a generic xianxia romance and nothing else. It beautifully depicts romantic scenes and nothing more. Good visuals are offset by painfully bland music. The excellent pair of actors Xiao Zhan and Ren Min clearly stand apart from the insipid plot and the utterly ordinary, downright bland acting of the rest of the cast. After six episodes, my rating was 7.5, and after every two episodes watched, where absolutely nothing happened but sugarcoating the romance, my rating dropped. After 20 episodes, it ranks at 3.5. More of this drama cannot be saved by the pair of main actors.

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I just wanted some happy endings

This drama gave me alot of happiness till around episode 28, I would rewatch some of the scenes again and again and my heart would flutter whenever the ML and FL were interacting. I didn't want the show to end. I really loved how sweet and gentle the ML was. Their relationship was just the ideal kind of relationship I would love to see in a drama.

I honestly was expecting a fluffy happy ending to complete my happiness, but I didn't expect it to end this way and leave a bitter taste in my mouth instead. I truly think it was unnecessary. Why would FL go through alot to bring him back to life, only for him to die again? Couldn't it just end there, with them living their remaining 27 years together?

I will miss this show anyway, and I know its impression on me is going to last for a while.

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Slow start epic finish

The first 10 eps or so of this show are not a good indicator of what comes after. It takes a long time to set the scene, introduce the characters and take us to the point where we start in the first ep. Until then it has been a good, but not great drama, with average arcs and tropes. But from this point it picks up momentum and does not slow down until the last second. We get thrown into a life or death struggle with multiple heartbreaking casualties, surprises, plot twists and reveals we did not see coming and a lot of romance. I was a little disappointed about the main couples chemistry, but this was made up for by the side couples. All in all this turned out to be a great watch that I will be remembering fondly.

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The best part for me was Xiao Zhan

This was a love story between Princess Zhu Yan (Ren Min) of the Chi Yi Tribe and Royal Prince Shi Ying (Xiao Zhan). Due to the framing of his mother the queen, Shi Ying was taken away to Jiu Yi Mountain to cultivate from a young age. Since then, he focused solely on his cultivation until he met and accepted Zhu Yan as his disciple. Over time in the mountains, both developed romantic feelings for each other, but neither acknowledged nor expressed their feelings because of their relationship until only much later.

What I liked:

1. The male lead, Shi Ying. I really enjoyed seeing Xiao Zhan’s boyish face. Though he looked young, he carried himself well as a teacher. His character was kind yet decisive and ruthless when required.

2. Acting of the entire cast. No negative comments about anyone. In the beginning I was skeptical about the female lead. Her face looked round and what with her bangs down in the early episodes, her face looked even shorter and rounder. However, despite her character being the typical kind in such teacher-disciple dramas – innocent, playful, adorable, she grew on me. Her acting was not exceptional, but it was acceptable. Undeniably, Xiao Zhan’s acting was a par above her.

3. The cinematography. It was spectacular. Clearly a drama with a huge budget. I heard someone said that it would not be easy or even possible to make another such heavy-budgeted xianxia in China again.

4. In many of the teacher-disciple relationship dramas I have watched, most of the time the teacher would not acknowledge his romantic feelings openly, much less think of ways or take actions to chase after the disciple, so it was good to see Shi Ying admitting his feelings for Zhu Yan, taking action and willing to give up his life in the mountains to be with her, albeit I had to wait 30 episodes to see him take some action.

What could have been better:

1. The open and somewhat illogical ending or maybe I just cannot accept it. One of the worse endings to me in any xianxia drama. After all that they had gone through? I was left wondering whether they were finally together or not. I read that the drama portrayed a different ending from the novel, so I shall choose to believe the novel’s ending which was a more acceptable one.

2. Chemistry between the main leads. I hate to admit this because I was quite touched by their love, but I would not say they had the best chemistry ever. When Zhu Yan was younger, it was near impossible to imagine them as a couple. When she was older, I think she was mellower and her bangs were longer so they looked better together, but still, their pairing did not feel natural enough and their intimate scenes were slightly awkward to me. I watched the behind-the-scenes shots and saw that Ren Min was embarrassed kissing Xiao Zhan. Could that be one of the reasons?

I have always enjoyed teacher-disciple relationship dramas. It is an old trope, but I enjoy the angst and thoroughly enjoy every intimacy between the couple, because it is a so-called forbidden relationship.

The overall storyline for this drama was easy to understand, although some parts confusing, flaws and illogical parts like the final battle scene which seemed so lame possessing one body after another and eventually having to sacrifice Shi Ying to rid the demon once and for all.

As for their relationship, it had relatively less angst to me compared to other such dramas of the same genre. The angst only started around episode 34 of the total 40 episodes and was still relatively mild - I did not watch sighing and wanting to tear my hair out.

All in all, would I seem shallow to say that the best part for me about this drama was watching Xiao Zhan? His performance was not his best to me, but it was still good, worth watching him for 40 episodes.

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Good one

A good story! Despite all the negative reviews, I'm glad I decided to check it out myself. Ren Min and Xiao Zhan, you both did an amazing job; your acting made me feel the love ❤. Ren Min, you are absolutely beautiful, and I can't find anything ugly about you. I don't understand why people had different expectations; for me, I knew what to expect in a xianxia drama – love, betrayal, killing, and reincarnation are the core elements of every plot. So, I was prepared for this ending right from the beginning.

But honestly, all the actors' performances were on point, and I really enjoyed watching it, especially because there was no betrayal between the lovers.

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Great performances, but too much CGI

I liked this drama overall. The best part was the acting and the worst was the sloppy scriptwriting. The first 13 episodes that set the stage for the drama were the weakest. The plot meandered and we were caught in silly adolescent rivalries. I almost dropped the series then, but felt the acting was so good, I would continue. The best episodes were at the middle and the last few episodes, disappointingly, unraveled the already established cannon. I think if the writing could have been more linear and not so complicated with the numerous amount of villains and subplots, perhaps it would have been easier to follow. Another aspect that detracted from the drama was the over-the-top CGI that felt distracting.

The best part, of course, was the well put together group of talented young actors. Boy, they took me with them to the depth of despair and joy. There were such heartfelt moments that made you care for the main leads. In that, they certainly had great direction. However, even the best of actors cannot carry an entire production mired in sloppy writing and too much CGI. Even though it was a fantasy piece, they were supposed to be mortals. Yet the producers would have us believe that the kind of power they wielded all came from spiritual cultivation? It's obvious a big part of the budget was spent on the CGI, but one shouldn't rely too much on that. The focus should always be on telling a good story. They gave away some big reveals almost as soon as they were established and that was a shame.. I felt disappointed mostly in the writing.

Period C-dramas are always a feast for the eyes in terms of sets and costumes. In that this production did not disappoint. I was still very entertained but felt the performers deserved a better written piece.

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The never-ending drama

I enjoyed many things about this drama. ..but it should have ended at 26 or 28 episodes. By the end, I was so over watching the same things happening again and again. A good story does not usually need to have it's characters coming back to life one after another. In the last few episodes, I was actually happy if a character actually died, and then stayed dead. And honestly, I only finished the drama because of the actors. They were great in my opinion. That being said, I personally didn't see any chemistry between any of the couples, which was disappointing. The FL had better chemistry with her keeper than with her ML. But that's nothing against the acting. And the story isn't even complete, but I don't see there being a second season since the timelines for story completion and actors ages won't match up. Which, of course, is fine, I wouldn't come back to this story. I will follow up with the actors though.

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A less stupid version of the “Journey of Chong Zi”

Using my personal rating system of "loved," "liked," "meh," & "nah," this is a "liked"/“meh”.

The deets:
Two preteens have a destined encounter that results in the preteen version of our ML (a crown prince) being framed for murder. He is smuggled out of the palace by his would-be baby daddy to go be a novice in a pugilistic sect instead. Our preteen FL, devastated that she was the cause of the crown prince being accused of murder, sends a prayer to the heavens that he will rest in peace which inexplicably causes a curse to be placed on our ML (wtf!?). The curse will not come to pass if he does not meet with her again before his 18th birthday. But, of course, just before he turns 18, she finds her way to his isolated valley within the sect’s territory. Lots and lots of hijinks ensue…

What I liked:
Getting to see Alen Fang in another drama. Though I’d like to see him as an ML for once instead of the eternally doomed SML (always the bridesmaid, never the bride…). I liked that many of the male leads were easy to look at (an not one of them had the stupid thin and long hair pieces in front of their face). I liked Zhu Yan’s character. At first, I wasn’t sure, but she grew on me. I liked that the younger prince got together with his love despite everyone’s best attempts to keep them apart. I like that the General finally got his girl in the end and she (Bai Xue Lu) turned out to be a decent person in the end (I wonder how tall that actress is?). I liked that this was a xuanyuan/wuxia/xianxia because I’m not into historical reality (much less inaccurate history because that, in many ways, is worse by ‘whitewashing’ history; though if I’m going to watch a xuanyuan with Xiao Zhan, can we please just have a season 2 of DouLuo Continent?). I liked that there were distinct sets and costumes as you went to the different ‘kingdoms’ across the land.

What I disliked:
I totally could have done without the would-be baby daddy character (the sect leader [seriously is there some sort of law in China that Han Dong must be cast in at least 50% of active productions at all times!? That dude is in like every other drama out there]). He didn’t know wtf he wanted and kept messing around with the ML’s head in some bizarre effort to get revenge for ML’s mother (his lost love) and then gave up and went and did it himself. He knew that ML wanted to live like a monk but decided to foist a trifling girl (Bai Xue Lu) upon him, hoping that she would somehow inspire enough feelings in him for a cause the ML had no interest in taking up that he would be able to survive an ordeal that literally no other sect member had ever survived before. When ML displayed interest in another woman, at first Sect Leader tried to separate them and hook him back up with the trifling girl. Then he gives up on that and decides that our FL will do. But then as soon as the ML develops real feelings for our FL, Sect Leader decides that its time for our trifling girl to come back upon the scene and take him back. *sigh *
I didn’t like that the trifling girl’s only goal in life seemed to make a powerful marriage. The way her character was written, she was intelligent enough and strong enough not to need a man to get her what she wanted—yet they forced her into the role of b@t$*** crazy jealous woman and made her spend 2/3rds of the drama going after dudes she didn’t like and ignoring the one she did.
Minor point of dislike: If you didn’t know what “shifu” meant, you will by the end of the drama, since its every third word that Zhu Yan says.

Final thoughts:
I stand by the title of this review: If you were disappointed by Journey of Chong Zi and/or found Journey of Flower too much of a case study in toxic relationships, I recommend this one instead. It’s basically the same idea but involves a lot less yelling at the screen.

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