Chong Zi (2023)

Heavenly potential, demonic execution

The novel “Chong Zi”, penned over 10 years ago, features a once popular, now outdated premise — master-disciple relationship. To adapt such an old novel in 2023 is a risky move; not only has the audience already seen similar works that they would naturally draw comparison to (e.g. Journey of Flower), but even the official “synopsis” gives the entire plot away. There is not much room left to tell a compelling story, let alone something new and refreshing. This drama ended up having a very mixed reception and for good reasons. Here I will try to review this drama honestly by listing out why it is good and why it is bad.

【Why is it good?】
— Interesting male lead —
One would think all this drama could offer is an old-fashioned story absent of any surprises. But behind the datedness, there lies an innovative gem. The highlight of the show, and a huge reason why people are enjoying it, is the male lead Luo Yin Fan’s intriguing characterization (and Jeremy Tsui’s perfect portrayal of him). Luo Yin Fan starts off being quite the typical gentle, warm and caring male lead, but behind that exterior lies something darker waiting to be manifested. While most anti-heroes eventually achieve greatness, Luo Yin Fan slowly descends into madness for love. If you’re interested in fifty shades of morally grey leads, then you’re in for a treat. This is as much a story about Chong Zi becoming a demon as it is about Luo Yin Fan going bonkers. They are like the mirror image of each other, or the yin yang couple — one has light under their darkness, and the other has darkness under their light. One is an immortal with a demon skin, the other a demon with an immortal skin. They complete each other like the Taichi symbol. This goes to show that there is no pure good and evil, a human is an embodiment of both.

— Thought-provoking message —
The side characters also illustrate this message — seemingly rightous immortals commit the most heinous of crimes, and inside their hearts live demons that are far worst than any physical demon in the story. The message is powerful and well presented. As a fan of the original novel, I came into this drama with very specific expectations — to see in action one of the most interesting male leads ever written, and to witness the beautiful symbolisms and character nuances from the original work. In these regards, the drama did a passing job at delivering. However, certain pivotal scenes from the source material (that were meant to tie into the core theme) were butchered by nonsensical changes in the story due to censorship and bad writing.

— Nice symbolism —
The Taichi symbol appears in the drama poster. It is also in the black-white necklace Chong Zi gifts to Luo Yin Fan. The costumes are simple but have symbolic meaning In them as well. Kind-hearted demons wear costumes that are mainly black but have white fringes, while evil immortals/fairies wear costumes that are white but have dark accent colors. The male lead, Luo Yin Fan’s costumes were mainly white at first, but gradually turned purple the more he fell for Chong Zi (“Zi” means purple in Chinese). I found that to be very cute. The OSTs of this drama were also very well crafted, with beautiful melodies and lyrics that were themed around each of the main characters.

All in all, stellar work from the cast, costume designers, music producers and the source novel author.

We then shriek in agony as we witness this hard work go down the drain... due to the points below.

【Why is it bad?】
— Sloppy directing, writing and editing —
For starters, the director does a poor job grasping what the audience wants to see and what they don’t. Often times, people would wait for a certain scene in anticipation, excitedly picturing it in their heads, only to end up with a choppy, censored, and emotionally underwhelming rendition of what they were expecting. Meanwhile, uninteresting parts of the plot would take up more time than it should. Scenes that were meant to elicit emotions from the audience felt flat, and just like another commenter has said, "the angst is not angsting".

Behind-the-scenes clips would reveal that many scenes did not make it into the final release. This is due to censorship - protagonists cannot do anything borderline evil, master & disciple cannot be intimate with each other, everything that's core to the story is lost. Certain scenes do not transition well due to cut scenes. Each episode also does not start from the end of the previous episode and feels disjointed.

— Changing the novel in a bad way —
Certain parts of the plot were changed to make the male lead more likable and forgivable, which is understandable because the male lead in the novel does not deserve the female lead. But not all changes were good changes. Around 60% of the story and dialogue comes from the novel, and that 60% lives up to standards because they stem from the original author’s consistent understanding of the source material. But the remaining 40% that was added by the screenwriter, not so much. Dialogue was occasionally cringey and showed a general lack of logical thinking from characters. The forbidden aspect of the master-disciple romance was also removed, thereby causing certain character decisions and dialogue to not make much sense as they were originally written under the premise that master-disciple relationship was taboo. The screenwriter tried to come up with other reasons for the characters to do or say those things, but the reasoning was weak. (e.g. Ep.23-26). Many unnecessary misunderstandings were added just to drag the plot along. It’s fine to deviate from the novel and tell a different story, but have it make sense and do it only if it enhances the work.

— Poorly written side characters —
While the characters all serve a central theme or message, the characterizations of most of the characters are lacking. Often more than not, characters feel like tools to move the plot forward and do not resemble real-life people. Several evil female supporting roles have shallow character motivations and all serve the same purpose, and most male supporting roles are merely love interests (5 of them!) of the female lead but without solid chemistry. Reverse harem was probably meant to be a gimmick that sadly did not work out. Not only do those love interests lack screen time to properly flesh out their relationship with the female lead, they also fall in love with her for no reason. (Ironically, the one character who has the most chemistry with the female lead is not even a love interest.) Luckily, the main couple has decent chemistry to offer. The romance is a slowburn and the leads start off as more like teacher and student due to female lead’s childish personality at first, but this grows into something fiery and passionate later on when the female lead gets character development. However, it takes time for the ship to sail and some may find the chemistry lacking early on.

— Childish female lead —
A lot of people cannot get through the first arc of the story, mostly due to their distaste for the female lead’s childish, bratty and trouble-making personality. The female lead goes through a three-stage character development. She starts off like a kid — naive, impulsive, overly sheltered and spoiled, but has a kind heart that would help anyone in need. She is showered with love but caged like a bird. In her second life, she becomes more calm and composed, but also more possessive and insecure, like a young maiden in puberty. And by the end, she becomes more independent and free, takes justice in her own hands. Since she does not mature quick enough to satisfy certain audiences, if you hate childish female leads, this is probably not the drama for you.

— Costumes/Makeup/Props —
The costumes are the typical “funeral” style you’d see in other xianxia dramas — white, white, and shades of white. There are quite an amount of details they tried to add to the costumes, but the overly bright and smooth filter effects managed to undo all the hard work the textile team put in. The makeup was a hot mess. Handsome men looked less handsome with overdone eyeshadow. Close-up shots would reveal unblended powder and face-neck skin tone differences. As for the sets and props, they would’ve looked better with less CGI applied, since the CGI looks quite subpar for an S tier drama.

【Conclusion】
It may sound as though I hate this drama, but as a novel fan, this is the only adaptation I could root for, and I wished for nothing but the best to happen to this drama. Sadly, it didn't deliver to even half of its potential. I suggest the director and writer to either quit the industry, or stop working on this genre. There might not be a clear distinction between right and wrong, good and evil, but there definitely is a clear cut between good and bad storytelling, and sadly this drama falls into the bad side. For those who are interested in the premise, I recommend you to read the original novel instead.

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A Clueless Shifu with an Unlikable Pouty Face FL

The Journey of Chong Zi is a romance story of a shifu (master) and his beloved student, and the challenges they face. However the female lead character is being so poorly written, interpreted and acted that it renders the drama unimpressive. Plot holes everywhere and are simply being brushed over with bad logic and poor screen play. The immortal sects are gullible with little intelligence, believing in any gossips, and the demon sect is a confusing sorry lot. This is one of those series that can make the viewers vomit blood, and yet I completed watching it, and aged 10 years.

The storyline is nothing new as teacher/pupil romance is rather typical and tropey in xianxia stories. We’ve seen it in The Journey of Flower and in various others. The story is basically about the venerable immortal, Luo Yinfan (Xu Zhengxi aka Jeremy Tsui), falling in love with his disciple, Chong Zi (Yang Chaoyue), and their journey of romance, retribution, death, reincarnation, and their eventual confusingly bizarre ending.

Chong Zi is pure and kind despite her birth. Apart from her shifu who is Chong Zi’s true love, Chu Bufu (Gao Han), Qin Ke (Deng Wei), Zhuo Hao (Asher Ma), Mu Yu (Li Daikun) all love her unconditionally and are willing to die for her. Even some female characters such as Yan Zhenzhu (Zhang Keai) and Yin Shuixian (Yang Xinying) love Chong Zi in their own ways. From here, we can deduce that Chong Zi is a very lovable girl. Unfortunately, this message hasn’t come through.

Yang Chaoyue is simply not lovable at all and couldn’t give the viewers an authentic Chong Zi. The actor has a constant pouting face, making her look angry all the time. Even when she’s supposed to be playful and mischievous, she is not funny nor lovable. Yang Chaoyue really has to go back to acting school. The writing of the Chong Zi character is bad enough, made worse by Yang Chaoyue’s unconvincing portrayal. Despite Chong Zi is loved by many in the story, she is not loved by the viewers.

The drama tries hard to portray all the injustices Chong Zi faces that leads to her capitulation into the Ultimate Demon. But all her encounters do not seem dire enough to lead her down that path; she has been misunderstood for most parts as the immortal elders believe in fake stories of her. She’s being blamed for things she doesn’t do, for trivial things she may have done unwittingly, for being loved by her shifu and by most other men who know her. It is really frustrating to watch how such misunderstandings have not been clarified sooner and the perpetrators manage to get away scot-free, again and again.

The reason for her final transformation into the Ultimate Demon is totally unconvincing. After having some blissful days with the man she loves hidden away, she decides to become the Ultimate Demon to protect herself because her man is away for some chores and cannot protect her. That is simply a glaring hole for me.

My Verdict
I pressed on with this series for the sake of Jeremy Tsui though the character he played wasn’t that impressive (what a dumb shifu he was). I give this drama a rating of 7.5/10 to reward myself in completing the story.

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