A wuxia drama with a sad ending.

I just reviewed RISE OF THE PHONEXIES with a sad ending. This wuxia drama focus on spies and behind-the-scenes fighters who gave their lives to fight the war for their kings. The conflicts and theme in this wuxia genre is different from Palace drama.

1. Overall plot is about the struggles and lifes of spies and assassins. Two assassins from two different sects meet, fight, argue about their ideals. Finally, they fall in love, married and carried on their duties, without regret to continue to fight the war. The kingdoms involved can switch sides and be enemies or friends. So volatile.
2. The drama shows the comradeship of the closely-knitted members. And how they solve issues.
3. The 40 episodes can be divided into 3 arcs. First arc focus on the romantic story between the two main characters. The 2nd arc focus on the ways to get good diplomatic relations between kingdoms. With the hope to avoild war. The third arc is about the feelings of the characters when facing possibility of death. When war and deaths are unavoidable. The sad ending with so many deaths shows the desperation of the situation and make me believe in ancient times, this did happen.
4. I gave it an overall rating of 8.5 because of the story and the acting. I like Liu Shi Shi's acting in this drama as she plays a matured adult role. I have watched a few of her dramas, and I like this role the best. Liu Yu Ning has good acting skills. Great supporting casts.
5. Excellent fighting and battle scenes.

Watch out for the last scene of the drama and decide if the ML and FL has descendants or is it just a dream?

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A long palace drama with a sad ending. , character development,

When I started this 70 episodes drama, it was without english subtitles. It was too difficult for me to continue even as I understand 50% spoken Mandarin. The English subtitles, though about 80% accurate, it helped me complete the drama.
1. The story evolved around palace politics, involving fight for power among princes to ascend to the throne. involves the harem characters and politicians.
2. Emotions such as love, hate, jealousy, kinship, revenge, regret, compassion, greed, justice, rightuosness drives the actions of the characters.
3. The acting is great as it can make me sympatise and understand the actions, even though I don't agree with some of the decisions made by the characters.
4. Technical production quality is good, with good music.

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An interesting crime drama with a good plot.

A suspense, crime drama which is easy to follow.

1. Focus is more on the romance than the actual crime. The decisions of the main leads and secondary characters can be be understood. I think the message is BELIEVE IN THE PERSON YOU WANT TO SPEND YOUR LIFE WITH. NO MATTER WHAT.
1.Slow pacing. If you skip too much, you may not appreciate the creativity of the director and story teller.
2. The way the story is told is creative way that can sustain my interest in the 40 episode drama.
3. As a person with about 50% understandinng of spoken Mandarin, it is easy to follow the drama without subtitles.
4. Acting is good. Characters are portrayed well.
5. Technical production is average.

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