Arsenal Military Academy (2019)

Despite obvious short-comings, it is one of my favorite C-Dramas!

Usually, I am not a fan of republican era dramas because of their propaganda message and the evil portrait of the Japanese. Still, I started this drama because of my love for Xu Kai and Bai Lu (I adored both of them in Legends.). And I am delighted that I watched it. Both actors have impressed me so much that both became my favorite Chinese actors. But besides the leads' excellent performance, this drama brought me countless positive surprises.

First what I adore about the drama:

♡ The main leads' romance (not a surprise): The love between Gu Yan Zheng and Xie Xiang/Xie Liang Chen is very precious. It started hilariously, sometimes eye-rollingly embarrassing but advanced to bitter-sweet and heart racing at the end.
In the middle, I became slightly impatient about XX's ignorance towards GYZ's pursuance but later on understood that she deliberately tried to suppress her feeling to him to stay in school. And the wait intensifies the longing they have towards each other later in the show (I was really touched by the arc of the two in Beijing around episode 40 - beautifully written!).

♡ The lead actors: Xu Kai absolutely blew my mind with his performance as Gu Yan Zheng: He is funny, arrogant, silly, goofy, childish, flirty, and an absolute show-off. It is his straightforward and pure personality that goes after what he wants that makes him extremely likable. These positive traits developed into determination, righteousness, and bravery when GYZ grew up to a soldier and man protecting the people and the country he loves. Despite portraying countless dramatic and ridiculous scenes, none of the actings felt over the top or unnatural. Through this character, Xu Kai indeed proved himself to be an actor of far-reaching talents. He really made GYZ his own.
Bai Lu: Bai Lu impressed me already in Legends as the overbearing demon queen, but in AMA, she outperforms herself even further by switching convincingly between the tomboyish girl Xie Xiang and the pretty boy soldier. Two thumbs up for the stylist who created her cute and handsome styles. Bai Lu also did a fantastic job in all her fighting and action scenes. Compared to Legends, where a lot was done using CG, these are real combat and acrobatic scenes, which certainly required a lot of practices and reshoots to make them as good-looking as they are.

♡ The second leads, supporting characters and their emotional storyline:
For AMA, if the chemistry of the main leads would not have been this good, I would have shipped the leads with the secondary ones instead. I am most impressed with Wu Jia Yi's performance as Xu Man Ting. Her personality is similar to that of GYZ and extremely fun to watch. Plus, I love her voice (is her own voice) that puts the right emphasis on the low tones. It positively adds to her excellent acting.
This drama is probably the second-best drama (after Joy of Life) I have watched, which has a fabulous team of supporting characters. Each of them has his/her unique personality, who is loveable. They remind me of the characters from Shonen Jump animes, which focus on friendship, effort, and victory. Liu Si Bo, who played Huang Song, was outstanding. His friendship with both XX and GYZ was precious and beautiful to watch. A shout out to the excellent cinematography and performance for his underground fight club arc. The character development of Li Wen Zhong, played by Liu Run Nan, also caught me by positive surprise. I did not expect that the makers will give a douchebag character like him such a great turn towards the end - that's what I would call good storytelling.

♡ The cinematography: Hui Kai Dong is the same director as Yanxing Palace, and he is known for his beautiful and high-quality shots. The team built the school campus entirely from scratch to shoot the drama. Also, the bar from Hu Xiao Yu is charmingly designed - who can copy this bar in the real world would for sure money. Most sets and action scenes are real, and even if they use CGs, they are not very obvious. Another lookout point is the action scenes. Most scenes are firmed directly with the cast themselves. You can see the makers have spent a lot of time crafting and correcting the movements for all the action scenes, whether that is a shooting, a fistfight, a sword fight or a car chase. And then there are the beautiful costumes. Oh my god, is GYZ good looking in his various types of trench coats... The dresses from Xu Man Ting also look gorgeous on her.
Last but not least, there is a great OST. I have been listening to the songs of AMA up and down. My favorite is the duet sung by the main leads themselves. Though slightly cheesy pitch, I find it just right for this drama. I wished they would have played it more often as BGM.

Now what I think the drama could have done better:

⭐︎ Unrealistic story and plot holes, esp. for the military plots: While the writer is talented with emotional storylining, she is not as skillful with military and battle storylines. I was trying to ignore those plot holes, but there are some that I could not ignore. The first real battle, there is not even one student who died or injured. If it comes to the enemy, there is no hesitance in shooting them. But when it comes to our own people, the enemy would always first catch them and then only attempt to kill them, leaving the heroes time to escape. The writing of the auction scene was also a mess; it was anti-climax, not knowing which party is involved and what they were up to. There are also a lot of random shootings on the streets, as there are no rules of laws, at which the villain would get punished and our protagonists saved at the end. And then there are typical unrealistic happenings such as all characters ended up in the same city at the same time.

⭐︎ Too many love lines: Despite my love for the emotional storylines, there are too many. Not only do we have many love triangles between the main leads, but we also have a few love lines between supporting characters and the main leads and vice versa. This got me confused sometimes. The makers also spent too much time describing the love triangle between the leads. Instead they could have used the time to grow team spirit of the student group, or spend time telling the stories of Ji Jin and Zhu Yan Lin. I would have loved to see more arcs, such as the mission to take out the drug dealers in episode 34.

⭐︎ Character development of Shen Jun Shan and Jin Xian Rong: Both actors playing SJS and JXR have performed well. Unfortunately, I wish the makers could have spent a bit more rationalizing the characters' emotional response based on proper human motivation. SJS is a strong 2nd male lead, perfect for opposing GYZ's funky personality. However, his prince-like behavior to XLC in the whole first half of the drama is totally questionable. There is no whatsoever explanation why he would behave this way at first and then later fall in love with XLC. The same goes for JXR, a villain with complicated past, feelings for SJS, and thus possessing a lot of potential for character depth. Why would she try to hide her famous identity naively believing that SJS, the son of such a renowned business family, would not find out? After the reveal, what did she do to save the relationship? Her past of being a Japanese but born and raised in China only came out from her somewhat commemoration towards her adopting family but was not used anywhere else. Just because she is Japanese by origin, does this make her a slave to the Japanese and a killer machine? Don't forget that she killed her own father, trying to protect SJS. A big lost opportunity here!

Despite the shortcomings I mentioned above, I truly love this drama. I think the more I was disappointed about specific areas, the more it shows that I really wanted this drama to do well. (I have never spent this long to write such a comprehensive review...). I am even surprised myself how much I am thinking about the characters, the scenes of the drama, days after I finished it. I would definitely go back and rewatch some episodes. All in all, I would recommend anyone watching it - the characters and the emotional plots are what make it really enjoyable.

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Proceed with caution! Some Spoilers may spoil your mood!


I found a few (3 to count) similarities between this and Legends. 1) Xu Kai's undeterred, devoted, undistracted, first one-sided then returned love for Bai Lu. 2) Bai Lu's disguise as someone else when meeting him. Here she pretends to be her brother from beginning to end and in Legends when she came back from nether-land, she possessed someone's body and pretended to be her. Both the times Xu Kai sees through her guise though. 3) Bai Lu's drunk assault on Xu Kai. Here she falls asleep on him and in Legends, ahem... the mouth assault which they totally edited in the final cut.

I liked it very much. The politics and war part were a little hectic for me so I skipped some. The dorm story was the best. it was great to see most of the boys entering as selfish, nonchalant, self-invested prats and leaving (the dorm or life) as emotionally, socially , patriotically developed men of the country. The friendship and growth were well-defined and maintained till the end. Even the guy I hated the most, you know the one, I forgot the name who started as a douche, redeemed himself at the end. It was sad. They made it so by introducing love in his life. They gave his story, which until that point was just about creating problem for Liang Chen and being a brute, another facet — just when he was gonna martyr himself. Haha, how clever!

I was bawling when Huan Song died. He was the most innocent soul in the whole show. He never retaliated or even resented anybody for anything. The supporting characters in the academy existed just inside it except for Huann Song, Guo Shuo Ting, and the last appendage to whatshisname’s story.

The way GYZ’s character started, the stark opposite of Legends which I liked, I wondered how long he was gonna continue being a disrespectful bully. I hoped for him to fall for XX first so karma could kick his butt. Even when he started having feelings for her, he acted like an entitled prick. If it were anyone else I would have given him a big thumbs down as a prospective lover. But you just can’t keep being pissed at Xu Kai with those eyes. They have some real potent sorcery in them. But when he started to get serious shedding his mischievous whattnottery and clung to XX like a hopeless man in hopeless love, I couldn’t help but get annoyed at XX for not accepting his heart. Total irrationality. But what can you say, love is irrational. The moment he threw the button necklace away upsettingly, I was praying for him to get out of her life and let her chase him for a while. Even though I knew that it was not gonna happen. Still. Actually, at some point the romantic chase and complications were giving me real stress. Xu Kai’s expressions are above and beyond everything. He can draw attention and hold it with his eyes. His acting is hilarious in the first part. But when he gets serious, intense and full-blown emotional, even God can’t save me!

I once again loved Bail Lu’s character like I did in Legends (except for some time when i was wanting her to accept GYZ but that was a fleeting emotion). Glad she is getting this kind of roles. Firstly, she is an absolute talent. I love how she doesn’t act like an eight year old when she’s not. No baby talks no cutesy stuff, nothing. When she was sitting with her brother and talking, in the flashback, she had the chance to act like those annoying babbling heroines but she didn’t. Her character was determined and dedicated from start to end. She got into the academy for fulfilling her brother’s dream and gradually it became her own dream. She realised her brother’s passion behind his dream. She never got distracted from her goal. That is the reason why she, even after knowing about GYZ’s feelings, didn’t jump into a relationship right away. When she was lowkey crushing on Jun Shan, even though she was taking care of him (he did so too) she never hone in on it.

Jun Shan’s character was interesting too. Though he didn’t have much scope for development except for his theory of love, he came completely developed, his character was not a monotonal shade. He didn’t hesitate to take lives when the self-righteous law-abiding puppet government officials acceded to the foreign government. He was a man of few words, usually shirking socialising barriered behind a book in the cafeteria. Pretending indifference when someone is getting bullied or kidnapped but helping them from behind the curtains indirectly. I would have, too, fallen for him over GyZ, of course if GYZ weren’t Xu Kai like someone.

Okay, Guo Shu Ting, that man was sooo hawt. His character seemed a little alike to Ju Shan. Like him, he was showing apathy to everything going around. But then a strong emotional bond with XX and QMT developed overtime, unlike the other officer who remained just as a sergeant.

Qu Man Ting, who is she and why don’t I know this absolute package of entertainment. Like in one scene she proclaimed, she is “charming”, hilarious and an absolute scene-stealer. Actually, in spite of my dedicated ship to Bai Lu and Xu Kai, I wished for him to be with Man Ting. Every scene of them together were so amusing to watch. They were two peas in a pod. Man Ting to GYZ was GYZ to XX. The scene at the museum stairs where she was hugging GYZ, both their expressions were priceless.

And last but not the least, Tan Xiao Jun, Xie Xiann’s friend, was as adorable as she was in The Legends. I Loved her in both the dramas. Here as a dependable friend and their a faithful follower. Her slip of-tongue accidents were hilarious.

I liked the ending. It was a clean wrap. But I would’ve liked it more if one of the main characters were shown to have sacrificed their life. A story so intense like this needs, for me, to shatter a piece of my heart to remain in it forever maintaining its intensity. Instead they just sacrificed the side characters. The ones whom we built an emotional connect with though. They who existed outside the academy. Again, very smart.

The soundtrack is so perfect. The opening theme groovy and the ending, botha them, beautiful.

I am not gonna rewatch it just because most of it has war and political theme which I am not a fan of. And even if I watch by skipping i won’t find the romance i am looking for. However it was a good one-time-watch.

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Who'd have thought it?

I am the last person you will find watching a drama about the army, notable exception being DotS. However, I also love the 1920s aesthetic so I thought I'd give this a go. I'd also recently The World Owes Me a First Love so knew that I liked Bai Lu's acting.

Everyone has mad chemistry in this drama and I'm living for it. Seeing people on screen with chemistry is the difference between a drama I can believe and one that's just okay. Although I did ultimately route for Xiang and Yanzhen, I could easily see why people route for Xiang and Junshan.

I loved the comedic aspects of this drama. Part of the issue I usually have with military dramas or political dramas is the lack of humour; so this drama was refreshing. The scenes with Yanzhen trying to distract Liangchen were cute and humorous without detracting from the more serious side of the drama.

You can't help but love all the secondary characters! They're all so well developed that you understand their motives, their stories and their goals. I loved not being tied to just one story, and found myself really caring about the side characters. I was so happy when Qu Manting return. I even found myself crying when Li Wenzhong died, even more than I cried when Huang Song did. Why did they have to kill almost everyone?! I cried more than once.

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I didn't think I would like the romance as much as I did - it's the "girl-dresses-up-as-guy" trope that I've seen in multiple k-dramas before but not as cheesy in my opinion. And even if there were cheesy bits I thought it was quite well done and comedic. Both the male leads are likeable - usually I get second lead syndrome but this time I was rooting for Gu Yanzhen all the way. Bai Lu and Xu Kai have such good chemistry. Some people wish there was more romance, but I personally think it was a good amount given that there were bigger things (war) to worry about lol. The kiss scenes were taken out but you can find them on the internet.

THE SETTING THOUGH! I adore the outfits, the bars, the party scenes...it really makes me feel nostalgic for a time that I wasn't born in. I liked the songs too which help to paint the classic 1910s vibe. There are quite a lot of political discussions though so for me I skipped over/sped up those parts but was still able to understand what was going on mostly. If you know about/are into that period of chinese history then great!

The main character, Xie Xiang, is smart and a very strong girl, and not a damsel in distress character at all. In fact the rest of the female cast is pretty badass too, which I really appreciate.

Gu Yanzhen first comes off as the playboy troublemaker type and I liked how this trait didn't entirely go away but you see his character develop as he goes through different experiences. Xu Kai's acting was great, he really fit the role of Gu Yanzhen (the eyebrow thing and wink he does though! <3 ) He is definitely eye candy in this drama, but with spot on acting as well.

But boy it started off light-hearted and the last 10-15 episodes got more intense. I ended up crying in the later episodes as things got more sad... I thought the dubbing was pretty well done too, and I still can't tell who is dubbed and who isn't lol. I watched the episodes on dailymotion, the subs aren't entirely accurate probably, like one caption literally said "hoes before bros". If the political/military part makes you not want to watch it I say do it!! I'm not a big fan of the genre either but the relationships between characters and the romance were enough to make me binge watch this show and give it a solid 9.5 rating!!

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I like this series that I've already watched this three times this month. Probably due to quarantine but I never get tired of rewatching this fantastic series.

In fact this is one of the few TV series that I'm satisfied with the main leads and supporting cast. They're a fantastic team. Also, so far what I've seen in Bai Lu's acting doesn't involve any of this stupid, childish girly type that seems to dominate the Chinese screen. I've seen her on The Legends and I find her really good in that series. Since I'm a perfectionist - the only thing I didn't like in this one is Bai Lu's wig when she wears it as a girl. They could have chosen a better one.

Toby Lee was great also in this one. I love his portrayal and there seems to be depth in the way he portrays his role. Xu Cai as always the chivalrous rascal. He's good.

How I wish they didn't dub the singing portion of this show so it would look more realistic. This is what I hate about Chinese series. Let the actors or actresses sing live for sure they can sing.

Also the men's make up is not bad - it's more realistic. It's not like the rice cake vampy look that I see most of the time.

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I would have gotten away with it, if not for you meddling kids

Watching the last episode of these drama reminded me of Scooby doo, how the bad people when they are finally caught, end up blaming the good people for ruining their plans, thats exactly what the evil villain did here, which was so lame.But props to the female villain she did such a good job that anytime I see her on screen, I wish someone would have killed her earlier episodes, to save us all the torture.

About the drama ,i really loved that even though its a military drama, there was a good balance of strength between the male characters and the female characters.They were badass.
The female main lead (Xie Xiang)was strong and independent ,she literally saved herself most of the time and was able to hold her own fight without needing assistance, I loved that about her. She also did a convincing job playing a female pretending to be a male, which we don't see often in gender bender dramas, so it was very believable that people won't realize she is a woman.

I had a slight second lead syndrome here,Shen junshan was smart, handsome, caring and so lovable.Even when he didn't know she was a girl ,he was still very caring and helpful to her, to the the point he even fell in love with her as a boy and was really stressing and questioning his sexuality.I also feel like they spent so much time together and he saved her on multiple occasions that it was hard not to root for him to get the girl, i honestly tried to find a reason to hate him but I just couldn't. The last time I felt this way was watching story of yanxi palace, but in that case it was a whole lot worse but at least here the first main lead was such a good character too I wasn't too upset.I was also glad that even though he loved her he was not so forceful about it and knew when to back down.In terms of maturity i feel like he should have ended up with her but anyways I will keep him for myself...lol

Gu Yanzhen was handsome , funny, adorable, a bit reckless, playful and dependable.I loved how he was not ashamed to go after what he wanted, he loved her and was persistent about getting her.I loved the bickering between him and Xie lianchen and they really had a good chemistry but they didn't have enough scenes together which made it hard to see their relationship progress.I liked her he was willing to do any and everything for Xie Xiang regardless of the consequences, honestly I wasn't even mad at him, he really worked hard for her and they do deserve to be together.

Also qu manting was a funny character and I think she was the female version of gu yanzhen. Even though they spent a whole lot of time together I never really saw any chemistry between them.But I really liked her scenes and found her very funny and she was such a dramatic character.
Special mention to madam yu, Yanli(he was always about that life),ji jin, quo shuting, xiang song and li zionweyi. I understood Xiang song death but I felt like guo shouting and li zionweyi died in a pointless way especially li zionweyi, it was so unnecessary and stupid.Anyways I was happy to see his character growth.

Honestly I really hate love triangles in general and I find it worse when they make both male leads so great that you find it hard to choose who the female lead should end up with so be prepared to deal with mentally trying not be too attached to a particular male lead. It also had a lot of nationalistic ideals that I really didn't care for but thankfully it didn't overshadow this drama.This drama also suffered from what many other Chinese dramas suffer from great first half episodes, then towards the last few episodes they do irrelevant things to further the plot ,so this reduced my rating but I really tried to wrap it well, it had a good end.

Asides that these drama was really great, love the military academic premise, the main and supporting characters did amazing job.there really wasn't any kissing scene between the leads but don't let that stop you from watching this drama, I went to YouTube while watching the drama and found the deleted sit up kiss, dancing scenes and locker kiss scene so I was able to flow with the story just fine.I wouldn't mind rewatching these drama again in a few years.There was hardly any boring scenes and you become so mentally and emotionally invested in these characters that you won't want to end the drama .So watch it really good.

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Good adventure series!

There is no drama.

I mean there is no huge moral dilemma, revenge or redemption. There is no big tragedy in the past.
Well, yes, in the beginning it’s a bit, but only as an excuse for her to enter Military Academy. So, there is no drama, but there is every element of good adventure series.
It’s good played adventure story of a girl who stayed as a man in soldier academy in the 30s of XX century. The scenography is outstanding. I may say, perhaps there is no limit of their budget. We can enjoy the beautiful costumes, ladies’ outfits, military uniforms, oldschool cars and stylish environments.
It’s easy to watch till the end, because there is no psychological tense, great tragedy and so on. Generally it’s light, nice, fast and funny. It has a good balance between historical issues and romance-bromance. And I have to mention about sparky girl friendship! The moral decisions made by protagonists are easy to understand and nothing is odd.

Cast:
The best skills of acting has Wu Jia Yi who plays Qu Man Ting – the singer with a broken heart. She can steal every scene, she creates multidimensional character, sensitive artist, bit naive, with a big heart and she always has this hope for the great love.
In the review of “Arsenal Military Academy” it’s impossible not to talk about main leads, but for not to make spoilers I will not say who the main leads are :) Anyway, the military guys and girls play in satisfying way and for sure they have a lot of fun during the filming and we can feel the actors’ enthusiasm.

Music:
10/10. Absolutely.

Script:
Script is OK. In the second part of the series the action take places outside the Academy and we participate in gun wars, kidnappings, chasing and fighting. But the first one tells about living in the academy and this is very entertaining and funny with all gender-bender stuff.

It stands out from other China productions (that I started to watch) that lack good script and they were not able to tell about any reasonable closed story, and I give 9/10. I know that some fans will give 10, but I think it’s enough for light, entertaining series. Well, because we don’t wonder if Japanese will conquer China, but only who will be a sweetheart of this cute girl in military uniform.

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I just love Xu Kai in any part he plays. In reality, he really did great playing the main lead character. He showed me in this Chinese Drama that he can be humorous with his character and it is not overplayed! Bai Lu did very well having to play a male and female part and the love interest of two handsome men. Gao Yu Er played her evil character very well. Toby Lee was alright! The rest of the cast thank you for putting your personalities into this drama. The visuals, costume, and music team thanks!

I don't like military-style movies or drama I will make an exception on this one.

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