Pledge of Allegiance (2023)

Dead men tell no tales.

Pledge of Allegiance is a dark and murky Ming Dynasty suspense thriller in the vein of the renown Brotherhood of the Blades franchise. Produced by Lu Yang and written by the same writer, the Jinyiwei/锦衣卫 or brocade-clad guards of this drama are grey characters whose true allegiance is to their brotherhood and their personal values and priorities and not to some overarching sense of morality or righteousness on a grand scale. This drama is set in a time of opaque and wild, conspiracy laden history and has an elaborate plot with manifold twists. This is likely to lose casual watchers, especially those without a basic understanding of the historical context. [A detailed discussion of the history can be found in the Discussion section of the drama page.]

This drama is set during the chaotic battle for the throne that followed the demise of Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding Hongwu Emperor of Ming dynasty. A succession crisis plagued the last five years of his long reign when the crown prince Zhu Biao died unexpectedly. Zhu Yuanzhang had chosen Zhu Biao to succeed him over his most capable and some claim his favorite fourth son Zhu Di or Prince Yan because Zhu Biao was the son of his legitimate wife. Conflict arose after Zhu Biao's death when he chose Zhu Biao's son Zhu Yunwen to be his successor. Zhu Yunwen was also the son of a consort and not of Zhu Biao's legitimate wife. Thus his claim to the throne was no less legitimate than Prince Yan's notwithstanding his grandfather's endorsement. The young Jianwen Emperor's tenuous hold on the throne was further shaken when he unwisely sought to temper the military might of his prince uncles, exiling and killing many of them. Prince Yan who secured the Northern border needed little further excuse to revolt. The silent power struggle that began with Zhu Biao's death broke out into open civil war almost from the moment of Jianwen's ascent. At the time, the capital was in the south at Yingtian (present Nanjing). Prince Yan for all intents and purposes was already in control of the northern capital Beiping (Beijing) where he defended the nation from the Mongols. He was aided by his elite border spies, the Yebushou/夜不收 or night scouts. They are pitted against the Jinyiwei who are the emperor's secret police but like many bureaucracies and the court at the time, there were divided loyalties at every level. While likely consistent with history, this aspect of unclear and shifting loyalties makes most of the character motivations in this drama especially difficult to follow.

Li Wu is a thief and a consummate liar. He steals the identity of a sergeant and sneaks into the mansion of Wang Kegong, who had just been transferred back to the capital with a secret edict. He has life threatening encounters with Shu Tang an assassin and Lu Zheng, a young detective who is literally willing to kill a sergeant to create a vacancy for himself to assume that position. They get caught up in a race to secure the Yuming Lock, which contains a secret that could change the course of history. Though they have different masters and at times conflicting agendas, they share a decade old traumatic childhood past. Whether by chance or destiny, they are reunited to solve the mystery of what really happened one fateful day ten years ago. But the links to the past get more tenuous and secrets that can turn friend into foe are revealed. As the body count grows, the solution slips further out of grasp as dead men tell no tales.

The main roles are complex and the cast delivers all-round riveting performances. In this kind of battle for the throne story there are no real villains; everyone is quite dark and have their own agendas. Zhang Yunlong is particularly convincing as thief with an inconvenient conscience and a knack for turning dire situations around. He had so many balls in the air at the same time that I could barely keep up with his lies and his promises. Chen Ruoxuan's portrayal of Lu Zheng as such a smart and yet naive and (wilfully?) obtuse character is nuanced and empathetic. It is no wonder Li Wu, Lu Yulin and even Zhang Junqing feel compelled to protect him. I enjoyed Li Wu's bromance with Lu Zheng as much as I did his romance with Shu Tang. Chen Ruoxuan and Zhang Yunlong have such good chemistry that they are masters of the art of the unspoken; how it is possible to have an innate understanding and trust that is beyond words and even actions. The stage is nicely set for this recurring theme in the telling of the fable of the Tan Hua flower spirit in episode 3. This underlies many interactions between main characters including the Mu sisters. This aspect of reading the subtext is very well conceived, it challenges both the characters and viewers to hear the truth behind the lies and to "hear" what is left unsaid. Sun Yi is a gorgeous and terrific actress and this time, she has a meaty role although her character is not always consistently written and her relationship with the colonel is not well fleshed out. As such, it is Ma Yujie's daringly articulated Zhang Junqing steals the show as the most fascinating and strongest female character of this drama.

This drama is not that action heavy but the sequences are fast moving and very well choreographed although they lack the intensity and raw ferocity of Brotherhood of Blades. I am quite relieved at the shorter and less stressful combat scenes as they are still packed with shocking and bloody twists. Just don't look too deeply at the logic defying ability of many characters to survive body piercing stabs in close vicinity to vital organs.

The plot design is serpentine and deliberately messy. This is probably meant to reflect the opacity, duplicity and chaos that prevailed at the time. Many character motivations are never fully revealed which gives rise to a sense of lazy writing; that at times characters become inconsistent for the sake of delivering yet another twist. There were a few too many twists that detract from the main plot. The final episodes in particular appear to have suffered from heavy cuts. This could be because the main conspiracy that is designed to be weaved into significant historical events may have gone too far in distorting history. This results in an ending that is satisfactory overall but leaves a few open sub-plots and unanswered questions. I love these plot heavy historical suspense thrillers and think this is a high quality, compellingly acted production overall. However, the story could have been told in a much less confusing way so I can objectively only rate this an 8.0/10.0. That said, my personal enjoyment level is at 8.5.

I will include below my personal speculation on how I think the story ends and some other ending comments that are inevitably spoiler heavy. Do not read it until you have finished watching.










WARNING: ENDING SPOILERS AHEAD










The past:
In terms of what happened in that prison years ago, I came to the conclusion that Li Yan, Song Heming, Wang Kegong,, Mu Jinggao and possibly even Lu Yulin were all loyal to the deceased crown prince Zhu Biao. The compassionate and peace loving Zhu Biao did not wish such evil weapons to ever be used so he hid them and left the riddle of the location with Mu Jinggao, the firearms maker. Li Yan was the go between but was framed for murdering the crown prince by an evil Jinyiwei. He revealed the riddle and gave up Mu Jinggao to Song Heming to save his son Li Feng, who was sent to his good friend Minister Yuan. Li Yan probably implicated Mu Jinggao because he not only knew where the firearms were stashed but also how to make them. True to his word, Song Heming arrested Li Wu as Li Feng's substitute. Unfortunately Lu Zheng messed everything up by letting Li Wu and the Mu daughter go. Lu Yulin had to sacrifice Song Heming in order to save Lu Zheng. This is a consistent theme where they sacrifice themselves/each other to keep the secret buried but try to save each other's bloodline. The other possibility is Lu Yulin was working for Prince Yan and killed Song Heming for the Yuming Lock. But his motives changed after he grew to love Lu Zheng and then protecting him became his only objective. In either case, between Lu Yulin and Wang Kegong, they kept the Yuming Lock and the key to how to unlock it hidden for ten years, giving it to no one. The evil Jinyiwei who framed Li Yan and set this all in motion was of course the real Li Dongfang, a bastard son keen to earn merit from his father Prince Yan. That is why he tracked down both Mu sisters and tried to use them to try to find the weapons. He also hoped that if Mu Jinggao were still alive he would come back for his daughters. I don't believe Mu Jinggao ever was a Yebushou because if that were the case, Prince Yan would not only have the weapons, he would know how to make them. I also doubt he is still alive as if he were, he would have surfaced or been found. It seems implausible that Lu Yulin who was just a mid-level Jinyiwei at the time could have saved such a high profile rebel under intense scrutiny.

The ending:
With the help of Boss Shen, Li Wu is in control of the game changing weapons and thus has a seat at the table in terms of the outcome of the power struggle. But he is just a common thief; like all commoners throughout Chinese history 民以食为天/mín yǐ shí wéi tiān - as long as there is food on the table it doesn't matter who the emperor is. Like Zhu Biao, he only cares that his beloved capital and "his people" don't suffer the vagaries of war. So he decides that no one should have the weapons. Yet he made promises and owes debts to both sides of the conflict so he engineers a compromise outcome. As promised (in exchange for Li Dongfang and hostage Bai Mingshan), he and Lu Zheng open the city gates to Prince Yan's forces but he smuggles the weapons away after taking control of the river fleet. In history, a traitor delivered control of the imperial river fleet to Prince Yan while another opened the city gates to his forces - see why the final episodes got cut quite a bit?. To Li Wu, it was clear Prince Yan would ultimately prevail and this was the least bloodthirsty way to cede to the inevitable.

At the same time, Li Wu owed Yuan Zhongdao for a number of things including Lu Zheng's life. He probably made good by smuggling the emperor, his consort and son out of the country. That is probably what Shu Tang went away to do - she was getting them safely out of the capital. She never really sided with Prince Yan she was just repaying her debt to Li Dongfang. Once he was dead, she can act in her own best conscience and she would be helping her sister who gave her life to fake the emperor's death. She may also have wanted to see if her father is still alive or to ensure that the technique of making these weapons is destroyed. In history, the palace was burned when Prince Yan entered the city. He produced three charred corpses allegedly of the Jianwen emperor, his consort and their son and declared himself emperor. That is why I already guessed Zhang Junqing would die with Yuan Zhongdao and I expected Mei Dou to be the third corpse but I am glad they didn't go there or that got cut. It is wild history that Jianwen Emperor survived the fire and escaped to Southeast Asia or further south in China. Zhu Di is said to have sent Zheng He off on his expeditions across Southeast Asia to hunt him down. This part of the conclusion obviously suffered heavy cuts as it indulges in speculative history.

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Best Bromance/male friendship drama of 2023 Yet

This drama aired without any promotion and suddenly it's here
the first take from the trailer and promos videos was definitely this is an angsty bromance or male friendship drama
and from the first few episodes it was just funny and hilarious scenes between the two leads,, it was really fast-paced
it didn't have time to go through boring scenes or prolonged dialogues, it went straight to being enemies at first then becoming closest friends after that
The male lead has a goofy crazy character sometimes,, he is carefree, a thief who has no conscious but somehow
he grew conscious when he realized the second lead's true identity, which was related to his sad past
then things in the middle got a lot confusing with all the mess in the historical background which was based on true events from China's true history so it was a bit complicated and a bit messy as a background story
then again the Bromance was blooming and their relationship got stronger and stronger with each lie the male lead give
he lied so many times like a professional thief he is just to survive and to protect his best friend
the drama also had a bonus Romance plot line to pass censorship with all the male lead's skinship scenes,, never would have imagined China passing those scenes without confirming the male lead is a straight guy
the romance plot line wasn't annoying and the female lead was really strong in character and not a damsel in distress as usual
The romance was really little and she was absent most of the time to leave room for the brothers to do their work
I loved every episode of the drama
it turned bloody in the final episodes and made me think it will end a very bad ending but Not Thank god
they ended up being best friends again alive and well
If you like Bromance or male friendship dramas this one is definitely for you

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Truths or Lies, Friends or Foes, These People Don't Die!

OK, I admit, I was so confused watching this drama. While I thought a character a friend, he/she turns foe, and vice versa. Perhaps this is what the writer trying to tell the viewers: don't believe in what you see; what you think may not be what it is. Through all those twists and turns, only one thing is real: the undying friendship between Li Wu (Leon Zhang) and Lu Zheng (Chen Ruoxuan). Their bromance is full of humor, deception, protection, and sacrifices.

Based on real historical events and figures, the story is set in the Ming Dynasty during the reign of Emperor Jianwen (r. 1398 – 1402) when he was trying to hold on to his throne with his uncle Zhu Di (Prince of Yan) infiltrating his government and bureaucracy, attempting to overthrow him. Everything goes back to some events that happened 10 years ago, and around the secretive Fisheye Lock (yuming suo) which holds the key to the top secret. Many people have died trying to protect the secret and many have died trying to find it.

By fate, Lu Zheng and Li Wu meet again after their first encounter as kids. Now, Lu Zheng is a Jingyinwei (Embroidered Uniform Guard), and Li Wu a street scoundrel who picks pocket and lies without blushing. Li Wu impersonates another Jingyiwei, Li Dongfang, and eventually takes Li Dongfang’s identity. In the Jingyiwei organization, the two become true friends, saving each other again and again, but most of the time, not trusting the other, and Li Wu continues to deceive in order to protect Lu Zheng.

Though both have their love interests, Li Mu in Shu Tang (Sun Yi) and Lu Zheng in Zhang Junqing (Ma Yujie), romance is not the focus here. Things move fast, and the main characters don’t die even though they are mortally wounded, multiple times. In the next scene, they are up and running as new. For this, viewers are advised not to look too deeply (otherwise you would roll your eyes). Acting wise, the whole cast is fabulous, though Leon Zhang’s expressions confuse me at times.

My Verdict

This is a rather enjoyable and funny drama with some wuxia actions executed convincingly. It is also intense, suspenseful, and rather dark. The background story is very interesting, but the storytelling is rather confusing, chaotic and requires some reading between the lines. Overall, it is a fun watch for more serious and patient viewers as skipping forward may make it even more confusing.

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Friendship

I haven't seen many TV shows in this genre. But this series pulled me in. It was like a thief-cop drama. But the thief became a cop. Here, too, it is adapted, as if the Royal uniformed guards. It's been said. Maybe they are guards. Let's say security force. A thief becomes a cop by taking someone else's identity and the events that follow. Of course, in the next events, as a result of the events between the guards in a prison, the children of the guards and the convicted children, who were involved in the event, met again as guards, thieves and assassins, that is, 8-10 years later, the events that developed. Meanwhile, a King is a prince who wants to overthrow that king. These are the personalities we're talking about. There were some places where I got mixed up once in a while. There were parts that I didn't like and even found weird. However, when we look at the whole, be it its action, its curiosity, its processing, it drew me in and made me watch it. I also found the actors successful. Especially Leon Zhang as the thief. He fits the role very well. Likewise, Chen Ruo fits the role of the guard police chief very, very well. It was fantastic. It is also compatible with the body. Also as a building. As the assassin I couldn't make up, I found Sun Yi very innocent, very baby-faced, weak, fragile, fragile. I didn't like it. On the contrary, Ma Yu Jie suits her role. The white man Danny Ray was just right. I like it a lot. I found him very suitable for the role. They said let's add some romance, but it didn't happen. I guess they said let's leave it as it is. There's no need for that in all that hustle and bustle. If there were, a little more would not have caught sight. It would be fine. In the last two episodes, some parts seemed to be very long, and some parts were short on the contrary. It's okay to say I didn't like the ending. Anyway; overall it was nice. I enjoyed watching it. I advise.

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Pledge of Allegiance is a great dramatic wuxia with some comedy, mystery, intrigue, a nice slight romantic arc that doesn’t interrupt the flow of the main plot, and the greed of certain individuals that brings about the misery and troubled incidents to the main characters in the story. The drama has a stellar cast and, although it is fast paced, one gets to know the characters strengths and weaknesses as they interact and go through a very well developed character growth from beginning to end. The story is really about Li Wu/Fake Li Dong Fa (played by Leon Zhang) and Lu Zheng / Song Zhen (played by Chen Ruo Xuan). The plot on this drama is well written and the cast did a great job bringing their characters to life but the defining force in the drama are the leading men Leon Zhang and Chen Ruo Xuan that did a splendid job in their characterization of two very complex characters that formed a formidable and steadfast friendship even when it seemed they were losing hope and trust on each other. This drama will evoke all kind of emotions mostly due to the mesmerizing and poignant lives of the individuals involved in the emergence of a great story. The drama is truly entertaining, enjoy it

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Solid drama with good acting and production value; but the storytelling and editing could be better

This is going to be a shorter review but I recommend reading PeachBlossomGoddess’ excellent review especially if you want some background information.

I was a fan of the two movies “Brotherhood of Blades” and I found them to be much more exciting than “Pledge of Allegiance”. If you want to watch them, I believe you can start with the reverse chronological order of production;

1. Pledge of Allegiance (2023-Drama)
2. Brotherhood of Blades 2 (2017-Movie)
3. Brotherhood of Blades (2014-Movie)

Quick thoughts:
1. I enjoy the acting of Leon Zhang and Chen Ruo Xuan. I wasn’t expecting much but I think they exceeded my expectations. Actually, the overall acting is pretty good.
2. I enjoy the fight scenes. There aren’t many, but the ones they have are choreographed well and show great close contact, hand-to-hand, sword-to-sword combat. This also exceeded my expectations and are on par with the quality of the two movies (the movies’ action scenes are still better).
3. I wasn’t confused with the story or timeline, but I was a little confused with the names in the beginning. Names of government officials were thrown at me left and right without seeing the faces of these characters. Thus, it took me a while to relate each name to the event that happened 10 years ago.
4. Bromance/Brotherhood is interesting. Reminds me a little bit of the frenemies/best buddy relationship in the K-drama “My Country:The New Age”. The leads care for each other, trust in each other, yet the decisions they make oftentimes don’t seem that way.
5. Getting stabbed in the chest or close to the heart is no big deal in this drama.
6. It rains all the time at night.
7. So many secrets, schemes and lies. It’s hard to decipher the true intentions of each character. But after a while, this becomes repetitive.
8. I enjoy the natural makeup and no white filter.
9. I like that the actors are using their own voices, and there seems to be live recording.
10. Not enough excitement to keep me on the edge of my seat. Pace is somewhat slow. I was a little bored.

Despite liking many things about this drama, I can’t seem to muster excitement when watching this. Therefore, on a personal enjoyment level, this is a solid 8.0 and not an 8.5


Completed: 6/6/2023 - Review #315

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BECAUSE OF HIS LAST NAME 'LI'

It isn't a bad drama, bit of comedy, action, deception, apparently survival. The story is about Li Wu, a cunning smart thief, steal the identity of Li Dong Fang. Li Wu was one of survivors of 10 years ago chaotic, during the 25th-year reign of Hong Wu, the Crown Prince suddenly died of illness. His position became vacant which caused upheaval in the country. So chaotic that everyone including children, was being sent to prison even for minor offenses. In jail with a girl Shu Tang and another boy Song Zheng, Young Li Wu witnessed the dead of Song HeMing - the real father of Lu Zheng (Song Zheng) - as one of imperial guard who got betrayed by his own subordinate because of a secret letter that he hide on Juwei lock. 10 years later, 3 teenagers grew up with new identities and life experience. Ep 12, we got little reveal, but it's getting darker and each episode has connection from a decade memories and Juwei Lock is the source of what they're fighting for.

LI WU/FAKE LI DONGFANG (ZHANG YUNLONG)
He was a thief, money grabber and opportunist, smart and kind, fluent with his speech - so smart he'd tell lies after lies just to survive in every crisis that got himself into. He changed identity to Li DongFang, a visiting Brocade-clad Sargent from the north - a high ranking Colonel in Night Scouts, so he can get into wealthy household to rob. He found a unique metal ball amongest jewelries, silver, bank notes, without thinking he pocket it and run to find way out. He meet Lu Zheng, a imperial brocade officer who suspicious about his name - he tails him - not knowing that this fake Li DongFang was nothing but a thief and a liar. They meet the assassin that kill Wang GuKong the homeowner for his secret Juwei lock, she got injured and hide at the same place where thief Li Wu rob the place. They strike a deal, he help her out and she won't kill him. By using Li Dong Fang's name, as a Sargent from different branch, Li Wu became one of the brocade guard work together with Lu Zheng to solve their childhood memories without telling the other one the truth. Although Lu Zheng suspect Li Dong Fang as Li Wu, the boy that he witnessed kill his biological father, Li Wu was too eloquent to object them all. In time they'd know their identities and decided they're good in working together.

LU ZHENG (CHEN RUO XUAN)
Very straight forward Brocade-clad detective, had not many friend, adopted son of Chief Commander Brocade Imperial Guard. Lu Zheng witnessed one of the boy that his father freed from the jail pulling bloody knife from his father's chest and Lu Zheng intensively looking for that boy as now as an adult like himself, determine to put him to jail serve the justice. Lu Zheng learned from his lesson of saving someone only to literally stabbed him in the back so now, when it is criminal, he sees it only in black and white. He met Li Dong Fang, rumored he'd be promoted, curiously he approached Li Dong Fang. He didn't know it was the 'fake' Li Dong Fang (Li Wu). Although he's suspicious Li Dong Fang as Li Wu, he has no prove. He's determine to find who really is this Li Dong Fang and his wife by move himself in and doing surveillance to every move. He wasn't concerned himself with Juwei lock, his goal was to find answer the death of his biological father, and Li Wu had the answer to that.

SHU TANG (SUN YI)
She's involved in 10 years ago chaotic among 3 teens. As an adult, she's one of Night Scouts whose mission was to killed Wang KeGong and find the Juwei lock but got injured by Lu Zheng on the middle of mission. She hide in the room where Li Wu robbing the home owner, she couldn't trust Li Wu as he told many version of stories on how/why/what. Li Wu said that he used Li Dong Fang's name (Shu Tang's superior) as he couldn't personally watch in the area while he has more important things to attend, so Shu Tang attached herself as a (fake) wife of Li Wu.

When Song HeMing put young Li Wu to jail, he said 'because of his name (Li), so what? Lots of identity changing, every twist of the plots got complicated - like someone who did this before becoming different persona different time.The real Li DongFang was an ambitious man, he got critical injured few times but came back strong to life . He's the one who initiated to rebel, the agitator, came from previous dynasty to take back power. A great drama, collaboration between actors, setting and background was very realistic, no cringe no crying no begging. Writing a review on this section doesn't do the justice of the drama. Might not everyone's favorite though.

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