The best CDrama and the best BL Drama of 2021! Period!

The best surprise in terms of CDrama and KDrama was definitely "Word of Honor". I remember when I first saw the poster and just thought "Mmmh looks a lot like the one from "The Untamed" - Dunno." But then, I saw more and more people going on and on about the show and I just had to see what it was about. It was the best decision I could have made because no show has surprised me as positively as "Word of Honor".

"Word of Honor" clearly had a much lower budget, the scriptwriter was a complete newbie, almost all the actors fell under the heading of obscure, unknown, new or of little importance. Youku didn't bother to advertise much, just served up the show without much fanfare. In that respect, I can't help but compare the show to the BBC version of " North and South" with Richard Armitage, which was similar. A small show, based on a not very good book with two main leads that no one knew at the time. What led to "North and South" and now "Word of Honor" becoming a huge success? Many ingredients.

1. For one thing, there's the script. Xiao Chu may be a greenhorn, but she made the most out of a fairly unknown little book by priest. Her love for BL and the Chinese language are undeniable. The script is not perfect, as the show does suffer from certain lengths in the last third of the show, but it's pretty darn good.

2. The cast: as I said, the cast is not exactly made up of well-known A-listers, but it is a cast that gives its best and is completely committed. Zhan Zhe Han (Zhou Zishou) and Simon Gong (Wen Kexing) in particular cannot be praised enough. As we all know, censorship in China regarding LGBTQ content is just nasty, but both actors have managed (despite all restrictions) to give us the most obvious Bl couple ever, easily surpassing Wang Yibo and Xiao Zhan (sorry guys - I still love you both dearly). The looks, gestures, absolutely everything leaves no other conclusion than that we are dealing with two men who love each other deeply.

3. The direction and back crew in general: All this wouldn't be possible if the rest of the crew weren't also on board, but they are. The camera settings, the cuts, everything helps.

4. The music: The music is also surprisingly good!

So is the show a straight case for a 10.0? Not really. In all honesty, the show is probably more like an 8.5, because of the lengths in the script and also because the look is really a bit on the cheap sometimes, but I have zero problems in overlooking that.

The only real reason for point deduction is the ending. Anyone who doesn't know better will think that the show really ends with the 36th episode, but that's not the case. The real conclusion of the show has been put behind a paywall by Youku (only available to Youku Ultimate Fan Pass holders, or people who have a Viki Standard Pass). The reason? I don't know. Possibly censorship in China, or just a way of Youku trying to make some more money, but since the series is so damn good, I pulled out my wallet without batting an eyelid. To tell the truth, it's definitely well worth it.

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Well, that was underwhelming

This was truly some Wattpad story turned into a low-end BL. The premise itself was actually very good. A BL story set in the Choson era but the end result left me disappointed and wanting. Okay, it doesn't help that I am currently also watching "Word of Honor", so I couldn't help but compare. The "love story" felt mostly just awkward and stiff and the two main leads had no chemistry at all in the beginning, though it improved slightly in the later episodes but only slightly. The story itself got bogged down by unimportant side stories, the dialogues were also not great. All of this is a real problem when each episode is only some 12 minutes long. On the whole, I really felt like watching some really mediocre Wattpad story (not comparing this to AO3 - there are a lot of stories on AO3, which are a ton better than what we see on screen). I am not the biggest fan of Korean BL. So far, absolutely nothing has been able to wow me at all and this new offering won't help me change my mind that there is a lot of room for improvement when it comes to Korean BL.

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Just one word for this show - aaaaaargh

So. This show. Simply a disaster. The SFX are so lousy that they could be from the 90s. They remind me of "Mortal Kombat" (the 90s movie) and "Hercules - The Legendary Journeys" and that really shouldn't be the case for a TV program that was shot in 2018 (!). The script is just horrible. The similarities to the book are just about there. Instead of ghosts we have aliens (WTF) and of course they tried to completely suppress the whole LGBTQ love story. The episodes are sometimes so damn amateurishly written that it's just embarrassing and so are most of the supporting actors. Many are seriously lousy. Whether it's the really abysmal acting of Xin Peng, who spoils Guo or Ming Tingliu - just awful. Jiang Mingyang (Chu Shuzhi) is the only one who isn't a complete embarrassment, and then there are Zhu Yilong and Ba Yu, thank heavens. Those two are really the only reason I am still watching this show at all. Truly bloody amazing actors, very good chemistry and they somehow manage to bypass the script and still get the book across., which is quite a feat It's pretty clear that the crappy script wants to hammer in that the Shen Wei and Zhao Yun Lan are just friends, but Zhu Yilong and Ba Yu don't play along with that. When Shen Wei grabs his heart with a longing and pained expression on his face after having the chance to touch Zhao Yun Lan in episode 7? THAT certainly wasn't in the script. Guardian absolutely does not deserve the two main leads. I already know that the ending of the book was completely ruined, so I'll probably drop the show after episode 17/ 18, but I still don't regret watching it simply because the two leads are so good.

So, yeah. If the book had received the same treatment as "Word of Honor" then this show could be truly legendary but as it is, it is only legendary for being a fuck-up.

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