high quality, romantic.

Lovely, high quality, BL. Be sure to watch to the very very end. Dont cry too much on the way.

I recommend this. There are some really good reviews out there so I dont have much to say except, the actors are so good and sooo young. Oh yes, also one of the two directors is a cinematographer and the other a screenwriter so that may account for the overall high quality.

The plot makes sense and has a clear clean structure. As always the theme of art and artists is fun to watch. As life becomes homogenized and Disneyfied, creativity, coming-of-age stories, individuality and bravery continue to be psychologically important.

All of these actors bear watching in the future, I would advise following them now. It is hard to be outstanding in this cast, all are excellent and charmingly good-looking but I would pick out Zhang Xuan Wu (21) for sheer beauty and outstanding charisma, and Yao Xing Hao for acting skills beyond his years (26).

As always BL is ahead of the international pack in new and trending themes and structures. Due to its brilliant and faithful audience (us, a'course!), creators can be experimental on shoestring budgets. More power to them.

Of the two directors, Li Xi was the cinematographer for Rise of Phoenixes, and has 2 more out this year, Bank on me and 13 Years of Dust. Ning Yuan Yuan was the screenwriter and director of An Insignificant Affair and an actress in The Hotel and Little Flowers,

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Great chemistry and brilliant acting by leads

Part 2 of the story of Jang Uk (JU) and Naksu/Mudeok (NM), not a second season, but with a three year time-jump in between, during which bad Lady Jin convinces Master Lee to revive the petrified body of Mudeok/Jin Bu-Yeon (eldest jin daughter). He warns her that the body will now really belong to Naksu's soul, that her actual daughter's soul is gone. She only wants the body to breed new heirs with divine powers so she doesnt care. Naksus soul pervades the body and changes its appearance (probably more than intended as Jung So Min wasnt the first choice to precede Go Yun Jung).

The lovers reverse roles in Pt2. How clever! The morose grumpy little master, NM, and her merry flirtatious student, JU, now become the morose grumpy husband and soul-shifter killer, JU, and his merry flirtatious little contract-wife, Naksu returned (Bu-Yeon in name only) in forced cohabitation! Once again she has lost her memories, and JU does not recognize her.

Great chemistry. He had to persuade her to become his master, he needed her to open his gate of energy and become a true mage; now she has to persuade him to marry her, she needs him to escape imprisonment by Lady Jin. Lots of fun.

The ice-stone storyline comes to a climax; 200 years ago the founder of Jinyowon, Jin Seol Ran, a powerful priestess, created it as a by product of a rain ritual during a period of extended drought. Her lover, the founder of Songrim, Jang Seo Gyeong, saved the ice-stone in Jinyowon, hoping to save her from death. Lady Jin begs JU's dad, Jang Gang to use it to revive a dead baby in her womb which he does, and who becomes her eldest and lost daughter Bu-Yeon. Jang Gang does not return the stone, he hides it in Lake Daeho. Bu-Yeon finfs it for her father and Jin Mu. They promptly toss her in the lake, and Jin Mu goes on an extended production of an army of wealthy soul-shifters. During which time our lovers meet. Fireworks!!

The ending is wonderful.

Oddly enough, the 40 hrs total would have equalled 53-ish Chinese-length episodes. There was some silly thought that somehow Korea was "plagiarizing" chinese culture, for pitys sake. So wrong in so many ways that it cant bear discussion. As all artists do, the Hong Sisters mine the materials they use from a variety of sources, and I would say that the general settings are reminiscient of Cdrama historico-fantasy. Not xianxia. Obviously like a thousand other pieces from a thousand other countries, wuxia/magic/martial arts...are we really going to complain?

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Combo hero-coming-of-age, wuxia, espionage and imperial intrigue.

Good watch. Prob'ly shot in 2018/9, 46 episodes -- only Part One of story! Combo hero-coming-of-age, wuxia, espionage and imperial intrigue. Many truly talented actors as supporting characters creates central focus on balancing nodes of power. The hero Zhang Ruo Yun/Fan Xian has excellent very masculine charisma and utter fidelity to his beloved.

A giant spy agency operating in the bowels of brutalist concrete architecture is balanced by the brilliant Chen Dao Ming as Dad the emperor puttering around with archery in slouchy white robes in his man-cave study, controlling his fractious family and state from afar. Fan Xian's story ties together this portion like the red string of fate.

Out of the city next, the fights get better (to my ignorant eye?) and the hero matures, fighting off various ladies' romantic overtures, and physical dangers, with aplomb, acting as ambassador to a northern country. Lots of cool 9th level masters and very dangerous enemies, and Fan Xian's faction starts to take shape.

To me the feminine rulers he grapples with in a northern enemy country seem like a cynical nod to then-fashion by the author or director (I am watching this during pride month which makes it feel particularly insulting) -- the northern emperor, obviously a woman, unacknowleged by plot (weird), is sismancing a great female martial artist, and then later suddenly one of the more politically ambiguous characters back home develops a bromancy henchman.

first posted July 2024 on Viki

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