This is a Chinese Fantasy/Martial Arts drama, available on viki. Romance, martial arts, magic, and happily ever after. Which doesn’t typically happen in Chinese historical or pseudo-historical drama because only Communist path can guarantee happy future.
Verdict: Liked it a lot.
It’s a nebulous historical time in China. The country is ruled by an Emperor and within it there is a martial arts world, which is almost a nation onto itself. In the past a very powerful martial arts sect, Dark River, threatened the entire martial arts world with its evil magic and all of the warriors came together to fight against it. In the aftermath, three main sects emerged: Flaming Hills, World Swordless City, and Thunderbolt Clique.
Lie Ruge is the daughter of the Flaming Hills sect leader. She was set to marry Zhan Feng, the orphaned son of her father’s best friend. Zhan Feng is outstanding in everything: he is a great martial artist, handsome, smart, and loves her. Except that he abruptly brought a women from a brothel to the sect headquarters and now he doesn’t want to marry Ge’er anymore.
Lie Ruge leaves the sect to go into the world and travels to the most exclusive brothel in the land to figure out what is so special about brothel women. There she meets Yin Xue, the brothel’s mysterious owner with mystical powers, who abruptly announces that he has been waiting for her his entire life and will now follow her wherever she goes. Lie Ruge is not wild about that idea.
And so starts the chain of events that will bring the sects of martial arts in conflict with each other, throw everything in chaos, and threaten to destroy the entire country.
I enjoyed this a lot. The wirework was superb, the costumes were great, Dilraba Dilmurat – she is an Uigur actress – was great as Lie Ruge, Vin Zhang was awesome as Zhan Feng, Liu Ruilin had a very unusual role as a paraplegic deaf prince. He was really outstanding. I liked that Lie Ruge grew stronger. I liked the politics of the sects.
My main problem with this drama was Vic Chou.
Xin Yue is supposed to be unearthly beautiful. Vic Chou is very handsome, but not beautiful and the hairstyle didn’t do him any favors. He kind of looked goofy half of the time. Compared to Zhan Feng, who looked so stunning, Kid 2 walked into a room, saw him on the big screen, stopped and said, “Wow, that’s a ridiculously pretty guy.” I liked the Zhan Feng’s character better overall.
I liked what Vic Chou did with the role, I liked what Dilraba Dilmurat did with hers, but if she had ended up with Zhan Feng, I would’ve been 100% fine with it.
Also pacing could be better. I did fast forward a bit, but this is also because I can pretty much tell the purpose of the scene from the first few lines of dialogue and I have no patience for tragic moping.
This has now edged out the Story of Yanxi Palace as my #2 Chinese historical drama, simply because it Yanxi Palace, as addicting as it was, depressed the hell out of me, while after watching this I felt happy.
I think Viki should pay you a commission or at least give you free shows for all the good publicity you give them. ? I hadn’t heard of them before you started talking about it. The happy ending makes me want to start watching now, but alas, my internet isn’t fast enough to stream. (Sigh) Oh well. I can still read! ?
I so agree. I’m totally adicted to Viki now, so I’ll be looking up this one to watch soon.
Tell me you’ve watched Eternal Love. Also, I’m watching General and I (I’ve been promised a HEA) and I’m really enjoying it. Flame’s Daughter is up next.
Loved Eternal Love! I’m really excited to see season three.
If you want a sweet fantasy romance drama, check Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms.
I also reccomend Bu Bu Jing Xin as a sad but beautiful transmigration and Palace drama, it is also the last of this kind as then the chinese government prohibited time travel as a plot device.
Prohibiting plot devices is just…wow.
As I understand it, some girls committed suicide and left behind a note hoping to transmigrate after their death to meet with the prince in the story (it was based on real historical figure, still…), thus, dooming transmigration plot to extinction for shows that which to still air in China.
I don’t know if I would have the patience to watch it. Anything that gets too predictable becomes dull to me. Sort of crouching tiger in the effects.
I think I can shed some light on Vic Zhou’s casting. You’re right, he doesn’t really look good in period pieces. He’s also, imo, not that great of an actor. What he does have, is a built in fanbase from his F4 (Flower Four / Boys Before Flowers manga/836463636TV series) days 20 years ago (!!!!!!) as the nice guy who didn’t get the girl.
Kris Wu would’ve been a better fit. But then again, he’s my go to for everything ? esp Julie’s dragon friend.
Thanks for another awesome sounding rec. You haven’t lead me astray yet so I’m psyched to watch this tonight ❤️
Kris Wu FTW ! As unbelievable as it may seem, he is even more handsome in real life.
I love that you enjoy the Asian dramas as much as I do. They’re so fun and fantastical. I stopped watching the C-Dramas for a while because they were let downs on the endings, but they’re starting to base them off novels which are awesome!
It looks good! I know what you mean about Chinese drama not ending in HEA.
Netflix has Rookie Historian on now. It’s Korean and you can’t binge because it’s real time, but it’s great so far. If you need a cute show to take life off your mind. 🙂
Not my cup of tea. I’m not fond of angst in any form but I do enjoy the costumes and martial art stuff. Totally off topic, has anyone watched “Another Life” Netflix sci-fi with Katee Sackhoff? I binge watched the whole first season this week and, at this point, I’m rather ambivalent about it. No problems with the acting, I think my issue is with the story lines they’re introducing and ramping up the intensity at such speed. I only watched it because Katee is in it. She was excellent in Longmire as Vic. The writers did a fabulous job bringing those characters to life and the books are great! I miss that show, tremendous casting choices and, even better, they ended it by tying all the loose ends up in a satisfying manner.
I watched the first few episodes of ‘Another Life’ last night. Yet another show who’s science left me yelling at the tv. I just… boiling hydrogen peroxide? aaaahhhhh
I’ve been watching the Korean series “Rookie Historian” on Netflix. Talk about ridiculously pretty/handsome actors! It is not a kung-fu drama, but set in Korea’s Josean period. The main character is a female (gasp) rookie historian in the emperor’s court who’s a bit arrogant and uppity for her own good. While there is little in the way of physical action, she fights against misogyny, ignorance and classism. There’s a lot of backstabbing politics which is more fun than it sounds. The prince’s eunuch is hilarious and the little anime -type sound effects are great. Korean dresses are different than Chinese dresses, but still pretty. The weird hats the guys wear are strangely reminiscent of Western Stetsons.
“It’s a nebulous historical time in China” – this is hilarious ?
I like Dilraba Dilmurat, I’ve only seen her in Pretty Li Huizen but she made an impression. If you haven’t seen it yet Love O2O is on Netflix and it’s pretty good. I recently watch the movie version of Love O2O and I liked that the female main was much more assertive than the one in the series. The series version has its good points too I like the KO in the series version and he had his own side story in it. Doesn’t hurt that’s Vin Zhang is a hottie. He also shows with Dilraba in Pretty Li Huizen. I need to learn more mandarin.
You’ll need to watch Sweet Dreams. It also has Dilraba in it with Deng Lun. It’s a modern series, and she is extremely funny and cute in it.
For historical/fantasy series, Eternal Love (Three Lives, Three Worlds, Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms) is extremely good. And I am anxiously awaiting the sequel/retelling Three Lives, Three Worlds, the Pillow Book which will be focused on Dilraba’s and Vengo Gao’s characters.
Xin Yue looks remarkably like Asian!Legolas. Flame’s Daughter it sounds like a fun show to watch!
Sonya,
You might want to watch Saving General Yang to see Vic Chou as Asian’s Legolas then! ;D It’s based on a popular folklore about the Yang family. There have been many adaptations of the story and this one was dubbed the boy band version 😀 for its abundance of eye candies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9capneD3VQ
This was the first time I got to see Vic Chou (never watched him from the series that got him famous). He was so awesome in it that I had to look him up.
I have become addicted to K dramas thanks to you!! Although I prefer modern K dramas rather the historic ones. Thank you for introducing these to me..they are totally enjoyable.
So what’s your number 1 drama?
I would like to know, too!
Strong Woman Do Bong Soon is a hilarious show with a serial kidnapper story that keeps it suspenseful. Plus the chemistry of the leads is off the charts!
Have you seen “My Love from the Star” about an alien who has been on earth for 400 years and falls in love with a clumsy actress? “My Girlfriend is a Nine Tailed Fox (Gumiho)” is also very good. It’s about a young man who releases a Gumiho from a painting and she turns into a beautiful woman, saves his life and asks him to teach her to be human. Of course it is a love story. Another love story “Legend of the Blue Sea” is about a mermaid who falls in love with a human. Of course they are both reincarnated lovers from about 400 years ago. Does anyone else have any K drama recommendations? I would love to watch more!
Are you looking for Fantasy K-dramas? Hwayugi (or Korean Odyssey on Netflix) is pretty good. I just finished W last night and it was good too. I think Guardian is going to be on VIKI starting tomorrow (or at least it appears that way in my region so guess what I’m going to be doing this weekend? Nothing productive, I assure you).
Korean Odyssey on Netflix is really good. A woman who can see ghosts binds a god to protect her. Bittersweet ending but not total despair. It has the main guy from my girlfriend is a 9-tailed Fox. They could totally spin a second season if they wanted to as they leave the door open for more.
W on Viki is great- a comic book character pulls the daughter of his creator into his world and she has to help him figure out who the assassin that killed his family is. Great romance and HEA
Romance is a bonus book on Netflix is also really cute. Contemporary – no magic or anything but super sweet romance set around a late 30s woman starting her life over, the younger male best friend she’s always viewed as a brother, and the jobs thy have at a publishing company.
If you google Ninja-reflection she has a blog and reviews different shows every week and sometimes translates shows that came from books that don’t have an English translation. She hasn’t really steered me wrong yet!
(And no I don’t know her or get anything from telling you about her) I had to find some sort of closure at the very very aggravating ending of Rise of Phoenixes on Netflix. (Me and a ton of other people apparently) – great show- most frustrating ending on the planet. She started translating the book because it ends differently from the show and the book is way more awesome.
Happy k-drama hunting!
This isn’t a fantasy K-drama like the others you’ve mentioned, but “Healer” is absolutely fantastic and worth a watch. It’s got the super-hero trope (with the hero appearing in both his awesome, dauntless super-hero and his fake-clumsy, timid real-guy personas… only he’s not really a super-hero but more like a mercenary, with the moral grey area that entails…), and it’s the only K-drama I’ve seen where the hero gets jealous of himself lol (since he meets the heroine in his multiple identities).
Oh, and for a fantasy K-drama, “Faith” is my favorite alongside the 3 you mentioned. It’s a slow-burn romance, and the politics drag down the plot sometimes, but the character and romance development are exquisite. I remember crying during an episode near the end where it seemed like the h/H were simply not possible (she had time-traveled to the past, and because she was poisoned/infected there she would have had to go back to modern times to be cured, so he wanted to send her even if he had to drag her there so she could live though he was dying inside from the pain of losing her, and she kept insisting to find another solution because going back and losing him might mean she would be fine physically but she would never ever again be fine emotionally) and I never wished for a happy ending more while watching a fictional piece.
Last but not least, because I’m a time-traveling junkie, I’ll also rec you “Queen In-hyun’s Man.” 🙂
Healer and Faith are two of my absolute favourites! Also recommend ‘Fight For My Way’ or anything with Park Seo Joon in really 😉
Author Lords, I hope you know that I blame you entirely for my new addiction to K-dramas and VIKI. And everyone who leaves comments and recommendations… you are all enablers.
If only you’d all use your powers for good instead of evil!
Having lived in Japan for 10 years back in the 90s, I can’t help but think every man in an Asian action/romance/drama has been selected to emulate Kaneshiro Takeshi, whose most successful movies in the West (to my knowledge) have been “House of Flying Daggers” and “Chungking Express”. When he became popular in Japan, characters in certain video games were created to look like him, and there is a character that looks like him in the anime series “Last Exile,” too.
Have you watched Nirvana in Fire. That’s my favorite.
Always will have my 4th grade crush on Lt. Sulu (George Takei) from original Star Trek.
I was on the fence of watching this one but you totally sold me! Didn’t realize this had a HEA, so rare in Chinese dramas. I’ll have have to invest my time in this one now.
Have you seen Legend of Fuyao? It’s one of my favorites ?
Wanted to add Ten miles of peach blossom is also awesome
Legend of Fuyao is amazing!
Just watched the trailer. I’m guessing Feng is the guy in burgundy. Cause holy wow! That is one gorgeous man.
I don’t know who is who, but I’d vote for the guy in burgundy over the guy in white! ?
This looks really nice visually. Dilraba Dilmurat is really pretty! I’ve never heard of her before, I’ll have to check this out. Vic Chou looks really… Modernly handsome in the trailer.
Have you guys seen the Korean movies, Along with the Gods (1 & 2)? Fantasy woven with a little drama and lots of action with seamless transitions between.
If not, then I highly recommend that you do, ASAP.
Has anybody watched the new HO series ‘Warrior’ based on the writings of Bruce Lee. A fantastic watch.
I recommend The Legends! HEA even though you’ll cry your eyes out in between… The main male lead Xu Bai is soooo pretty 😉
umm…sorry if this has been asked but is viki a subscription like netflix? And if this is #2 what’s #1? thanks!
You don’t have to pay for Viki, but there’s quite a bit of ads if you go the free route and not all the shows/movies are available for free.
Vic Chou!! Ah it’s all about the good old F4 days (circa 2001) and Meteor Garden (流星花園 liu xing hua yuan). If you want to watch terribly over dramatic and predictable but strangely addictive (or at least it was back in the day) Taiwanese high school romance drama based on Japanese manga Hana Yori dango (花より男子) then this is the one….
Ilona have you seen the “Eternal Love” TV series? It’s a web-novel that’s turned into TV series, then later a movie. (Don’t start with the movie, it’s rather horrible). The TV series though…omg, it was so good. I’ve grown up with Chinese drama, but this is the first one I seeked out the novel and read it too. I absolutely recommend it!!!
Here’s a wiki link to it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_Love_(TV_series)
I would post a link to the youtube trailer too, but I currently don’t have access to youtube.
Christina
Oh! Totally forgot to add what the story is about:
Eternal Love is set in fictional/fantasy setting Gods/Goddesses. It’s about star-crossed lovers of a Dragon God and a White Fox Goddess. The story plays out across God, Demon, and Human worlds – where the gods will sometimes incarnate into humans to fulfill their punishment or desires.
I’m rather sucking a giving a good summary, but it’s so good!!! Don’t miss out!
I knew that we are kindred spirits! To add a few other Chinese Dramas worth watching (smart heroines and heroes, as well as intelligent villains, makes for excellent Imperial Chinese drama viewing)
1) The story of Ming Lan. Simply amazing and one of my favorite drama couples (and real-life couples) Guaranteed to be remarkable. Don’t let the number of episodes stop you; it’s addicting.
2) The Story of Yanxi Palace. Wow simply wow! Has there ever been a more smart and cunning heroine? Maybe Ming Lan?
I have no time for the silly, playful, girlish lead females that are prevalent in Chinese Dramas. One minute she is wide-eyed, innocent, mischevious, and childish, and the next moment, we are supposed to think that she is the future Empress of China? Yeah, right….
Hope you and others give these two shows a chance. You will love them…
Are you looking forward to Live action Mulan?
Can you please watch Ashes of Love? Seriously I really really think you’ll like it. It’s equal parts funny and romantic and all the feels.
I am obsessed with Vin Zhang. He is just so ridiculously pretty. I watched him and Dilraba Dilmurat in The Kings Woman and I the whole time I was screaming internally “Who cares that he’s kind of an asshole?!! Jump him woman!”
Those lips are just….*drools on keyboard
Dear Ms. Andrews,
This isn’t related to this blog’s topic, but I wished to relay the information because well, migraines suck.
A new study just came out supporting causality between migraines and a deficiency of riboflavin (B2.) There has also been a relationship establish low magnesium. After treating the B2 deficiency, migraine severity and occurrence decreased considerably.
I know that as a vegetarian, I have difficulty getting adequate amounts of certain nutrients. I hope you find the information helpful. I will post it again in the next blog in case this is too far down. I hope you and your pack are doing better:) -Cynara
What is ranked #1?
If you liked Dilraba and Vin Zhang you should try ‘The King’s Woman’ they’re the main leads. I personally haven’t watched it yet but you should like the pairing!
Also hooked on kdrama thanks to your blog! Definate recommendations from me though not period dramas; Strong Girl Bong Soon and I am not a robot. I like the comedy elements :). Also very good were kill me heal me and memories of the alhambra
I am here to pitch sell le coup de fondre, or “i I don’t love the world, I love only you”
It’s contemporary c series and very, very cute. The best I have seen so far. Best thing to watch when you’re feeling down and want happiness.
The only warning i have is that the story progress on 3 time line. The student time when they meet an d fall in love, 6 years later when they meet again, and present-day that feel like the HEA time.
They first go to the 6year later, then went back to the student-first-meet progressing to th 6year-later. With present-day HEA giving comments along the way. (Kinda like Mr and Mrs smith) I like it, though.
Ps the story is based on the author life
Hi. I love chinese historical fantasy drama. Have you seen “The Story of Minglan”. Its one of the bast chinese drama I have ever watched. Its done by a production company called “Daylight Entertainment”. Whatever this company makes has a certain level of quality.
Thanks a lot for that recommendation. I enjoy it so much. <3
Never got to actually watch it, have seen too many similar ones and thus this one does not manage to entice me.
But, for a change of pace, I’d advise watching Go Go Squid. It has just finished airing and the last episode is also getting subbed as we speak. Moreover, it has only 41 episodes, but in this case, wouldn’t have minded more simply because it’s so fun ^^
So:
It’s 99% fun, 1% moping.
Absolutely LOVE IT!
If you’ve seen Ashe’s of Love, then know that Yang Zi is the FL here 😉
The ML is played by Li Xian, first time I’ve seen him, but he’s definitely good.
It’s a Viki original drama and it’s soooooooo refreshing, because of all the camaraderie that’s going on and best of the best – the ML is not a jerk and the FL is pretty much his equal in her own field of work 😉
I could gush about it endlessly, but I’ll just say – DEFINITELY give it a try, it’s super sweet & awesome ^^
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZZgDL5ID4Y
Oh, I actually thought this was depressing. Thanks for saying that it has a happy ending.
Check out Listening Snow Tower. Not sure if it’s your thing, but I liked it kept me watching.
I googled the show and it is also available on Hulu and Amazon Prime (not sure if there is a cost on Amazon) for those that don’t/can’t/prefer not to use viki. I have to use on Hulu because I need something to track what I watch. Much like my reading, I have a lot going on and need bookmarks for my tv/moviewatching.
Thanks for the recommendation. I started binge watching it and am about half way through. I really enjoy it.
Please try watching Nirvana In Fire! It’s my all-time most loved Chinese drama! The story was so intelligent, and well-written.