I've developed an unhealthy obsession with Yang Yang after this drama LOL, more specifically, Yang Yang in wuxia.
ANYWAY- this isn't the first drama I've seen with Yang Yang as the ML, I watched King's Avatar a long time ago and although gaming dramas aren't for me, he was great in it so I was kind of excited for this. Zhao Lusi as the FL as well, having seen her in 'Romance of the Tiger and Rose' and 'Oh My Emperor' (before I dropped it b/c the plot was just ridiculous), I was more used to seeing her in those kind of comedy-historical type roles and this is the first serious role I've seen her in so was excited to see that too.
In a nutshell, WRTW for me was one of those dramas that fell short in so many ways but I kept watching because of the ML and FL and the chemistry between them, they pretty much saved the drama for me otherwise I would have probably dropped it. In terms of romance, this drama was right up my street but in terms of actual plot, it was a bit shite to be honest.
***SPOILERS AHEAD***
I could write forever about this drama but I'm just going to summarise:
What I actually liked about it:
First 15-20 episodes were good, I loved seeing the relationship between Hei Fengxi/Lanxi and Bai Fengxi/Xiyan develop from friendly rivals in the martial arts world to feeling an attachment and falling in love with each other despite both being so different and from different backgrounds despite both between Prince and Princess of different nations.
The plot being focused around Lanxi hiding his identity under HFX was also interesting as he was heavily involved in a power struggle between him and his younger brother over who gets the title of being heir to the throne. You can tell from the way he secretly learnt martial arts and built a network of intelligence/spies under his alias meant that his life growing up was always in danger, given that his mother died of poisoning so he had to watch his own back and get revenge.
Although most of the plot turned into utter garbage as it developed in the second half (more on that later), I really liked the fact that although he originally set out to become powerful and rule the world, as soon as he met BFX and fell in love with her, that no longer became important. Despite everything, he chose love, even to the point where he sacrificed years of his life in exchange for saving her accepting that he would only be able to spend 10 more years of his life with her if it meant she could live.
What fell short for me:
Ok so here's where the list of problems start...
The plot somewhat changed in the second half of this drama, you come to think that the evil people are Lanxi's younger brother and his mother and then maybe come to think Huang Chao is the evil one as he's also after the role of emperor to rule the world. BUT NO, the actual evil guy is someone that has appeared since the beginning - Yu Wuyuan. I actually HATED the fact that he somehow crawled out of the woodwork to become the evil guy when you're made to believe he's actually a good guy. The fact of the plot is that he manipulated everyone around him and secretly killed everyone and took their resources and then even killed the emperor at the end to be able to rule the world himself. Throughout the drama, he was living in disguise as Huang Chao's aide/advisor, then fast forward to the last few episodes when they realise he's been behind everything all along and then even Huang Chao must team up with HFX and BFX to take him down. Honestly, this part was so dumb and what was supposed to be a plot twist was executed quite badly. Even the fight scene at the end was so dumb, it was 3 vs 1 and he got taken down so easily.
Also, I get there's this power struggle between brothers but I also found it ridiculous for Fengju to even be challenging Lanxi in the first place, even knowing the connections he's built, his martial arts skills etc. Yes, there was a part where their father found out that Lanxi had been hiding all this from him and then made him take that wine that kills off his internal force but still, it was incredibly ambitious of Fengju and his mother to try and then even have the guts to stage a coup eventually without expecting Lanxi to come in and stop it. Lanxi slapping the shit out of Fengju when his coup fails was quite lol though.
Now let's talk about their father - this guy is actually crazy, time after time in this drama you see Fengju and his mother run rampant with their little schemes and plots and even the king knows that his wife is after making Fengju the heir over Lanxi. So many times you see this guy forgive his wife for all her stupid schemes and tricks that fall through yet HE NEVER DOES ANYTHING ABOUT IT. Then he is actually surprised when the coup happens and acts like he's been so betrayed and lied to - if your wife has the guts to be scheming and harming other people, what makes you think she wouldn't do it to you eventually. I honestly felt so sorry for Lanxi in this drama, he is forever protecting himself and his father yet his father just sees it as if he's after power and therefore tries to cripple him, thank god Lanxi got his powers back at the end because if he didn't, the king would've shot himself in the foot with that one.
I hate to be complaining about this but it needs mentioning, BFX is supposed to be as intelligent as HFX but more times than not, she finds herself in these positions where she needs saving, 2 of those instances where she basically died and HFX had to bring her back to life. I wish they actually created her character to be more equal to HFX rather than the damsel in distress all the time.
Another one - bad CGI, I don't usually complain about bad CGI in wuxia dramas because it's usually a given, but this one is worth a mention because it was beyond bad. You can watch the final fight scene between Huang Chao, HFX, BFX and Wuyuan to see what I mean - people were flying all over the place and through buildings without actual contact happening, did they run out of budget or something?
Moving onto the ending, the last 10 episodes were possibly the worst, they were just so sped up just to get to the end. Within 5 episodes you have so many things concluding - Fenju and his mother's coup fails, Lanxi becomes heir, HFX and BFX get married, fast forward 5 years, they discover that Wuyuan was the one behind everything, BFX gets herself blown up by cannons, HFX sacrifices his life to save her, they find Wuyuan in the imperial city, they kill him, Lanxi gives up the power to rule the world over to Huang Chao in order to spend the remaining 10 years of his life living simply with BFX. The ending scene was poor as well, the scene ends with them painting each others' eyebrows.
Honestly, this drama could have been so much more if they extended it out to another 10 episodes and possibly didn't change director halfway through. To me, it started off so well, I was well and truly hooked and then things started dragging, it turned into a bit of a mystery drama and I found myself watching it solely because of HFX and BFX. A drama tends to lose its meaning when you end up watching it for the romance rather than the actual plot.
I thought long and hard about what score I should give this, I went from 8.5 to a 8/10 which actually seems pretty high despite all the problems I mentioned but Yang Yang and Zhao Lusi really made it enjoyable for me at least despite the shite plot.
I'm watching 'You Are My Glory' now (continuing my Yang Yang obsession), I don't normally do modern c-dramas let alone dramas about gaming but will give this a try.
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