Ancient D....etective
Thanks to its length (LOL), we finished Ancient Detective fairly fast.
Ancient Detective is about ancient detective, Jian Bu Zhi, trying to solve the mystery of what happened to his father eight years ago and where his killer went.
Along the way, he's made to solve other mysteries in order to solve the main mystery.
Cast and Characters
I'm feeling extremely lazy, so here's the main batch of characters:
From left: Zhan Shi Qi (Rachel Wang), Jian Bu Zhi (Tim Yu), Zhao Wo Huan (Wang Yan Yang), and Ming Yue (Miranda Ma).
Also hanging out with the main characters is the twin of the Dreamer guy from Ice Fantasy
Dreamer probably had better hair.
And trying to kill Jian Bu Zhi and his posse are the most deadliest group of assassins from the Ten Killing Gates:
Deadly, I tells ya.
Pros and Cons
Pro - World and Characters
The story has a Wuxia setting, which is probably my favorite drama setting. Asides from embellishments of martial arts skills, things are somewhat grounded in reality. And with Wuxia stories, the characters they encounter in the world are eccentric and colorful. Sometimes, it's a bit much. But for the most part, I would say I enjoy the main characters are portrayed and how they interact with one another.
Drama world loves bromance nowadays. And while that's fine, it's also refreshing when the two male leads just have a nice, regular friendship.
I also think the romantic relationships in the drama are done well, whether it's between Jian Bu Zhi/Zhan Shi Qi or Zhao Wo Huan/Ming Yue.
Even forever alone Wicked Woman isn't overly annoying. She actually handled being the unwanted third wheel in a relationship fairly well.
I also like the cast a good amount. I liked Rachel Wang from the dropped The Pillow Book and I really like her here and would watch her in future things.
Pro/Con - Length
At 24 episodes, I think the drama manages to tell a pretty compelling story and wrap everything up at the end. I don't think there's much filler to speak of in this drama. But at the same time, I do think the main characters are very engaging and the stories fairly interesting that I wouldn't have minded watching them solve other side mysteries, etc.
Pro - Pleasing to the eyeballs
For the most part, the drama is shot very well and I enjoy the lighting (both indoor and outdoor) and how it looks in general.
Con - Initial dialogue, choppy music/editing - aka stuff that China just doesn't care about
While the drama looks good in general, there are a lot of room for improvement. Obviously, dubbing sucks.
The first few episodes also suffer from repetitive dialogue. The music volume was also overwhelming in the initial episode. I don't think I heard any of the prologue because the dramatic music was so loud (thank goodness for subtitles). It got more balanced later on, but the music editing is choppy at times.
Pro - Cheesy comedy
The repetitive dialogue I can put up with to some extent, especially as it became more obvious later on that the drama is going for cheesiness at times. And that's fine. I love cheese. Whenever Jian Bu Zhi solves a crime, he gathers everyone up and dramatically points out the killer. And while nothing is laugh-out-loud funny, I do think this is probably one of the more genuinely funny China-produced dramas out there.
Pro/Con - Fight choreography
The fight choreography is very uneven here. Sometimes its terrible. Sometimes, it's not that bad at all/borderline good.
One of the worst ones was the opening fight sequence where it's a martial arts competition but there's so much slow motion and posing.
This whole fight was an atrocious mess with 1) slow motions backwards dodging - so overused in drama these days! 2) people doing an extreme backwards Michael Jackson Moondance...
...and 3) posing. So much posing.
Sometimes, it's pretty good. The main good ones that come to mind are Zhan Shi Qi and her fight in Hanyue Manor against three opponents and Zhao Wo Huan and Zhan #? (forgot exact assassin number)'s fight on Puppet Island.
First, it was really difficult to get the above screenshot because that whole fight scene had minimal slow motion. I couldn't get any other screenshots from that scene because everything went by at a regular fighting speed. It was just choreographed and edited well and at no point did it look like it was not the main actress doing the actual fighting. Second, her expression isn't one from a posed slow motion shot where it's perfectly composed. She was really dodging there. And not obvious from a screenshot, but rewatching that scene now, it looks like they didn't do too many cuts either. Zhan Shi Qi went from fighting one person to the other and there weren't a lot of cuts for them to insert a stunt person's body.
And the second better fight:
Again, most of it went too fast to get a good screenshot, but I think that's what makes it good. Zhao Wu Huan and Zhan #? fight fast with their saber and sword, respectively. There's minimal bad wire effects and slow motion posing.
Pro - Ending Song
That's "再見你" by Liu Qin and I quite like it. The score in the drama is generally fitting, but a little overused at times.
In the End
The drama ends with a twist reveal that I liked. It was hinted at throughout the drama and it didn't just pop up randomly. People online hope for a second season, but I'm frankly content with how it ended and didn't think there's more to tell in Jian Bu Zhi's story. I'm also okay with the second leads' ending because not every love story has to be resolved in a happy ending. If there was a second season miraculously with the same cast, I would consider watching it. But I'm happy with the way it ended and fear that a second season would just drag things out needlessly.
So I would say that this drama was pretty good. It's one of the better Wuxia-themed dramas I've watched recently that also have average (or, for today's drama, above average) fight scenes. The characters are good and the main mystery is engaging. There are some side stories and support characters that are too much, but they're not overwhelming. At no point did I think it was draggy or boring.
Ancient Detective is about ancient detective, Jian Bu Zhi, trying to solve the mystery of what happened to his father eight years ago and where his killer went.
Along the way, he's made to solve other mysteries in order to solve the main mystery.
Cast and Characters
I'm feeling extremely lazy, so here's the main batch of characters:
From left: Zhan Shi Qi (Rachel Wang), Jian Bu Zhi (Tim Yu), Zhao Wo Huan (Wang Yan Yang), and Ming Yue (Miranda Ma).
Also hanging out with the main characters is the twin of the Dreamer guy from Ice Fantasy
Dreamer probably had better hair.
And trying to kill Jian Bu Zhi and his posse are the most deadliest group of assassins from the Ten Killing Gates:
Deadly, I tells ya.
Pros and Cons
Pro - World and Characters
The story has a Wuxia setting, which is probably my favorite drama setting. Asides from embellishments of martial arts skills, things are somewhat grounded in reality. And with Wuxia stories, the characters they encounter in the world are eccentric and colorful. Sometimes, it's a bit much. But for the most part, I would say I enjoy the main characters are portrayed and how they interact with one another.
Drama world loves bromance nowadays. And while that's fine, it's also refreshing when the two male leads just have a nice, regular friendship.
I also think the romantic relationships in the drama are done well, whether it's between Jian Bu Zhi/Zhan Shi Qi or Zhao Wo Huan/Ming Yue.
Even forever alone Wicked Woman isn't overly annoying. She actually handled being the unwanted third wheel in a relationship fairly well.
I also like the cast a good amount. I liked Rachel Wang from the dropped The Pillow Book and I really like her here and would watch her in future things.
Pro/Con - Length
At 24 episodes, I think the drama manages to tell a pretty compelling story and wrap everything up at the end. I don't think there's much filler to speak of in this drama. But at the same time, I do think the main characters are very engaging and the stories fairly interesting that I wouldn't have minded watching them solve other side mysteries, etc.
Pro - Pleasing to the eyeballs
For the most part, the drama is shot very well and I enjoy the lighting (both indoor and outdoor) and how it looks in general.
Con - Initial dialogue, choppy music/editing - aka stuff that China just doesn't care about
While the drama looks good in general, there are a lot of room for improvement. Obviously, dubbing sucks.
The first few episodes also suffer from repetitive dialogue. The music volume was also overwhelming in the initial episode. I don't think I heard any of the prologue because the dramatic music was so loud (thank goodness for subtitles). It got more balanced later on, but the music editing is choppy at times.
Pro - Cheesy comedy
The repetitive dialogue I can put up with to some extent, especially as it became more obvious later on that the drama is going for cheesiness at times. And that's fine. I love cheese. Whenever Jian Bu Zhi solves a crime, he gathers everyone up and dramatically points out the killer. And while nothing is laugh-out-loud funny, I do think this is probably one of the more genuinely funny China-produced dramas out there.
Pro/Con - Fight choreography
The fight choreography is very uneven here. Sometimes its terrible. Sometimes, it's not that bad at all/borderline good.
One of the worst ones was the opening fight sequence where it's a martial arts competition but there's so much slow motion and posing.
This whole fight was an atrocious mess with 1) slow motions backwards dodging - so overused in drama these days! 2) people doing an extreme backwards Michael Jackson Moondance...
...and 3) posing. So much posing.
Sometimes, it's pretty good. The main good ones that come to mind are Zhan Shi Qi and her fight in Hanyue Manor against three opponents and Zhao Wo Huan and Zhan #? (forgot exact assassin number)'s fight on Puppet Island.
First, it was really difficult to get the above screenshot because that whole fight scene had minimal slow motion. I couldn't get any other screenshots from that scene because everything went by at a regular fighting speed. It was just choreographed and edited well and at no point did it look like it was not the main actress doing the actual fighting. Second, her expression isn't one from a posed slow motion shot where it's perfectly composed. She was really dodging there. And not obvious from a screenshot, but rewatching that scene now, it looks like they didn't do too many cuts either. Zhan Shi Qi went from fighting one person to the other and there weren't a lot of cuts for them to insert a stunt person's body.
And the second better fight:
Again, most of it went too fast to get a good screenshot, but I think that's what makes it good. Zhao Wu Huan and Zhan #? fight fast with their saber and sword, respectively. There's minimal bad wire effects and slow motion posing.
Pro - Ending Song
Click to viewThat's "再見你" by Liu Qin and I quite like it. The score in the drama is generally fitting, but a little overused at times.
In the End
The drama ends with a twist reveal that I liked. It was hinted at throughout the drama and it didn't just pop up randomly. People online hope for a second season, but I'm frankly content with how it ended and didn't think there's more to tell in Jian Bu Zhi's story. I'm also okay with the second leads' ending because not every love story has to be resolved in a happy ending. If there was a second season miraculously with the same cast, I would consider watching it. But I'm happy with the way it ended and fear that a second season would just drag things out needlessly.
So I would say that this drama was pretty good. It's one of the better Wuxia-themed dramas I've watched recently that also have average (or, for today's drama, above average) fight scenes. The characters are good and the main mystery is engaging. There are some side stories and support characters that are too much, but they're not overwhelming. At no point did I think it was draggy or boring.