There goes my hero, he's old and hairy
Finished it awhile back, only getting to it now. Heroes, starring Baron Chen's wonderful hair:
I don't feel like writing a short summary, so let's jump right into:
Cast and Characters
Wide-eyed, plucky male lead Wang Xiaoshi is played by wonky-eyed Joseph Zeng (Heavenly Sword and Dragon Saber [2019]).
I don't know if it's acting or character, but Wang Xiaoshi is the least interesting main character in this drama.
Ambitious and ruthless other male lead Bai Choufei is played by Liu Yuning.
I generally like characters that are ruthless so Bai Choufei is a more interesting character to watch.
Sickly and honorable third male lead Su Mengzhen is played by Baron Chen (Fated to Love You, Fairytale Under the Starlight, Bromance, Race the World, Fights Break Sphere)
His character is also not that interesting. But at least he's played by Baron Chen and he has nice hair.
Pros and Cons
Pro: Wu...Xia?
Somewhere online, someone made the comment that this is the best wuxia drama out there right now and it speaks to the current depressing state of that genre. But I guess I'll watch the best of the bottom of the barrel out of want of better stuff.
So here are the good "wuxia" things about this drama:
1. Good wuxia music
I like that the opening song is upbeat and rock-y. IMO, wuxia is represented by punk or alt rock because that's the spirit of the genre. It's damn rare to get a good wuxia song these days. The last good ones I can think of are the opening songs for The Wolf and Word of Honor, and both are terrible dramas otherwise.
2. Blood
I like that there's a lot of bloodshed in here. People get bloodied up from their wounds or other people's wounds. People cough up blood. And none of it's the dainty, pretty, blood-only-on-the-corner-of-the-lips coughing up blood. There's basically blood everywhere, which is what I would imagine when there's a large amount of killing happening.
LOL, he was probably drinking a bottle of fake blood.
3. Killing
Every character probably ends up killing at least one other person in this drama, and I respect that. There's almost never talk of how "one should never kill", etc. This is Jianghu. People kill people. The end.
4. People with cool hair and why can't we have more of these types of people that can use their real hair and/or use hair extensions?
And on the opposite spectrum, the ML with terrible wig.
In that same scene, ML looks so stupid compared to Baron Chen and it's not just because Joseph Zeng has a stupider face.
5. Select fight choreography
As much as I complain about the general lack of good fight choreography in this and other dramas, there are a few fights that are not terrible.
Like the ML doing the Black Widow move:
Most of this fight isn't terrible either:
6. Cool-looking people (basically, most people in 6 1/2 Hall aka Team Cao Cao)
aka Cao Cao because I can't remember his real name.
Guy who can't look up.
She's totally a Zheng Ji from Dynasty Warriors.
7. Actor that can ride can be on a horse at the same time it's moving.
I know it doesn't seem like much, but it's a huge improvement to what China make actors do to avoid having them ride a horse. Play VCR:
Video is in Mandarin, but basic gist is: new dramas/actors are awful and will do anything to avoid riding a horse. Some actors try and some are actually really good. But they're in the minority. Or one can just watch the first minute for a comedy compilation of "horseback" riding.
Con: The same given crap because this is China
1. Dubbing
2. Terrible wigs
3. Bad posing in place of fight choreography
4. Fade-to-black fight choreography and/or fights mentioned but never seen
5. Bad CGI. There's always a fake bird in wide scenic shots. Why? And fabrics don't just float higher and higher up in the air as if gravity doesn't exist.
6. Slow motion when slow motion is not necessary (it rarely is)
7. Matrix cam. This camera trick was cool when it was used once or twice in a movie 20 years ago. Let it go.
8. Fast zoom cam. At some point, five or six characters were having a conversation before fighting. So they're just basically standing around. But the camera fast zooms to a character's face every time one of them speaks. It's so irritating and bad looking!
9. The annoying, pouty girl troupe. The FL honestly isn't an annoying character. But the way the FL speaks (or is dubbed) is just to annoying and the way she pouts! *Sigh*
The end
In the end, the main incentive for me to watch this drama was Baron Chen. So I would probably only recommend this drama to his fans. I did spend more times talking about the pros of this drama. But the cons (dubbing/bad fight choreography/bad camera work/editing/bad wigs etc) are just so systematically ingrained in most Chinese dramas that I felt like I complained about them in multiple other posts already. So don't let my post fool anyone. This was not a good drama.
And I just realized that most of that most consisted of screenshots and gifs and very little actual writing. But that's probably because the story and characters aren't all that memorable and my brain forgot a chunk of it already.
Now, to work on my other drama review while the plot is still (hopefully) fresh in my mind.
I don't feel like writing a short summary, so let's jump right into:
Cast and Characters
Wide-eyed, plucky male lead Wang Xiaoshi is played by wonky-eyed Joseph Zeng (Heavenly Sword and Dragon Saber [2019]).
I don't know if it's acting or character, but Wang Xiaoshi is the least interesting main character in this drama.
Ambitious and ruthless other male lead Bai Choufei is played by Liu Yuning.
I generally like characters that are ruthless so Bai Choufei is a more interesting character to watch.
Sickly and honorable third male lead Su Mengzhen is played by Baron Chen (Fated to Love You, Fairytale Under the Starlight, Bromance, Race the World, Fights Break Sphere)
His character is also not that interesting. But at least he's played by Baron Chen and he has nice hair.
Pros and Cons
Pro: Wu...Xia?
Somewhere online, someone made the comment that this is the best wuxia drama out there right now and it speaks to the current depressing state of that genre. But I guess I'll watch the best of the bottom of the barrel out of want of better stuff.
So here are the good "wuxia" things about this drama:
1. Good wuxia music
Click to viewI like that the opening song is upbeat and rock-y. IMO, wuxia is represented by punk or alt rock because that's the spirit of the genre. It's damn rare to get a good wuxia song these days. The last good ones I can think of are the opening songs for The Wolf and Word of Honor, and both are terrible dramas otherwise.
2. Blood
I like that there's a lot of bloodshed in here. People get bloodied up from their wounds or other people's wounds. People cough up blood. And none of it's the dainty, pretty, blood-only-on-the-corner-of-the-lips coughing up blood. There's basically blood everywhere, which is what I would imagine when there's a large amount of killing happening.
LOL, he was probably drinking a bottle of fake blood.
3. Killing
Every character probably ends up killing at least one other person in this drama, and I respect that. There's almost never talk of how "one should never kill", etc. This is Jianghu. People kill people. The end.
4. People with cool hair and why can't we have more of these types of people that can use their real hair and/or use hair extensions?
And on the opposite spectrum, the ML with terrible wig.
In that same scene, ML looks so stupid compared to Baron Chen and it's not just because Joseph Zeng has a stupider face.
5. Select fight choreography
As much as I complain about the general lack of good fight choreography in this and other dramas, there are a few fights that are not terrible.
Like the ML doing the Black Widow move:
Most of this fight isn't terrible either:
6. Cool-looking people (basically, most people in 6 1/2 Hall aka Team Cao Cao)
aka Cao Cao because I can't remember his real name.
Guy who can't look up.
She's totally a Zheng Ji from Dynasty Warriors.
7. Actor that can ride can be on a horse at the same time it's moving.
I know it doesn't seem like much, but it's a huge improvement to what China make actors do to avoid having them ride a horse. Play VCR:
Video is in Mandarin, but basic gist is: new dramas/actors are awful and will do anything to avoid riding a horse. Some actors try and some are actually really good. But they're in the minority. Or one can just watch the first minute for a comedy compilation of "horseback" riding.
Con: The same given crap because this is China
1. Dubbing
2. Terrible wigs
3. Bad posing in place of fight choreography
4. Fade-to-black fight choreography and/or fights mentioned but never seen
5. Bad CGI. There's always a fake bird in wide scenic shots. Why? And fabrics don't just float higher and higher up in the air as if gravity doesn't exist.
6. Slow motion when slow motion is not necessary (it rarely is)
7. Matrix cam. This camera trick was cool when it was used once or twice in a movie 20 years ago. Let it go.
8. Fast zoom cam. At some point, five or six characters were having a conversation before fighting. So they're just basically standing around. But the camera fast zooms to a character's face every time one of them speaks. It's so irritating and bad looking!
9. The annoying, pouty girl troupe. The FL honestly isn't an annoying character. But the way the FL speaks (or is dubbed) is just to annoying and the way she pouts! *Sigh*
The end
In the end, the main incentive for me to watch this drama was Baron Chen. So I would probably only recommend this drama to his fans. I did spend more times talking about the pros of this drama. But the cons (dubbing/bad fight choreography/bad camera work/editing/bad wigs etc) are just so systematically ingrained in most Chinese dramas that I felt like I complained about them in multiple other posts already. So don't let my post fool anyone. This was not a good drama.
And I just realized that most of that most consisted of screenshots and gifs and very little actual writing. But that's probably because the story and characters aren't all that memorable and my brain forgot a chunk of it already.
Now, to work on my other drama review while the plot is still (hopefully) fresh in my mind.