First thoughts on Huang Xiaoming's "The Patriot Yue Fei"
If you know anything about my drama-watching habits, you must have known this was coming.
The Patriot Yue Fei (精忠岳飛), director Stanley Tong's biopic about Song Dynasty general Yue Fei, began airing on July 4th, but thanks to my summer jobs, I didn't get a chance to sit down and really watch it until just now. I was actually planning on marathoning the first ten or so episodes, and then putting up a first-thoughts post, but then I spent too much time screencapping Huang Xiaoming whenever he appeared on screen, so for now I've watched only the first two episodes. But I think that's enough to get the gist of it.
I'm actually not that knowledgeable about Chinese history, so I'm not going to say much about Yue Fei the actual person here, since you can easily find more information about him on the Internet (yay Wikipedia!) and in history books. Tbh, I'm surprised I never learned about him during my K-12 Chinese school years because he seems like such an important and iconic historical figure. (Not to mention vastly more interesting in the eyes of jaded teenagers... I mean, we learned about Qu Yuan, and not him!?)
Anyway, what you basically need to know is that Yue Fei was an extremely loyal military general during the Song Dynasty, who was betrayed and executed by Prime Minister Qin Hui and Emperor Gaozong. He is pretty much a national hero in China, and The Patriot Yue Fei is essentially his life story, starting from when he joined the army around age 19 to when he died at age 39.
I won't be recapping this drama, due to its length (69 episodes!) and its genre (historical/war, which I don't watch enough of or know enough about to say anything of worth). Also... I just don't have time. If you would like some recaps, check out The Feathered Fan, who has the series recapped up to episode 40 so far. This post is just going to be a jumble of my thoughts and first impressions.
And screencaps, of course. Can't forget that.
* First things first, if Huang Xiaoming weren't in this, I can honestly say I would not have any interest in this whatsoever. Yue Fei sounds like a cool guy and all, but biographical-historical-war dramas have never been my thing, unless of course it's an wuxia drama that incorporates those things. So if I end up talking a lot about HXM in this... well, it's to be expected.
* I find this ends up happening a lot when I watch HXM's works (especially his movies), but I am incredibly attentive when he's on screen, and when he's not, I get hopelessly bored. Since he's the main character, he does get a lot of screentime, but the drama also has to build up other plot points (e.g. the elderly emperor who's more interested in looking at rocks than in ruling a country, the ninth prince who wants to please but is obviously ridiculously inexperienced in political matters, the greedy and scheming Jin army that's plotting to attack the Song), and these aren't nearly as interesting.
* HXM's acting in this isn't anything to write home about, but the over-the-top-ness that people tend to accuse him of is mostly absent here. However, Yue Fei the character is written very... over-the-top, I guess. HXM has said several times in interviews that he hopes his portrayal will remove Yue Fei from the "god pedestal" on which Chinese people have placed him, but Yue Fei has been like a freakin' invincible superhero so far. Yeah, you can see that he has the flawed hero mentality as well (wanting to rescue people and thinking he can do things all by himself), but as of now, he has been so badass that I'm going to find it very hard to believe that Qin Hui could have framed him.
* Here are some examples of God-like Invincible Badass Yue Fei (yes, this is just an excuse for a HXM picspam):
Yue Fei accompanies General Liu Ge to the Jin army camp to ask for their help in fighting the Liao. He ends up butting heads with some of the higher-ranking Jin soldiers, including the general, who wants to shoot an arrow at Yue Fei to show that Yue Fei is not as fearless as he claimed. Of course, Yue Fei doesn't flinch and is just left with a badass mark on his cheek.
Then Yue Fei says it's customary for him to return the favor, and everyone goes outside to watch him shoot an arrow at the Jin general. Initially, the Jin general doesn't think Yue Fei will be able to hit him, but he ends up having to move his head at the last second to avoid being skewered. Yue Fei smirks. I'm including a gif of this because smirking HXM is one of my favorite things.
Later, Yue Fei is serving as a bodyguard for some Song official, and he and his lackey (Wang Gui, who is Yue Fei fanboy to the max) run into some rogue soldiers who have kidnapped two females and escaped into a temple. God-like Invincible Badass Yue Fei jumps through the window to fight them off and rescue the females (one of whom is Li Xiao'e, his to-be wife, portrayed by Ruby Lin). I'm just going to direct you to this photoset, because I don't think I can do the fight justice... let's just say it involves Yue Fei snatching arrows in midair, dangling upside down, and using Xiao'e's limbs to beat up rogues.
We're still on episode 1, mind you. At the end of the episode, Yue Fei discovers that the path ahead is being covered by thirty bandits who are planning to ambush him and his troupe. Of course, God-like Invincible Badass Yue Fei defeats all thirty with ease, and he even humiliates the leader by pretending he's going to spear him, only lightly nicking him instead, and then smirking as the leader pees his pants in terror.
Have a gif of part of the fight, lest you don't believe me about how God-like, Invincible, and Badass Yue Fei is. The part when his spear bounces off him and smashes into his opponents is pretty much where I lost it and became convinced that Yue Fei is actually a god.
So yeah... that's God-like Invincible Badass Yue Fei for you. In short: HXM's acting is believable. I'm not sure about the character himself.
* For some reason, I am a little bothered by Yue Fei's voice. I'm not one of those people who always complain about dubbing, and I think it can actually improve a drama a lot if the right voice actors are picked. But Yue Fei's voice is just a little too blah for my liking. I don't think HXM's own voice would particularly fit Yue Fei either, but I was hoping for better from Zhang Zhen, who dubbed HXM in Shanghai Bund and did it to perfection. But I'm sure I'll get used to it.
* The opening and ending are both very epic, but my favorite song from this drama is undoubtedly "Leaping Heart" (飛躍的心), sung by HXM. It was actually the theme song for an animated movie about Yue Fei, but I guess they shot a separate MV for the drama. It's no secret that I love HXM's singing voice, even though I wouldn't consider him a bona fide talented singer, and he has a knack for getting well-written and nice-sounding songs. This one is no exception.
* The one-on-one fighting in this drama is pretty impressive, but the war choreography/directing is kind of meh. Then again, with the way things are going, I'll probably end up fast-forwarding most of the war scenes anyway.
* Anyway... here are the rest of the screencaps!
The Jin army ends up coming to the Song army's aid. Yue Fei, covered in blood and smudged with dirt, locks eyes with the Jin general as the Jin army chases the Liao army away. The beginning of a grudging mutual respect?
Yue Fei showers with his fellow soldiers. Yay, eyecandy!
Yue Fei looks ahead with hot concernedness to see what the holdup is about. Turns out the Jin army is heading into the city to meet with the ninth prince.
This is Zhao Gou, the ninth prince and to-be-Emperor Gaozong. He's portrayed by Ding Zijun, who actually does a very good job depicting the Zhao Gou's desperation to please, lack of self-confidence, and uncertainty in political matters. I predict it'll be really depressing seeing Zhao Gou fall under the influence of Qin Hui.
And this is Qin Hui (played by Gallen Lo), the guy everyone will hate when he puts his evil plan into motion. In the one scene he's had so far, all he's done is be the scribe, but viewers are obviously well aware of who he is, thanks to the nametag subtitle. It's scenes like this that make me wonder how this is going to get adapted for HBO and viewers unfamiliar with Yue Fei's history. Qin Hui is clearly an important character, since he gets named despite having only about 10 seconds of screentime here, but the cast list for this drama is soooo long that I wouldn't be surprised if people had difficulty remembering him the next time he shows up.
Some Yue Fei/Xiao'e shots. I don't think they've developed feelings for each other quite yet... Xiao'e is obviously impressed by him and they do show her reacting favorably to his heroics, but they haven't had much chance to say anything to each other, except for one part where Yue Fei was like "It's better if you leave this [i.e. fighting] to the men."
Yue Fei exchanging a look with Wang Gui, his lackey/fanboy.
Three guesses as to why I included these pictures... if you said "because HXM looks hella hot in these," hooray, you're right! Although I am super amused at Yue Fei's eyebrows in this drama -- when does a soldier have the time to groom them so? ._.
* Anyway, the moment of truth: will I continue watching? Yes, but only for HXM. Unless you're a big fan of him and/or Yue Fei, I don't think there's much in this drama that's worth your time. It's very impressive-looking, but there hasn't been much character development so far to make me care about anyone beyond Yue Fei. Maybe once he gets married and has kids it'll be different.
The Patriot Yue Fei (精忠岳飛), director Stanley Tong's biopic about Song Dynasty general Yue Fei, began airing on July 4th, but thanks to my summer jobs, I didn't get a chance to sit down and really watch it until just now. I was actually planning on marathoning the first ten or so episodes, and then putting up a first-thoughts post, but then I spent too much time screencapping Huang Xiaoming whenever he appeared on screen, so for now I've watched only the first two episodes. But I think that's enough to get the gist of it.
I'm actually not that knowledgeable about Chinese history, so I'm not going to say much about Yue Fei the actual person here, since you can easily find more information about him on the Internet (yay Wikipedia!) and in history books. Tbh, I'm surprised I never learned about him during my K-12 Chinese school years because he seems like such an important and iconic historical figure. (Not to mention vastly more interesting in the eyes of jaded teenagers... I mean, we learned about Qu Yuan, and not him!?)
Anyway, what you basically need to know is that Yue Fei was an extremely loyal military general during the Song Dynasty, who was betrayed and executed by Prime Minister Qin Hui and Emperor Gaozong. He is pretty much a national hero in China, and The Patriot Yue Fei is essentially his life story, starting from when he joined the army around age 19 to when he died at age 39.
I won't be recapping this drama, due to its length (69 episodes!) and its genre (historical/war, which I don't watch enough of or know enough about to say anything of worth). Also... I just don't have time. If you would like some recaps, check out The Feathered Fan, who has the series recapped up to episode 40 so far. This post is just going to be a jumble of my thoughts and first impressions.
And screencaps, of course. Can't forget that.
* First things first, if Huang Xiaoming weren't in this, I can honestly say I would not have any interest in this whatsoever. Yue Fei sounds like a cool guy and all, but biographical-historical-war dramas have never been my thing, unless of course it's an wuxia drama that incorporates those things. So if I end up talking a lot about HXM in this... well, it's to be expected.
* I find this ends up happening a lot when I watch HXM's works (especially his movies), but I am incredibly attentive when he's on screen, and when he's not, I get hopelessly bored. Since he's the main character, he does get a lot of screentime, but the drama also has to build up other plot points (e.g. the elderly emperor who's more interested in looking at rocks than in ruling a country, the ninth prince who wants to please but is obviously ridiculously inexperienced in political matters, the greedy and scheming Jin army that's plotting to attack the Song), and these aren't nearly as interesting.
* HXM's acting in this isn't anything to write home about, but the over-the-top-ness that people tend to accuse him of is mostly absent here. However, Yue Fei the character is written very... over-the-top, I guess. HXM has said several times in interviews that he hopes his portrayal will remove Yue Fei from the "god pedestal" on which Chinese people have placed him, but Yue Fei has been like a freakin' invincible superhero so far. Yeah, you can see that he has the flawed hero mentality as well (wanting to rescue people and thinking he can do things all by himself), but as of now, he has been so badass that I'm going to find it very hard to believe that Qin Hui could have framed him.
* Here are some examples of God-like Invincible Badass Yue Fei (yes, this is just an excuse for a HXM picspam):
Yue Fei accompanies General Liu Ge to the Jin army camp to ask for their help in fighting the Liao. He ends up butting heads with some of the higher-ranking Jin soldiers, including the general, who wants to shoot an arrow at Yue Fei to show that Yue Fei is not as fearless as he claimed. Of course, Yue Fei doesn't flinch and is just left with a badass mark on his cheek.
Then Yue Fei says it's customary for him to return the favor, and everyone goes outside to watch him shoot an arrow at the Jin general. Initially, the Jin general doesn't think Yue Fei will be able to hit him, but he ends up having to move his head at the last second to avoid being skewered. Yue Fei smirks. I'm including a gif of this because smirking HXM is one of my favorite things.
Later, Yue Fei is serving as a bodyguard for some Song official, and he and his lackey (Wang Gui, who is Yue Fei fanboy to the max) run into some rogue soldiers who have kidnapped two females and escaped into a temple. God-like Invincible Badass Yue Fei jumps through the window to fight them off and rescue the females (one of whom is Li Xiao'e, his to-be wife, portrayed by Ruby Lin). I'm just going to direct you to this photoset, because I don't think I can do the fight justice... let's just say it involves Yue Fei snatching arrows in midair, dangling upside down, and using Xiao'e's limbs to beat up rogues.
We're still on episode 1, mind you. At the end of the episode, Yue Fei discovers that the path ahead is being covered by thirty bandits who are planning to ambush him and his troupe. Of course, God-like Invincible Badass Yue Fei defeats all thirty with ease, and he even humiliates the leader by pretending he's going to spear him, only lightly nicking him instead, and then smirking as the leader pees his pants in terror.
Have a gif of part of the fight, lest you don't believe me about how God-like, Invincible, and Badass Yue Fei is. The part when his spear bounces off him and smashes into his opponents is pretty much where I lost it and became convinced that Yue Fei is actually a god.
So yeah... that's God-like Invincible Badass Yue Fei for you. In short: HXM's acting is believable. I'm not sure about the character himself.
* For some reason, I am a little bothered by Yue Fei's voice. I'm not one of those people who always complain about dubbing, and I think it can actually improve a drama a lot if the right voice actors are picked. But Yue Fei's voice is just a little too blah for my liking. I don't think HXM's own voice would particularly fit Yue Fei either, but I was hoping for better from Zhang Zhen, who dubbed HXM in Shanghai Bund and did it to perfection. But I'm sure I'll get used to it.
* The opening and ending are both very epic, but my favorite song from this drama is undoubtedly "Leaping Heart" (飛躍的心), sung by HXM. It was actually the theme song for an animated movie about Yue Fei, but I guess they shot a separate MV for the drama. It's no secret that I love HXM's singing voice, even though I wouldn't consider him a bona fide talented singer, and he has a knack for getting well-written and nice-sounding songs. This one is no exception.
Click to view* The one-on-one fighting in this drama is pretty impressive, but the war choreography/directing is kind of meh. Then again, with the way things are going, I'll probably end up fast-forwarding most of the war scenes anyway.
* Anyway... here are the rest of the screencaps!
The Jin army ends up coming to the Song army's aid. Yue Fei, covered in blood and smudged with dirt, locks eyes with the Jin general as the Jin army chases the Liao army away. The beginning of a grudging mutual respect?
Yue Fei showers with his fellow soldiers. Yay, eyecandy!
Yue Fei looks ahead with hot concernedness to see what the holdup is about. Turns out the Jin army is heading into the city to meet with the ninth prince.
This is Zhao Gou, the ninth prince and to-be-Emperor Gaozong. He's portrayed by Ding Zijun, who actually does a very good job depicting the Zhao Gou's desperation to please, lack of self-confidence, and uncertainty in political matters. I predict it'll be really depressing seeing Zhao Gou fall under the influence of Qin Hui.
And this is Qin Hui (played by Gallen Lo), the guy everyone will hate when he puts his evil plan into motion. In the one scene he's had so far, all he's done is be the scribe, but viewers are obviously well aware of who he is, thanks to the nametag subtitle. It's scenes like this that make me wonder how this is going to get adapted for HBO and viewers unfamiliar with Yue Fei's history. Qin Hui is clearly an important character, since he gets named despite having only about 10 seconds of screentime here, but the cast list for this drama is soooo long that I wouldn't be surprised if people had difficulty remembering him the next time he shows up.
Some Yue Fei/Xiao'e shots. I don't think they've developed feelings for each other quite yet... Xiao'e is obviously impressed by him and they do show her reacting favorably to his heroics, but they haven't had much chance to say anything to each other, except for one part where Yue Fei was like "It's better if you leave this [i.e. fighting] to the men."
Yue Fei exchanging a look with Wang Gui, his lackey/fanboy.
Three guesses as to why I included these pictures... if you said "because HXM looks hella hot in these," hooray, you're right! Although I am super amused at Yue Fei's eyebrows in this drama -- when does a soldier have the time to groom them so? ._.
* Anyway, the moment of truth: will I continue watching? Yes, but only for HXM. Unless you're a big fan of him and/or Yue Fei, I don't think there's much in this drama that's worth your time. It's very impressive-looking, but there hasn't been much character development so far to make me care about anyone beyond Yue Fei. Maybe once he gets married and has kids it'll be different.