To Watch:
Youtube
Cast:
Qin Jun Jie as Xiao Yi Qing
Huang Yi as young Xiao Yiqing
Yuan Bing Yan as Shu Jing Rong
Huangyang Tian Tian as young Shu Jingrong
Han Cheng Yu as Jia Ruo
Lin Yuan as Chi Xiao Tai
Yuan Li Lin as Ming He
Zhao Dong Ze as Gao Meng Fei
Jessica Hsuan as Hua Lian
Bai Shu as Huang Quan
Li Ruo Jia as Zi Mo
Zhang Tian Yang as Nan Chu
Fu Meng Ni as Xie Bing Yu
Zhang Yang as Hong Chen
Guo Zhe as Bi Luo
Lu Fang Sheng as Shu Xie Wei
Luo Tian Ze as Third Young Master Lei
Genre:
Wuxia, Fantasy, Romance
Plot:
Shu Jingrong is the daughter of an expert swordsman, who also happens to be the wielder of the infamous demon’s sword. At the beginning of the story, Shu Jingrong’s father is attacked by the leader of the Blood Moon sect and struck with a dangerous poison that causes him to lose control of himself. Yi Qing’s father, the leader of the Listening Snow Tower, comes a moment too late and Shu Jingrong’s father kills himself to prevent himself from hurting his daughter.
Now an orphan, Shu Jingrong mourns the loss of her father and loses the will to live. It is with the kindness of Yi Qing and Jingrong’s future master, Bai Dai, that she eventually joins the Sand Valley and becomes the third disciple.
Years later, the Blood Moon sect once again has a great revival, its influence reaching far into the martial world causing evil and corruption. The Listening Snow Tower, a pillar of righteousness throughout the land, is also wrought with internal strife and diminished strength. Yi Qing returns to the Listening Snow Tower after spending years in training and rehabilitation of his weak body. Once again the Listening Snow Tower tries to regain its righteous prominence and destroy the Blood Moon sect.
Shu Jingrong and Yi Qing’s lives once again intersect, eventually leading to Shu Jingrong joining the Listening Snow Tower. Will the Listening Snow Tower prevail in it’s fight to destroy the Blood Moon sect once and for all? Will Yi Qing ever meet his mother again, whom is imprisoned by the leader of the Blood Moon sect? Will Jingrong and Yi Qing’s love ever bloom?
Review:
I really loved how this drama started out. It definitely excelled in cinematography and set design. The slow mo martial art shots of the fighters flying through the air and rain were artistic masterpieces. The story also started out on an interesting note. As you may know from all my reviews in the past, I am a huge fan of a strong heroine. Listening Snow Tower didn’t really do it for me. I think they really tried but in the end I felt disappointed. The music, costume design, and sound effects were also great complements to the overall drama.
My main gripes about this show were how slow everything had to be and also how nonsensical the story got all the time. The acting was underwhelming and I couldn’t really get into any character. The same things seem to happen over and over again and there was barely any character development. Probably the most change in a character was from Huang Quan. Yi Qing seemed to always have a sick and expressionless look. He portrayed most of his expressions with his eyes and ended up just switching between two or three types of gazes. Shu Jingrong had a bit more emotion and a bit more range but seemed pretty stiff throughout as well. The supporting cast were all decent but were just that, supporting cast. The actresses playing Ming He and Xiao Tai were just angry, childish, and sad all the time. Jia Ruo was stiff as well. I think maybe they were aiming for a slow paced and moody drama. They definitely succeeded.
There were many scenes where I had the urge to fast forward. After a certain number episodes, talking scenes became repetitive. Characters would look at each other for long periods of time, stare silently into the distance, or drink tea or wine very slowly before saying a line. I think it would have been okay if it didn’t happen so often.
Finally, the story made absolutely no sense sometimes. It almost seemed like places in the drama were miles apart, then sometimes hundreds of miles apart. Traveling through forests to rescue people took minutes. Characters did things that absolutely made no sense. I think at some point all the main characters had some sort of obsessive disorder. There were times where the Blood Moon sect had only one or two good fighters, but the Listening Snow Tower could never manage to win with five or six strong fighters.
I really wanted Shu Jingrong to become an expert swordsman and to be one of the strongest fighters, but she never seemed to quite reach that point. She was always getting captured, sick, poisoned, or rescued. At a certain point I almost lost interest in the drama, but I managed to stick around until the end.
Overall, I really enjoyed the first few episodes and also the overall feel of the drama. I felt immersed in the Wuxia world and many of the fight scenes were breathtaking. As the drama dragged on it seemed to taper off. This is one problem with long Wuxia dramas is they get repetitive and we lose character development. The drama becomes plot driven and things begin to happen just to take up screen time.
Rating:
3.0/5.0
Everything Drama 