Hello, you're watching AvenueX and today let's talk about you recently suddenly air dropped drama,
Jun Zi Meng,a league of noblemen.
This is a 29 episodes web drama that has just air dropped on Tencent.
Previously, it was named Zhang Gong An, based on a novel written by the web novel writer
Da Feng Gua Guo
The drama Jun Zi Meng is almost completely different from
the original book that it's based on.
Also the original author have publicly denounced this drama due to that
Song Weilong is the lead of the two main leads of the drama and he was once
the lead of a drama made by Yu Zheng which plagiarized this author's work.
So due to all the complicated previous history,
the author gives no appreciation to the drama adaptation.
The drama is produced by Tencent and it is directed by Yang Fan, Jia Xiaoxiong,
written by four credited script writers, on january the 30th
Tencent suddenly air dropped this drama without doing any promotion.
It literally just showed up on their website.
They dumped out the first 10 episodes on the first day
for the airing schedule of this drama, they're airing it every week 10 episode on the day,
the drama is led by Jing Boran and Song Weilong
And I think everybody who's watching this video knows that
this is also one of the many BL adaptation dramas that was lined up
and ready to air and boom, kind of got erased and disappeared.
Technically speaking, this is really not a BL drama because the original novel
really isn't a BL drama and it has no CP at all.
But when it got adapted, clearly casting these two guys, made during the time
where so many BL dramas were made, it's pretty clear that what the platform want this drama to be.
So in the process of adapting, they definitely try to sell it on that angle.
Now it finally got out after pretty much a soft ban on BL adaptation,
you look at the drama, there's almost nothing left in terms of shipping CPs
after i've watched the first 10 episodes, i'll give it a rating honestly at
gold mine slash land mine,
the reason I don't put it on a positive end which usually would be one gold mine
for dramas that I think are okay, but really not that impressive is
it is so bland.
When this drama went out I immediately went to watch three episodes
and then the next day I watched five,
and then the next day I finished watching the rest.
So I was pretty quick catching up with it.
Then it came to the time when I need to film my weekly video,
reporting what goes on that week, which is just the week that went by.
I forgot to talk about it, literally
during writing down the notes, during filming, during editing,
after i've uploaded it to youtube that night, when I was sleeping,
I suddenly remembered, shit! Tomorrow the video is going out and I forgot to talk about Jun Zi Meng
I've watched 10 episodes and I forgot about its existence the day after.
so let's start with things that I think are still watchable
and may appeal to certain audiences if that's your thing
on the positive and number one, its overall production quality for a period drama is pretty nice.
And thinking about this is actually a drama that has been made for a while
was intended to go out properly a year ago, even more
it actually doesn't look outdated and compared to a lot of very cheaply made period dramas.
This is on the higher end of things.
It has a very consistent look, the cinematic look,the color palette lasts through the whole thing.
so it definitely has design.
It has a little bit ambition of creating good imagery,
although the drama has a fictional time setting called Yong Chao,
it is you can tell 90% based on Tang dynasty.
So that's why i'm dressed up like this in a very Tang dynasty style.
Although it's not very accurate, the rough outline of things still follows that time.
There's this stage dance and stage design I was super impressed with.
Then the second thing is it's all original voice which I would always encourage.
And a lot of it actually sounds like live recording instead of adr
which is also very hard for period dramas to do these days.
Overall attitude is very good,
but we definitely have to talk about that in the negative parts as well,
which comes down to yes I encourage that's a good attitude.
But then if you can't do it properly, maybe dubbing
overall for the quality of the production would be a better choice type of situation.
Then third good thing about this drama.
If you wanna look at good looking men,
with quotation mark that is to your preference and standard.
This drama is led by Jing Boran and Song Weilong and they will
definitely take 90% of the screening time
if SWL and JBR is not your cup of tea,
then I guess you don't need to go into this job anymore.
So that's it, all the positive things.
Is there anything else I can think of? Not really.
So now let's get to the ~~~~ part of my review,
all the problems I can rant about and why I don't give it a high rating,
problematic point number one.
oh my god, the line delivery of Song Weilong
This is when actually I think it is still better to have a dubbing actor
in recent years, the only drama i've watched him leading that I was able
to sit through it and thinking it's actually pretty nicely done,
is the Song Qian and Song Weilong led drama (Find Yourself)
He really suits contemporary dramas much x 8 more than period dramas
let's just pick out the line delivery thing, okay?
so because this is all original actors' own voice.
You can hear the clear comparison between
somebody who can actually speak proper mandarin and somebody who cannot
I pride myself at the fact that I am really good at telling words,
even if you have a strong accent of a language,
as long as I am professed enough in that language,
I understand what you're talking about,
but i'd say SWL challenges my ability to the greatest level to date
of any young actors in chinese dramaland
even Wang Hedi, although he has a strong accent,
he can still dictate it very clearly so that you know which character is saying,
although it's not accurate,
it doesn't create difficulty of understanding,
Song Weilong, when you don't look at the subtitles,
there is about 30% of the information that he's delivering that doesn't reach me.
That cannot be deciphered, I totally cannot tell which character.
He's saying, I have to look at the subtitle.
I'm like oh he's saying that... ah?
I don't think Jing Boran is very good at line delivery either.
He chops his words ~~~~ like that.
He talks with so much effort.
It's like he hasn't really spoken the language enough to get fluent at it.
and he has problematic rhythm as well,
but in comparison, Song Weilong's line delivery makes JIng Boran's line delivery
look like a teacher level master level class.
That's how bad a contrast there is between two male leads, in an ideal world.
I'd wanna Jing Boran to improve on his line delivery for this drama.
And I'd wanna Song Weilong to get dubbed
you get paid for doing your roles, and it's your job
and you don't do it professionally and you don't do it properly.
It's just wrong, and you shouldn't be allowed to work like that.
Unfortunately, this is the standard of current chinese dramaland
Then we have to talk about his acting.
I just feel all the supporting roles are better than the main roles.
Jing Boran is ok,he can pull off an ancient time official
who's well educated who has that air.
His posture is good enough and his acting is convincing enough.
But when it goes to Song Weilong
there's not even one moment when his on screen
that he looks like a period drama character.
The way he walks, the way he holds himself, looks like he's a 21st century guy
who just time traveled yesterday into a period time setting.
He doesn't even know how to walk in that type of shoes and costume.
I literally get pulled out of the story constantly by his accent, by his posture,by his presence,
it just does not feel like a period drama character.
And then he's so wooden,
blank, vacant, handsome, but like nothing goes on face,
he was better and he was more normal.
He was watchable in contemporary dramas with Song Qian
in period dramas not the case, given given okay, this drama is quite a long time ago,
not like yesterday or last year, so maybe he's improved now 2023,
but in this drama,
I can't watch him acting.
you know Guo Cheng who plays his good friend,
is so much better than him.
And then also actually Jing Boran's best friend in this drama.
The other guy who kind of constantly supports him
is also much more relaxed at acting than Jing Boran
So the problem with this drama is you have two male leads,
but then they each have a good friend and those two friends
actually act better than those two leads
You have a problem.
The last thing that is not good about this drama is as a crime detective drama.
It's boring. It doesn't have interesting cases.
The procedure of figuring it out is unexciting.
And if you wanna scrutinize the logic sometimes don't work out at all.
I mean literally SWL resolves to hypnotizing people to solve the cases.
He has magical power, he can do this "Ding" thing with a bowl of water.
And then the other person will tell him everything.
I'm like aha, You have that buff.
then what's the point of having a detective story?
You can just grab everybody and just "dang" them, and then you're done.
And then if you take that part out, just look at the cases,
they're also very bland.
And then this drama somehow looks like Imperial Coroner.
If you look at the two male leads' relationship,
then Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty, if you look at how they deal with those really mysterious cases.
And then when you think about the whole hypnotizing thing,
it reminds you of Tientsin Mystic
So it's kind of like a frankenstein drama of like stitching all those elements from other dramas,
but it cannot do anything as well as those dramas.
andI think also due to the BL ban
they definitely edited a lot of stuff out.
If you look at apart from an episode one, everything is like really short,
30 minutes per episode and they're clearly thought that they cut out,
making things don't link together you know that there was a scene
that totally is cooking on the CP, it's the sugar.
It's Jing Boran and Song Weilong selling it,
but then they cut it out because it wouldn't be able to air.
So now the last thing you could possibly sell this drama on
which is cp is also deleted.
There's nothing really worth watching now left in the drama.
To be honest, I think Jing Boran and and his good friend, who is also an official
before Song Weilong's role even comes into his life's picture
and then Song Weilong and his good buddy
these two CP are better than JIng Boran and Song Weilong's CP
they should just stay with their good friends and be done with the story.
A league of nobleman, Jun Zi Meng is a story that is paralyzed in all departments and angles
that could possibly sell this drama on.
It really has Mai Dian (卖点）
the point where you can sell things on.
And I think the only motivation people would have to just go in and
check it out is just to see if the two guys look good in costumes.
And I think the only value it has is for future editors in the world
to just grab a cutaway of a really pretty shot of something out here, out there,
or even make up their own stories using the footages from this drama and
editing their music video mv, or totally create their own story.
It is a bit sad that this drama can only be like this today.
But I have a feeling that even if all the cp lines didn't get cut,
it still wouldn't be very successful.
Just based on what you've seen now,
they cannot sell the characters very convincingly,
or the relationships very convincingly.
And as a detective story it just is not a good detective story.
So even if they didn't cut out all those cp selling scenes and shots,
it probably still wouldn't be really successful in anyway,
it really hasn't been that long.
It's like a year and half after whole BL land shut down,
but think about how fast time goes by and then
how quickly things improve or change, the market, dramaland,
how many great dramas we've seen in the first month of 2023,
couple of dramas that I think is gonna stay as hot topics
and on the dramaland sort of achievement list for a long time to come
and it's only the first month.
so suddenly this drama now when it comes out is just a bit irrelevant
and it's the universe's decision to put things out at certain time
in the space and time continuum.
So it is what it is
that would be the end of this video from Avenuex on the drama Jun Zi Meng
Thank you for watching AvenueX,
If you wanna see better Tang Dynasty detective stories,
I highly recommend that drama.
Please take care. I'll see you in my next video.
Meanwhile, live long and happy drama watching.