These two songs are really well written,
probably a good xia fan ju.
There is no consistent rule of the world she sets up
why this type of people are given the opportunity to write scripts
it's just ridiculous.
Jin Xin Si Yu
The Sword and The Brocade.
Is a 45 episodes drama that's been aired on web
In china currently, it has aired.
way pass 20 episodes' mark and i've watched 18 episodes as i'm making this video,
so you can call it a first impression or you can call it
close to mid-way review or just a general slightly ranting video
on this drama
This drama is led by Tan Songyun and Zhong Hanliang
Last year when it was been filmed,
I really did follow the news quite closely and I really
looked forward to this drama
in many ways people compare it
to The Story of Minglan because of its similar story setting
the drama is based on an internet novel that was quite popular.
And it's a very long novel over 2 million chinese characters.
Shu Nv Gong Lue, literally means a daughter who's born of a concubine.
Her tips of surviving,
you can see the similarity between this story and The Story of Minglan
also because I really like the actress Tan Songyun and Zhong Hanliang
Wallace Cheung has been.
One of my longest infatuation actors.
There was a period when I was like totally crazy about Xiao Wa
When this drama aired, I immediately clicked in,
and i've been clicking open it constantly until I hit about
episode 18 and I just couldn't bother to click it any more.
That is the rough experience i've gone through watching this drama
before I go into talk about the details.
As usual, i'll give it my rating
goldmine/landmine
And now let me tell you why I would give it such a not very favorable rating
First, i'll talk about the positive things.
The first thing unexpectedly that I really like about this drama is
it has some really well written soundtrack songs,
particularly the opening titlesong sung by Yu Kewei
And one of in the middle of the drama it will show up song
sung by Zhou Shen
these two songs are really well written,
really well performed by those two singers who
are very well known and very talented person,
particularly Zhou Shen
He now has become,
the go-to person for pretty much.
All chinese period dramas,
title ending songs, not just in china,
probably globally as well.
He has just one of the most unique male voices.
He just has so much emotion and soothing and
the angelic quality of his voice
singing those period, romantic dramas songs are like perfect for him.
My good impression about this drama started with its music
and even though later the plot did disappoint me quite a lot,
I would still say it has some of the best songs ost
written for a period drama in chinese dramaland for quite a while.
The second thing that I do appreciate about this drama is
it has averagely speaking ok production quality
you can tell like they did spend quite a bit money to
put everything together, props, sets, costumes and stuff,
although I don't particularly like some styles of the things I do recognize.
It's a proper standard production definitely has bigger budget
than some of the other period dramas that are airing at the same time
So as an industrial standard production package together,
you really cannot pick at
A lot of the technical,
the hardware problems from this drama.
I also really do like Tan Songyun
I have been following her as an actress for a long time.
I would say as I watch as drama, she didn't,
out-perform my expectation,
but she didn't fail it either,
for the role and the script she's given
She's done a pretty good job.
I do enjoy her presence on screen while she's there
For all the positive points.
The last one I would make is this is actually
a drama that's probably a good xia fan ju,
the type of drama that is accompanying your eating
when you have cooked your food
and you put an episode on, let it run, eat, and then just turn off your brain.
And while watching just the pretty people
and whatever goes on screen and their story,
it kills that type of time.
But if you want to sit down and dedicate an hour or two, focusing on the drama,
not doing anything else watching the drama then
I wouldn't say it's the best way of spending that time
that is what I can say about the things that do make me, I mean
watch 18 episodes of this drama
Now, on the more brutal side and honest opinion about
why this drama just really disappointed me.
I think the biggest problem it has, is the script is really,
really badly written.
I haven't read the original novel,
but i've heard from a lot of original novel fans
that they've changed so much of its set-up
the plot that it's just like doesn't even resemble the original work.
Since I don't have comparison in my brain,
i'll just judge the drama as it's written
this is written by the same
script writer who adapted Jin Xiu Wei Yang, princess wei yang.
So you have a good idea about what type of story she tends to write.
She is very double standard.
There is no consistent rule of the world
she sets up.
The story is set in Ming dynasty,
which is one of the most backward on women on women's rights
on the restrictions of women among all the chinese ancient dynasties.
One of the worst time,
at the time women have very,
very little freedom and rights
And if you set it in that dynasty
then you better make the strict rules on all the female roles consistent.
This is not a historical drama.
You don't have to be super specific or accurate to real history.
But if you decide a general rule of your world,
then you better stick with it.
She doesn't
In one scene, all the women are there,
and then a man is announced that will come in and then the woman will
stand up and say we're gonna go hide behind the screen because we don't
want all the unmarried girls to show up in front of a stranger man.
That's the atmosphere you've set up for this society,
which is very strict segregation between the gender.
And then you have the female lead who fell into a river
and the male lead jumped in and literally saved her.
Like two guys literally, male lead and the made-up second male lead that doesn't exist,
I think in the original novel
They both went in and saved her from totally basically drowning,
and she's totally wet.
you know, like, you've touched her.
She's totally wet.
If you're in that type of society, right?
The rules you've set up to that point,
she kind of has to marry the guy.
You just can't touch an unmarried woman like you've done that.
She's kind of like she either marries you or her reputation is destroyed.
So if you've made up a rule like that, stick with it.
But I guess because she's female lead
so she has special treatment,
she gets saved and nothing happens like nobody
had any problem with a stranger man touching,
totally wet through unmarried girl.
She even has scenes with the second male lead that they are in
a separate individual room when she's not married
in a space that's enclosed with no company,
like there's no chaperone or any kind
like what is the rule of your world?
There are even more ridiculous things like she tries
to run away with her concubine mother from her big,
very suppressive family.
And they literally have those luggages wrapped up in cloth and they
take that and walked out of their house, mansion, in broad daylight.
How does that happen?
Anyway?
The script writer doesn't bother.
She probably doesn't know.
So this type of things happens over and over and over in this drama.
That's why I said you have to turn off your logical brain, watching this drama
Otherwise nothing makes sense
within a particular scene with no links to the context,
you may enjoy certain conflict and dramatic moments.
But once you bring in the logic,
this drama just shatters into broken glasses all over the place,
I can totally tell this script writer.
She has a very small vocabulary in chinese.
I'm being brutal, but it's true.
Because she just doesn't know what are the
multiple ways of describing the same thing.
She would just use one word to repeatedly describing one thing.
If you have a high school education,
you shouldn't end up like this.
Our family marries into this.
Marquess' household.
She's the official wife.
Taking a place of her dead sister previously and then there are concubines
So in chinese traditional society,
the house hold runner is the official wife
and all the concubines equals to slave.
Really, that's their social status.
And then in this drama setting very ridiculously
you have the concubine actually running the household.
And there's a reason for doing that.
And we're not gonna argue if it actually makes sense,
but we'll just say, ok, we'll accept this set-up
And in this story,
the biggest thing that all the concubines and official wife is
running around about is who has the right to run the household,
who holds the key to the safe box, who has the control of the account books.
They use the word
zhi zhang zhong kui
literally means ordering around and controlling
zhong kui is basically your family's finacne
bulk of gold that's hidden somewhere in your house.
There are a dozen ways of expressing that idea.
You can say guan jia, which literally means running household.
You can say shuo le suan
whatever you say, counts
like I can put up 12 words, to describe the same meaning.
And depending on who the character is,
what kind of conversation is, what is the context
You can just move around those words,
making it sound like normal human talking.
No, the script writer just doesn't have any other words,
every episode you go and watch it.
You'll hear the word
zhi zhang zhong kui x4
like Wen Kexing, A Xu x6
none stop
Nobody has any other word.
For that concept, the main roles,
the supporting roles that maieds, the concubines,
freaking everyone.
this just shows you're not a good script writer
and you're not well educated in literature language, in chinese.
Let's be honest
WHY
why this type of people
are given the opportunity to write scripts.
It's just ridiculous.
So that's just like one point that I just can't deal with.
Then there's one point that's not related to the plot that I feel very,
very disappointed about is the costume.
They've set the story in Ming dynasty.
Ming dynasty is one of the more research dynasties now,
in the chinese han fu community,
in terms of what types of clothing happens at what time, styling, fabric, pattern.
If you wanna do a Ming dynasty setting drama,
I would love to see a little bit effort put into the research,
particularly in Ming dynasty, clothing are very big,
like they're oversized pretty much all through for men and women.
And it's a reflection of the modesty of the confucius
teaching and really the very strict rules.
You have to hide all the features kind of thing.
So it's big and it's baggy and in this drama
they went for the absolute opposite.
Everybody is so tightly fit, tight sleeve and tight like waistline.
It's weird.
Cause some of their costume just remind you more like the
Nyonya culture costume than a Ming dynasty costume?
It doesn't have to be perfectly replicating history,
but I would appreciate if they put a little bit effort
since you've already decided to set the story in the time,
and you do have production budget.
Are you trying to do it so that you can save more fabric?
Because you make clothes with much less fabric?
I don't know.
So i'm not happy with what it looks like.
The final thing I would say about this drama is
two points wrapped in one
Zhong Hanliang's role
I think, on the script side, it's not well written.
They're trying to get both ends of something
that just doesn't exist at the same time,
which is they're trying to make it Tian Chong, sweet and spoiled
the main leads'
romantic relationship being super sweet and lovely.
But at the same time, they still keep the setup of this guy, basically is an aristocrat
who's already had a wife had two children,
had a multiple concubines now getting our female lead married into the household.
And supposedly, this Tan Songyun's role is his true love.
He acts like he doesn't care about all the other women in his life.
Yet he had children with them.
And he also acts towards this leading female role
as if like he has never fallen in love.
And he's like stepping very on the glass on the show around her
and like a young guy falling in love for the first time,
which is like, come on, with your setup.
It just does not make sense.
Honestly, a person with that set up in ancient chinese history would be like that.
Having a lot of concubines, it's fine.
You can totally write it as he is not an asshole to all the girls in his life.
He's just like not finding a particular person who really connects with him,
but he still wouldn't be really just cold and
aloof and heartless to all the other women.
He would just treat them with acceptable level of courtesy.
And then this woman comes into his life.
And he realizes she is actually the person who can understand me and
they start to build up a relationship more on the mature adults,
understanding that this is a helpful person who can help
me with a lot of things when we can grow together.
And there's a future for us based on daily interactions
and the built-up trust, the more adult level convincing and weighted story.
Unfortunately, script doesn't give the actor any of that.
So his role is just quite bland and unconvincing.
Then Zhong Hanliang's acting is also ...
i've been a Xiao Wa fan for many years,
but I have to say recent years,
at least 5 to 8 years,
he's been in so many productions that none of them just took flight.
I remember in the early 2000s,
he has been in quite a few dramas.
that just took my breath away.
I don't know what happened.
He just couldn't pick a good script and he
really is a little bit too old for this role
And when he tries to make up a cp with Tan Songyun
I'm just like, doesn't click for me
doesn't quite work.
So that wraps up my opinion about Jin Xin Si Yu
The Sword and the Brocade
I doubt I wanna go back to watch this drama.
I will just let it stop at episode 18
And like I always say you have all the freedom to love it or hate it.
And I don't expect people have the same opinion as I do
have fun.
It's important that you have fun and you like what you like
That's the most important thing.
Thank you for watching AvenueX
i'll see you in my next video.
Meanwhile, live long and happy drama watching.