Hello, you're watching AvenueX and today let's talk about a recently started airing chinese period drama,
Yun Xiang Zhuan, The Ingenious One.
This is a 36 episodes period drama that's being aired on Iqiyi and Tencent.
It's co produced by both platforms directed by You Dazhi
written by three credited script writers, Liang Zhenhua, Jian Daqiao, Yan Xi
It is based on an existing novel written by the author Fang Baiyu called Qian Men,
a Wu Xia novel collection.
It is led by Chen Xiao, Mao Xiaotong, Tang Xiaotian, Xu Lingyue
It also features quite a few very well known actors and actresses as support roles
such as Qin Lan, Huang Haibing, Wang Jinsong
The drama was shot from the end of August 2021 till the end of December that year.
And at the point i'm sitting down making this video. I've watched the first 18 episodes,
so exactly halfway point of this drama, if taking out the personal disappointment,
i've suffered watching this drama, I can still rate it at a one gold mine.
This is a period drama set in Ming dynasty, although exact time is not very specific.
Judging by the costume design, it's kind of late ming dynasty,
but if not then it does not quite matter because so far in the first half of the drama,
it's not really touching any real history and politics at the time
Ming dynasty, in my opinion,is one of the least friendly time in chinese ancient history,
to people with short necks, aka AvenueX
but i'm still dressed in a very typical Ming dynasty costume today, just so that I can make this video.
Our story starts from our perspective character Yun Xiang, male lead played by Chen Xiao,
coming down the mountain from 15 years of studying and living in a very secret hideout place called Yun Tai
He comes down to the world from the mountain because he has a personal revenge he needs to carry out
on his journey, he will encounter many different characters and get entangled with their own personal business
while trying to figure out the truth behind the massacre that happened at his home
when he was a child over 300 people get murdered overnight.
On the positive end, number one is still something that's been very consistently put out
From the platform iqiyi, I mean this drama is technically more of an iqiyi drama than a Tencent drama.
If you have watched a couple of period dramas this year on iqiyi,
then this is in production quality wise very on par with them.
The other dramas being Shan He Zhi Ying and Xian Wei Jing Xia de Da Ming
They're both set in Ming dynasty, both done in a very cinematic style
in my opinion, aesthetically, I think it's weaker than the other two drama,
but not so far behind, so if you like to look at period chinese drama with a rather refined taste
in costume design, lighting, color, no ridiculous skin smoothing,
ridiculous bright light at night that type of Youku thing,
this drama is safe in that department.
It is also safe in the department that most of the lead actors actresses use their own voice,
male lead, female, lead, male second. All three of them use their own voice,
female second, the actress Xu Lingyue did get dubbed
also somehow Huang Haibing who i don't think he needs dubbing,
but he got dubbed, Qin lan and Wang Jinsong used their own voice
costume wise, It has quite a bit of a late Ming dynasty style,
but it's not so accurate to history and definitely don't use it as any kind of study material for chinese ancient costumes.
But I do appreciate that they use very good material that suits their identity and their social status.
Overall production quality is quite acceptable.
And I can tell that probably it's the director or the cinematographer or they conspire together
that they do feel Chen Xiao's strength is his beautiful eyes.
so they have so many close ups from all kinds of angles on his eye and his lashes,
particularly this part of his face.
I have to say very enjoyable to look at,
even if you just stop it and screen shot it and put it as your desktop.
It's something that's really pretty.
The second point, since we're already talking about that, the four leading characters in this drama
played by Chen Xiao, Mao Xiaotong, Tang Xiaotian, Xu Lingyue, all very eye pleasing.
I really do enjoy most of those shots on those people's faces.
I can't deny that, but somehow for me,
the most enjoyable thing when it comes to actors apart from the looks
actually comes from most of the supporting roles in this drama and their performances.
I think it's the result of both that on script level those characters are written pretty well.
Then the actors they pick are really suitable. For example,
the Xia Ke character with a big saber played by Liu Guanlin
his previous probably best known role for most of my audiences would be
last year's iqiyi drama Qing Qing RI Chang, where he plays this comical prince
in this one totally 180 shift, he's the fighter.
He is the guy who's the typical xia ke in any wu xia novel.
You almost cannot tell it's the same person playing these two roles.
It shows you that he is such a professional good actor
Huang Haibing,who is the god of Wu Xia for a lot of chinese drama watcher
two decades back, now he's the middle aged man,
but wow when he was in his prime, he was the handsome guy
and his eyes just has that classic almost beijing opera singers energy.
He plays this interesting butler, but also the lady's lover role
that so far one of my favorite role in this drama,
the businessman role Lao Mo,my audiences probably best known from another iqiyi drama last year.
Cang Lan Jue, Fairy and Devil where he plays the father of Dan Yin
a totally different type of role in this drama as compared to the other one,
you almost do not recognize it's the same person.
You just feel oh what a familiar face, and then you start to remember
oh he's that guy, wow totally different and great performances.
Even there's one extra supporting role who only shows up for like 3/4scenes in this drama,
and she is the child trafficker and a bad person,
but wow that actress pulls this horrendous and horrible woman off so well.
So if you look at this drama, somehow it presents you with
quite a wide range of very interesting supporting roles with a really well casted actor and actresses.
After i've watched 18 episodes, I would honestly say the people who gave me the strongest impression
and then made me enjoy the drama, most of are all those supporting roles
instead of the main roles, that kind of is also a problem of this drama.
These are the couple of reasons I can see that are still on the positive end of this drama
and probably worth checking out on your part for a bit at least
Then what is not good about this drama?
Why am I so meh~ about this drama?
Number one is this drama didn't really position it in the very accurate and easy to get way for the audiences.
If you look at from early days of its trailer till right before it airs,
it gives you the impression that it's a Mei Changsu story
of a very intelligent man who comes to the world for revenge.
And once you start watching, you actually realize it's not so much so such a story
and this drop and this disconnect between your expectation and what you actually get delivered with.
Pretty much like you think you're gonna get a watermelon and then you ended up with a durine
Point number two, as the drama starts,
you can tell that it's based on the very long tradition of wu xia drama in china
or at least they're trying to do it.
There are different characters with their different styles of fighting, weapons
and there are quite a lot of fighting scenes
They don't do it that well, it definitely is not the bad type of fighting
]in chinese dramas these days. For example,
the (Snow Sword Stride) super slow-mo almost consciousness fighting instead of physical fighting,
this one is better than that.
It doesn't fight in completely streams of consciousness way.
Also if you use certain fantasy drama, idol drama as an example,
for example that drama, where it fights with cg, then this drama still fights with real people,
so it's better than that as well.
But if you just look at it as a Wu Xia drama that needs to deliver
some very impressive fighting sequences,
otherwise you are not really this genre's drama, then it doesn't do it that well
It's mostly done with a lot of shots from a lot of different angles and cut very fast,
so that they don't actually have to complete a really difficult maneuver in one take.
If you wanna compare to the recent it drama, Shan He Zhi Ying,
This one is not even close.
Then the third point that is probably the most important point in this drama.
It's not a really well written script.
They write Chen Xiao's role as V.2 Mei Changsu
Supposedly the most intelligent person out there who can trick everybody into his plan.
He's like the genius go player who can plan ten steps ahead against everybody else
and he can therefore win even when he cannot fight physically,
but then once his actual plan starts to happen. You're like, What?
This is what you mean by being a clever person?
He couldn't foresee anything and a lot of those tricks that become actually successful relies on pure luck.
And basically his opponent being a moron.
I was constantly waiting for a genius plan as the title suggests,
The Ingenious One, and it never really happened by point 18 episode.
I'll use just one tiny example at the very beginning,
because once you get into the drama, you immediately see that plot.
So it doesn't really consists of too much of a spoiler.
He wants to go to somebody's private residence to steal their account book.
He resolves to drugging the man sitting on guard, and the person fainted.
He put that person next to the door and walked into the courtyard, walked into the room,
where supposedly, the account book should be hidden,
but he doesn't actually know where it is, like he didn't do any research.
So he just blindly searched the place.
and he actually cannot do any superhuman skills to hide in any place,
and he literally got trapped. It is only that the female lead happens to be there at the same time,
and she's on the beam and she pulls him up just in time so that the guy who walked in didn't find him.
And the funny thing is the man that he wants to steal the account book from
had to enter the courtyard in the same way through the door.
And you can already see the shot where he is pushing the door.
And the person on guard is not responding.
And because he's already fainted, that guy rolled off on the steps.
Logically, when this guy pushed open the courtyard door,
he would see his guard fainted on the ground.
He would know that the person got put down.
So somebody must be in his place. He would immediately be alert and on guard.
But the next shot, you will see him walking through the courtyard,
close up of his feet as if nothing has happened.
So where did that fainted guard person go?
Probably some plot happened in between, and it got cut out,
but it makes the plot no longer linking together and makes the melee look like he is lucky.
That's why he can do what he wants to do,
not because his super clever as you set the story up to be.
And the even more funny thing is this guy entered his room,
not realizing there are two people on the beam,
and he starts to talk about stuff and take out his account book.
And that's the only way that our male lead actually located,
where the secret account book was hidden.
Unless he see it himself, he never is gonna find it.
That's the biggest problem is your setup of the character.
And what he actually does in the drama do not go together.
So the more you watch his drama, the more type of embarrassment you'll feel
when you see somebody who thinks they're very clever themselves,
but actually they are not and then they're showing off,
but then you see through all that and you're just standing on the side and just laughing secretly,
not a very good feeling to be honest as an audience to watch this type of drama,
then the last point that adds even more insult on injury is
the female lead and male lead their relationship is
completely unfounded and not naturally organically built up and developed
Chen Xiao's role pretty much the first second or moment he saw the female,
he's kind of swept over and head over heel and got too interested,
which does not quite make sense for his role because he had this heavy burden,
he comes to the world from the mountain to do his big revenge plan.
Think about a person who's been preparing for 15 years.
Mei Changshu had 13 years preparing.
And the first second he comes to the world he gets pulled away.
you know attention wise by by a pretty girl.
And in this drama they have so many close up moments of them flirting.
Before you even realize they're at a point where they can kiss and they can get
into each other's room while like they're having a bath
and lying in each other's arms.
And just like ~~??? it has that contemporary, bad,romantic drama trope thing
happening in a Ming dynasty setting drama, where for most humans at the time,
they don't even hold each other's hand before they get married.
I don't know, maybe like there are specific writers who only write romantic part of this story
and they just try to cram it in into the rest of the plot where it does not fit in.
So upon no characters are as they claim to be that capable and clever,
you add this on, I'm like, I have better things to do.
I'd rather go watch that drama, re watch the drama or just continue chasing
that drama that's being aired really slowly and not so good,
but I still enjoy parts of it or just like clicking open something new.
I'm a little bit disappointed honestly
it was one of the more anticipated period dramas of 2023.
It definitely was on the short list of things I really really want to check out
but now it's like so irrelevant and so disappointing
that would be my honest opinion on halfway point of the drama,
The Ingenious One, Yun Xiang Zhuan, personally I will not continue watching this drama.
And my suggestion to you would be if you have a rather high standard
or reasonable standard for clever plot that's supposedly about clever characters.
Don't watch this drama, you'll definitely get disappointed.
But then if you are in, for other reasons, rather over all pretty pyrrho drama production,
you can still check out this drama and decide whether you wanna spend
36 episodes' length time watching it.
Thank you for watching AvenueX, i'll see you in my next video.
Meanwhile, live long and happy drama watching.