Young Blood (2019)

This is a historical espionage story full of twists, filled with adorable characters, main or supporting or even antagonists, has fair share of comedy, lots of adventure, friendship and just enough romance to die for, and so much heart that I want to recommend it to everyone.

Our main character Yuan Zhong Xin is a playful cunning street savvy guy, who tends to scheme and compete against Zhao Jian, a proud independent smart girl. They are the kickass otp I've been waiting for, it's so much fun to see two people on the same level, whether against each other or working together. Wang Kuan is also pretty intelligent, but tends to be rather straightlaced. Xiao Jing is a cute innocent girl who's generally the peacemaker, Xue Ying is the simple minded brawns, and Ya Nei is the one with connections. The former three are all smart in slightly different way and devise plans, while the latter three all have their shining moment, and generally follow the plan.

The group go from a ragtag team to slowly getting to know each other, go through life and death and betrayal, to a highly effective team that's always there for each other. It's an incredibly emotionally satisfying journey to watch them grow, the camaraderie is awesome, you can ship any characters you want, since most have some fantastic moments. The supporting characters and antagonists are all very memorable with their share of humanising moments, no matter their allegiance or goals. The antagonists are often temporary due to all the twists, and they tend to be pretty smart, which is refreshing. The familial relationship is incredibly touching as well, like Yuan Zhong Xin's relationship with his brother, Zhao Jian's awesome dad, Lu Guan Nian's mentoring.

The plot is very unpredictable, and this is an original script! Which is so rare in this day of (web) novel adaptations, especially for a historical, and one that's so heavily reliant on a good script. I do think the last two arcs aren't as well done, second last arc have some draggy bits, and the twists could feel little forced at times, while the last arc felt a bit rushed towards the end (There's 5 scriptwriter for the series). That doesn't change that there were a lot of choice dialogues, some awesome ones that still applies today, like Zhao Jian's rather feminist values, or Wang Kuan talking about soft power. It also doesn't lessen the heart of these kids that wants to give their all to protect people they love, and the country they vow to protect.

The filter was a little off-putting at first, since I associated with low budget not very good webdramas, this drama is certainly low budget, but the story and acting was on point! It actually quite fit the bright, idealistic, adventure atmosphere of the drama once you get used to it The costumes aren't necessarily historically accurate, but that's okay, it's an idealistic drama about young people in Song, and they all fit their respective characters, which I liked. The music is pretty decent, the fight scenes is sometimes okay, sometimes really lackluster, but it does add in some unintentional comedy.

If you want a fun adventure drama with a lot of heart, please give this drama a try!

P.S. The original creator wrote an epilogue on weibo after lots of messages were sent his way when the drama finished. This drama actually only cover half of the story (he wrote like rough outline of the story, not a script), but the latter half could be hard to write and get pass NRTA due to what it covers (more politics involving Xia). He's in the middle of adapting a well known wuxia novel, and still have two more project, as well as probably Joy of Life s2 now that s1 seems to be doing pretty well. Anyways, I'll spoiler the gist of the short epilogue in the comments for those that finished the drama and need it.

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