Chinese Paladin 4 (2024)

A hero’s journey through personal growth, love and friendship

Don’t let the first episodes fool you into believing that this is a childish drama. Yes, the drama starts off as goofy and light-hearted but from episode 13 the tone completely changes to serious and mature and it stays that way until the end. The drama is about the male lead who has lived in isolation all his life until he meets the female lead. Together, with their two newfound friends, they go on a journey to find the truth about the male lead’s parents and the mystical sword left to him by his father.

This drama is based on a video game of the same name thus the atmosphere and script feel quite different from the usual wuxia cdramas (in fact I believe it’s xuanhuan genre). All Sword and Fairy dramas are stand alone, they take place in the same world but have different stories.

PLOT:
This is a plot driven drama with some romance on the side. The first 6 episodes are extremely goofy and lighthearted. Until episode 12 the story is at the setting stage, we discover about the world, get introduced to the four main leads and see their adventure side quests with other side characters.

Episode 13 is when the main story begins. The tone is changed from lighthearted to more serious and mature. The main conflict is addressed and we begin to learn the truth of what has happened 19 years ago (which all characters are involved with). The good guys meet the bad guys and the angst begins. Here the drama does a fantastic job showing the characters growth and the many wise life lessons they learn.

MAIN LEADS + ACTING:
The male lead appears dumb at the start but is actually uneducated as he has spent all his life in isolation. Despite that he adapts very quickly and shows us the wisdom he has learned from his father. He is kind-hearted, brave and protective. He has tremendous character growth throughout the drama. The actor Chen Zhe Yuan showed brilliant performance as always. He is the reason I started to watch this and his on screen presence did not disappoint me. The actor has such expressive eyes that all his emotional scenes HIT ME HARD.

The female lead is confident, outspoken, perceptively and brave without being annoying. She appears tough on the outside but is actually soft-hearted. She is quite unique from the typical female leads that I’ve watched. She has fantastic character growth from being morally conflicted and somewhat selfish to becoming the most supportive friend who is the glue of the friendship group. The actress Ju Jing Yi shines brightly like a diamond in this role, her on screen presence is fantastic and her acting radiant.

The second male and female lead are both more reserved and their stories are directly connected to the main leads. The male lead is called an Ice Cube. Despite his cold nature, he has the warmest heart. The actor is fantastic in his performance with micro-expressions and has a strong on screen presence. The female lead is kind but firm.

POSITIVE:
- A fantastic execution of a hero’s journey - from zero to hero.
- Engaging main plot. From episode 13 the plot was executed fantastically and I didn’t find a single episode boring or having the urge to skip parts.
- Villains are usually boring and evil for the purpose of being evil but in this drama the characters were well developed and a delight to watch. Everyone in this drama has a strong purpose and legitimate reason for what they were doing.
- Chen Zhe Yuan and Ju Jing Yi shone bright on screen with their brilliant acting and fabulous character’s growth. Both actors really stood out to me and pulled me into the story. Their performance was wonderful to watch.
- Pacing of the drama was perfect. The mystery and plot was built very well. With each episode the stakes were higher and higher and I could feel the angst towards the approaching end. Until the finale episode, I couldn’t guess what would happen.
- Cute romantic moments.
- Nice visual fight scenes especially towards the end of the drama.
- Great chemistry between the main leads. I was rooting for them from the start. I loved their banter and bickering.
- Many morally grey characters (including the female lead at the start) which I loved to see.
- Fantastic character growth for all important characters.
- Wise life lessons shown.
- Epic adventure vibes.

NEGATIVE:
- The first 12 episodes gave a wrong impression of the drama and were not particularly strong which is a shame as it made a lot of people drop this. There were side stories of side characters that I found boring. The main leads would help side characters and receive a small amount of information which meant it wasn’t a filler but at the same time the actual stories didn’t add any value to the plot. However the guest appearance of these side characters were done by actors that I knew and their acting was really good.
- At the start of the drama there was focus on the romance which made me believe that it would be a huge part of the drama but it wasn’t. In most episodes the romance was completely gone and the plot took the driver’s seat. The hopeless romantic in me needed more romance.
- One sided love stories that I wish weren’t there at all. Not really love triangles but both the second male and female lead fell for the main leads. They didn’t interfere in their relationship and were very respectful so I’ll give them that but I felt it kind of ruined the friendship aspect of the drama. Whenever the main leads would have a romantic moment, the director would always zoom in on the second male and female lead’s unhappy faces which didn’t sit right with me. I wish the focus was more on developing their friendship with each other rather than them falling in love with each other.
- I didn’t like the second female lead most of the time. Her character’s reserved personality was quite boring for me and I found her acting wooden at times especially compared to the rest of the cast. However she did improve towards the end of the drama. Despite what I said, many people loved her character so this is just a personal preference.
- Second male lead stole all romantic moments with the female lead. I honestly didn’t understand why the writers did it this way. But the female lead had so many emotional bonding scenes with the second male lead that were very impactful compared to her scenes with the male lead. I wish the writers focused on writing platonic friendships between them.

OVERALL:
If you are looking for a well executed plot driven drama about a hero’s journey through many trials and emotional growths with morally grey villans + you love Chen Zhe Yuan, give this drama a chance.

Lees verder