Tian Ya Ke (2021)

A Couch Potato Review of the Series: Word of Honor.

I am going to warn early as this is also going to be posted on MyDramaList, I am not going to be a gushing fangirl with all sorts of lines like "OMG OMG OMG OMG this is the best Wuxia BL ever!!! (in spite of the high review I did give there). This is more a reflection of how far some countries have come when dealing with LGBT/BL story lines and how far some countries still have to go to accepting the 10%+ of the population that exists within its borders. I'm reminded to reinforce this concept as the late Mira Furlan once said as the character Delenn of Minbar, "...everywhere Humans go, they create communities out of diverse and sometimes hostile populations. It is a great gift and a terrible responsibility. One that can not be abandoned..."

I have to say that after seeing the teaser for it in my recommended videos on YouTube's main page, I had mixed feelings of sitting there and watching yet another Chinese series that originally had a strongly BL theme to it. Since watching Guardian which also had a strong BL theme in the book and then turning it into a "friend-zone interest"/bromance my taste for these levels of censorship died in the 80s when I was already some years out of the closet and enjoying more positive and independent LGBT cinema works. In fact in my never-ending study in humanities and the aspects of human love regardless of sexuality, sexual identity and even proclivities, I have routinely found that out of all the countries that I have sampled stories involving LGBT/BL levels of relationship, China and Brazil seem to share a 60+ years in the past Hollywood mindset of killing off LGBT/BL characters to even stamping out through censorship and downplaying anything that might show as sexual tension or even sexual attraction between same sex characters.

Word of Honor carries with it all the typical plots and subplots, contrivances, tropes and hundreds of major and minor characters you'd expect of any Wuxia story. One of the protagonists -- Zhou Zi Shu (played by Zhang Zhe Han who I had first caught in another period piece called Legend of Yun Xi) -- is a disillusioned and disheartened leader of an imperial force called the Window of Heaven. He imposed on himself the same pain and agony he did while serving as the leader of Window of Heaven: the Nails of Seven Torments which are inserted into a Kung Fu Master's meridians thereby ensuring that he will only live no more than three years before dying in the sort of agony no one would want to have being deprived of all seven senses and the amount of pain being unbearable. The other protagonist -- Wen Ke Xing (played by Gong Jun who I will be looking into more in the future) -- that from a tragic past turns out to being the leader of the Ghost Valley (a place of criminals wanting to maintain their criminal lives without ever being part of the human world).

Pros

Wen Ke Xing's comments towards Zhou Zi Shu when they first met -- even when Shu was in disguise -- were overtly sexual compared to the heterosexual counterparts both in this story as well as other Wuxia stories I've watched. Not to mention the continued overtly sexual and flirtatious comments are definitely a step in the right direction when it comes to the censorship that China continues to maintain on LGBT/BL stories.

Zhou Zi Shu warms up to Ke Xing's flirtations and attention. While it becomes clear that this happens through prolonged exposure and coming to accept the fact that Ke Xing's not going to be going away, Shu seems more accepting of the budding relationship going on.

Zhang Cheng Ling's (played by Sun Xi Lun) acceptance of the relationship between Zhou Zi Shu and Wen Ke Xing without question or social stigmas reminds me of how many kids did the same thing when they found out that their fathers, fathers of friends and complete strangers they encounter in their life were gay or lesbians. This to me has always been a step in the right direction that the younger generations will always be more accepting than the older.

Extra points when it came to Wen Ke Xing's comments during the second Heroes Conference when he defeated Zhao Jing (played by Wang Ruo Lin) when confronted by all the leaders of the sects attending the Heroes Conference when they discovered he was the Leader of the Ghost Valley even after he was able to prove his lineage leads back to the destroyed sect from the Healer Valley. I don't often catch when the survivor of some made-extinct sect has been discovered to be the leader of the villains of the story, and his delivery of "where were all the allies when my father was killed" shamed everyone attending to humility a welcome addition I would like to see happen more. Because more often times than naught the lines between good and evil are not only black and white in Wuxia films -- they are as unchanging and unmalleable.

Zhao Jing being the center stage of true villainy within the story. Through 20 years of story and grievances, you find out he's the kingpin of all things evil going on within the story. Wang Ruo Lin pulls off such a character that people can just love to hate from beginning to middle to end as the story unfolds as to how he was involved with all the plots, counter-plots and ministrations that pulled everything together and apart through the majority of the story.

The almost Oedipus-like love/hate relationship between Zhao Jing and Prince Xie -- or Scorpion King -- (played by Li Dai Kun) going on since Xie's introduction was positively palpable when he discovered time and time and time again at just how much his godfather used him whenever his godfather could. The way that Li Dai Kun can make such a subtle expression come off as hurt and painful is an honor to his acting teacher and directors in this film. I could almost feel sorry for him as a villain given that his godfather used him every step of the way through this story.

The rich and intertwining stories going on with many of the supporting characters. Namely Liu Qian Qiao or Glamourous Ghost (played by Ke Nai Yu) with Yu Qiu Feng (played by Liu Han Yang), Xi Sang Gui or Tragicomic Ghost (played by Chen Sha Sha), Ye Bai Yi or Sword Immortal (played by Huang You Ming). This is the sort of story telling that can only make the world richer and more living than what westerners do with making the stories so main character-centered.

Ambivalence

I find myself not too keen on the use of the word Soulmate when describing these two (as well the minor set of characters from our Sages of An Xian (played by Yu Zi Kuan, Lu Chun Sheng, Zhang Zhi Wei, Tong Xiao Mei and Yu Zi Kuan) that seems to imply a more polyamorous relationship). While I understand that this might be Ciwen Media/Youku attempts at introducing the concept to China's mainstream audience in the same way that Longtime Companion (1989) introduced Significant Other to the English-Speaking mainstream, it's taking a phrase steeped in metaphysical and philosophical knowledge and trivializing it to a euphemism. As though people are that incapable to making the jump from their world into another.

The witless heroes and petty villains of this story. Namely Gao Chong (played by Hei Zi), Mo Huai Yang (played by Wang Bo Qing), Long Xiao (played by Wang Zi Run), his father Long Que (played by Zhang Shuang Li) and Wang Mo Xuan (played by Ren Xi Hong) who I'm sure they had better roles in the book written by Priest, but came off as nothing more than MacGuffins for continuing the story. While I understand that all of these examples are supporting roles to the main character, they seem to be more downplayed than expected and just show up when some plot device needs to be pushed forward and seemed to lack a richer back story I'd come to expect from many of the other characters we were introduced through the 36 episodes.

The occasional CG blunders that pulled me out of immersion and temporary suspension of disbelief. While I understand CG special effects with humans as objects is still in its toddler stage, there were moments when you could clearly tell it was a computer drawn image instead of the actor/actress. Fortunately for me, it wasn't the sort of routine occurrence I would expect from a low budget series so it didn't make me regret my decision to truck on with the series.

Cons

I must've missed some Eastern/Chinese Mores in the transformation from Shu pushing Ke Xing away from him because he was dying to accepting Ke Xing as a Soulmate to live with through the end of his days. Further there doesn't seem to be any indication what internal energies changes from Shu to actually see Ke Xing as a Soulmate he could never live without. In fact, because I might have missed the social queue that occurred, it comes off as an 180 degree change without any explained internalized decision how it changed from the character.

The anticlimactic way Zhao Jing was killed off during the avalanche at the end of the series. This painfully reminded me of so many books I've read and stories I've watched where the writers don't know what to do with a character/villain hanging by the wayside and instead of letting them be forgotten, choose to just wipe them out through some deus ex machina event to just remove them from the plot. While I might have cheered a moment because it removed a loose end, thinking about it later I would've much rather preferred he live out the rest of his days as a mute invalid.

The transformation from pained and tormented villain Prince Xie to two-dimensional and even more petty villain he became fawning over his mute and invalid father while trying to prove just how much of a villain he was and how his father underutilized him through much of the story. If there was a reason to use a dues ex machina to remove a character -- I would've voted for Prince Xie instead of his godfather Zhao Jing, because it's clear from a story telling standpoint, he would be used in future stories in some way or another.

The insane way that the theme song for Zhou Zi Shu and Wen Ke Xing gets hammered into the scenes at every frelling opportunity. While I appreciated the extra work that was done for translating everything in the movie (from dialog to street signs to the plaques in the internal scenery, which is definitely more a pro than a con), the fact that the song had to be translated every bloody time it played along with the song playing through several stanzas was enough for me to be off-put wanting to find it. It's one thing when Chen Wei Ru's Rice Omelet of Love was used at the beginning of the episodes of HIStory 2: Right or Wrong and a plus when it was used in instrumental form through some of the series... To have it play complete with Lyrics so routinely as to try to artificially manipulate the heartstrings of the audience comes off instead as cheap and cash-grabbing.

The 1950s attitude that EVERYTHING needs to have a tidy ending. Villains are vanquished and dead. Questionable characters defeated and given the choice to live outside of the world they were introduced never to be seen again or killed for their loyalty to villainy, and heroes -- other than the protagonists (that will come with the bottom line) -- live happy and prosperous. Further, this particular series heavily relies on Shakespearean-like plot tropes of killing off even minor characters if they transgressed against the fealty and filial of their family and/or their Sect Leader. This is why I usually go looking for indie films and series instead; because with them at least they attempt to make it as gray a world and as messy as life can be as possible.

Bottom Line: While it's clear that it was written in such a way that even the protagonists were going to suffer in the Shakespearean-like way where a non-heterosexual couple has to pay some sort price because it's not the "norm", with enough of the Eastern/Chinese Mores learned, coupled with some attention to details that cropped up during the last episode of this particular series, I was able to do what I've been doing since I was a toddler. Make the ending the way I wanted it to be. Because of that, even with the twists and turns that were introduced to the story, coupled with how many pros there were to cons (listed and unlisted), I found this to being an enjoyable romp through a Costumed, Wuxia, Period Piece. I might go looking for the epilogue to confirm my suspicions. Whether I re-watch it remains to be seen.

One notable afterthought that comes to mind deals with Wu Chang Gui or the Changing (Impermanence) Ghost (played by Xue Fei). I was incredibly impressed with the vocal resonance which Xue Fei used when he was speaking his lines. While I can't seem to find any interviews to confirm whether that was his normal speaking voice or if he pitched it specifically for the role -- I'm off to watch a couple of movies he did support roles to confirm my suspicions.

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