Poetic Cinematography

As a Guo JingMing fan, this wuxia drama exceeded my expectations!

Production 10/10:
The production quality on this was top-notch, and the attention to detail in every scene blew my mind. It was like watching a painting come to life. The sets & scenery; martial arts choreography; character visuals & costumes - these were all literally a feast for the eyes and beyond breathtaking.



*****************SPOILERS***DO NOT READ UNLESS YOU LIKE SPOILERS*****************



Story 8/10:
The overall storyline is about Yun WeiShan's journey as a Wufeng spy infiltrating the Gong clan; and Gong ZiYu's journey into becoming a worthy leader of the Gong family. This story is full of twists and turns, mystery, and the action sequences are intense! For a story with only 24 episodes, many of the characters were written surprisingly well and with so much depth.
If the last 8ish minutes of the final episode were omitted or written better, then I would have given the storyline a minimum of 9/10 rating. My main beef for the plot was that it was incomplete, with the cliffhanger/open ending. There wasn't closure to some of the storylines, especially for the leads. Maybe if there was a 2nd season, then I'd edit my rating. I also disliked that Shangguan Qian did not get her 'just deserts' and escaped relatively unscathed at the end.
My favourite characters throughout the story were the Gong brothers, Gong ShangJue & Gong YuanZhi. The actions of both brothers throughout most of the story made them seem more like villains, but they ended up being very loyal to the Gong family. I would have liked to have seen more of a backstory for Young Master Hua and Han YaSi, they seemed like fascinating characters. I cried during their deaths, especially Han YaSi's.
HYS's death scene with the playbacks of his and YWS's memories together was emotional yet beautifully written. When HYS tells YWS:

I belong to the sunset,
but maybe you can wait
to see the sunrise that belongs to you . . .

What's gorgeous is not the sky,
but the clouds.
It's colorful,
Like the clothes made by clouds . . .

You are the Yun WeiShan
in my heart . . .

The last line is a play on YWS's name. When he said that, it made me think that he was indirectly telling her that he loved her. I'm still not sure if he felt a romantic love for her or if it was more of love between a family type bond -- either way, it made me cry way too damn hard.

Acting/Cast 10/10:
The cast members were both beautiful and talented. It was great to see Esther Yu as Yun WeiShan, a badass lethal spy but with compassion. I liked that she had a normal tone of voice rather than the cutesy child voice from previous roles. For me, this was one of her best roles.
Ryan Chen is one of the main reasons I decided to watch MJTY, his visuals are just WOW and his performance did not disappoint. As Gong ShangJue, I hung on his every word, with the soft yet masculine cadence in his voice . . . Felt every emotion with his expressive eyes, whether it was suspicion, amusement, pain, affection, anger, sadness, and even contempt. When he gives people the side-eye and when he gives that hint of a little smile. . . Okay fine, I admit it, I'm totally biased towards him haha!!!
Tian JiaRui was quite the surprise and definitely a scene stealer. With this being his first drama role, his performance as Gong YuanZhi was exceptional! He embodied his role perfectly as the immature, sadistically psychotic younger brother of ShangJue. JiaRui really had me believing how menacing his character was, with his sinister eyes and creepy AF smile - there were even moments when I felt like I wanted to smack him, lol. But then he was also able to convey YuanZhi's vulnerable side, his sweetness and undying loyalty towards his older brother and idol, ShangJue. I like to call him 'Beautiful Psycho'. The scene where he thought big bro was dead really broke me *sigh*.
Another scene stealer for me was Lu YuXiao as Shangguan Qian. Although I disliked how conniving and untrustworthy her character was in the story, it was still an undeniably stellar performance. I've only seen her play sweet and innocent characters, so it was interesting to watch her as a spy.


***Notes***
My original rating for this was 8/10 because of the open ending. But now that I'm calm and not so bitter, lol, I've raised it to a 9/10 -- I will just pretend that the last 8 minutes of the show did not happen. I had so much fun discussing this drama with fellow MDL'ers and Asian Drama friends. Re-watched several of the episodes and scenes (some more than others) to search for clues in who the real Anonymous was. It was also fun to come up with possible theories and even having some of them come true!

I highly recommend this drama to everyone, especially to the ones who are into the cinematography and artistic aspects of dramas/movies!

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