cgaman
I writing this review with 9 episodes left (I wanna take the rest nice and slow coz I don't want this awesome drama to end).
It's important to note that the drama went into production before the author finished writing the web novel, so if anything the movie version might be truer to the original work and differ from the drama.
OK, enough of OT stuff, back to the core of review:
Fans of Lord of the Rings will rejoice that FotD is essentially a reimagining. You have the Star Formation that gives power to the Empress that is essentially the One Ring. It is essentially detrimental to Empress (it's actually something evil that is controlling her), yet she has trouble letting the precious-s-s go.
Then, there is CCS dagger-like sword that looks like Bilbo's Sting dagger. And of course the little dragon ZS is modeled after Smaug the Dragon from The Hobbit, but a good kind dragon, not an evil one. Then, when LL teased ZS with hard-to-guess riddles, that scene essentially imitated "Riddles in the Dark" between Bilbo and Gollum in The Hobbit.
Superimposed over this are scenes remiscient of Nirvana in Fire: Sick guy returns to the Capital to attain his destiny, elite guards getting murdered to frame someone, the main hero can't actually fight against powerful villains but uses his cunning to subdue them, an Imperial ruler that is cold and "heartless" even towards her own child, etc.
Nevertheless, the drama packs an awesome punch coz let's face it there is nothing new under the sun, only inspiration from some works that existed before!
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Tribes and Empires: Storm of Prophecy
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UPDATE/2ND HALF REVIEW: TROUNCES NIRVANA IN FIRE IN THE FOLLOWING CATEGORIES (see below)
I'm writing this review after seeing up to EP38 (a little more than half of the show).
Where I am coming from, I have seen most of the popular C-dramas: Nirvana in Fire, Princess Agents, Three Lives Three Worlds, Fighter of the Destiny, Ice Fantasy, The Mystic Nine, Candle in the Tomb, etc.
Most above managed to slack off in quality about mid-way thru, I was surprised T&E remained consistent in quality like in the first Ep.
STORY: Well, what did ya expect? Novoland arose as a competitor to The Lord of the Rings. So any story set in Novoland is bound to resemble LotR. But since this is a Chinese work, it will also feature aspects from works of the revered Jin Yong mixed with a bit of Imperial Palace drama here and there. For example, I thought that MYS+Pan Xi looked very much like YG+XLN from ROCH. (I won't go into what happened to Pan Xi in Ep37, but she should return to MYS at some point later on, just like YG+XLN reunited after 16yrs separation..)
ACTING: A+
MUSIC: OMG, I put on my Sony headphone, and the soundtrack sounds just like in theater. One of few shows that actually does a high quality sound hardware justice.
REWATCH: Are you kiddin me? This is a 75epsx40min long movie (or pretends to be one). Even those lovely nature scenes are worth rewatching just for their sake...
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This is my (updated) review after having seen all 75 pisodes.
TROUNCES NIRVANA IN FIRE IN THE FOLLOWING CATEGORIES:
The time has come to give T&E an overall assessment.
1. THEY ALL <removed expletive language> WANT TO BECOME KING/EMPRESS (or prophesized to become one) EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM. In NiF, most main chars are satisfied with being nobodies with some rank.
1 T&E
0 NiF
2. FRIGGIN EPIC BOSS BATTLE AT THE END. The next most friggin awesome boss fight was between YG and GWM in RoCH '83.
1 T&E
0 NiF
3. SHOW DON'T TELL. I don't want to hear about how some guy marched alone straight into the enemies' camp and talked them into killing each other. Show me in gory details what really happened. Likewise, I don't want to hear about the Sovereignty Seal/Soarers/Oceanides/Giants, etc. Show me what they really look like.
1 T&E
0 NiF
4. GORGEOUS CGI. OMG, half-way thru NiF keeps replaying that zoomed out village shot with some CGI birds flying across the sky and it looked like it was done by kids.
1 T&E
0 NiF
5. LETS YOU EXPERIENCE IMPERIAL LIFE IN A REALISTIC WAY. This drama shows you what it's like to be General, Emperor's guard, etc. Their social standing, and the conflicting decisions they must make. I took away none of this from Nirvana in Fire. In the Forbidden City, there are these creatures that eat gold and are made emblems of. T&E even has this version as a golden beetle that eats gold nuggets.
1 T&E
0 NiF
T&E does contain a lot of flaws. It's great as a standalone work, but next to Novoland: Eagle Flag, probably won't have 50% of the latter's glory and execution. The flaws:
- Bad editting
- To explicit (sexual/gory)
- Annoying chars (too abundant)
- Could never understand why some women fell for SFHY
- Could never understand Nanku Yue Li's obsession with being Empress
- Too many flashbacks
- Too few high fantasy figures (Soarers/mermaids/giants)
- Some stuff don't make sense (how can anyone survive without Vitamin D [sunlight] for so long?)
- Some Mary Sue type superwoman chars (Helan Tie Duo)
- Cheap-looking CGI in certain parts (black Dragon in MYS's nightmare)
- Wizard's staff looks yucky (it's just a stick with mounted metallic head piece)
- Overused some Imperial cliches (bad Queen/Emperor always gets attacked on a hunting trip, etc.)
Overall rating: Sorry to disappoint the naysayers, but still a solid 9.0/10.0 despite those obvious flaws.
Overall rating (my scale)
23.0/10 - A great RoCH adaptation
18.0 - A good RoCH adaptation
18.0 - T&E
18.0 - Ode to Gallantry 2017
17.5 - Nirvana in Fire
16.0 - Fighter of the Destiny
14.0 - Princess Agents
12.0 - Three Lives, Three Worlds TV drama
12.0 - Dragon Nest: Warrior's Dawn movie in 3-D
9.0 - Candle in the Tomb
7.0 - Ice Fantasy
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I'm writing this review based on only the first 43 episodes before I gave up the series.
The primary reason I gave up at episode 43 has to be the unbalanced main character pairs.
In ROCH, Xiao Long Nu was someone every pervert wanted to sleep with. In 3L3W, only the crazies Yehua and Li Jing pine after Bai Qian. BQ is this really old 140000 aunty that everyone mocks behind her back for being old... OK, that is A-grade writing talent right there.
Anyways, this is what I actually saw when I viewed those episodes thru ROCH vision:
Bai Qian = Xiao Long Nu.
Ye Hua = Yang Guo
Mo Yan = Yang Kang (YG is the splitting image of YK in ROCH)
When Su Su made the jump in Heaven = 16 years separation between YG and XLN
Jade Purity Fan of Kunlun Mountain = Mongolian Prince's fan weapon (3L3W has a fan weapon b/c ROCH has it)
Li Jing = the rapist in ROCH (the only other char infatuated with XLN)
Su Jin = mix of Huang Rong (cunning) and Guo Fu (spoiled)
Xuan Nu = Li Mochou (her man never showed much interest in her, causes all the aggravations and terrible things she does; there is a segment in ROCH where LMC goes around with an abducted baby, in 3L3W she strolls around with her sick child)
Heavenly Lord (current) = dumb Guo Jing (he always makes terrible decisions and needed Dijun to bail him out of difficult [mental] situations)
Dijun + Feng Jiu = White haired Yang Guo + Guo Xiang (they're not fated to be together, but an arc is created in the mortal realm for the pair as an extra add-on to ROCH)
When BQ fell from the peach tree and YH caught her = Yang Guo chance encounters XLN in the woods of Passionless Valley
Meeting of BQ and YH in sea kingdom = variant of meeting in Passionless Valley where XLN claims (pretended) she didn't know Yang Guo, and Gongsun Loue eyeing the pair with envy
Yao Guang + Mo Yuan duel in episode 01 = Lin Chaoying (mischievous version) and Wang Chongyang (apathetic version) with slight difference LCY did not threaten to commit suicide if she lost, and WCY actually told her to move away upon her defeat.
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