“If there is an afterlife, I must find you again” -Yatou

General:
I decided that I was going to watch the whole The Lost Tomb franchise in order. The Mystic Nine was first with it taking place in the 1930s. This series gave you the context of the nine families within The Mystic Nine and background information.

Going into it I had few expectations and I’m not saying that in a bad way. I just did not know what I was getting myself into with The Mystic Nine. One thing I did expect was seeing tombs and getting more detailed information on the lore. It’s a show about tombs and nine important families, where could it go wrong?

Production:
The very beginning of the majority of dramas starts with an intro. The Mystic Nine does not hold back with their intros. Every two to a couple of episodes the intro would change. My favorite intros come from episodes 25, 28, 33, and 38. The intro changing so many times during the drama was odd to me. Many dramas do change their intro, for example, S.C.I (a Chinese drama) would change their intro when their investigation case changed. The Mystic Nine, on the other hand, would change their intros like rapid-fire and to me, there was no big reason. The only reason I could assume was to add more characters in the intro but still, they wouldn’t need to change the intro that often.

Moving onto the camera work, it was nothing that special nor did I have the expectation it was going to be. There was never really a moment that made me go, “wow, love that camera work”. Overall, it wasn’t that bad and I feel neutral about it. Now, the CGI is a very different story. I always have low expectations going into a show with many CGI scenes and I don’t even think The Mystic Nine even met my low expectations. Out of all the CGI scenes, there was only one good moment. In episode 36 the CGI hit rock bottom, I thought it couldn’t get worse but it proved me wrong again. It felt like they knew the end was coming near and felt like they were working on little time. The CGI after episode 36 until episode 48 was worse than episode 35 plus under.

There were some bad moments in the production but I didn’t discredit the show for them as I found them quite funny. For example, at the beginning of the series, Zhang Qishan kicked down a door that flew off its hinges. Based on the look of Lieutenant Zhang that door seemed like it was not supposed to fly off the hinges. Another scene was when Zhang Qishan, Lieutenant Zhang, and Ba Ye were walking along the railroad tracks. Zhang Qishan accidentally stepped in between the two boards in the middle but they just kept rolling. Another moment was when Lieutenant Zhang lifted a casket from a tree in episode 31. I remember thinking to myself, “I knew he was strong but how strong is he really?”.

The music was nothing special either as it was forgettable. Music is something that I usually never take off points for. It takes a lot for me to hate the timing and music being played. The Mystic Nine didn’t make me hate the music being played and I guess that could be considered a victory.

Plot/Setting:
The plot of this show is where I have some mixed opinions. While there were some really fun/interesting plot points like searching through the tombs, the auction, the look for Fo Ye, and the lore of the Zhang clan. Other moments of the show felt like they were slightly dragging and gave me the feeling that we were running in circles. Some of the other reviewers have stated that “Even after so many episodes it felt like there was no growth or progress”. Looking back I wouldn’t say that there was no progress as there was some. The drama just took so many detours which led to the central plot of the story getting pushed to the back burner. An example of this happening would be when they wanted Er Ye to go to the tomb with them. They had to take a long detour because Er Ye wouldn’t leave his sick wife’s side. This detour consisted of the auction and getting the medicine for Yatou.

There were also many detours due to the villains/antagonists of the drama. This is more typical in dramas or stories in general. The villains/antagonists are supposed to go against the protagonist/hero. Which would lead to the protagonist/hero having to do something about it. Relating to The Mystic Nine, when they (Fo Ye, Er Ye, Ba Ye, and Lutentinent Zhang) had to go back into the tomb for a second time to try and stop the antagonist from finding what they wanted to. This leads them to get stuck in an illusion.

While the pacing was off because of the many detours we had to take. At times the pacing was naturally off, especially with Zhang Qishan and Yin Xinyue’s relationship. While I will not get into detail on how I felt about their characters their pacing was just off. The start of their relationship started fine until Fo Ye got severely ill. This was caused by Fo Ye going into the tomb the first time around. It was claimed that the devil side of his heart had taken over and he couldn't escape it. That was until they went back to the Zhang clan’s old stomping grounds. This is when Fo Ye woke up and seemed like he had always loved Yin Xinyue. While you could argue that this is because Fo Ye had a near-death experience. To me, this was odd because even if he loved her all along it was such a sudden shift it threw me off the course of their relationship.

The ending for the series threw me even more off as the last couple of episodes left me feeling unresolved. The antagonist of the series either had a not-so-detailed death, disappearance, or forgiveness (by the protagonist from the story). While ending with the Battle Of Changsha which started in September 1939 (autumn of 1939) was good clarity for when this series took place in the 1930s. Off-topic, the outfit for the period seemed fitting (I am no expert so take that with a grain of salt).

I debated including this in the character section but in this series, it was used as a mere plot device. Around the last sections of the series, some moments had a voice-over. I am not referring to the voiceovers that were over the characters (as that was a constant recurring thing in the drama). I am referring to the voice-over narration that took place. According to a website called perdue, “In voice-over narration, one hears a voice (sometimes that of the main character) narrating the events that are being presented to you.” This is what occurred. This narration confused me as the information at first seemed like it was giving context. Yet, the information was knowledge as a viewer we already knew or could assume based on the plot/dialogue. This made me think, is this a retelling of this story? If so, then who and why? I guess we’ll never know

Acting/Chemistry:
This will be my shortest section as always. I rarely have things to say about acting the majority of the time, as usual, it is subpar. This drama is no different from the best acting performance coming from Zhao Liying (Yin Xinyue). While I wouldn’t say this is the best acting performance out of all the dramas I have watched this year. I would say it is the best one from The Mystic Nine. I honestly expected Lay (Er Ye) to have the worst performance but he did decently.

The chemistry between the characters was there also. The most obvious ones are Fo Ye and Yin Xinyue. Also, Er Ye and Yatou are the obvious picks for good chemistry. For me though, the best chemistry comes from platonic friendships/dynamics. Like Fo Ye and Yatou, I bring them up because of the gate scene at Fo Ye’s house. Even though there was a minimal discussion between the two you could tell that Fo Ye cared about her (in a platonic way). A review from me wouldn’t be from me if I didn’t bring up a bromance. The bromance between Ba Ye and Luteninent Zhang was really good. This bromance started from the beginning but it was truly aforementioned during the hunt for Fo Ye.

Characters:
While I have been talking about the protagonist of the story for the majority of this review. I am going to be talking about them a little more. Starting with Fo Ye/Zhang Qishan, to state it simply I liked his character and was interested in his family history. I think his strongest point would be his willpower to achieve anything even if that means losing everything. He is the character that takes action and is one of the characters that help progress the plot. His Wife, Yin Xinyue was also headstrong and I liked her character for this. She would call someone out in a heartbeat and would always do what she thought was best.

I have noticed that some Chinese dramas specifically Chinese republic era dramas are that you sometimes have a ‘golden trio’ as I call it. This trio has three types of people: the leader (and usually one of them or is the main character), the wingman (they are usually smart or strong and actually very helpful), and then you have the comic relief character. We see this trope with Fo Ye, Luteninent Zhang, and Ba Ye. This trio is usually one of my favorite aspects of these types of dramas. A character that always has a 50/50 shot of failing for me though is the comic relief character. In which the character that has gotten the role of the comic relief is Ba Ye. I had a hard time liking his character as I found it difficult to like him as comic relief. I only started liking him once the hunt for Fo Ye Arc started. The bromance/chemistry between him and Luteninent Zhang helped me like his character and how he was actually reliable. Now, the best character in The Mystic Nine is the one and only Luteninent Zhang. Something drew me into his character from the get-go. There was also much history with him also being from the same clan (I called it the Zhang Family but I think that is incorrect wording so I’ll call them a clan) as Fo Ye. I just generally liked how the character acted and how the character carried himself. He was a character that came off cold and always doubted until proven. He also carried lots of dedication for Fo Ye but also he was able to have his moments of letting go. This especially happened with Ba Ye as you saw more of his inner personality.

Er Ye, you could say that I liked him the least out of all the protagonists but he was also the character that went through the most due to his wife’s death. I saw him as irresponsible but knowledgeable. He was helpful in the tomb episodes mostly but was easily sidetracked due to the illusions of the cave. Yatou was shown more than the female lead even though she was dead for the majority of the time. I had no big issues with her character and liked her character as she seemed like such a nice person at heart.

The antagonist was to put shortly ‘a piece of work’. These characters had motivations even though they were all different. In certain dramas showing the villains, when they are not our main characters/focuses makes us aware of the villain’s plan and makes the plan lose its meaning. My least favorite out of all of them was Chen Pi. He became a villain through manipulation and he sought revenge without knowing the full story of why Yatou died. Mr.Cox plays a huge role in this with his words that seem to go over Chen Pi’s head. Mr. Cox once stated, “Knowing yourself and your enemy” while trying to convince Chen Pi to join their side. I scoffed at this line as I described it in my notes as, “Chen Pi is such a dumb person. He doesn’t understand what is really going on. I find it interesting that Mr.Cox talks about knowing yourself and your enemy when Chen Pi doesn’t know either.” Chen Pi was also the only villain to get a full backstory. The backstory happens in the later second half of the drama. At that point, I had no sympathy for his character

While Mr. Cox and Lu Jianxun were just massive manipulators with different motives. These characters were also introduced very early on as what Mr.Cox wanted was jumped right into in episode one with the train. As we later find out that what the people on the train were looking for was the meteor which we find exactly later on. Lu Jianxun and Huo Jinxi just wanted power and that was enough motivation to try and take out Fo Ye. I simply was annoyed with the characters by episode 26 and at that point, I had so much left to go. Also getting left with their endings being open was more annoying.

Conclusion:
In the end, I am glad that I watched it but I wouldn’t go out of my way to rewatch it. I would only recommend you to watch this if you are dedicated to getting some of the background information to the present characters.


I would like to end this with my tweets while watching the series:
“The romance between Zhang Qishan and Yin Xinyue in the mystic nine got me in a chokehold…”
“Okay but Lieutenant Zhang sir what’s your ring size?”
“If Lieutenant Zhang dies at any moment…this drama’s rating about to go DOWN ”
“Not Lieutenant Zhang taking the blame :( I love him ”
“OMG MY MAN IS A PART OF THE ZHANG CLAN I DON'T KNOW WHY THAT MADE ME SO HAPPY LIKE???”

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