This is pure wuxia (think Condor Heroes rather than Ashes of Love) set in the jianghu, and 36 episodes were announced after quite a few hiccups experienced by the production during the pandemic last year. Looking at the promotional poster itself, it is easy to gauge the genre. If I remember correctly, this was one of the first posters that were released when the English title was still Faraway Wanderers. THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR EPISODES 1-36 (AND THE BONUS MV). This will be a long ride, but my focus will be on the adaptation aspect of the production, and how the changes between the novel and the drama have added to or subtracted from the viewer experience of the story. I shall split this review into sections and give each one a score as I normally, but I think I would also like to comment on a few more things (like how my expectations of the execution of BL dramas has skyrocketed which I can only hope the others coming this year can compare with), alongside other observations. But oh goodness, was it a pleasant, pleasant surprise. I saw some bits and pieces of Shan He Ling (then given the English title of Faraway Wanderers) floating around and I did not pay it too much attention, and I believe many people in this community feel the same too. As a danmei/wuxia fan, I am aware that this year is bringing a slew of new BL dramas set to air in the coming months and with the bts footage and rumours lighting up like wildfire last year, I was focused more on the production of Immortality/Hao Yi Xing and Winner is King/Sha Po Lang. I do enjoy the both of them though and look forward to their other works in the future.Before I begin the review proper, I must admit that this was my surprise of 2021. I don’t know if they give me that feeling from acting or just the script’s fault. To be honest, I don’t think either Scorpion Lord or Simon Jun are on Lee Joon Ki’s level of acting yet, because they both can come off slightly too deliberate and greasy feeling, but they certainly look the part. I’m glad Simon got the role of Wen Kexing because he really knows how to “sa jiao” (no eng equivalent I can think of.) He’s masculine enough that he can pull off “manly” yet soft enough to be feminine. If he played Wen Kexing, I might have a difficult time watching the drama. I think he made a really good decision in not playing Wen Kexing, because his Scorpion Lord is too feminine for me to handle haha. That aside, Li Daikun is amazing in his role. I guess he’s supposed to be the manlier one of the couple, but that’s too common. But in reality, his role is playing 2nd fiddle to Wen Kexing. Not really a fan of Zhou ZiShu’s character because there’s not much room for him to shine…but i know that’s deliberate to juxtapose Wen Kexing’s character and for us to feel the contrast. Although this character is uniquely charismatic, it is still incomparable to the popularity of Kexing. When the series finally started rolling, the actor was no longer available due to schedule clashes.Īs for Daikun, he did not think he suited playing Kexing, so he gave up the lead role to play supporting character Prince Xie. As pay was already low during this time, Zijun chose to film other projects first. However, Zijun ended up losing the chance to star in Word of Honor because the filming was delayed due to the pandemic last year. This could have been an entirely different story because Zhehan’s character Zhou Zishu was originally supposed to be played by Mao Zijun (茅子俊), and Gong Jun’s character Wen Kexing was to be played by Li Daikun (李岱昆). In the same way as Xiao Zhan (肖战) and Wang Yibo (王一博), their unbeatable chemistry had earned them a mass of fans. It is well agreed upon that the series was able to reach such heights largely because of Zhehan and Gong Jun’s detailed performances. While The Untamed did pave the path for more BL dramas, Word of Honor also did not earn love easily with its zero promotions and quiet premiere. The latter had earned a rating of 4.9 when it first aired, and eventually climbed up to its current rating of 7.7. Yet, Word of Honor managed to do so with ratings higher than The Untamed. Known for its strictness, it is usually difficult to attain a rating of 8 points or more. Word of Honor had even shockingly surpassed the highly popular The Untamed with a Douban rating of 8.6. As the two were largely praised for their performances, it became hard to imagine that their characters could have belonged to another. Though what was even more astonishing was that Zhehan and Gong Jun were actually not the original casting choices. With initially no anticipations on its low-budget production, the sudden blow up came to many as a surprise. Chinese BL drama Word of Honor is currently leading the hottest discussions online for its unexpected next-level performances and thrilling chemistry between leads Zhang Zhehan (张哲瀚) and Gong Jun (龚俊).
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