I have been getting into cdrama. Ok, actually I went to Rwanda for three weeks and I didn’t bring my laptop or kindle or a book so I got a little bored. I did bring my notebooks to plan my books but I planned so quickly! I swear when I have nothing to procrastinate with I am productive!

At first I thought I was going to fall into my telenovela hole again but I wasn’t feeling the ones they were showing. Then I discovered the new Chinese channels. China has been doing business with Rwanda of late and so you can see it in the new Chinese restaurants and the new Chinese channels.

My favourites were kungfu channel and sino drama channel. I watched a lot of good shows. There was Eternal Love but I missed the beginning so amma go back and watch that. Also The Glory of Tang Dynasty, omd I love it but I refuse to watch the ending. Again I missed the beginning so I’m going to have to go back. On Sino drama I watched Love is Happiness (or The Love of Happiness – translation varies). It is funny, the mother in law is frustrating and I fell in love with the secondary character’s romance (Su May’s). I even got my Aunty into it and she does not like cdramas.

After watching all those shows I am now into Chinese dramas. Well, if they have a happy ending and depending on plot but that’s my criteria for all dramas.

They’re just so beautiful and the love stories have that angst that is heart breaking but poetic. And if the drama has a good ending all that struggle they go through makes them a stronger couple and it’s so satisfying when they win in the end.

So on that note today I shall be talking about Legend of Fuyao. I love this show! It may be my favourite one. It is well paced. The characters are three dimensional and complex. It is funny, heart breaking and has great fight scenes!

I love the male lead, Ethan Juan playing Wuji, and the female lead, Yang Mi, playing Fuyao. And that’s rare, normally I love secondary characters more but the leads grabbed my heart and kept it.

The basic premise of the series is that Fuyao is born from a lotus flower. She has the five coloured stone and she may bring chaos to the world. It is Wuji’s destiny to bring balance to the five kingdoms. He is the prince of Megrez Kingdom (as it’s translated in English) and so will be Emperor of the five kingdoms if things work out but as always there is a rival (his brother). So they are destined to cross paths.

That’s a very basic summary and you learn this in the first episode. No spoilers have been spilled.

Ok, now that I got that out of the way (watch it!) I’ll move on to the spoiler section so SPOILER WARNING (watch it and then come back and read!).

 

I’ll start with what I liked about the series. I liked the journey and how it built from beginning to end. Fuyao really goes through it (Wuji too). I mentioned in the brief summary that she’s destined to bring chaos to the world and that’s why she has five seals on her. But in the first part of the drama she learns a kung fu method and then her fate is set in motion. I thought they’d be breaking her seals left, right and centre but they don’t and having watched the ending I can see why now, she really does lose her humanity when the last seal is broken. So I can see why Wuji was stalling.

So she goes through sooo much and it shapes her as a person. She keeps encountering these evil people and she still comes out compassionate and wanting to help others. It was ironic really, she was holding back an evil inside of her and the people in Firmament treated her like the devil when she was so kind. I mean if they had calmly asked her if they could reseal the demon she would have probably said yes. They played right into Fei Yan’s hands.

About Fei Yan, she was the main villain but we did not get to see much of her. We constantly heard about her and in some way she was involved in all the plots but physically she wasn’t very pleasant. I found it weird that the Ancient dudes of Firmament didn’t catch on to the fact that she was evil. I mean all the signs were there. So the way she was handled as a villain was not great. I would have liked it if they had spent more time on her.

Tying into that there were a lot of loose ends left hanging. I mean what happened to Folian? She was with Fei Yan when Fei Yan revealed that Fuyao was the true lotus princess but then we didn’t see her again after that. Also was Tai Yan Zhangsun Jia and Xuanyuan Xiao’s daughter? They never revealed what happened to their daughter. I assumed Fei Yan made her into her disciple but that was not confirmed.

Moving on from Fei Yan the villains were well rounded and truly evil. Or rather they were truly messed up. I noticed a recurring theme of women who liked a guy who most obviously did not like them and those women becoming jealous and envious of his true love and plotting to kill their rival so they’d have the man for themselves and force him to stay with them because eventually he’d love them. Most of these women were beautiful and/or noble women and it was so confusing like, are they the only men out there for you? Are you in love with the dude or his status? Are you in love with him only because someone else is?

We saw it with Pei Yuan (who I truly disliked), Folian and Feng Xuan (and that random bitch from Yao city *glares*). We also saw it with Tang Zhirong but I don’t blame her, life in the harem is cut throat as cdramas have taught me. But with the first three I mentioned they brought their troubles on themselves. Pei Yuan became obsessive and she really thought Yan Jingchen loved her when he never said that, once! Folian was just evil, what a character. I mean from childhood? Wow. Then there’s Feng Xuan, she was so thirsty for power and in making Yu Heng love her she became a monster. Again she really thought he would eventually love her? I’d like to live in their lala land because it’s clear to see their delusions are strong!

With Feng Xuan I also saw that family are the ones who hurt you the most. They’re the ones who can cause you the most pain. I mean Fuyao went through a lot but it was what Feng Xuan did that broke her to the point that she wiped out all of those memories. Then with Wuji he also went through a lot but his “father” Zhangsun Jiong turning out to hate him and to not actually be his father and turning out to be the one who caused him all that pain almost broke Wuji. Luckily though he had Fuyao.

Zhangsun Jiong was the most pathetic character. Instead of doing good with his life he spent all that time plotting revenge. In the end he didn’t get his revenge. Yes Jia died but he died by his own hands. Yes Wuji was hurt but he wasn’t broken. Yes Fuyao drank the poison but she did not die. So he died pathetic and weak. I’m being harsh but I did not like him. He showed what happens when you let bitterness fester.

Let’s move on to some positives. The supporting cast was strong. Doctor Zong, Zhan Beiye, Yalan Zhu and Xiao Qi, they were great characters. I would have liked to know how they all got out of Firmament. Honestly this drama needed one more episode to wrap things up nicely. Anyway they were great characters. They were well rounded and managed to carry the plot even when Wuji and Fuyao weren’t present. They had weaknesses and flaws but they overcame them. It was satisfying to watch.

The only side plot that I did not like was that of Zhan Beiye and Yalan Zhu, I mean their romance. It was forced and I honestly did not believe that he loved her. I mean he spent most of the drama rejecting her and wanting Fuyao but when he finds out she’s blind and it was to save him he loves her? Also didn’t she say she would only be with a man who had her as his first love? What happened to that?

A love that I did believe in was that of Fuyao and Wuji. It built beautifully from start to finish. Their love grew deeper each episode. It wasn’t overly cheesy; it was just beautiful. I think I’m a sucker for Chinese romances.

I loved their flirtations. I loved the playfulness of their relationship and I loved how they trusted each other completely. That’s a trope I will forever enjoy in Chinese dramas, the trust.

I feel that their love was pure and that’s what saved them. Wuji’s love was so pure he was willing to give up everything for her to save her. He said he wouldn’t kill her and he didn’t.

I did a video on my channel about how I do not believe in fate and destiny as I believe that we decide our own fate by the choices we make. With this drama you can see that as even though it seemed as if Fuyao and Wuji were locked into this fate they managed to overcome it because Wuji never gave up and because they genuinely loved each other.

If it had been Fuyao and Jingchen the same thing would not have happened. He didn’t love her sincerely and I don’t think he’d have gone through all that trouble. So yeah Wuji and Fuyao for the win!

Also is it just me or do Chinese men look great with long hair? I loved Wuji’s hair when he was Wuji (because Wuji and Fuyao pretended to be so many people omd). It’s so beautiful!

And last but not least the OST’s were the best! I recommend you check out all the songs but my particular favourites are Hard to get Love by Lala Hsu and Window by Greeny Wu. These two were so beautiful and Lala’s song was used as an instrumental background to certain scenes. It was slowed down with just her voice humming or a violin playing… URGH it was so touching! From what I’ve seen it was the one that haunted the fans the most, in a good way.

So those are my thoughts on the drama. What did you like and dislike? Let me know in the comments below.

Until next time,

Ciao!

 

Ps: It does have a happy ending. Don’t be fooled by the abrupt shift and them speaking in riddles. The ending scene she’s asking him hypothetical questions in relation to his poem. It’s something from the book that they tried to incorporate into the drama but it didn’t translate well especially for non-Chinese speaking fans. A Chinese fan on another review explained it well (I lost the link but general gist they survive and have a happy ending).