Guardian (2018)

Okay....so aside from the hokey title this drama was a solid 9. The plot was pretty good, but the cast is where its at. These actors are really really good. They take on their parts, and play them to the end
Even characters that are around for a little while are so good. The effects can be a bit lacking, fake blood is obvious, and its hilarious how many scenes forget to put back the fx but its not super bad. Basically this is about SID, and their ragtag team of protectors. They protect the city from supposed bad guys who come from underground. It's all about perspective, and the shades of grey in life. The end is a little too GM for me, but other than that its good. When I first started this I couldn't tell which way the director was going, but it didn't dissappoint. Either way if you can look past the fx its worth a watch or two.

Leia Mais

This is my second Chinese live action series which is based on BL novel after The Untamed and it has positive and negative aspects.
First of all, storywise is not the best sometimes to the point of confusing and doesn't really make sense. It doesn't follow the novel exactly since they have to rewrite the whole story to avoid censorship. But I really hoped they could've done better job to make it more logical and easier to follow. The CG effects are also quite bad and seems like a cheap production. The acting of the supporting cast are also not very memorable and some of them are downright third-rate performance.
The only saving grace of this series is the superb acting skills and amazing chemistry between two leads, Bai Yu (Zhao Yunlan) and Zhu Yilong (Shen Wei). Man, they are so pleasant to watch, from their interaction, dialogue and micro expressions between them. Gentle and beautiful Shen Wei and shameless Zhao Yunlan, it is as if they come straight out of novel to real life. To be honest, I watch this series and give good rating just because of them. Oh and the soundtrack too! Especially their duet song"Flying Across Time", it's really good and give you some feelings of their relationship.
I would recommend you to watch this, regardless of the story and quality of production, just watch for the main leads performance and you won't be disappointed :)

Leia Mais

I Loved this drama so much because of 2 things, Bai Yu and Zhu Yi Long, there chemistry and acting was amazing. I was disappointing going in to it knowing that the BL aspect had not been added, but to be honest there was continuous hints and only a fool could not see that these 2 men loved each other deeply. The only drawback from my perspective in terms of acting was the rest of the cast and their lack of acting skill. Unfortunately the story was butchered and we where given an ending that was sad and heartbreaking that is not in the book. But overall i have been drawn back to it numerous times because of the power of Shen Wei and Zhao Yun Lan, and the fact that i just can't get enough of them.

Leia Mais

I loved this Drama from beginning to end. 40 episodes just enough. How the Black cloak envoy and Guardian angel maintains peace on the Haixing realm is what this drama is about.
Zu yi long and Johnny bai gave life to the characters Shen Wei/Envoy/Yezun and Zhaoyunlan/Kunlun. The understanding, friendship and the love between these two characters is what made me glued to this drama.

Loved the music and story. Do give this a try, you will end up shedding a tear or two or you might end up crying all the time especially in the last few episodes.

Do give the original author's ending a try. I hear that ending is on wattpad.

Leia Mais

Just a heads up: I have not read the novel yet, so this review is based solely off my experience from going in blind. (Also, I am a BL fan and shipper, so I will touch on Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei's "bromance".)

Story

I did enjoy the story and the setting for Guardian as it was something I personally hadn't seen too much of (not sure how many are similar out there). The show felt quite lighthearted most of the time despite the themes and cases the characters experienced, but still managed to make me cry in a few scenes (always a good sign). I felt that the show kept a good pace most of the time, and only on a couple of occassions was I a little jarred because they rushed through something. The ending was alright, a bit more open ended than I would've liked, but didn't diminish my enjoyment of the show at all.

Acting/Cast

Overall I thought the cast did a good job. Just a bit of overacting at times (though mainly revolving around the SFX rather than in emotional scenes, which I felt were handled pretty well), but the two main characters had brilliant chemistry and I always looked forward to their interactions. The rest of the characters all had interesting dynamics and were fun to watch interacting too, and I was glad most of the characters were developed with backstory, relationships and circumstances surrounding their powers etc. Another thing I did enjoy was the use of good whispering, unlike most stage whispers you hear in dramas, though one minor character uses it a bit excessively towards the end of the series, which was amusing to watch.

Bromance

There were two bromances in this show. The one not between the two MCs took a little warming up to, but I could see the potential from early on and grew fonder of them over time. Brotherly love with teasing, protectiveness and a smidge of idolising.

However, for me, the realtionship between the MCs does go quite a bit beyond bromance. From their first few encounters you can feel the different energy between them, and I think by ep 3 I was sold on the ship. As usual, the relationship is toned down from the BL in the novel, but the way these two care for/look after/look out for each other just spoke to me of much more. Also, the side characters do hint at and tease about their close relationship several times during the show.

Basically, you /might/ be able to watch without noticing anything beyond a VERY strong bromance between the MCs (platonic soulmates, if you're wanting to go that way), but personally I couldn't help but see around the censoring, and really did enjoy the MCs' relationship and dynamic (fun, flirtacious and caring).

Music

Not too much music in the show, but I did enjoy what music there was. The opening was alright, good enough that I didn't feel the need to skip every episode after the 1st episode. I would recommend not watching the opening as, like with a lot of dramas I've seen, they like to show clips of scenes which I don't like to spoil myself with. During the more emotional scenes, there were some lovely songs.

SFX 4/10

This is probably the lowest part of the show for me. I haven't been watching dramas for too long, so I might not have the best judgement when it comes to the quality of SFX to expect. I must say, if SFX quality is a big thing for you when watching a show, Guardian might be hard for you to watch. A lot of the powers didn't look too bad, however, any animals or creatures animated in CG were so bad to the point of just being more funny than cringey. I mentioned about a bit of overacting, and this is usually tied with someone using/being attacked by powers as the actors are really having to use their imagination, and might have been a bit too strongly directed at times. Some of the editing wasn't very clean either, though most transitions were pretty good (only remember flinching back once when it was very abrupt). The green-screening was a bit ridiculous at times, espicially towards the end. Any blood or injuries were very halfhearted, at times literally just a stripe of (VERY vibrant) red, where you can actually see the texture from the bristles of the brush used to paint it on. I suppose if you're someone not keen on injuries, this would make viewing easier.

Overall

I'd be happy to rewatch this show with a friend as the plot and characters are interesting, but mainly because I really enjoyed the relationship and dynamic between the MCs. The show was very easy to binge (thanks to nearly every ep ending on a cliffhanger/mid-sentence) and a fun experience which managed to always keep quite lighthearted despite the events taking place.

Leia Mais

Whew...

Not going to lie, this took me AWHILE to finish. and thanks to the ending I'm disappointed in myself for taking so long. lol So first I gotta drill into your heads this IS NOT BL! It's been washed down to bromance but don't let that stop you. Personally, I got bored a few times (which is what took so long to finish it) but overall it's still good. There's cuteness, adventure and humor. The biggest downfall for me was the graphics...Everything would've been a billion times better with the proper graphics!!! Like I said, overall it's good. The ending had me in my feels and it's worth the watch cause honestly if you're a BL fan even though this has been downed to a bromance it's still a Cult Classic lmao
Enjoy...

Leia Mais

One of My Favorite Adaptations of a Priest Novel

Where to start to unpack this series? First of all, the main leads Bai Yu and Zhu Yi Long are magical together! Even though this is a censored adaptation (thanks china) you can see and feel the characters love for each other. Somehow this series got away with a lot more physical contact then others I have seen ?lots of touching of hands and shoulders and even my favorite scene in the car with Zhao Yunlan sleeping on Shen Wei's shoulder! Yep, magic. Oh my, the necklace! ? That one got me.

The rest of the cast is pretty much a hit or miss. The purple-haired villain was so bad I was waiting for him to say "And I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for you meddling kids!" I would have loved to have had more Cat (Da Qing) story, who wouldn't like to know more about the Cats? Would love to know more about Chu Shuzhi too! What a cool ability with the puppets! The delusional snake lady's story really didn't add much to the series and they could have taken it out completely. And I really wish that the Guo character would have died a horrible death, sorry. ?He just irritated the hell out of me and by all rights should have died early in the series. The rest of the team pretty much sank into the background for me so not much to say.

The actual story itself was kind of all over the place, probably because of all the changes that had to be made to satisfy the censors. Read the novels! I'll admit I got lost a few times and had to rewatch some episodes to try and figure out what the hell the story line was. The FX was either really good or really bad, like they ran out of money and had to half-ass most of the special affects! And the sets were either really good or really bad too, money again?

So even though this series had some issues with cast and story and FX and production, it's still one of my favorites and I will still give it a 10 because of the leads and will rewatch it over and over.

And the ending, oh boy, be prepared to cry. However, I believe they ended up finding each other again, someday.

Leia Mais

unforgettable drama

I watched this drama because of YouTube recommendations, i fall for it directly so i decided to watch it . in the first impression this is really not my type! this kind of fantasy you know, but after finished few episodes i started to like it more and i started to accept this kind of fantasy.

The story is pretty good and well written. The lead characters one of the most attractive characters that i seen before! and the relationship between Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan indescribable, They offer a lot of love, passion and sacrifices. i touched by every moment between these two. honestly i really feel sad when people say "this is not BL drama so i'm going to skip/drop it" please guys stop judge by the genre!!! they deserve give it a try because of the story and ZYL & BY acting and above of that their sweet moments off-screen and their friendship.

Finally i can give this drama 10/10 but the ending smashed my little heart and it's hard to cure my big wounds, believe me the ending could be better than this but really i don't like this ending i cried rivers and i'm still crying in every time i see a fan made. IT'S REALLY HARD TO GET OVER THIS EVEN FOR YEARS BUT AT THE SAME TIME I'M NOT REGRETFUL I'M REALLY GLAD THAT I GOT TO KNOW TWO GREAT ACTORS.

Leia Mais

Dropped/On Hold Because I'm Bored...

Decided to watch this series as it can been compared to The Untamed and been regarded as China's second best option for BL content after The Untamed. The series started off strong. It was interesting. However, it is not a BL at all though. More like a Bromance. Unfortunately, it became slow, overlong and dull. So after watching Episode 10, I decided to drop it or at least put it on hold. Maybe, I'll revisit in the future; maybe not. We'll see...

Instead of an overarching storyline like The Untamed, this series opts for like a "monster/mystery of the week" format. A new case for each episode similar to Western shows like Supernatural. Not a big fan of this format to be honest as I find it to be dull and aimless, like a distraction from the plot. Yes, there is an overarching plotline with the purple hair dude and the Black-Cloaked Envoy, but it takes a backseat to the "monsters."

I do like Old Chu and Little Guo's relationship though. I'm always a big fan of opposite-attract relationships.

Props to China for giving big-budgets to these high-concept, epic fantasy BL novels! The Untamed and now, Guardian! Even Thailand doesn't have a BL on the production level of The Untamed or Guardian, though I wished they did! Also, props to China for having these innovative BL stories unlike Thailand which is practically all like university setting (though there are some high-concept Thai BL's coming in the near future).

Leia Mais

Just one word for this show - aaaaaargh

So. This show. Simply a disaster. The SFX are so lousy that they could be from the 90s. They remind me of "Mortal Kombat" (the 90s movie) and "Hercules - The Legendary Journeys" and that really shouldn't be the case for a TV program that was shot in 2018 (!). The script is just horrible. The similarities to the book are just about there. Instead of ghosts we have aliens (WTF) and of course they tried to completely suppress the whole LGBTQ love story. The episodes are sometimes so damn amateurishly written that it's just embarrassing and so are most of the supporting actors. Many are seriously lousy. Whether it's the really abysmal acting of Xin Peng, who spoils Guo or Ming Tingliu - just awful. Jiang Mingyang (Chu Shuzhi) is the only one who isn't a complete embarrassment, and then there are Zhu Yilong and Ba Yu, thank heavens. Those two are really the only reason I am still watching this show at all. Truly bloody amazing actors, very good chemistry and they somehow manage to bypass the script and still get the book across., which is quite a feat It's pretty clear that the crappy script wants to hammer in that the Shen Wei and Zhao Yun Lan are just friends, but Zhu Yilong and Ba Yu don't play along with that. When Shen Wei grabs his heart with a longing and pained expression on his face after having the chance to touch Zhao Yun Lan in episode 7? THAT certainly wasn't in the script. Guardian absolutely does not deserve the two main leads. I already know that the ending of the book was completely ruined, so I'll probably drop the show after episode 17/ 18, but I still don't regret watching it simply because the two leads are so good.

So, yeah. If the book had received the same treatment as "Word of Honor" then this show could be truly legendary but as it is, it is only legendary for being a fuck-up.

Leia Mais

The character had so much dept my God!!

So when i saw the title i was skeptical and the synopsis didn't work out for me, but i'm so glad i tried it out.
This is my first Bai Yu movie and so far he did so much with his character Zhang Yulan i was so impressed he had so much expression and his eyes were so filled with emotion it was stunning, oh and Zhu Yilong nailed another role once again he did so well as Ye Zun and Shen Wei the acting was sooo great. The story made so much sense and as the tag says lots of character death but still worth it all the same.
The other cast did well too, though i would have wanted for the story to develope Ye Zun, i really think the character has a lot of depth and it wasn't portrayed totally.
The movie is something special and worth the watch if you are into a little bit of a heavy drama and also not a compulsive Romance shipper. Try it and you won't regret it. The ending was not what i wanted but i still got the satisfaction of finishing a movie with all the tears and emotions lol

Leia Mais

The brother chemistry with the main leads is very good! Excellent! I hope these actors such as Bai Yu and Zhu Yi Long carry their friendship shown in this story doesn't quit after they finish this job. I'm looking forward to seeing more dramas with them in it. I love the camaraderie they all had with each other. The storyline about evil and good was awesome. The only thing I didn't like was the two characters left their friends in their timeline. I really didn't care for the last few minutes of the ending. I was also impressed with Jiang Ocean and Xing Peng. Xing Peng to play a role as he did, to fear everything then be brave when he needed to was excellent acting. Jiang your acting skills as his friend and brother... was phenomenal. I loved everything about his and I hope they come with a sequel.

Leia Mais