Real Wuxia Story Like the Old Days
I’m a wuxia novel fan, and Gu Long was one of my earlier favorite authors during my growing up years. However, I’ve not read this particular novel, Juedai Shuangjiao (Legendary Twins) which is supposed to be a great novel that has been adapted in this drama. When I stumbled across this drama, I was ecstatic because I recognized Hu Yitian and has wanted to watch his new dramas.For the first few episodes, I was disappointed with the quality of the drama. I was not only disappointed with the acting and the overall plot, I found it hard to understand the logic of the characters. Everyone seemed stupid and gullible. The heroes could easily give up their own lives for some very trivial and unreal reasons. They could also fall into the tricks of the same villains over and over again. Everything was noisy with obnoxious and over exaggerated characters. I was stuck at episode 8 and found myself unable to move on.
I couldn’t understand the high rating on MDL; I thought I must be missing something. So I returned to the series and continued. As I began watching it with a mindset of simple logic, and seeing the impossibilities as possibilities, I began to follow the mood and flow of the story, and in fact rather enjoyed it till the end.
The story is a typical story from Gu Long’s novel - a whole maze of characters that can be confusing and hard to remember, the heroes always get the shorter ends whereas the villains triumph (initially), all the pretty girls tend to fall in love at first sight with the protagonist. Admittedly, the drama is tropey and the consequences are as expected. Nonetheless, embracing its shortcomings, I found the drama rather entertaining after I got passed the first 10 episodes.
This is a story of two twin brothers separated at birth, their parents murdered. One twin is adopted by the killers and the other is raised by a group of villains. 18 years later, the brothers meet and are told to kill each other for no reasons provided. The story revolves around the two brothers who go through all the adventures together and separately, and eventually learn about their own story and meet the loves of their lives.
The twins have totally opposite characteristics: one is dull and righteous (played by Hu Yitian), whereas the other street smart, jovial, bombastic and mischievous (played by Chen Zhi Yuan). It is hard to assess Hu Yitian’s acting because the character he plays is quiet with little emotion (he’s been brought up with not much affection). On the other hand, I really enjoy Chen Zhi Yuan’s acting, which is cute, funny and natural. Chen Zhi Yuan has a young boyish face which really helps in his portrayal of Xiao Yu’er (little fish) that brings out his playfulness.
To my surprise, the official sound tracks are very nice. They are composed with an air of authentic Chinese wuxia tunes; the music is soothing and the lyrics are moving.
Overall, I can’t say I love this drama. But to be fair, it is an interesting drama that deals deep into the relationship of a pair of separated brothers, and in the end the righteous wins over the evil.
If you’re a wuxia or Gu Long fan, you may thoroughly enjoy this drama. If you’re not so familiar with the author and his work, you may find it overwhelming and unrealistic. All in all, this is not as bad as I have originally thought. In fact, I have enjoyed the sword fighting and qinggong (wire fu) scenes pretty well.
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Some of fight scenes were best I have ever seen in historical dramas.story also not bad.drama ending also satisfying and it is happy ending.first I thought this drama may not interesting because, some of bad reviews.i don’t know why many of viewers given low ratings for this drama.this drama is must watch.Not a time wasting.I’m so much loved to this drama Beginning to end.
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I went into this drama blind, having no familiarity with either the original novel or any of the prior TV series. Based on the title and the blurb, I had the impression that this would be about two brothers who are separated at birth and raised under different circumstances. And that's pretty much what happened!Handsome Siblings features two brothers separated at birth after the untimely murder of their parents. One brother is raised by a group of chaotic neutral villains while the other raised in one of the premiere sects, the Shifting Flower Palace, unknowingly by the same people who killed their parents. Through various plots, contrivances, and coincidences, the two siblings are driven into conflict with one another.
Regarding plot, the drama is overall quite predictable other then a few twists that popped out of nowhere. The general trajectory of the plot unfolds about as one would imagine. Unlike some dramas which feature interlinking small stories to give payoff at a steady rate, this drama went with the single large overarching plot route. This led to some annoyance during the drama when all the villains continually escape consequences but it eventually wraps up neatly and with satisfying emotional payoff. However, I would recommend not thinking about this plot too much as the whole thing is built on a rickety foundation of unlikely coincidences where major characters meet each other at precisely the correct times, out of blind luck. The plot is also chock full of wuxia tropes, with murdered fathers, falling into ravines, nefarious plots, secret underground palaces, ancient powerful kungfu manuals, and quirky characters aplenty. If you suspend your disbelief however, it works fairly well.
The characters are generally likeable although many characters are fairly flat and archetypal. The acting is overall reasonable but there is some overacting as again, many of the characters are archetypes who only have one or two defining traits so they play up those traits. The two male leads are both decent, with Yu'er especially becoming much more likeable as the story goes along. Hua Wu Que is fairly wooden but that's also how his characters is written and he does a good job of letting his emotions just barely peek through. The female lead (Tie Xin Lan), unfortunately, is also very wooden and is oddly vaguely characterized but the secondary female lead (Su Ying) is likeable and well-portrayed. The side characters, both antagonistic and side kicks, are all well-portrayed.
Production values are reasonable as well. The cast is fairly small with limited extras but this is a wuxia piece and not a historical piece so it's not terribly distracting. Sets and costumes look good. Music is forgettable but not bad.
Overall, I had a fun time with this drama. If you're looking for a "great" drama maybe this won't be it--a lot of the plot and characterization is a bit simple, tropey, and contrived. But if you just want to be entertained by likeable characters doing fun things, give it a try.
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Not Good but Not Bad
I can’t say the story is bad but it is not good. The story idea is simple about an antagonist character who wants to take revenge on the man she loves by took one from his twin sons, separated them at birth in order to make them against each other when they grew up.Let me talk about the negative first.
I wonder why almost 85% of the characters in this drama are villains. All the people the boys mostly meet are scammers. When I watch the drama and I heard someone screaming for help, I just talk to myself… “Ok, another scammer”. Scammers or protagonist turned antagonist. I never watch such a bunch of villain party in other Wuxia drama I’ve watched so far. The plots are indeed very repetitive.
Next, my hate goes to Tie Xin Lan character. This character really pains in the ass for me. What a troublesome person. I can't remember how many times I want to strangle this girl.
Some plots are nonsense, such as Yulang’s prosthetic hand…. How absurd is that hand…. lol... C'mon, in that era to create a real-hand like prosthetic hand....
Yulang’s death is too easy for me. After so many deaths failed, I think this character deserves a more remarkable death.
Now the positive things,
The writer actually already creates quite strong characters, Xiao Yu Er is smart and cunning extroverted while Hua Wu Que the other is a quiet and naïve introverted. The character very constant until the end.
I’m a type of viewer who waits until the drama ends before I watch it, in order to be able to skip any scenes that I hate. I can’t stand if the antagonist wins too much and even just dropped in the middle if the storyline is too crappy and frustrated me. This drama indeed frustrated me, but I weirdly stayed until the very last… even I did skip a lot of parts.
The ending part and how the boys will resolve the main problem is guessable, but still entertaining. Though I think if the writer makes the second auntie uncover her sister's wrongdoing and makes Yao Yue realized her mistakes and spend the rest of her life doing good deeds in order to pay for her sins... is more graceful ending for me. I hate if the antagonist dies. Die is too easy! Make them pay for their sins is better... just like Jiang Bie He's ending. But... who am I... lol
Overall, I don’t love it, I don’t hate it either.
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Unexpectedly good
Honestly while watching this series, I almost stopped so many times but every time I wanted to stop Jiang Xiao Yu will do something that makes me wanna continue. I swear I watched this solely for Jiang. I saw so many bad reviews on this and while I agree with some of the points that lead to the bad reviews I will say this, Chen Zhe Yuan totally carried this series all by his lonesome self and boy did I enjoy every fricking minute he was on screen. I stumbled across this series and I watched it in one go even though I wanted to stop several times as earlier said.Hu Yi Tian character was so stoic and so boring and I think the actor could have done better even though is character was supposed to be all serious. I honestly have never liked anything that Hu Yi Tian has done.
The best part of this series is definitely when Jiang says he’s the smartest person in the world and I completely agree with him.
This is such an underrated gem IMO.
If you are debating to watch this, I honestly highly recommend.
Rewatch value is 7/10 just because if I ever do rewatch I would only rewatch the scenes with Jiang in them.
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Slippery fish and flower
The title does little justice to the show. I had been interested in maybe watching this for a long time from seeing the odd screencap or .gif set, but based solely on the name had frankly written it off a little.This is the most wuxia wuxia I've seen since the 2000s. From the fight scenes, depictions of any use of martial prowess and so on, to the array of villains with specific and detailed character designs such as the Ten Great Villains and Zodiac Twelve, it was wuxia to the bones. It's been a long time since I've seen a wuxia where villainous characters have been interestingly costumed and had concepts personal to them, so this was a treat for me.
The story has a neat opening and ending, in that it is essentially all one arc or event, and doesn't stray from it. The first few episodes were slow, perhaps up to about episode 10 or so, while the show was still finding its feet, but I was interested in the plot and what was going to happen from pretty much the start. The story however really mainly picks up after the mid-to-late-20s episode mark. The ending seemed odd to me initially in that it closed not on the two brothers but rather on Hua Wu Que and Tie Xin Lan, but this in fact reflects the opening of the show on Jiang Feng and Hua Yue Nu. and brings the story full circle and closes it roundly. I found it really interesting how the romance storyline developed for the main characters. This is the first time I remember ever seeing the female lead fall in love with one of the main male leads and then slowly shift to end up falling in love and ending up with the other male lead. I was really rooting for the original coupling to work out for the female lead at first, and it was an intriguing experience to watch and feel how it shifted into a different pairing instead, especially when it was driven by and came about as a result of the first. It was also interesting to me that the second female lead comes in so late in the show - at about the two-third episode mark, I believe. I've seen comments noting that this is faithful to the original novel the show is adapted from, which I haven't read. While I feel like it would make more sense to me if I were reading it in a book, it translates interestingly in the context of a show adaptation where it feels like I don't get to build much of an impression of the second female lead and feel the relationship build up, so that it felt a little sudden and underdeveloped for me. Nevertheless, it's a choice I'm rather glad they made if it stays true to the source material, because I think it's an interesting one and completely plausible in how meeting people works - you meet lots of people in the course of living and adventuring, but then you meet a particular someone after all of those other ones who came before who just becomes important to you, and you meet them when you meet them. I hated the main villains (which meant that they were doing their job), and I enjoyed most of the supporting characters of the same generation as Xiao Yu'er and Hua Wu Que. While there were some not completely-tight ends in the story, and I felt flashbacks were used a bit too often in showing some major pivotal events that would have been better served not done as flashbacks, overall the story pulled together.
I hadn't seen any of the main actors in other shows previously, and I thought they all did a terrific job. I really enjoyed Xiao Yu'er, and his portrayal by Chen Zhe Yuan was just right for me. Despite being played by the same actor, I felt the characters of Jiang Feng and Hua Wu Que are very easily told apart; whether this was mainly to do with the hairstyling or not I couldn't say for sure, but each certainly had their own aura to me, so props to Hu Yi Tian. Tie Xin Lan was possibly the character out of the main leads whom I felt seemed to do only one thing, but I still liked her, she just unfortunately didn't seem to have very much to do. The one character I did feel was slightly overacted was Jiang Yu Lang, but he is a sniveling weasel and in that sense I suppose it fits.
The music is also extremely classic wuxia sort of music. I really like both the opening and ending theme songs, and also loved the instrumental (flute?) version of the ending theme that plays during some scenes in the show as background music. Considering I'm listening to the ending theme on repeat now after finishing the show, 9 points for music.
A good rewatch if you're craving a classic wuxia, despite any slow bumps in the story, so overall 9 points from me for being such an enjoyable rendition of the golden age of wuxia.
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When I first started the series, the beginning really caught my interest with the story of the parents’ death. The whole plot to separate the twins in order for them to eventually fight and kill one another was great! So I thought I would be plunged into some in depth series and I couldn’t wait. Although the series so far is alright, i guess my expectations were too high. I’m at the point where I’m forcing myself to watch it to see if it gets better.
Before I get with the negative, the things I did love about the show was the acting of xiaoyuer. He just kept my interest every time and carried the show on his back. The other characters did what they had to as well (although I’m not too fond of hyt’s stoic acting, although there’s not much to do with his character).
The fight scenes were also 10/10 probably some of the best I’ve ever seen in a wuxia.
My problems with the show:
The characters.
In the beginning I really enjoyed the brother, xianyuer’s character way more than huque. He was funnier, smarter and was likeable and enjoyable to watch. Now as the series went on, his mysogynistic comments become too much to bear (I know the tone is due to the fact of the story deriving from an older novel), he’s way too arrogant and it’s like he does things the most difficult and chaotic way possible when simpler solutions are available. So it’s frustrating to see and scream a better solution through my phone screen. I must say his cleverness has still never failed him.
The other brother, Hua wuque, was first introduced as calm, collected and impressively strong. Although he was boring from the start, I didn’t dislike his character. What I don’t get is how someone so ‘humble’ always comes off as so self-righteous. For a gentleman he really stuck his nose in everything and it was also annoying to watch how easily fooled he was for half of the show. I understand he lived in solitude with his aunts acting as his masters, but to never question once why they want this random boy dead, especially seeing how the martial arts world saw his aunts as evil was just alarming. And then even working right next to the main villain without realizing, especially if xiaoyuer had been shouting about it for episodes upon episodes. Come on...
Xinlan in the beginning was strong. Strong enough to easily overpower xianyouer and fight off hoards of villains. But the moment she started to ‘fall in love’ she just turned completely useless. All she did after that was get in the way of every fight. They really did her character dirty and made her go from likeable to unlikeable real fast. So much for girl power.
Story:
This storyline could’ve been something great!
But so many things really prevented this.
Firstly, the brothers went from enemies to best friends way too quickly. Like all of the times Hua Wuque tried to kill Xiaoyuer and never believed him just flew right out the window in a mere second. I’m all for not holding grudges, but it made me, as the viewer, feel like I imagined all those episodes of them hating each other and they were lifetime best friends this whole time.
Unlike others who had a problem with the dragging story and found it boring, I was actually entertained by the potentials of the story. There were many ways these storylines could’ve been handled though but it seemed xiaoyuer and company wanted to take the hardest route every time.
For example, when Xiaoyuer first tried to reveal jiang biehe’s plot and yulang was disguised as a porter, you’re telling me no one thought to questioned how a porter would have those skills ?? And why didn’t xiaoyuer just take off Yulang’s disguise to reveal his identity.
It was also annoying to see the recurring theme: the main things being solved by Xiaoyuer before anyone else and no one acknowledges. But then episodes later the same thing is “discovered” as if we didn’t find this out episodes ago.
This story had such great potential. I’m still in the process of forcing myself to watch. But it’s so hard when I’m currently not fond of any of the main characters, probably only black spider. Looking forward to hopefully more character development but I’d say that’d be unlikely with about 10 episodes left.
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Honestly was so hyped for this because of Hu Yi Tian. But it’s easy to fall in live with the characters and the story. I admit there were a lot of side characters and side stories for me but the main plot was seriously solid, no wonder it’s like a classic in China. I was so obsessed with the fight scenes and the dramatic flying and leaping was so fun to watch, I know this is like a thing for traditional chinese dramas, and I’d say Im really into it. There are a lot of beautiful actresses here, especially Tie Xin Lan, couldnt get enough of her, shes so cute! Also Little Fairy. Wish I’d get to see more of these two in the future. I also loved Hua Wuque’s aunts. They looked so pretty and fierce. Yaoyue may be a crazy evil bitch but sis is really gorgeous. And Lianxing too, she’s so pretty. I loved how they really embody how people see and perceive Yihua Palace. They look and act so regal and beautiful. But anyways, I really loved this drama so much. I wish Lianxing got to live though. I know it’s impossible but I still wish there’s season 2. I will miss these characters so much. ? Also, I ship Hu Yi Tian and Vicky Liang I wish there’d star opposite each other again someday. But one could only hope ?
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Ridiculously Bad Melodrama
Kitchen-sink melodrama, like a hundred others with some of the most outlandish plot points and characters ever!Some good things to say:
- The male leads were decent enough. Not anything particularly great. ML was an annoying little boy in a man's body, SML was the really good, but stoic guy, and for once, the best guy got the FL (hurray!).
- I liked the FL here. She was beautiful, smart, skilled, and her character became more mature with time, which was excellent character development. The only female character who wasn't easily manipulated and acted like an 8 year old. She did, however, need constant rescuing by the SML, which was unfortunate. She couldn't survive 5 min without him. I, unlike many, am very fond of love triangles where the FL has feelings for both MLs. It is more realistic that a FL would have feelings for one ML, and then start to have feelings for another ML, as she goes through character developement. It also keeps you guessing as to who she will end up choosing.
- A lot of money was spent on the cinematography. A lot of wasted aerial views, unfortunately, but a few nice ones of bamboo forests. Some nice angles and framework, and the colourization was decent too.
Why do I waste my time of these badly written Chinese costume dramas? To see hot guys in Hanfu, of course.
The negatives:
- The whole plot is crap. Sorry, not going to break down the plot, it was literally all the worst "revenge" drama plot ever. And the actual revenge wasn't even for something bad that happened to the antagonists!
- The antagonists are the weirdest bunch of psychos ever in a C drama, and that is saying quite a lot! They were also all so incredibly annoying.
- The acting of most of the protagonist characters, I'm sorry, but their acting was crap. Even the FL, who I liked, didn't act that great here. I'm going to blame this on the director. But points given for one of the only FLs in a Chinese melodrama that wasn't a bubbly, saccharine, 8 year old inside a woman's body.
Go ahead and watch this, if it is playing in the background, whilst you do something else.
I watched it for the hot and kind SML, the love triangle, and the expensive crane shots, but I skipped most of it for my own sanity.
I give this 2 out of 10 roosters.
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well-made remake
I think this drama was really well put together and honestly getting it onto netflix definitely helped with views in the intl market (loved to see more netflix partnerships/licensing, cause access is everything).MAIN ACTING: the acting is a way is very believable. Chen Zhe Yuan was able to show the maturity that Xiao Yu has. Xiao Yu in my honest opinion is a very complex character, Xiao Yu is essentially a mastermind hiding behind the face of a child. Chen Zhe Yuan brought that out, his version of Xiao Yu was 7/10 mischievous child and 3/10 brilliant mastermind. It was easier to see and understand the character. Hu Yi Tian, on the other hand I feel like he has played this character a few times (I'm not really sure, not too caught up on his stuff pre-this/2020). He brought out the stick-in-mud aspect of Huq WuQue really well, but his version had the slightest hint of childishness. I think this made the character really well because as the story normally goes, Hua WuQue didn't exactly have any thing that resembled a normal childhood, so that hint of childishness made the character feel a bit more complex. I just wished they allowed more time to develop this aspect of Hua WuQue.
SIDE CASTS: I really enjoyed the side casts. They added seriousness where it was needed, comedy where appropriate, and cringey-ness where it was passable. They definitely spiced up the story and made it feel a lot more complete (since there was quite a bit of character development for the side characters). I really love the TomBoy character, I dunno why, they were just very entertaining bringing the "wtf" factors in.
FIGHT SCENES: i think the fight scenes couldve been better acted out or the way it was dragged out/editing couldve felt better. There wasnt much haste or excitement or fear/suspense coming from these scenes. It was appropriate, it was fine, but it couldve been better
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The story consist of mix feelings, sad, laughter, anger.
The best actor in this show is by Chen Zheyuan as Xiaoyu'er. He is able to bring laughter and sadness to the audience and portray to us a life lesson for human is to have a big heart, help others and live life to the fullest everyday.
As for Han Yi Tian as Hua Wuque, his character portray justice and to do the right thing in life rather than just following instructions blindly.
Tie Xinlan and Jiang Yulang also acted great in this show.
As this drama lacks development in romance and brotherhood after Xiaoyu'er and Hua Wuque found out that they are siblings. Perhaps they could have Handsome Siblings 2 to portray Xiaoyu'er and Hua Wuque brotherhood and helping the martial art world. Story can further develop for the romance of "Hua Wuque with Tie Xinlan" and "Xiaoyu'er with Su Ying".
Morale of this drama
- Must watch
- Great life lesson
- Great cast
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