Palavra de Honra (2021)

This was good, BUT?

Word of Honour was not a bad Bl adapation drama, but it was not a good one either; I disliked how they brought some scences to life and the lack of direction the show would take at times, gave an almost directionless feeling to the show at times. The actor who played the Ghost king, the title Ghost King almost did not seem real you never really see him act like at ruler and his personality changes so much throughout the show that it's slightly weird, in a bad way.

While the ex-assassian seems to think that because he knew wen kushin when they were young he has a say in his life now, this would not bother me that much if he was not so judgmentle on Wen Kushin choices.

I liked the outfites, besides the music, they were my favorite part of the show.
Plus Scorpion King aka Scorpion, was my favorite villan, he father was a great villan but I have to say I liked Scorpion better.

Leia Mais

the ending

I'm sorry guys , but I can't understand the ending and I can't accept it , like I just have finished it and I can't stop crying over it frrrrr👀💔
the story is amazing, and the actors just mind blowing, the feelings and the scenes were the best .
I've watched after The Untamed, and I don't wanna compare between the two of them .
But to be real I was expecting moreeeeee, because the two of them have passed by hard times and they were very close to each other.
I'm not regretting watching this amazing serie but If I knew that the ending is gonna be like this , I don't think I was gonna watching .

Leia Mais

A Couch Potato Review of the Series: Word of Honor.

I am going to warn early as this is also going to be posted on MyDramaList, I am not going to be a gushing fangirl with all sorts of lines like "OMG OMG OMG OMG this is the best Wuxia BL ever!!! (in spite of the high review I did give there). This is more a reflection of how far some countries have come when dealing with LGBT/BL story lines and how far some countries still have to go to accepting the 10%+ of the population that exists within its borders. I'm reminded to reinforce this concept as the late Mira Furlan once said as the character Delenn of Minbar, "...everywhere Humans go, they create communities out of diverse and sometimes hostile populations. It is a great gift and a terrible responsibility. One that can not be abandoned..."

I have to say that after seeing the teaser for it in my recommended videos on YouTube's main page, I had mixed feelings of sitting there and watching yet another Chinese series that originally had a strongly BL theme to it. Since watching Guardian which also had a strong BL theme in the book and then turning it into a "friend-zone interest"/bromance my taste for these levels of censorship died in the 80s when I was already some years out of the closet and enjoying more positive and independent LGBT cinema works. In fact in my never-ending study in humanities and the aspects of human love regardless of sexuality, sexual identity and even proclivities, I have routinely found that out of all the countries that I have sampled stories involving LGBT/BL levels of relationship, China and Brazil seem to share a 60+ years in the past Hollywood mindset of killing off LGBT/BL characters to even stamping out through censorship and downplaying anything that might show as sexual tension or even sexual attraction between same sex characters.

Word of Honor carries with it all the typical plots and subplots, contrivances, tropes and hundreds of major and minor characters you'd expect of any Wuxia story. One of the protagonists -- Zhou Zi Shu (played by Zhang Zhe Han who I had first caught in another period piece called Legend of Yun Xi) -- is a disillusioned and disheartened leader of an imperial force called the Window of Heaven. He imposed on himself the same pain and agony he did while serving as the leader of Window of Heaven: the Nails of Seven Torments which are inserted into a Kung Fu Master's meridians thereby ensuring that he will only live no more than three years before dying in the sort of agony no one would want to have being deprived of all seven senses and the amount of pain being unbearable. The other protagonist -- Wen Ke Xing (played by Gong Jun who I will be looking into more in the future) -- that from a tragic past turns out to being the leader of the Ghost Valley (a place of criminals wanting to maintain their criminal lives without ever being part of the human world).

Pros

Wen Ke Xing's comments towards Zhou Zi Shu when they first met -- even when Shu was in disguise -- were overtly sexual compared to the heterosexual counterparts both in this story as well as other Wuxia stories I've watched. Not to mention the continued overtly sexual and flirtatious comments are definitely a step in the right direction when it comes to the censorship that China continues to maintain on LGBT/BL stories.

Zhou Zi Shu warms up to Ke Xing's flirtations and attention. While it becomes clear that this happens through prolonged exposure and coming to accept the fact that Ke Xing's not going to be going away, Shu seems more accepting of the budding relationship going on.

Zhang Cheng Ling's (played by Sun Xi Lun) acceptance of the relationship between Zhou Zi Shu and Wen Ke Xing without question or social stigmas reminds me of how many kids did the same thing when they found out that their fathers, fathers of friends and complete strangers they encounter in their life were gay or lesbians. This to me has always been a step in the right direction that the younger generations will always be more accepting than the older.

Extra points when it came to Wen Ke Xing's comments during the second Heroes Conference when he defeated Zhao Jing (played by Wang Ruo Lin) when confronted by all the leaders of the sects attending the Heroes Conference when they discovered he was the Leader of the Ghost Valley even after he was able to prove his lineage leads back to the destroyed sect from the Healer Valley. I don't often catch when the survivor of some made-extinct sect has been discovered to be the leader of the villains of the story, and his delivery of "where were all the allies when my father was killed" shamed everyone attending to humility a welcome addition I would like to see happen more. Because more often times than naught the lines between good and evil are not only black and white in Wuxia films -- they are as unchanging and unmalleable.

Zhao Jing being the center stage of true villainy within the story. Through 20 years of story and grievances, you find out he's the kingpin of all things evil going on within the story. Wang Ruo Lin pulls off such a character that people can just love to hate from beginning to middle to end as the story unfolds as to how he was involved with all the plots, counter-plots and ministrations that pulled everything together and apart through the majority of the story.

The almost Oedipus-like love/hate relationship between Zhao Jing and Prince Xie -- or Scorpion King -- (played by Li Dai Kun) going on since Xie's introduction was positively palpable when he discovered time and time and time again at just how much his godfather used him whenever his godfather could. The way that Li Dai Kun can make such a subtle expression come off as hurt and painful is an honor to his acting teacher and directors in this film. I could almost feel sorry for him as a villain given that his godfather used him every step of the way through this story.

The rich and intertwining stories going on with many of the supporting characters. Namely Liu Qian Qiao or Glamourous Ghost (played by Ke Nai Yu) with Yu Qiu Feng (played by Liu Han Yang), Xi Sang Gui or Tragicomic Ghost (played by Chen Sha Sha), Ye Bai Yi or Sword Immortal (played by Huang You Ming). This is the sort of story telling that can only make the world richer and more living than what westerners do with making the stories so main character-centered.

Ambivalence

I find myself not too keen on the use of the word Soulmate when describing these two (as well the minor set of characters from our Sages of An Xian (played by Yu Zi Kuan, Lu Chun Sheng, Zhang Zhi Wei, Tong Xiao Mei and Yu Zi Kuan) that seems to imply a more polyamorous relationship). While I understand that this might be Ciwen Media/Youku attempts at introducing the concept to China's mainstream audience in the same way that Longtime Companion (1989) introduced Significant Other to the English-Speaking mainstream, it's taking a phrase steeped in metaphysical and philosophical knowledge and trivializing it to a euphemism. As though people are that incapable to making the jump from their world into another.

The witless heroes and petty villains of this story. Namely Gao Chong (played by Hei Zi), Mo Huai Yang (played by Wang Bo Qing), Long Xiao (played by Wang Zi Run), his father Long Que (played by Zhang Shuang Li) and Wang Mo Xuan (played by Ren Xi Hong) who I'm sure they had better roles in the book written by Priest, but came off as nothing more than MacGuffins for continuing the story. While I understand that all of these examples are supporting roles to the main character, they seem to be more downplayed than expected and just show up when some plot device needs to be pushed forward and seemed to lack a richer back story I'd come to expect from many of the other characters we were introduced through the 36 episodes.

The occasional CG blunders that pulled me out of immersion and temporary suspension of disbelief. While I understand CG special effects with humans as objects is still in its toddler stage, there were moments when you could clearly tell it was a computer drawn image instead of the actor/actress. Fortunately for me, it wasn't the sort of routine occurrence I would expect from a low budget series so it didn't make me regret my decision to truck on with the series.

Cons

I must've missed some Eastern/Chinese Mores in the transformation from Shu pushing Ke Xing away from him because he was dying to accepting Ke Xing as a Soulmate to live with through the end of his days. Further there doesn't seem to be any indication what internal energies changes from Shu to actually see Ke Xing as a Soulmate he could never live without. In fact, because I might have missed the social queue that occurred, it comes off as an 180 degree change without any explained internalized decision how it changed from the character.

The anticlimactic way Zhao Jing was killed off during the avalanche at the end of the series. This painfully reminded me of so many books I've read and stories I've watched where the writers don't know what to do with a character/villain hanging by the wayside and instead of letting them be forgotten, choose to just wipe them out through some deus ex machina event to just remove them from the plot. While I might have cheered a moment because it removed a loose end, thinking about it later I would've much rather preferred he live out the rest of his days as a mute invalid.

The transformation from pained and tormented villain Prince Xie to two-dimensional and even more petty villain he became fawning over his mute and invalid father while trying to prove just how much of a villain he was and how his father underutilized him through much of the story. If there was a reason to use a dues ex machina to remove a character -- I would've voted for Prince Xie instead of his godfather Zhao Jing, because it's clear from a story telling standpoint, he would be used in future stories in some way or another.

The insane way that the theme song for Zhou Zi Shu and Wen Ke Xing gets hammered into the scenes at every frelling opportunity. While I appreciated the extra work that was done for translating everything in the movie (from dialog to street signs to the plaques in the internal scenery, which is definitely more a pro than a con), the fact that the song had to be translated every bloody time it played along with the song playing through several stanzas was enough for me to be off-put wanting to find it. It's one thing when Chen Wei Ru's Rice Omelet of Love was used at the beginning of the episodes of HIStory 2: Right or Wrong and a plus when it was used in instrumental form through some of the series... To have it play complete with Lyrics so routinely as to try to artificially manipulate the heartstrings of the audience comes off instead as cheap and cash-grabbing.

The 1950s attitude that EVERYTHING needs to have a tidy ending. Villains are vanquished and dead. Questionable characters defeated and given the choice to live outside of the world they were introduced never to be seen again or killed for their loyalty to villainy, and heroes -- other than the protagonists (that will come with the bottom line) -- live happy and prosperous. Further, this particular series heavily relies on Shakespearean-like plot tropes of killing off even minor characters if they transgressed against the fealty and filial of their family and/or their Sect Leader. This is why I usually go looking for indie films and series instead; because with them at least they attempt to make it as gray a world and as messy as life can be as possible.

Bottom Line: While it's clear that it was written in such a way that even the protagonists were going to suffer in the Shakespearean-like way where a non-heterosexual couple has to pay some sort price because it's not the "norm", with enough of the Eastern/Chinese Mores learned, coupled with some attention to details that cropped up during the last episode of this particular series, I was able to do what I've been doing since I was a toddler. Make the ending the way I wanted it to be. Because of that, even with the twists and turns that were introduced to the story, coupled with how many pros there were to cons (listed and unlisted), I found this to being an enjoyable romp through a Costumed, Wuxia, Period Piece. I might go looking for the epilogue to confirm my suspicions. Whether I re-watch it remains to be seen.

One notable afterthought that comes to mind deals with Wu Chang Gui or the Changing (Impermanence) Ghost (played by Xue Fei). I was incredibly impressed with the vocal resonance which Xue Fei used when he was speaking his lines. While I can't seem to find any interviews to confirm whether that was his normal speaking voice or if he pitched it specifically for the role -- I'm off to watch a couple of movies he did support roles to confirm my suspicions.

Leia Mais

ENDING SPOILERS!!!

So i wanna start off by saying this is one of my favourite Chinese Bl dramas. The storyline its beautiful, the actors did an amazing job. BUT WHO THOUGHT THAT ENDING WAS A GOOD IDEA ? Im not even talking about the main protagonists ending because that was an okay ending, but the Xiang and Weining one. They we re literally my favorite characters after Zhou and Wen. I never cried so much while watching a drama. I wanted to leave this here in case someone reads my review. If you are sensitive, cant stand sad endings and you wanna see only happy endings, prepare yourself before watching this. Im not saying dont watch it because it s worth watching, but just prepare yourself mentally, grab lots of tissues. Hope this helps!!

Also, dont let the reviews fool you. I ve noticed some people talking about the plot, about the "lack of emotions". This kind of upset me a little bit if im being honest since this is in my top 3 Chinese dramas. If you really think the characters in this lacked emotion, i honestly think you didnt watch enough dramas with 0 emotions in which the actors had no chemistry whatsoever and it hurt to watch. But Word of Honor ? Seriously ? The reason why Zhou seemed distant and "average" is because thats how he had to be for the storyline to make sense. In a drama (dramas in general, not just BL), the protagonists dont have to be all over each other to make a good drama series. If one is colder and the other one isnt, that s fine too. But that doesnt make it a bad or average drama. No way. I loved and love everything about this, and when i say everything, i mean EVERYTHING.

Leia Mais

PERFECT?️‍?

im saying. this was my 2nd chinese bl drama i watched (guardian was my first)... honestly. i watched this drama about 7 times, and each time it gets more interesting somehow. maybe im just biased or something, but like, most things are just perfecttt

the storyline was well thought through. with the last part (wkx's plan) not being in the novel, it was nice how they added on the idea of wkx's and zzs's past on top the main story. many plot twists were added, but not too much to overpower the whole drama.

the acting... zzh's and gj's acting felt like they were immersed into the character a lot, but emotional scenes could be portrayed better (but shhh, its already so good help-)

the music. its perfect, its the best thing that ever happened. my favourites of the ost is shan he xing, tian ya ke, tian wen, yuan mie, gui, jin shu lai (and every single other one).

the drama makes you bond with the characters a lot. although there are so many characters, it builds up so the viewer can bond with the main ones the most, and the end just makes you- 😭even it being censored, the soulmate thing is still there- it just makes them feel like they're already together (+ one child)

so... yes, my favourite drama of all time

Leia Mais

From a novel reader

As a reader of the novel, I'm going to say this might be the closest novel to drama adaptation ever. It kept almost all of the parts in the novel and added storylines to the main and side characters the original novel was pretty quick and simple but the drama added more depth to it. I'm kind of disappointed that because of budget and time the drama had to end on such a 'cliffhanger-y' note but the extra episode at the end of everything(ep37) gave us a good simple explanation of things as long as you look closer into the scenes and details. Watch it, the costumes, effects, music(omg the music in this drama was ALMOST just as good as The Untamed) I recommend going online to find the ost of Word Of Honor after or before watching it because the songs were beautiful. Stop reading reviews and just go watch it gogogo!

Leia Mais

So this is one of the rare shows that I actually finished and as soon as it was over, I started to rewatch it.
There is so much to say about this show yet I don't think there are enough words on this planet to cover all my feels!!!

I still have a lot of mixed feelings about this show. Not because it was bad, but maybe because of the pace? I know there was a need to build the tension but honestly, it kinda killed a lot of the feeling for me. Which is odd for me to say, I know. Mostly because I loved the hell out of this show.

When I first started it, I won't lie. I was asking myself more than a few times, "what the hell am I doing here? What am I watching? *WHY* am I watching it?!" only to very quickly be sucked into a weird black hole where I cancel every plan I ever made and stayed in front of the screen binge watching it. Lol

Gah I loved the actors in this show. I feel like I can't unsee them as their characters ever again. Lol

I think the main thing I didn't like was honestly the ending. It felt rushed all of a sudden and didn't make much sense. after I finished it the first time, I read other reviews and comments and I kinda see why they had to do that -- but I also don't. Like you built this whole show up for this moment and with the last few episodes it was kinda bullshit. I said what I said.

I wanted more from the ending and I know if I read the book, I'll see the *real* ending, but I feel like fans and even the actors were kinda ripped off and left with a lot more questions.

I have such a love hate relationship with Gu Xiang. She was super adorable but I completely hated how she treated Cheng Ling and Wei Ning. They were both these really sweet and amazing guys and she was a bitch to them. While she was "sassy" with a lot of others, she really was a straight up bitch to them most of the time and I never understood it. Okay, yeah, she grew up not around "people"; but she doesn't treat KeXing or Xu like that. So I really don't get it.

Also have a love hate relationship with Scorpion King... but I feel more bad for him than anything else, given his back story. I feel like he really could have been a great good guy had he not wanted his father's approval so much. How that man treated him was all kinds of fucked up.

There were so many characters that even now I couldn't even tell you how I felt about them but I will say that I demand a spinoff or a bonus episode showing us ChengLing's story about growing up. They really had us stressing and worried about this kid only for them to end it the way they did. Like hold up. Slow down. WHAT?! lol

Leia Mais

I only watched this was because it was really trending and popular and my sister recommended it to me, however I didn’t really like it. It was slow and I know it’s supposed to be boy love but I still can’t really feel the chemistry between the two male leads. I would like to say the music, costuming, and cast is great. The storyline however didn’t interest me at all.

I really wanted to continue watching but other shows caught my eye and I kinda just procrastinate to watch this. Didn’t know I would procrastinate a whole year to watch it and still not even finish half the show. It just doesn’t interest me and I only watched it because of the untamed.

Leia Mais

A Classic Wuxia Drama

I started watching the drama around the time it first started airing, and within the first few episodes, it seemed quite interesting. Nevertheless, it fell a bit from my expectations but was definitely a good watch.

~ THE STORY ~

As the headline mentioned, this drama is a classic wuxia drama, where there is the whole righteous vs evil, and the good never ends up being good. We eventually see the person who was the most calm become the plotter behind the whole martial arts conspiracy. In general, if you have watched enough c-dramas, the plot is honestly quite predictable, and I am a person who is all for unpredictable plots, so in this aspect, Word of Honor met what I expected but was not was I was looking for. A good side to this predictability is all the foreshadowing. Word of Honor had a lot of foreshadowing; perhaps the most I have seen in any drama; and the foreshadowing was pretty nice too!

A lot of people mention about the BL (boy love) in the drama, and yes, compared to a lot of other c-dramas, this is a drama that comes off as flirty. However, if you have read the novel, the scenes are a downplay. I really enjoy those scenes in the drama, but at times, I did not really see the connection even though I absolutely love how protective and the trust they have around each other (especially in episode 28). In general, I like their relationship, but I expected a bit more.

Now about the 'gray' areas and antihero aspect. Yes, it is true that both of the male leads have killed their fair share of people and have a different perspective on death compared to other people. However, perhaps it is because I have watched quite some dramas that have these type of protagonist that I just am not as attracted to this aspect of the characters; I expected a more dark and dangerous side of them.

Unlike the dramas where we have this one villain that turned to have another villain that backed him/her/they up, and then the whole mess, we have a clear villain within the first 15 episodes though the villain was quite predictable by episode 5. (It's always the good guys) To be honest, I like this villain because he has a clear reason for wanting to have the power: he wants to have the thrill of plotting and succeeding. It's all about the plotting rather than the final power.

Now, the good aspect that I enjoyed! The hurt and past. I love character development, and I prefer dramas that start of low and build up. In this drama, we have two characters that are both torn over their own pasts and in need to move on from it. Each of them are able to understand the other without any words. On a side note, (spoiler) I am not a childhood troope person, and although I get that the drama might have made the male leads from the same sect to pass the censorship of hugging, the idea did ruin the drama a bit for me because instead of Zi Shu supporting Kexing due to his understanding of him, we kind of get the vibe that he partially supported him because of him becoming his Shidi.

Slightly unnecessary death. *huge spoilers for those who have not read the novel (please do not read this paragraph if you do not want any major spoilers)* In the novel, Gu Xiang and Cao Weining both die, and true to its adaptation, the drama also has it that both of them also die. While I like that the drama followed the novel quite closely in this aspect, their death honestly feels quite unnecessary, so not a huge fan of this scenario that happened.

Some more unnecessary characters. The Seventh Lord and the Great Shaman. Originally, in the novel, the two of them were the ones that came up with the method to cure Zi Shu, and it would have been alright that the drama did not follow the actions, but for the last episodes that they were present in, they honestly did not even do much. These two characters only seemed to be here because the novel had them.

~ THE ACTING ~

I spent a lot of time thinking about the acting because sometimes it is hard to distinguish between the acting and our dislikes and likes of the character itself, and after much thought, I decided to give it a 9/10 though I personally think that if it were some other actors, they would have done pretty well, too. Zhe Han did a good job portraying Zi Xu, but I am a bit iffy on Simon Gong's acting of Kexing. The supporting characters did amazing, so if I were to rate them together as a group of actors/actresses, I would give a 9.5/10.

Leia Mais

An enjoyable watch

I really don't like stories or series that copy others and while the settings and story are different to The Untamed, some of the sayings and scenes just plain outright copy The Untamed. It's only one or two scenes and lines but considering it is same premise, I think even one is too much.

Having said that, evaluating the series on its own, it is an enjoyable watch. The most captivating character is Wen Ke Xing, I think the actor who played this role did an amazing job to bring out the manic, sad, tortured and happy sides of the character.

The plot is okay, nothing grand, I think the focus of the show was more on the dynamics of the characters and their relationships. I enjoyed the show but I must admit I did fall asleep for one of the episodes.

I think it did fall short on execution of some scenes. The last few episodes just didn't feel right and could have been done better.

Overall, it was enjoyable.

Leia Mais

Is BL, not BL adaption!!!

General surprised how they don’t give a fork and went crazy with the romantic (M*M) aspect of this drama. I’m pretty dense and even I got the gay vibe from the two main leads. I mean with in 4 episode one of the main male leads literally called the other male lead pretty 5 or 6 times and says that he has a “small waist and long legs”. Guess they learn from Untamed and made it five times as gay (lol). At least they know what we’re here for and is not for the bromance!!!

Ps- To my understanding and research this drama is doing really well at all fronts and topping the charts at number one in many Chinese websites. Surprise given how little advertisement it was given before release.

Leia Mais