Palavra de Honra (2021)

Lack of Chemistry and Weak Plot

I watched the trailer on Youtube and people said it's better than the The Untamed and I was like 'woah I should watch it, they said it's better' so I give it a try. I expected a lot in this series however at first episode, it already didn't give me an impression except the action scenes, I consider it. The acting is okay yeah? Zhang Zhehan is the only one gave justice when it comes to this and the chemistry between these two leads is a bit off. Anyway, I just gave it a pass, I think maybe because it was only the first episode so well let's where this series will take us. However, well, as the story goes by, the chemistry is really a bit off and it irritates me as well as the plot. Yes it has more skinship between the two leads but yeah that's it. The plot is weak and well a bit confusing. The chemistry is really off I don't know what is lacking, I can't explain it. Lastly, maybe that's why many people like it because it is more daring and it shows more the bl side than the TU despite the censorship but no chemistry at all. It's a shame that they said it's better than the TU. The cgi and action scenes are the only thing it's better than TU but the story and plot is really didn't captured my interest at all so I dropped it. I'll just wait to the Immortality and Eternal Faith to be aired.

Leia Mais

50% adventures, 50% martial arts politics, 100% BL

For all the hoops that this production has went through to become what it is today, major props to everyone involved. It deserves all the adoration and love. It's a low budget drama but, with the love of the script writer (who is an actual fan of the original novel and cares about the work deeply), the hard work of the crew and the actors, this drama pulled off some amazing chemistry, good acting, and beautiful props and designs. Not to mention that all of the actors are eye candy.

I don't need to talk about the love between zhou zishu and wen kexing since I'm sure other reviewers have done a great job of that, but I'd like to give TWO WARNINGS for folks in case they came into this drama thinking it's ONLY about those two.

1) SET YOUR EXPECTATIONS ACCORDINGLY. Please note that although the adventures of Zhou Zishu and Wen Kexing (and by extension: Zhang Chengling, Gu Xiang, and Cao Weining) is a major part of the show, a big part of the show is also dedicated to a lot of the supporting characters and the politics of the martial arts world. You'll either get bored of it or you'll bear through it for your love of the supporting characters (like the Scorpion King).

2) Around episode 29-30, there is a major disruption of the pacing of the drama and pretty much continues on to the end of the drama. I've been told that this happened because of the low budget of the drama (and also, I heard it was supposed to have 45 episodes? But then, due to money reasons, they could only do 36.) Whatever it is, you can really feel the change around those episodes and can feel some of the impact on the characters' arcs and growths. Unfortunately, it is what it is.

Fortunately, despite some of these shortcomings, the ending is good enough and, considering everything we've been given throughout the show, it's been very enjoyable. I didn't have as much passion for the show as I first started since I was waiting for the YouTube releases, but I found myself still unexpectedly smiling at some of the later episodes. The main cast--all five of them--are so critical to the success to this show. Their chemistry and relationship are fantastic.

Ultimately, you can enjoy this BL drama because the love and chemistry between Zhou Zishu and Wen Kexing is quite obvious, but if you want to understand the full depth of some of the metaphors and literature, then you'll have to do more digging around Tumblr and Twitter and whatnot.

Leia Mais

In Par with The Untamed

This chinese drama series is really one of the best I've watched. At first, I expected this drama will not be as amazing as The Untamed but I was wrong. This is actually in par with The Untamed.

When we talk about the FIGHTING SCENES - it is the best I've seen so far especially scenes involving either WEXING or SHU or both of them. The CGI is not that good but not that bad. The STORY is really interesting too. The CASTS did their roles perfectly individually. The COSTUMES are nice too. The MUSIC is very nice too. The SETTINGS are really nice too. Overall, it's perfect for me!

Leia Mais

At first i was hesitant cause im not a fan of BL Series... but "Word Of Honor" is not a categorize as BL for me... its more of Brotherhood... & Friendship.
Those who are hesitant to watch like me coz of that reason.... No... No ... NO.... watch it.. its a nice story of how U can give & sacrifice ur life for ur so-called-brother...how to be selfless..
At the beginning i find it boring hehehe, it was talk & talk & talk... but given its Simon & Zhe Han i believe on the project they choose so i continue to watch... & indeed its good as it continues... good fighting scene, good GC, good Cinematography and ofcourse, good acting of the 2 main lead... hoping for Season 2
Worth to watch... trust me :-)

Leia Mais

When People allowed Greed to rule over them, this is what will happen.

"The evil world is in people's hearts. You can eradicate the Ghost Valley, but can you eradicate the greed and filth in their hearts?" - Zhuo Zi Shu to Ye Bai Yi


I was surprised that I enjoyed watching this series, I thought it was another hyped series and wouldn't lived up with it's "reputation" but then again, I realized it is worth the time, and tears to watched it. I loved it!

It was easy to watched it, amidst with all the side characters which most of them I forgot their names, and I just describe them to remind myself who they are, unless they're important., I remember them.

I love ZZS's moral yardstick in life, how he knew that what he did was wrong, and tried to correct it. As well as I valued how they give importance to brotherhood, camaraderie and just simply if you love and support a person, you understand and accept about him /her in spite of what he/she did in the past or present time.

I also love Gu Xiang, I didn't find her annoying and I am entertained with her character and how she and WKX loves and support each other, like a father/daughter, older brother/younger sister tandem.

I also enjoy and loved ZZS and WKX's bantering on screen and how they simply flirt with each other. The subtle hints, which shows they're noticing that they act as husband and wife in the long run.

Overall, this is worthy of your time, watching it. You'll have many take away from this drama, from showing how greed affects one's life, how wrong to be self-righteous without putting one's self from the shoes of other people, how important it is to be non-judgmental, whether that person did wrong things/acts without knowing what drives him to do it. And that revenge is a never ending circle if you don't know how to break it. It'll just lead you to a life full of pain, struggle and bitterness.

Leia Mais

I AM NEVER COMING DOWN FROM THE MOUNTAIN

The Chinese BL drama race of 2021 is off to an *incredible* start with "Word of Honor"/SHL.

Story/Production - Majority of the episodes were pretty good in terms of costumes and set design, though the CG was a bit of a letdown at times. I do wish we had gotten more episodes overall, like another big battle and more exposition towards the end (it felt like the last few eps were a bit rushed and I swear I thought I skipped an episode between 30 and 31 because the plot just jumps off from nothing), but this was possibly due to budget constraints (supposedly there were originally plans for 45 episodes instead of the final lineup of 36). Fair warning, episodes 32 and 35 broke my heart. Like, A LOT. I'm really glad Youku released that special episode 37 (yes we get a Happy Ever After), or else the official ending would have left me sobbing for hours. A huge round of applause for the scriptwriter and directors/producers and staff for their hard work—it definitely paid off!

Acting - The chemistry between the main leads AND the second couple pairing were incredibly well done: Zhou Zishu and Wen Kexing's flirt game was off the roof, and Gu Xiang and Cao Weining were so adorable together. Zhang Zhehan really brought his A-game and showed his industry experience in Zhou Zishu's more subtle emotional moments (that drunk confession scene in episode 34 kills me every single time), while Gong Jun's raw talent and ability to pull of multiple personalities (crazy chief? flirtatious philanthropist? loyal subordinate? bloodthirsty warrior? check, check, check, and CHECK).

Music - I absolutely love the opening theme song "Tian Wen" and the ending theme song "Tian Ya Ke" (sung by Zhang Zhehan and Gong Jun!!!), they're both incredibly emotional, and so meaningful after I looked up the english lyrics translations. My other favorites would have to be "Gu Meng" sung by Zhang Zhehan, an absolute masterpiece especially when he performs it live; and "Wu Ti" by Hu Xia, the OST that prepares me for heartbreaking moments every time I hear the first notes being played in a scene.

Leia Mais

I think I just found my new favourite series

I don't even know where to start. Some other reviewers here were able to perfectly summarize Word of Honor: it may not really be a 9.5 rate if you want to be super rational about it BUT you just fall in love with the series and its characters: it's funny, warm, full of charm, intriguing, dramatic (without falling to much on the melodramatic), swoon-worthy (as my Netflix likes to say) and yeah, you just want to spend time with those characters and know more about them.

I have not read the novel by Priest (yet!) so I can’t really say what was on the source material and what was brought to the story by the screenwriter, but I find that the product that we got has a great balance between tender moments and action, plot and character development.

I am a huge fan fantasy/wuxia and BL and I find that these two genres separately tend to sometimes be a bit flawed on either the building of the relationships between characters (and I don’t just mean romantic relationships, specially not the romantic ones actually), character development or plot development… It always feel we need to sacrifice one of the three for some reason… Word of Honor did not suffer from this problem, it delivered a well-constructed world and tight storyline with multi-faceted characters and evolving relationships (Wen Ke Xing and Gu Xiang, Zhou Zi Shu and Cheng Ling, Gu Xiang and Cao Wei Ning and, of course, Wen Ke Xing and Zhou Zi Shu).

The plot itself was conventional in terms that it was one of those ‘we need to get and/or destroy a magical item’ but I felt that Wen Ke Xing and Zhou Zi Shu views towards the martial arts world and the quest for more power made the story seem different from the Wuxia I watched in the past.

I found the last five or so episodes felt a bit rushed and some plot points and developments could have been more thoroughly explained (they wanted to keep some information from the audience and I thought that they ended up cutting scenes that were important to the plot).

About characters (the most important factor in any story in my humble opinion):

I just loved all the dynamics (because, yes in this kind of story we do need the characters we love to hate too) and I loved our protagonists, especially Wen Ke Xing. He was my personal favourite, his tones of grey, his charm and personality. Everything about him was just the right amount, definitely one of my favourite characters of all time (and the reasons I really want to read Faraway Wanderers so badly).

I also loved Gu Xiang, Zhou Zi Shu, Cao Wei Ning and the Scorpion King.

Zhou Zi Shu was the perfect match to Wen Ke Xing, a contrast and yet a complement to his personality. I loved the way he dealt with his past and how his character developed through the series, rediscovering reasons to live.

Gu Xiang was adorable and funny and innocent and loyal… A great character especially considering what we normally get in the BL world. Hers and Cao Wei Ning relationship made me go ‘ownnnnnn’ many, many times.
As for the scorpion king… that unpredictable bast***… I kept wanting him to be happy in spite all… yet, got invested in his story.

And, of course, my favourite of all things was Zhou Zi Shu and Wen Ke Xing’s relationship. Just the right amount of banter, tenderness, companionship and understanding. I like the way their relationship evolved, how they learned to cherish and trust one another…

I really love when we get a couple that is equal in all senses, that one helps the other, that there is no side that seems ‘dominant’, both stand on equal footing and have a life, a backstory and interest outside the relationship… When one character does not need to change for the other, it is the other that has to learn to accept their lovers faults and flaws. So, yeah, I love this couple!

Did I want a kiss? Yeah, I did (even knowing that we would not get it… but, admit it, we were all pretty amazed to how many tender moments we were able to get!) but I was genuinely happy with the portrait of their relationship as a whole.

I do hope we get more series like this 😊

Leia Mais

a teeny bit of spoilers?? i love this drama so much

yall i just finished this, and holy shit it's so good, THEY ARE SO CUTE TOGETHER PROVE ME WRONG
the last couple episodes made me cry my eyes out~
this drama is like a mix of the untamed (the bl concept) and legend of fei (one of them is poisoned/injured and the other main character tries to save them)
highly recommend for people who like wuxia dramas + bl dramas!!
i will be rewatching this in the future but as of right now i need a break from c dramas, although i am looking for more~
if yall have recommendations, my favorite genre ever is wuxia (historical) bl (bromance/boy love) chinese dramas!

Leia Mais

One of the Romantic Shows I've Ever Seen

I absolutely love Word of Honor! It's a one-of-a-kind show with a one-of-a-kind cast. The main leads have a beautiful chemistry and work well together, you can see that evidence in the end product. I was captivated by the story, the acting, the costumes since the very first episode and every single episode maintained my interest and fascination. I love Word of Honor's underdog story, they were voted most likely to fall in late 2020 and in 2021, they quickly shot up to one of the most popular dramas currently airing. I recommend that everyone watches this show- you will be swept away by it!

Leia Mais

a must watch series

After a long year of crappy wuxia drama, finally a c-drama worth watching. The chemistry between the two main leads are really good. Both of the actors acting are just so natural and enjoyable to watch. Simon Gong Jun really shines in this one, never notice his acting before Word of Honor. Well actually, almost every characters played well in this drama. Very entertaining and satisfying to watch. The story is very well written. The fighting scenes are beautiful and well executed. Last but not least, no annoying stupid damsel in distressed, no unnecessary draggy filler scenes.

Leia Mais