A Journey to Love (2023)

Perfect 10 then crash & fall into the typical dreaded C-Drama ending!

Will this drama be remembered as one of the best of 23 or Worst ending of 23?

Up to Ep 18:
Legendary actress paired up with OST fan fav = Chemistry Explosion! Unlikely pairing magical to watch!
Granted going into this drama I was already a fan of both leads so my tolerance for possible drama plot holes may be higher.

Already what's working:
1. ML/FL Paring: You have ML Liu Yu Ning who may not be the best actor (but lots potential) has been a fan favorite for his personality and music talent. He is paired up with a veteran actress Liu Shi Shi, who pulls off the badass female assassin way better than idol actresses. She's beautiful & fierce and even though it's been ages since she's done a period costume drama, she still can do those fight scenes well. Together the chemistry is intense with the slow burn romance brewing. By ep 11 it will definitely hit those emotions.

2. Script/Storyline/Execution: The script flows very well with just the right amount of humor. Characters (including the important supporting characters) are multidimensional.

3. Strong supporting cast. The rescue princess group is very entertaining.
-Love seeing Alen Fang playing a flirtatious character rather than the typical serious prince. The character allowed him to showcase his range of acting skills. When he cried, it hit.
-Wang Yi Zhe, the doctor that delivers the one liner at the opportunist time is interesting as well.
-He Lan Dou: The naive princess with the MOST character growth in the drama. She's probably my favorite character.
-Chen You Wei: Such a cute character.
Kudos to the casting & acting!

4. Fight choreography. Superb for actors that are not professionally trained. Superb for Liu Shi Shi who's no longer in her prime. But yes, there's a lot of freeze shots ....

5. Lighting, make up is not crazy pasty makeup in overly dark lit settings.

6. OST - Amazing!

Cinematography is not amazing but good enough. I could use a little less comedic sound effects but all that is minor consider the quality of this drama.

30s episodes in, the drama went into a direction I was NOT hoping for. In too many C-dramas they just kill off all the characters and call it a day (probably they got tired of writing) I get it, much of the drama is about sacrificing for the greater good. When will script writers learn that there's a 1000 other ways to end the drama....

Even though ending sucked to me I still think it's an exceptional drama and worth rewatching until the leads got together.

Leia Mais

Ancient custom drama making reference to the Cold War !

This drama is a feast for those who like world history for it took titbits especially from the pages of the Cold War. New interest must had arose in the scriptwriter when in 2017, secret JFK records (US President John F. Kennedy, 1960–1963, assassinated on November 22, 1963—drama specifically aired few days later as remembrance of his 60th death anniversary) were made public by the National Archive.This gave fresh information to make historical conjectures about the past that precisely corresponded to the facts to expound on and comprehend why particular events transpired as they did. A captivating and illuminating drama results from combining some Cold War events with some of its colorful and charismatic characters, a masterful script, and the superb acting of all the protagonists and supporting cast members.
Spoiler Alert.
The ML, Ning Yuan Zhou, was a smart and visionary espionage chief who was demoted and sent to safeguard the Wu emperor in the war. He was the composite of 2 historical figures: JFK and the powerful Director of FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, whose 48-year tenure saw the assassinations of JFK and then his brother, Robert F. Kennedy (RFK), who ran for the presidency in 1968.
The FL,Ren Ru Yin, a cool and relentless vice section head of An female assassin espionage group who was frame for killing her benefactor, the An empress. She had to defect to Wu with state secrets, seeked asylum and assumed a fake identity as a Wu princess She was also a combination of First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, a benchmark for style and class among wives of presidents, and RFK, who, as Attorney-General in his brother's cabinet was known for his ruthlessness and toughness in combating organized crime.
The opening of episode 1, "The Central Plains was thrown into a century of chaos when the last emperor of the previous dynasty was killed, split into many countries; among them 2 were the most powerful, Wu and An."(The Cold War, which lasted 45 years, began with the competition and antagonism between the US and Russia after World War II.)
The An emperor seized 3 cities from Wu and the war with Wu started. ( Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were invaded under Russian leader.Stalin and incorporated into the Soviet Union)
The Wu emperor listened to ill advisers to lead the war and got captured by An, leading Wu to a state of turmoil.( JFK did not listened to security advisers not to ride in an open-air motorcar in Dallas,Texas and got assassinated which shocked and stunned the nation into national mourning.)
The Wu emperor was captured by an An general with a modern revolutionary principle of fighting to end all wars. ( Che Guevara, with his romantically Latin good looks and long, wavy hair , was a legend for freedom fighters and a Marxist-Leninist guerrilla leader, 2nd in command after Fidel Castro of Cuba in the Cuban Revolution.)
The standoff between Wu and An occurred when Wu emperor was taken hostage by An who wanted ransom for his released.( The Cuban Missiles Crisis ,the standoff when US demanded that Russian removed Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba )
The FL, as White Sparrow, and her friend LingLong were to seduce Wu officials for state secrets in a banquet.LL was betrayed by her secret An lover and killed. (John Profumo,  the U.K. secretary of state for war met a model at a party. Unknown to him , she has a secret KGB lover. When the affair was exposed, he resigned but the Conservative Party lost the general election the following year)
Prince Danyang sending his army to ambush and killed the Wu delegation, going to ransom back his brother the Wu emperor. Countrymen fighting against each other. ( The Bay of Pigs incident, when Cuban exiles funded by CIA, landed and attempted to overthrow PM Fidel Castro)
The stunning announcement of unlikely marriage between Li Tong Guan and Chuyue by the An emperor shocked them and everyone else. He was an illegitimate son of a princess, while she was a princess from a powerful tribe. (Jackie Kennedy shocked and stunned the world when she married Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, just months after the assassination of her brother-in-law, RFK. She was from the upper-class society of New York while he worked his way from telephone operator to tycoon.They lived separate lives, she lived months in America with her children, while he was in Greece with his children. She remarried for a variety of reasons, one of which was probably PTSD following another shooting death. She had sat beside her husband when he was shot,stood beside vice president Lyndon B Johnson, when he was sworn in to replace her husband and endured a two-hour trip back to Washington with her husband in a casket and her dress still smeared with his blood. The princess, depicted as a picture of forced composure with an interior full of agony and suffering, sat waiting for an audience with the emperor for hours on end in that scene, which was brilliantly enacted in epi. 22. )
The princess left the sheltered life of the palace as part of a delegation to An, where she witnessed the hardships and impoverishment her people had endured during the conflict.She was even occasionally thrown stones and rotten vegetables to help her comprehend the animosity and wrath, and she responded by promising to restore peace.(The involvement of US in the Vietnam War with actual landing of troops resulting in heavy casualties, contributed to a great deal of animosity and outrage that its leaders failed to anticipate. The scene where Qian Zhao held his mates' badges and forced the emperor to show respect for them was a poignant way for drama to honor the troops who lost their lives fighting in foreign soil. When Saigon fell in 1975, the Vietnam War came to an end. A few days before, there was a dramatic and massive airlift to rescue US citizens, South Vietnamese government officials,their families, and thousands of others by helicopters to the waiting US Seventh Fleet in the South China Sea.Depicted in the rescue of Wu emperor by aerial lift of cables from his island prison)
The drama dragged many episodes to rescue the emperor.From the tightly guarded pagoda prison with its many booby traps to an Alcatraz like island prison. (A parody of sharp contrast from the ridiculously easy fatal shooting of the lone assassin of JFK, Lee Harvey Oswald, to killing him at close range from another lone shooter, Jack Ruby, when he was being transferred from jail to court in police custody! Done in 2 days after the assassination and live on national TV! Real life is much weirder than friction! )
Betrayal was the drama's theme. The motive of the ML was to clear the bad reputation that his espionage organisation had betrayed the emperor in the war. While the Fl was to clear her name that she betrayed and killed her empress.The Wu and An emperors exploited and betrayed their people for their own greed and ego trips. The An Empress who experienced treachery from her father, son, and husband. The crown prince divulging his father's collaboration with the enemy country.There were innumerable such betrayals in the drama. ( In ancient times the punishment for betrayal was to pull out the roots.The writer put forth brilliant deductive speculation coupled with rumors of a connection to Marilyn Monroe, as both brothers did died of gunshots and JFK's only son died childless with his wife in a plane crash. The 2017 files also established that the Russians was not involved in JFK assassination, as they awkwardly put their defence on high security alert for attacks. The files also indicated that there was more than one shooter, as bullet holes demonstrated that the gunfire originated from multiple directions, confirming the conspiracy theorists' long-held belief. Writer theories were presented regarding the conspirators who ordered extermination with extreme caution in the ML statements of “gains and losses” and Zhong Sang ,Wu PM .This historical whodunit murder mystery can be solved upon all releases of secret files once FBI and CIA lift their blocks.).

BTW, the drama has OE like the JFK files. Is the writer venting on the viewers, or is it an act of betrayal?!!

Leia Mais

What a great start but...

I loved the story, but too much death was unnecessary.

Ren Ru Yi is smart, cunning, straightforward but has trust issue, doesn't know teamwork or love, but gradually learns it. 1st time watching Liu Shi Shi. 1st of all, she is beautiful, & also an amazing actor. The way she carries herself, she has shown two sides of Ru Yi one tough, cruel, ruthless & another innocent & seductive.

Ning Yuan Zhou is a cunning, smart, good strategist, with no interest in political power. I love Liu Yu Ning songs, sometimes I watch dramas if I see he is singing in it. This my 3rd time watching him & he did good. As a singer 1st he did his best to portray Ning Yuan Zhou.

Princess Yang Ying is the cutest. She was a weak, scared kitten at 1st who didn't want to go to An. But what a remarkable character development she had. From being a cry baby to a clever, brave & independent women. The way she handles herself in the palace despite being scared & weak is amazing, & also the way she reveled her identity was powerful. He Lan Dou did a great job again. In Tiger & Crane she is a cunning & manipulative character & here she is playing a weak character. She is remarkable.

I loved Yu Shi San. He is a playboy, a ladies man, and loves to flirt. It's The Long Ballad reunion. There they were enemies of each other & here best friends forever.

Qian Zhao is a tough, serious, reserve & all-rounder. Yuan Lu is someone who is treated by everyone as a child.

I hated Li Tong Guang. He is an obsessive character. It would've been great if they had written him differently, like his devotion to his master is because of his master-discipline relationship, nothing else. He is leading a life the way his master taught him & achieving his truthful identity. They would've made a nice love story between Li Tong Guang & Chu Yue or Li Tong Guang & Princess Yang Ying. They would've shown what an outstanding man he turned out to be after his master's death.

Love Ren Ru Yi & Ning Yuan Zhou interaction. The way Ren Ru Yi keeps on seducing him & him running away from her. They look cute together.

Love Ning Yuan Zhou brotherhood with Yu Shi San, Qian Zhao & Yuan Lu.

The way Qian Zhao keeps on teasing Ning Yuan Zhou with a straight face.

Love the sound in the middle of the scenes. The blinking sounds are funny.

Love their comedy timing.

It was funny to see how everyone worked together to make Ru Yi jealous.

Maggie Huang as Jin Mei Niang, It took me a while to recognize that she is the one who played Su Jin in Eternal Love.

Love the scene where they all were throwing flowers at Ren Ru Yi & Ning Yuan Zhou whole they're kissing & Qian Zhao standing as usual ??

I love how Yuan Lu changed the princess's mood & talked to her all night. In Tiger & Crane I thought the characters would be in love, but it became true here. Now I'm trying to recall if they had any scenes together in Tiger & Crane.

It was funny to see how Ning Yuan Zhou, Yu Shi San, Qian Zhao, Yuan Lu & Sun Lang were eavesdropping on Ren Ru Yi & Li Tong Guang.

I liked the fighting scenes, but nothing can beat the fighting scenes in My Journey to You. The way Ning Yuan Zhou, Yu Shi San, Qian Zhao, Yuan Lu & Sun Lang threw garbage back at An people. Loved the way Ning Yuan Zhou dodged the needles.

This is the 4th time I've seen the famous Till the End of the Moon stairs.

I think Chu Yue dreamed the last scene & the cinematography is also shown that way. There is no way Ning Yuan Zhou is alive after being stabbed 10 time at the same time.

Love the OST.

Leia Mais

First 34 Episodes

This drama got me hooked right from the very first episode. I was thrilled to have a FL that was strong, smart, and knew what she wanted. There was never any damsel in distress and she and the ML truly made the perfect power couple.

The production was amazing and the whole cast did a great job of making the audience laugh and cry. It had characters that you could really empathize with and root for. Loved the friendships between the characters, but especially the 4 friends with the ML. Also, the OST was stellar, seriously one of the best I've heard and it really elevated certain scenes.

Some minor gripes would be the dead fish kisses (which I kind of thought we were past), iffy acting on some side characters, and how at least 90% of the storyline was centred on one goal and felt like an overly long trip.

But overall, I thoroughly enjoyed it!

However, I'm basing my review solely based on the first 34 episodes. I don't know if I plan on watching the remaining 6 episodes, but I feel like it would be unfair to lower my rating too much even if I did as I really did enjoy a majority of the show.

Leia Mais

Genel yorum

Beklediğim bir dizi idi başrol de oynayan Liu Yu Ning i daha önce The Long Ballad ve The Legend Of Anlede yan rolde seyretmiştim bu dramada başrolde olması beni çok sevindirdi.. bu tarihi roller kendisine çok yakışıyor ve tarihi dizilerde daha çok başrolde görmek isterim diziyi 10.bölüme kadar izledim finale kadar da izlemeyi düşünüyorum ikinci kez seyretmek istiyormuyum kesinlikle hayır.. başrolde oynayan kadın oyuncuya gelince Liu Şi Şi role hiç yakışmadı daha önce kendisinin başrolde oynamış olduğu the imperial doctores dizisin,de seyrettim diziyi 5, bölüme kadar izleyip ne konusunu nede başrolde oynayanları beğenmediğim için yarım bıraktım Liu Yu Ning gibi bu tarz dramalar da devleşen bir oyuncunun yanına keşke Dilraba Dilmurat oynasaydı bence hem Liu Yu Ning hem de Dilraba Dilmurat tarihi dramalarda birbirlerine çok yakışan çift diye düşünüyorum şu anda 10,bölümdeyim incelemelerden anladığım kadarıyla senaristler sonunu güzel bitirememişler sonuç olarak sonuna kadar izleyeceğim. Liu Yu Ning i daha iyi tarihi dramalar da (The İngenious one gibi) görmek dileğiyle ...

Leia Mais

The series has captivated my attention with its compelling storyline and engaging characters. The cast's exceptional performances, particularly the main lead's (ML) acting and voice, contribute significantly to the show's overall appeal. The seamless portrayal of characters by the cast adds depth and authenticity to the narrative.

One of the standout aspects of the series is the chemistry between the ML and FL (main lead and female lead). Their on-screen dynamic enhances the viewing experience, making the plot more immersive. It's evident that the actors have put considerable effort into developing a believable and relatable connection, adding a layer of emotional depth to the story.

A noteworthy element that sets this series apart is the absence of overacting. Each actor delivers their lines and expressions with precision, avoiding melodrama and allowing the audience to appreciate the subtleties of the performances. This commitment to realism is refreshing and contributes to the overall quality of the show.

The music accompanying the series deserves praise as well. The soothing melodies complement the narrative, creating a harmonious atmosphere that enhances emotional moments and adds to the overall viewing experience. The thoughtful selection of music underscores the series' emotional beats, leaving a lasting impression on the audience.

The plot itself is intriguing, keeping viewers on the edge of their seats as the story unfolds. The narrative is well-paced, balancing moments of suspense, drama, and humor. Speaking of humor, some moments in the series provide genuine laughs, showcasing the versatility of the cast in delivering both serious and lighthearted scenes.

Personally, I was drawn to the series because of Liu's involvement. Having enjoyed his previous work, particularly his outstanding performance in the last ballad, I was eager to see him in a leading role. It's gratifying to see him take on the main lead in this series, further showcasing his acting prowess. Liu's ability to portray diverse characters effectively adds depth to the narrative, and his presence is a significant factor in the series' success.

In conclusion, this series is a must-watch for its well-executed plot, exceptional cast performances, delightful music, and the absence of overacting. The chemistry between the main leads adds a layer of authenticity, and the inclusion of moments of humor provides a well-rounded viewing experience. For fans of Liu and those seeking an engaging and enjoyable series, this one certainly fits the bill.

Leia Mais

Hmm…not as good as people claim

But I might change my mind. I started watching because of all the accolades this show has received including recent wins at the Weibo Awards 2024. Maybe my expectations were too high. The dancing of the white sparrows was mediocre. It was more about camera angles than actual dancing. I’ve seen better dancers in Chinese variety shows. It wouldn’t have mattered to me, but the director wanted the audience to be astounded by their dance. The music is all over the place. It ranges from hauntingly beautiful to soap opera bad sometimes within seconds of each other.

The characters are okay. The bad guy is the most compelling actor so far. I keep reading how the FL is so amazing. Ah…the best thing about her is that she’s 36 and it’s nice to see that a major production is giving an older woman a lead role, however her martial arts skills are miserable. Her fight scenes contain more cut away camera shots. The only closeups are of her vogueing as examples of her great style. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, it’s not. The cinematographapher loves the FL’s face and he gave her AMAZING lighting, but it’s also obvious that the lighting, and heavy pancake makeup, are being over used to make her look younger.

The story is…okay. It’s not awful. It’s not great. Same with the acting. My husband and I aren’t Chinese so the historical elements aren’t always easy for us to follow. We were hoping to get something as fascinating as Princess Weiyoung or The Story of Yanxi Palace. This is definitely no where near the quality of those, although the costumes are fantastic. The acting of the ML and FL isn’t bad, but isn’t interesting either. For ex., the acting of the FL comes off to us as one note. She’s great with an expressionless face during combat scenes. But, she has no other real expression either with her face or her eyes, mouth, etc. The expressions of emotion from her and the ML are completely confined to their voice. There’s 0 charm. At this point, I’ll watch a few more episodes, but I feel like one’s love of this show is cultural. I’ve read that many Chinese didn’t love Princess Weiyoung, but it is a major hit internationally. Similarly, I feel like this show will only be mildly successful internationally whereas it’s adored in China.

Leia Mais