wintersweet
While watching this I started to make a list comparing Legend of Fei's A'Fei/Xie Yun to Di Feisheng/Li Lianhua AS A JOKE and then it got TOO REAL and I had to stop lol. (Although in some ways she's more Fang Duobing than Di Feisheng.)
I can't explain in detail because spoilers, but: dao-wielding rough young woman from outlaw fortress background ventures into jianghu for the first time and encounters a jokey, rude, pretty man who's a bit mysterious and seems not to have any martial arts. Caveat: LoF is not nearly as well made as MLC. It's riddled with bad editing and dropped storylines and low production values, and the writing is nowhere near as thoughtful. It's pretty fun, though.
I can't explain in detail because spoilers, but: dao-wielding rough young woman from outlaw fortress background ventures into jianghu for the first time and encounters a jokey, rude, pretty man who's a bit mysterious and seems not to have any martial arts. Caveat: LoF is not nearly as well made as MLC. It's riddled with bad editing and dropped storylines and low production values, and the writing is nowhere near as thoughtful. It's pretty fun, though.
Both shows have a trio untangling a complex mystery over several smaller cases. The Sleuth of Ming Dynasty focuses more on a specific pair, and the dynamics are very different from Mysterious Lotus Casebook, but you'll still find relationships that evolve into unshakable devotion, moral ambiguity, and characters willing to put themselves in great peril for the truth (and each other). You may also appreciate that the main characters are competent adults* with significant skills.
The two main characters are Sui Zhou and Tang Fan. Sui Zhou is an excellent fighter with a traumatic past. He's laconic and mostly no-nonsense and frequently exasperated. His love language is cooking and he'd tolerate Li Lianhua in a kitchen for less than half a second. Tang Fan can't fight at all but has a brilliant mind, and unfortunately makes Fang Duobing at his poutiest/silliest look like an ascetic monk. The third major character, Wang Zhi, is a schemer with Imperial resources (he would absolutely eat Shan Gudao and Jiao Liqiao for lunch).
Important note: None of these people start off the show already 90% dead. So if you're looking for that specific vibe, it's not here.
The fighting scenes in Sleuth are very well choreographed, though they're pretty well-grounded and not as fanciful as typical wuxia combat. Even qinggong/lightness skills are limited to a couple of blink-and-you'll-miss-it moments. This could be disappointing coming off of MLC, but if you pay attention the fighting is really very well done, just not flashy. Despite the style differences, I found both shows' fight scenes to be worth watching and focused on what the characters/actors are doing. This is in contrast to many other shows where it's more about explosions, poses, CGI, and camera cuts.
Differences: Sleuth has a more consistent cast of side characters who are allowed to develop more than MLC's side characters. Although it's far from anything that actually happened, it's set in a specific year of China's history, in real places, and many characters share names and titles with real people (including the third person in the trio). So it doesn't have that timeless wuxia feeling that MLC does. And Sleuth really is a dangai (based on a danmei novel in which the two main characters are genuinely a couple, but rewritten to be acceptable under current rules) whereas MLC is not.
I followed up MLC with The Blood of Youth which I liked, but it was such a jarring contrast. Despite having some characters and arcs that on paper seemed very MLC-like, the show's mood and storytelling are just in a different realm from MLC. Sleuth was the next show I watched, and despite its obvious differences, for me there's just something similar about the vibes. So I recommend giving it a try.
*Let's not get into their supposed ages; they make even less sense than MLC's ages and timelines do
The two main characters are Sui Zhou and Tang Fan. Sui Zhou is an excellent fighter with a traumatic past. He's laconic and mostly no-nonsense and frequently exasperated. His love language is cooking and he'd tolerate Li Lianhua in a kitchen for less than half a second. Tang Fan can't fight at all but has a brilliant mind, and unfortunately makes Fang Duobing at his poutiest/silliest look like an ascetic monk. The third major character, Wang Zhi, is a schemer with Imperial resources (he would absolutely eat Shan Gudao and Jiao Liqiao for lunch).
Important note: None of these people start off the show already 90% dead. So if you're looking for that specific vibe, it's not here.
The fighting scenes in Sleuth are very well choreographed, though they're pretty well-grounded and not as fanciful as typical wuxia combat. Even qinggong/lightness skills are limited to a couple of blink-and-you'll-miss-it moments. This could be disappointing coming off of MLC, but if you pay attention the fighting is really very well done, just not flashy. Despite the style differences, I found both shows' fight scenes to be worth watching and focused on what the characters/actors are doing. This is in contrast to many other shows where it's more about explosions, poses, CGI, and camera cuts.
Differences: Sleuth has a more consistent cast of side characters who are allowed to develop more than MLC's side characters. Although it's far from anything that actually happened, it's set in a specific year of China's history, in real places, and many characters share names and titles with real people (including the third person in the trio). So it doesn't have that timeless wuxia feeling that MLC does. And Sleuth really is a dangai (based on a danmei novel in which the two main characters are genuinely a couple, but rewritten to be acceptable under current rules) whereas MLC is not.
I followed up MLC with The Blood of Youth which I liked, but it was such a jarring contrast. Despite having some characters and arcs that on paper seemed very MLC-like, the show's mood and storytelling are just in a different realm from MLC. Sleuth was the next show I watched, and despite its obvious differences, for me there's just something similar about the vibes. So I recommend giving it a try.
*Let's not get into their supposed ages; they make even less sense than MLC's ages and timelines do
