Sooner or later it was bound to happen: here's the first C-drama that left me with a "meh" impression...^_^;
Okay, this was my first "wuxia" and I have to confess it didn't leave me wanting for more of that genre.
But let's start with the good points: I decided to watch it because I had been very favorably impressed by Dai Lu Wa in "When We Were Young", and I can't say that she let me down in this drama, despite her character not being particularly well written (I loved her in the final episode though, LOL! That's how villains should be treated, in my book! ^___-). As far as I'm concerned, though, Jean Kao really stole the scene here (wow, seriously! Gorgeus!). As for the actors, I particularly liked Li Bin, Wei Yi Bo and Zhang Yu Jian. I really loved the costumes and the scenography, as well as the photography; the music too was quite nice.
And now to the drawbacks.
The drama itself could be roughly divided into three chunks: the first one was the most interesting and best done; it got a little confusing in the middle part, which was anyway still enjoyable; the problem is that the last third was barely watchable, with a weak plot, ridiculous villains and generally an inconsistent script which tried to put too much stuff together and failed miserably.
I also found part of the cast way below par (particularly Zhu Jia Zhen, he had me climbing the walls every time he was on screen - as I always say in these cases, "compared to him, even Dick Dastardly from 'Wacky Races' was a realistic, sober and credible villain"!).
Last but not least, I must confess probably not being a big fan of the genre; I suppose it's somehow a cultural limit of mine: just as I'll never understand America's passion for their spandex-clad superheroes - nor Japan's penchant for their "tokusatsu"! >__< - I'll probably never fully get those combats with people flying; as an Italian, if I really have to see actors pretending to fight, I'd choose a "Bud Spencer & Terence Hill" kind of flick any day of the week ^__^; (oh, BTW...Zhang Yu Jian's character actually reminded me a bit of one of those funny types always portrayed by Terence Hill!).
Regardless of personal preferences, though, I still think this show could've been much more enjoyable with a more solid and coherent script; as is, I can't give this anything more than a "7", sorry.