Why You Should Watch Side Story of Fox Volant(2022)
In my previous rec post for The Legend of the Condor Heroes(2017), I mentioned how Jin Yong was a major inspiration for MXTX’s writing. If you enjoy the social commentary of MDZS but wish it had more fights and was a little less of a romance novel and was more of an ensemble piece, his works might be right up your alley. Side Story of Fox Volant(2022) is an adaptation of Jin Yong’s The Young Flying Fox(1960), which is the prequel to Flying Fox of the Snowy Mountain(1959). Because the makers of this specific adaptation only had rights to the prequel and not the original story, they had to make a number of changes to the source material to make it a coherent story. It follows a young Hu Fei who has been raised all his life to seek revenge on the man who befriended and murdered his parents, Miao Renfeng. Miao Renfeng himself is on a years long quest to discover who poisoned the blade used in what should have been a friendly duel with Hu Yidao and led to the death of his friend and his friend’s wife.
Our protagonist Hu Fei is an intensely good person who is fairly optimistic and happy go lucky despite the vengeance quest that’s been put on him since birth. He can be a bit of a dumbass and is impulsive but he’s got a heart of gold. The two female leads are Yuan Ziyi, a brooding, tormented disciple of a nun who has a warm heart underneath her cold exterior, and Cheng Lingsu, a chronically ill and habitually dishonest genius doctor. Both women get their fair share of cool fights and avoid all the annoying love triangle tropes to boot. The most powerful martial artist alive is hot, angsty dilf Miao Renfeng, who falls in love with a young, sheltered noblewoman named Nan Lan after they save each other’s lives, but his continued hunt for the true murderer of his friends gets in the way of their happy domestic life.
The road to avenging Hu Yidao and Madam Hu is a long, winding one filled with multiple other vengeance plots, political scheming, taking down corrupt nobility, some extremely cool ladies, romance, palace harem drama, custody battles, and of course awesome fights. You can watch it here.
For a more comprehensive pros and cons list:
Pros:
The fights in this are REALLY fun. If you watched and enjoyed the fights in The Legend of the Condor Heroes(2017), these are even better. They’re never repetitive, they’re framed really well and involve a really creative use of the environment around them. One of my favorite fights is a duel between two characters who have to fight on top of a bunch of bowls placed upside down on the ground, and will lose automatically if they break one or their foot touches the ground.
The characters are amazing, and amazingly cast. There’s not a single performance that’s giving less than their best here. They’re really well constructed and their actions make sense, and the relationship writing is very strong.
While there are more male characters than female characters, there are plenty of women with a variety of personality, backstories, and skills and they’re all fabulous. Aside from the three I already mentioned you have Ma Chunhua, a martial artist forced to navigate a palace harem drama, my precious plucky orphan daughter Lu Xiaomei who is remarkably resourceful for a child, Yuan Ziyi’s nun shifu Bai Xiao Shen Ni who has an agenda of her own, Cheng Lingsu’s poison master shijie Xue Que who is embroiled in a years long toxic polycule, and more!
The villains are also quite good, ranging from compelling and sympathetic, to loser flops who make for good stabbing, to ridiculously entertaining menaces, to punch clock antagonists who mostly are just trying to get paid.
Speaking of, the Punch Clock Villain Squad slowly became stealth favorites of mine over the course of the drama. They’re just three best bros dedicated to having a good time and putting no more than 75% of their effort in at work, headed by beleaguered da-ge Zhou Tiejiao who has the strongest political instincts and keeps his somewhat more impulsive sworn brothers in check and out of trouble.
The soundtrack is really good, the costumes are pretty, and it’s just a really great story.
Cons:
As mentioned it’s solely an adaptation of the prequel, when most Fox Volant adaptations do both books together. While it’s still a very strong adaptation overall, towards the end it does start noticeably running into the Great Wall of Copyright, where some plotlines don’t get fully wrapped up and some characters vanish into the mist because that’s sequel territory and they legally cannot comment on what happens to these characters past a certain point. This is especially an issue because Young Fox was written AFTER Flying Fox of Snowy Mountain, to fill in backstory, and so presumes either a certain level of familiarity with events or that you’ll be reading the sequel immediately after this. Still a great drama, but they had to fiddle with several characters’ endings to get it feel like a properly concluded story, and others they simply had to leave hanging.
The queue is pretty much no one’s most flattering hairstyle.
Not quite a con, more of a general warning, but the story gets quite dark at times, including torture, rape, a child being disembowelled by their own parent(not shown on screen), and references to child prostitution among other things. I found it a little difficult to adjust to at first but eventually got swept away by the story and performances. I hope you'll consider checking out 40 episodes of extremely solid wuxia filled with classic tropes!
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Riverside Code at Qingming Festival ( 清明上河图密码 ) : Qīngmíng shànghé tú mìmǎ Cultural Meta Masterpost
All the images are taken from show's official Weibo
Riverside Code at Qingming Festival is our newest Big Chinese Period Drama, as in actual proper historical drama. The premise is a series of mysterious murder cases that happen alongside the Bian river that flows across the capital of Nothern Song Dynasty, Bianjing, during the time of Qingming Festival, at the same time as the painter Zhang Zeduan happened to be drawing the world-renowned painting Along the River During the Qingming Festival.
In other words, the show's based on a novel that was inspired by the said artwork and the possible intrigues that the hundreds of people captured in that painting must've undergone during that time, long long ago.
The show was officially announced on 2023. 10. 18, and had been relentlessly promoting its content, how much research and historical reproduction and replications and all that went into the project. The episodes themselves (which you can watch here for free with Eng subs) have an ending segment called Song Dynasty Encyclopedia, to educate the viewer on the significance of the painting and other Song Dynasty trivia.
And rightfully so, if you watch this short BTS video you'll realise what a MASSIVE project and labor of love this was and they should be proud of it and boast about and promote their work to heaven and back.
And as always, I dove headfirst into all the meta crumbs I could get my hands on and am gonna compile them here and share with whomever else is interested! 😁
Mind, the translations might not be super smooth, my Chinese is but elementary but I'll try to provide more external links to supplement the posts so you can read from people who know better!
I will update this masterpost as I go on making new posts alongside the Weibo's updates! (So don't hurry to reblog this one just yet because it's unfinished lol)
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1. Nuo Opera
2. Restoration of Bianjing City based on Zhang Zeduan's Painting
One of my favorite scenes in the last month of awesomeness of this Cdrama.
There was a scene in the earlier episodes showing Zhao Buyao telling his wife exactly the same thing: that he wishes to hold her hand forever in this lifetime. I thought he was just sweet talking her, but it's clear now that's how he's always felt about her. She's his goddess, maybe even he thinks he didn't deserve her 🥹. (Ahem, and his sister ACTUALLY holds this opinion lol).
Anyway, I only watched Loch 2017 and 2024, so, I'll talk about them.
Loch 2017 strong suits are, imo, the fight scenes, the pacing and some of the actors. This version explores in depth most of side characters too (my fave character is in only two episodes lol). It's fun to watch, you will never get bored, even if it's quite long (for my standard lol).
Loch 2024 has a wonderful cast. I already liked Huang Yaoshi, but the loch 2024 actor has me enchanted, and the two main characters here, Guo Jing and Huang Rong are my favorite versions. There too, the fight scenes are incredible. But, this version has pace issues. The story is narrated in 30 episodes (when the same story has 50 episodes in loch 2017). I am eagerly waiting for the second part of loch 2024, where some of the character backstories will be explored even more.
Now, if you want to enjoy the plot and the side characters in depth too, understanding every detail, I'll suggest you to watch Loch 2017. If then, you are here for vibes and to enjoy our delightful main characters story, I think loch 2024 is fine too! Either way, I hope you like it!
For those interested in some classic 80s wuxia, all 59 episodes of 1983 LOCH in the original Cantonese with English subtitles have been uploaded in three parts
Part 1: Iron Blooded Loyalists(19 episodes)
Part 2: Eastern Heretic, Western Venom(20 episodes)
Part 3: Duel at Mt. Hua(20 episodes)
This same account is also uploading 1983 LOCH in the Mandarin dub, as well as 1994 LOCH(no subs) and several other classic Jin Yong adaptations, so if you're able to handle the old school visuals check it out! 1983 LOCH in particular is a beloved classic that every subsequent adaptation tries to live up to.
Just gotta love how this QUEEN got up and decided to give zero fucks to that stupid rule about hijabs. She not only ignored that bs, she did it with style!
In front of every single person who may be watching this, in front of Emmanuel Macron and France, in front of every ignorant and disgusting soul who dares to try and hinder such a beauty.
Her wonderfull smile says more than any word I could put here!
okay I must let y'all know that Sifan Hassan is just. she's SO insane. She's one of the best runners of all time.
Like, to put this in perspective, three years ago she ran in the Tokyo Olympics, and she won gold in both the 5000m and the 10000m and bronze in the 1500m.
THIS YEAR, for Paris, she ran in the 5000m, the 10000m, and the marathon. Up above is a photo of her winning gold in the marathon btw, but PLEASE UNDERSTAND, she won bronze in both the 5000m and the 10000m which happened before this because the women's marathon was the last track event in the 2024 Olympics. She set personal seasons bests for both events prior to the marathon.
SHE WON MEDALS AT TWO EVENTS prior to running 26.2 miles against the best marathon runners in the world (the previous Olympic champion! the world record holder in the marathon!) who were there to ONLY RUN THE MARATHON, on one of the most difficult marathon tracks in the world AND she won gold AND she set an Olympic record.
Like, I'm pretty sure she ran 62 kilometers plus TOTAL this games between the 5000m heat + 5000m final + 10000m final + 42195m for the marathon.
AND STILL at the end of it all, gold medalist, new Olympic record, on one of the hardest marathon courses out there, outcompeted the entire field, kicked faster than the marathon world record holder, AND completely badass.
anyway I just wanted y'all to know that she made history this Olympics.
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i wasn't that invested in immortality until I saw L&P and than I saw the vision of CFY as murder puppy who *suffers* played across from LYX as cold ethereal beauty who *suffers*. and now i am sold. so sold. and i'm never going to see it.
another post-script on A Journey to Love and why I am ok with the Sad Ending™
what's truly messed up but also the reason the series even WORKS is that ultimately all of these characters could have lived if they stuck to their original agenda and outlook.
The delegation squad originally are like fuck everything & everyone, we are here and probably gonna die for ONE THING - clear the names of (Qian: avenge 🔪) the fallen Liudao Hall comrades. They don't care much about the emperor except for a means to an end, aren't expecting to fix anything for the Wu state by going thru this bullshit, and they hate everything about An, who they have been playing spy games with for years, which cost them family members, and they just lost 80K soliders from the war.
But in the last string of episodes they found the bodies & their brothers, gave the death rites, and THEY HAVE THE EDICT. The original goals, they're all done! They could pretend "I do not see it" and be just like the border city officials who aren't taking action with the excuse that they didn't see proof of any invasion threat, blah blah it was implausible. The guys and the cowardly Wu emperor could just go home.
Ning Yuanzhou always planned to do this 1 final act and nope-out. He could have left with Ruyi and let the geo politics play out as they may.
Ruyi had already achieved her empress revenge arc. She'd even gone a step further to free the White Sparrows.
But each character makes their final choice to fight & die because they are not the people from the start of the journey. Every episode we watched lead them to be the people who would make this choice. Opening the princess YY & Ruyi's eyes to the world opened the Hall squad's eyes as well. Being introduced to people from An as fellow humans who can hurt and laugh and want. Finding allies and commonalities. Questioning why. Mentoring a young royal who wants to understand what leadership means and what do we owe to each other. Modeling for Ruyi what partnership and teamwork means. Getting that damn edict because the Scarlet Guard leader returned an honorable act with his own, stepping back from guarding the Wu emperor. Sorta adopting a volitile An duke with violent attachment issues.
Following their original objectives would have lead to a bittersweet but happy ending as the core ensemble ride off into the sunset with their victory and let An & Wu burn, who had taken so, so much from them. But it wouldn't have been true to the characters we got to know & saw change from the experiences we shared with them. The intentional, ultimate sacrifices underline the lessons learned and lend greater meaning to its themes.
Everyone is excited and enthusiastic about Lord Li/Princess Yang Yings' character development, and I couldn't be happier for He Landou for getting a deserved recognition.
I was curious about her name's character as Angelababy's real name is Yang Ying. But turn out the Ying isn't the same.
The surnames of those who are in the Back Hill build together an idiom 风花雪月, «four opposites of love». Although hieroglyph 锋 in word "Wufeng" is different from one in this idiom (风), they are homophones that equally sound fēng (and as we all remember, Wufeng is the mastermind of the last three saber techniques out of twelve used by the Back Hill, sooooo...🐱👤).
2. The names of Wufeng ranks build together an idiom 魑魅魍魉, «demons and monsters of the Martial World». These hieroglyphs actually mean three types of mythological Chinese monsters, not four: chī, mèi, and wǎngliǎng. In the last word a syllable wǎng (魍) sounds like wáng (王), which means "prince", so there are four princes of cardinal directions in Wufeng. The hieroglyph 魉 (liǎng) includes the phonetic key 两 (liǎng) as one of its elements, which means "a pair". And, as we know, Wufeng has got two bosses of the highest rank 🐱👤.
3. The names of those who live in the Front Hill are 宫商角徵羽, the pre-Tang dynasty names of tones in the pentatonic musical scale. The pentatonic scale is famous among musicians as something good for improvisation because all of these tones sound harmonically in any combination. Also, in the Confucian tradition these five tones were credited with a magical effect on society, at which gōng corresponded to the emperor, shāng - to ministers, jué - to the people, zhǐ - to affairs, and yǔ to material resources.
Maybe it all supposed to have a deep meaning and to symbolize something. Maybe it didn`t. Anyway, there are just fun facts.
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A very apt summary/guide of Lighter & Princess!
Yes, it's been weeks after the finale, I'm still obsessed with them. I'm glad I have another Feiyu's show that I love to the core.
BTW, the Douban score is 7.5, which is a very decent one for a romance drama.
ETA: tagging @dangermousie as she's now enthusiastically watching -- but perhaps read this after you complete the drama since there are spoilers!
This show and I really see eye to eye on many things.
Remember how I reacted to ep24 - on what made Li Xun and Zhu Yun be the polar opposites of each other, now more than before:
They underwent the same tragedy but had different outcomes. She had a family who had the resources to save her. He had none - no family, no resources - only enemies.
And yesterday ep28, I observed the same had happened to Gao JianHong:
Yet I love how I also cannot go full steam with my hate towards him because I know that the him today is mostly a product of all the hurt that was inflicted on him (intentionally or not) combined with the lack of guidance and love from people who could have better kept him in line.
And today ep31, they echoed these in relation to Hou Ning:
Li Xun, Gao JianHong, and Hou Ning are the same in this aspect: they lacked people who could have kept them in line and pulled them up.
And that is what is paining Zhu Yun: because she could have been that person for Li Xun but she failed.
I have been pondering if anybody should really feel this kind of responsibility over somebody, knowing that we are the only ones who can be responsible for our own lives and nobody else.
Then I realize, my parents would certainly scourge themselves if I myself go astray. My good friends would also blame themselves for not noticing sooner, for not guiding me better.
And it's all valid. Because I would feel the same for my family and friends. But why do we feel so?
Then I realize, it should not be seen as matter of responsibility or duty even. It is simply because it is an act demanded by love. Love betters. If the person you claim to love fails to become better, then you failed in loving that person. I know it sounds harsh but that's the crux of it.
And this is the root of Zhu Yun's disappointment in herself. Her regrets. Although it was not really her fault (she had her wounds, too) just as it would not also be my parents or friends' fault, we cannot blame them for agonizing over it. Because they loved us.
So in the end, Zhu Yun is staying not because she wants to rekindle their romance. She is staying because this time, she wants to love him better.
This is gonna be my fave cdrama this year. The acting is topnotch and I am so invested with the storyline.
The setting happens in a university where a group of students are working in a base and are involved in information technology.
The lead character Li Xun has captured the hearts of many for his genius ability in programming.He's blessed with good brains and undeniably attractive.However, he has a sharp toungue and spoke harshly towards his members and never cared about how they feel.He haved lived a tough life since young and was very mysterious.
He met the lovely and gentle Zhu Yun and called her as"princess" and treated her differently. They were like cats and dogs at first but grew closer together after working together for a long time. Zhu Yun was very persistent and Li Xun started to care for her.
Then Gao Yang one of the most hardworking students worked with both Zhu Yun and Li Xun in one of the project.He spent sleepless night to complete enormous tasks yet his efforts remain futile. Due to a sudden turn of events, his hardwork went to vain and Li Xun stole his thunder in one of the most important events in his life. I do understand the reason why he felt so disappointed because he poured all his efforts to achieve something for himself yet Li Xun failed to consider his feelings sometimes. He felt so aggrieved and wanted to prove himself. He felt that his unworthy especially when Zhu Yun told him to ask for Li Xun's help.
These grievances lead to revenge and lies.Then Fan Zhi Jing came to the picture which added more fuel to the fire. A competition happened and Zhu Yun wanted to win against Zhi Jing and wanted to expose him and unmask his true colors. Li Xun came to the rescue and Zhi Jing's dirty laundry were revealed to the public.
Li Xun confessed to her and they started dating. Their relationship was even sweeter when they were a couple. I was grinning from ear to ear everytime I see them.It felt so natural and real.I want to have this kind of relationship.
Unfortunately, Zhi Jing holds a grudge towards Li Xun and something tragic happened. Zhu Yun and Li Xun separated for a long time.Conflict also arises because Zhu Yun's family couldn't accept about Li Xun's past and he wanted to pushed her away so that she can fulfill her parent's wishes to go abroad and it was really sad how things turn out.Li Xun has been suffering from the consequences of his mistakes and he was a good person but his patience was being tested.
I am still on episode 22 and I can't wait for the next episodes. I'm and super excited to watch it.
I was interested in this because... Chen Feiyu looks great in blonde! (I'll also be always biased on him due to Ever Night 1). I wasn't expecting anything, because youth romance doesn't always vibe with me.
But then this fanmade (?) MV from last year caught my eyes. The tone is darker than your typical youth romance, and apparently the story is more than just a plucky girl meets handsome cold nerd at school. According to those who read the book, he'll get imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit, she vows to wait for him, he pushes her away blablabla... a bit like Feiyu's My Best Summer (minus the prison thing).
Then of course -- Feiyu's first bed scene! (After the countless bed sharing with Song Yiren some years ago lololol). From the official trailer, he also kisses quite well. Way to go Arthur! :)))
Anyway, it starts today in my region, will definitely check it and see if this holds my attention. So far I've been drama-blessed in 2022, I like most of the dramas I've watched, with current obsession Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty topping chart for weeks and getting 7.8 on douban without promotion due to Yang Xuwen's last "scandal" (which had been clarified by the police and the family of the deceased, but unfortunately tainted him for years).
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The first four episodes of the Side Story of Fox Volant are AWESOME. The talented child actor, the acting across the board, a very cool Lin Yushen (can't expect less -- I was a card carrying member of Yang Buhui Stepmom Club), wholesome fighting scenes esp on Ep. 3 and just an all round strong vibe of old school wuxia with great cinematography and camera work. Show may go downward later, but I'm a wuxia apologist.
Finished the whole series a while ago, and happy to report that it is indeed one of the best wuxia dramas of recent years! The writing could've been improved, but acting and cinematography are great, and most importantly the fighting scenes are FANTASTIC! This action direction, and the fact that almost every episode there is great and entertaining fighting scenes, should be the standard of the forthcoming wuxia dramas.
