Palabra de honor (2021)

BL and not bromance

Okay how do i even start. Firstly, the story/plot I would say is good not remarkable but good. The entire plot revolves around this revenge of Wen Ke Xing. What I love about the plot the most is the overall character development. Like Zhou Zhi Shu, a man with stoic and cold expressions who preferred duty over love took a U-turn. As the episodes progess you start seeing the beauty of Zho Zhi Shu as the man starts to smile, tease and show his vulnerable side. In the end he preferred his soulmate over anything. That was a huge ass development in his character as you get to see his soft side, his emotional side, his loving and teasing nature. You just keep on falling in love with this man with every passing episode. The other one is Wen Ke Xing who yet again was a flirt in the beginning and would never talk about his past or cry too began to open up to his A-Xu and cried. A-Xu illuminated his world with light, showed him the path and finally was able to show him the right direction that Wen Ken Xing lacked. They started with bickering and ended with willingness to die for each other. Other one is Scorpion, the guy who was so much deluded by what his father said, did what his father commanded ended up plotting against his own father. Secondly, OST. Oh god! I for even once never skipped the opening music. It is really good and so is the ending song. Now everytime I will be hearing it I am gonna be bombarded with all these memories of this show. Acting was really flawless. Even that father's acting was so remarkable that I couldn't like him for once. His acting was amazing and so was of all other side characters. I especially loved Zhang Zhe Han's acting. Why? Because of tiny gestures and details that he showed in his expressions even when he did not have his dialogue. His entire posture, expressions, silliness, coldness, anger, pain, smile, affection was so raw. His character was not expressive as that of Wen Ke Xing. But even without that this man was able to convey every emotion. Everytime he smiled i felt like it's not Wen Ke Xing's life that's being illuminated but my own. It was all so innocent. What I love the most is that they are anti-heroes, grey chars and not the typical white and black. The have done bad deeds infact loads of bad deeds but it is the heart that matters, right? And also, my innocent Cao Wei Ning is a very tender and down to earth simple man who fell in love with this stupid, destructive, loving and affectionate woman, A-Xiang. Their love was so beautiful. After watching BLs I thought I no longer liked hetro love but these two brought me back to my senses by displaying how beautiful it too can be. It is completely rewatchable. Why? Because even when I was so behind, already knew what was going to happen in coming episodes and even watched without subs I still waited everyday patiently to watch it. That's how much thrilled I was. SO DO WATCH THIS SHOW AND FALL IN LOVE WITH ALL THE CHARACTERS!!!

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If I have to fly to China to find out the true ending of this show I'll do it

After watching 'The Untamed,' this really was the next logical step in my pursuit for similar shows with similar themes of found family, moral ambiguity and fun characters.
I'm happy to say I found what I was looking for in Word of Honor!
While 'the Untamed' generally seemed to lack in the female character department, Word of Honor does a bit of a better job writing female characters that are pivotal to the plot and not just cannon fodder or fuel for the male characters vengeance.
That being said... I'm pretty sure like all of them die anyway.
To be fair though I'm pretty sure nearly every major character in this 'dies' or is, at the very least, MIA.
Gu Xiang really is a favourite of mine just because she seems very unique to the genre as a character. We don't normally get 'fun' female characters. Especially in historical settings... But Gu Xiang is SO fun! She's a very capable young woman that can beat the hell out of anyone but is also very emotionally vulnerable due to the circumstances of her childhood and I think that's a nice change from the 'tough lady, no cry' or 'weak lady, yes cry' character tropes that seem to be prevalent in, well, every genre. I think her relationships with the other characters are great too because they all seem to adore her in different ways. Who can blame them really she's the best. She deserved so much better than getting murdered on her wedding day like HELLO. SIR. JUSTICE FOR GU XIANG 2021.
Not to mention the Romeo and Juliet thing the two main characters have going on with one another. Wen Kexing fakes his own death. Zhou Zishu chooses to avenge him but has to slowly kill himself in the process. Wen Kexing comes back to life and kills himself to save Zhou Zishu. I hate it here. Can the two of you pretty please stop trying to die for each other and just, I don't know, talk. Please.
Anyway, the ending for this show was awful. It didn't wrap up anything and from what I've heard it really wasn't supposed to be finished like this. I have to assume that's the case or I'll go insane. I'm considering reading the novel it's based on for my own mental health. That being said I loved it all the way up to episode 34. So that's why I gave it a good score.

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...this show is evil.

I would have given this a higher score probably if the producers kinda left things as they were by the end of like, episode 32 i don't even remember anymore. now listen carefully.
on the upside, Shan he ling has got really nice music, the subtle and not-so-subtle symbolism + poetry references didn't go unnoticed either, and the actors delivered beautifully. to be fair tho, i wasn't sure of the chemistry between the main leads (zhang zhehan and gong jun) at first plus it took a couple episodes for them to grow on me. it's about being in a relationship with healthy communication, understanding, respect, love and growth on both ends. we love to see it, right?
also, the found family trope? i eat that shit up. xie wang (one of the antagonists a.k.a scorpion king) is such a compelling and attractive character but the author deserves to be mauled for writing all that incest fuckery. what the fuck is wrong with u. which brings me to my next point: the downsides of course
last six episodes were rushed as hell, i've had Enough of misogynistic fujos (yes i am talking about u mxtx and priest), meaningless deaths, 5000 plot lines. gu xiang's death hurt me the most. it took 5 years off my life. idk what i expected. SHE DESERVED NONE OF THIS BS. neither did cao weining. gong jun's acting in that scene was pretty lackluster, too?

WHEN did qian qiao drink the water of lethe ?that feels like such a pivotal moment and yet?? HOW IS XIE WANG SURPRISED THAT SHE'S DEAD WHEN H E H I M S E L F SAID NO ONE IS LEAVING HERE ALIVE. what's the point?? AND GU XIANG'S DEATH WAS HARDLY ADDRESSED. and as much as i liked wenzhou, the misunderstandings they had from the moment wkx faked his death all the way to the finale weren't resolved. ever. they just laughed it off and were like ok !we're good to go! for example, zzs leaving wkx behind after the ghost valley battle bc he was dying and couldn't bring himself to face him and then wkx willingly sacrificing himself to save zzs.that was a choice. an ooc choice. why u ask? bc ALL the themes about healing from cycles of abuse and wanting to live on again after giving up are thrown out in the last two or three episodes, which then culminate in like, the finale where they just, like...nothing is explained, things that characters have said not to want happen after a timeskip. half of the main fucking cast dies for NO REASON. of course u could argue that their budget ran out but still why go back to square one?? as if all that progress was for nothing ??
so anyway thank god i didn't start the novel. fuck u, priest.

btw, the ending isn't as bad as ppl make it out to be. personally i liked it. is it heart-wrenching? absolutely. fear not, all u need to do is watch the bonus episode . oh yeah sorry i forgot about the part where it's fucking paywalled. stay winning, i guess. love and light i'm free babyyyyy

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a gem!

Word of Honor is one of the best dramas I've ever watched.

This isn't a coming-of-age story. The protagonists have already seen their share of the world and are journeying to leave their past lives behind. At an age where it's hard to open up to new people, they decide to give their all to this relationship and end up finding solace in each other. Throughout these 36 episodes, the characters grapple with their pasts, try to come to terms with their trauma, and make mistakes. Sometimes their moral compasses are questionable, but in the end, they're good people-- very human-- and find redemption in each other.

The strength of this story really lies in its characters. Zhou Zishu and Wen Kexing are both incredibly complex and flawed characters, and really bring out the best in each other.

The leading actors, Zhang Zhehan and Gong Jun, really blew me away. I had reservations at first, but by the end they'd convinced me they were meant to play their respective roles-- I can't imagine having anyone else play these characters. I was especially impressed by Zhang Zhehan. Although Zhou Zishu is such a restrained, introverted, and complex character, Zhang Zhehan managed to bring so much life into him. Not to mention, he has the most gorgeous smile ever-- his eyes turn into little half moons, and his features soften-- it's like he's a completely different person! I wasn’t a fan of Gong Jun’s acting before, but it’s like he unlocked another dimension of his acting working with Zhang Zhehan. Together, their chemistry is incredible-- they make one of the best pairings I’ve ever seen on-screen. The support cast is wonderful as well, and I especially loved Zhou Ye's portrayal of Gu Xiang-- she's another young actress I'll have to watch out for!

The script shocked me at first, because it was so bold. I was surprised they managed to slip everything past censorship. Flirting, hand-holding, hugging-- it's all in there. Although not stated explicitly, I interpreted the relationship between the two leads as more than friends, more than lovers even-- they really bring a new definition to the word "soulmate".

The fighting scenes are well-choreographed and beautifully shot, and the cinematography is gorgeous throughout. There are many references to Chinese poetry in the script, which I feel was a nice touch. The costumes are amazing. Despite not having the highest budget, they really spent money on the right things.

The drama isn't perfect by any means. I found the pacing to be a little off in some later episodes (too slow around 21-27 and too fast around 31-32), and there are a few stray plot holes. In my opinion, too much screen time was given to Zhao Jing / the Scorpion King and scheming villains, when I would have preferred more WenZhou scenes. However, I think everything else about this production makes up for its few imperfections. I’ve already gone back and rewatched episodes, and it’s indeed the type of story that’s so detailed you take away something new each time.

Thank you to the cast and crew for giving us Word of Honor. This is the first piece of work in a while that has made me cry and laugh and feel so many emotions at the same time. This is a story that's going to stay with me for a long time.

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Impressive Wuxia-cum-BL

Believing that the BL would be transformed into bromance and that the story would focus so much on the (b)romance that it would not be a good wuxia, I did not expect much of this series at first. Surprisingly, the series fares well in both aspects. In the first few episodes, with Wen Kexing blatantly flirting with Zhou Zishu, the wuxia does take a backseat. Similarly, when the story focused a bit more on the wuxia aspects of the story, the BL took a backseat. Nevertheless, give it a bit of time and the series brings both aspects of the series together very nicely.

The BL

The BL was what I started watching the series for, and it did not disappoint. This wasn't simply because I wasn't having high expectations in the first place. It is a pleasant surprise that the series manages to portray what is quite obviously beyond bromance or friendship between the main characters. The way they gaze at each other, dialogue (with them basically referring to each other as family and basically wanting to just live with each other happily ever after) and the body language when they hug quite explicitly portray a romantic relationship.

A lot of the BL is rather sneakily done, of course. For instance, when Kexing and Zishu move to the Four Seasons Manor (a large place that used to house many disciples), they sleep in the same room though I would assume there are lots of rooms available. The other characters sometimes speak to them teasingly, like the way one might tease a married couple (like threatening to complete about one of them to the other).

The BL does eventually integrate well with the rest of the story, showing the transformative power of the characters' love. Zishu, who is guilt-ridden about the things he has done as an assassin, is at first just waiting to die after injuring himself severely so that he can leave his job. Kexing, who is so obsessed with vengeance that he suppresses his innately kind nature, also finds a reason to live besides taking revenge.

There are some moments when the series seem to disavow the gay relationship through apparent hints of heterosexuality, such as when Zishu says he does not mind having a beautiful lady like Gu Xiang tag along and when Zishu tells his disciple, Cheng Ling, that Kexing bought a whole lot of decorative stuff for their manor because they are sold by a beautiful lady. There is something cunning about these scenes for while they may seem to disavow the homosexual relationship between the characters at first, they also hint at jealousy or an attempt to make the other party jealous in a romantic relationship.

To be sure, I do think that the BL would have been even better if the characters can be openly portrayed as having a romantic relationship. But we do not really lose anything significant, which is an admirable feat.

The Wuxia

I couldn't believe it when I first read that this is a low-budget production. It doesn't look low-budget to me though the production could have run into sponsorship problems at some point. Maybe there are those who expect more of the CG, but not being a fan of CG, I'm actually fine with the execution.--nothing stood out to me as being badly done.

What impressed me early on is the choreography of the fighting sequences. There's nothing exceptional about it, but it is very competently done and made it convincing that the makers of the series are taking the wuxia aspects of the series very seriously instead of relying on the BL elements to attract eyeballs.

The range of sects and characters are also typical of the genre, and the series does manage to develop on several of these characters quite well. As with many wuxia stories, the characters from the so-called respectable sects are often hypocrites, bullies or simply unscrupulous villains. On the other hand, those from the unorthodox "evil" sect are not necessarily bad people and can be surprisingly humane. The back stories of characters like the Glamorous Ghost and the Tragicomic Ghost are interesting even if not strikingly original.

The rather perverse relationship between the villains, Zhao Jing and his foster son, the Scorpion King, is rather unique in the genre of wuxia. Despite supposedly having a father-son type of relationship, the Scorpion King's affections towards his foster father appears more like those of a lover. The parallels drawn between his predicament and that of the Glamorous Ghost (a woman betrayed by her lover despite her devotion) reinforces the idea. Yet, instead of being demonized, the Scorpion King's affections with homosexual undertones give a glimpse of the more humane side of an otherwise vicious and ruthless character. We can sympathize with him insofar as the way Zhao Jing treats him is concerned, and he seems to be able to genuinely identify with Glamorous Ghost and wants to help her.

As a wuxia series, Word of Honor displays a very good grasp of genre conventions. It would have been a very good watch even if the BL relationship had been toned down, and I think the makers of the series deserve respect for daring to take the risk of portraying such a close relationship between the main characters. Even if one fails to recognize it as BL, the portrayal of the male characters go beyond conventions of masculine behavior, which is in itself already laudable.

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Great show

I enjoyed watching it and I like the two main characters and they deserve each other and I think that the other people need to leave them alone. I also like to listen to their music on my Spotify music app. I am happy that Zhang Zhe Han and Gong Jun have met each other after a long complicated journey on the way. I have also follow their Instagram account on my Apple iPhone 14 and I have to say that they both have great style of clothes and hair style too. People need to mind their own business and leave Zhang Zhe Han and Gong Jun alone and stop being in peoples business and they make a really great friends with each other. Having friends is great and they will be there for you, when you feel sad or hurt or lonely and they will be there for you anytime. That’s why I have great friends from my school and I keep I touch with them since I have graduated from school. I also think that Zhang and Gong will become great friends in the future and don’t stop them from being friends.

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Enjoyable but not great.

This drama is enjoable and if i judge all the different aspects separately they are good, but the whole is somewhat lacking.
Acting is great, characters on paper are compelling, production is appealing, music is engaging, the story intriguing, yet it seems to lack in passion.
To me it seems pretty obvious that this production has been trying to replicate the success of the Untamed, and failing to do so because no matter how much you try to hide it, there's a difference between wanting to tell a story and telling it because it seems an easy way to grab the public's attention.
Technically speaking this drama is better than The Untamed but personally I cannot feel the heart of this production just an endless ruse to say 'look, look, we are great in telling a BL story despite censorship so root for us'. It's true that there are much more explicit dialoges and lot of small pieces that makes it interesting to watch the details put into the picture, yet all them seems like mannerism and they land flat emotionally at least for me. In my perception they seems mechanics and not really felt, as if this drama is much more about appearance than real substance.
Personally the most compelling characters are the support ones such as the Scorpion King, Gu Xiang or Glamorous ghost and Tragicomic ghost.

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Love it!

I won't write about the story line or character details because they have been written many times, so this is just my opinion for the series.

I am not a fan of BL, which is why I have been putting The Untamed and Word of Honor on the to-watch shelf for a long time. I hesitated to watch this because of the BL storyline. But I didn't regret watching these two because they are one of the best chinese costume dramas that I've watched. The best ones in my opinion are Story of Yanxi Palace and Nirvana In Fire, but these two came close.

Word of Honor has all the elements that I like in a drama, good acting, handsome actors, beautiful costume and setting and wuxia scenes. Viewers are spoiled with beautiful colors in the costume, setting and cinematography as well as very amazing sceneries. There are plenty of WuXia fighting scenes in this drama that left you at the edge of your seats. There are also plenty of nice songs in the OST, I like the opening and ending theme and several others. That's why I always click "watch credit" and "play from the beginning" on Netflix for this drama because of the songs.

This drama is a rollercoaster of emotion for me. I felt sympathy for the characters, can feel happy, laughing at several scenes in the episodes, then change to feeling sad for some of the characters. The last three episodes in particular was a rollercoaster ride for me, like I didn't expect that to happen, why did it has to happen like that? Sad, then happy, and sad again.

I have to give a special shoutout to Simon Gong Jun as I thought he did a superb and excellent job as Wen Ke Xing. Huge kudos to Simon Gong!!!! I originally watch this because of Zhang Zhe Han, but Simon Gong stole my heart! He is so expressive and did very well in playing such a complex character. I first saw him in Begin Again, but after watching Word of Honor, I have just became a huge fan of Simon Gong Jun!!!

If you hesitate in watching this because of the BL element, please don't. It's there but it's subtle that I can just pass it on as true friendship and brotherhood. This drama is so much more than that, it is a story of friendship, family, loyalty, heroism and courage that it's very easy to overlook the BL element. It's there but in a subtle way, not "in your face" BL like those in Hollywood movies/series and Thai dramas. I would totally recommend this drama (and The Untamed of course).

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Great chemistry from the 2 lead characters

This is my second BL c-drama after “The Untamed” but in the latter, I could not get past the third episode. Simply put, I am not a BL lover, and could never enjoy such genre. The idea of handsome men cozying up to one another - despite the lack of physical intimacies - is rather disconcerting and impeding my enjoyment of the drama. I would rather watch gorgeous leading ladies strutting their stuff on screen; looking cute and lovely when needed or crying their heart out at the slightest of tragedy. So it was with trepidation that I watched “Word of Honor” as it premiered just as I completed watching “Weaving a Tale of Love” and “Douluo Continent”. Suffice to say that I have not been disappointed with this choice, and “Word of Honor” exceeds my expectation of BL c-drama .

The storyline is nothing to get excited about. Once you get past the ogling and amorous look from Simon Gong towards Zhang Zhe Han, and flirtatious behavior from the two male leads, this is just a normal wuxia-theme costume c-drama by a popular web writer, Priest. It details out the adventures of two (2) soul mates in jiang-hu where both of them goes through various trials and tribulations. Nothing special in the storyline to be honest. Had it not been for the BL genre, and you take away either of the MLs and replace him with a leading actress, this would be an average costume c-drama. But with two handsome MLs in this series, you have a storyline that caught the eyes and attention of nearly all female c-drama fans. That is the secret formula pioneered by “The Untamed” and it has become a trend among drama producers. “Word of Honor” is no different. The strength of this low-budget production is the chemistry and flirtatious behavior between two extremely good looking males. It might turn off some male fans, but it is a sure magnet for female fans. The douban rating of 8.6 from over 280K reviewers means that this is a highly popular and acclaimed historical costume drama of 2021.

Gu Xiang/Zhou Ye’s introduction as a maid gives me the creep. It is her 1st historical c-drama . She reminds me of Li Yan character (Zhou Jie Qiong) in “Legend of Fei” but with slightly better martial arts skill. She looks like Zhang Ziyi in her younger days, at least to me. But as the series progresses, I am beginning to warm up to Gu Xiang character. In fact at the very end, I wish they could have more scenes featuring Gu Xiang. She is a fresh face in this industry, just like Wu Juanyi in the “Douluo Continent”. Sometimes you get bored looking at Yang Mi, Yang Zi, Tiffany Tang, Zhao Liying, etc reprising the same roles repeatedly. The chemistry between the two (2) MLs is evident for everyone to see. Simon Gong’s lustful and lecherous look at Zhang Zheyan takes a bit of getting used to, but it is cute and funny at the same time.

I am a few episodes from completing this series, but the ending will not change my mind about this series. Because of “Word of Honor”, I will give “The Untamed” a second look. Overall 8.5/10.0 score and that is purely down to Simon Gong/Zhang Zhehan chemistry.

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"Word of Honor" in my eyes

Several spoilers are about to come. Beware!

After watching the “Word of Honor”, I dropped myself so deeply and couldn’t help to think it over and over in my mind. That’s exactly why I am longing to write something about it. However, there is a big problem that I have to choose a proper word to transform Wu Xia into English. Usually, words like Chinese Martial, Chinese swordplay, Chinese Kong Fu, or Traditional Wushu are used to describe Wu Xia. As a Chinese who grew up and impacted under the atmosphere of Wu Xia culture, I don’t think the words above could clarify the real connotation of Wu Xia. In my view, Wu, which means Chinese martial or Kong Fu, is over-emphasized in the western society nowadays. contrarily, Xia is the core. To the post-70s, the 80s, the 90s, or even more generations, Wu Xia is not only a word, it is also an amazing world fascinating being including Chinese traditional culture, Chinese feelings, and Chinese dreams. It hasn’t been understood correctly in non-Chinese spoken countries, because there are no words that could present it perfectly. Consequently, I decided to use the original Chinese words full of oriental characteristics to explain this drama, especially the value behind it.

There are two main characters in this drama, Zhou Zishu (hereafter called Zhou) and Wen Kexing(hereafter called Wink), both of whom are mysterious and unfightable. Zhou was the leader of the secret assassination organization. As he killed so many people who are innocent and lost his sect brothers, he started to wonder about the meaning of life and decided to escape from the organization after paying a big price. Zhou left with a broken body and drunk himself into dreams to idle away the last 3 years of his life until he met Wink. Revenge is always the eternal theme of novels or films, no matter in China or the western society, this drama is not excepted. Being the master of the Ghost Valley, Wink has a commiserable childhood experience. He lost his parents and grew up in a dangerous and horrible valley environment. Killing or being killed is the only thing he has learnt learned from the terrible reality. He has a strong hatred of the Ghost Valley or even the whole world, so he made an evil plan to avenge his parents’ death. Fate leads the encounter of Zhou and Wink, and everything changed from then on.
Not the same as the western films or culture, we Chinese people pay more attention to the redemption behind avenge instead of the revenge itself. As you have known that both Zhou and Wink are not the traditional normal person nor good person, they are more like villains. What’s interesting in this drama is that Wink always called himself a nice person although he conducted the evil plan to mess the world up. Furthermore, there are abundant statues of Buddha outside of the Ghost Valley which is known as hell. It seems a little paradoxical and incomprehensible, right? On the contrary, it is exactly the point that the scriptwriter or the author trying to tell us through this drama. No one is born guilty, even the evils could be changed. If you have ever studied Chinese Buddhism you will learn that certain figures save the astray person by sacrificing themselves. From my perspective, that’s what Wink planed at first, he determined to clean the terrible and dirty world with his own life. Having said all the above, I am feeling pity for Wink. Wink shouldn’t be the abandoned one since he hasn’t done anything wrong at first. As I said before, Zhou is not a nice person in the conventional sense, but he is one of those who have brought love to little Wink. Zhou is just like the light in the endless darkness that brings Wink warmth and hope, at the same time, Wink recalls Zhou’s responsibility and courage to live on. It is the most impressive and highlights part of this drama, and I am willing to call it the mutual salvation.

I do appreciate that the director, the scriptwriter, the actors, and the crew in this drama give the full efforts to “Word of Honor”. They tried their best to display an excellent work with logical storytelling, marvelous choreography, meaningful Chinese poems, and beautiful costumes full of Chinese traditional aesthetic. I enjoy the dialogues and martial fights between Wink and Zhou so much. A lot of feelings are channeled in an unspoken way and leaving our audiences the room for interpretation. The tiny details are essential, especially the eye contact, the body contact, and the ancient poems or idioms. All of them are full of flirtation feels. The micro-emotions in this drama moved me so much that most of the time I will put myself in Wink’s role. I’d like to compare Wink to porcelain, which is exquisite and hard outwardly but delicate and eager to be protected inwardly. Wink knows the complex society and nefarious humans nature so much that he keeps alert all the time. Since he has lost the expectation of the world and the desire to live, he is determined to destroy the world. When he encountered Zhou he was attracted and gradually fall in love. As I said before that Wink always doubts everything including the love from others. So he uses flamboyant words constantly to cover his pains and feelings and tests Zhou with unanswered questions repeatedly to tell if Zhou could understand and trust him completely at the beginning of this drama. While he confirmed Zhou’s love he started to reveal the true self and try to struggle against the world for love. To be honest, I see myself in Wink’s experience, we are the same persons that always looking forward to being loved but hesitant and doubt when coming across love.

Another reason why I appreciate this drama is that all the side characters here are displayed naturally and totally. They completely showed the complexity and uncertainty of human beings. Even the good person could do wrong while the demon person could also do good, each of them has their own particular emotions and principles just like ourselves in reality. From my perspective, the scriptwriter is trying to deliver the conception that there is no definite right and wrong, nor love and hate. Someone describes both Zhou and Wink as the ones with thousands of layers of gray because there is no pure black and white. If you have ever used image applications you will understand that. When we remove all the colors from the picture, it will be shown with varieties degrees of gray. Therefore, we shouldn’t simply divide the person into two extremes and ignore the good one’s errors or the bad one’s philanthropic acts.

As a BL adaption drama, “Word of Honor” is very adventrual and clever. It was adapted from “The Wanderers” which was written by Priest decades ago. Through readers, we know that most of the scenarios in this novel are blatant sexy and hard to pass the censorship. The talented scriptwriter applied the ancient idioms or classic stories skillfully to display some sexual implications. Candidly, it needs a large amount of knowledge about Chinese culture or history to understand this drama. For example, Wink used a large number of amatory poems to show his love for Zhou. In one of the plots, he cut the blood sleeve of Zhou which is always acknowledged as the metaphor of homosexuality in Chinese ancient stories. Besides, they even stuck two pancakes together to implicate the physical intimacy of Wink and Zhou. It is very interesting to enjoy the word games and explore the potential secrets behind the drama.

All in all, it is an excellent work about Wu Xia even though there are certain shortcomings. The film crew showed their sincerity to the audience and saluted to the old school Chinese martial. They narrated a beautiful Chinese story and delivered the Chinese universe value to the world. It explained something deeper about Wu Xia. Wu, namely martial, is just the tool to fulfill Xia. So what’s the real meaning of Xia? I believe that the ancient Chinese swordsman living thousands of years ago must have questioned the samely. What they were persuing when they decided to live in danger and instability as a swordsman? What impelled them and made them insist to protect the weak or the country with their blood and body? All I can imagine is Xia, the particular spirit about responsibility and sympathy, the unique humanitarianism that derives from Chinese culture and romance.

Actually, there is still a question that lingered around me day and night after I watched this drama. In the extra episode, Zhou and Wink are living together in an extremely cold world immortally, but it is inconsistent with the storytelling from the context. So I wondered what if the plot is just the dream of Zhou? We all know that Zhou has the drug named the magic wine and it could create an illusion world in which you will be satisfied with the things you desired. Supposing that Wink died and left Zhou behind to suffer the endless life full of solitariness. What will Zhou do? Living in the cruel reality or addicted himself to the fictional dreams about Wink? On the surface, Wink seems to be the selfless one for he chose the death and left the survival chance to Zhou. On the other hand, he deprived Zhou of the right to sacrifice for him. Wink knows from the beginning to the end that the deeper the love, the more pain to the living one.

Whatever the truth is, the undertone of this drama is still the vow of “Till death we part”. Their fears, their hatred, their guilt, and the efforts they have made to redeem themselves in the tough world. All of them touch me and remind me to value the nice details in my life.

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Nearly.

This was my 2nd venture into Chinese fantasy and much like it's predecessor, I found that there were so many characters I could barely keep up. I am slowly learning that this is very common in Chinese shows. The casts are huge. My poor brain.

This one starts with just full on attack of information that it's a little hard to digest at first. I can tell this has come from a book series because they were just info dumping all over the plot.

For me, at it's heart, this a redemption tale for the two male leads, and I loved the set up. Zhou, a tormented assassin's group leader and Wen, Chief of Ghost Valley. Both of them essentially the 'bad guy'. Neither of them have any will to live, Zhou is consumed by remorse for his past behaviour and is basically torturing himself while he drinks himself into a stupor waiting for death. On the other hand, we have Wen who is consumed with grief and hatred, and pretty much has the attitude that if the world is going to set me on fire and laugh as I burn, I'm going to take as many mofos as I can with me.
It's deep and it's complicated, and I love that since this is meant to be a romantic couple. It's not so much a 'love conquers' theme, it's finding a reason to live beyond pain, even in little every day things.

Having said that, there is very clear homosexual feelings from the get go. My first chinese series was Untamed, and it was much more subtle. You could pass it off as just a deep brotherhood. This is not. This is outright flirting and sexual feelings. At times I was in shock that this was allowed. But it adds to the romanticism of finding something to live for. In this case, it's each other, which ultimately leads you to th ending sequence. I think we jumped a little too quickly into 'soulmate' but that might be a culture clash. I don't know if soulmate has a more platonic meaning in asia since the sages of ajni were called soulmates.

What first started to let me down, was the constant back and forth between the two leads. I think they broke up about 4 times, only to be normal again 3 scenes later. I found that a little jarring and unnecessary drama, another pet peeve in writing. Speaking of which, there is major unnecessary drama towards the end and even though I saw it coming from about episode 15, it still sucked to see. I understand this happens in the novels so it's on the OG writer but still, it's something that really peeves me off in many types of shows. It was deliberately built up over the show, just to hurt your feelings at the end. I don't feel it added a whole lot to the actual plot.

I did not know about the extra episode, 37 or MV style ending so when I got to the end of 36, I was punched in the face. Understandably with the censors and they wanted to keep a happy ending, but it's such a random place to end a show. It really does feel like we're missing episodes and apparently they did cut several down due to the budget running out. (or they were actually shut down but that just might be me) When I managed to get the ending online, I was fairly satisfied with it. It's pretty romantic and ironic that the show started with both characters, alone, wandering and wanting to die, where now together, immortal on a mountain.

I feel like what let the series down were the cuts the most. As we were reaching the end, there were a few things just being forgotten about or happening off screen.

Visually, it's the usual dream like, chinese fantasy but I have to admit that I didn't like the styling on this one. I found Wen's robes to be unflattering on him the most. I liked the first one he's in, the white silver ones, and the Chief red robes. Both of which we barely see him in. I found the shoulder cuts and colours just to be unflattering on him. I think keeping everything soft and lose on him, would have looked better. I can tell by the hair they were trying to keep things a little more in line with historical accuracy but I just didnt like it, or Zhou's hair. You can tell it's a choppy cut with extensions. It's a good looking cast but the styling definitely needed more work.

I would still rewatch it but I feel like there would be scenes I would be skipping.

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The best Wuxia drama

I have just finished watching this drama and felt very satisfied. The story is attractive and does not have unnecessary long conversations like most of other dramas. The cast acts very good especially the two leads. Gong Jun surprises me in the role of Wen Kexing who has many "faces". I knew him from the drama Lost Love In Time in the role of a nice and faithful Prince but this role did not impress me much. Wen Kexing seems to be a good role for Gong Jun to fully show his talent and his beauty. The costumes and make up are beautiful which shows the natural beauty of each cast. Although costumes of Wen Kexing are colorful, they are impressive and look gorgeous with Gong Jun. I really like and enjoy watching this drama which is the best martial art drama I have ever known in recent years!!!

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