Joy of Life (2019)

You much watch this show!!

OK, I admit, I came to watch this drama because of XiaoZhan. After the drama Chenqing Ling (The Untamed), I started to search for dramas by Xiao Zhan, and this drama is one of them. (By the way, if you haven’t watched The Untamed yet, you might want to check it out.)

Initially, at episode 1, I almost gave it up because it started off as a modern-day drama, so I thought; I had expected a historical wuxia drama. But very quickly within the first episode, it moves into historical settings and I was totally hooked since then.

Accordingly, this drama is adapted from a novel whose popular author has also written many other works including Ever Night. I have not read this particular novel (Joy of Life), but I understand that it is a super long novel, and the drama adaptation is planning for a five-year 3-season run, and we are currently in season 1. Whether the following seasons would run into any unforeseeable issues is anybody’s guess (such as the change of actors etc).

In the actual novel, it is supposedly a time travel story. But because such stories (time travel) are banned in China film production (I don’t understand why China wants to stymie such creativity), the production team has cleverly adapted the story by cutting out the time travel part hence passing censorship.

I must say, unexpectedly, this drama is so good! The story is interesting. The dialogues are funny and unexpected. The play of words and homophones, puns and use of chenyu (idioms) are hilarious, and yet witty, deep, meaningful and cultured. Too bad many of these wonderful characters (Chinese words) are lost in the translation and non-Chinese native speakers may not find the dialogues as wonderful as the native speakers do. Seemingly a light-hearted drama, but when it comes to emotional moments, the director has successfully squeezed out a tear or two from me. The acting is immaculate! I love the relationship Fan Xian has with his siblings and with others whom he considers as friends; it’s deep and genuine. Unlike most actors who act in historical dramas, Zhang Ruoyun has a presence day physique making him a perfect Fan Xian as he is supposed to be a modern man; his etiquettes are simply hilarious and Zhang delivers 100%. The supporting cast is equally good, in particular Guo Qilin who plays Fan Xian’s little brother; he is adorable and amazing. I hope to see more of him. I love the opening and ending OSTs, with the ending song being sung by Xiao Zhan, another talented actor and singer.

33 episodes in, I still haven’t seen a whiff of Xiao Zhan. Nonetheless, this hasn’t reduced the enjoyment I have got out from this delightful drama. Xiao Zhan plays a supporting role and for marketing purposes, his name is being displayed or used prominently to attract attention. I can understand why the team is doing this (Xiao Zhan is currently the hottest Chinese actor in China), but I find it deceiving and I can't say I appreciate it. This drama should receive the attention it duly deserves if being marketed properly, because it is indeed a great drama.

Leggi di Più

Complex, well done drama!

Joy Of Life, Nirvana In Fire 1 and 2 are dramas that build the audience’s feelings of tension and anticipation as the story develops. Engaging, complex and well written.
I’m glad that they added a comedic humor throughout all the episodes. Wang Qi Nian and Xiao en massage scene was hilarious, Tian Yu’s character is one of my favorite in this drama.
Zhang Ruo Yun is not your typical handsome Cdrama actor, but he is funny and charismatic.
All the cast did a great job portraying their characters.
Looking forward to season 2, and hopefully it will not be a prequel, after such a cliffhanger ending.

Leggi di Più

Joy of Life is now my absolute favorite drama of all time. Among the few dramas I have given a 10 rating this one deserves over a 10 rating! I started watching this drama with no expectations but after the first episode I was hooked. The writers did a phenomenal job. The storyline was engaging throughout the series and all the plot twists were cohesive. The entire cast was amazing. Each character was excellently portrayed. I hope the same actors will be casted for the next seasons, it would be such a shame and loss if they don’t. Technical stuff like cinematography, music, sets, costumes were all top notch. I can’t wait for the next season. This is a must watch!

Leggi di Più

I am absolutely stunned by how good this drama was. I rarely give out 10s but this one deserves it.

Cast:
I decided to watch it because I believed in the acting of Zhang Ruo Yun, Li Qin, and Xiao Zhan. But then as I watched more and more I really have to applaud for the entire cast!! Very very very phenomenal acting by everyone.

Story:
I went into this drama blind and with no knowledge about the original novel, but that’s ok because the story was logical and easy to follow. I’ve never watched a drama with this many plot twists and turns, but I liked that each event followed after another in a logical way. I am not a fan of political dramas, but this one was an exception. The politics were the most intriguing parts of the story and tbh the main leads’ love story was the most boring lol (no offense to Li Qin but I did not find much significance to her character…but perhaps she will become more important later on, idk). The ending left me hanging and I have so many questions GAH!! I’m tempted to read the novel to find out but at the same time I would prefer to learn the secrets by watching it acted out so I’m conflicted…

Other notes:
-The fight scenes are SO GOOD!!! And there are so many!!! I especially love that our protagonist is good at everything haha
-I LOVE the humor. Unlike humor in other dramas, the ones in this drama actually made me laugh out loud. Being a native Chinese speaker, I had the advantage of getting the humor straight on, instead of through translation. It may be hard for non-Chinese watchers to get the humor since there are a lot of word plays and homophones.
-My only critique would be the lighting and overall visual look of the scenes aren’t very good. There were times where I had to turn my brightness to max and still couldn’t see what was happening. But technical flaws for me aren’t very important when the story is good.

Tldr, one of the highest quality dramas I’ve watched in terms of storyline. I am really looking forward to watching the next seasons. For anyone who hates plot holes and cliff hangers, don’t watch this until the next season comes out lol. It is filled with unanswered questions.

Leggi di Più

This is my favorite drama of 2019. Dramas in historical settings are often too tragic or stressful, so the humor in this drama was a breath of fresh air! It's funny without being silly. That's not to say this is a comedy though, as the political intrigue is intense. The plotting is intricate. Zhang Ruoyun is seriously stellar as Fan Xian, a laidback, smart, and sarcastic young man who doesn't want anything to do with court politics but finds himself inevitably pulled in. He treats his friends with loyalty and respect. He's also very smart, but the great thing about this drama is that he's not the only one. There are so many formidable characters. I can't wait for the second season.

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Best well-rounded drama of 2019!

I have only recently started to watch Chinese drama- Joy of Life is my 3rd one. Before I have been a fan of Korean dramas (and in my early years' Japanese dramas as well). What used to put me off was the high amount of episodes, long dialogs, dragging stories and often bad quality firming.
But after I have recently watched a few Chinese dramas again I am positively surprised about the overall improvement in the quality of Chinese dramas - often due to great adaptions from popular novels. And why wasting your brainpower to come up with mediocre stories if a novel has been proved to be great?! Joy of life is one of them.
PS. My first full review so apologies for not being too clear sometimes.

Story/plot: ★★★★★
The story is really creative and interesting - modern beliefs mixed with an ancient setting. Though it is quite politically loaded, it does not go into the usual “palace dramas” and keep a high notch of mystery and suspense throughout the plot. Due to the slight element of Fantasy/ScienceFiction, but not too much, one also cannot easily predict how the story may unfold in the end. On top of that though the main storyline is rather heavy the scriptwriter inserted many great jokes and funny scenes which make the viewers laugh out loud. They help to lose the tension so the mood does not stay too dark all the time. One minus point can be given to because of the complexity of the intrigues and sudden turn of directions it can be sometimes a bit difficult to follow. You need to understand that they are trying to pack an extremely long novel (over 4mn Chinese characters!!) into 3 seasons. But of far it is not that you are completely out of the picture.

Character development: ★★★★★
I love dramas that have good character development. That’s is what name then real. All characters in this drama, both lead as well as supporting have their depth. Throughout the episodes, viewers can clearly feel that each of them has their own motivation, their source of joy and sadness and the stories which make the way they are. Esp. lead character Fan Xian’s character development is phenomenal and one of the best I have seen.

Acting: ★★★★★
This drama has a great cast. From young talented actors to veteran stars, it gives what a drama fan desires. The excellent acting is what makes the characters come to life. Esp. Zhang Ruo Yun playing Fan Xian has exceeded my expectation (one of my favorite scenes is the dialog between FanXian and Zhuge in ep. 13 - it really gives you chills!) also the emperor, the family of FanXian, FanXian’s subordinates, the king and all the “evil characters”... just hats down to their acting!

Camera work and music: ★★★★★
Finally some words to the production. The quality of this drama is fantastic. There are not many fighting scenes, but those which are there are excellently shot (my favorite is the fight at the waterfall in ep.34). It also offers some of the most beautiful natural sceneries.
The music has been well composed with beautiful title and ending songs. Some of the background music is inserted so well to enforce the atmosphere e.g. the “rock song” for the coach and flag scene in ep. 37.

Summary: ★★★★★
All in all - this drama is one of the best ones I have seen on screen (and I have seen many). If you are new or old to Chinese drama please give this one a go. I really hope they will continue to shoot season 2 and 3 with the same cast as I cannot wait to see what happens next.
I would not rewatch this drama mainly because once the story is known it takes out the suspense element which is one best part of this drama. But I will sure rewatch some of the scenes.

Leggi di Più

Season Two please!!.. Epic Drama!!

This drama is just so good that I don’t know what else to write!!... just watching it made me felt so wise and skillful... I love the ML .. he was so shipable with all the females that got tangled with him.. the story was excellent.. I could watch it all year long without skipping a scene..That’s how great the drama is!!!! Even if they Roman was kept at a low low..you wouldn’t even notice it because there are so many other plots that were going on...Amazing simply Amazing.. the wisdom and scheme packed in this drama is totally splendid...and uncle Wu..I’m your die hard Fan😂

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Wow.

Just wow.

I loved it because of the story. Some characters are flat and easy to see through- they're plastic- but others are very three dimensional, and that's why I'm addicted.

The characters are very well developed- the important ones at least- and it follows the original story pretty well. I loved the depth of the storyline- the layers that will only be peeled back with each season- though it is unfortunate that it had to end so soon. My mom's listening to the audio book, which is well over 400 "chapters" long; the show ends about a hundred of those audio book episodes in. Thank goodness there will be future seasons; I doubt I could live well knowing this is the ending to the show.

My favorite will always be the characters, even though the story line far outshines the character development. There are definitely episodes I will be watching again just for specific scenes; I'm glad I didn't skip over this show because the lead wasn't someone I knew.

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ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT!

Honestly, I hate writing reviews for my favourite dramas the most. I mean, Joy of Life is truly a masterpiece... what am I supposed to write? No word can describe how brilliant this show is, you just have to watch it and see for yourself. But because I promised to review everything that I finish, I will try to express my thoughts as well as I can. And I'll probably fail to do so, but don't mind me lol.

I've never seen a show in which every single character is so different and unique. It's honestly insane, because there are quite a lot of characters here, yet every one of them was simply a pleasure to watch. None of them was just black or white. The good guys were far from perfect and had realistic flaws. The bad ones had their motives and were excellently written which makes it hard to hate them just because they are interesting to watch.

Fan Xian is one of the best main leads out there and I fell in love with his character. And my love was growing with every episode, he was simply an amazing person with amazing ideals. And he's a character we can easily relate to. He is exceptionally smart, witty and playful, with a good heart and brilliant fighting skills. It's just impossible not to fall in love with him. The Emperor of Qing was such a weirdo lol, it was very hard to read his mind and his mysterious personality was making me love him even more. Oh, and my love Chen Ping Ping!!! This guy... I don't know if it was the way the character is written or the performance of the actor or maybe both, but his character was giving me shivers. And even after I finished the drama, I still can't tell what kind of a rare bird CPP is.

Of course there's no way I won't mention my favourite man aka the Second Prince Li Cheng Ze who is one of the most interesting characters I've ever seen. And I don't know whose idea was, but Lui Duan Duan with this hairstyle can slap me in the face and I'll be very thankful. It suits the actor PERFECTLY.

The ladies in the drama were also awesome. Our main heroine - Lin Wan'er was such a beautiful and adorable creature. I loved the romance between her and Fan Xian, I love how there was no much useless drama with them and they simply supported each other. Haitang Duo Duo though... this girl was on fire!!! I hope we'll see her more in the second season!

The ending... I mean... we have a second season... and we have to wait two years... but it's fine. Yes, totally fine. I'm not crying at all.

Sooooo overall, Joy of Life is a masterpiece. It has an amazing plot (46 episodes yet no boring second), some shocking twists here and there, BRILLIANT CHARACTERS and the humour was soooooo on point, I almost cried from laughing! So yeah, it's a must watch for sure. But DON'T watch it now, because you'll hate the fact that you have to wait two years for the second season. It's just painful.

Leggi di Più

Amazing show!

Everything about the Joy of Life was done very well! By far one of my favorite CDramas.

The plot is very interesting and hooked me from the very first episode. I love that it’s a story within a story and that it mixes ancient and modern themes. There were so many twists within the plot and subplots and always had you guessing.

The acting was amazing. Every character had so much depth and so much offer to the story that it made you want to know more about each. There were so many things going on with each character but it was all related to the main story and main ML.

Normally, I hate to see cliffhangers at the end of shows but this one had me so anxious. That’s what you call good writing. I very excited for season 2!

Leggi di Più

One of the best

OK, I admit, I came to watch this drama because of XiaoZhan. After the drama Chenqing Ling (The Untamed), I started to search for dramas by Xiao Zhan, and this drama is one of them. (By the way, if you haven’t watched The Untamed yet, you might want to check it out.)

Initially, at episode 1, I almost gave it up because it started off as a modern-day drama, so I thought; I had expected a historical wuxia drama. But very quickly within the first episode, it moves into historical settings and I was totally hooked since then.

Accordingly, this drama is adapted from a novel whose popular author has also written many other works including Ever Night. I have not read this particular novel (Joy of Life), but I understand that it is a super long novel, and the drama adaptation is planning for a five-year 3-season run, and we are currently in season 1. Whether the following seasons would run into any unforeseeable issues is anybody’s guess (such as the change of actors etc).

In the actual novel, it is supposedly a time travel story. But because such stories (time travel) are banned in China film production (I don’t understand why China wants to stymie such creativity), the production team has cleverly adapted the story by cutting out the time travel part hence passing censorship.

I must say, unexpectedly, this drama is so good! The story is interesting. The dialogues are funny and unexpected. The play of words and homophones, puns and use of chenyu (idioms) are hilarious, and yet witty, deep, meaningful and cultured. Too bad many of these wonderful characters (Chinese words) are lost in the translation and non-Chinese native speakers may not find the dialogues as wonderful as the native speakers do. Seemingly a light-hearted drama, but when it comes to emotional moments, the director has successfully squeezed out a tear or two from me. The acting is immaculate! I love the relationship Fan Xian has with his siblings and with others whom he considers as friends; it’s deep and genuine. Unlike most actors who act in historical dramas, Zhang Ruoyun has a presence day physique making him a perfect Fan Xian as he is supposed to be a modern man; his etiquettes are simply hilarious and Zhang delivers 100%. The supporting cast is equally good, in particular Guo Qilin who plays Fan Xian’s little brother; he is adorable and amazing. I hope to see more of him. I love the opening and ending OSTs, with the ending song being sung by Xiao Zhan, another talented actor and singer.

33 episodes in, I still haven’t seen a whiff of Xiao Zhan. Nonetheless, this hasn’t reduced the enjoyment I have got out from this delightful drama. Xiao Zhan plays a supporting role and for marketing purposes, his name is being displayed or used prominently to attract attention. I can understand why the team is doing this (Xiao Zhan is currently the hottest Chinese actor in China), but I find it deceiving and I can't say I appreciate it. This drama should receive the attention it duly deserves if being marketed properly, because it is indeed a great drama

Leggi di Più

Amazing and Compelling Show

Gosh I love this show! To me the story is highly compelling, from unraveling the mystery of Fan Xian's mother to the political power plays that are being worked around him. It's almost like watching a chess match, all players are masters. There are tension filled moments but many more humorous ones. I love that combination and Fan Xian is the most humorous one of all. The acting from the cast is amazing, ZRY is very charismatic in this role! Even the little actor who's plays young Fan Xian is great and I wish we could have seen a little more of him. And I'm in love with Uncle Wu! My only complaint is that I wish they could have added more layers to the female lead, she was little one dimensional, too sweet and sickly. All the fight scenes are awesome (especially loved Fan Xian vs the Saintess, and all the Uncle Wu action)! The introduction theme song is great, but absolutely love "Remaining Years" by Xiao Zhan, it somehow makes me want to sway like I'm a leaf in the gusty wind, LOL! I've re-watched this drama several times now and it's still great. Eagerly looking forward to another season, hopefully it's still coming, especially after that cliffhanger that they left us with!

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