L'Ingegnoso (2023)

Strategist

Overall it was a very good series. It was an interesting and gripping series. It was a strategist series. There were a few such serials in these times. I'm watching. In other words, our leading actor directs everything, with the attitude of a knowledgeable, scholar, strategist, and planner. He makes a plan before starting a business. Acting according to plan, as well as friendship, brotherhood, an act of revenge and suppression of a rebellion. This is solved with a strategy. We watched this. The actors were quite successful. However, I don't know if there are such things from the management or in the script, but the dead do not die, in some scenes, especially in the fight scenes, someone who is very good is easily defeated. The riot of those who were hit ten times as if nothing had happened. On the contrary, very obvious mistakes, such as the squirming of the one who was hit, were striking. Especially when the old martial artist in Yuntai beat a lot of people quite a lot but the men rioted as if nothing had happened, along with blood coming out of the mouth of the one who took a blow. It didn't happen. Then the scenes where we say Jin Bo is dead. It was too noticeable. In terms of disadvantages. We finally realized that Jin B didn't die either. We were very sad too. That's why there were such emotional scenes. Love scenes too. In heartbreaking scenes. Painful ones too. I really liked the lead actors. CAST is very well done. The veteran players were also fantastic. I would like to express that I particularly like Peng Bo, who is young but shown to be older than me. He deserves better roles. This role fits perfectly. Lia Guan Lin, who plays Jin Bo, added value to her role, Well done. I loved the role, the good fight scenes but also the jokes and the display of sensitivity towards children and making love to a waitress. The fight scenes are well shot, apart from the negativities I mentioned. That's why I broke 1 note from there. Such rambling negativities affect the series, which will be at the 9-10 level, to the 8 level. Some things are irrational. Supposedly, Chen Xiao thinks big, he plans. She produces strategy. Our screenwriter must have worked on them. But in simple scenes, illogicality is knee-deep. Anyway, all in all I really liked it. I recommend everyone to watch it.

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Smart Character(s) and Plot

This drama was such a pleasant surprise. I started it without any expectations and was quickly sucked into the plot and characters. The plot starts out small, but quickly grows until the audience is getting more and more pieces of the puzzle.
I'm a fan of Smart Characters in general, but Yun Xiang has to be a new favorite of mine. A big reason for that is because of Chen Xiao. He was a standout to me. He was able to make us root for Yun Xiang, who's the type of character that can come off smug and annoying. One of my favorite parts of his character is that while he's constantly outmaneuvering every single character in the story, he can't save his own life when it's being threatened by martial artists. Which is where the love of his life comes in to save him. Their romance was lovely and was the perfect amount of longing/angst with happy moments throughout.
Overall this was such a wonderful surprise for me and while the filming/editing wasn't anything special, I really ended up enjoying myself a lot.

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Honesty finds loyalty

Thanks to @PeachBlossomGoddess, they sum up pretty much all you need to know about this drama and points to consider before starting the 36 eps. Due to works, I tend to look away from anything that is longer than 16 eps…and usually, a Chinese Wuxia genre rarely has anything goes less than 24 eps…a good ones with great plot lines is well over 60+ eps.

So what I often do is invite my mother to join in the journey, and skip parts when I ain’t available to watch. I will then ask her to sum up main details for me. Great tactics plus, a way to find ‘activity’ to share with my mother.

This drama was almost not the one. She started this drama accidentally on one of our purchased movie platforms. I caught on with her till ep 4 or the ep with the fireworks, which YunXiang (Chen Xiao-my fav actor) plays and annoys the f out of the masked men. It was quite boring to us both. Too much talking, the story was quite slow and the fact that the protagonist dressed like a beggar and has no superior martial art skills. Like what?! I dropped at ep.4. My mother carried on for 2 more eps. That was the end for “The Ingenious One”.

I go through several K-drama before there is another urge for Chinese Wuxia…I go back on A Dream of Splendor, another Chen Xiao’s great drama, skim through my fav scenes with Liu Yifei and him. TIO pops up again on the channel. I decide to give it another try since there is no new drama from him this year. This time, I watch carefully, listen to the dialogues, understand his motives…Oh my Gosh! There are deception, scheme within scheme, twist plots after plots…I am shook. Director Patrick Yau, and screenwriter YanXi, do what they do best, got us deep into the support characters’ stories, know their back stories…then kill them right before the story comes to a close. Damn, I know this is there often use trick yet, my heart wrenches when ******Spoiler Alert*****Mo Bu Fan takes the poison pill, doesn’t care for life after his one and only innocent Kang Qiao is knifed. Or when Jian Biao, Ten Teals of Gold, scarifies himself for the protagonist (he is a bit annoying at this point).

It is a happy ending…though doesn’t satisfy my thirst for unfolding mysteries behind the sects, what did happen to Qi Tian Feng? Would Nam Gong Fang (he murders the f out of his role, so good!) return and take revenge? The cleaning up….besides that, I’m so happy that everyone is coupled up nicely. Superb!

Btw, the OG actor Huang Hai Bing (Qian Rong) is only in a few scenes but his aura fills the set. When you watch other actors, you can tell they don’t have the core power for martial arts, more like a dance in the sky showoff that looks nice. However, his moves are the sh**. Beautiful and powerful flavor!

I rate the rewatch a bit low because once you know all the answers, there isn’t thrill left to the story, which loses it focus as the FL and some other “main roles” need much improvement on their acting skills.

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He wasn't that genius and def a dummy when it came to love!

This drama was heavily weighted down by its formulaic approach to world-building a story around "what makes a genius a genius" and ultimately gave the story a dated feel (if you know what I mean). So, if this was pre-2018 it would have been a great C-drama. Because then that type of "villain of the week takedown" would have felt refreshing, innovative, and new. (Well...at least in the C-drama world, since Kdrama already had that down since Lee Minho became the "City Hunter", child!) But to be fair, since 2019 C-dramas have carved a big chunk of their resources into those types of drama and have adopted that type of formula as a sub-genre. So, we have seen the "genius child who is always 10 steps ahead" trope many times before in Joy of Life, Ancient Detective, Snow Sword Stride, Under the Microscope, The Sleuth of Ming Dynasty, who rules the World, The Imperial Coroner, and many more...that at this point this drama felt like it came too late.

And most of these dramas were actually really well done compared to this one. It is certainly not to say that you cannot create a good drama from a sub-genre and formula that's already been well-established. It's just a little bit harder and requires more deliberate writing to make the plot captivating. The problem with this drama was that it didn't raise the bar. It just copied and pasted the formula...but as an audience, you felt like they thought they were creating something that was gonna blow our minds. I can assure you that they did not. The plot conclusion was so easy to infer. it was so obvious who the big baddie was from the very beginning.

Most importantly, the takedowns started to become repetitive and very predictable by episode 17. Yeah, the guy was smart...but we've seen smarter and more thoughtful convoluted plots from our "genius" MCs before. For example, in Snow Storm Stride this man designed a plan that required him to travel from one end of "China" to another to entrap the season's big baddie. AND it wasn't until the last episode you were able to put together exactly what he was doing. Additionally, in many of the dramas cited above there was a lot of smart and interesting foreshadowing and character development to make the transitions from one villain plotline to the next villain plotline seamless. We watched the MC of every single one of these dramas become better after every single villain or obstacle they had to overcome. Either by gaining more physical power or wisdom. But in this drama, the MC came in already a "super genius" and wasn't really any character development. We met him a certain way at the beginning and he stayed that same way in the end. It's almost as if...he regressed, tbh.

I'm not even gonna talk about the love story. I felt like one of the main points they were trying to make was how "cold calculations and rationality devoid of human empathy can turn someone into a monster themselves"...So having the girl around made him see the value in being empathetic and to not use human beings as pawns in his machinations without their consents...or whatever. But then they broke up, in typical man fashion he couldn't stop being a jerk and decided to sacrifice their relationship instead...And like there was no reason or need for it. The whole point of the drama was that he was this super genius or whatever...so why couldn't he figure out another way to do this without being a complete asshole? Well...we will never know. And also...he wasn't even "That cold-blooded and calculated at the beginning" to be seen as a bad guy. I don't know if it's a flaw in the writing of the actor's portrayal...but I couldn't see it. There was a lot of "tell and almost no show" when it came to that aspect of the drama.

Look, it's not a terrible drama. The acting was good. It was actually one of the few dramas this year that had several well-choreographed fighting scenes. The costumes and sets were stellar in design, no complaints there. Overall, it's not a bad drama to watch. It's just late...

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Not so Ingenious after all. 22 episodes in and I felt asleep watching it because it was boring

"The Ingenious One" is a wuxia drama about Yun Xiang, a disciple of Yuntai who seeks revenge for the massacre of his family after 15 years of cultivation. Along the way, he met up with several friends (Shu Ya Nan and Jin Biao) whose martial arts skills are better than his.

Together they unveil secrets, investigate, solve, and take revenge for his family. The drama is highly anticipated with so much hyped; I am watching it, but found it dull and fast-forward to the boring part.

The acting is good, but I did not find the script interesting. I watched 22 episodes already and can't engage in it further. It has all the good stars, but the plot is dull, and Qin Lan's character is weak. I have not seen Qin Lan in costume drama; she looked stiff, and her acting in the role is mediocre.

The only thing good in this drama is to look at the handsome Chen Xiao. His onscreen chemistry is not that great with Rachel Momo's character.

I like the kung fu part, and Tang Xiao Tian and Xu Ling Yue's characters did not add any value to the story, IMO. I am dropping this drama and giving it a 5.5 rating.

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Worth Your Time

It is worth your time. Done with the series. If you are looking for non-super power, non reincarnation with mysterious yet intriguing storyline, beautiful directing and sceneries esp fighting scenes, lovely OSTs and excellent & mature acting from actors and actresses, this is the one!!

No nonsense. Every episode will make you addicted to continue watching the next episode because of the suspense. I knew this too late. I did not know this drama is so HOT in China when it aired.

I came for actress Mao Xiao Tong when she promoted in Hello Saturday. I thought it was weird because she came alone. Normally, a few cats will appear together. Tried watching the 1st episode and I am hooked!

Love the bickering of ML and FL. it is non of your typical romantics but this is what I want, non mainstream. Their scenes together are so precious because it is limited especially when paired with the OSTs.

Season 2 is definitely on the way, everyone!

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An excellent cerebral series, well done and remarkably performed.

A good investigation series ("House of cards" style, Chinese Historical version) with Chen Xiao as ML.

PLOT: 1 strategist, devoid of martial skills, joins forces with 1 FL expert in martial arts & 1 swordsman, to avenge the death of his clan & foil a conspiracy.

PROS:
+ This series is not addictive, it is viewed like a game of chess. We go to the end because we want to know who will win and how. So, the story is well written and intelligently produced.
+ What also keeps us in front of the screen is Chen Xiao, remarkable as always, in a very pretty romance with Mao Xiao Tong. They form an intense CL and develop great chemistry.
+ The secondary characters are well developed, endearing, brought to life by excellent actors.
+ Action scenes and OSTs are of good quality.
+ The production is dynamic (= not 1 sec. of boredom!) and the cinematography is very carefully done (images, framing, costumes, landscapes, etc.).

CONS:
- some twists are predictable and a bit "dramaland".

=> An excellent cerebral series, well done and remarkably performed.
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Bonne série d'enquête (style "House of cards", version Historique Chinoise) avec Chen Xiao en ML
PLOT : 1 stratège, dénué de compétences martiales, s'allie avec 1 FL expert en arts martiaux & 1 épéiste, pour venger la mort de son clan & déjouer 1 conspiration.

PROS:
+ Cette série n'est pas addictive, elle se regarde comme un jeu d'échecs. On va au bout parce qu'on veut savoir qui va gagner et comment. Donc, la story est bien écrite et intelligemment réalisée.
+ Ce qui nous tient devant l'écran aussi, c'est Chen Xiao, remarquable comme toujours, dans 1 très jolie romance avec Mao Xiao Tong. Ils forment un très intense CL et développent une belle alchimie.
+ Les personnages secondaires sont bien développés, attachants, mis en vie par d'excellents acteurs.
+ Les scènes d'action et les OST sont de bonne qualité.
+ La réalisation est dynamique (= pas 1 sec. d'ennui !) et la cinématographie est très soigneusement travaillée (images, cadrages, paysages, etc.).

CONS:
- certains twists sont prévisibles et un peu "dramaland".

=> Une excellente série cérébrale, bien faite et remarquablement interprétée.

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WHAT A HIDDEN GEM!

I’ll start by saying that I think "The Ingenious One" is “criminally” underrated. Each episode is like a carefully crafted puzzle piece, fitting perfectly into the larger narrative and keeping you engrossed from start to finish.

I have to say that Chen Xiao’s performance in this drama is a true revelation. His ability to convey a wide range of emotions with just his eyes, facial expressions, and body is a testament to how remarkable his range is. While IO does not spend too much time on romance, it definitely incorporates romantic elements that are executed with finesse. Yun Xiang's relationship with Shu Yanan is depicted in such a genuine and touching way that you can't help but be drawn into their world. Their motivations, struggles, and heartaches feel palpable, making their journey all the more compelling.

In my view, this drama ranks among the finest dramas of 2023. A+

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Satisfying!

At the beginning I could not uderstand why people were not giving this perfect scores - it starts so good!
The premise was interesting and the characters were intriguing and cool.
At the end, I kind of get it and I am not rating it as near-perfect either. Let's break down the pros and cons:
+ Mao Xiao Tong continues to be the most beautiful woman in the world. On top of that she plays a strong swordswoman in this show and that's a bit of a new position for her. She does good.
+ most side characters are well developed and distinct
+ the cast includes many older actors and there are no stiff idols around
+ the fights are super good, very consistently well done. There's very little chi power use and it's limited to a few characters, most fighters can't even fly at all or very well. I do like this low power-level style wuxia more.
+ the story makes sense and the inevitable involvement of political struggles and various country-wide betrayals were not too annoying.
+ I liked that despite being constantly touted as brilliant, the main character was not unbelievably skilled, not some alien-like genius. You can for the most part anticipate the twists and turns, and you can follow the logic behind things. This is actually important and makes these kinds of stories relatable and engaging. Way too many mystery shows based on Brilliant Genius Boy characters will keep telling you how smart they are, rather than showing you and letting you figure things out so you too can feel smart.
+ I LOOOOOOOOVED the twist on the usual couple dynamic where now She is the Tough Badass and He is the Smart Flower. Loved it all the way through, her tossing him around, grabbing his shirt, catching him when he fell down...Inject that shit straight in my veins.
+ I was glad that the protagonist was not yet another one in the growing list of soft boys who only pretend not to be able to do martial arts. Nope, he actually is a weak scholar who can do the escaping technique for a little bit. Nice to see them commit to the bit.

- I was a bit let down by Chen Xiao as the protagonist and his chemistry (or lack thereof) with Mao Xiao Tong. He was...fine. Serviceable. But the high standard of the show would've warranted someone better suited for the role. I know he can be better, his match up with Crystal Liu in "Dream of Splendor" for instance worked a lot nicer.
- No way around this - the show does have pacing issues and it does drag after the first half or so, only to pick up towards the end. We do get to explore and flesh out characters, but there were way too few fights and exciting moments in that section.

All in all - this does a lot of what I want from new-wuxia. Fun characters, plays and twists on tropes, excellent low level fights, not a lot of political bullshit and no traditional tragic endings.

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The viewer gets drawn into everything and you 'feel' all sorts of emotions with and for everyone

A very good series which I thoroughly enjoyed. The viewer gets drawn into everything and you 'feel' all sorts of emotions with and for everyone. The actors really did well and can't imagine different actors portraying these characters. Chen Xiao and Lui Guan Lin stood out above the others with great performances.

I hanged on to the last few episodes dreading for it to come to an end.... because I wanted to be 'part' of their world a little longer.

That's what drama is supposed to be, taking you into their world and keeping you engaged.

Production and Visual FX : 8.5

OST: 9

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Don't upset those in power

This drama centred around Yun Xiang, an orphan who survived the massacre of his village. He was brought up by the mysterious head of Yantai with a hidden identity. Yun Xiang was trained to became a master of pretence and strategies. Like most dramas of this genre, he insisted on investigating the mastermind behind the massacre, although against the command of his Shifu (teacher).

The drama was interesting as the people hiding their identity was not only the head of Yantai. The drama was a battle of wits and cunning between Yun Xiang and Nan Gong Fang who appeared to be from a rival sect. But it got boring after each identity was revealed.

I am not a supporter of child emperors and lineage, and a believer of: may the best person win. I think only when the upright and capable become the leader can then a country prosper. I did not favour either side of the power struggle, as it was between loyalists to lineage and a capable Prince who was not so upright and did not care that much for the people and would do whatever to achieve his end.

This drama scored well on an excellent cast who performed well, good looking actors/actresses, and appropriate backdrop. Costume was mediocre but fits the purpose. Not a drama of grandiose. Overall, still a good piece of entertainment.

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