The Blood of Youth (2022)

Not as good.

It's mid, in most ways.
Not amazingly good, not too boring or super terrible.
Mid.
The story's super average - you've heard it all before. I am honestly getting quite tired of protagonists with mysterious non-commoner past and I hate how so many wuxia have to steer their story into politics and courtly intrigue.
I hate courtly intrigue! The scheming princes, the power hungry eunuchs, the troubled emperors and forgotten consorts.
Good grief, shoot me now, I can't take it.
For the most part the story seems to have a clear goal and an endpoint and the pacing forward is not bad. But towards the end it slows down and almost stumbles into the ending head first, trips over its own feet and stops suddenly.
It felt quite awkward.
The characters are fine. You've seen it all before, every single character is a stereotype. But they're ok.
The acting is serviceable, with the older actors carrying the young ones quite often. Ao Rui Peng was too cartoony and weird for me, I didn't care for Lei Wu Jie.
Li Hong Yi held a single note for the entire show and it was ok? He's a pretty guy and the script didn't ask much more from him.
Liu Xue Yi seems to have had fun? Question mark? Wuxin as a character is used weirdly, mostly not being present and having his own story arc in the background. Also cartoony as a performance, but a much better actor than Ao Rui Peng.
Neither of the two female leads convinced me, or grabbed me in any way.
Tang Lian was also there.
Shout out to Cui Peng as Luo Qing Yang, who gave an incredibly strange performance and I had to laugh every time his weirdo sulky face was on screen.
Last honorable mention goes to Hu Wei, who looks like he was animated by Pixar. Very cute tho.
A good wuxia has to have cool fights.
The Blood of Youth does have fights, sure.
OK, I won't talk around it - I hate this stuff. Not just the heavy use of CG, I dislike how uninteresting it is and how low stakes it feels.
There's no tension, there's no context for anything. How strong is this character? Who the F knows, I guess I'll wait for them to tell me.
The main problem is that everyone already starts quite strong and every single character that comes later is even stronger.
But there's no difference in any of the fights, the environment doesn't matter, nothing matters.
The characters will conjure up some CG effects, point their weapon or fingers against the opponent and stand there.
That's it. Every single fight ends up as a finger contest with magical auras clashing into each other. No clever use of techniques, or the battlefield, no smart cooperation between characters. No, just point at the enemy and hope you're stronger.
This kind of power creep is a common problem in anime, compare the fights at the start of Naruto to many later ones in Shippuuden. And here it's like that from the very beginning.
Overall I didn't hate it, but it's nowhere near as good as people claim.

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Why was there no romance?

I liked this series. The fight scenes were very good, but there are some minor points that I want to criticize. First of all, why was there no romance at all?
Secondly, I think the Wuxin character was given too little space.
Third, I didn't like the story of the evil prince (the way he died or something).
The last had too many character-names. It caused confusion.

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This has an extensive cast and storyline.

“The Blood of Youth” Wow! This drama has a lot to unpack it was a long, long ride. Whoever read the novel I take my hat off to you this just had so much going on. The cast of characters is so extensive and honestly I could not keep up with all of them. You may want to take notes along the way. There were times I wanted to skip forward but the editing is brilliant in that it changes scenes so intricately that you will miss something important if you skip ahead. I am not saying all the scenes were worth watching but it held my attention.

Story: To me this a story of teenagers coming of age in the wuxia, Xianxia realm. They embark on a journey of cultivation and figuring out who they are along with righting wrongs of the past. They all have martial arts and want to get to the next level. All except the main character (Xiao Se) aka exiled prince who had his meridians broken.

The story is slow paced but with excellent cinematography, CGI and wuxia/xainxia fight scenes it will keep you watching if you can make it past the first few episodes. In the beginning some of the fight scenes tend to go on a little too long but I did enjoy what they did with the CGI. The teens do build a lot of relationships and you will find yourself picking one of more favorites. Some like Wi Xin better but I liked the main character Xiao Se. I also like that there is some implied romance and couples. I think all dramas should have some romance after all people are not born from nuts. If you kill off everyone (as a lot of Asian drams typically do) how does the next generation survive, just in my opinion.

Acting: The acting was okay not really noteworthy. Some of those who have read the novel said they like both the novel and drama. I suppose the most notable thing for me was the age gap between the actors and the characters is very noticeable. Even though they may be eye candy they most certainly do not look like teenagers. After a few episodes I just decided to go with it.

The story is so extensive you will find them explaining some events because it skips ahead of some scenes. Some scenes they probably should have left in.
I could watch this again, because it seem to have a small budget but it did a good job with what it had.

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Exciting start for a new drama!!!

This drama started on Dec 26. So far, the characters and the intense storyline do not disappoint. My only concern going forward, will it maintain this level of excitement for forty episodes. The cast is a well chosen group of actors that pull you into drama! I think you will enjoy this drama if you love lots of action,
One of the main characters is surrounded in mystery and one wants to keep watching to find out about this mysterious man. He claims that he had no martial skills, but he knows everything about the different martial clans. So far, no clue to this man’s background.

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Waste of time, stupid plots I waited for many episodes to say any twists or plots but only stupid love/costum drama. the main character is an arrogant guy with no smartness only some losers tricks and the actors are not skilled.
Waste of time, stupid plots I waited for many episodes to say any twists or plots but only stupid love/costum drama. the main character is an arrogant guy with no smartness only some losers tricks and the actors are not skilled.

Waste of time, stupid plots I waited for many episodes to say any twists or plots but only stupid love/costum drama. the main character is an arrogant guy with no smartness only some losers tricks and the actors are not skilled.

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One of the best

One of the best!!! I enjoy all the characters, storyline, fashion and fighting scenes. I havent seen such a good drama since joy of life. I hope this show has only one season,.qqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqq

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UNREALISTIC

Anime, unrealistic, inefficient/oversize costumes, overboard visual effect and lighting, focus audience: preteens and teens.

Line of story? Lei WuJie (Ao RuiPeng), an aspiring hero encountered the owner of Fallen Snow Villa by destroying his place, owed 500 tails for the damage Xiao Se (Li HongYi) agreed to come with him to XueYue City. They embarked the journey, met masters and hold friendship along the way. Every casts were dressed in elaborate oversize robes and long flowing hairstyles (very inefficient when they're the masters of something and had to showcase their masterpiece) prevented them moving freely and nothing but keeping appearances - to some the oversize robes looked redicolous on them, or a lady wore a mustache.

Seems this is anime style, unrealistic visual effect all over the place with lighting which supposedly superficial (fake) strength . In my opinion, this drama focus-market was to preteens or teens that only grabbing entertainment and imagination without concern of philosophy or literature consideration in the mix. Li HongYi, ep 11, still hasn't done anything to his acting besides fold his hand, flew here and there, judging and knowing everybody. Unknown yet what his character and intention....or his existence being part of the drama. Ao RuiPeng did better here than his previous role in Female Student Arrives at Imperial Collage, his energy and youth radiant more than anyone else. Liu XueYi (Wu Xin/monk) was great with his character...

I hope I have better one to watch..........sigh.

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The beginning is electrifying and the script is full of facts to be unraveled, but throughout the chapters the script loses some of its steam. The script initially promised much more than it delivered. The characters are easy to like, even if some are a little dubious. The number of characters is very large, so many had their stories forgotten along the way. The ending disappoints a lot, because for a work where emotion was explored in several ways, the ending was insipid.
The cast is good and the performances are satisfying.
The direction drove the drama with energy. The scenes are well-crafted, the action scenes well-executed, he managed some exciting scenes, he knew how to use special effects and the editing is not full of mistakes. The scenes of the character Wu Xin are few, even though he is a very interesting character. Despite the direction having chosen a cast in which the age group does not correspond to that of the characters, it did not compromise the drama, but it is clear that in some cases, when the age of the character was mentioned, it was impossible not to remember the age of the actor. Regarding the finalization, it could have a more refined elaboration, but it doesn't compromise, it just got dull.
Few costume changes, but the costumes presented were beautiful.
The sound team wasn't whimsical at all, as the sound level in the action scenes is infinitely higher than in the other scenes. The use of songs to fill the scene, also unregulated. In terms of sound, bad, very bad.
The soundtrack isn't bad.

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I love JiangHu brotherhood/friendship dramas and I thought everything about this show was quite good, except the romance between Xiao Se and Sikong Qianluo. All the other couples in the show have understandable reasons for pairing up, but XS and SQ seemingly just decided to like the other out of nowhere like the staff wanted to check off a box for them. It doesn't help that the actors have zero chemistry, even when they're next to each other and saying romantic dialogue, their body language is stiff as if they're resisting being too close together. This is even more striking if you directly compare how XS interacts with Wuxin (who is just a close friend) where his entire posture changes and face seems to brighten and open up, where with SQ he maintains that same guarded body language and expression, only his mouth is seemingly saying stuff that sounds sweet. Unfortunately they did spend some time trying to develop this (minor) subplot and it was annoying having to manually skip their scenes, which is why I mention it.

Some people were disappointed by the ending, but in my opinion it was very fitting. It was obvious what road XS was going take as the show reminds us repeatedly what kind of person he looked up to and what he had always wanted to do with his life. I feel like if he'd chosen differently it would've gone against the entire spirit of the show.

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Not Bad, Just Not Enough

Foremost, I really can't stand this type of costuming in historical settings. But every so often, if the plot and actors do a good enough job, it's something that can be overlooked. It is still cringy though. The long stringy bangs that half of the male actors have and the over-bleached hair colors. I mean, for characters that are supposed to be highly skilled in martial arts, apparently their bangs don't seem to get in the way...

However, the characters were pretty charismatic and the plot flow skipped along okay. The action scenes were typically of series with this type of costuming: lots of floating around, actors who try to make the martial arts believable but it's obvious they don't have any real training, and attempts to make up for the lack in martial arts by incorporating heavy CG (of which, some were pretty decent). It's a fantasy setting so there's no high expectations of realism and while the negatives mentioned above are not as bad as some other series, it's still a bit overdone for my personal taste.

Stuck around for 11 episodes mainly for the plot, the charismatic actors, and the nicely incorporated humor. But it was one of series where you can do some chores on the side, miss out on some dialogue, and not feel like you've missed much. It's good enough where I can probably continue to watch to the end but not enough to feel like I have to get to that next episode.

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If someone bullies you, it's because they like you

I tried to like this, I really did but I just couldn't do it. I initially loved it with Wuxin and Xiao but then he left and it started to get really boring with lots of very irritating characters, very fast. And at least by ep 16, they're trying to force a romance with Xiao and the female character trope I absolutely loathe. Pouty princess with a big weapon. She beats you up because she loves you. Just no. That's not a couple destined to be. I don't do tsunderes and I can't imagine a man like Xiao liking it either. I just wanted Wuxin to come back so I googled and was disappointed so I've decided to drop.

Visually, there's a lot of special effects here. Gives me a final fantasy kind of vibe with a headache inducing amount of characters and back stories.

Xiao's face though. I will be watching out for that actor later because damn. I don't mind looking at him a little longer lol currently watching In Blossom with Wuxin's actor and he's pretty fine too with hair LOL honestly, if they do a spin off with just Xiao and Wuxin, I'd be all in but this is just too much for me to sit through 40 hours of my life.

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