I am very torn about this one, and I cannot really make up my mind.

First let me give you some background about me (in order to present you with some context). When this came out I watched it and I liked it very much, since (believe it or not) this was my first asian BL series. In reality I became infatuated, probably because I had just broken up with my Chinese bf. I got so hooked up, that I read the book in Chinese (which, given my language level at the time, was quite a struggle). In fact, I even started reading the second book (yes there is a continuation), but the story was so ridiculous that I gave up halfway through. The bottom line is that for personal reasons I somehow relayed more than expected to the characters, probably trying to make sense of my life at the time. This led to my adoring the series, and I suppose that a series or film that can succeed in connecting to its viewers can be regarded as successful. However, it is not always straightforward to cleanly separate successful and good.

After rewatching it (mostly in fast forward this time) a few years later, I realized that if I have to be honest the series is amateurish, the actors have little to no chemistry (at least not compared with modern series), and that the plot sucks (to put it mildly). The episodes are often logically disconnected and without the knowledge of the book plot (which per se is already wanting), the viewer is left confused.

Does this suffice for a bad rating? Well yes and no. Yes, since (at least for today's standards) this is a badly made series, but then again no, because when it was made it was quite revolutionary (especially it being a Chinese production). And everyone involved did their best (for that time). Obviously, same as with every type of art, judging old movies today is completely unfair. A Buster Keaton or the SanMao movie would be complete flops today... Furthermore, the series made quite a stir, to the point that people legally suffered because of it (google to see what happened to the main leads), which gives many plus points in my eyes.

Be it as it may, the series has definitely acquired a cult value among Asian-BL lovers like myself. If you want to watch a modern high-level production of a BL series, then this is probably not the best choice. If you want to understand what the early steps of the industry were, then this is definitely a must.