A little disappointed in this one since the Blood of Youth was very good.

The Good

CGI was great at times and grand when it came to the fight scenes. I appreciated all the connections thrown in from the Blood of Youth, down to details to some of our favorite characters. I also think the some of the cast did a great job playing their roles, whether they made us hate or love them. I also appreciated the well placed comedic moments.

The Bad

I don’t think the focus of the plot was well thought out and the scenes were not executed very well. This made for a much weaker prequel to the Blood of Youth. It’s also hard to watch this as a standalone with so many character introductions and no explanations to the casual watchers on who they are and why they are important. It’s as if the directors assumed the audience would have all watched the Blood of Youth. The fight scenes seemed to be mostly nonexistent which is disappointing since this is a wuxia and Blood of Youth had so much of it to show. This was 90% talking and 10% fighting. Most of us tuned in for the high action that we thought we’d get. It attempted to focus on poorly written romantic connections that left me unconvinced. I love a good romance but it was poorly written in Blood of Youth and was the same here. Half of the time, I didn’t understand why these people liked each other. I also think some of the acting of the main cast wasn’t that great either and was hard for me to connect with the characters. I would have liked to see more details of Ye Dingzhi/Ye Yun’s rise and fall instead of just telling us about it. Story seemed to focus mainly on him even though he is billed as 2nd lead with Baili Dongjun as main. He was definitely overshadowed, which was odd.

I wouldn’t rewatch this one. I feel like it can be skipped all together and just recommend Blood of Youth. I’m looking forward to the at sequel and will even check out Dark River when it airs.