“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.