Zhaoxi Liu

I barely stayed awake during the first few episodes of the show. But then, all of sudden, it got me. The world of jianghu in this show is very different from many conventional swordsmen shows, where there is a fairly clear distinction between the orthodox/rightful camps of the martial art world and the evil/fringe ones. This show smashes such a distinction. All the so called orthodox/rightful factions are greedy, selfish liars, seeking their own interests in the name of defending the honor of jianghu. Their proclaimed honor, righteousness and heroism are nothing but a giant hypocrisy. Wen Kexing, being the leader of the evil Devil’s Valley, is determined to set the hypocrisy on fire and is ready to burn with the world. He’s lost everybody. All he has is hatred. All he wants is revenge. He is so broken inside and thus cold blooded. Zhou Zishu is just as broken, literally. He punched 7 giant nails into his upper body, breaking his vessels and tissues. He did that to get himself out of Tian Chuang, a secret service founded by himself and serving a regional warlord, Jin Wang. He is also heartbroken. His brothers and friends from the Four Seasons Mansion, who he brought along with him to start the secret service, all died in front of him. He feels enormous guilt for leading his entire clique to demise. So he gave up. He gave up his career, his heart and his body. So here they are: a vengeful extremist encountering a disillusioned intelligence officer. Both carrying enormous pain and suffering, seeking some kind of remedy. They became each other’s remedy. As Wen Kexing so movingly says in front of Mater Qin's grave, that even if he is going to burn together with the evil world, he thanks Master Qin and Zhou for the moment of brightness they give him. Such profound sadness and emotion in their strange yet powerful bond is depicted with incredible beauty. What a beautiful show it is. The looks, the outfits, the settings, the moves, the music. Everything about this show, from the actors to all the visual and audio details, works to achieve on goal: make the show beautiful. It is a kind of aesthetics that is typical in Chinese period dramas: refined, sophisticated, polished, elegant, melancholy. The colors are vivid and overall tone bright, belying the darkness and sadness saturating the show. The result is a 36-episode saga that is beautifully tragic, delicious to the eyes but aching to the heart. Of course, simply an eye candy is not going to sustain the entire show. The very foundation of the show’s success lies in its script. This is one of the best scripts I’ve seen in recent years. There are no major plot holes and disconnections. The plot advances at a good pace, not too fast, not too slow. Layer by layer, as if peeling an onion, the story reveals more and gets closer to the truth of the past, the characters and the relationships. Strong script, well-chosen actors, excellent performances, well-crafted sound track, beautiful packaging. All of these create the wonderful drama series of Word of Honor. It is beautiful but also very tragic, bright and dark, funny yet melancholy, suspenseful but emotional, entertaining yet sad. It leaves profound emotions in the viewer, echoing in their heart for a very long time. Also echoing is the line from the show: "The mountains and rivers do not matter; what matters is meeting your soulmate."

Not too bad. Some plot holes. Script can be better. Zhang Zhehan is pretty wooden in the show. Need more acting.