Word of Honor

Word of Honor is a wuxia drama, based on Priest's novel named Tian Ya Ke. It means you will see many martial arts scenes, everything will satisfy you emotionally. I guarantee it.

The characters Zhou Zishu and Wen Kexing, which are the leading roles, are very skillfully written and acting in the same way. You can see how much the actors attach importance to their roles in their acting. Zhang Zhehan, who portrays a character like Zhou Zishu, who is desperate but has found hope in the last years of his life but has limited time ve Gong Jun, who portrays a character like Wen Kexing, who lived his life in a dark/insane place and still one of his part a little child, both of lead actors... THEY SHOW INCREDIBLE ACTING!! I think the reason i love this drama so much is that every relationship is so deep. Zhou Xu/Wen Kexing, Wen Kexing/Gu Xiang, Zhou Xu/Cheng Ling. All of them is so pure and the acting is so good that it feels as if you are experiencing all those emotions. Not just the lead roles, all the actors/actress are like your best friend.

One of my favorite things about Word of Honor is definitely cinematography. They make you feel like the camera is your eyes. The arrival of daylight, the positioning of the actors, everything is to make you feel as if you are living there, and you feel that too. It will be a festival for your eyes and heart.

The production team gave their best to this drama. If you are watching a Chinese drama for the first time, it may be difficult to notice but I, as someone who has been here for 6 years, can see how much effort they have made for this drama. If I'm not mistaken, there are subtitles in 13 languages right now, and they do everything to give viewers comfort.

There is a lot to say but I did my best to make this spoiler free. It will leave a mark in your life, you can be sure of that.

The best thing I like about Wuxia dramas is the beautiful fight scenes and intricate martial arts choreography. The background in this drama is a bit fake (due to low budget?) but the fight scenes are awesome. I've really enjoyed watching Wen Kexing fighting with martial arts masters like Zhao Jing, Mo Huaiyang and Ye Baiyi; he looks really cool when showcasing his self-taught kung fu.

Gong Jun portrayed the deep-minded, innocent and cruel Master of the Ghost Valley Wen Kexing very well. Wen Kexing is a moody person and the interchanging of emotions is difficult to act but Gong Jun nailed it (e.g. One second he is happy and the next second he is angry). Wen Kexing is cruel but has a kind heart. He wants to avenge his murdered parents but he has never harmed any innocent people. I like watching his gentle interactions with beautiful A Xiang and Chengling.

Gong Jun and Zhou Ye are the best-looking artists in this drama. :-)

I was almost throwing up when I watched the first episode. It was confusing and the acting was too exaggerated. I wanted to give up but was persuaded by a friend to give it a chance. I fast forward a lot to get to the parts that I found ,ore interesting. I am glad I gave it a chance as the actors that came after were much better. I enjoyed the interactions between Wen Kexing and Guxiang. They were boss and maid, and yet get along more like brother and sister. Guxiang's wedding was a scene that deeply touched me. We KeXing did everything to make it a beautiful wedding, however, the so-called "righteous" people made it a killing field. It's so similar to the world we live in. Unscrupulous people work to destroy other's reputation and hard work for their own pleasure and use "justice" and "righteousness" to camouflage their own interests. It's worth reflecting the plot of this drama.

This is the best wuxia series I saw in recent years.

The relationship between the main actors is romantic and delicate. You can tell by every words they say and every expression they make. I can feel the spark and its change between them. It uses a lot of Chinese poetries and articles. If you can speak Chinese, you will feel the power and the beauty of the ancient sentences that they talk to each other. If not it's okay too, Youku made their best to provide the translation in 13 languages on Youtube.

The editor made a very complex Zhou Zishu. And Zhang Zhehan (portray ZZS) plays really well. This character is changing all the time as the story goes. And Wen Kexing is also changing inside as he interacts with his soulmate Zhou Zishu. The eye acting of Gong Jun (portray WKX) is very attractive. They both had the dark history that they don't want to touch. But along with each other, they find the new meaning of life. Besides the main characters, there're a lot deep and lifelike characters as well. You will be touched by even a bit part. The acting and the story is very enjoyable!

Also, the composition looks typically Chinese-elegent. As a wuxia drama, the martial art is graceful, flexible and diverse. In different scenes you will have different feelings.

Although the film editing and effects are not perfect, and I know the budget is limited, I still love and highly recommend this drama.

There are several points for an 9 star review but first, I'll explain why not a 10 star review: because of the camera work and sound design. I don't know if the director (or directors?) had a not so great camera team operator because in some scenes you can see the way the camera shakes and it's not consistent with the feeling of the scene. Although I understand why the sound design needed to be covered by the BGM because of the loud exterior sounds of other productions that happened in the same place and at the same time, there's no enough digetic sound to give more dimensionality to the overall picture. With dubbing it's another issue that I don't have right to make criticism.

However, why 9 stars? Because even though it was a low budget production, it doesn't feel like one. It's obvious the production knew their weaknesses and their strengths and exploited both of them.

The first thing I applaud is the script. The script writer was debuting in this work, and already had done a excellent job of conveying the substancial (romantic) relationship of ZZS and WKX. It is not at all surprising that both GJ and ZZH were able to demonstrate good acting skills here, because the script worked on their behalf.

The second thing is the plot, although it falls into varied exhibition dialogues (understandable, because after all it is in television format), is interesting enough to be able to continue watching and waiting for the next episode. Besides, the cast doesn't fall behind; although not everyone is at the level of the skill of ZZH or the other veteran actors, they stand in their own enough to show a convincing performance.

And the last thing: the fight scenes. In the first episodes those aren't too great because of the edited slow motion, but later in the ongoing episodes, the fights have improved a lot, so much so that they give me adrenaline.

From a point of a viewer who has not seen many Chinese dramas, this series is quite recommended to enter the world of wuxia stories. Please love this serie! By the way, you can find the free episodes 1-10 at Youku channel.