The Four

So I make a comeback into watching Wuxia, which I gave up on after a series of disastrous twists/sad endings. So before I start with the review, lemme talk about what I expect from a Wuxia drama.
1. No overglorification of a single character.
2. Good romance and chemistry between the lead pair(s).
3. Decent CG.
4. Good costumes.
5. A somewhat good ending (All those "see you in the next life" endings are annoying when they pop up without warning)

Story: It is yet another adaptation of Si Da Ming Bu by Wen Rui'an. The title literally means "The Four Great Constables" and chronicles the journey of the Infamous Four of the Divine Deputy Bureau as they try to maintain peace, investigate cases, destroy the great villains and put an end to the devious plans of the Royal Lord An Shi Di.

Characters:
"Cold Blood" Ling Xie: The leader of the Infamous Four. Rude and indifferent on the outside, but it all stems from his tragic past. He is the prince of the wolf tribe who lives for vengeance on those who killed his people. Though his life span is shortened by the wolf poison in his heart, revenge is his sole purpose in life till he meets Chu Ying Xue (as expected?).

"Heartless" Wu Qing: Kind and gentle - in many ways the opposite of Cold Blood, but is eternally suffering due to a tragic love. But is his lover actually dead? Can they be still reunited? Or is she the one actually destined for him? The questions are answered as the story progresses. Keep your napkins ready though.

"Chaser" Zhui Ming: A jolly fellow and also a friend of the princess. Has been in love with the princess, but she is infatuated with Cold Blood.

"Iron Fist"; Tie Shou: Gets his name from the iron gauntlet on his hand and a prodigy as hand-to-hand combat. Has his own romantic interest.

Chu Ying Xue / Chu Li Mo: A seemingly naive girl, who is actually the daughter of the Holy Moon Sect's leader and has the ability to read minds. Her stepparents force her to become a royal concubine, but she escapes and is taken in the Divine Deputy Bureau as a maid. Initially dislikes Cold Blood, but starts caring for him after learning about his past and eventually falls in love with him.

Ji Yao Hua: Member of the Divine Deputy Bureau and grew up with the Infamous Four. Has been in love with Cold Blood despite knowing his secret. In her own words, "When he dies, I wish to die with him." One character we really learn to love and pity in the first half. But does she really give up on Cold Blood? Or is this the beginning of something sinister?

An Shi Di: The primary villain in the series. Wishes to obtain the divine skills and would go to any lengths to do it. But what is his aim? World domination? Or something more?

Others: There are others who might be considered primary characters, but in my opinion, the story revolves around these 7.

The main reason I finished the drama so quickly is Janine. She looks absolutely adorable in traditional Chinese dresses. Her on-screen chemistry with Zhang Han is pretty good as well. Jia Qing did her bit very well. There are so many times one wishes a better future for her - but Janine still comes first :| The four male leads do justice to their roles. Though Zhang Han and Yang Yang get more screen time, the others are not neglected either. A couple of the other female leads are downright irritating, but I guess we just oughta live with it. Loved the costumes on the actresses. Always feels good having multiple romantic threads in the story, with most, if not all, having happy endings.

Music: Fits the story, though nothing great about it.

Rewatch: Yes, it is lengthy and yes, it might get repetitive at times. But nevertheless, it can be watched again and again if you fell in love with the characters (which I did).

PS: I feel this review is kinda lengthy yet inadequate in places. I'll try to edit it later when I have time. Thanks for reading!

Read More

A classic combination of wuxia and romance!

This wuxia drama is based on the novel by Wen Rui An, and is one of the many TV and movie adaptations. I decided to watch this since I was looking for a wuxia or historical drama after finishing a modern one (Age of Legends), not to mention that the leads here are a treat to watch. I was not disappointed!

What I like:
1) Amazing chemistry between Zhang Han and Janine Chang! I was eagerly looking forward to their scenes together, and looking for video clips of the two.
2) The strong bond/friendship of the four infamous deputies, as they solve cases and fight their enemies together. I also like that there are female deputies in the Shen Hou mansion.
3) Zhang Han as Leng Xue (Cold Blood), Janine Chang as Chu Li Mo and William Chan as Zhui Ming (Chaser) – they are my favorite characters in this drama! Leng Xue, as his name implies, appears cold and uncaring towards others, but is actually a man who cares deeply for the people dear to him. Chu Li Mo is the eldest but unfavored daughter of the government official in her hometown (she grew up with her father and stepmother), who tried to run away from her fate of being one of the emperor's women. She is pretty, smart but can be naive at times. As for Zhui Ming, he is the life of the party, the ladies' man and happy-go-lucky type, but who is also very devoted to his lady love.
4) Yang Yang as Wu Qing (Heartless) – Yang Yang looked so young here, not as manly as Zhang Han, but he was able to carry his role as Wu Qing, a man who looked calm and otherworldly, but was actually very emotional, and struggled to move on from his past love.
5) Mao Ji Jun as Tie Shou (Iron Fist) – he is straight-forward and loyal, but not as strategic as the others.
6) Mickey He as An Shi Geng – A villain you'd love to hate, he was really convincing as a man who becomes mentally unstable and cold-blooded as his thirst for revenge and power consumed him.
7) As this is a wuxia series, it has many fight scenes, and most of them were well-executed. The special effects during the fight scenes in the beginning were a bit over the top, though.
8) Good costume design, hair and makeup, and set design. I like Janine Chang’s look!
9) Although this is mainly a wuxia series with romance, there were also funny/light moments in the drama.
10) The ending was nicely wrapped up, though I would have wanted more sweet scenes between our main couple.

Other comments:
1) Some of the supporting female characters were quite irritating, such as the maids (except Ye Er) and the two sidekicks of Ji Yao Hua.
2) Princess Zi Luo and Ling Yi Yi were annoying in many instances, but I’m glad their characters grew up and were able to eventually redeem themselves.
3) I think there were a bit too many scenes of An Shi Geng reminiscing over his lady love, although I understand it’s meant to show his devotion to her.
4) Since it’s known from the start who the villain is, many of the twists were predictable. Nevertheless, it’s still very engaging and enjoyable to watch.

Final Verdict: I thoroughly enjoyed this, so I would gladly recommend it, especially if you like wuxia with romance!

Read More

Beautiful✨

The leads are amazing. The plot is interesting. There's no question of getting bored. Every single detail is well planned and systematic. All the jealousy, misunderstandings and conflicts are perfectly balanced. There is no overacting, the actresses carried on their roles, very swiftly. They are very smart and gorgeous. The fights are arranged in a very systematic manner. There's no bloody murders, and every fight is clean and interesting. Viewers will get excited with each passing minute. There's absolutely no misunderstanding. Even the villain's actions were balanced and well managed. The female lead, Janine Chang, did a marvellous job here, and so is her opposite, Zhang Han. Yang Yang was in his own natural way, as usual. And the songs are very soothing. The conspiracies were also, unbelievably properly managed. A must watch for the fans of Zhang Han and Yang Yang.

Read More

Let's start off by saying I am familiar with earlier adaptations of "The Four." I haven't seen them since I was younger though. This one stood out in my mind because of our cast. I did watch this drama in 2019, whilst it was made in 2015 and to start off this is the first time I've seen a drama with Hans Zhang (but he did not disappoint). And I've seen Yang Yang & Mao Ji Zun in their later projects. I'm definitely a fangirl over William Chan though.

This is a great wuxia adaptation. There's tons of actions (literally the first 10 minutes is fighting scenes) and lots of mystery and intrigue. Our story follows four brothers who are constable (detectives/officers) in the Divine Deputy. It gradually builds up most of their backgrounds as well as follow them through their love plots. They're all righteous and all for justice, as well as have their own strengths/weaknesses. Overall, they balance out one another.

Coldblood - Hans Zhang. He is the last descendant of the "Wolf Clan" their whole entire family was annihilated in one go, mysteriously, 20 something odd years ago. He is poisoned by "wolf's poison" which causes him to turn vicious and into a werewolf each time it's a half-moon (or is it a full moon?). He's bloodthirsty for vengeance and doesn't really give a sh*t about people's feelings or care for emotions. Later he meets with Chu Li Mo and ends up slowly falling for her and then does all he can for her. They do have a happy ending, where he whisks her away from her long lost mom (wow, li mo all that for the D!) and has her stay with him at the capital.

Heartless - Yang Yang. He comes off as polished and refined. He's cool, calm and collected. But is plagued by losing his love, therefore has many breakdowns in our dramas. He cannot seem to let go of his past with Ru Yan, who suddenly turns up alive but dies before his eyes again. Later in our drama, he's introduced to Mu Xue, who he just cannot accept because of his past feelings/emotions. Sadly, Mu Xue also dies in his arms, and he's suddenly thrust back into another breakdown. I feel bad for his character, and it's sad in the end he's by himself. I feel he shouldn't have been called heartless, as he has a lot of heart. Maybe loveless.

Chaser - William Chan. He comes off a playboy and flirt but apparently has been in love with Princess Zi Luo their entire lives. Throughout most of the drama, he's basically chasing after miss Princess, while Princess is deeply obsessed with Coldblood. He remains pretty supportive of Princess ZL throughout the drama. The princess, later on, realizes how devoted Chaser is to her and ends up reciprocating her love to him. It's a pretty cute ending for them.

Iron Fist - Mao Ji Zun. He is the "Thor" of the bunch. He's cute, but the intellect is not there. He is plagued with being "lonely" as well because he believes he's cursed and cannot keep friends near and dear. At first he's tricked into "marrying" or "promising" himself to Yiyi. She follows him around and annoys him, you feel that he only thinks of her as his little sister. I guess with persistence he relents and likes her back. They also have a happy ending.

Let's get down to our main lady, Chu Li Mo. She must have sort of a tragic past they don't touch on. We're introduced to her because she was chosen to marry an old king whose sick/dying (he's so sick/dying that he doesn't even make an appearance in this drama). Anyways, I'm going to go on a limb and say since her mother disappeared from their home, her stepmom and step-sister probably treat her like sh*t while her dad is working at his "official" position. She ends up begging the Four deputies to spare her, as they are tasked to find her and they end up sneaking her into the Divine Deputy. Luckily, fate is on her side as Zhuge Zheng Wo (leader of the Divine Deputy) turns out to be her "uncle" and helps her unleash her skills that would help Coldblood resolve his poison and take down our evil henchmen.

Onto our antagonist, the first one is An Shi Geng (Mickey He), who did a fabulous job btw. He's delusional, traitorous, vengeful and broken-heart. He is obsessed over his love Butterfly Dance - who happens to look like Ru Yan. So obsessed he has created this 20-year vengeance plan and has killed thousands without single remorse. Due to Ru Yan looking identical to Butterfly Dance - I'm sure you can guess. He threatens Ru Yan with the life of her family to marry him and tries to train her to be like his love. Pure psychotic. He doesn't end well, lol.

Our 2nd antagonist had quite a buildup in this drama. Ji Yao Hua is our bad-ass deputy sister. She starts off very serious and protective of Coldblood. They were the original "shipped" ones in their Divine Deputy Department (I think it was just in her head and her two lackeys though). It was unrequited love and did not end well. She's the type to sacrifice herself for someone when no one asked her to, thus she loses it and goes down the deep dark path. Her ending is unknown but I guess its open for interpretation.

I thought there were a few things that just didn't do it for me in this drama and leaves me wanting more. Like how did An Shi Geng frame Coldblood's adopted father? Why didn't Chu Li Mo's mom see her get married before leaving? Who the heck were the Holy Moon Sect? Why did Chu Li Mo's mom choose her father? Did commander Zhuge end up with his own lady love? Will they make a part two?!

So many questions, but overall a pretty great drama.

Lastly, if you do watch this drama. Watch it on Viki the comments from other watchers make it even better! I've never been so entertained.

Read More

Good wuxia drama

This was my first Chinese drama that I watched.It was relatively a new genre for me to watch.The story was though not extraordinary,it was interesting enough to keep watching further episodes.
It was hilarious as well as intriguing.
The leads chemistry was very good.
All the other cast acted very well.
The music, costumes , locations were good.
After this drama,I started watching more Chinese dramas.
Overall a good watch.I would suggest anyone planning to watch this drama,watch without a second thought as you will not regret watching.

Strong male characters but female characters drove me crazy

6/15/2021

I decided to watch this drama because of the male leads. They are definitely good-looking and I like all 4 of them. However, even though I enjoy romance storylines, I feel that the drama should have focused more on crime investigation and fighting, instead of romance. Aside from the main FL, I do not like any of the female characters. They are all annoying, immature and petty. They make the MLs weaker and not as heroic as they could be. It's especially worse with the female deputies who keep on bullying the FL. They are so unprofessional and petty and should never be allowed to continue to be deputies. I do enjoy the slow romance of the main FL and ML and would have loved to see them more. The acting of the 4 MLs are good and they look good in their uniforms and in fight scenes.

I enjoy the fight scenes as they are more of the traditional wuxia fighting than the modern xianxia fighting with slow motion and spinning. The music is fine and I do enjoy the opening and the closing songs, sung by the two cast members. The costumes and CGI were just OK (well, this is an older drama afterall). Not a fault of the drama, but from watching on Viki, it seems like they re-did the color of the drama and everything looks so HDR+ and fake. The drama is decent, but still has many plot holes. If the female characters are less annoying and the romances are more mature, I would have liked this drama more. The drama could be a little shorter by cutting repeated conversations about romance and revenge.

Read More

Horrible version

I watched the 2008 version and I liked it. I just thought it could have been longer. So when I came across this version I was pretty hopeful that this would bring some kind of improvement to the 2008 one. But I was completely wrong. really wanted to give this series a chance and was prepared to ignore the ostentatious special effects. Especially since this version has a unit where the members are female constables. Instead, I fast forwarded after episode 20.

The fantasy element makes this version like a Disney version. Flashy with no substantial plot. I hated the colorful visual effects which looked gaudy. The effects masked the poor fighting choreography. The plot is all over the place. I was looking forward to see a few or at least one badass female warrior, instead, these female constables were busy plotting plans for something trivial such as bullying a girl who was seen as a threat to their superior's chance to get the love of her life. And this superior wasn't even a mature, brilliant, and badass female constable. She's mentally weak. She turned evil when her love was unrequited. So stereotypical. Why do they always make a heroine whose love is unrequited a bitter, evil, cold-blooded female warrior? Why couldn't they make a stronger female character who is capable to adversity and comes out as a successful female warrior despite failed romance?

The characters, Heartless, Cold Blood, Chaser, and Iron Fist have no personality whatsoever. And I was continuously felt annoyed with the portrayal of Heartless. He looks weak and melancholic. Not at all intelligent and cool like the 2008 version. The story quickly turned into a cheesy and corny love story rather than a story of 4 heroes trying to solve a conspiracy.

The only thing I like about this drama is the costume. The constables' costume look really amazing. Other than that, this is a very disappointing drama.

DISCLAIMER: I haven't read the novel so I don't know which version is close to the novel, the 2008 version or this.

Read More

A Happy Ending finally that involves 3 out of 4 with the main cast! Usually, I will go view how the vocals of one of the main actors in a storyline to see how good they are. Han Zhang has made it to my top 10 list of male actors. I loved his acting ability in "The Four", I was actually trying to see William Chan in this piece. William is already on my Top 10 list of actors. I was happy to view another outstanding actor. His fierceness in being softhearted is showing that he puts himself into the character he plays. What really got to me is his vocals. I'm about music and true vocal artists. When he sang acapella in "Serenade to the Moon" on stage on the Mid-autumn Festival Evening in 2017 was spectacular! When you can sing on key to no music is a true vocalist!

I will be looking for more of your Acting Abilities!
Thank you, Han Zhang! My respect!

Read More

This drama is a nice and latest wuxia adaptation of Si Da Ming Bu by Woon Swee Oan also known as Wen Rui'an.The drama is full of action scenes, good CGI’s, intrigue, revenge, mystery, and a little bit of romance. The story follows four constables with superior martial arts skills and strong sense of justice as they fight different sorts of enemies to maintain peace. The drama is about the four constables and their antics to solve crimes. The chemistry among the constables is great and, although each one has a love interest and storyline, the leading couple is Hans Zhang as Leng Xie, Prince of the Wolf tribe and Janine Chang as Chu Limo / Chu Ying Xue, who has her mother’s gift of reading people's minds. The evil antagonist is An Shi Geng (Mickey He) who does a great job creating havoc all over to keep the constables busy. All actors did a great job bringing their characters to life; with an honorable mention to Wang Hai Xiang as Yu Chun Tong, An Shi Geng’s “sheeple”. Although there are some unresolved issues, unknown fates, and the fact that the drama is not a romantic story, if the drama is taken as an action and adventure story, it is quiet entertaining. Enjoy it!

Read More

Offensive to the 2012 movie

Waste of time with cheesy rubbish.
The women act like 2 years old brats.
The men are stupid.
The movie was so good.
I gave up after Episode 20 and fast forwarded the rest.
Awful rubbish.
I have to write more words.
So. Shit, rubbish, terrible, offensive to women. Stupid. Cheesy. I wouldn't give to my worse enemy to watch.
Poor acting, screenplay, dialogue, production values, score, direction, and cinematography. It is several one of the worst dramas ever made
Waste of time with cheesy rubbish.
The women act like 2 years old brats.
The men are stupid.
The movie was so good.
I gave up after Episode 20 and fast forwarded the rest.
Awful rubbish.
I have to write more words.
So. Shit, rubbish, terrible, offensive to women. Stupid. Cheesy. I wouldn't give to my worse enemy to watch.
Poor acting, screenplay, dialogue, production values, score, direction, and cinematography. It is several one of the worst dramas ever made

Read More

Why are all females written so.. basic?

I really wanted to finish this series because there are things about the plot and characters I enjoy, The clichés that come w/ the character tropes I can overlook. The sometimes exaggerated acting I can ignore. The draggy and disjointed plot points I can fast-forward through. THE ENDLESS BASIC BITCH MENTALITY OF ALL THE FEMALES CHARACTERS I CANNOT. The first couple times it happened I brushed it off thinking that they would move on from this nonsense. Nope. Everyone acts like they are jealous 12 year-olds bullying the new pretty girl. Like, come on, have we not moved on from this basic ass storytelling???

Read More