EPISODE 1 RECAP
500 years ago, there was a war. Gods fell, the world descended into chaos; and then… we get an upbeat opening theme song.
The female lead Wushuang is a goddess who has just awoken from a brief slumber. Her job is to protect the world, I guess. It’s not clear. It’s been so long since we last saw Tiffany Tang, I thought she had retired already.
One day, upon hearing of an exceptional mortal fighter who possesses some dangerous divine energy, she runs over just in time to help him with a battle. But by helping him control this Energy, she herself gets hit and once again falls into a temporary slumber. Girlie should start to check the weather whenever she goes out.
Wushuang wakes up again when this Divine Energy is in danger of falling into the evil hands of the high priest of Youhu Clain. She finds this Youhu Clan with the intention of getting rid of that priest. Wushuang does this by pretending to be one of the girls sent to the sect to be servants.
I hope this servant-girl hairstyle and costume don’t last long because they absolutely are not flattering.
Her name is Tanyin now. One time during training, while being lost around the mountain, a man appears to help her find her way. Not only that, he also offers her his hand.
I’m confused: physical contact is usually a big deal in these Confucianism-inspired fantasy universes, so why would they be holding hands? Unless the drama implies that Wushuang’s character is a kid who needs to be guided by the hand? Hmm… no, I don’t think that’s it.
Next, we meet Zhidai (played by Cristy Guo), a lady who will be training the young servant girls. She gives each of them a bracelet that is meant to control them through magic.
Instead of putting the bracelet on, you know — like someone who is on a mission and trying to blend in would do, Tanyin examines the bracelet and voices her suspicions out loud. Has this girl ever been on a mission before? Why is she drawing attention to herself like this?
The Zhidai lady is like: yeah it’s a wrist leash, so what, just put it on. I normally don’t think much of snooty instructor characters, but I approve of Zhidai’s reaction; this Tanyin girl talks way too much for her own good.
One day, the girls get together and one of them tells a ghost story. Tanyin’s reaction is kind of confusing — she seems scared. Hmm, isn’t she a goddess in disguise? Why would she be scared of a mere ghost story?
Later, Tanyin has to make a trip out to deliver something. It’s dark, and the ghost story haunts her. She bumps into the same man who gave her directions the other day, and he teases her for being afraid of ghosts. Is this what this is about? They set her up to be scared so she can have a fun moment with this guy?
COMMENTS
Ok… well… I hate to say this, but this type of character is no longer suitable for Tiffany Tang. A lot of her previous works are easily enjoyable, but that can be chalked up to finding the right projects and working with the right teams, and more because of Tang’s natural charms than her acquired skills in acting. However, it seems that her mannerism has matured to a point where she cannot play a female lead’s innocent and mischievous moments convincingly anymore; and there are a lot of these moments, at least as far as I can see.
Tang’s age is not the problem here, there are actors and actresses who can play roles much younger than they are in real life: Zhou Xun, Ni Ni, Deng Chao, Lu Yi; and Zhang Zhen was able to make his middle-aged male lead look convincing when he transforms into a puppy-eyed love interest. But either you need to be insanely talented, or be trained properly, or a mixture of both. Unfortunately, Tiffany Tang is not someone who can pull off this trick. Yes, I understand that she is supposed to be an old warrior goddess; but the drama does present her to be a layered character: underneath the maturity, there’s some naivete. And this requires the actress to have subtlety in her performance.
Maybe it will get better when we get to the later part of her life where she doesn’t have to pretend to have a childish side anymore? We’ll wait and see. For now, I kind of wish Cristy Guo (the Zhidai lady) were in the lead role instead.
About the lead actor Liu Xueyi, so far he’s giving a satisfactory performance. He is not outstanding here, but that may have more to do with his generic character type than his skills. I’ve seen too many “mysterious immortals” in white in these dramas already and it’s getting harder to tell the difference between them.
Because it’s too early on, I don’t have much to say about the plot yet, but there does seem to be some interesting twists ahead. Also, what’s Zhidai’s secret? Pretty sure she has one.