‘Rise of Phoenixes’: Ep. 1 – 5 First Impression

If you’ve been following this blog, you probably know there used to be recaps and review videos for Rise of Phoenixes on my YT channel. But since those are no longer on — due to some reasons regarding Croton Media — I decided to repost the recaps as articles here.

If you’re reading these for the first time, welcome.

This First Impression post goes over my notes about the first five episodes of the drama. Very, very briefly. Each recap post that follows will cover 5 episodes. These recaps will be quite unhelpful if you’re looking for details. I only go over what stands out the most.

A character list will be published before the next recap to make it easier to remember the names.

EPISODE 1 – 5 – WHAT’S IMPORTANT

Rise of Phoenixes is a drama that proves quality does NOT equal viewership. That’s a compliment, I promise. 

It’s a story mainly about power struggles and feuds between the current imperial family and one that has been vanquished but still holds grudges. Each of our main protagonists happens to come from each side of this political war.

About 3 episodes in and we get a first meeting between the main characters. Thankfully, there’s no grabbing, air dancing, or staring contest.

Instead, there’s a very normal conversation that makes you want to see where this is going. Ning Yi (Chen Kun) is an unfavored prince of the current emperor. Feng Zhiwei (Ni Ni) is a neglected daughter of a noble family that may or may not have to do with the old vanquished dynasty.

Then, we get another very important conversation that reveals the female lead’s origin and why the main couple is probably going to go through hell. Early spoiler: her dad died because of him.

The drama really takes time to set up everything. And I mean they really take their time to polish every detail and every action to make sure you get who is who.

PERFORMANCE

How is the acting from Chen Kun and Ni Ni? It’s Chen Kun and Ni Ni. No more needs to be said.

Ning Yi is a resourceful and manipulative prince, someone who can switch from a puppy face to a you-better-give-me-what-I-want face in a matter of seconds, which requires the actor Chen Kun to be able to do the same in a believable manner and without making him look like a cartoon; and he doesn’t disappoint.

Feng Zhiwei is your classic different and not-part-of-the-crowd girl you’ve seen many times before. Only, this time, it’s convincingly done. Ni Ni doesn’t need to play the character, she easily becomes the character on the screen. How is she not more popular in dramaland?

Feng Zhiwei is mischievous but feminine. Outspoken, but not stupid. She is Ning Yi’s intellectual equal. You can tell that they are the main couple because they have a connection, not because they appear together on the promotional posters.

The supporting cast is no less impressive. The brothers, the sidekicks, the antagonists — they have personalities, goals, motivations, etc — and each of them fits perfectly into the story.

You see, when you have good actors, you don’t need slo-mo and skin filters to make the characters stand out.

THE BOOK vs. DRAMA DEBATE

Before Rise of Phoenixes was aired (and afterwards, too), there were many complaints about how the drama doesn’t follow the novel and how the ending is not what people expected. I have not read the novel myself, but that seems to be the problem with all dramas these days.

And honestly, even when the changes are not that significant, the particular drama still gets negative reviews because viewers don’t get to see what they expected to see. I particularly remember people protesting the fact that Moyuan from Ten Miles has facial hair. Besides, at this point, it seems like even the producers and directors don’t care about the works they adapt anymore. Or perhaps it can be put like this: web novel writers don’t make that much of an effort to edit their stories, then come along drama producers who think they can do better than writers, and so we end up with heaps of stories that are butchered and rewritten to fit the industry’s standards.

My point is, it’s too much to ask for drama adaptations to be faithful to their original novels nowadays; so as long as a drama has a tight plot with well-written characters, let’s appreciate it first and worry about how it’s different from the novel later?

BOTTOM LINE

Do I recommend this drama?

If you haven’t seen Rise of Phoenixes —  it’s heavy on politics and not something you’d want to watch with the mindset of “when will they kiss?”

Judging by how the story is being built up, the way the film sets look, and the way the emperor guy talks, you can tell that the answer to that question is probably “never”.

Rise of Phoenixes has everything a good historical drama needs: plot, story, acting, aesthetics, etc. Still, 70 episodes is a huge investment of time, so what I’d recommend is reading up on it first before jumping in.

If you have seen the drama or followed the recaps before, shhh…