‘The Legend of Shenli’: Ep. 1 Run-down — Chicken or Bird, Only Fate Will Tell

To be honest, I’m not sure what to think of this drama yet. On one hand, I hesitate to call a drama led by Zhao Liying mediocre because I’ve seen what Zhao Liying can do in terms of acting and I very much want to enjoy every project she puts out. On the other hand, episode one doesn’t do much to impress me. And it doesn’t like it even wants to impress anyone.

In a way, this drama feels very much like a chill ride for the lead actors so they can get momentum for their next projects or something like that.

Anyway…

EPISODE 1 RECAP

The story happens on a festival night in the human land. When everyone is having fun down here, a grand battle between the gods takes place in the sky. The female lead — Shenli — is a very powerful immortal. She refuses to marry a man the heaven court picked for her, and now they’re trying to bring her back home to go through with this marriage. But our girl is determined to fight.

I will say that even though Zhao Liying is beautiful and more than capable of playing the role of a warrior, she still appears very young. Very, very young and petite. So I’ve never truly been able to believe it whenever she plays a warrior. Are the character’s emotions well conveyed on her face? Yes. Does she look frightening as a whole? No.

The way the combat scenes are done doesn’t exactly help, either. You can be small and still be convincing as a fighter. But they just have her stand around, wave her arms and hold a prop spear.

There are some fighting sequences, some CG scenes, you know how it goes, it’s not really important. What’s important is at the end of the fight, one of the men suddenly attacks Shenli and stabs her in the heart.

He apologizes, takes some of the pain onto himself and sends her down the mortal realm. Is he trying to help her? Hmm… mysterious.

Exhausted and wounded, Shenli is reduced to her true form, which is a bird. A very cute phoenix, I guess.

It isn’t exactly a good CG phoenix, but I’ve seen worse.

A town vendor mistakes her for a chicken and puts her out for sale. That’s a good point, I would mistake her for a chicken too.

Lucky for our “chicken”, a very honest-looking man buys her and brings her home. This man’s name is Xing Yun (Lin Gengxin). Is this kind of a wish-fulfilment for fans of Princess Agents or what? Cause let me tell you, drama writers, it’s not that easy to earn our forgiveness after that crappy ending we got for Chuqiao and Yuwen Yue.

Anyway, this man doesn’t seem normal. And I mean that in the nicest way. He is aloof, indifferent, and just kind of mumbles his way through the entire episode. No, really, I’m not sure if that’s the voice actor or Lin Gengxin’s real voice but can you please ENUNCIATE!

But the great thing is that Xing Yun cares very much about the poor phoenix. I believe he can understand the bird’s language too. The next half of the episode or so is devoted to their interactions.

The phoenix almost gets drowned once. She almost gets her head chopped off once. She also nearly gets strangled by a town mob. But Xing Yun is almost always there to rescue her. He also seems to be lonely, so she must be one of the few friends he has.

On one of those days, Xing Yun also sees Shen Li turn back into her human form in his yard, but he’s not surprised at all. He even calls her beautiful. This man knows something, guys.

But you know what I want to know? Why is he already coughing up blood in the first episode?

That’s right, Xing Yun is ill. He coughs into his hand often and one time, it’s blooood. What the illness is, we don’t know. But we know that he knows he’s not going to live for long. At least his facial expressions indicate so. Hmm…

Oh wait, is that why he always speaks in such a low voice? My bad, I thought he was just trying to piss people off on purpose.

Now, while all of this is happening, a pair of heaven’s men are out looking for Shen Li. They seem to be on her side and kind of look like a comedic duo too.

COMMENTS

This drama’s setup is fairly unique compared to other Chinese Fantasy Romances I’ve seen, in the sense that the storyline may surprise you with plots that go beyond the usual “reincarnation + amnesia + 3 lives” template. This episode is also a light-hearted beginning, we don’t know what’s at stake yet, which makes the rest of the story harder to predict. Usually, things start with a demon army wanting to destroy the world and some war god somewhere stabbing himself to seal the demon king.

Though, I wish this production would have distinguished itself a little more. So far, there is hardly anything that sets this universe apart. The slow-mo, the all-white costumes, the sets, the building-up, the name references, the phoenixes that look like chickens  they are pretty much things we have seen too many times before. So I’m not exactly complaining, but I can’t say that I have high hopes, either.

These are the things I will look forward to: the two guys who are looking for the phoenix, an explanation for the male lead’s illness, and the chicken leaving the spotlight — it doesn’t have a lot of chemistry with the guy. Believe it or not, some CG animals do have chemistry with their human co-stars, like Donghua and the Fox, for instance).

Also, I hope that any drama which has secured Zhao Liying and Lin Gengxin will use them properly. Don’t let Zhao Liying be another typical girl-boss and don’t let Lin Gengxin be another white-robed noble “idiot” because they’re both capable of a lot more than that now, especially Zhao Liying who has raised the bar significantly with Wild Bloom.

Fingers crossed for quality.