少年歌行 | The Blood of Youth (2022)

[donutsweeper]

(Completely non-spoilery summary) This drama starts with Lei Wujie, who has just begun wandering the jianghu/martial arts world in search of adventure, stumbling into an inn (Snowfall Villa) run by Xiao Se and proceeding to wreck it while 'saving' it from bandits. Xiao Se demands compensation and Lei Wujie explains that while he doesn't have any money currently, he'll be able to pay Xiao Se back when he gets to Xueyue City because he's bound to find a master there so Xiao Se accompanies him in order to get paid back (in theory). On their way they they have a number of adventures and meet and befriend other members of the jianghu. Their travels and adventures continue for a while even after leaving Xueyue City before events from Xiao Se's past require him to return to the capital, Tianqi City, where he is helped and joined by many of the people he's befriended and aided along the way.

The main theme is Xiao Se and Lei Wujie (and the others they befriend during their adventures, Sikong Qianluo, Ye Ruoyi, Tang Lian and Wu Xin) are the new generation, trying to find their place in the world that the older generation created/molded and hopefully trying to make it a better place along the way and it does a great job of subtly (and not so subtly) continually tying that theme into the various plot arc as they come along.

A little more (and some very minor spoilers):

Very early on we learn Xiao Se is actually Xiao Chuhe, the Sixth Prince, who was exiled from the capital and stripped of his royal status after refusing to stop trying to clear the name of his favorite uncle (the very popular military commander and younger brother of the current emperor who had been executed for treason four years ago) and some of the people he comes across know who he is while others don't. There is also the fact that with his dying wish said uncle asked the four Guardians of Tianqi City (who have the titles Vermilion Bird, White Tiger, Black Tortoise, and Azure Dragon and are all impressive martial artists) to protect his nephew, a promise they pass on to the next generation and there's some interesting aspects to that regarding loyalty that is earned by what one does and who one is vs given due to oaths and promises.

As seems to be the case with many Cdramas, there are quite a number more male characters than female, but there are several wonderful female character with numerous skills (fighting, intrigue/advising, healing) and none are stereotypes or caricatures.

Romance-wise, there are several m/m shipping opportunities and a few canon m/f ships.

Although there's only a handful of main characters there are quite a number of minor supporting characters and youku put out this chart to help identify who is who (although, as it does list everyone, it might be spoilery depending when you look at it). Unfortunately, it only lists one name per person and many have several as not only is there alliances, clans, sect and city affiliations to consider but some people are Sword Masters or Sword Deities and some of them are also City Lords or Clan/Sect Leaders as well. (It can be a bit confusing but after a while I realized it's actually not completely necessary to understand all the ins-and-outs of the world with who everyone is or how the martial arts in it works, mostly the show does a good job of reminding you of the important things you're supposed to realize from each encounter and doesn't penalize you for not remembering or understanding more.)

The fight scenes in this wuxia drama are incredible with higher quality special affects than I've only rarely seen (other than when they try to show someone while riding a horse, the green screen there is bad) and while I don't necessarily understand its martial arts system, it does seem to be consistent throughout in how it works, which is all I ask from a show.

There's a bunch of different official promos/trailers; this one focuses on the fights and special effects but doesn't give much info on anything else so you can watch it without getting spoiled:

Watch on YouTube

Length: 40 episodes, 40-45 minutes each with a five minute extra that was released separately.
Where to watch: legally on viki (all episodes released to subscribers, still in the process of being released for free with 26 currently available) or youku's free youtube channel (29 available, more coming slowly), and in its entirety elsewhere like on asianvote, viewasian, etc. An English subbed version of the extra can be watched here (and definitely do watch it for some nice post-canon interactions.)

Watching this was one of those 'click next episode, whoops how did it get to be 1 am' experiences for me and I heartily recommend giving it a try!

(promo/review crossposted to c_ent)

Comments

[sunshine304]

I’ve seen this mentioned a lot on tumblr recently with a good amount of gifs going. People seem to be invested in the main characters, which is good. It sounds interesting and it’s on my Viki watchlist (for whenever I have time for it…)

Thank you for the rec!

[donutsweeper]

My mdl watch list is so very very long :) Hope you like it when/if you get to it!