[First Impressions] Zhu Xian The Noble Aspirations Episodes 1-6

How well is your week going? Since the episodes of The Mystic Nine this week weren’t exactly groundbreaking, I decided to write the Mystic Nine recap for two weeks in one shot next week. Instead, I concentrated on Zhu Xian which just started airing last week-end and is already at episode 6. The ratings are amazing so let’s check it out!

Drama information:

• Chinese name: 诛仙青云志
• English name: Noble Aspirations
• Other names: Zhu Xian, Legend of Chusen, Qing Yun Zhi
• 55 episodes of 45 minutes each
• You can download episodes and read the first episode recap on Avirtualvoyage
• The original novel has been translated in English (check here for links)

Drama schedule:

• Apparently, there will be 6 episodes THIS week and back to 4 next week.
• Hunan TV – 2 episodes every Sunday
  Mango TV – 1 episode Monday-Thursday

We decided to write this review based on the actors’ performances, how they portrayed their respective roles. Here is our “list” review. The order is based on when the characters/actors appeared.

(note: Intellectualkitten’s comments are mostly between brackets ^^ I am having a lot of fun watching this drama, definitely a feel good and easy going story for the summer. Also, I love Qin Chunjie so much ><)

TFBoys

Despite all the hype, the TFBoys are on the show for a very short period of time: less than one episode… but fear not because they will appear again in the flashbacks! This is not the boys’ first acting gig, but I still had low expectations. However, I now think they did an amazing job. Wang Yuan was playing the little Zhang Xiaofan and he was perfect for the role: cute, dummy and innocent. You can really fall for his performance and it is a great childhood introduction. Wang Junkai played his childhood friend and a martial art prodigy. I thought two things while looking at him 1) He looks so much like Luhan and 2) such perfect skin! He is playing a more gentleman and calm character who cares about his friends. All in all, both of them did a great job. By the end, I was really sad for them as their village got destroyed. (I personally prefer Wang Yuan’s personification of Zhang Xiaofan more than Li Yifeng’s, but since the drama just started, let’s hope I change my opinion :3.)

The boys working on that deadly scene. Noonas heart be ready!

Zhang Xiaofan’s master

First of all, doesn’t this teacher has a very meme face? Hehe

Introduced as arrogant and wanting to save faces (lol, isnt that another synonym for arrogant?), this teacher doesn’t like Xiaofan for many reasons: poor performing student, made him lose face in front of other teachers, etc. He first makes Xiaofan miserable, but changes his mind after tasting his great cooking. I don’t exactly want to hate on him for being a bad teacher, because there are scenes where he does care about his disciple. But, if a student cannot learn anything for five years and his self-esteem is as low as Zhang Xiaofan’s, then a part of the problem has to be the teacher. On the bright side, he did teach Xiaofan a valuable lesson when he was a child (do not let revenge blind you and only use magic for good). On the bad side, he is always hitting on Xiaofan for no reason and blaming him for everything. Yop, not the best teacher out there…

I find him funny xD And Zhang Xiaofan is such a hopeless student.. he kinda deserve the harsh treatment, especially since he doesn’t change his actions at all. But yeah… Shi Fu is totally to blame for XF’s lack of self esteem.

Li Yifeng

Can I call this character a good for nothing or would that be too mean? Because of the original trailer, I expected a cool emo character who would always question the way the world runs. However, here we have a good kid that cannot learn any magic and ends up being the slave of his master (aka cooking for everyone). In the five years he arrived at Qing Yun school, he still didn’t learn to fly or any of the other fighting skills. I mean, everyone learn that when they were still a kid. He gets bullied and taken advantage by others, but still thinks the world is pink. I definitely hope his naivety will disappear as we go on with the episodes. It is a good thing to help others, but why the sudden need of a monkey pet (he is secretly Ross from Friends :D). Do you not look ridiculous enough?

In episode six, he finally step up for himself against his Shi Jie (older sister of same school) by talking back to her. He also revealed he was cooking for her, which was a very sweet scene and heartbreaking moment. Love will find you one day, sweetie. ^^ (On the other hand, he seems to have his eyes on Lu Xueqi too. You are cute my boy, but you don’t deserve two girls yet :P)

Because he is the owner of a powerful weapon as well as the blood pearl, I have high hope he will achieve big things in the future (what about the fact he is the main character?). Let the prophecy do its magic, we are all rooting for you!

Some cute gifs of Li Yifeng

Tang Yixin

The cute and bubbly little girl grew up to become.. Tang Yixin! I liked the character at first because she was so nice to Xiaofan. She was the first one to come to Xiaofan and to become his friend. Not caring about her parents’ approval, she tried to convince her father to have him as his disciple and even teaches him martial arts as much as she can. She definitely cares about him as a precious friend. I thought: “I ship you two!”

However, the happy coupling went in the bad direction after Tang Yixin’s kidnapping and she falls in love with another Qing Yun disciple. She then becomes a lot meaner to Zhang Xiaofan: she takes away his medicine to give to her new crush, fights with him because she thinks he betrayed her and ignores his feelings. Awnn, that was so sad. (I think she is just been careless and in love? I am sure the friendship is still there! She still cares a lot about Xiaofan and is just been playful).  As I watch these moments, I flashback to what happened in the Swordsman. In similar cases, the teacher’s daughter and a Shi Jie/Mei (Yang Rong’s Yue Lingshan) falls in love with a new disciple (Chen Xiao’s Lin Pingzhi), forgetting her past romance with her disciple/childhood friend (Wallace Huo’s Linghu Chong) (haha, this is interesting! I saw an article on sina today comparing Zhu Xian with Swordman XD). I hate when my OTPs break so early in a drama, but I guess it is understandable in this case. LYF’s heart must be fought between Bi Yao and Lu Xueqi.

Tang Yixin’s short OTP moment with LYF (haha, the gif doesn’t show her, but it is still a cute scene.. < good job girl xD …I can feel the love)

Zhao Liying

You know I love everything Zhao Liying does and here, there is no exception. She is once again a spoiled (not spoiled, more like independent and a little snob?) girl, but this time on the dark side. She is from a demon family, although not the highest ranked and wants to revenge her mother. Because Zhang Xiaofan saved her when she was a kid, she will fall in love with him. I like her acting scenes as well as her sassy attitude scene. The character so far is pretty cool and I am curious to see her blooming romance with Li Yifeng. She already came to save him multiple times and although they are from different side of the magical world (bad vs good), I can still feel like a strong relationship is starting. Because I know her character is doomed to coma by the half of the drama, I don’t know if there will be any chances for her character to develop more (it is Zhao Liying! I am sure they will give her more plot!!).

Me too, I love Bi Yao! She lights up the scene each time she appears and is one of the funniest character! At first, I thought the bangs would look good but I realize it makes her look old :”D …Sincerely hope there is no more scene with bangs. Also, I can see Xiaofan and Bi Yao developing feelings for each other 😀

Gifs of the beautiful and sassy Bi Yao

Yang Zi

Yang Zi’s moment with Qin Junjie ^^

Lu Xueqi as a character is a serious let down. I still like Yang Zi and if I didn’t know she has amazing acting skills, I would find her a pretty boring actress based on this drama alone. Lu Xueqi is supposed to be a cold person who actually cares about others and fall in love with the male lead. So far, I have seen zero interaction between her and Zhang Xiaofan. Instead, she passes most of her time accompanied by Qin Junjie’s character. She is always extremly rude to him and his romantic gestures (she is supposed to be cold :”D and if Junjie didnt have such a beautiful puppy face, I would find him annoying too :”D). She always has a long face and brings out her sword ready to kill him for any wrongly words he may say. That is cold. I hope it is the writers playing with the plot, because I can’t imagine our supposed female lead to be so impatient, rude and.. far from the male lead. If you told me she was the second female lead and will become a couple with Qin Junjie, I will have a higher chance to believe you. Honestly also wishing for more character development for her too!

My puppy is the cutest thing ever ^^ I agree with you, I hope she ends up with Shu Shu and they make beautiful babies. On the other hand. me neither, I don’t buy the whole goddess personification that everyone was looking forward to … my main reasons been Yang Zi is not that tall (sorry) and she lacks the class of LXQ. Isn’t she supposed to be confident and strong? Instead, she feels cold and arrogant. But since there haven’t been any character development so far, I can’t say Yang Zi’s acting is bad. All in all, she still have 50 episodes to prove herself ^^

Final Words

All in all, I am really liking the drama. The art is extremely pleasant and the CGI is so well done I am in awe at each scenery in xianxia land. The acting is in general well done, the story goes smoothly and nothing feels especially annoying.

I have to complain on a few points though. The first is how, at every fighting scene, the characters just faint down on the ground while all the actions happen (Wang Junkai, Li Yifeng, Tang Yixin’s characters all faint so easily).  Aren’t you guys a bit too weak? Another problem is that the drama feels like it moves too fast. By episode one, the childhood ended. By episode two, all the characters were introduced. By episode 4 or 5, everyone meets everyone and has a fun trip in the mountain. It is a good thing that the plot is moving fast, but I feel like we don’t exactly have a main mission right now. No sword to find, no master to fall in love with, just the daily life of Qing Yun students. It is a fun watch, but not having a specific goal worries me a bit. And no, I am not watching to just see Bi Yao fall in a coma. There must be something else!