Cao Pi: Here’s your sword back.
Guo Zhao: This isn’t mine.
Cao Pi: It was mine. Now it’s yours. #HowToGift101
Episode 3, scene X: Yang Xiu , the ambitious antagonist in the first few episodes, had just kicked off a dying Sima Yi into the river. He is relieved, proud of what he has accomplished.
When he is left alone , he turns to see his hands in the dimming night. There’s blood on his hands. He realizes what he has done, betraying his father’s trust and hope for a Han alliance, murdering at least two men. He screams into the night.
The scene is representative of how The Advisors Alliance 军师联盟 has so far treated its characters – as complex and contradicting human beings.
With a rich set of characters, a fast-paced plot, thoughtful but colloquial dialogue, and just the right amount of romance and humor mixed in, The Advisors Alliance is probably the best scripted ancient drama in the past couple of years.
The current romance plot, that of Cao Pi (Li Chen) and Guo Zhao (Tang Yixin), is awww-worthy in each encounter, while the family bickering of Sima Yi (Wu Xiubo) and his wife ( Liu Tao) brings humor into the series.
Other pros include on-point costume, set, cinematography, and music. Other than the the ones mentioned earlier, Cao Cao (Yu Hewei ) and Xun Yu (Wang Jinsong) have also been superb so far. If I had to pick some flaws, Cao Zhi’s acting is way off from how I think the script wanted to portray him, and the actors who were dubbed over are a bit obvious compared to the ones using on-site recording.
This is only the first four episodes, and I’m already excited. Hopefully the rest of the drama will only get better, and I’ll be looking forward to new scriptwriter Chang Jiang’s next works – another Three Kingdoms drama 三国机密 , and an upcoming Tribes and Empires 九州飘渺录 drama.
Rumor has it Sima Zhao is going to sexually harass Sima Shi’s wife. If that’s true, I take back every good word I said about this drama. No. No. No.
(Yu Hewei’s Cao Cao is still amazing, though.)
Why is that? (about Sima Zhao)
I still can’t forget that Yu Hewei was Liu Bei! :D
First,this drama is saturated with boring love triangles that contribute zilch to the plot or to characterizations (Sima Fu – Guo Zhao – Cao Pi, Guo Zhao – Cao Pi – Zhen Fu, Cao Pi- Zhen Fu – Cao Zhi, Zhang Chunhua – Sima Yi – Bo Furen).
More importantly, I was promised a pair of loving brothers, that’s not loving at all. I feel cheated.
According to wiki, Sima Yi’s wife, Chunhua, was a politician and general. I hope they’ll show some of that later. I have only watched ep 1.
C dramas like doing gazillion period dramas with superficial strong female characters like the numerous female characters in Princess Agent, Ruby Lin’s dramas, many Croton-produced dramas. I dislike how shallow they tend to appear. Beautiful, sword-wielding creatures purported to be smart yet lacking supporting details and actions. I wish they’d show more credible characters since there were quite a few such female characters in C history, such as Fu Hao, Shangguan Wan’er. I guess there was too little detailed historical records on many of them?
PSA: They recently put up subs for the first three episodes on their official YouTube!!! 😭🙌🙏
So it’s being subbed?? Thank you for the info!
Yes! And you’re welcome 😊
Really hoping we’ll get it subbed. :(
I have been looking forward to this drama for so long. I am so bummed it’s not being subbed in English. Hopefully that will change……
Thanks for this. This drama had been on my radar since last year and I desperately had hoped it would get subbed. Alas…
It looks epic. I hope the great start it has continues.