“Good sword,” Wen Kexing (in white) says, holding the tip of Zhou Zishu’s curved blade, and smirking at him. However, the scriptwriter, the actors and the director found an extremely clever way to deal with this potential problem.
It is a legitimate fear, given that Guardian had been pulled from Youku some months after the last episode aired due to “vulgar content” before be re-added with re-edited and deleted scenes. In fact, when it first aired and people were sharing screenshots all over the internet, so many of them expressed concern over certain scenes and moments being truly testing the waters of censorship, and were worried if the drama could air to completion in case something happens along the way.
There have been other drama adaptations of BL novels where the BL element was completely removed (for instance, Birth of the Drama King), but with Word of Honor, this was not the case. Most of the changes in Word of Honor seems to be stemming from this concern, and to be fair, it is very understandable. There is no way that a blatant romantic story between two men can be shown on Chinese television, so scriptwriters, actors and directors find different ways of portraying these relationships that are acceptable by the censorship board, and palatable to the danmei audience. BL/danmei has been around for several years now and is hugely popular thanks to previous successes of dramas such as Guardian and The Untamed, both of which are adapted from danmei novels.
WORD OF HONOR CHINESE DRAMA FULL
I think this is the first BL drama I am doing a full review of on my blog, so to those who are new, I shall write briefly about China’s take on this genre. The plot of the novel and that of the drama changes here and there, some to pass censorship demands while others are there to heighten the dramatic potential of the story and the character relationships but all in all, most fans of the original novel were satisfied with most of the scriptwriter’s creative decisions. They are the novel’s main couple, and along the way, they become embroiled in a layered political plot involving sects, a powerful object and the last surviving teenage son of a wiped out clan. He has around two years left before he dies, and Wen Kexing remains unaware of this for a while. Though they get along quickly, things do not seem to be very happy for the couple since Zhou Zishu does not have long to live due to the seven nails he has embedded in his body prior to leaving his assassin guild. Expectations were kind of there and not extremely high, and most danmei fan watchers were treating it as a sort of segue into the big names airing later in the air.Ī Daring Dance: Novel to Drama (Changes, Censorship and Clever Management)īased on Priest’s web danmei (BL) novel Tian Ya Ke, Word of Honor follows the story of Zhou Zishu (played by Zhang Zhehan), a former leader and member of a secret assassin order working for royalty, who decides to leave and chances upon Wen Kexing (played by Gong Jun), who seems to be flirtatious on the surface but is also hiding a secret.
This is pure wuxia (think Condor Heroes rather than Ashes of Love) set in the jianghu, and 36 episodes were announced after quite a few hiccups experienced by the production during the pandemic last year. Looking at the promotional poster itself, it is easy to gauge the genre. If I remember correctly, this was one of the first posters that were released when the English title was still Faraway Wanderers.
THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR EPISODES 1-36 (AND THE BONUS MV). This will be a long ride, but my focus will be on the adaptation aspect of the production, and how the changes between the novel and the drama have added to or subtracted from the viewer experience of the story. I shall split this review into sections and give each one a score as I normally, but I think I would also like to comment on a few more things (like how my expectations of the execution of BL dramas has skyrocketed which I can only hope the others coming this year can compare with), alongside other observations. But oh goodness, was it a pleasant, pleasant surprise. I saw some bits and pieces of Shan He Ling (then given the English title of Faraway Wanderers) floating around and I did not pay it too much attention, and I believe many people in this community feel the same too. As a danmei/wuxia fan, I am aware that this year is bringing a slew of new BL dramas set to air in the coming months and with the bts footage and rumours lighting up like wildfire last year, I was focused more on the production of Immortality/Hao Yi Xing and Winner is King/Sha Po Lang. Before I begin the review proper, I must admit that this was my surprise of 2021.
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