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Nirvana in Fire (and other C-Drama)


dheu

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Have any of you guys seen Nirvana in Fire? 

 

It's a few years old (2015), so I'm discovering it late, but OMG, I think it just crushed my soul.  Which is extremely weird, because I'm not a huge fan of slow-paced complicated power struggle/political dramas, especially ones that are 50+ episodes, and I've also never seen a Chinese period drama before.  But it is now one of my favorite TV shows ever, in any language.  I was out sick for much of this week, and I spent it curled on the couch marathoning this show.  I don't know if that really helped me recover... I stayed up way too late each night because I couldn't bear not to see "just one more episode". :tumblr_inline_mg16f1RxCn1qdlkyg:

 

I think I liked it so much because of how the characters are developed, how all of them are multi-faceted and you really get to know them and like them and their relationships to each other.  The main characters are awesome and I wish I could watch another 50 episodes with them!  It's got all the feels, the romance, the bromance, the drama, the humor, the angst, and yes, the complicated power struggle.  And I'm a sucker for vengeance plots and Count-of-Monte-Cristo-style plots, so I guess that put it right up my alley.  The acting was phenomenal, the production values and music were great, the script was complex and interesting (I don't speak/understand Mandarin, but I've heard other people say that the language they used in this was beautiful and poetic as well).

 

Spoiler

And that last episode had me weeping, which is ridiculous and something I never do over a TV show, but it just hit so hard.  :64341262:

 

Anyway, excuse the rant.  Having just finished it the other day, I had to vent about it somewhere!  :68468287:

 

And I should be asking at this point if there are any other great C-dramas out there, but I'm still kind of reeling from the emotional impact of Nirvana in Fire.  It may take me awhile to recover.  Maybe after I've rewatched it a few times.... :13877886:

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YES!!!!!!!

 

Despite the slow pace of the drama, I never felt it was slow due to the world building and political intrigue. Although some people really got into the plot at episode 11, I was immediately sucked in by episode 1 haha. I have had so much trouble after watching Nirvana in Fire in finding something of similar epicness/caliber. (tbh it includes my favourite romantic/bromantic subplots up to date as well). Although I never rewatch shows, I think I'll definitely have to revisit it!

 

In terms of other series, there's Nirvana in Fire 2 (Albeit I did not finish watching it, doesn't have same cast but still a great watch!). I've put a lot on hold so far but some other favourites include:

Guardian (Ok despite the several plot holes and low production value, still have one of my favourite bromance/bl couple to date)

Ashes of Love(Awesome world building and plot. However, I've put this one on hold for bit b/c I'm not a huge fan of love triangles and this one contains a love triangle to beat all love triangles)

 

 

 

 

 

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23 hours ago, kelly said:

I've watched 3 episodes, and then I saw reviews that said the ending wasn't good so I decided to drop it :acceptable: If you're into epic fantasy/romance dramas, Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms is a good one :happy:

I thought that the ending was perfect for the series.  Yes, it was sad, maybe unnecessarily so - 

Spoiler

Darn it all, I did want Mei Changsu and Nihuang to live happily together, at least for a little while!

- but in the end the series was more than worth it, and I think it ended the way it should have.  After all, 

Spoiler

Mei Changsu is dying basically throughout the entire series.  It would have been a bit unbelievable if he survived for a lot longer, just to make the ending happy.

 

 

13 hours ago, mewana said:

YES!!!!!!!

 

Despite the slow pace of the drama, I never felt it was slow due to the world building and political intrigue. Although some people really got into the plot at episode 11, I was immediately sucked in by episode 1 haha. I have had so much trouble after watching Nirvana in Fire in finding something of similar epicness/caliber. (tbh it includes my favourite romantic/bromantic subplots up to date as well). Although I never rewatch shows, I think I'll definitely have to revisit it!

 

In terms of other series, there's Nirvana in Fire 2 (Albeit I did not finish watching it, doesn't have same cast but still a great watch!). I've put a lot on hold so far but some other favourites include:

Guardian (Ok despite the several plot holes and low production value, still have one of my favourite bromance/bl couple to date)

Ashes of Love(Awesome world building and plot. However, I've put this one on hold for bit b/c I'm not a huge fan of love triangles and this one contains a love triangle to beat all love triangles)

 

 

 

 

 

 

I didn't feel it was slow either.  The time for each episode just flew along, right from episode 1.  I also was sucked in right from the beginning, even though it was a bit of a struggle for me to figure out who all the characters were.  I think I only really got a good grasp of all the secondary characters around episode 30....   :unsure:  It's not my fault, most of them had the same facial hair!  Also, all the princes were named Jing! :68468287: (I know they weren't actually, but when I first started watching, I couldn't sort out the names...  I guess I need to watch more Chinese shows, so I can get more familiar with names and the suffixes they use!)

 

Thanks for your suggestions, both of you.  I'll add them to my list of shows to check out! :tumblr_inline_mg16go8gBg1qdlkyg:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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11 minutes ago, dheu said:

ei Changsu is dying basically throughout the entire series.  It would have been a bit unbelievable if he survived for a lot longer, just to make the ending happy.

 

Spoiler

Honestly I feel like reading the history about Yuzu being injured almost every season up to date will make me well equipped for Mei Changsu literally dying throughout the entire series if I end up rewatching. (But please skating gods give him a happy ending tho). 

 

(I also wanted more Nuihang x Mei Changsu scenes, one of my favourites from the entire series was when she realized he was Lin Shu all along) :tumblr_inline_ncmif7esGm1rpglid:

 

 

 

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19 hours ago, mewana said:

 

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(I also wanted more Nuihang x Mei Changsu scenes, one of my favourites from the entire series was when she realized he was Lin Shu all along) :tumblr_inline_ncmif7esGm1rpglid:

 

 

Yes, any time one of the main characters discovered who he was, those were the most powerful scenes!  Nihuang was awesome, Prince Jingyan was awesome, Mei Changsu of course is the best, and I could have watched another 50 episodes of the three of them just hanging out and plotting together. 

 

I just want to add that Hu Ge is a pretty phenomenal actor in this show.  He was so great at conveying emotion with the smallest change of expression.  I've started rewatching it (already!  :68468287:) and right from the first episode, you can understand all the emotions he is feeling returning to Jinling and seeing Nihuang for the first time.... :tumblr_inline_mg16go8gBg1qdlkyg:

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  • 4 weeks later...

So I couldn't bear to move on from this show without rewatching it at least once.  It is even better the second time around, because right from episode one it is easier to understand the quick throwaway lines and you know who all the characters are.  I really recommend this series, it is phenomenal.  Even the ending is perfect, because Mei Changsu gets to live his life again as Lin Shu, so don't be put off by that!  

 

Anyway, I tried Ten Miles of Peach Blossom.  I could not get into it at first.  The main character's mischievous behavior seemed too contrived i.e. it felt like she was getting herself in trouble just so someone could save her.  But I don't think I gave it enough of a chance, so I will try to pick it up again later.

 

In the meantime, I watched Accidentally In Love on Netflix, which is about as huge of a tonal shift from Nirvana in Fire as you can get.  Lighthearted fun all around.  Qingqing was great, spunky in all the right ways, and brilliantly acted.  Situ Feng was alright in the acting, although his drunken portrayal mainly consisted of him shutting his eyes and stumbling around.  I liked both of the characters though, and they were super cute as a couple.

 

There was a lot of contrived plots, most of which were fun, but others I thought had weak resolutions.  Xinya was EXTREMELY annoying, but I think the dilemma that Situ Feng was in was shown in a convincing way, so I could believe in his pain.  Yiyang's plot seemed easily cleared up, more easily than expected, but okay.

 

Overall, it was mostly good and one of the better young-love type shows I have seen (supposedly they were in college but they really looked like they were in high school.)

 

 

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  • 1 year later...

Okay, I have finally found a C-drama I enjoyed as much as "Nirvana in Fire".  And that drama is "The Untamed" (陈情令, Chen Qing Ling).

 

O M G.  Long story short: Watch it.  It is just fantastic!   

 

And the long story:

 

Brief synopsis, paraphrased from Wiki:

In a mythical time based on ancient China, the world is ruled by cultivator sects (where "cultivators" are martial artists who manipulate what's basically magic and hunt down monsters and evil spirits).  The most powerful is the Wen sect, which dominates the smaller Lan, Jiang, Nie, and Jin sects.  Wei Wuxian (our main character) is a carefree cultivator prodigy from the Jiang sect.  He becomes friends with strict, righteous Lan Wangji from the Lan sect, and then two find out that the head of the Wen sect is an evil mastermind behind a series of plots that could wreak havoc upon the land.  Wei Wuxian attempts to protect innocent members of the Wen sect from unfair persecution, but this leads to disaster and he goes missing.  Sixteen years later, Wei Wuxian returns and works with Lan Wangji to solve a series of murder mysteries that are being orchestrated by unknown culprits.

 

What I liked, put in Spoiler tags just so this isn't a wall of text:

Spoiler

1. This series has it all.  There is angst and drama, magic (probably more like qi manipulation but I'll just call it magic) and evil spirits, wuxia battles, lots of tragedy and emotion and plenty of humorous moments.

 

2. The characters are the best part of the series: they are all in shades of gray.  The heroes are flawed and (most of) the villains can be sympathized with.  

 

3. The acting is phenomenal.  In particular, Xiao Zhan as Wei Wuxian was incredible.  He was able to bring this complex, complicated character to life and make him entirely believable as a person, from the early carefree days where he was impudent, mischievous, and playfully good-natured to the worst moments when he was tortured, or sad, or furious and losing control.

Spoiler

Episodes 32 and 33 where he loses control and completely snaps are just amazing.  You can just see and practically feel the rage, the grief, the despair in him, even when he is still trying to rationally talk to the sect leaders.  And after Yanli's death, the pain and hysteria he shows when Wei Wuxian hits the moment of total breakdown is just chilling to see.

 

4. The relationship between Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji.  The trust and the mutual support during the present-day episodes... it was just beautiful. :tumblr_inline_n18qr5lPWB1qid2nw:

 

5. At first, I did not like the extremely lengthy flashback and the fact that it occurred only two episodes into the series, but as the flashback continued and the tragedy increased, I was actually glad to know that we still had the present episodes left to watch, because it was starting to get really painful to get through...

 

Overall, I may be biased because Wei Wuxian's character pretty much checks all the boxes for everything that I find most compelling in a protagonist, so anyone else's mileage may vary. :tumblr_inline_mg16go8gBg1qdlkyg: 

 

 

Flaws, also hidden just to avoid overwhelming this post:

Spoiler

1. The use of CGI.  Most of the CGI was blatant.  It was not great quality and not seamless by any means.  Normally bad CGI will put me off of a series almost immediately, which is why I have a hard time getting into many fantasy C-drama series, but I was more than willing to overlook this issue for this series because the characters and the story was so good.

 

2. The last few episodes dragged.  There is a lot of discussion that goes on at times throughout the series, sometimes slowing the pace down, but the last few episodes were the worst offenders; the pace really dragged to a halt with them, although they still had their great moments at times.  There was just a bit too much talking in them, I think, after all the anxiety-inducing build-up from all the previous episodes.  I was also hoping for a little bit more of an epic battle ending, but I appreciate that they wanted to stick closer to the novel's ending.

 

3. Portrayal of people playing instruments.  This is a problem for so many series, not just this one.  As a musician, I really notice when it is obvious that a person is not actually playing an instrument.  In a series like this where instruments are featured frequently (as a few characters use music as a weapon), it is unfortunate that they didn't make more of an effort to at least pretend, but perhaps they didn't know what songs would be playing while they were filming the scenes.... This is usually another thing that will kill a series for me, but I could tolerate it here because, again, the rest of the series is just so good.

 

 

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  • 10 months later...

I have fallen down the rabbit hole that is The Untamed.  It is saving my sanity during this ‘tier3’ lockdown.  I have always enjoyed Jacobean revenge tragedy and spaghetti westerns and it reminds me of certain aspects of those, with gorgeous scenery and much better looking actors.  One of Webster’s anti heros would fit right in.

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OMGGG I love Nirvana in Fire. Gosh so emotional, I rmb holding my breath watching EVERY ep without skipping any moment. Thinking back on it I still feel the EMOOO :cri:. I still keep listening to the OST sung by Liu Tao.

I love every character so much I even tuned in for ss2, but ss2 was like the sequel without any character from ss1 so I was a bit disappointed and dropped it.

Nirvana in Fire and Empresses in the Palace are the only C-dramas I watched thoroughly and loved in recent years. The fact that I rarely watch dramas now (no time for >10eps of any series) speaks a lot about how GREAT they are (esp with both>50eps, the standard of C-drama=)))). 

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 weeks later...

I watched NIF a few months ago and I'm still hooked! :tumblr_inline_n18qr5lPWB1qid2nw:

I think it's really underrated.

All actors and actresses did a really great job. Actually I was really impressed by Ding Yongdai's acting (he portrays the king) specially in the last few episodes. And their clothing/accessories designs have so many little details and are so pretty I was amazed. I can't wait to read the novel asap! 

p.s: If anyone is interested in watching it's on youtube!

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