Chinese Drama: Phoenix Warriors (天泪传奇之凤凰无双)
Broadcast Date: October 4, 2017
Airs: 2 episode/ Wed-Fri
Total Episodes: 60
Leads: Wang Li Kun and Joe Cheng
Episode 1-3 Overview:
On what should’ve been her happiest day of marrying the man she loves, our heroine Nie Wu Shuang’s dream of a blissful future is dashed to pieces in the curlest way possible when her new groom arrests her family on their wedding night then kills her father as she watched. Forced to jump off a cliff as her own husband tries to kill her, Wu Shuang falls into the ocean below and is rescued by our hero, Xiao Feng Qing (Joe Cheng).
A prince from another country that is traveling around under the disguise as a merchant, Feng Qing showed little interest in saving Wu Shuang’s life until he notices the pendant around her neck. Promptly recognizing the pendant as Heavenly Tear belonging to his mother who was also forced to jump off a cliff back when he was still a child, Feng Qing hides his tumultuous emotions but proceeds to taunt our heroine until she turns her suicidal thoughts into a thirst for revenge.
(Hero’s mother is a Royal Consort who was looked down upon because of her unknown background that everyone assumed must be of a low birth. In reality, the hero’s mother was actually an alien from another planet that had come to earth with an important mission of finding a way to save her own planet. Remembering his mother’s promise to him that someday, someone wearing Heaven’s Tear will come to him, our hero eagerly asks Wu Shuang how she had obtained the pendant but Wu Shuang has no information for him other than that an angel like woman had saved her when she almost drowned as a child and disappeared after leaving the pendant around her neck.)
Her will to live in full force especially after Feng Qing nonchalantly informs her that her older brother is still alive, Wu Shuang throws her pride away and begs Feng Qing to help her. Unwavering when Feng Qing reminds her that he is a businessman and will only help her if she has something of value in exchange, Wu Shuang firmly declares that she is willing to do anything to seek her revenge.
Disguising herself as a dancer to steal an important military plan for Feng Qing, Wu Shuang could hardly contain the hatred in her eyes when she unexpectedly meets her no good husband (Gu Qing Hong) face to face. With no way to protect Wu Shuang anymore especially once Qing Hong calls out his true identity as a prince and escalates his protection of Wu Shuang into a conflict between their two countries, Feng Qing decides to gives Wu Shuang to his brother- the emperor, Xiao Feng Ming.
Still very much in love with Wu Shuang (although that doesn’t seem to stop him from trying to kill her), Qing Hong seethes with jealousy as Feng Ming declares that he has made Wu Shuang his royal consort and will be taking her back to his country. Having reached an agreement with the emperor to help her find her brother in hopes that her brother, a brilliant general will swear his allegiance to him, Wu Shuang is resigned to be whatever the emperor needs her to be…even if it is the lowest ranking of the royal consort.
Safe from Qing Hong pursuit for the time being, Wu Shuang soon realizes that palace petty jealousy could be just as dangerous. Not pleased at all to see the emperor returning to the palace with a beauty…especially one with a questionable past, the various political factions represented by their respective royal consorts are soon busy trying to find a way to get rid of Wu Shuang for good.
In case palace intrigue and countries trying to conquer each other are not exciting enough for you, there is a mysterious alien rebel who wants Heaven’s Tear in order to harvest all of earth’s energy (destroying Earth in the process) for his own grandiose plans.
Ninja’s First Impression:
For a sixty episode drama I had expected the backstory to take some time to set up but nope, break neck set up must be a thing lately. I am feeling a bit torn on Phoenix Warriors. The two lead characters are great. I especially love Joe Cheng’s portrayal of a seemingly carefree hero who upon closer inspection is obviously nothing like what he seems. There was some fear on my part that the hero’s half alien lineage, specifically in scenes when Joe Cheng’s eyes change color would come off tacky, but I was foolish to doubt because Joe Chen pulled it off looking awesome the whole time. Perhaps because Joe Cheng and Wang Li Kun are plenty familiar with each other since they have already done a movie then a reality show (Amazing Race China) together, their chemistry switches easily between bickering comradery to sizzling awareness.
So everything seems great then what am I torn about? The palace intrigue for one is usually not something I have a lot of patience for. I could see myself losing interest if the story focuses too much on it. The other thing I am worried about is the whole space alien thing. Granted, other than a few short scenes of the space alien baddies, we really haven’t seen them at all. The only signs that this is a sci-fi have been the glowing pendant and the hero’s occasional use of his powers (which I actually like), but it seems certain that the big space baddies will become important later on in the story. I think there is a chance the space baddies could be used pretty well to push the story along but at least in the few scenes they were in thus far, they felt more like abrupt interruptions instead of adding interest to the plot. My last secret fear…someone is going to die to save the earth…because someone always does in this kind of show doesn’t it?
Some reservations aside, I remain fairly hopeful about Phoenix Warriors especially since the two leads really do have great chemistry together.
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I’m also watching with C-drama, I’m at episode 12. I’m having the same feelings as you. Should I continue or not continue to watch it. I really like the female and male leads. They love it each other but because of her revenge and his mom’s mystery, they currently didn’t end up with each other. She ended up becoming his brother’s concubine! THAT PISSES ME OFF! You know what, I don’t want to continue to follow this drama, I think I’m going to wait until all the episodes come out, so I can binge watch it really fast by fast-forwarding through the palace intrigue stuff.