[First Impression] Young Blood (大宋少年志)

I know Young Blood aired last summer in 2019, but it finally had Eng subs on the iQiyi app, so I decided to watch it. Previously, the English subs were machine translated, so it made no sense and I avoided watching it. But now that it’s been properly translated, I decided to give it shot since it had raving reviews in China and people loved it.

BEWARE OF SPOILERS!!! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! 

Title: Young Blood (大宋少年志)
# of Episodes: 42
Release Date: June 3^rd, 2019
Where to Watch: iQiyi App

Why did I start watching this?

I like Zhou Yu Tong. I’ve seen her other dramas and it was enjoyable, but they were all modern. This is the first historical drama where she plays the female lead, so I knew I couldn’t miss out on it.

Plot/Synopsis Recap

After the war between the Xia and Song Kingdoms, the two kingdoms decided to sign a peace treaty. But, in the Song Kingdom, Minister Fan, an important official, suddenly gets demoted. His demotion causes a stir in the imperial court, and anyone who is related to him also gets punished. This includes the Yuan brothers, Yuan Bo Qi and Yuan Zhong Xin. Serving as Minister Fan’s right-hand man, Yuan Bo Qi gets arrested and a search warrant is issued for Yuan Zhong Xin.

Yuan Zhong Xin gets arrested while he is attending the Imperial College, but manages to escape. He meets with his roommate, and friend, Wang Kuan and the two soon find that Yuan Zhong Xin is kicked out of the school for his affiliation with Minister Fan. Yuan Zhong Xin gets ready to leave and Wang Kun decides to follow his friend.

The two receive a mysterious letter and end up going to an entertainment house where they accidentally meet up with Wei Ya Nei and Xiao Jing. As they all get acquainted, Zhao Jian appears and takes them all hostage. Turns out, she wants them to join her in the Secret Repository….

And that’s a wrap!

Cast/Characters

Yuan Zhong Xin (元仲辛), Zhang Xin Cheng
A boy who grew up in the countryside. He is lazy, but talented and highly intelligent. However, his laziness and lack of effort often gets him misunderstood as a selfish person. The only person who understands Yuan Zhong Xin is his friend, Wang Kuan, who knows that he is truly a kindhearted person.

Zhao Jian (赵简), Zhou Yu Tong
A daughter from a noble family. She left her family after her father tries to force her to get married. She is cold and mysterious, but caring and loyal. Her intelligence rivals Yuan Zhong Xin and she is the only one able to beat him at his own game. Since young, she has been engaged to Wang Kuan.

Wang Kuan (王宽), Wang You Shou
Yuan Zhong Xin’s friend. He is a scholar who never lies. Despite his lack of emotions, he always goes out of his way to help people because of his kind nature. He is the only person willing to stick up for Yuan Zhong Xin. Since young, he has been engaged to Zhao Jian.

Pei Jing (裴景), Su Xiao Tong
Aka Xiao Jing. She worked as a dancer at an entertainment house prior to becoming a member of the Secret Repository. She is timid and shy, but loyal and kind to her teammates. Unlike the others, Xiao Jing as a special background so she was able to enter the department without taking the entrance test.

Wei Ya Nei (韦衙内), Hong Qi Han
The son of the Commander of the Imperial Guards. He is selfish, obnoxious, and openly arrogant. He has no problem using money to win people over and always sees himself as more important than anyone else. But Wei Ya Nei’s self-absorbed personality doesn’t make him violent towards others, as he is naturally a good person.

Xue Ying (薛映), Zheng Wei
He is from a military family in a small town. In order to help his family break free from their military duties, he willingly joined the Secret Repository. His quiet and reclusive and doesn’t speak much. However, he is the strongest fighter in the group.

Overall Impression

Hailed as a patriotic youth drama, Young Blood follows 6 young people as they are recruited for a secret organization called the Secret Repository and trained to become spies in order to complete top secret missions. But once they all come together, they soon realize that not only do they have completely different backgrounds and personalities, but there is no trust among them. And with this, the beginning for these six people are chaotic and messy.

Among the six members, the main characters are Yuan Zhong Xin and Zhao Jian. While both are intelligent and great leaders, they often clash and argue. Zhao Jian looks down on Yuan Zhong Xin’s laziness, while he is unable to bear her stubborn attitude. But when they work together, the two actually become perfect partners and are able to easily fend off their enemies. The other members of the group are Wang Kuan, Xiao Jing, Xue Ying, and Wei Ya Nei. Wang Kuan is Yuan Zhong Xin’s good friend and a man who can never lie. Xiao Jing is a young dancer with a mysterious background. Xue Ying is from a military family and Wei Ya Nei is the son of the Commander of the Imperial Guards.

So far, it’s been interesting watching the dynamics between the six characters. Yuan Zhong Xin and Zhao Jian’s relationship is pretty cliché as the main couple, so I don’t pay much attention to them. I’m actually more invested in the growing friendship of the whole group. The drama is supposed to center around friendship and loyalty, and with each mission that the group goes on, their trust in each other builds and they start to entrust their lives to one another. It’s actually quite fun to watch their growing friendship and it makes you happy when they all overcome the obstacles they face as group together. Unfortunately, though, they’re all actually not meant to completely trust each other. After their first mission, the leader of the Secret Repository, Lu Guan Ning, talks to each member individually to get information from them about the mission. Yuan Zhong Xin notes that this type of information gathering actually not only gives Lu Guan Ning various sides of the story, but also creates distrust between the members since they are asked who they think contributed the most and the least to the mission. And once the verdict is revealed, all the members get angry at each other and they end up fighting. And we kind of get back to square one of them all distrusting each other once again. But, rest assured, they soon become friends again.

Overall, I think it’s a fairly enjoyable series. I like that each member of the Section 7, their group name, has their own distinct personality. And I actually quite like that there’s some tension in the beginning, and that everyone’s not BFFs at first glance. This kind of meeting and distrusting of each other actually help with them learning to gain each other’s trust. For example, Wei Ya Nei and Xue Ying are two complete men with conflicting personalities. Their biggest difference is their social statuses. Wei Ya Nei comes from an affluent family and Xue Ying comes from a commoner status. The two are always fighting with each other, and they both are usually the ones who cause the major conflicts in the group (other than Yuan Zhong Xin). But as they get to know more about each other, they actually become more friendly to one another. Like, Wei Ya Nei ends up sticking up for and defending Xue Ying’s humble parents when they get in trouble and Xue Ying helps Wei Ya Nei out when he’s not able to fight. Anyway, I’m not entirely in love with this drama—it still has a long way to go get me to really like it—but I do have to say that it’s not bad. I understand why people like this drama. It’s a unique story with a good cast, and the center of the drama really focuses on friendship. But honestly, this drama is pretty much a modern youth drama in a historical setting. Take a bunch of misfit teenagers in modern times and put them in Ancient China, and BAM that’s this drama. No seriously, I’m not kidding.