BEWARE OF SPOILERS!!! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
Title: And the Winner is Love (月上重火)
# of Episodes: 48
Release Date: May 28th, 2020
Where to Watch: iQiyi App
Why did I start watching this?
For Luo Yun Xi <3!!!
Plot/Synopsis Recap
Chonghuo Palace’s leader Chong Ye practices the Nine Moves of Lotus God but loses control and becomes unstable. He starts to mercilessly kill people and his actions disrupt the entire Jianghu. He eventually kills himself out of guilt, but his martial arts are coveted by all of the sects. It is revealed that the Nine Moves of Lotus God must be practiced alongside the Lotus Sutra in order to fully master the Lotus Wing, Chong Ye’s martial arts. But because Chong Ye didn’t do that, he became crazy. After Chong Ye’s death, Chonghuo Palace was put under a lot of pressure from the sects and its reputation was completely ruined. Many of the sects coveted the two manuals, Nine Moves of Lotus God and Lotus Sutra. However, Lingjian Manor steps up to protect Chonghuo Palace. A 5-year truce is put into place and the two manuals are separated, the Nine Moves of Lotus God is guarded by Lingjian Manor and the Lotus Sutra is guarded by Chonghuo Palace. After 5 years, a martial arts tournament will be held, and the winner will be able to have the two manuals.
Once the 5-year truce is up, Chonghuo Palace’s young leader, Chong Xue Zhi, is ordered to enter the tournament in order to regain the lost manual. Guarded by her five guardians, Yuwen Mu Yuan, Hai Tang, Liu Li, Zhu Sha, and Che Qu, she leaves after being in seclusion for so long in order to clear Chonghuo Palace’s name and help it regain its prestigious reputation.
Along the way, Chong Xue Zhi and her group of guardians are met with assassins one after another. Everyone wants their chance to get revenge from Chonghua Palace, but they also want the Lotus Sutra, which is with Chong Xue Zhi. Admist all the chaos, a mysterious man in white suddenly appears with a secret mission to protect Chong Xue Zhi…
And that’s a wrap!!!
Cast/Characters
There are A LOT of characters that are introduced at the beginning of this drama…!!! But I’m just going to list just our main characters.
Chong Xue Zhi (重雪芝), Chen Yu Qi
Chong Ye’s daughter and the young leader of Chonghuo Palace. Because she grew up in seclusion and under the care of her four guardians, she is pampered and lightly spoiled. This causes her to be slightly naïve and unaware of the dangers and turmoil of the Jianghu. But beneath her bubbly personality and innocent exterior, is a strong heart who wants to protect Chonghuo Palace and return it to its former glory.
Shangguang Tou (上官透), Luo Yun Xi
The master of Yueshang Valey. Despite being an aloof and mysterious man, he has a notorious reputation of being a womanizer. He likes to roam the Jianghu and be independent, but his father is the Imperial Censor and he has deep connections with the royal family.
Yuwen Mu Yuan (宇文穆远), Zou Ting Wei
Chong Xue Zhi’s childhood friend and the Chief of the Guardians who’re tasked to protect her. He is quiet man who is strict and disciplined. He has feelings for Chong Xue Zhi, but doesn’t show them because of their difference in status. His is in constant conflict with his father, an elder of Chonghuo Palace, who wants him to become the leader instead of Chong Xue Zhi.
Lin Feng Zi (林奉紫), Tian Yi Tong
The daughter of Lin Zong Xing, master of Lingjian Manor. She is friends with Zhong Xue Zhi and is in love with Shangguang Tou. She has an outgoing and friendly personality.
Xia Qing Mei (夏轻眉), Zhao Wen Hao
Lingjian Manor’s eldest disciple. He is a kindhearted and disciplined man. He is in love with Lin Feng Zi.
Shangguan Zheng (上官筝), Bao Tian Qi
Shangguang Tou’s older sister and the wife of Prince Lu. She loves her husband deeply and is willing to sacrifice everything for him.
Xue Lie (薛烈), Quan Pei Lun
Prince Lu and the 2nd prince. He has a weak body due to his poor health and is sent to live in the countryside. He feels incompetent for not being able to help his father and older shoulder the responsibility of taking care of the country, but he tries his best to care for his people in his own way.
Overall Impression
So…. This was one of the dramas that I was highly anticipating ever since I heard about it. I’ve always been a fan of Luo Yun Xi, so I’ll pretty much watch anything he’s in. As for Chen Yu Qi, she’s been slowly growing on me. She kind of reminds of Bai Lu, as the two seem to play similar characters—the rough on the edges yet still beautiful and charming kind of female lead. Anyway, I’ve watched all the episodes out and so far… it has a promising start.
Our central character is Chong Xue Zhi. She definitely looks fierce and topnotch from how she styles and dresses, but Chong Xue Zhi is far from her mature looks. She’s still a young girl at heart. Ever since her father’s death, she’s stayed in seclusion inside Chonghuo Palace and was taken care of by her guardians and father’s subordinates. Although it may seem that Chong Xue Zhi is pitiful for losing her father at an early age and having to bear leadership responsibilities, it technically hasn’t been that rough for her. She’s actually really pampered and borderline spoiled. Her guardians do everything for her. Not to mention, because she has been in seclusion for all her life, she knows nothing of the outside world. And this is why she starts off by having a naïve and innocent personality. She really can’t tell a bad person from a good one, as she seems to just trust about anyone (ex. she gets ripped by people when she tries to get information about Shangguang Tou), and she literally relies on her guardians for everything. BUT despite all these shortcomings, Chong Xue Zhi isn’t just a pampered princess who expects everyone to do everything for her or follow her orders. She takes her leadership seriously and has displayed a talent for being a good leader here and though. Honestly, she’s not as bad as she sounds. I think this set-up at the beginning with her naivety and innocence is really to show us how much she’ll grow and mature by the end of the drama because it’s expected that she’ll become more powerful (at least I hope).
Shangguang Tou, on the other hand, has been in interesting character. I was thrown off by his womanizing reputation, but, honestly, he’s not at all like that. All it means is that when he enters a room, all the women’s attention are immediately drawn to him due to his good looks and strong presence. Shangguang Tou has no interest in woman, but he also doesn’t do anything to draw the attention away from him. He just lets it happen and ignores it, which is why people often confuse him as being flirtatious since he doesn’t seem to mind all the attention. But I think he’s just ignoring it since he’s probably been in the spotlight all his life that he’s just gotten used to it. Anyway, this is actually a character that is portrayed by Luo Yun Xi that I’ve never fully seen before. I’m used to seeing him play cold and mysterious characters or big brother characters, that seeing him as someone like Shangguang Tou is like a brand-new side of him that I’ve never seen before. I mean one thing so that I’ve noticed is how much he smiles in this drama. I’ve never seen Luo Yun Xi smile so much at the beginning of a drama before! I’m used to seeing his pitiful, tragic, and frowning face that seeing his smile feelings strange. But honestly, I’m not complaining because he is so charming and handsome when he smiles (and I want more of it anyway!!).
The romance so far has been mediocre… I honestly feel like it’s kind of forced upon the characters rather than it happening naturally. I’m not really a fan of how they’ve really interacted so far because it feels very forced and there’s not really any connection going on between them, other than the fact that they’re the OTP. Like, you can obviously see that Shangguang Tou is starting to fall for her, but there doesn’t seem to be any real reason why he should be completely head of heels for her so soon. It feels very unnatural, and this is where I kind of wasn’t a fan of. It’s definitely nice to see them together as a couple, but I just didn’t feel the fireworks exploding between them yet.
Other than the romance, I think another downside of this drama is how many characters are introduced within the first few episodes. To be honest, I was so confused as to who was who and what sect was what that I had to rewatch a few scenes multiple times. I even contemplated if I wanted to create character map because I got so confused. I mean, there are a lot of characters that you have to know in order to fully understand what is going on. But, to be honest, all wuxia dramas have tons of characters. This is probably because everything takes place in the Jianghu, a setting where many different sects gather and fight for their own causes. The main sect that the drama focuses on is Chonghuo Palace, but there are at least 10 other sects that are mentioned soon afterwards. However, just know know that the major sects that seem to be mentioned most are Chonghuo Palace, Hua Shan Sect, Emei Sect, Lingjian Manor, and Silver Whip School. But I’m pretty sure other sects will be mentioned later on and more characters are expected to appear.
Overall, I do think this drama is promising. We all know that Chong Xue Zhi will grow up from being naïve girl who knows little about the Jianghu world into a capable leader. I also read in the summary that the two marry early on, but I’m not sure how that will be incorporated in the drama. Not to mention, Yuwen Mu Yuan is expected to betray Chong Xue Zhi at one point, so I’m betting that he’ll be one of the ultimate bad guys that our OTP will have to face later on. Anyway, I’m just happy to be able to see Luo Yun Xi again and I’m every happy that 8 episodes are out every week, so I’ll have plenty of time to see him on screen!!
Cnewsdevotee 