[Review] Who Rules The World (且试天下)

This feels long overdue since I wanted to write a first impression for it but better late than never. I’ve been watching c-dramas on and off this year and, honestly, I haven’t found one that excites me to the point where I want to write about it until now. This has been on my radar for some time now (I love wuxia dramas!) but seeing how the other ones on my radar had been a disappointment, I started watching this with a neutral mindset but it turned out to be more fun and more interesting than I thought. Overall, I really like it and would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a light-hearted wuxia drama. ‘

BEWARE OF SPOILERS!!! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! 

Title: Who Rules the World (且试天下)
# of Episodes: 40
Release Date: April 18, 2022
Where to Watch: WeTV App

Why did I start watching this?

Wuxia + Zhao Lusi + Yang Yang! Lol. What more is needed?

Plot/Synopsis Recap

Hei Feng Xi and Bai Feng Xi are recognized as the most skilled individuals in the martial art world. Known as Hei Feng Bai Xi or Bai Feng Hei Xi (as Bai Feng Xi would always revise), the two end up fighting for peace in a world of political unrest and warfares. Unbeknownst to the jianghu world, the crafty Hei Feng Xi is the second prince of Yong-zhou and the carefree Bai Feng Xi is the beloved princess of Qing-zhou. While the divided-states fight to rule the world, they must also navigate the internal struggles in their own state.

Cast/Characters

Bai Feng Xi/Feng Xi Yun, Zhao Lu Si

A highly skilled and carefree martial artist who likes like to fight for any injustices she encounters. She also has a second idenity. She is the princess of Qing Zhou, Feng Xi Yun.

Hei Feng Xi/Feng Lan Xi, Yang Yang

Also a highly skilled in martial arts. Together with Bai Feng Xi, they are known as Hei Feng Bai Xi. He is a smart and crafty person who established the Fountain Adobe, an intelligent network that collected data throughout the world. His second identiy is Feng Lan Xi, the second prince of Yong Zhou.

Yu Wu Yan, Zhang Hao Wei

One of the four gentleman of the world. On the outside, he is known to be a peace advocator but in truth, is the master mind behind the evil sect that wants to overthrow the empire. He is also Huang Chao’s advisor.

King of Yong Zhou, Zhang Feng Yi

The king of Yong Zhou. An ambitious lord that wants his state to be more powerful. Father of Feng Lan Xi. A paranoid king that does not trust any of his sons. Doesn’t favor Lang Xi because he is the son of the princess of the Empire.

Empress Baili, Carman Lee

The king of Yong Zhou’s lover and a low-born. She ascended the title of empress after the true empress died. She is the mother of the first and third prince but she favored her younger son. She schemed for her younger son to become heir.

Feng Qiwu, Xuan Lu

The leader of the Feng Clan from Yong Zhou. A capable female leader that leads one of the biggest and most powerful clans in the Yong. She eventually acknowledged Feng Lan Xi as a capable leader and allied with him to become his right-hand person.

Huang Chao, Leon Laiyi

The heir of Ji Zhou. A smart and ambitious leader that became a high contender to rule the world.

Han Pu, Fu Bohan

The son of the Han family, a family that is known for their medicine. He was taken in by Bai Feng Xi after his whole family was brutally murdered. He grew up and joined Feng Xi Yun in war battles as a general.

Overall Impression

I was actually a little worried that I might be disappointed with this drama. I’d never seen Yang Yang in a wuxia drama before I wasn’t sure what to expect. I have seen a handful of Zhao Lusi’s dramas and liked them a lot. I’m so glad that this drama turned out better than expected! It has visually stunning actors and actresses, cool martial arts, love, humor, some drama, and some sadness all wrapped up in a not ridiculously long 40-episode series.

First off, I really like the interactions between characters. Our main characters, Bai Feng Xi and Hei Feng Xi’s love-hate relationship where they compete against each other but still understand and respect each other was really fun to watch. Watching them transition from respecting each other to loving each other was so precious. Bai Feng Xi unconditionally supported Hei Feng Xi through his struggles and Hei Feng Xi went along with all of Bai Feng Xi’s antics without questions. The level of trust they had for each other even after finding out each other’s identity is gold. Their relationships with side characters are just as entertaining. I especially love Bai Feng Xi and Qiwu’s sisterly relationship. For the first time, two women fell in love with the ML but no backstab/jealousy took place! Instead, they bonded over good food and alcohol (and completely left the ML out of the loop! 😂). Bai Feng Xi and Han Pu’s relationship was also adorable (both on and off-screen). When they are together, they are like two mischievous kids. Hei Feng Xi and Zhong Li’s interactions when they were trying to find the best ways to confess to Bai Feng Xi were also funny.

The storyline flow pretty well for the most part. The story follows Bai Feng Xi and Hei Feng Xi as they navigate through both jianghu and the political world. The setting is split into 6 kingdoms ruled by the Empire. When the Empire lost the XuanJiLing which holds military power, it threw all the kingdoms as well and jianghu into chaos. In the beginning, we just know that Hei Feng Xi is the leader of the Fountain Adobe, an intelligent network that collected data throughout the world and Bai Feng Xi is a carefree disciple of Tiangshuan Sect. As the story progress, we find out that Hei Feng Xi is actually Feng Lan Xi, the second prince of the Yong kingdom. To protect himself from the evil scheming of the current queen and his third brother, he pretended to be a sickly prince while traveling jianghu with an alias. He eventually returned to his kingdom and was involved in the power struggle. Of course, he eventually was named heir to the Yong kingdom. This is probably one of my favorite dramas of Yang Yang. He has a lot more emotions in this one than in any other ones.

Bai Feng Xi is actually the beloved princess of Qing Kingdom, Feng Xi Yun. Her second identity didn’t get reveal until much later in the story. It was alluded (so the audiences knew). when the kingdoms were thrown into war, her brother rode off to war to protect the citizens. He died in the process along with her sickly father. As the only heir to the Qing kingdom, Bai Feng Xi returned home to ascend the throne as Queen of Qing kingdom. I love Zhao Lusi (one of the reasons why I started watching this) and I’m so glad she is getting more recognition from this drama. She is a very versatile actress.

The trailers and the synopsis had already given Hei Feng Bai Xi’s secret identity away but I was still very much looking forward to how the plot would reveal it to the characters in the story. I had to admit that the revelation was a little disappointing. Especially the whole Bai Feng Xi is Feng Xi Yun ordeal. It has got to be the most anticlimatic revelation ever, especially with all the build-up! With that said, I still liked the build-up very much. Especially when Hei Feng Xi was complimenting Feng Xi Yun not knowing that Bai Feng Xi is her. Teehee.

As a huge Wuxia fan, I was very much looking forward to the fighting scenes! This drama really didn’t disappoint in that area. Love their action scenes. Especially the scene where Bai Feng Xi was sitting down, eating, and drinking while just knocking those jianghu people around. Too cool! Some parts can be dizzying (too much fast camera movements) but overall, it was well filmed.

I love the ML and FL’s storylines a lot but sadly, they didn’t give much development to the antagonist’s, Wuyan, story. The drama briefed though toward the end with why he was so angry with the world and wanted to take the world down with him (his family was betrayed ect.) but there wasn’t enough depth to empathize with it. They tried to keep his back story a mystery to build suspense until the very end and it kind of backfired. So even for me, his ending was a little wtf. His death was anti-climatic. But overall, I really like this drama. The chemistry between the ML FL made it even more fun to watch (watch the BTS! They’re Lusi and Yang Yang are so cute together!😚) . The OSTs added another element to the storyline. I would recommend this to anyone who is looking for a good drama to watch.

If you have seen it, what do you think about this drama?