Long She Yanyi

This donghua is adapted from a novel but since I have not read it, I will not comment on how well this does as an adaptation.

Now onto the review; my review can be summed up into 3 words: HOT MODERN GIRLS!!! The end, that's all folks.

On a more serious note, the basic plot summary is as follows: The story takes place in what appears to be a modern world similar to our own (but with somewhat supernatural martial arts). Our MC, Wang Chao, is a recent high school graduate (at least seems to be at 19 yo) now attending either college or technical school, who ... is lost and confused, like many of the modern generation. He lacks confidence, direction and is picked on by others; he wants to be a hero much like Bruce Lee(?), but lacks both the skill and means (he's poor) to do so. One day during his daily commute, he notices a woman exercising in a park and instinctively feels she is not ordinary and thus watches her practice. This eventually leads to the two interacting and the woman, Tang Zichen, to teach him the basics. After the basics, she decides to teach him as a disciple after testing his character and thus Wang Chao now step by step, enters the martial arts world: the business side, the martial arts side, and slowly but surely into the more nefarious, darker side.

The plot primarily follows our MC, Wang Chao, and it is clearly meant to be a story about him; we can clearly see this as there are quite a few scenes focusing on the womans' sex appeal, much like what a "horny teen" would focus on, especially when Wang Chao is either distracted or flashbacks by the MC. This donghua can be considered a story of Wang Chao's journey into the martial arts world; as his skill increases, he is qualified to meet with more skilled and influential practitioners, and thus the world we see/understand grows. The story is well-paced and Wang Chao's growth as a person is quite believable; he goes from a low confidence nobody to become an overconfident and naive fool who gets taken advantage of, but at least he learns from it and comes out better by the end of the donghua.

The action/fights are quite well choreographed and smooth. While not a martial arts expert myself, the theories and fights seem to have at least some basis on what we have in real life. The character models are beautiful and environments are beautifully rendered. There is a great competition and fight to cap off the season, with a lead in to an obvious season 2.

Overall, great prologue/season 1. I highly recommend this if you like wuxia/martial arts themed stories.