Joy of Life

What can I say about Joy of Life (aka Qing Yu Nian)? After seeing the dramatic trailer, I fully expected this to be a dark historic saga. I just never imagined I would be laughing so much. One-sentence synopsis: It's a story about a 21st century college student trying to survive ancient China by outmaneuvering political machinations while navigating through cultural and moral quandaries with plenty of modern flare.

Although Joy of Life fits mostly in the drama category, there were still plenty of sitcom moments and an army of quirky characters, with our time traveling protagonist at the top of the list. Wait, did I say time travel? I stand corrected. There's a minor detail I learned when I decided to read the novel after watching a couple of episodes: The original time travel/transmigration storyline is not in this live adaptation because China's media authorities banned time travel theme in domestic movies and television. Just google it if you want to learn more about the restriction on time travel, it's quite interesting.

I thought the juxtaposition of contemporary background music and historic setting can be a bit jarring at times, but it became less noticeable once I began to fully immerse in the drama. It wasn't hard for me to get use to the anachronisms since Joy of Life was set in a completely fictional world. Plus it's just plain funny to watch other characters' reactions whenever our protagonist fires a bunch of modern slangs and concepts at them.

I'm not a big fan of Zhang Rouyun (the lead actor) and I'm still not feeling the chemistry between him and Li Qin (the female lead). Even so, I had to admit that he did a great job portraying the crafty opportunist with a heart of gold. Overall, the intriguing plot twists and its fascinating characters were the main reasons that kept me hooked to this odd story until the very end.

I would recommend this series to viewers with at least some knowledge of Chinese language and customs; the wordplay and cultural references in the show were truly funny, but they could easily get lost in translation. Therefore, I'd like to conclude this review by giving all subtitle teams a round of applause for taking on the challenge of translating shows like Joy of Life.

Can't get enough of it ,watched so many times but still.dont know when second season is going to come waiting eagerly.story is so intriguing.it has comedy, romance,plots.everything seems real not like other dramas where everything just follows main lead ,it's like it's already fix that he is hero and everything has to be according,but in this drama it doesn't feel like that.cast is so good,each and everyone not just leads.hope second season comes soon and with same cast.

Good story and good acting. The Actors are into the character. The story keep us wonder and want to continue to watch it. Go to watch it now.

Wonderful historical costume drama! What really captured my attention to this series was the comedic references throughout each episode: very well integrated into each characters' execution. Similarly, Zhang Ruoyun was brilliant as Fan Xian: his character's expressions and dialog were extremely entertaining and amusing-exceptional performance. Likewise, there were many high-quality, multiple-layered characters that contributed to the amazing production of this narrative: fantastic supporting cast. Fabulous CG worldbuilding, writing and story. Loved the journey! Cheers!

The star of the show is Fan Xian who is played excellently by Zhang Ruo Yun and my review is based on the first two series as there is no confirmed date for series three. It is set in the ancient empire of Qing and the story begins with Fan returning to the capital after years of exclusion after an assassination attempt on him. He has memories of the future and his mother who he never knew brought great knowledge to the kingdom. Once he is in the capital he soon rises through the ranks and his support is pursued by powerful factions within the court. The story goes along at a steady pace and has many twists and turns with a great supporting cast and good character development and I would have liked more inclusion of some of the interesting side characters. Well worth a watch but remember there are a lot of episodes and more to come.