Joy of Life

Ah...where can I even begin. This show is fantastic and so layered and captivating that it is nothing short of magnificent! There is a little bit of everything in this show and not to mention the most believable and interesting characters that make this drama an even more immersive experience. I so cannot wait for season 2 because just wow! This is such an inspiring story because it's so good that me as an aspiring writer can only hope to achieve such level of calculated brilliance in any future works of mine. Even just the evolution of Fan Xian and some other characters is just so remarkable that I have to pause and just relish in how good this show is. It is superb and unparalleled and I rest my case lol.

Awesome, entertaining show with a story that offers lots of surprises. Nice pacing with good balance of light & heavy-hearted segments, while engaging you to the end. A great cast who gave solid performance in both older and younger roles. You care about the characters and about what happens to them.

Beautiful costumes, beautiful hair & makeup (don't know how good they are until you've seen other lesser shows).

Well-executed martial art. I have watched gazillion martial art movies and TV series but there were fight scenes in Joy of Life that really impressed me.

I would have given it 9.5 stars if I could. Not 10 because the first 10/12 episode dragged at time. However, once you've passed that stage the story continues to get more intriguing and exciting.

Can't wait till Season 2 is up!

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.

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.

Even if you read the novel, you are not sure how the story unfolds. Scriptwriter adapted flexible, familiar fantasy story becomes new, charismatic to the last minute. Look forward to the sequel. However, this is not a romance, so don't rely on romantic scenes or chemical reactions between couples. Drama worth watching.