Lang ya bang

The literal translation for this series title is LuoYang List, which is a list of the best martial artists in China at any given time during the 5th century. The dialogue is not dumbed down or forced like almost all Asian TV dramas. It is painted with classic four character Chinese metaphors/colloquialisms. Native speakers will enjoy the intricate writing.

If you only speak English, know that much of the beauty is lost in translation. Try to watch it with a native speaker who can give you the beautiful literal translations for each phrase.

There is an ever evolving story line of political intrigue and martial arts fights. There are dozens of complex characters who are a part of the succession struggle for the throne of the sitting emperor. Game of Thrones without the sex, dragons, and zombies.

There are also implicit parallels when compared to modern Chinese politics. Historical Chinese dramas are one of the very few avenues where the common man can still levy criticisms of present day Chinese government.

I am proud that the Chinese entertainment industry has finally graduated to the next level. I truly hope that there will be more dramas of this caliber.

The whole series is a journey of understanding for me. The overall story arc is revealed in bits and pieces. Imagine a huge garden in spring. Once the flowers start to bloom, one begins to see a pattern and the viewer starts to think that "Ah-ha, that is what the picture looks like." As more flowers bloom, more patterns are revealed which congregate to create an even bigger pattern. Each episode is like a single flower blooming. The main character is faced with a seemingly impossible task and he is comparable to the legendary Kong MIng of the Three Kingdoms era. Each step, each solution is logical without any "contrived" situations that insult my intelligence.

I've watched the whole series twice through and through and more when it comes to certain "emotional," "triumphant," "ah-ha" segments. Clues are littered everywhere for the audience to catch and these become obvious on the second run through. I highly recommend it to everyone who likes an insightful experience. This is not for "heavy Kung Fu" action movie afficionados although there are some action scenes sprinkled throughout the series.

Nirvana in Fire (Lang Ya Bang) is a combination of martial arts, war strategy, friendship, respectful, ways of doing things, history of the ancient, different groups of people and the motive of how to reveal the truth after a war. The story will touch your emotional straight away when it reaches certain part of the stories. I am assured of you watching it will follow me tears down. The martial art is the most superb part besides others. The way they have been trained and those typical movements, it is thoroughly being studied. The beautiful scenery of all really making you feel so good and there are some humors in between if you follow through. I watched it purely in Chinese because I love the original voices of all. Don't forget that there are also some truly bad people villain in marvel as to say, how they have strategist to make the good and honest troop fall into the pool of fire in "May Ling". The pain and sorrows arisen. It also talked about how other higher authority bullied and framed others through physical plans but with "Mei ChangSu" who is brave, most intelligent and a bit sarcastic but with good heart giving advises to the prince - "Jing Yan" once his best friend but this prince really do not recognise him till last.

When I watched the first episode, that already leading me wanted to watch the second and so on. The entire flow of the stories really good despite towards the end, a little slagging but it comes back when they wanted to investigate the old case that the King himself had made mistake by listening to the two (find out more). Mei ChangSu is the no.1 leader towards his troop that spreads around all places. Everyone respect him but he is too weak to fight this on his own. His lovely body-guard, a kid called, "Fei Liu" is truly funny listening to his two or three words without a full sentence but he could understand the entire meaning. The brave and beautiful "Mu Ni-Huang" who fights and love deeply that always able to win in each fight. She is a true warrior.

Here, you can see, learn, feel, comfort, anger, sad, normal, and etc feelings that you could ever imagine. How do they help each other and togetherness never break chaining them without regret. I have watched every single episode and I felt sad + happy when I watched the last episode. In my mind, it is like I have attended classes to view the history myself even though it is a total different with three kingdoms but had given me the insights of human nature, the kind and warm, justice and truth, the evil side and bonded love and friendship. I love this and therefore I have given a 10 rating.

Patience is the key to watch it because all details in each episode truly touches heart and enjoy the entire series.

It's a complicated story. Different audiences may see different key: loyalty, trickery, friendship, love, revenge, of course, a little bit of humor.

At beginning, I was attracted by its delicate and concise dress, calm and elegant slow lives. The characters' etiquette and the gave me a feeling of release pressure. Because of this, I fantasy I can live in ancient China.

But beneath the surface of slow tempo, undercurrent was terrible. As the story go, I felt the author's unprecedented courage. Original author Hai Yan (a female author, not that famous male entrepreneur also an author named Hai Yan) seems to convey a kind of the power of justice through this ancient Chinese story. Even if only to see her conception , the story and this series' art height is far more than those similar ones . In my opinion, previous produced ancient Chinese dramas just told audience what Chinese did and what they experienced, but in this series ,it seems to want to tell audience what Chinese should do in the future for seeking justice and truth.

An authoritarian government, the struggle of the two forces, a group of people full of justice, in order to a grievance of 13 years ago,finally, the leading role spoke out stirring line: "The purpose of review the case, just for the truth!" Yes, the truth! Even authoritarian Emperor Liang (Yongdai Ding played) refused to review the case because of various reasons , but in the end, he had to kneel down in front of the truth. His final confession is based on the goodness of human nature, I think it is the return of the family emotion cause. This kind of mood generated long before Mei Changsu (Ge Hu played) last stood in front of him. The most touching in this paragraph give me a chance to reflect: confession is the base of exposing truth and maybe result in seeking justice.

Of course, the process of seeking justice may be a very long time such as 13 years in this series, it takes patience, perseverance, teamwork and wisdom. The power of justice will be successful finally.

When Several friends recommended this TV series to me, I didn't expect much at all, but I'm so happy I watched it - twice already.

I was very disappointed with Chinese history dramas in recently years - either the stories being over-exaggerated or the computer graphic was so bad that you couldn't bare watching. Nirvana in Fire saved my hope for the Chinese TV drama.

I have watched many Asian, American and European dramas - this was definitely the best one in 2015, and has been the best Chinese one in 10 years. Not going to tell you what happened but it's a very touching story packed with good acting.