Review: Heroes (2024) 天行健

Plot Overview

In the last years of the Qing dynasty, the clue to the secret treasure of Jing Tan is stolen from the Forbidden palace. This treasure has the ability to change the Empire’s fortunes and many forces come out to seek the information. Former imperial guard Mu Qing aka Men San Dao (ft Qin Jun Je) is released from imprisonment after 12 years to lead Imperial Guards to seek this treasure.

At the same time, in an inn in Tian Jin, a group of 9 people are killed in a brutal murder. Constable Wang Di Bao ft Pang Han Chen investigates the scene of the crime and deduces that it was a number of folks from Lin Xi who committed the crime. He follows this group to bring them to justice.

Elsewhere, master swordsman Zhuo Bu Fan ft Liu Yu Ning receives notice that those 9 people were killed. Turns out, he is the one hired to seek out the treasure on orders of Prince Qi. Zhuo Bu Fan’s motivations are solely to help glorify his martial arts sect and continue to seek martial arts knowledge but he needs the money, hence working with Prince Qi.

The three parties begin a furious chase across China to seek this world changing treasure in a time when indeed, the world was changing. 

Overall Thoughts

I’ve generally quite enjoyed Qin Jun Jie in various roles but he sadly has not had a “big hit”. His reputation and marketability took a pretty big hit after his relationship with Yang Zi which is a whole different saga and he never recovered despite being one of the better 90s actors. That is a shame because I thought he played this role very well. He is commanding on screen and presents himself with the aura of an imperial guard. The way he holds his broadsword was most definitely designed to be different and “purposeful”. 

This drama does hold an 8+ rating on Douban. Sadly, it did not do too well in terms of viewership ratings or buzz despite it being a high quality show. While word of mouth for this drama is quite high, there was not much marketing for this show. Plus it aired right around the time of Joy of Life Season 2 and it could not compete in terms of popularity. That is a shame since this is an exceptionally high quality historical drama.

If anything, I hope this review will send some folks to watch it. This drama has so many interesting cultural and historical components to it. Not only that, this is a drama that makes you want to think. There are many themes on not just politics, but on innovation, embracing reform, and human nature. There is a sense of the mystical grounded in true history. It is a drama that made me think for quite some time after watching it and welcomes multiple viewings. 

Why You Should Watch It

• Understandable viewpoints that make it hard for a party to be a simple bad guy. The main problem for the universe of characters is that China is failing and each person is try to save their country. This drama does a very good job of helping us understand why characters behave the way they do, if it is exceptionally irksome (cough Wang Jia Luo). 
  • Mu Qing wants to seek the treasure to replenish the Qing court treasury to strengthen and save China.
  • Liu Lin represents Tong Meng Hui who wants to completely destroy the Qing dynasty to build a new, democratic government to save China.
  • Wang Jia Luo holds deeply conservative views and believes that upholding laws of the Qing empire will help ensure that China remains stable.
  • Prince Qi wants to stage a coup to reduce power of the imperial family to keep the Qing empire alive.
  • Bei Yang is China’s most impressive army and wants to be on the winning side. 
  • A trending theme is that most people want to save the country, but because of their different upbringing or education, arrive at different solutions. We know who is on the winning side of history, but for the characters involved, they believe what they’re doing is right. And that’s quite unique. 

• A top detective that lives up to his name: Main male lead Mu Qing is hailed as the best detective in the palace and we instantly see why. He picks out which maid in the palace stole a prized item based solely on the route she takes in and out of the palace. Then he accurately deduces she must have had a connection to send the palace outside. To top it all off, Mu Qing finds which guard purposefully created an opening for that connection (a chef) to leave the palace without question. That’s just the first few episodes. Throughout the drama, Mu Qing faces more adversaries but his intelligence is always on display and top notch. There are not blatant examples of where he suddenly drops many IQ points for plot purposes, as is the case with other dramas. 
• Plenty of Witty/Funny moments: Somehow this drama is hilarious despite being a “serious” show. I literally burst out laughing when Mu Qing was examining a black vase and Lucky explains how this vase is used specifically to tear couples apart. It’s been cursed and anyone who buys it for another party will see that couple break up. Mu Qing looks over at Princess Wu Lan Shan and hugs the vase very tightly. I DIED. Another hilarious scene is when Wang Jia Luo and company are in Beijing, one of his soldiers orders a bunch of Beijing staples including “dou zhi” which is famed for its…unsavory taste. Indeed, after Wang Jia Luo has a conversation outside, this soldier bursts outside of the restaurant and spits his mouthful of dou zhi out. I didn’t expect that scene to actually happen. 

• Higher level acting: There are several long monologues or else lengthy banter between actors that make it obvious there were higher expectations in this drama. Not everyone hit the mark, but Qin Jun Jie in particular had so many back and forths with various people that I could not help but be impressed not only by his memorization but also technique in reciting all of those lines. 
• So much history! While the main cast is all fictional, there is heavy reference to exactly what is happening in China at the time and what led to the downfall of the Qing dynasty and its various characters. It’s a unique time in Chinese history and one that isn’t filmed that often because it is at the Qing dynasty’s weakest. We learn about Emperor Guang Xu and the folks involved in trying to enact his reform that failed. We learn about the Bei Yang army. We learn about the how powerful western and Japanese influences were in places like Shanghai. We learn about the Tong Meng Hui led by Sun Yat-Sen that we know in history helped usher a new course of Chinese history. Therefore, we learn about different individuals, different factions, different motivations 
• So many different dialects + cuisine! The drama takes the cast from Beijing, to Tian Jin, to Shanghai, to Zhe Jiang, to Fu Jian, to Jiang Xi among others. In almost each location, you can hear some of the locals actually speak the local dialect. When in Tian Jin, there are folks who speak with the Tian Jin accent, when in Shanghai, a doctor will speak Shanghainese. There is also normally local food that is featured in
• Impressive Martial Arts: Mu Qing specializes in broadsword while Zhuo Bu Fan specializes in straight sword. Meanwhile, the Japanese are ninjas with their katanas. Out of all the dramas I’ve watched this year, this drama had the best martial arts fights shown on screen. You can see the differences between each style of fighting and the various fights are choreographed impressively. While none of the main cast are true martial artists, you could tell there was significant effort put into making the fighting seem more authentic. 

Some mild annoyances 

• Japanese storyline – Alas, this is a Chinese drama so the Japanese are inevitably going to be depicted in the negative light. The Japanese were indeed strong influences in China at that time but of all the storylines, this one felt the weakest. Their motivations were not nearly as interesting as the other parties and they seemed to be thwarted most often yet still came back with more men and firepower. However, that is a key theme and takeaway of this show. In the time of history, no matter how much martial arts prowess you have, you cannot beat the force and deadliness of a bullet. 
• Darkened color palette – Dark gold and blue hues are pervasive in the drama with the Princess Wu Lan Shan acting as the primary bright spot in terms of color palette. I’m not sure what the director was going for here but it did overall dampen the mood of the drama. While I definitely don’t think the show needed to be exceptionally bright like many rom coms, maybe a degree or 2 brighter would have been preferred
• Shaolin confusion: I did get somewhat confused by the Shaolin component of the story. While the drama does better in wrapping it up later on, I certainly had to rewatch some scenes to fully understand the various connections. 

Let me know what you think!

Karen