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Xie Xiang, after the death of her brother Xie Liangchen,
decides to fulfill her brothers’ dream and pretends to be her brother to join
the Arsenal Military Academy. But things starts to go awry when Gu Yanzhen, her
roommate, starts to suspect her identity unbeknownst to her.
Category: Romance, Comedy, Action, Historical.
Episode: 48
Rate: 4.5/5
To say this drama made me throw away my prejudice against Chinese
dramas is a major understatement. This drama not only made me fall for every
single character in this plot but also made me, a person who hates dramas that
go long, to sit and watch a 48 episodes drama and fangirl so hard that I was high
for the whole week I was watching this.
Gu Yanzhen and Xie Xiang/Liangchen, has such a great chemistry between them, and their slow burn romance had me squealing every god damn episode. i mean look at them!
The drama overall has a good plot development and multiple love
stories are intricately woven into the plot. Medieval china is represented
beautifully, the scenes, the buildings, transport, scenery, everything is so
beautiful. I loved it so, god damn, much!
The plot in the beginning started off a bit slow but it
picked up its pace, although the plot moves slower than usual k-dramas, trust
me, you wouldn’t feel bored at any part of it. Every character undergoes a
great development arc, we are given three dimensional characters instead of a villain
with just a motive to be a bad guy. There was a good representation of friendship,
loyalty and I thrived for the side couples romance.
What I absolutely adored was that how the drama broke down many cliché tropes, Like Gu Yanzhen rescued by girl who is not even Xia Xiang (which is usually how it goes if its the other way around); we see them fall in love not only for each others caring, loyal qualities but for their annoying parts too.
I also
loved, how when her secret eventually came out, we don't see her
classmates or anyone asking her not to join their missions because she is a
girl, which I think is a bit modern considering the era that they represent.
Fair warning: you will get serious second lead syndrome. This drama doesn’t have a love triangle, it has a love hexagon!
That said, I did face some problems while watching it. The
first episode started with a plot hole on how she got past the medical checkup
and I had to search up on Google on how it went in its novel. There were also other plot holes due to the deleted scenes.
Another thing I faced is the lack of kissing scenes. You
have no idea how much I was screaming for them to kiss and was severely
disappointed when I realized I would have none. This was mostly because almost
all the kissing scenes got cut but, don't worry, you can watch them on YouTube. Apparently,
we were supposed to get kissing scenes in episode 7 and 32 and I still can’t
get over the fact that they robbed us of it. Even at the ending, we got a
‘walking towards the sunset’ instead of a god damn kiss. Saying I’m extremely
disappointed would be an understatement.
Another issue is the one I have with every Chinese drama I
have ever watched…Dubbing. What’s up with china and badly dubbing their
dialogues? There was also a negative representation of japan which I understand
because the drama took place during the brink of Japan-China war. And towards
the end we feel slight compassion towards the villain.
I also felt that the last episode was wrapped up too quickly
and the chemistry between the leads got toned down. Although we did get a happy
ending, it was unsatisfactory because it was too rushed.
Overall, Arsenal Military Academy made me shed a few tears
as it wrapped up, I seriously miss every single character who were with me this
past week. Every single episode was a perfect blend of drama, romance, humor
and action and I’m going to miss these beautiful people who came into my world.
Favorite scene: Obviously, the bathroom scene.
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