A Tale of the Wanderers / Word of Honor 山河令 [2021]

[UnniSara]

I can’t wait for the Green Vixen to meet ZZS

 

 

 

 

 

The Scorpion King is very interesting. He looks attractive. 

Spoiler

 

 

 

Chang Lin is so cute , he is very attached to his shifu. His shifu made him feel safe even though his ward are harsh. I love their relationship 
 

 

 

 

 

 

[Tofu]

Hahaha, Wen Ke Xing is such a flirt. Thanks for sharing those, @UnniSara!!

 

Zhang Zhe Han's Weibo updated with this and wow, he looks really nice -- really cute when he smiles! 

 

By the way, Gong Jun is pretty animated with his expression in this drama. I have never noticed him before until now. Haha!

[abs-oluteM]

Must find some time to properly pick this up

 

[UnniSara]

@abs-oluteM Take your time. The translation is kinda slow but I am enjoying it because it feels right. 

[Tofu]

Agreed. They are just airing one episode a day, a few times a week, so plenty of time to start watching. I just finished one of Gong Jun's drama today. I'm glad that out of the clips I've see from Word of Honor, he has improved from Begin Again. 

 

This clip of Zhang Zhe Han. Haha!

 

 

[Tofu]

New stills from the drama -- I can't imagined what kind of trouble they are getting themselves into in this first photo. Haha!

Spoiler

 

For more photos, check here: https://m.weibo.cn/status/4611765385561884?

 

[NiteWalker]

Just now, Tofu said:

New stills from the drama -- I can't imagined what kind of trouble they are getting themselves into in this first photo. Haha!

 

hahaha i was just about to post the above too lols u were like 1 sec faster than me hahaha

[Tofu]

Just now, NiteWalker said:

hahaha i was just about to post the above too lols u were like 1 sec faster than me hahaha

I wish I can show you my Twitter feed. It's all Word of Honor contents right now. Then on Sundays because Day Day Up is on (at least for my time), it's all Wang YiBo. My priorities are all over the place. 

[NiteWalker]

the writer pacifying the audience that there be no 'BE' ? i hope this is true?

 

 

 

[Tofu]

Umm....I'm drawing a blank because all I can think about is Beyond Evil. What does "BE" mean in this context? 

[NiteWalker]

13 hours ago, Tofu said:

Umm....I'm drawing a blank because all I can think about is Beyond Evil. What does "BE" mean in this context? 

 

Bad Ending = BE 

 

hahaha 

 

HPE = Happy Ending

[Tofu]

Thanks @NiteWalker! Clearly Beyond Evil was the only thing I can think about this weekend. 

 

Dramapotatoe translated an interview with the scriptwriter and I thought it was really it shared a lot of insight her thought process with the script. This drama is blowing up globally and it was pretty low budget. No one really expected it to do this well and it does give hope to the rest of the BL dramas in queue. 

 

Interview with Word of Honor Scriptwriter Xiao Chu — Part One: On the Characters and Actors

Translated by Dramapotatoe

https://dramapotatoe.com/interview-with-word-of-honor-scripwriter-xiao-chu-part-one-on-the-characters-and-actors/

 

There are always new rising forces in the television and film industry. They’re at the forefront of creativity and risks, bringing about huge changes to the entire industry.

Interview and arrangement by Wu Xiaoya
Source of original interview
English translation: dramapotatoe
(please give proper credits if you’re taking this out)
Interview was first published on 2nd March 2021.

 

A team on Douban once did a research: Out of all of the projects that started filming in 2020, which one will flop? ‘Word of Honor’ was selected with high votes. Back then, there were few to none who believed that ‘Word of Honor’ would have a chance of being popular.

But as the first wuxia drama that premiered this year, ‘Word of Honor’ surprisingly turned the tables. Almost 100,000 users rated the drama a 8.3 on Douban*, the drama characters and actors’ popularity are on the rise, the Chinese new wuxia that’s presented in ‘Word of Honor’ has also received the audience’s recognition.

 

As the only scriptwriter of the drama, Xiao Chu has also received many compliments from netizens for her contribution of a long-awaited wuxia themed plot. Netizens have been praising the drama and the creator on Douban and Weibo. This is Xiao Chu’s first Chinese work, and she’s secretly happy seeing the recognition of friends and netizens towards the wuxia theme and jianghu elements in the drama. *Current votes sit at 189K with rating at 8.6 on Douban.

 

Before this Xiao Chu was overseas studying in a prestigious university. She worked in an investment bank and later on went to advance her studies in New York Film Academy, returning to China in 2018. All the way till 2019 she came across ‘Word of Honor’, and won this project from the producer, Ma Tao, with her creative ideas brought across in tens of thousands of words. From the early pre-production ideas to the creation of the script and then to following the crew for filming, Xiao Chu was the only scriptwriter for the project. It’s not often that we see a project in the hands of a rookie new scriptwriter from start till end. 

 

And Xiao Chu thinks that it’s because of this creative freedom, that ensures that all the different opinions that are put forward about ‘Word of Honor’ can be recognised, digested, unified and output such that the tone and mood of the entire drama don’t go out of shape. And as a hardcore* wuxia fan, the 20 years of experience that Xiao Chu has, can finally be released in ‘Word of Honor’. 

*Term used here is directly translated to ‘Ashes level’ which is a term used in gaming that refers to a fan who follows the game from production till when it hits popularity, in short, hardcore.

 

Xiao Chu took an interview with a few entertainment media this afternoon, and gave her own answers to the many core questions regarding the drama. Here’s the main content:

 

Talking about the roles and the actors:

Zhou Zishu’s base colour is a grey with 2,000 layers. Gong Jun’s puppy-dog eyes added on a lot of a child’s innocence and cruelty.

 

Q: What are some of the highlights of Zhou Zishu and Wen Kexing to you?

Xiao Chu: I feel that both of their characterisations is extremely charming and three-dimensional. They’re living people. They are not just facets, but you can see their past and present, they have blood and flesh. But in the creation process, Zhou Zishou was a lot more difficult. Because Wen Kexing’s personality is very prominent, to use a more professional term, there are much more extendable layers to this person, it’s easier for him to shine. His main appeal is vengeance, it’s extremely clear and very easily understood by the audience. And I’m personally more of a talkative person, so it’s very easy to write Wen Kexing. But Zhou Zishu is extremely complicated, he’s very restrained and has many layers deep inside him. This person’s base colour is both a dark and light grey. When you look at first glance, he’s grey. But when you put him in photoshop, you’ll discover that this grey has 2,000 layers.

When I wrote Zhou Zishu’s character biography, it was 4,000 words long, but even then it’s difficult to accurately summarize this person. He’s too complicated, especially in the drama version, we’ve expanded on and made changes to his background, which led to him having to carry too many burdens, having to let go of too many things and having too many reservations. With the audience characteristics in mind along with the format of expression in a drama, this character doesn’t have as easy of a way out as Wen Kexing, because it’s all things that are happening internally, and my own lack of skills is to blame as well. But both actors have handed in extremely excellent results, there is a progression in their performance and it’s layered. I’ve also set it up such that there are many details to express these restrained things, to complete the inadequateness in my creative work. 

 

Q: From the current plot we can see that the two leads were actually acquainted in their childhood, why did you make such a plot?

Xiao Chu: I think the term ‘acquaintance’ is really good. The term ‘childhood friends’ on the internet isn’t appropriate. One of the saying that I like a lot goes, “Some people are born to be confidants”, this is one of the cores of the story. This setup is to bury a pre-destined fate for them. I made drastic changes to the grudges between the Wuhu Alliance, their history and connections, the jianghu before Zhou Zishu made his appearance. This is also to have an even stronger connection between the two characters, to allow Wen Kexing to be able to match up with Zhou Zishu and have a reasonable motive. And the reason why these two are able to become confidants is their ability to treat each other with the utmost sincerity, and not because of this bit of pre-destiny. This fate merely gave them an opportunity for them to let down their guard and understand each other. In other words, if Zhou Zishu isn’t the Zhou Zishu that he is, Wen Kexing may not show him mercy. I can only say that the core for Wen Kexing is that, he has been lying to himself for many years, thinking that he lives in a nightmare. And the acquaintance with Zhou Zishu is what he acknowledges as the bright and complete world before he enters this dream. He’s obsessed with everything in that world, and it’s extremely soft. He stores all of his human emotions in that world, and this is a projection of its core conflicts, so we have this kind of setup. 

 

Q: How should we interpret the relationship between Wen Kexing and Zhou Zishu? And what do you think is the basis of how their relationship is formed?

Xiao Chu: Some people are born to be confidants. And deep down in Zhou Zishu and Wen Kexing, they are confidants. I personally feel that this is more apparent in the drama, but perhaps everyone might not get it as much. The entire jianghu wants the liuli jia (glazed armour), they are the only two who don’t want it. There’s a saying, ‘There are huge ripe plums on the plum tree by the roadside but no one picks them, they must be bitter’, both of them have used different ways to bring up this saying. They’re both living in a very transparent way, the only difference is that Zhou Zishu has perhaps already experienced pain, he has climbed out of it but Wen Kexing is still trapped in it. Because the two of them are similar, there is salvation later on.

Wen Kexing has more of a naive cruelty because his life came to an abrupt end when he was 9 years old. When he’s facing the world outside, he uses the appearance of a grown-up valley master with a decisiveness to kill. When he faces Zhou Zishu, he’s very gentle and a little like a child. This is why I wanted to set it up such that they were acquainted in the past. Zhou Zishu lives in the world when Wen Kexing had yet to turn 9 and before he went into the dream, his life when the nightmare has yet to start. These are all some foreshadowing. I think that two people like them, even if I didn’t give them an opportunity, and they were to meet in some other ways, they will definitely still become great friends and confidants because their essence is similar.

 

Q: In the portrayal of the main characters, what are the different highlights that you gave each of them, and how did you portray it in the details?

Xiao Chu: I think that for the group of protagonists, they have to have an element that is shared and recognised by all of them, and from this foundation, their personalities can be extremely varied. Our protagonists’ commonality is that they are all natural and unrestrained people. They are indifferent towards the obsession between righteous and evil, towards the Glazed Armor and the struggle for power and fame. They are all people who value relationships and loyalty, people who repay gratitude with gratitude and vengeance with vengeance. On this foundation, we have to widen the obvious personality differences. Take Wen Kexing and Zhou Zishu, one is more active while the other is quieter. One when presented is an extrovert, the other is an introvert. Gu Xiang and Cao Weining both seem to be a little muddle-headed, naive and cute. As youths, they don’t really know the feeling of sadness, but one is righteous and the other is evil. Gu Xiang is actually very kind, but she grew up in an environment where no one told her the right values. This is somewhat similar to Dream of the Red Chamber. There are many characters in ‘Word of Honor’ who are subtly projecting off each other. Gu Xiang meets Cao Weining and there’s redemption. There’s also a type of projection with two other villains who have not made their appearances yet. People of the same essence, if they meet people who are different, it may perhaps forever change their perception and destiny of society. This is how it’s written.

 

Q: How do you usually make it such that everyone can get their cute points (likeable characteristics) immediately?
Xiao Chu: When I write character biographies, I’ll write about their appearances and characteristics, and then hope that the casting team is able to find them based on this. I’ll also write their personalities and a deep layered psychological analysis. Anyway, my character biographies are all pretty long, I hope they’ll help the actors to portray it clearly. For example, I have a requirement for the appearance, that is for the actor portraying Zhou Zishu to have lesser soft tissue in his facial structure. For the actor portraying Wen Kexing to have a smoother facial contour. They were also nice enough to satisfy my requests and this way we’re able to widen their obvious differences in their appearances. And the few older brothers in the Wuhu Alliance, they are originally heroes in the jianghu who are vague in their appearances, but I worked hard to widen the gap in their outer appearances and personalities. One is the kind of reckless hero, one is a refined hero who’s a little trashy, the other is more impulsive and quick-tempered. This way the audience is able to remember the different characters because we do have quite a lot of characters.

 

Q: At first the netizens weren’t too optimistic about the casting, but now the tables have turned. What were your feelings when you were looking at the fit between the actors and the roles?

Xiao Chu: I’ve never been in doubt before. Our producer and casting team have really sharp eyes. Zhou Zishu is actually a gentle, innocent and compassionate person because he’s seen through it all. It means that because he understands, so he’s compassionate. But Zhang Zhehan looks like a tough guy. At first when we made the choice there were some people who opposed it, but actually during “Actor Please Take Your Place” (Everybody Stand By), Director Chen Kaige’s eyes were the most sharp. He said then that Zhang Zhehan’s eyes can actually be very sentimental and charming, he’s able to give a fragile performance. I feel that (the actors are all) very fitting. Including Gu Xiang’s spiritedness, Cao Weining’s naivety, Wen Kexing’s affectionateness. The character of Wen Kexing requires a bit of the audience’s pity, because he did do some bad things. He is a sort of naive cruelty. If the actor doesn’t have the traits that allow the audience to pity them, that this character wouldn’t be portrayed well. But we chose Teacher Gong, those puppy-dog eyes really add a lot of a child-like innocence to the cruelness, allowing this character to be extremely three-dimensional and smooth.

 

Q: It’s a bit unfair to ask who’s your favourite character, as you should like them all pretty much.

Xiao Chu: I don’t actually just like the 5 that I mentioned. I even like the villian Scorpion King, this character portrayal is to my personal liking. And even talking about Liu Qianqiao and Yu Qiufeng, I really like these two characters too. (Oh no, did I give spoilers, these two are a couple, everyone should know this right)

 

 

[NiteWalker]

Word of Honor still remain on Top 3 thru out, seems like it had been overtaken by My Heroic Husband and The Power & The Brocade

 

 

 

[Tothestars]

Interview with Word of Honor Scriptwriter Part Two

 

 

[Tofu]

I am so proud of this drama. Not many people believed in it and the drama has basically proved those people wrong. 

Sorry, I've been too busy with Bai Jingting to update the thread. Haha! Here are some updates:

Spoiler

 

 

Gong Jun's beauty is just unreal...

 

Gong Jun continues to be a tease onscreen and off, hahaha!! Too bad you don't like him, @abs-oluteM. 

Spoiler

 

 

[Tofu]

 

[NiteWalker]

Word of Honor Top the Chart on Mar/13

 

 

 

[Tofu]

Zhang Zhe Han's and Gong Jun's popularity are going through the roof. So happy for them and this drama! 

 

What I'm not happy about is all the mobbing that's happening to them because of how popular and in-demand they are right now. I heard they might have another Harper's Baazar photoshoot. Yay!! 

[Tofu]

This is a fan made video that I watched on YT. It's actually pretty well made and highlights the flirting from Wen Kexing. Simon is definitely a very charming guy. Haha!
 

 

 

[UnniSara]

CORRECTION “ IS IT PRETTY 

 

 

“ IT’s PERFECT 
 

[Tofu]

@UnniSara - It's that scene! It makes me blush every time. Wen Kexing, such a flirt. 

 

 

[UnniSara]

10 hours ago, Tofu said:

@UnniSara - It's that scene! It makes me blush every time. Wen Kexing, such a flirt. 

 

 

Me too @Tofu 

This is me 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Tofu]

Some of the "locations" in WoH are really pretty:

 

And both of them just look really nice in these photos especially Gong Jun. 

 

[NiteWalker]

22 minutes ago, Tofu said:

And both of them just look really nice in these photos especially Gong Jun

 

wa they really is that kind of relationship??

 

i wonder who is in where hahah......i mean like who is the alpha in between the two of them lols

On 3/15/2021 at 10:01 PM, Tofu said:

@UnniSara - It's that scene! It makes me blush every time. Wen Kexing, such a flirt. 

 

 

 

he is the one with the carefree attitude as far as i can see hahaha

[Tofu]

1 minute ago, NiteWalker said:

i wonder who is in where hahah......i mean like who is the alpha in between the two of them lols

The joke is that Zhang Zhe Han is the laopo because you want to protect him. 

 

5 minutes ago, NiteWalker said:

wa they really is that kind of relationship??

You would be surprised by all the interactions in the drama. Lots more BL elements than Untamed. Some scenes that we thought would be banned passed censorship. I think that's why the drama is even more loved.