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Michael's Thoughts: Dance of the Phoenix
- Michael's Thoughts: Dance of the Phoenix
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Michael's Thoughts: Dance of the Phoenix
Michael > November 27th, 2023, 05:25 AM
![[Image: michaels-thoughts-dance-of-the-phoenix.jpg]](https://forums.sf-fandom.com/images/embeds/michaels-thoughts-dance-of-the-phoenix.jpg)
Yang Chao Yue and Xu Kai Cheng star in the Cdrama 'Dance of the Phoenix'
DANCE OF THE PHOENIX
This is a Wuxia/Fantasy series that was broadcast in 30 episodes on Tencent during August 2020. It's an unusual story in that it has a rather vague opening sequence and the ending is rather abrupt and unexpected.
Many of the fan reviews I've read were quite negative about the ending and some secondary elements of the story, but they were generally enthusiastic or supportive of the show's premise, the quality of the CGI effects, and of the cast. Some fans didn't like the female lead (Yang Chao Yue), but I think the show's unusual premise is what leads to most of the negativity.
The Premise of the Story
I'm going to quote the summary published on various fan sites:
Quote:In modern-day China, a quiet, shy young female student named Meng Yuan works hard at her dream of becoming a leading practitioner of Chinese traditional medicine. But on one fateful day, she finds herself transported into the body of a woman named Feng Wu – who lives in a fantasy land where magic and martial arts rule the world.
Almost none of that is explained in the actual show. In fact, the middle paragraph is just plain wrong. Maybe the original story on which this series is based matches the summary, but I can see how people would be upset with the way the show turns out if they were reading this summary first.
Feng Wu is forced into a marriage with a prince named Jun Lin Yuan, who also resents the fact that his bride has been selected for him against his will. The forces of evil are strong in this strange land, however. And Meng Yuan soon discovers that if she is to make her life as Feng Wu a success, she will have to learn how to defend herself against danger and make powerful friends.
Fortunately, she soon discovers that her knowledge of Chinese traditional medicine will be invaluable here and will help her treat the ailments of her newfound friends.
Could she learn to love her new life – and her new husband, too?
In the 30 episodes I watched, you never learn Meng Yuan's name - nor see anything about "modern-day China" or a "shy young femail student (working hard) at her dream of becoming a leading practitional of Chinese traditional medicine."
The show opens with a scan of an illustrated map and a voice over providing some background, transitioning to scenes of people from various places across the land. The story is set in a fantasy world called "the great Qianyuan Continent." No other continents are ever mentioned. The world has a moon but it's not Earth. It's an alternate world where magic (spirit energy) works.
Here is the prologue text:
Quote:Life began on the great Qianyuan Continent. The residents of this continent pursue the way of cultivation. Only a few people born with talents can have access to cultivate. They are called cultivators. Today the cultivators of Qianyuan revere Junwu Academy as the supreme, which is located in the Capital. Penglai Pavilion in the North Quarter and the Celestial Palace in the South Realm see Junwu Academy as their leader and submit to Junwu Academy. However the Darknight Court in the West Region has always committed deviant acts, disagreeing with Junwu Academy and other sects that advocate world peace. Thirty years ago, demonic beasts wreaked havoc on Qianyuan Continent. Mortals couldn't stand the disturbance. As the most powerful cultivator, Mu Jiuzhou led all the sects in suppressing the demonic beasts and setting up an energy barrier. Junwu Clan was granted the right to manage the energy barrier and their cultivators were ordered to protect the mortals from demonic beasts. Then, Mu Jiuzhou distanced himself from the mortal world and focused on cultivating. Unexpectedly, he had an accident while on his way to ascend to immortality and he disappeared. The star that represented him disappeared as well.
In the meantime, Feng Wu the legitimate daughter of the patriarch of the Feng family in the Capital was born. Her Phoenix Blood found at birth caused a sensation because she was the second person with Phoenix Blood on Qianyuan Continent, coming after Mu Jiuzhou. Everything seemed to be predestined. Twelve years later little Feng Wu found a spirit ring by chance. And then she met Mu Jiuzhou. After Mu's failure to ascend to immortality he turned into a ghost residing in the spirit ring.
Feng Wu's voice: "Is your spirit energy very strong?"
Mu's voice: "Little girl, cultivators should always keep in mind that even if they possess enough spirit energy to dominate the continent, they must not use their energey to do evil deeds."
Feng Wu: "Please let me follow you. I have always been mocked for being fatherless. So I aspire to increase my spirit energy to protect my beautiful mom. I swear to cultivate myself to do good deeds. Take me as your apprentice, please."
Mu: "The fact that you found the Dragon Phoenix Spirit Ring proves that there is a link between us. As it is, Feng Wu, I will take you as my apprentice. But you shall keep this a secret from everyone."
Thus, Feng Wu with Phoenix Blood started learning from Mu Jiuzhou secretly. As a result her cultivation was greatly enhanced. She became a well-known genius in the Capital. But her extraordinary talent aroused jealousy in some people.
At this point the main story begins. Feng Wu is a teenager and she is attacked by another cultivator named Zuo Qing Luan (played by Jinna Fu). Qingluan steals Feng Wu's spirit blood and insists the girl leave the Capital and never reveal what happened. Feng Wu refuses and so Qing Luan kills her. Feng Wu tumbles over a cliff and falls into clouds. Her last living thought is to ask if she is dying.
As Feng Wu's body falls through the clouds another identical spirit enters it. This happens very quickly and it's not easy to see. I had to slow down the streaming to see what happened. But this is where Meng Yuan's spirit enters Feng Wu's (almost) dead body. There is no explanation for how or why this happens.
Mu Jiuzhou (played by Li Chuan) leaves the spirit ring and catches Feng Wu's body. He tells Meng Yuan that she is now Feng Wu and that she is his apprentice. He gives her a drop of his own Phoenix Blood, which weakens him. He tells her that she must find the Celestial Fruit and take the Nine Transformation Spirit Restoration Pill that can be made from the fruit. He then returns to the spirit ring.
Meng Yuan, of course, has no clue as to what's going on. Mu tells her he knows she is not who she seems to be and that she doesn't belong in the world, but she must make her way if she wants to return to where she came from.
The narration then starts again, explaining that after Feng Wu is found she has no memory of her earlier life, and she has no spirit energy. She, her mother, and a maidservant are exiled by other members of the Feng family to an older residence in a Border City (far from the Capital). Feng Wu spends the next 3 years there learning how to survive in the world and studying (traditional Chinese) medicine.
Understanding the Story
Most of the 30 episodes follow Feng Wu/Meng Yuan's journey as she restores her body's ability to cultivate, returns to the Capital, and re-enters the complex society of the cultivators.
She is reunited with Feng Wu's childhood friend and sweetheart Jun Lin Yuan, who is the Crown Prince of the Junwu Clan. Jun Lin Yuan and Feng Wu were engaged/betrothed to be married, but after her family exiled her from the Capital people generally assumed that the engagement was off.
Jun Lin Yuan has grown to be a powerful cultivator and his father (the Holy Muckety-Muck of the Junwu Clan) sends him to grab the Celestial Fruit (which only flowers once every 60 years) before the Darknight Court's prince (Yu Ming Ye, played by Wang Hao Xuan) can seize it.
As Feng Wu/Meng Yuan spends time with Jun Lin Yuan, they fall in love with each other and he re-affirms their engagement. That decision displeases his father and stepmother (Gao Sheng Hou, Mrs. Holy Muckety-Muck of the Junwu Clan, played by Yang Ming Na). They want Jun Lin Yuan to marry Zuo Qing Luan (and almost no one knows that she murdered the original Feng Wu).
There are romances, feuds, friendships, epic battles (and I mean they are really cool Wuxia-style battles), monsters, and magic and all sorts of stuff. The story will keep you engaged for at least 20 episodes. I enjoyed it all the way up to the end. In fact, because I had read so many spoilers, I knew what to expect and wasn't disappointed in how things turned out.
The main plot is more about Mu Jiuzhou than it is about Feng Wu. That said, she is an inextricable part of the story. Their relationship is odd because he keeps telling her that she cannot stay in the world of Qianyuan Continent, but as time goes on her bond with the world becomes stronger. She doesn't just fall in love with Jun Lin Yuan, she falls in love with the people who fill her life.
And I think that's what people who complain about the beginning and end of the show are missing: it's the journey that is important.
Important Characters Who Help Feng Wu
Young Feng Wu was in pretty tight with the leading families of the various clans. She was friends with Jun Lin Yuan, another boy named Feng Xun (no connection to the Feng family of the Capital), a boy named Xuan Yi, and a girl named Yin Zhao Ge.
Feng Xun (played by Guo Cheng) is the son of the lord of Penglai Pavilion. He's a capable cultivator but most of his role is devoted to comedic relief.
Xuan Yi (played by Gao Ji Cai) is the grandson of the Spiritual Elder of Junwu Clan. He is very studious but a powerful cultivator and immensely loyal to his friends.
Yin Zhao Ge (played at first by Zhou Yi Qiao and later by Estelle Chen aka Chen Yi Han) is the daughter of the leader of the Celestial Palace. Her mother (the leader of Celestial Palace) was the only witness to the murder of Feng Wu. Zhao Ge was an outcast of the Celestial Palace (the reason is explained near the end of the series) and looked down upon by most of its members. She befriended Zuo Qing Luan and Feng Wu befriended Zhao Ge.
Not including the young actors who play the man leads as children and teenagers, Zhao Ge's role was split between 2 actresses for a special reason. She undergoes a transformation. Some fan reviewers didn't like the way this character was treated and portrayed, so the role may be offensive to some people.
Feng Wu's handmaiden is Qiu Ling (played by Sun Ya Li). She has a more important role in the first 20 or so episodes.
(The original) Feng Wu's mother has occasional roles in the story, and she is an important part of Feng Wu/Meng Yuan's journey. Mom is occasionally used as a pawn by nefarious other characters but I think most people should like her.
Yu Ming Ye (the Darknight Court prince) is Jun Lin Yuan's rival in several ways. He also falls in love with Feng Wu.
My Thoughts In General
If you're hoping for a love story with a happy ending, you won't find it in Dance of the Phoenix. The ending is ambiguous at best. I think it's a bit more open-ended than some of the fan reviewers decided but I could be wrong. I think the writer/director deliberately made it an open-ended story.
I enjoyed the chemistry between the core group of characters. They worked well together. Some of the relationships are slow to start but once they get going you tend to root for them.
Some of the characters are very conflicted. In fact, one of the main villains of the story makes a comment in passing that is an astute commentary of the morality of the show: the winners decide what is good and evil. In other words, this story is a subtly disguised morality play and it questions what we mean by "good" and "evil". After all, human beings are flawed.
The main villains all have complex stories. Whether you agree with their motivations for the story-telling is up to you, but they're not cardboard cutout villains. There are, of course, underlings whose backstories aren't explained. So some of the thugs are just thugs. But I suspect if they could have stretched this show out to 48 episodes (like pre-pandemic shows often were), then they would have provided more background for some of the secondary characters.
Some of the villains are unexpected. I mean, just because someone shows up somewhere in the plotline doesn't mean their part in the story is crystal clear. You may begin disliking someone at first and warm up to the character later. And then some of the "good" characters turn out not to be quite so good.
Some of the action in the story is underexplained. That is, I think the writer or director was expecting the audience to connect some dots. For example, there are some scenes where powerful characters have their powers restrained by spells. And then later on in the story some fan reviewers ask "why isn't that powerful character doing anything in this scene?" Well, I think we were meant to infer that the restraining spells were used more often than was said. And there are other subtle things.
The final episode has been heavily criticized for ending everything too quickly. And some of the characters who supposedly die - well, I'm not sure what happens to them. A few people "come back" but it's not clear how. That said, there are hints about how things are supposed to happen. And anything involving Mu Jiuzhou and the spirit ring is definitely supposed to be uber-magical.
I found the ending to be more acceptable than many of the fan reviews made it out to be. I agree it was abrupt. I agree that some of the events could have been better explained. But I think if you pay attention as you watch all 30 episodes, you see some hints along the way about where things are going.
One of the main themes of the story is personal choice. We can choose to be good or bad, to do good or bad, to stand up for the oppressed, or to be oppressive. No one is forced to be what they are in the story. But the characters who get backstories are certainly influenced by events and people in their lives. And I think the ending touches on this matter of personal choice. Feng Wu/Meng Yuan may have a choice to make. Maybe not. But I think that's something for each viewer to decide.
If you hate the way the movie Inception ends (with Leonardo DiCaprio tossing his little spinner and then walking past it rather than waiting to see if it stops spinning), then you'll probably hate the way this movie ends. The ending is a little more definitive - but I think the viewer is still free to interpret things as desired.
Where I've Seen Some of These Actors before
This is the first show where I've seen Yang Chao Yue. She's a good actress and I think she had a difficult role to play. Some of the fan reviewers didn't like her performance, but I think she was required to play Feng Wu/Meng Yuan a certain way. It was just the character's journey.
However, many of the other cast members were slightly or very familiar to me. Unfortunately I don't have a full list of the cast to research, and of those I can research I can't include everyone here who had a role in some other shows. But these are some notable actors who have appeared in at least one other show I've reviewed.
Xu Kai Cheng (Jun Lin Yuan) played emperor Di Xu in Novoland: Pearl Eclipse and the lead male character Yan Yun Zhi in A Female Student Arrives at the Imperial College.
Guo Cheng played Chen Chou in A League of Nobleman
Gao Ji Cai played Yan Yu in The Wolf Princess
Zhong Wei Hua has a minor role in this show as "Old Man Ba", who befriends and teaches Feng Wu/Meng Yuan. He also played emperor Di Xu's personal eunuch Mu De Qing in Novoland: Pearl Eclipse and a shopkeeper in A League of Nobleman.
Chang Hai Feng has a secondary role as Wu You Dao (a powerful cultivator recruited by Junwu Academy). He played Cai Can in Shining Just for You and "West Turk General" in The Wolf Princess (not a major role).
Chen Yu Tong, who plays the Darknight Court Lord Demon (Yu Ming Ye's father) also played Xu Yuan in Who Rules the World and Yuan Ding Shan in Romance Of A Twin Flower.
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