So Word of Honor (山河令) showed up on Netflix about 2 months ago.
Lately, the C-dramas and shows Netflix recommends to me have been really good! There’s Love & Redemption, Eternal Love (Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms), The Untamed, Yin-Yang Master, etc… Owing to that good track record, I gave Word of Honor a shot (not knowing anything about it).
And boy, oh, boy, Word of Honor was so much fun!
It is a BL C-drama, but don’t let that stop you from enjoying this once-in-a-blue-moon series because it really is so much fun to watch!
It’s like all the stars aligned to produce this one-of-a-kind series. This drama only had a tiny, tiny budget compared to other historical, costume dramas. They were able to secure only ONE sponsor – the nut company ? The irony does not escape me. The original actors they got also backed out (due to the pandemic, production delays, etc…) but I can’t imagine anyone else playing these characters now!
Their budget was so tight, they had to barter deals with other, more established actors who were also shooting other shows in the same area, and got them to play supporting characters and shoot a few scenes for Word of Honor.
Of course, I didn’t know any of this while I was watching Word of Honor. I only found out later after I became obsessed with it! 😀 Knowing all this just makes me appreciate the drama even more, and makes it closer to my heart.
You can really tell that everyone involved cared a lot about this show, and that everyone had a great time filming it!
I didn’t find anything offensive, loud nor pushy, in case you’re worried about that. I really hate the loud, pushy, agenda-driven type of shows, and this does not feel anything like that at all. This was fun, subtle (not really) but never vulgar.
So What is Word of Honor all About?
Zhou Zi Shu is the head of an assassin organization, but, disillusioned, he wants out. But as you know, leaving means having to pay a price.
After leaving, he spends what time he has left wandering and just enjoying the sun. He is spotted by Wen Ke Xing, a mysterious gentleman prone to quoting poetry to show off his education. Wen Ke Xing feels an instant connection to Zhou Zi Shu, and starts “following” him around and subtly flirting with him (or outrageously flirting with him, if you catch all the hidden meanings ;P ). Zhou Zi Shu is like nope, nope, I’m not responding to any of your flirting. Haha, pakipot 😉 Omg!
This pair always stumbles into trouble and it’s so cute how each protects the other. Both are excellent, talented fighters, so I’m very happy with all the martial arts stuff! Lots of beautiful fighting, from the main characters, as well as from the support characters!
As the show progresses, we find out who Wen Ke Xing really is and why he is so hellbent on revenge. We unravel the conspiracy of what really happened 20 years ago.
There’s a thingamajig that many greedy people are after. Apparently, this thing unlocks a treasure. It’s almost the same trope as Legend of Fei (also adapted from a novel written by the same author as the novel Word of Honor was adapted from), however, Word of Honor is a much, much better adaptation, even with a fraction of the budget!
Word of Honor Review
The scriptwriter is a genius!!! You can tell that she loves and understands the story she is adapting. From the script, you can totally tell how intelligent she is – how she adds layers of meaning through poetry, actions, names, etc… Even I didn’t catch everything, so I highly recommend watching AvenueX’s videos analyzing Word of Honor. I wish there were more scriptwriters of this caliber!
Watch only AFTER you finish the series to avoid spoilers. You can start here:
I am SO OBSESSED with this show that I can confidently say that it’s my most favoritest C-drama of 2021!
The series has 36 episodes, but there’s a very short 37th episode if you’re looking for a nice epilogue (just look for it on YouTube).
I think that number of episodes is just right – the series didn’t feel dragging and I didn’t feel that they were trying to pad the show to make more episodes.
There were some things that I noticed but chose to just let it go – like there was a Joker type character ?♀️ I dunno, maybe they were in a Joker phase when it was popular right before the pandemic, LOL. Considering everything, this was a really fun show that they managed to produce on a teeny, tiny budget, and the production value was actually much better than Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms or even Pillow Book and Legend of Fei.
How does it compare to The Untamed?
The Untamed was 2019’s BL hit that took the c-drama watching world by storm! It is always near the top of every C-drama list. Since both The Untamed and Word of Honor are BL’s that became huge hits, they are always compared to each other.
For me, The Untamed is much more restrained, serious, dignified (even though the title is The Untamed), while Word of Honor was more fun, flirty and less serious. Nevertheless, the acting was excellent! I felt like everybody involved gave their 100% to the show.
In both shows, the leads end up sort of adopting an orphan, but Word of Honor is much more kilig, haha! When the orphan boy grows older and becomes head of the manor, he’s all like, rolls eyes, please ignore my eternally flirting parents ? There’s nothing we can do, let’s leave them in their own world, they’ll remember we exist when they finish flirting *sigh*.
The Concert
Apparently, some Cdramas hold concerts after the dramas air, and Word of Honor’s seems like the most fun one!
Okay, I don’t really watch these concerts. I saw clips of the concert of Love & Redemption, and it was *awkward* (there was some issue between the two leads snubbing each other and whatever).
But from the clips of the Word of Honor concert I saw, it looked like SO.MUCH.FUN! All the actors were shipping the couple. It didn’t feel like a concert, it felt more like a group of friends getting together, playing games, and making fun of each other. The actors were all so in character, too!
If you haven’t seen Word of Honor, please give it a try!
If you’ve seen Word of Honor, did you like it? 🙂 Please shout out in the comments!
