I am finally back to write about the sequel of the drama I wrote about few days ago (I was supposed to publish that two weeks back but my trip back to home took up all my time. More about that later). Also, I did ask my Chinese friend and there are novels for both The Mystic Nine and The Lost Tomb. Called as Dàomù Bǐjì in Pinyin, this series is about the journey of a guy who comes from the family of tomb raiders (basically part of mystic nine, though he doesn’t know this in the beginning) called Wu Xie. In the novels, he is an antique shop owner, in the series he is an international student who has just returned to China to hand over an antique from Germany to his country. He feels strongly about foreign countries possessing Chinese artifacts.

Plot: So, in the drama, Wu Xie (played by Li Yi Feng) comes back from Germany and encounters some bad guys who are after this relic. It turns out that this relic has a part of a map to some tombs which might contain huge treasures. He is helped out by a fat guy in shaking the enemy off initially. He later finds out the other half of map from a girl who claims to be one of the mystic nine families and it turns out to be a location of a famous tomb.

Wu Xie’s uncle gathers some men and they all set off to find treasures in the tomb. The men include a mysterious person called Zhang Qi Lin (played by Yang Yang) who doesn’t speak much and has some incredulous techniques with him. He always comes to the rescue of Wu Xie later when the adventure actually starts. He is successor of Zhang Qi Shan in the mystic nine.

Anyway, they go into the tomb, only to face countless questions and weird enemies including man eating bugs and zombies and of course, the previous group, led by a foreigner as usual. They lose some people, get to know more about the mystic nine and of course…….. no spoilers 😐

Second part of the plot deals with Wu Xie discovering the real identity of the girl who gave him the other half of the map. He also gets a typical turtle from the tomb about which he wants to find out the truth. He has to get in touch with Huo grandma who is the only one from her generation remaining from the old mystic nine. She is a wicked lady who still exerts power in the antiques and tomb raiding area and refuses to entertain his party. Wu Xie finds himself in the clenches of his foreign enemy again and the end. THE END!!

That….. tha…..AAAAAAAAAAAA

Characters: Not much here. We get to know about Wu Xie a lot. He’s the main character after all. There is no other development at all. Last part of the plot ends so abruptly that I still cannot process what happened. Li Yifeng has portrayed  a naive, kind character very well but I am not sure about diversity in the roles he takes. The other drama I watched, The legend of Chusen Season 1 also has a similar character portrayed by him.

The best acting though is by Yang Yang. That mysterious character of Zhang Qilin he portrays, draws you so much that my most of the frustration as a viewer is that I really wanted to know his background. Although, after watching Mystic Nine, one does come to know who he might be, but I still want to know. There is this chemistry between Li Yifeng and Yang Yang. People have speculated that there is definitely something between them and some people claim that there are author’s notes in the novels which do confirm this. However, bromance or not, their chemistry is amazing. I am no fujoshi but the subtle hints in the drama, I somehow like those.

Other actors are veteran, their portrayal of characters is as usual. However, there is not much in the background of those people. 12 episodes are not enough. There is as usual that annoying fatty uncle (that’s how he’s called in the series) who is greedy for the treasures and ends up creating trouble for everyone. Then, I am not sure if this foreigner villain is descendant of the one in mystic nine but the villain in the movie of this series which I’ll review sometime later has same surname as the one in the latter series.

Wu Xie’s uncle’s character seem so very pitiful. He wants to take out the treasures and help Wu Xie at the same time but he is unable to do both to the full extent. I still won’t comment about the Huo family as the next season should be the one to reveal their secrets. I am looking forward to next season though they are not going to cast Yang Yang as Qilin (*cries in a corner*).

Good stuff: Only Yang Yang and Li Yifeng

Bad Stuff: I have too much to complain about in this series. Their music is not good, especially the bg. They build up so much tension with bg music that the viewer is compelled to think that an important moment, a discovery, a monster, something is gonna happen only to find it a normal moment in the drama. I don’t remember the openings and endings at all as opposed to the mystic nine whose OSTs I still listen to, even after a month.

Then their graphics are not upto par at all. It’s like they hired all the newbies to do post production editing. The graphics seem like those in 2000s, probably 2000s had better graphics in their dramas which confuses me a lot. They do a better job for a variety show like Happy Camp, how could they do this to a large scale drama production like this.

Plot of course. Who would like that abrupt ending, there is no talks of season 2 although the producers have said that they would adapt 8 novels in 8 seasons. Plot wise, I am not even sure if I should criticize the drama or wait for next season as I am waiting for many other. What is wrong with Chinese Drama producers??? Ugh

And there are confusing movies which adapt the arcs but change the actors, and it’s so hard to let go the first set of actors to appreciate the second set in movies. I would rather go for animations than live actions, just because of this reason.

Then there is no clear female protagonist as of now. There are two potential people who come into mind. One is the girl Ah Ning who is the villain in this season but gets softer towards Wu Xie because he saves her life. Second is the Huo’s granddaughter. The intentions of both of these girls are unknown (AND I AM STILL WAITING FOR NEXT SEASON, DAMN IT!!). But then why can’t a female person go into tombs to search for the treasures? Same was in the Mystic Nine. (However that changed in the Candle in the Tomb).

Other things: All in all, I would rate this drama as 4/10. It has great potential if only they tie the loose ends, make subsequent seasons and hopefully cast the same people. Otherwise, it remains a mystery to everyone. I WANNA LEARN MANDARIN JUST TO READ AND UNDERSTAND THESE NOVELS!!

I will not recommend this drama until and unless:

1. You are going through withdrawal symptoms of Mystic Nine and want to see more tomb raiding.
2. There is some news about the second season of The Lost Tomb.
3. You have already read the novels and want to compare them with the drama just for your satisfaction sake.
4. You want to see Yang Yang’s and Li Yifeng’s chemistry (which happens in first part of the drama only coz Qilin disappears after their quest in the tomb).

You have been warned. But if you still want, you can watch the drama here: The Lost Tomb

Just for the sake, here is a trailer:

Today’s Song: The usual

Side Story: I wanted to do so much after coming back but I am still trapped into the cycle of long hospital visits and the medications. I don’t feel like doing anything anymore ;-;

And as I said before, I am hooked to the tomb raiding series and I finished another drama called Candle in the Tomb. I have all the praises for this one. And then I started another drama called My Mr. Mermaid while in between I finished 2-3 more dramas like When a Snail Falls in Love, Secret Forest etc. etc. I hope I’ll get to review all of these soon. Let me know if you guys want any one of those done first.