The best kind of Wuxia Heroes

Credit: Tencent Videos

Wang Xiaoshi, the main protagonist in the 2022 Chinese drama Heroes is a great, classic hero of the Wuxia genre: pure, selfless, moral and righteous. (Joseph) Zeng Shunxi (曾舜晞) does a solid job portraying his earnestness in the beginning, his sense of duty and justice later, and the pain that comes with the losses and sacrifices encountered by all the greatest Jianghu heroes.

The heart (and heartbreak) of this story is in the bond between the three sworn brothers. Romance is secondary, maybe even tertiary. The female lead is admittedly pretty underdeveloped as a character, but she is not the main focus (she is almost a supporting character, with the second and perhaps even the third female leads carrying more weight). Despite these factors and despite her seemingly fluffy and somewhat spoiled personality, I still found her quite likable and very sensible. It's a healthy and supportive relationship with no annoying misunderstandings.

Credit: Tencent Videos

Like most Wuxia stories, our main hero is but one of a large ensemble cast of important, supporting characters who get a fair amount of screen time (but not in a boring, draggy way, in my view). Others include friends, family, respected elders, and powerful villains. Some characters are simple and somewhat one-dimentional, while others are compelling and intriguing from the moment they are introduced. Yang Tong (杨彤) especially, is perfectly cast as the mysterious and complicated Di Feijing. This is also my first period drama with (Baron) Chen Chuhe (陳楚河), who is great as a revered hero and martial arts master.

I haven't read the novel, so I have no source material to compare it to, but on its own, I found Heroes to be actually one of the better Wuxia dramas I've seen, especially recently. It is visually well done, and the actors convincingly pulled off the respectable martial arts choreography (there’s nothing more distracting than obvious wirework and overdone slow-mo-fast-zoom effects!).

There is a bit of unevenness in the storytelling and some of the character developments, but in my view, none of it is as messy, convoluted or hackneyed as some viewers have suggested. I have a “Gold Standard” for egregiously butchered storytelling and endings, and this one doesn't even come close. At 38 episodes, it won't be high on my rewatch list, but it is still, in my view, a worthwhile watch.

(Written July 7th, 2022, posted February 3rd, 2023)