Word of Honor (2021)

[dmagiclight]

Zhou Zi Shu gets embroiled in a conspiracy in the martial arts world after quitting his job as the leader of an organization tasked with protecting royalty. He meets Wen Ke Xing, a mysterious martial artist who escapes from the Ghost Valley to avenge his parents’ deaths. They become fast friends and embark on an adventure to find a legendary treasure that will give its owner ultimate power over

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUl2X99y6KM

[mizuryuu]

Considering this is a Chinese BL, the question is how much BL is there and how much is censored? Been trying to figure that out before starting this show

[antistatic]

I checked this one out at the weekend. Unfortunately it has been reduced purely to a bromance only.

If you are interested in following it though, there are 36 episodes in total. Currently, the first 9 episodes are available on YT.

Personally I'm not really a fan of those long-haired Chinese heroes in their ornate flowery gowns having sword fights while spinning around in the air, but if that's your thing I'll admit it's actually well made and features Simon Gong who was in Adavance Bravely.

[dmagiclight]

I have been watching this series
I am really enjoying It
you can tell the relationship is more then brother or friends

[kevvoi]

I saw another Chinese bromance webseries last week - "Precise Shot", where I thought the two "brothers" had more chemistry together than many established BL pairings. I think that this may be their way of trying to get around the censors - write it as a bromance, then push the acting as close to the line of romantic without earning the ire of the censors.

[dmagiclight]

I started watching that one to It looks preey good

[antistatic]

Mar 9, 2021 12:07:56 GMT -5 dmagiclight said:

I have been watching this series
I am really enjoying It
you can tell the relationship is more then brother or friends

dmagiclight - this is slightly off topic but I thought I'd mention another series similar to Word of Honor that you may want to keep an eye out for. It's called 'Immortality' and is based on one of China's most successful BL novels: "The Husky and His White Cat Shizun". It's due to start on 8th April.

This show has had a ton of money thrown at it and comes in at a whopping 50 episodes. Unfortunately that's where the good news stops. Being a Chinese production it has been watered down by the censors to such an extent that one of the male couple who (according to the book) was "blessed with an almost feminine beauty as a boy" is now going to be played by a female actress. That doesn't even leave it as a bromance as far as I can see, but if you're happy to watch, what will almost certainly still be a well-produced epic adventure, this will probably do the job for you.

Here's a link you may want to check out for more info on the show.

[antistatic]

Mar 10, 2021 9:27:37 GMT -5 kevvoi said:

I saw another Chinese bromance webseries last week - "Precise Shot", where I thought the two "brothers" had more chemistry together than many established BL pairings. I think that this may be their way of trying to get around the censors - write it as a bromance, then push the acting as close to the line of romantic without earning the ire of the censors.

I enjoyed that show quite a lot. Not sure if I saw the full version though.

The version I watched came in three parts which were each comprised of 7 of the original minisodes glued together. I had started watching the original single episodes but came a cropper when a couple of the links didn't work for me so I had to transfer to the omnibus version.

I agree that the two guys had a good deal of chemistry. I saw the actor who played Shao Yiyou in the cast reveal for a new BL series (the name of the show escapes me) the other day, though my preference in this show was for the other guy who played the younger of the pair. I thought they had quite a similar dynamic together as the boys from Mr Heart.

[kevvoi]

You watched the same one then that I had watched - it was probably short movie length all together (I seem to remember 1.5 hours?). Yeah, the younger brother was adorable and he actually seemed like he was really disappointed when he realized that they weren't brothers at all. The older brother did a good job of rationalizing every thing in the form of "sometimes family is who you pick not necessarily who you are related to".

[dmagiclight]

Mar 12, 2021 9:24:56 GMT -5 antistatic said:

Mar 9, 2021 12:07:56 GMT -5 dmagiclight said:

I have been watching this series
I am really enjoying It
you can tell the relationship is more then brother or friends

dmagiclight - this is slightly off topic but I thought I'd mention another series similar to Word of Honor that you may want to keep an eye out for. It's called 'Immortality' and is based on one of China's most successful BL novels: "The Husky and His White Cat Shizun". It's due to start on 8th April.

This show has had a ton of money thrown at it and comes in at a whopping 50 episodes. Unfortunately that's where the good news stops. Being a Chinese production it has been watered down by the censors to such an extent that one of the male couple who (according to the book) was "blessed with an almost feminine beauty as a boy" is now going to be played by a female actress. That doesn't even leave it as a bromance as far as I can see, but if you're happy to watch, what will almost certainly still be a well-produced epic adventure, this will probably do the job for you.

Here's a link you may want to check out for more info on the show.

Yes Thank you for the link I have been waiting for this one to come out

[dmagiclight]

If Immortality is anything like Word of Honor or The Untamed then I will enjoy It

[mizuryuu]

For Immortality, even though the character is played by a female actress, is the character still male or has that been changed as well?

[dmagiclight]

Mar 15, 2021 13:12:18 GMT -5 mizuryuu said:

For Immortality, even though the character is played by a female actress, is the character still male or has that been changed as well?

I think the 2 main roles are still Male

[dmagiclight]

What I do not understand is If the Chinese Government has such A issue with showing homosexullty then why do the productions company's keep making BL novels into Live Action Series?

[LadyArmand]

Mar 16, 2021 13:16:15 GMT -5 dmagiclight said:

What I do not understand is If the Chinese Government has such A issue with showing homosexullty then why do the productions company's keep making BL novels into Live Action Series?

They keep getting made because these dramas make money. That's about as complicated as it gets.

[mizuryuu]

But unless they ran out of non-BL novels to adapt, wouldn't it make more sense to adapt popular non-BL novel instead so they wouldn't need to walk on a tightrope to stay barely on the right side of the censors? Seems like a lot of risks for limited rewards. It is hard to believe they ran out of non-BL novels to adapt when that is more mainstream and the size of China's population

[antistatic]

I think this show is currently up to Episode 22. I don't follow it but thought it worth mentioning for anyone that does that the producers have today put out a special edition of episode 6. This is apparently in celebration for the YOUKU YT channel reaching 2 million subscribers.

I have no idea what is different about this version of episode 6 to the original version which went out on 2nd March.

[dmagiclight]

I have not watched as of yet but I plan to today

[antistatic]

The producers have today put out another special edition; this time it's episode 17. This has apparently been done as a thank you for 50 million total views.

I have no idea what is different about this version of episode 17 to the original version except that it lasts 5 seconds longer.

[dmagiclight]

Thanks i will check his out

[antistatic]

I found these videos interesting (if a little heavy going to sit through), as they are a good illustration of how this production was further censored (presumably on the instruction of the Chinese SARFT?) to reduce even the bromance level from what had been originally filmed.

Avenue X explains how the show was overdubbed so that the lines the actors said during filming were toned down to remove even a vague suggestion that there might be anything more than just friendship between the characters, and subsequently the English subs we see are actually a translation of the censored lines and not the lines said by the actors.