6 new Mystic Nine stills drop as a new storm begins to brew
Now I am still only mid-way through Episode 5 of the Chinese drama Mystic Nine but, Ye Gods, while its cinematography, sets and costumes are beautifully designed, this has to be one of the dullest, dreariest “adventure thrillers” I’ve watched in a long time.
Five episodes in and we’re still trailing around never-ending underground corridors following the missing soldiers of Unit 401, while people get picked off here and there, and the two leads — Zhang Qi Shan played by William Chan and Wu Lao Gou played by Joseph Zeng — run around chasing shadows and trying to figure out what’s going on.
Yes, it might improve, although several people on social media who are currently watching Episode 11 don’t seem to be much more enamored of it than I am right now? So I’m not holding out much hope.
That being said, even though I am hugely disappointed with the script of Mystic Nine as its previews promised a much more interesting journey than this, I do think the main and supporting cast is excellent.
A cast that has several members featured in a series of six new Mystic Nine stills released today along with the comment:
“Within the mural, a perilous prophecy emerges; clues beneath the earth lead straight to the sunken well of Luotian. All follow the trail, digging ever deeper into Yin Changsheng’s secrets. Yet they do not yet know that a storm above is already brewing in silence…“
The rest of that cast is Sebrina Chen as Huo Xian Gu, Jiu Shan Mei Zhi as Wang Mao Lei, Wang Zu Yi as Zhang Xiao Yu, and Liu Chang as Zhang Xiao Jin.
And, in my mind, deserve much better writing than they’ve been awarded so far.
Mystic Nine (which started off life titled Mystic Nine: Against the Coming Storm), by the way, is adapted from the novel Old Nine Gates (老九门), which is written by Kennedy Xu.
Its plot follows on from the 2016 prequel The Mystic Nine starring an almost completely different cast (except for male lead William Chan who is reprising his role, and a couple of other supporting actors), and is one of a slew of sequels, prequels and side stories in the franchise that, if you’re not clued in, can be quite confusing as to what to watch where.
The latest Mystic Nine drama has its first 11 episodes now streaming on YOUKU and, at the moment at least, is the platform’s #1 drama.
Let’s see if that accolade continues to play out as this snoozefest’s run goes on, eh?
As for me, I’m going to give it up to Episode 10 as I feel that will be giving the drama, and the writers, a fair shake. Then, if it hasn’t become far more interesting than it’s first five episodes, I’ll move onto something better.
Edit: August 4th — Nope. Sorry. I did give it a good try right through to the middle of Episode 9, and I simply could not continue watching Mystic Nine from there on out as everything it offers is deathly dull and bland.
After all, nine episodes in, and the dismally uninteresting group of people are still trailing around the never-ending, not even frightening or suspenseful corridors, while a previously unrelated Japanese side story has suddenly appeared above ground. To say I couldn’t care less would be an understatement.
Enjoy it if it’s your thing. For me, I would rather watch the paint dry in my parents’ newly renovated attic.
Meanwhile, the folks over at My Drama List (MDL) who are still watching Mystic Nine have now dropped its rating from an 8.2 to a 7.8, while IMDB users are currently rating it an even lower 6.4.
I will keep an eye on both sites to see how much further the C-drama’s ratings plummets from there, as well as to see what Chinese viewers using Douban think about it when that rating eventually drops.
I have a feeling they will like it even less than the fangirls that populate MDL as, when it comes to their dramas, Chinese viewers seem to be far more discriminating than their non-Chinese counterparts.
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