It's quite the challenge to keep my journal active nowadays and time just slips by so fast. Considering that I'm already occupied with work, studies, family commitments, and translating/subbing Mirage (which is going so horribly slow that I feel bad about it), the last thing I needed was to get sucked into another fandom. But here I am, after having given in to persistent nagging to watch this Chinese historical drama series called Nirvana in Fire, totally in fannish love for the show's characters and story. I've even gone to the extent of scouring Tumblr for meta and discussions since that's where the English fandom is concentrated at - relatively small but considerably active and growing as more people are discovering this drama.

Nirvana in Fire is about a man who returns to the capital seeking justice for a wrong committed by rival politicians and the imperial court of the Da Liang dynasty more than a decade before the start of the series. The feel of this show is a bit like a combination of The Count of Monte Cristo and Game of Thrones. In my opinion, it's better than Game of Thrones, which had an amazing first four seasons but started to meander from season five onward and never recovered its former brilliance (not even from what I've seen of season 8 so far). On the other hand, Nirvana in Fire is very tightly written, each episode packing a lot of story and character work, sometimes to the point where I think it's a bit too much and that having some breather space can allow audiences to better appreciate the characters and interweaving story threads.

So what's to like about this drama?

First of all, Nirvana in Fire is exquisitely shot and the high production values only add to the beauty of each scene. The cinematography and scene composition give the series a film-like quality as well as some really sweeping sequences. On a technical level, this series is top-notch.

But the real draw of this series is its characters. There's a whole lot of plotting and politicking which is intriguing enough by itself but wouldn't register much on an emotional level if not for the absolutely stellar cast who really bring their characters to life. I hate to single out any performance because I truly believe every actor pulled his/her weight but I just have to mention the lead actor, Hu Ge, who plays the central character of Mei Chang Su. This is a difficult character to play because he has to be able to express a whole range of emotions - pain, anger, hatred, affection, sorrow - behind a calm, almost unchanging facade for most of the series, and Hu Ge successfully does this. Furthermore, he has fantastic chemistry with almost all of the actors his character interacts with, whether allies or enemies, that made for some really exciting exchanges. He is stunning to watch.

Of course, I can't not mention the other attractive aspect of Nirvana in Fire that probably drives most of the fanfiction and fannish love for this series, and that is the relationship between Mei Chang Su and Prince Jing. There are many interesting relationships in the show but this one is probably the most memorable. In my previous post about Guardian, I talked about how the two lead actors convey a whole load of unspoken affection for each other. In Nirvana in Fire, Hu Ge and Wang Kai (the actor who plays Prince Jing) take micro-expression to another level because their characters are deeply bonded yet kept apart by the past and hidden identities. It's quite difficult to explain their relationship without going into spoiler territory but their bromance has a restraint that is emotional and sometimes frustrating in a satisfying way (if that makes sense).

It's well worth checking out if you have time to spare for a 54-episode drama.