Brocade Odyssey: Dropped Drama Diaries

Aug 17
2 min read

Title:	Brocade Odyssey (2024)
Platform:	Youku, Viki, Youtube (free)
MDL Rating:	7.8
Genre:	Period (Tang) Idol Romance/ Business
Episode Count:	40
Last Episode Watched:	15
Parental Guidance Rating:	PG-13: Blood and Violence
Starring:	Tang Song Yun (Sword and Brocade) Zheng Ye Cheng (Seeds of Scarlet Longing) Jing Chao (Princess Silver) Chen Xiao Yun (New life Begins)

Synopsis:

During the Tang Dynasty, Ji Ying Ying from the Huanhua Dyeing Workshop and Zhao Xiu Yuan, her childhood sweetheart, are separated when Zhao is forced to marry another. Ji later meets Yang Jing Lan, a nobleman's son who falls for her, and despite a rocky start, their bond deepens. When the White King of Nanzhao attempts to steal Ji’s dyeing secrets and kidnaps her, Yang Jing Lan leads a defense of Yizhou, defeats the enemy, and reunites with Ji and their families. @MDL

Non-Spoiler Thoughts:

This was frustratingly bad. The trailers and promotional materials wove a web of lies that portrayed the drama as an authentic, grounded Period Romance that was trying to do more than the age old tropes. But it was just Gollum leading me to Shelob; I fell for it and was so disappointed. The cinematography was of a lesser quality than the trailer showed, the acting wasn't great, the story felt like a Soap Opera, and there wasn't much chemistry. Between anyone.

The ML felt more like a 2ML and the 2ML looked too old for the role. And to top it off, we got some uncanny valley faceswapping that took me out of the story. Zhang Hao Wei originally played the role of the FL's childhood sweetheart, Zhao Xiu Yuan, but was cancelled in China shortly before the drama aired, so the production used AI to deepfake Zhao Hua Wei's onto Zhang's body. And as it turns out the poor guy was falsely accused to begin with, so it was all for naught anyways. It just made the character look like an airbrushed serial killer.

I was so excited for Brocade Odyssey, but the quality, acting, and story were so poor it felt like a money laundering production lol. One of the side characters literally wore jeans/tennis shoes under her dress.