A League of Nobleman (2023) - Final Review

Final review/rating: A League of Nobleman (2023) - An all-male cast shine in this atmospheric tale of vindication and vengeance 

This is 8.5/10 stars ✮✮✮✮✮✮✮✮ from Pandafan🐼

Overall rating:        8.5 Stars Plot:                      8.5 Stars Acting/cast:            9 Stars Chemistry:             9 Stars Music:                    7 Stars Re-watch value:      9 Stars Enjoyment factor:   8.5 Stars

 Zhang Ping and Lan Jue investigate

After languishing in pre-production and editing purgatory for what seems like an eternity, A League of Nobleman (2023) was released with little fanfare and in large tranches that can only be described as a binge-watcher's dream. 

It is an unabashedly male-centric drama and lordy, Jing Bo Ran is mighty fine in this as Lan Jue. And if you are wondering what's better than one intelligent man, the answer is definitely a whole league of them 😍 

This drama has intelligent detective work, drop dead gorgeous cinematography and cast, and more twists and turns then your average whodunnit.  

It is a pity that the drama has been heavily edited, but the drama still retains its coherency and an oh-so-subtle sensuous undertone.  

SPOILERS AHEADS

A gripping plot - vindication vs vengeance 

My largely spoiler-free synopsis is 👉 here, but A League of Nobleman (2023) is essentially about parallel quests for vindication and vengeance.  

Jing Bo Ran as Lan Jue 

One quest is that of Lan Jue, who wants to clear his father's name.  

As a talented young assistant minister in the Ministry of Rites, Lan Jue's star appears in the ascent. Yet the outwardly gentle-as-jade Lan Jue has secretly spent the last 20 years obsessively investigating his father's case. He knows the man who taught him what it is to be a jun zi 君子 could never have sold State secrets, yet his father 'confessed' to treason and died a traitor's death.  Lan Jue will stop at nothing to find answers, even if it means doing questionable deeds that trouble his conscience.     

Zhang Ping and Lan Jue

When Lan Jue crosses paths with the impoverished noodle-making scholar Zhang Ping, the two do not exactly hit it off. Zhang Ping is convinced (rightly) that Lan Jue has tampered with evidence, and his single-minded pursuit of the truth almost wrecks Lan Jue's carefully laid plans.  

But Lan Jue cannot help admiring Zhang Ping's considerable deductive talents and the purity of his commitment to truth finding, and despite their differences, the two men forge a strong bond.  

Murder: Death by dance and poison

When a spate of irregular murders are committed in the capital, Lan Jue and Zhang Ping investigate, with help from their allies.  

They find that the murders, all executed with a theatric if grotesque flair and a strong whiff of the supernatural, appear to be linked to the mysterious deaths of the Mu Lou tribe some 20 years ago by a mysterious red poison that fell from the skies.  This incident in turn appears to be linked to the cause of Lan Jue's father's untimely demise as well as to Zhang Ping's past.  Their investigations also show that the Dowager Empress had a sinister hand in the poisoning, for reasons unknown.   

Wang Duo as Gu Qing Zhang 

In parallel with Lan Jue's quest, is that of the mysterious mastermind figure who is out for vengeance.  It becomes clear by episode 17 that this figure may be the seemingly all-knowing person who goes by the alias Mr Jing Wu 鏡湖先生, and by episode 22, most viewers will have guessed that Mr Jing Wu is also Lan Jue's long lost soul mate, Gu Qing Zhang. 

What was not obvious (at least to me) was why Gu Qing Zhang did it all, until the massive reveal in episode 25.  In short, he is the unlikely survivor of attempted royal filicide, the cover up of which resulted in the callous massacre of the Mu Lou tribe and the silencing of Lan Jue's innocent father via trumped up treason charges when the latter sought to bring the truth to light.   

In context, the murders (and the other cases) are ingeniously constructed and make an appalling sort of sense. Each case illuminates an aspect of how the Mu Lou people were killed and/or avenges their murder by executing the chosen victim in a macabre way befitting their complicity. 

Inside the water illusion

There is no real way the audience can keep up with and/or solve the cases alone though, because the drama relies heavily on Zhang Ping's 鏡花水月water illusion hypnosis as an investigative device to retrieve key clues from the subconscious of witnesses.  

This is something of a cop out, especially when the drama is at pains to demonstrate that what seems to be supernatural is in fact elaborately engineered.  But because those hypnosis dream sequences (and the case reveals) are so aesthetically gorgeous, I am willing to forgive the intellectual sleight of hand.  

The beauty of an all-male cast

The drama's gorgeous aesthetics definitely extend to its all-male cast.  

Lan Jue, hair unbound - be still my beating heart💓

Chief of these has to be Jing Bo Ran's Lan Jue, who is as beautiful as the jade for which he is named and whose outward serenity masks turbulent undercurrents.  Although we are shown Lan Jue's ends justifies the means mentality right from the start, somehow it is still easy to root for his ruthless gentleness and sympathise with his torment.   

No doubt this has much to do with the drama allowing us to see Lan Jue in the privacy of his elegant manor, with his hair unbound, and giving the occasional luminous smile.  

Honestly, Lan Jue with his hair down en déshabillé is a mood, as is him playing with kittens.  

Kittens 💓

Any man who loves kittens will eventually defeat their inner demons and re-find their moral compass - that has got to be some kind of immutable universe rule.  

It's no wonder that Lan Jue attracts the loyalty and devotion of a whole coterie of different men, from the enigmatic Gu Qing Zhang (played to perfection by Wang Duo), to the fiercely protective Wang Yan (also played to perfection by Hong Yao), to enemies-to-allies Zhang Ping (played by an appropriately wooden Song Wei Long) who has decided that one of his missions in life is to keep Mr Lan well fed with delicacies. 

Wang Yan's smiling eyes 

Post what has clearly been an extensive editing process, the chemistry between Lan Jue and Zhang Ping is muted and pared back to its essentials, to the extent that it is difficult to pinpoint exactly when and how they go from being antagonists to allies who are willing to die for each other.  

The plus side to this is that it does leave the field open for more of Wang Yan's speaking glances, and Gu Qing Zhang's deadly allure. 

Song Wei Long as Zhang Ping

As for Zhang Ping, although Song Wei Long's acting is usually too wooden for my tastes, he was particularly well casted here.  

Everything, from his high IQ-but-low-EQ approach to detecting and life, his awkward but genuine ride-or-die friendship with Mr Lan, his friendship with bestie Chen Chou (the Watson to his Sherlock), and his unlikely friendship with the Emperor who likes his way with noodles and sees his potential, just works.  

As does his love of kittens.  

There are also some well handled poignant moments, such as when Zhang Ping discovers that his idol, the legendary detective Mu Ye Sheng 慕葉生, has feet of clay.    

Shifu and his Ping'Er

I also adored Zhang Ping's wonderful relationship with his Shifu, who might well be the most loveable character in the drama.  His rendition of the "When the cow wakes up it will want to eat grass" song is way more tuneful then Zhang Ping's tone deaf version and his fatherly love for his Ping'Er is deeply moving.  

One can't help thinking that if Gu Qing Zhang had a Shifu like that things would have been different.       

On the ending: the lesser of two evils

Showdown

The final stretch of the drama is a rollercoaster of twists and turns as Gu Qing Zhang engineers his big revenge showdown. There is melodrama aplenty as attempted murder, body doubles, and an almost successful coup take place.  

The unleashing of aerial poison via doctored red pollen on an unsuspecting populace also creates a frenetic race against time.  

Colour me red for despair 

The turning point in the final arc is Lan Jue and Zhang Ping both independently concluding that vindication and absolute truth must sometimes give way to the greater good.  

This leads Zhang Ping to prove the falseness of a forged document which actually tells the truth - yet another intellectual sleight of hand in a drama that skillfully uses misdirection. 

If the outcome is not as satisfying as some viewers had hoped it to be, it must be remembered that compromise with the truth is the lesser of two evils when the alternative is chaos and the deaths of multitudes.  

Besides, there are worse fates then being led by a sincere Emperor who knows his way around a BBQ, and being noble has always been about more than bloodlines.   

Final thoughts 

🐼: A League of Nobleman (2023) is a great drama. 

Everything from the ingenious and atmospheric cases to the outrageously gorgeous cinematography and the outrageously beautiful all-male cast make this drama an enjoyable spectacle. 

Indeed, it is worth watching this drama for the sight of Jing Bo Ran's Lan Jue with his hair unbound alone, not to mention when kittens are involved. 

If 2023 keeps offering dramas like this, I will be a happy Pandafan.   

A solid 8.5/10 stars ✮✮✮✮✮✮✮✮