CDrama Review - Arsenal Military Academy

Look, I'm still hiding from the world by watching CDramas. There's a lot to adore about them. They don't shy away from the fantastical (granted, I'm not part of the culture, so I don't know if the general public looks down on the fantasy stories the way so many people do here). They are sometimes silly, very often very funny, and almost always heartfelt. So you're just going to have to put up with my obsession for a little while longer.

This one is quite the departure from my usual fair. I adore the fantasy/historical (as in Imperial) CDramas and tend to watch those the most. So a more modern (though still historical) one wasn't really something I was particularly interested in. But this kept popping up in my recommended. I ignored it. Until I finally clicked on a short just to check it out and well... it seemed interesting enough to watch the first episode.

Immediate. Obsession.

The basic premise of this one is a young woman, Xie Xang, in 1910s (I had mistakenly thought it was the 1930s, previously, but that was before the mention of the Twenty-One demands Japan made of China during WWI)  China loses her brother (Xie Liangchen) in an accident on the day he was signed up to go to the newly reopened Arsenal Military Academy. In her grief, as a way to keep her beloved brother close and alive, she becomes Liangchen and joins the academy in his place.

Bai Lu, who is in everything, I swear, really shines here. Also, looks great in men's clothing.

Then, shenanigans.

Like most of these dramas, it begins quite light-heartedly. All the silliness/situational comedy of a woman trying to hide the fact that she's a woman in military school full of young men that you might expect happens, and it's very funny. Especially since one of the students and main love interest, Gu Yanzhen, figures it out very early on. It helps that he's Xie Liangchen's roommate, I guess.

Gu Yanzhen, played by Xu Kai, who rarely takes anything seriously. He's a real rich-kid, playboy type. But he has a heart and often does ridiculous and outlandish things in order to help Xie Xang hide her secret. He might be a clown and annoying as hell, but he's at least sincere.

One of the characters, a starlet from Shanghai, doesn't realise it, and suspects that one of her friends (who is also one of Xie Xang's friends and in the know) is secretly dating Liangchen. One of my favourite scenes happens in the bar where this mutual friend works. Only the friend and Yanzhen know at this point, and so what becomes a normal scene between two female friends takes on a whole different tone when most everyone thinks that one of those friends is, in fact, a man.

This becomes a problem as Gu Yanzhen falls for Liangchen/Xang and is not subtle about it at all, and the starlet falls for Gu Yanzhen. She later suspects that he's gay as a fruitcake, but still tries to make him hers.

Because of Gu Yanzhen's absolutely shameless pursuit of Xie Liangchen/Xang, everyone thinks Yanzhen is a flaming homosexual. Not that he cares. No really. He really doesn't give any fucks whatsoever.

Then there's fellow student Shen Junshan and second love interest, who starts having an existential crisis because he develops feelings for Liangchen, and doesn't learn until quite late that, actually, he's straight and the object of his affection is in fact a young woman.

Toby Lee (Lee Ching Ban) does such a great job in this role.