Word of Honor (山河令) is adapted from the novel written by Priest (Legend of Fei) called Faraway Wanderers/Tian Ya Ke (天涯客). It has confirmed the two male leads to be Zhang Zhe Han and Gong Jun, followed by Zhou Ye, Ma Wen Yuan, Guo Jia Hao and Zhao Qian. The story follows our two male leads. One of them is Zhou Zi Shu to be played by Zhang Zhe Han. He’s the leader of Tian Chuang, an intelligence gatherers and assassins who served only the Emperor. It’s hard to get in and harder to get out; through a punishment leaving you either disabled or dead, but our leader yearns for a different life and does successfully get out. Our other male lead is Wen Ke Xing, played by Gong Jun. Very similar life trajectory to his other half; he’s the Master of Ghost Pavilion, a hush-hush place known to jianghu as containing the most cruel and evil of humans. Our temperamental Master of the Ghost Pavillion is also tired of this life and wishes to get out. They get entangled in jianghu’s latest chaos when a teenage boy is out for revenge and attaches himself to the unwilling Zi Shu and calls him Shifu. Lol. And that’s when I stopped reading the novel. Knowing how adaptations usually turn out, the less I know, the less angry I’ll be down the road. 😛
Airing 2/22 with a total of 36 episodes.
Here we go! The first BL drama to air!
Stills:
Trailers:
14 thoughts on “Zhang Zhe Han and Gong Jun’s Tian Ya Ke changes name to Word of Honor ahead of broadcast”
Watched parts of ep 1. The tone feels wrong. Excessive use of slo-mo fighting is even more wrong. Ended up playing, “I know that voice!”
14 thoughts on “Zhang Zhe Han and Gong Jun’s Tian Ya Ke changes name to Word of Honor ahead of broadcast”
Binge all 5 episodes and it’s surprisingly good. I was out of drama to watch amd randomly clicked onto this drama and surprise!!! Agree with the top comment, episode 1 isn’t really good, fighting scenes were ???? But it got better in the next episode as the story progress and I actually like the fighting scenes after that. One of the more ‘legit’ fighting scenes I have seen in so many years from a drama. Chemistry of the two male leads is good too!!!!
14 thoughts on “Zhang Zhe Han and Gong Jun’s Tian Ya Ke changes name to Word of Honor ahead of broadcast”
I haven’t read this book so can’t judge it on that. I read the other book set in the same universe, Lord Seventh and wasn’t a fan so wasn’t motivated to pick this up. I did check out the first 3 epis and I kinda like it. I actually really like the fight choreo too but agree that the slo-mo is overdone and not my thing.
Also, I’ve never been more glad for anyone to play a hobo than Zhang Zhe Han. That bun on top of the head look of his was getting old. Also the most personality he’s shown on screen.
14 thoughts on “Zhang Zhe Han and Gong Jun’s Tian Ya Ke changes name to Word of Honor ahead of broadcast”
I only read the first half of the novel but so far it seems to be faithfully following the novel. I am pleasantly surprised they managed to keep the essence of Wen Kexing’s character, because boy, his shamelessness and flirting is absolutely entertaining to watch on screen. Gong Jun pulls him off so well; this is his probably his best performance after Advance Bravely.
I agree with the comment about Zhou Zishu being Zhang Zhehan’s most nuanced and expressive role to date. Poor boy has been getting cold male lead roles ever since the success of Legend of Yunxi.
This drama is definitely 10/10 for BL lovers. Plot is also intriguing because both male leads are grey characters. Looking forward to the reveal of WKX’s true identity.
Only disappointment for me is Zhou Ye. She is one of the young actresses I was looking forward to, but she can’t seem to pull off cute and quirky well. Hopefully she does better in the heavier scenes.
14 thoughts on “Zhang Zhe Han and Gong Jun’s Tian Ya Ke changes name to Word of Honor ahead of broadcast”
zhou ye looks cute but she seems to be acting too hard here, if you get what i mean. like she’s not natural enough in her acting in this role? hopefully she’ll improve with later episodes.
hehe i have no idea where the plot of word of honor is going because i never read the novel. but i’m get very strong BL vibes here and the flirting/chemistry between the 2 attractive male leads is pretty good. i hope they amp up the BL (hehehehehehehe)
SOOOO glad to finally have zhang zhehan out of the hobo look because i want to see good looking guys not hobos lol
14 thoughts on “Zhang Zhe Han and Gong Jun’s Tian Ya Ke changes name to Word of Honor ahead of broadcast”
Episode 1 was not that good but after that, the story picks up! I’m glad to see a different side to ZZH, finally. They need to stop pairing him with JJY. Lol.
GJ’s make up is really heavy.
14 thoughts on “Zhang Zhe Han and Gong Jun’s Tian Ya Ke changes name to Word of Honor ahead of broadcast”
i agree GJ’s make up is too heavy (so much powder!)
he’s a good looking guy so he probably looks better with less make up
14 thoughts on “Zhang Zhe Han and Gong Jun’s Tian Ya Ke changes name to Word of Honor ahead of broadcast”
never read the novel and have no idea what the story is originally like
just watching this and see how it can surprise me, i guess
first time watching zhang zhehan and gong jun as leads and the acting so far is not great but not bad either, but OK for wuxia BL
the fight scenes look more like flirting but at least they look nice
I think the male leads are best when they’re interacting with each other
good thing is that they do have chemistry
this drama is more BL than I expected hahaha
let’s see how far it goes (grin)
to be honest I’m enjoying this drama waaaay more than douluo dalu! the only thing good thing about dldl was special effects (looked flashy) and the characters (EXCEPT for drama xiao wu omg ptsd from the actress forever)
dldl was extremely disappoint so i hope this word of honor will be good (i’m getting very strong untamed vibes from word of honor, it’s like “let’s see how much flirting and BL we can get away with” lol)
14 thoughts on “Zhang Zhe Han and Gong Jun’s Tian Ya Ke changes name to Word of Honor ahead of broadcast”
“let’s see how much flirting and BL we can get away with”
I wish production teams would not try to push it. This is dangerous with the usually heavy-handed Chinese regulators. There are lots of BL-haters in China. If enough of them complain, regulators may just seriously crack down on these type of dramas again. They did that back in 2016(?) and ruined (at least temporarily) a lot of careers as well as investments.
14 thoughts on “Zhang Zhe Han and Gong Jun’s Tian Ya Ke changes name to Word of Honor ahead of broadcast”
actually you’re right about that
i heard that censors are now being more tough on BL adaptations because they don’t want to promote homosexual relationships in china
the important thing is BL “adaptation”, not ACTUAL BL (which is banned/censored)
so on 1 hand production teams try to make the BL fans happy but they walk a very fine line because if they overstep then they get banned
i remember “guardian” a few years back ended up getting taken off the channels (banned?)
it’s pretty sad that LGBT is so discriminated in china but there’s nothing can be done about it
because LGBT is taboo in chinese govt
and also taboo in chinese culture?
i’m not sure about this so i hope someone can clarify (i don’t want to say something wrong)
14 thoughts on “Zhang Zhe Han and Gong Jun’s Tian Ya Ke changes name to Word of Honor ahead of broadcast”
Homosexuality is no longer illegal/criminal in China. BL literature/art is allowed in China, currently subjected to more stringent oversight than BG literature regarding possibly racy content. Portrayal of homosexuality is prohibited on screen and online videos for public consumption. Some exhibition of queerness for comedic effects seems to be tolerated. BL readers and audience knowing the consequences still try to push creators to take risks.
I remember “The Guardian” was taken off for re-edits due to complaints about too much violence and superstitious contents. It went back online about half a year later.I believe those complaints were nonsense. Many people in China are comfortable using government censorship as a weapon to destroy what they don’t like.
14 thoughts on “Zhang Zhe Han and Gong Jun’s Tian Ya Ke changes name to Word of Honor ahead of broadcast”
thanks for explaining.
good to know that BL is legal in china – i heard that some BL authors got arrested and thrown in prison?!!
i think i get it – it’s ok to have BL if it’s only on paper (books) but not if it’s for mass public consumption like TV dramas, etc.
i’m glad that “guardian” eventually went back online.
it’s sad when people use censorship to destroy things they don’t like – people need to learn tolerance and to “live and let live”
i like watching both heterosexual and BL relationships but i guess if censorship is so strict in china for homosexual portrayals, then it’s better that productions play safe (instead of risk getting banned or into other troubles)
at the end of the day i’m just ordinary audience who wants some entertainment.
i think it’s not worth production teams or actors losing their careers because of stepping over the line, if you get what i mean…
14 thoughts on “Zhang Zhe Han and Gong Jun’s Tian Ya Ke changes name to Word of Honor ahead of broadcast”
Chinese censorship is even more strict in publishing physical books, magazines and such. Government issued ISBN, which acts like a permit, is required. A limited ISBN are made available each year. Publishers holding these ISBN look for materials with the most money-making potential. It’s very competitive to get published legally.
For printed BL novels, the content is usually changed into bromance. Generally fans buy these novels to support the author, to keep as memorabilia, and for the new extra short stories, but they go to the online novel for more authentic versions. Some authors get to sign publishing deals with publishers outside of China, like Taiwan. These printed novels are more “complete”.
It is a common practice for authors and artists with a good fanbase but overlooked by publishers to self-publish, which might be subjected to criminal prosecution even when they give it away for free. Chinese law enforcement usually ignores free giveaways as long as the amount is small and the content doesn’t violate regulations.
BL authors who were thrown in jail sold self-published novels containing “obscene” content. One was reported to authorities by an angry mother who discovered such item among her child’s possession. Another was ratted out by a rival BL writer who held a grudge. They were found guilty of illegal publishing, income tax evasion, publishing obscenities/pornography, and/or immoral influence on children. They received longer jail sentences than some killers, murderers and rapists.
14 thoughts on “Zhang Zhe Han and Gong Jun’s Tian Ya Ke changes name to Word of Honor ahead of broadcast”
thanks for the detailed explanation!
i feel so much sympathy for authors who literally risk their lives and freedom to write and publish. yikes looks like the stories about the BL author who got 10 year jail sentence is true! that’s TERRIBLE! to think that writers get harsher punishments than killers and rapists – that’s just so wrong! i have no words to describe this injustice!
from what you described it’s almost like a witch hunt. i can just imagine how people can use the censorship laws and harsh punishments to get rid of competition, if they can just report them to authorities.
yes i also heard that taiwan has uncensored versions of novels, because china censorship doesn’t allow anything deemed immoral, obscene, or politically incorrect to be published, and people who violate these laws suffer harsh punishments.