Mysterious Lotus Casebook review

You can also watch my video review of Mysterious Lotus Casebook below:

Or, you can listen to the podcast episode.

The plot

Mysterious Lotus Casebook is basically about three men who gets together to solve cases, but it doesn’t start out that way, of course.

The story starts 10 years ago with a hero called Li Xiang Yi, the leader leader of the Sigu set. After a great battle in the middle of the ocean, he disappeared along with his arch nemesis Di Fei Sheng.

Ten years later, we meet a travelling physician called Li Lian Hua who bumps into a rich, young man called Fang Duo Bing. Funnily enough, his name means “often sick”. So, his name literally means I’m always sick, which is really hilarious.

Duo Bing believes that Li Lianhua is a charlatan who is out out to trick people. Since he has these dreams of becoming a detective of the Baichan Court, a splinter group of the original Sigu sect, so he follows Li Lianhua around just to proof that he’s a con artist to earn cred.

He ends up being friends with Li Lianhua and they go mystery-solving adventures together. Eventually, Di Fei Sheng joins them.

These cases are actually Li Lianhua’s way of solving a major problem that he’s been trying to solve for over 10 years which is the death of his senior.

Eventually, these cases all tie up together and leads to lots of secrets being revealed, a lot of hearts broken.

Characters

From left: Li Lian Hua, Fang Duo Bing and Di Fei Sheng

Li Lian Hua / Li Xiang Yi

If you’ve not guessed it already, Li Lianhua is the long-lost great hero, Li Xiang Yi. He was a really gifted swordsman; undefeatable and was at the top of the martial arts world since he was 17.

Di Fei Sheng

Di Fei Sheng is leader of an evil sect, but you know that with wuxias, nothing is that simple. Unlike a lot of people, Fei recognises Li Lianhua almost immediately. And he wants to battle Li Lianhua. So he tags along on their journey as well, making them a most peculiar crime-solving trio.

Fan Duo Bing

Young, impetuous and inexperienced in the ways of the jiang hu, Duo Bing is the self-proclaimed student of Li Xiang Yi and an aspiring detective of the Baichang Court.

What I liked

The writing

In far too many Chinese dramas, you have to put up with fillers, uneven pacing with episodes where unnecessary characters are unnecessary things

There’s no such thing with this show. This is not a drama that you can put on in the background while you do housework. You really need to pay attention because every word spoken, every clue onscreen, gesture or flicker of emotion means something.

The acting

Cheng Yi, who plays Li Lianhua, is just simply superb in Mysterious Lotus Casebook. If you have watched shows like Immortal Samsara and Love and Redemption, Cheng Yi is probably not a stranger to you. Well, he is a stranger to me! So, I was just blown away by his acting. This is not a typical role for him. In fact, it’s not a very typical role for a lot of Chinese actors. Li Lianhua is someone who, at the first glance, is very carefree, very irreverent, but he has very deep layers. With each episode you will discover each deep layer, and it’s such a delight when you have an actor like Cheng Yi portraying a character this complex.

The actors who portray Duo Bing and Fei is also really great and perfectly casted.

The brotherhood

There were many laugh-out-loud moments with the trio, and I wish we had more moments between them.

The production, sets and costumes

The sets are amazing. I dislike sets that are fake and over-the-top like in Xianxia dramas (which is about gods and spirits). I’m very much a wuxia lover, so I’m happy that everything looked largely authentic, and the costumes not too crazy and colourful.
Also, the whole production took four years. Wow, a drama that didn’t take just three months to shoot. Imagine what you can do when you focus on quality for a drama!

It is classic wuxia

I really, really missed stories by Jin Yong and Gu Long, stories like Legends of the Condo Heroes or The Smiling Proud Wanderer, so Mysterious Lotus Casebook really fulfilled my thirst. It’s been such a long time since I saw classic wuxia!

Action scenes

I’ve long resigned myself to the fact that all I could ever see from Chinese dramas is “finger fu”, where the fighting scenes consists of characters waving their hands about and sparkly things come out. The kind of action scenes you see in Blood of Youth.

But in Mysterious Lotus Casebook, the action scenes are not just well-choreographed, they are actually beautiful. Cheng Yi does it really well; he’s truly gifted with wirework and embodies the beauty and grace of Li Xiang Yi. When you see him in these fight scenes, you know that he truly deserves the title of “greatest swordsman who ever lived”. Apparently they got a team from Hong Kong to choreograph the fight scene.

The OST

The original soundtrack was something that grew on me. Rhese songs really embody the spirit of wuxia. It’s all about heroism, bravery ,courage and the singers did a good job. Each time I listened to these the songs, I think about the fight scenes and Li Xiang Yi’s spirit and courage.

Will you like Mysterious Lotus Casebook?

When it comes to reviews, I try not to impose my point of view on viewers. Instead, I try to help you make up your own mind.

I have a very specific taste and I often do not like a lot of popular dramas. Like Love Between Fairy and Devil or Ashes of Love? Almost everyone loved them, but I’m like, why?

I recognize that everybody has different tastes, so while I like Mysterious Lotus Casebook, you may hate it.

You may like MLC if you:

• Love classical wuxia like Legends of the Condor Heroes, The Smiling Proud Wanderer or the more recent The Ingenious One.
• if you like detective dramas like Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty and Ancient Detective, but this show goes far deeper than solving the mystery of the week.
• Like you great acting. I know you’re probably thinking: Oh, who doesn’t like great acting? If you’re the sort of person that really treasures good acting, you will love this to death because it’s been a while since I since I saw such good acting on Cdrama screens basically.

You probably won’t like MLC if you:

• Want romance as a central plotline in your stories. I will straight out tell you that romance is not the central theme or plot line at all. While Li Xiang Yi does have a paramour (or several!), the story is not about him trying to find a way to be with his loved one like in Love and Redemption, for example.

Final rating: 9

Conclusion

This is one rare Chinese drama where I wish there were like 80 episodes. 40 episodes flew by like that, and was just so well done.

Mysterious Lotus Casebook is about honor, courage and doing your best to live and rise above bitterness and hatred.

It’s a classic wuxia story of chivalry and if you love stories about heroes going on adventures in the jiang hu, you will like Mysterious Lotus Casebook.