Up to what lengths can you go for love and revenge? Ning Que will go against the whole world for his Sang Sang. Ever Night 将夜 is the drama adaptation of historical fantasy novel written by Mao Ni 猫腻. The 75-episode series is directed by Yang Yang and penned by Xu Run.
The drama stars many newcomers including Arthur Chen Fei Yu (Secret Fruit) who plays the leading male, Ning Que. The 18-year-old actor made a debut in the 2010 movie Sacrifice directed by his father, Chen Kaige. Acting opposite him is rising actress Song Yi Ren (Sword Master) as Sang Sang, Ning Que’s handmaiden turned love interest.
While it is not unusual to see new actors in most dramas, it is rare to have two newcomers as lead characters in a big production. Ning Que’s character is the friendly, ‘most-popular-kid-on-the-block’ type, responsible and lively. He is intelligent and somewhat sly, which he uses as an advantage. I have not seen Arthur Chen’s acting but the visuals are somehow like what I envisioned his character to be.
Sang Sang’s character is more complex. She is a little weird and clumsy. She is also intelligent. There are even times that she shows more intellect that Ning Que, however, she is lazy to think and just follows Ning Que in major decisions. Song Yi Ren is a little older than Arthur Chen but her baby-face and built fits Sang Sang who is described to look smaller than her actual age.
Meanwhile, the production also has veteran supporting actors. Hu Jun plays the role of antagonist, General Xia Hou, the cunning and fearless leader of the four great generals of Tang.
While Adam Cheng acts as Fu Zi/Confucius, the headmaster of the academy and Ning Que’s master. He is known as one of the strongest beings in the world comparable to Hao Tian. Hong Kong actor, singer and movie star Leon Lai stars in the drama as the King.
Other casts include Zoey Meng (All Out Of Love), Yuan Bingyan (Royal Highness), Kris Sun Zujun (Heroes of the North), Tong Yao (Ruyi’s Royal Love in the Palace), Chen Zhen (Woman in Love), Dylan Kuo (Sword of Legends 2), Andy On (Kung Fu League), Huang Yilin (Unexpected), Ni Dahong (The Rise of Phoenixes), He Zhonghua (Ashes of Love), Kira Shi Shi (The Story of Minglan), Yin Zhusheng (Lost in 1949), Meng En A-Moon (Colourful Bone) and many more.
Ever Night is set in the Tang Dynasty. Ning Que is the last surviving member of General Xuan Wei after the General House was annihilated due to an elaborate plot by General Xia Hou and Prince Li Peixin. Our protagonist survived while hiding in a shed during the brutal massacre. He later saves Sang Sang from a mountain of corpses and enters the military with Sang Sang listed as his handmaiden.
Ning Que rises through the ranks with his military contributions and gets recommended to a prestigious academy. Just as their life is turning for the better, Sang Sang’s secret identity is discovered which makes her a target to endless powerful enemies. To protect Sang Sang, Ning Que abandons a comfortable life and brought her to wander the world. He and his allies later face off against Hao Tian, the last big boss who caused chaos in the world and Sang Sang’s ill-fated destiny.
The production decided to forgo elaborate costumes. Instead, a substantial amount of the budget was used on the set and shooting locations. Well, I can say their money was well-spent. Most of the scenes were taken in actual locations, showing viewers breathtaking sceneries.
It is difficult to cram more than a thousand novel chapters to 75 drama episodes running for 45 minutes each. However, this drama is still something to look forward to. Ever Night took a lot of time for its pre-production. The script reportedly took two years to complete and won a Golden Prize. Similarly, Martial Universe‘s script also took two years and the result was good enough for wuxia adaptations, except for Lin Dong’s somewhat idiotic behavior on the first few chapters.
Hopefully, it doesn’t become like other wuxia adaptations which turned out to be random mish-mash with almost no resemblance to the original.
Release Date: October 31, 2018 Tencent (two episodes every Wednesday to Friday at 8pm), members watch next week in advance
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Anonymous
Will i hated matrial universe and many did and dropped half way so you will never know till you watch…. So let wait and see
hohliu
Two new comers but a very strong supporting cast. Old veteran like Adam Cheng will be in the story. Even Leon Lai is a guest star. I am looking forward to this.
Anonymous
May check this out since sometimes newbies can knocked it out of the park if they are strong actors given the support with good directors, supporting cast and production.
Anonymous
The main male lead isn't that great of an actor from what I've seen of him in that one moive he did. But he was quite young then, I mean he's still very young now. I think he's born in the 2000. I've never seen the girl before so no comment there. But visually the drama looks amazing with a great group of veteran actors. I also love that they're using actual landscape locations, not green screen.
Anonymous
I just watched episode 1 and am super impressed! Beautiful cinematography, good script/narrative, and solid acting from the male lead (Chen Feiyu as Ning Que). Finally a worthy wuxia adaptation!!!
Ruyi
Late comment but I like the variety of faces in this cast, it reminds me of the good ol' dramas I used to watch as a kid in the 90s. Hmm…will need to check this out.
Josie Gardiner
My Review: Ever Night
I have started on of these Chinese Fantasy Magical Adventurous Sagas 60 episode long. Its going to be a marathon watch. I need to keep taking notes so I know where its going and where its been. I was brought up on comics. Our house was always full of them. Love, War, Cowboys, Superman and Batman, The Phantom and most of all Disney. This is what these Wixia Historic Dramas remind me of, my life. I have always been hooked on reading. So now I’m hooked on Asian Dramas. Its teaching me about the various Northern Asian Cultures so different and so similar to our own. So I left the lake at 18 years and now I’m 71. People are people all searching for their bit of happiness in this world. I don’t think comics were ever so thrilling, scary, heartwarming as these dramas that take your mind right where the action is.
2nd day of this marathon – Learn so much about life from these. Greed, Power, Money and love are the great motivators for peoples desires. Ning Que motto: Fight or flee and live to fight another day. The dark and the light neither is one without the other
What matters most is being happy
I enjoyed watching this but it’s not straight forward. It has an army of characters and so many settings. You have to stay alert. I took notes as I watched. Its trying to teach you something about life and has so many quotable quotes like
Greatness cannot be achieved without obsession. – FuZi
Affection is a great motivation. – Fuzi
This drama has the most beautiful locations and settings so eye-catching and spirit warming, cinematography in so beautiful “Its out of this world”. You’ll stop the movie just to look at it.
Julian Ainembabanzi
this was very interesting, I liked the academy students Jun mo,manman,cheni pipi, Mr 13, and all others