The Wolf

Episodes: 49

Synopsis: A young boy was raised by wolves and befriends the kindhearted daughter of the city general/lord, Ma Zhai Xing. Every few days Ma Zhai Xing would come up to the mountains to spend time with her beloved Wolfie. They shared memories of watching butterflies and sharing treats with one another. As rumors spiraled of a wolf demon living in the woods, Wolfie is blamed for being the murderer of the emperor's godbrother. Wolfie was hunted down and eventually driven off a cliff where he is later found by the warlord Chu Kui. 

Chu Kui recognizes the young boy's amazing strength, speed, and skill. He decides to adopt Wolfie and renames him Chu You Wen. Wolfie, feeling hurt and furious as he believed Ma Zhai Xing betrayed his trust and blamed him as a murderer, gladly went along with Chu Kui to start his new life. Using Wolfie as a military tool, Chu Kui successfully launches a coup and usurps the monarchy. He names Wolfie as Prince Bo of his kingdom. 

Eight years later, Prince Bo finds himself face-to-face with Ma Zhai Xing as he leads a massacre, killing her father and everyone else in her manor. From there on out, Ma Zhai Xing is brought to his kingdom to maintain the family's reputation and to strengthen city ties. Refusing to acknowledge his past identity, he purposely butts heads with her and makes her life harder as he lashes out past grudges. However, he cannot run away from his feelings and he finds himself falling in love with her again, learning of her situation 8 years ago, and forgiving her. The two are able to rekindle their romance and friendship. 

Things go wrong as a war breaks out between the empire and Wolfie is forced to be cold to the love of his life to protect her. At the same time, Ma Zhai Xing finds herself being pushed closer to Ji Chong and build new alliances. 

Review: 

We all waited so long for this drama to come out...and it was so disappointing. While I felt as though Wolfie/Lord Bo's casting was very well done, the lack of chemistry and all-over-the-place plot ended up ruining the show. 

To start, I wasn't really into the idea of a wolf-boy who had no understanding of civilization yet was so human and childlike around Ma Zhai Xing. I know that a lot of Chinese dramas play into characters being abnormally strong or having unrealistic martial art skills. However, the whole concept of him being a wolf-boy and surviving cliff falls because of his wolf instincts felt lame. Just because you were raised with wolves doesn't mean your physical capabilities match them (not to mention, wolves wouldn't even be able to survive a cliff fall like the ones shown in this drama). But considering many dramas of this sort are not the most realistic, I looked past it thinking it was probably a matter of personal preference. 

I got through the first few episodes and when things started to pick up (romance, action), I was like "okay, I can get into this. This is what I was here for...the entertainment." But that didn't last long. :(
Here is where I had the biggest issue with this drama: inconsistency and abuse. 

1. INCONSISTENCY: After the supposed loss of Wolfie, Ma Zhai Xing grows up to be more stubborn and strong-headed. She's not the same naive girl as she was in the first few episodes. Great! I love that. Character development. 
But then she begins to oscillate as she gets to know Lord Bo, recognizes he is Wolfie, and as things continue to happen to her. She's constantly asking why they can't go back to the past when both her and Lord Bo have grown to be fairly different from what they were like in their youth. She's whining and she tries to push Lord Bo to be her wolf-boy without any grasp of reality. Her strong-headedness and character growth that they attempted to show in the beginning got lost in these scenes, and she felt more naive than she did as a young girl. She often felt weak, defenseless, and in need of someone to rescue her which didn't seem like what the directors wanted her to be portrayed as in the drama. She did not feel like a strong and consistent character. 

2. ABUSE: Lord Bo is abusive as hell. Physically, there are scenes that resemble sexual assault. Emotionally, he stonewalls her, gaslight her, and manipulates the environment and situations to make her lose her mind. And every time she has an emotional breakdown due to his betrayals or actions, he's like "I had to do that to make you stronger." 
BOIIII BYEEEE 
This relationship dynamic combined with Ma Zhai Xing's weak protagonist vibe was just so draining to watch and it was pitiful watching her constantly go back to him the moment he lets his "kindness" show. 

There are definitely other sins this drama committed, and I hated so many aspects of this drama despite watching the whole thing. I can't remember them well enough though since I have blocked out these scenes from my memory. I do feel sad about the drama turning out like this since I was waiting on this drama for so long and was fairly excited about the casting. The screenwriters did the actors dirty, and the lack of chemistry is probably more due to the script than the acting ability of the cast.