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Beauty of Resilience is a 2023 xianxia romance web Chinese drama that stars Ju Jing Yi and Guo Jun Chen.
Beauty of Resilience Synopsis
Yan Yue is the son of the Heavenly Emperor and is sent down to the mortal realm. He becomes a teacher at the Egret Academy and is tasked to find out which of his student has the Phoenix bloodline. His mission is to kill the Phoenix, who is prophesized to ruin the three realms.
Beauty of Resilience Main Characters
Wei Zhi
Wei Zhi works as a maid in the Wei mansion. She sees an opportunity to join an academy to provide a better life for her family. Despite being labeled a jinx and being mistreated even by her own mother, she’s still kind to people around her.
Wei Zhi lacked love growing up. Her family members died, people at Wei mansion bullies her, and even her own mother treats her cruelly. For someone who barely has anyone by her side, including her lover, that has gotta burn.
She’s supposed to be this strong character that the heavenly realm fears. The writers didn’t do a good job of portraying that. As an audience member, I could only focus on her being the love-sick girl pining after Yan Yue.
Yan Yue
Yan Yue might remind you of Ying Yuan from Immortal Samsara. He has to carry a heavy weight on his shoulders because of his status and position.
It might seem like Wei Zhi loves him more than he loves her but the romance area is foreign to him. His life was about putting duty first so there’s internal conflict about how he was raised his entire life versus what his heart is telling him to do.
The Romance
At the beginning of the show, there is a theme of the teacher-student relationship when they start to develop feelings for one another. If you feel uncomfortable with that, you might want to skip those episodes (the student-teacher arc doesn’t last the entire series).
Then, a lot of the sweet scenes…stopped.
Usually in other dramas, there are still cute romantic moments between the lead couple after becoming official. Near the middle and the end of the dramas, there were hardly any sweet scenes.
The show went for the more heart-breaking scenes route but when the leads lack chemistry, you don’t feel their pain or heartbreak as deeply.
The romance between the two leads falls flat. Although this is a romance drama, there isn’t much romance going on.
Watching the romance in Beauty of Resilience reminded me of the Chinese drama, The Starry Love. Sparks also were not flying between the male and female lead there. The male leads in both shows are also the prince of the heavenly realm.
Beauty of Resilience Main Actors
Guo Jun Chen
Guo Jun Chen is an actor that I’ve seen around before but I’ve never watched any of his dramas. He was a completely blank page in my book.
Through this role, he showcased a wide range of acting skills. He had to play a stern and indifferent immortal, evil character that switched bodies with his father, and a conflicted mortal.
Guo Jun Chen’s acting is better in the latter two roles.
When he played Chen Yan, a mortal in another life, his acting didn’t seem as natural especially when he was being playful. It felt awkward to watch as an audience member.
Maybe it’s partly due to his appearance but Guo Jun Chen gives off a reserved and aloof person vibe.
He’s better suited as an immortal (his hairstyle is also the best when he’s in the heavenly realm) where he can’t show as much emotion.
Ju Jing Yi
General Observation
I have watched some of Ju Jing Yi’s dramas before but her most notable work is probably Legend of Yunxi. It’s her most successful web drama yet.
A common complaint about Ju Jing Yi is that she generally gives off the same feeling and look no matter what her character is.
For example, in the early episodes of Beauty of Resilience, her appearance in the academy reminded me of her 2020 drama, In a Class of Her Own.
Beauty of Resilience is a bit of an exception because she acted as an evil character, which is a refreshing change.
However, the criticism from the public isn’t as fierce as for some of the other Chinese female actresses. Ju Jing Yi stars in web dramas so the acting expectations aren’t as high.
She probably doesn’t get paid as much as the Chinese actresses who star in high-budget production dramas. Since they receive a higher salary, it’s natural for the public to expect an excellent performance from them.
That’s why Ju Jing Yi gets a pass.
Is she an excellent actress?
No.
She looks too camera ready all the time. Maybe it’s because of her time as an idol but rather than getting immersed in the role, she always seems like her first priority is looking pretty in front of the camera.
But I give her credit for being a well-rounded entertainer. She can dance, sing, and act. She also is a beautiful lady and has even been nicknamed ‘once in 4000 years beauty’.
Her Performance in Beauty of Resilience
To be honest, I’m not sure she was the right fit for the role of Wei Zhi. She would have if her role didn’t include being a Phoenix. When I think of a Phoenix, I think of someone strong. She is more of a damsel in distress type of character.
She does fit the good girl type so I can see why she’s usually acting in similar types of roles.
I would love to see Ju Jing Yi in a Chinese drama where she’s a good girl immortal fairy, similar to Love Between Fairy and Devil. Her appearance does match an immortal more than a devil queen.
For naysayers who say that she’s not challenging herself as an actress enough, she did more in this drama because she had to play an evil character for a short while. Hopefully, in the future, she would continue to take on diverse roles.
What I Didn’t Like
The story did not flow well nor were the characters written well.
For example, there was a pregnancy plot that dragged out for a couple of episodes but it’s just an egg? Does the audience really need to know that much about an egg?
Then, there was the mortal arc where Ju Jing Yi and Guo Jun Chen had different identities. It felt draggy. Why didn’t the writers shorten the episodes to speed things up?
Usually, there are dramas where I feel like they need more episodes to flesh out the plot. For this show, it could have been cut shorter than 36 episodes. There are a lot of filler scenes in the middle and it was a complete waste of time.
As the story continued, I found myself losing interest. This isn’t one of those Chinese dramas where I was passionately following each episode. It felt like more of a duty and a drag to finish watching each episode.
What I Like
Even though this drama review might seem like I’m only complaining about the drama, there were a few elements I liked.
1) Episode 26 is when the audience finally gets a glimpse of Yan Yue’s perspective during some important scenes. It reminded me of A Love So Beautiful where at the end of the episode, we get to see things from the male lead’s perspective.
2) The production quality for Beauty of Resilience is probably similar to Dance of the Sky Empire and My Sassy Princess. It’s not a major drama production but the aesthetic is still beautiful for a web drama.
3) The amnesia plot might be a cliché but I like the part where Wei Zhi had to change her facial appearance to look like someone else. It reminded me of the drama, A Familiar Stranger.
The actress they picked for Wei Zhi to switch faces with was somewhat strange though as she wasn’t a character that had a major arc in the plot.
4) In addition, both Ju Jing Yi and Guo Jun Chen had the chance to play evil characters. That stood out to me because when this trope plays out in dramas, it’s usually only one of the lead characters who experience this.
The Beauty of Resilience team has the right elements but they pieced everything together in a sloppy way. Again, maybe if the two leads had better chemistry, it could have at least carried a bit more of the show but they didn’t.
Final Thoughts – Beauty of Resilience
Beauty of Resilience covers the typical plots of xian xia – multiple lifetimes, forbidden love, and being noble idiots.
Although web dramas can succeed, Beauty of Resilience is probably not going to reach widespread success compared to Ju Jing Yi’s representative show, Legend of Yunxi. Nor will Guo Jun Chen skyrocket to fame through Beauty of Resilience.
I agree with the lower ratings on My Drama List because it was hard to finish the whole show.
It’s one of those dramas that you can watch if you like historical dramas but have watched other ones already. It will not be as satisfying as other Chinese dramas but will do its job of giving you some eye candy to help pass the time.
Now to You – Beauty of Resilience
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Xoxo,
Nicole