A Journey to Love
一念关山
A 40-episode iQIYI costume adventure about a fugitive assassin, a retired spymaster and a disguised princess crossing two invented kingdoms on a dangerous errand.
Save- Premiere
- Nov 28, 2023
- Episodes
- 40
- Where to watch
- iQIYI
- Also known as
- Yi Nian Guan Shan · ข้ามภูผาหาญท้าลิขิตรัก
About the drama
A Journey to Love (一念关山, Yi Nian Guan Shan, "a single thought, mountain passes") is a road story dressed as a martial-arts court drama. Instead of staying inside a palace, it sends a mismatched group out along a long route, and much of the pleasure is the friction between people who have little reason to trust each other: a spy who has faked her death, a soldier who wants to retire, a princess pretending to be a man.
Both leads are professionals, which is less common in costume romance than it sounds. Ren Ruyi (任如意, played by Liu Shishi, 刘诗诗) is an elite killer. Ning Yuanzhou (宁远舟, Liu Yuning, 刘宇宁) is an intelligence chief who runs on duty and loyalty to his men. The series mixes road movie, adventure, martial arts and comedy. It ran 40 episodes on iQIYI from November 28, 2023, and the producers said the crew spent half a month shooting on location in Dunhuang.
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Ren Ruyi is the former Left Envoy of the Vermilion Guard (朱衣卫, Zhuyiwei), the intelligence body of the kingdom of An (安国). She fakes her death and slips into the neighbouring kingdom of Wu (梧国), where she meets Ning Yuanzhou, once deputy head of Wu's own intelligence service, the Liudao Hall (六道堂, "Hall of the Six Paths"). Ning has come back from the battlefield wanting only a quiet country life. Instead he returns to the Hall to clear the names of former colleagues and to help bring his sovereign home.
The job is to escort Princess Yang Ying (杨盈), who travels disguised as a man, on a diplomatic mission to An. Ning gathers a crew around himself: the carefree Yu Shisan (于十三), the sharp young Yuan Lu (元禄), the palace guard Qian Zhao (钱昭) and Sun Lang (孙朗). Ren Ruyi wants to learn how Empress Zhaojie (昭节皇后), who once helped her, really died, so she strikes a deal with Ning and joins the trip to An's capital, Andu (安都). A team put together in a hurry sets off with no idea what waits on the road.
The story takes place in invented kingdoms, An and Wu, so there is no real dynasty behind it. It is an original script, not adapted from a novel, credited to screenwriter Zhang Wei (张巍). Zhou Jingtao (周靖韬) and Zou Xi (邹曦) directed, and the company behind it was Ningmeng Pictures (柠萌影视). Filming began in September 2022 and wrapped in January 2023.
Its opening on iQIYI was strong. The Beijing News reported that five hours after launch on November 28, 2023, the platform heat value stood at 7,148, the highest first-day figure on iQIYI that year. The producers said that after 123 hours the value passed 10,000, making it the twelfth iQIYI drama to do so. When Douban opened its score on December 4, 2023, The Beijing News reported it at 7.5.
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