# Arsenal Military Academy (2019)

> In 1910s China, a nineteen-year-old woman disguised as a man enrolls in military academy to follow her late brother and is drawn into wartime conspiracies alongside her fellow cadets.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/78419

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 48
- Episode runtime: 45 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: drama, war, romance
- Network: iQiyi
- Cast: Bai Lu, Xu Kai, Toby Lee, Wu Jiayi, Wang Yizhe, Li Junyi, Liu Runnan, Hong Yao
- TMDB rating: 8.2/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11024384/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: earnest, romantic, tense, wistful, intense

## Synopsis

Arsenal Military Academy (2019) is a Chinese period war drama created for iQiyi, a single-season run of 48 episodes of roughly 45 minutes each. Bai Lu plays Xie Xiang, a nineteen-year-old who enrolls in a 1910s military school disguised as a man to follow her deceased brother, while Xu Kai plays Gu Yanzhen, a fellow cadet whose bond with her becomes central to the story. Toby Lee plays Shen Junshan and Wu Jiayi plays Qu Manting, rounding out the batch of cadets who share her training and her secret. The engine of the series is the pressure of intense military drills, where Xie Xiang must earn the respect of her instructors while hiding her identity from classmates. As the arrival of Imperial Japanese troops sets off a tangle of distressing conspiracies, the cadets and their allies must prove their courage and resilience. The show moves through a steady mix of training grounds, barracks friendships and political intrigue, set in republican-era China under foreign threat. Its tone blends earnest camaraderie and quiet romance with wartime dread and moments of violence. Fans of Hanbok Rebels, Bright Sword and Eternal Love of Dream will find resonance in its mix of military discipline, romantic tension and national-crisis drama.

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