Cang Lan Jue (2022)

Not your typical XianXia. Incredible romance and storytelling. A masterpiece.

There are seriously very few shows that I can't wait for Netflix to finish obtaining before watching the rest of it. This show, though, was one of them. After seeing the first few episodes, I ended up having to subscribe to another live stream service because it was going to take weeks for Netflix to finish uploading it! Yes, it was that good. Just a fair warning that this is going to be a thesis of a review as I want to gush the hell outta this series because, [insert a Sean Bean meme] one does not simply watch Love Between Devil and Fairy and think they can walk out with just a few "oh, jolly good show, chaps" as a sentiment. For those who haven't seen it and don't want spoilers, all I'm going to say is do yourself a favour and GO FORKING WATCH IT! WATCH IT NOW! WATCH THE HELL OUT OF IT!! WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE?!?!

Beyond this point, there be spoilers...

~~~

First up, there are some stereotypes and common XianXia tropes that are used. Yes, you get the ingenue female protag. Yes, you get a crush on a seemingly too-out-of-her-league male char. Yes, you get some extended love triangles where the competitor for the higher-than-thou male char is the female protag's antagonist and creates angst for her. Yes, you get an overly powerful male protag and yes, you get a sacrifice, from the female protag, who needs to choose between love or duty. But it's not what you think!

The female protag, Xiao Lan Hua (Orchid), is not your stereotypical female ingenue protag. The very first thing I noticed about her was that she was strong. She was strong in knowing what she wanted and unbending in going for it. She knows her power limitations but, to her, it's something that can be remedied with some hard work on her part and she is willing to put in the yards towards it. Although she is bullied she never lets it affect her but instead works around the bullies and just avoids them as much as she can. She doesn't even state, in the narration, that she is bullied at all but thinks the other fairies are her nice friends not because she's too naive to know what they are but because she harbours no ill will towards them. I really respected her for that as it shows maturity and strength. Whenever they call her by other flower names, she is not afraid to correct them. It doesn't change their recall of her name but, to her, what was important was that she stood up for herself and her name. That, again, is true wisdom and strength. Then, and here's what cements her "strong female char" status in my eyes, when the contest to serve in Lord Chang Heng's palace is announced she declares to the other competitors that they should remember her name because they'll be hearing it alot when she wins. The first episode when she did all that really hooked me from the get-go because even though she sported the stereotypically annoying chipmunk voice of XianXia chicks, she wasn't going to be another willowy XianXia chick swooning at someone she can't get only to be continuously rescued by someone she was scripted to fall in love with later. There was some chutzpah to her that was rare in XianXia Cdramas.

I'm not sure why the directors think Xiao Lan Hua is a meek and cowardly girl. To me, her announcement that she will be the winner was convincing evidence that she was anything but a meek and cowardly girl. Because to make that announcement, she had to believe that she was worthy; whether she was able to doesn't matter. What mattered was she believed she was worthy of a chance, a chance at being in close vicinity with the man she loves, a chance even of being considered by him. That is something you don't find in other ingenue Xianxia female protags, and that is something you don't associate with someone who is cowardly. They say courage is when you are afraid but do it anyway. Sure, Xiao Lan Hua is scared of many things, but that doesn't stop her from pursuing what she wants, and believing that one is worthy, to be able to stand in one's own glory despite so much societal rejection by her peers... that does not smack of cowardly one bit. Moreover, her actions after this declaration, as well as her valiant deeds in the examination, have only solidified her strong and courageous image. She has strong principles and values life and is not afraid to do what she deems necessary.

Other things I disagreed with was how Shang Que was received. He is perceived as a dumbass. Fans have commented that where Dongfang Qing Cang was missing a heart, Shang Que was missing a brain. However, if they actually watched the show in the beginning DFQC relied wholly on SQ's intel and knowledge of everything from history, medical healing procedures, politics, everything. SQ's knowledge on topics are wide and he has the pulse on everything that would affect his liege. He would be considered the ultimate spymaster. The FBI and CIA would kill for someone as knowledgeable as him in a similar reality. Certainly DFQC was not ignorant of SQ's intellectual worth and SQ was pretty much his vizier throughout his reign. It's quite short-sighted to think he is without intellect just because he is also very physically strong. It's worthwhile to note that he is not human. He is a dragon and just because he chooses to think the best of people, the opposite of Jie Li's mindset, doesn't mean he's a pushover or a dumbarse for having convictions. I bring this up because I think the directors also commented on how he's not considered a smart char, which the fans might've gone along with. This particular fan disagrees and think they did a fantastic job, more than they realised.

There were other things that defied the XianXia romance troupe that made me love this series. How Dan Yin shows reason and can say that although she's grateful for XLH saving her life, she still dislikes her because XLH is competition for HC's attention. I found this a real insight into sisterhood in that yes, harem-like malicious viciousness has been commonly portrayed by female chars in Cdramas despite the protag saving the antagonist or making some sacrifices for the latter, but LBDF defies this trope by reaching a realistic middle ground. It is annoying to see portrayals of male love rivals giving up their competition for friendship while females don't get this kind of closure. It is also very unrealistic. Surely, in real life, rival women do let things go and just decide that friendship can exist between the "sisters". If honour can exist among men, are we really to believe that it can't exist among women, the main maker of sacrifices in life? Very sadly unrealistic belief, tbh. Anyway, back to Dan Yin. Her char is great. Like with a capital G. She is someone who had ambitions and goals before she fell in love with HC and after going through a trial with him remembers her past dreams and decides to pursue that. She grows out of loving him and decides being friends is the best. Honestly, she is an underrated char and I very much hesitate to say she is an antagonist. In fact, this XianXia is great because there are no real antagonists aside from the evil god, Tai Sui, who can be interpreted as more of the darkness within anyone's soul. I hope to see more of her type of char in Cdramas and XianXias. It is refreshing to have women portrayed not as losers for never having won the love of the man they like because, really, having or losing the love of a man is really like any other life event.

Hua Cheng (update: I mean Chang Heng. Jeezus, kept getting Zhang Ling He's char's name mixed up before finding out he IS going to be casted as Hua Cheng in Eternal Faith!!!)... now... this char too is unique. Zhang Ling He's acting was very good as I was able to pick up early on that he reciprocated XLH's affections and it was a pleasant surprise to have such reciprocation when we are so normalised to the female protag never receiving the love back in these sorts of stories. He was very unique in that it's nice to see the male paramour char acknowledge the female protag's good qualities. It shows a good judge of character (no pun intended) that is rarely portrayed by characters like him. I do feel sorry for HC as his sacrifices were very underplayed and overlooked. He suffered a lot for XLH and I don't think he was really given a fair chance to win her affections. And the misunderstanding about him striking her off his palace duties were never remedied so I felt he was given the short end of the straw in the romance arc. However, I guess ultimately his character arc was about finding his own independence to defy the expectations foisted upon him by an insecure and bully of older brother, not about having his love realised.

Another thing that endeared this series to me was the fact that the love btwn XLH and DFCQ was never insta, as is often portrayed by XX. There was a lot of bonding work that was done that found both chars inadvertently gravitating towards each other that made it very organic and a natural progression. It was a healthy protrayal of love that is rarely encountered in shows and took its time to grow with the characters. The love btwn Jie Li and SQ also felt natural because of the polarity of their mindset despite stemming from similar beginnings. They balance each other and also make up for each other's weaknesses.

Sibling love was also explored between DFQC and his brother, Xun Feng. It's quite often that you see sibling rivalry portrayed in a way that expects viewers to accept that "they compete because they just do, because one is jealous of the other, because one gets more attention than the other, blah blah blah". It's just too lazy and easy to fall back on the lack of paternal attention (more so than maternal attention) as the catalyst to sibling rivalry. It locks the antagonistic sibling into this endless, mindless drone of pettiness and jealousy that can't ever be resolved until the other is disposed of. Here, however, this wasn't the catalyst. It's not shown what XF thinks of their father's affections towards the firstborn, DFQC. There's never a sense that XF was jealous of the time the former Supreme Moon Lord had spent with the older brother. What XF was pissed off about, however, was that his brother cut short his own time with their father and in a very final way. This, I found, was a more mature form of rationale for sibling rivalry because it's not self-absorbed. XF is young and his incompetence as a ruler is alluded to a lot but it was refreshingly nice to not have him be immature. Like Dan Yin, he was mature enough to be reasoned with. He was mature enough to set his old feelings aside and be taught, even by an enemy (ie XLH), because he was ultimately very much motivated to love his brother, as, in truth, he really does love DFQC, and he really does love his people as well.

Another love that was explored was storge love and boy, did it ever. DFQC's patricide pretty much framed the series and defined his character and life in the beginning. However, we find out that it's not as simple as it seems. The writing around why the former Supreme Moon Lord behaved the way he did was nothing short of spectacular. Really, at the end, one can't decide which way is up or which way down. When DFQC is faced with imminent invasion from the celestial fairy clan the enormity and reality of his father's past decisions really bear down on the viewer and leaves us at a lost to decide what should've, could've, or would've been the right decision. As DFQC himself discovers, "Father, [when the enemy was gaining] and you had to remove my emotions, did you feel the same [despair] too?" As a viewer, I couldn't really fault the past Moon Lord's decision and neither could I judge DFQC's actions towards XLH at that point too. It felt like a game of Go where you were locked into the only logical decision to make that would incur incredible, and irrecoverable, costs. The whole patricide angle melts away and reveals this layer to DFQC, the former Supreme Moon Lord and XF's character and r/ships with each other. It is just nuanced work that ate through a whole bunch of tissues.

Last, but not least, is the whole catalyst to the showdown between the fairy and moon clan—the love Rong Hao bears for his master, Lady Chi Di, the former goddess of war. Such a love between teacher and student is strictly forbidden and frowned upon in the WuXia and XianXia cultures, which reflects Asian cultures. In LBFD, this taboo love is portrayed as something that becomes a destructive and evil obsession by Rong Hao that consumes him and the world around him. The most telling line from RH was "why is it that not even destroying heaven and earth can fulfill such a small and simple wish?" And what was that small and simple wish? Knowing that he can't realise his love for his master, all he wants is for her to live, for him to be able to stay in her life and for them to be teacher and student, master and disciple, for eternity. The shortcomings of forbidding such a love are laid bare when it is discovered that she too had unseemly feelings for him, but whereas his love was construed as selfish and self-centred, resulting in centuries of trauma and suffering on Lady Chi Di without her having consented to any of it, her love was considered pure. But was it? In a spectacular twist, we find that she had also inflicted her own selfish desires on Rong Hao, bringing him back from the dead without his consent as well. The question to us then is whether Rong Hao was the real instigator behind everything or whether he was merely the byproduct of Lady Chi Di's unseemly act. Honestly, I don't think Rong Hao cares. In her revelation to him, he finds a soulmate who was just as willing to move heaven and earth, and bring order to its knees, as he was. In this way, Rong Hao's "twisted" love was answered and reciprocated. There had always been a sense in him and to himself that he was irredeemable and so very unworthy of the gift of deityhood she had given him, but in discovering her actions, he realises she was the same as him—just as human and earthly, just as messed up and broken inside, just as irredeemably unworthy of a godhood he was willing to bargain away so that he could have her by her side as she had kept him by hers. It was a tangled, messy love arc but so sensitively written that, by the end, I really couldn't hate on Rong Hao. I mean... aside from the genocide of XLH's clan...

Finally, the ending... I'm not going to mince words—it was rushed. By the end of it, I remembered thinking, "please, just give me a happy ending. Even if it's something stupid and implausibly insulting like what happened in My Only Love Song." I also remembered thinking, "be careful what you wish for", because, lo and behold, something implausible was exactly what happened at the end. At first, I felt cheated of their wedding and their marriage however, when I wound the show back I realised that they had, in fact, been "married". When goddess Xi Yun and Hua Cheng discussed their marriage, she explains that her powers need to be activated and it was believed that it could only be activated by their marriage. However, when she gives DFQC another redemptive kiss (to mirror the first he received in the celestial prison at the beginning) her powers were activated, which symbolises, to me anyway, that she was married and to him. At first, it felt a tad deus ex machina but really, it makes sense. The whole rationale for the ancient marriage contract between Hua Cheng's and Xi Yun's tribes was to protect the three realms. In being soul-married to DFQC instead, this was the best way to ensure the protection of the three realms hence why their match resulted in the needed goddess power activation. What I did find rushed was the very very very ending... when DFQC returns... no, not even that, beyond that... when he just says, "honey, I'm home!" and then the metaphoric curtain falls to The End. WTF. I mean, ok, they were "married" but it felt a bit stingy to cheat the viewers out of the visual affirmation but even so, if we were to accept that, it was definitely stingy to cheat the viewers out of the happily ever after that these two worked so damn hard for. I suspect the production crew knew fans would feel this way and created the final special episodes, but it was cuts of former episodes and filled with so many images from DFQC's dream illusion phase that it felt... weird.

HOWEVER

No stars whatsoever were deducted for this. The whole show was replete with so many amazing subversions of the XianXia tropes that it was well worth investing in all the 36 episodes. I've missed out on some other stuff, like the great sisterly love development Jie Li and Dan Yin and how the Moon tribe finally comes together with the fairy tribe for the common good, led by Xun Feng, and the wonderful Si Ming character. Ok, no, I'll write a few stuff about her because she is truly awesome. Si Ming is fantastic. The wild child of the celestial fairy folks who is ironically in charge of order, who follows her heart even when she believes everything is fated and free will doesn't really exist and, who is an avid drinker! She lights up each frame she's in, which is woefully few. I would've loved a further exposition into her backstory and the production crew could've expanded the series for a few more episodes at least on her, imho. Anyhoo...

Honest, by the end, no one is left behind. Everyone has a growth. There were no cliche NPCs at all which, for me, shows great writing because there was no waste, à la Chekov's gun principle.

Really disappointed it was only 36 episodes but have enjoyed each and every one of them. Recommendation is definitely to watch it if you like character driven shows and layered stories. LBFD was a feast.

Lees verder