Yu Long (2021)

You can watch this for 2nd leads: Xue Qian Xun and Qing Qing, and their love story ~

I don't even know where to start with this review, so bare with me here, and this is going to be LONG, not intended for it to be that way, just ended up that way in the end

***WARNING **** IT WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS, SO IF YOU DON'T WANT SPOILERS, THAN SKIP MY REVIEW...

Okay to start things off, I won't say this drama is the worst, because I have seen worst drama's out there, but I won't say this drama is the best either. There are certainly areas which I wish was done better.

Personally for me, I don’t have any problems with the Male lead, since I enjoy some of his scenes, but mainly his scenes with Xue Qian Xun LOL. I felt like they have more chemistry (bromance-wise) than the main pairing LOL. I just wish they had a proper closure for them in the end, because Xue Qian Xun wouldn't have done any of that if he was in control of himself, I actually wanted proper closure, and not Longyan misunderstanding him...(But I am going to assume he understood and know the truth because he got that 'alternate' ending, to be with his soulmate, thanks to Xue Qian Xun's help)

I really tried my best to watch for the main pairing, and I did enjoyed it at the beginning especially since I can see a reference to 3L3WTMOPB, how Liu Ying (FL) save the Yuchi Longyan (ML), which happens to be a Dragon, in which she thought was a Snake lol(Sound familiar? Yes, Su Su(BQ) on Ye Hua), so that was a cute reference, although poor dragon's have to be mistaken as a snake 2 times in their respective stories LOL. Their story was okay, and I felt like it could have been better, but as their story progresses, and when I found out that Longyan changed Liu Ying memories and have her “fall in love” with someone else, making her believe her love for him (Longyan) was for someone else instead, I didn’t like it…At that moment, when she was married off, and was pregnant, I was like “????” Okay, so what is there to ship now??? She is married and pregnant with some other man’s baby for goodness’ sake. And then I realized it was meant to be for 3 lives before she can be together with him. I was like, when she was married off, and have to forget about him, in her first life, can she not stay single until she died?? At least that kept to the faithful part. Do she have to be married with someone else instead??

The main pairing story felt so redundant and repetitive, I mean, even if in each life, she's a different person, but it's the same outcome, she is born, grows up, meets him, she falls in love with him, he loves her too, but he can't be together with her (yet), so he have to watch her be with someone who can be with her, or is in love with her... And then, she dies, and then go to Luofeng Pavillion and drink that special tea that makes her forget (except with her second life, that she didn't drink that one), and then, gets born into a different family, setting and environment, the cycle restarts all over again and Longyan have to wait for her to grow up etc etc, and go through that life-cycle again. It was getting so repetitive, that I literally just lost interest in their story, that I ended up fast-forwarding their scenes, even when I fast-forward it, I wouldn't have missed much on my end... The third life when she was a general 'Feng Cheng Yue' was the most boring life and focus for these two for me, but at that point I was mainly just skimming through their scenes on my end.

The other reason why I don't enjoy the main pairing as much is also because I am not someone who is fond of the theme of having the developments up to a certain point wasted, and then restart again. It is like, you built the developments/affection point up to a certain level, and then resets, because she has to die, and then get reincarnated to her next life, and then start all over again… Do you get how redundant that is?? This is also the reason why I am not so fond of ‘amnesia’ plots because it is the same thing for me, I am someone who values ‘development’ and ‘consistency’ on my end. The main pairing, each time gives me something I don't enjoy seeing (in terms of developments being wasted, consistency felt disconnected because she have a different identity in her next life....), and while I understand that it is her soul that Longyan loves, but the portrayal of their story is not my cup of tea, with that all said, I don’t hate them though. I actually wanted that at the end of all these 3 lifecycle, in her fourth life as Qing Yan, she and Longyan can finally be together (even though that was futile..... It made all their trials, and tragedy be for nothing in the end, so it made me question, why did they have to go through all that, just to get that ending there? -_-)

On the contrary, I am thankful for the second leading characters Xue Qian Xun and Qing Qing, because their characters and love story is the saving grace to this drama for me. I have to admit that I did find Qing Qing annoying at first, but she somewhat grew on me, and had matured throughout the story, so I ended up loving her, and I do love her past-self as well.

For Xue Qian Xun, I love this character right from the beginning, because the moment he was introduced, he was said to be cold like an ice (his personality), and impartial to his role as the Lord to Luofeng Pavillion, but when he met Qing Qing for the first time, that all changed for him, because he can finally feel something on his end. Upon their first meeting, I immediately sense a potential between these two as past-lovers or something, so for me, I already love the focus on Xue Qian Xun's character, and his love for Qing Qing, I love all their screen times together. Whenever Xue Qian Xun is in the picture, I will watch the scenes properly for him, even his scenes with Longyan LOL. Ofcourse I will watch it for the second leading couple(Xue Qian Xun and Qing Qing) in this drama, because I love them on my end, they are literally the only focus that tied me to this drama to be honest and would want to make me finish this drama for them. Like I said, how can I not find them appealing? I mean, I actually found them appealing already when Qing Qing was captured by the Luofeng Pavillion guards when she first arrived at Luofeng Pavillion, because when Xue Qian Xun saw the meteor mark on her forehead, he felt something, and that “something”(and that flashback too, which was very vague), so I already find them appealing on my end, in that moment, when he kept her with him to be his maid for 100 years, instead of killing her, I already love what I saw, and was most interested to see how this pairing gets developed, and I was looking to find out about their past, and what exactly happened. As they show me more of them, I just ended up loving them, and then they became my favourite focus <3 And my favourite pair in this drama. This pairing is a gradual build, and I love how he came to love her, because she's different and she can make him feel all these emotions (she can make him smile, she can even make him jealous of Longyan LOL, I find that adorable hahaha), but when he help her paint the peach flower on her forehead was really sweet in my eyes. Yeah, he also didn't know what it's like to feel love, but then, I love how his eyes (he's good with these micro expressions) shows his love for her. It's different from his normal poker face. They really do have chemistry IMO.

I find it rather hard to rate this drama out of 10 for some reason, so I did the below to help me rate this out of 10 better. If I am going to give each pair out of 5, it will be as follows:

Main pairing (ML/FL): Liu Ying / Yuan A Yu / Feng Chen Yue / Gu Qing Yan: 2 out of 5

Second leading pair (2ML/2FL): Xue Qian Xun and Qing Qing: 4.5 out of 5 (0.5 mark lost because I wanted to see more of their scenes!! But even those little scenes, I can’t have enough shows me just how appealing this pairing is, for me, and in addition to this, I wish they have like a proper kiss scene ahahaha, since I wanted to see that, and when they finally kissed, something happened >.<, and I’m like “NOOOOOOoooooO!!!! T.T”)

Ending ~
Okay, I don't know what to say about this ending... Let's start off with the Main pairing, since they are the main pairing... Well, I will just say, I didn't really like that ending, I consider that to be, a sad ending for them, because they have been through 3 life times!!!! 3!!!! (and going through her 4th life time as Qing Yan), and she still can't be with Longyan properly in the end, I just find their ending to be somewhat, sad to be honest, I mean, this really shows they've been through all these trials for nothing, although their spirits will forever be together, but this isn't really a happy ending to me, I think it was 'satisfactory' at best, but personally for me, I don't really like their ending, I felt like they should at least get a happy ending after all that to be honest....And I don't even like the main pairing, but looking at all they've been through, it just felt unjustified IMO, but I guess this is all subjective, since some people consider that to be a happy ending. A happy ending for them to me, is they get to keep their 'human' form and get marry after all this, not that kind of ending... But well, at least their spirits/souls will always be together.... I am glad I am not invested in this pairing, because I will be so heart broken on my end, if that's the ending to my favourite pairing. I won’t spoil the full detail of their ending for you, happy or sad, you decide.


The ending for the second leading couple Xue Qian Xun and Qing Qing:
Okay, I will just say I am glad that Xue Qian Xun didn't die on me, nor did Qing Qing, and that they both can be alive at the end, but I don't know how I feel about Xue Qian Xun going back to his former self, but I guess I will take that as a good ending for him, since he don't need to be the Lord of Pavillion anymore, and they definitely deserves to be happy since they have waited and separated for 1000 years just to get this happy ending. I am going to just pretend that his poison and control is lifted after he "died" at first and then how he can return to his former self (although this lead me to think, that he never died in his first life, I always questioned whether he did or not, but when he said "3000 years ago...." he didn't remember the details" etc etc, so he did live through all those years, and then in that flashback that revealed his back story, it showed that he used up his powers to save "Qing Qing" from falling into the black vortex (which I think if she did, then her soul will be shattered, and won't be able to be reborn), and then, it was said that from that moment on, his memories was erased and that's how he became the Lord of Pavilion, name changed to Xue Qian Xun (but that's how I deciphered it, since it wasn't really touched on it),

So for the ending, I have mix feelings on my end. I definitely wish it was better, but I will just take what I can get, it's at least better than the main pairing ending, so can't ask for too much I guess, since it was a low budget drama (sigh).


Music: Errrr, 4.5/10 I guess, I mean, I like the bgm/midi when it’s between Xue Qing Xuan and Qing Qing, and sometimes they have that background midi for them and I like that, since it brings out the mystery of their past that connects to the present, and I also love their 2 songs which was played in the 2nd couple Xue Qing Xun and Qing Qing scene/moments, and I considered these two songs is their song: Say Goodbye (相别) By Wei Yi Ning (魏一宁) and Favor (青睐) By Ding Ding, but honestly, other than that, this drama doesn’t have any memorable soundtrack… They don’t even have a proper opening theme -_-;;

Rewatch Value: 5/10 I guess, I will watch again for my favourite scenes, that includes Xue Qing Xuan, and Xue Qing Xuan and Qing Qing, as well as other moments that I love. I am rewatching some of these scenes again, with some fast-forwarding on the boring parts of the main pairing. The FL is ‘okay’ at best for me. I do like her character in her last (final life), but I hate those Kunlun disciples that doesn’t know how to tell good youkais from bad youkais -_- They killed for the sake they are youkais is rather just annoying to see IMO.

The Antagonist.... Shocking!!!! Yet, not so shocking, but disappointed!!!!
Mingge Xingjun, I hate him… Zhu Zan Zin, you already played a scheming bastard in Chen Qing Ling, as Jin Guangyao, why do you have to play a similar role in this one???? My god, to think I actually liked you and thought you were genuine but turned out it was all a scheme and biggest lie! But I should have known, since HE was the one who told Qing Qing about the meteor mark can be rid of by detaching the Pipa string and used it to erase that mark… He would have known what that would do to Xue Qing Xuan, so I was like “????” why did he look so shocked and looked worried when Qing Qing told him that he(Xue Qing Xuan) attempted to pull a string for her? I mean, HE was the one who was pulling plotting all this, even in the past, omg…. And Lord of Fate, if you want to plot this, then DON’T involve Xue Qing Xuan in your schemes!!! -_- because thanks to you I can’t help but angst for him and worry for him, since he’s my favourite character. I’m glad he showed me he wanted to break free, and did for a short while, but then he got control of him again… URGH!!! Xue Qing Xuan wouldn’t have fallen into this trap if it weren’t for the gradual poison that you fed him with that “herbal” tea that you gave to Qing Qing that said will help him recover…. I didn’t want to see Xue Qing Xuan being controlled, and wish that didn’t happened…. And that was annoying that he didn’t regain control until almost half way through the final episode, and when that time comes, he “died” :( I was like “What?! NO!!” But at least he never hurt Qing Qing on his end, so that’s a good point there.

So, my verdict to this drama, 6.5 out of 10 for the story, but I will increase 0.5 points to make the overall up to 7 out of 10 because I do like the bromance between Xue Qing Xuan and Longyan, because I like how they started off as ‘not close’ to two friends, who happens to care for each other in that sense, and two of their scenes have this BL vibe LOLOLOLOL, which happened to be caught by Qing Qing when she enters the room. Story, IMO, could not reach 7 out of 10 in my eyes and remained as 6.5 out of 10 because I didn’t really like that ending, I wanted it to be better…. Oh well…. I watched this drama for the second leading characters, and pairing, and stick with it to the end for them, I do wish they have more screentime on their end, less the angst (lol), and it sucks that I didn't get much screentime for them due to Mingge Xingjun -_- like really, writers? Why? 36 episodes, each episode feels short and not the standard C-Drama being 40 something minutes, and you still can't even give us fans more of their screen times because of what happened to Xue Qing Xuan T___T (So that was 'minus points' there on the story for me). I know it's to build on the angst and drama, but so many things is happening for the remaining episodes, and it did feels rushed so can't give this a high rating because of all said.

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