The Seventh Generation (2023)

Who came first- the hen or the egg?

Let me start off by saying that i had put this drama on hold at ep 8. I was so mad at the screenwriter because the novel is one of my favorites because of how simple and enjoyable it was and they made a mess out of it here. The drama starts off slow and pretty annoying too. But, after finishing the full drama, i have to say it, they did a commendable job at modifying the novel. It gets better slowly as the conspiracy unfolds and everything happening also rounds up in the end. So here i will give some comparisons of the drama and novel and my own views on the drama.

Characters and Story: the original novel was rather simple. Xiao Xiangzi was a simple cloud, not an empress of heaven who was wronged and killed in her previous life, Chu Kong was a celestial star, not a god of war or heavenly prince. They crossed each other and as petty people they fought with each other and got punished by the emperor into undergoing 7 lives of love tribulation as punishment. The villain was Jin Lian, a dark practitioner and former master of Chu Kong, not a loyal subordinate of the empress in pursuit of justice for his clan and his queen, who killed his sister Jin Luo, while trying to take away her lover Zihui's stone heart to increase his powers. There weren't anymore significant characters in the novel.
Onto the drama, Prince Xiuming is one character that i grew to love even though initially i disliked him. He is our classic 2ml, in love with our fl, ready to do everything for her, and could've been made into a villain very easily, but he wasn't thankfully. Jin Lian unlike in the novel, wasn't villain here although he seems to be one at the start. Jin Luo and Zihui's story was totally different here, and both of them can be said to be good characters here. Luckily they got an open happy ending too unlike in the novel where Jin Luo slowly faded into the void after Zihui died and forgot her after his rebirth. Now, the cliche plot of evil heavenly emperor also applies here, the brother of Chu Kong, Hao Xuan is the supreme villain, except he didn't fit the every villain has his own sad story category. He was simply evil, jealous and greedy.

So why did i put the drama on hold? In the novel, the first life was about Lu Changkong and Song Xiangyun, a particularly touching arc. However, they messed it up real bad and threw in a love triangle and made it into a cliche political drama story. Not only that, this life was made the 2nd life in the drama. The first life in the drama was them in animal forms which was the 3rd life in the novel during which they started uncovering the conspiracy of Jin Lian. This was enough for me to give up. Later i restarted it again. But in the drama, it felt like these small mortal life arcs weren't given much importance. They were simply tools to make the adaptation. So these mortal arcs lacked depth to me. In the drama, the 3rd life brought out something good which was the brotherhood between Zihui and Jin Lian. The next life was another insignificant one in which they swapped bodies but found a clue to the existence of a darker conspiracy. After finishing it i realized that much more focus was placed on giving each and every character a back story, the past life of the main leads and the great conspiracy and uncovering it. This way, a rather simple novel was made into something deeper and more complicated story. Initially it seems that the story and plot is all over the place but this one has to be one of the most tied up plots. It barely left any loose ends since every piece falls back right into place by the last episode. Yet something it failed to do in the whole process of complicating the storyline is capturing my emotions. Too much happened in too little time, everything made sense, but somehow failed to bring out my feelings.

If so, why such a title to my review? Their love transcends time and space. The screenwriter managed to put in a time travel arc as the 5th life where the main leads go back 30000 years ago to investigate the truth and XXZ is born as Cang Hai, her past life. So my question lies in the fact about who fell in love first and why- was it Chu Kong with Xiao Xiangzi in present time while undergoing the tribulations, or was it Cang Hai and Chu Kong 30000 years ago which was XXZ and CK after time travelling and forgetting their own identities, but the red thread still tying them? So that's a question i can never answer. Well even XXZ failed to find an answer to it.

The tiny details were paid pretty good attention to. The hairpin, the pig and tiger, cloud reference, the same parents in every life who were once matched by XXZ, were subtle details.

The best part is the happy ending for everyone. For the main leads, it was an unsatisfactory last minute ending but clearly it was happy since he didn't forget her.

Friendship, teamwork, partnership and open communication was the best aspect of the relationship between the main leads, something which is never seen in xianxia dramas. That made their devotion and sincere love for each other even more precious. They were really one in mind and heart, not just in terms of love.

Production and Casting: I have seem YCY in many dramas and must say that she has improved greatly. Although the first few episodes was a bit difficult to watch and part of it was because of her acting, as it progressed, it became way better. In the 2nd life arc her acting and makeup was particularly unbearable. But anywhere before and after that, she did it very very well. It was my 2nd time watching Ryan Ding after the romance of tiger and rose, and he did his job well. Their chemistry felt natural. The actor playing Jin lian was too good, he had 3 roles which were totally different from each other and he nailed them. The actors playing Zihui and Xiuming were great in their part. Edward Zhang as usual played the villain well, the calm and collected backstabbing hypocritical evil guy.
Same color pallettes were used for every character, like CH had shades of red, XXZ had whites and purples everytime, XM had whites and greens, CK had blues, HX had goldens, ZH had violets. The cgi looked pretty too, but sometimes not quite convincing but it was okay, nothing to complain about. Now about music, the osts had really beautiful and touching lyrics, not just poetic, but simple and meaningful, as i conceived from their english translations.

I would definitely suggest watching this one. If i ever get time again, i might come back to rewatch it again.

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