One of the Best Dramas of 2023
STORYThere were many twists and turns in the drama. The plot was never boring. Whoever did the CGI needs a raise.
CASTING
Every cast member fit their role perfectly. Sometimes actors/actresses play a role and their character role sticks. This was not the case.
MUSIC
I put it on my Spotify playlist.
REWATCH VALUE
I gave the rewatch value a 9 because I don’t think I want to cry again. (or stay up till 3 in the morning)
Overall, this drama should go up there with Ashes of Love and Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms.
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Watch at your own risk
I loved this drama during its first 13 episodes: the story was not especially original but the execution felt much better than other xianxias with the same kind of plot, in terms of visuals, pace, camerawork, music. I was constantly amazed at the shots, the colors, the costumes, and i felt like the show managed to hit all its emotional beats.Then the dream arc happened, with more one-dimensional characters and more frustrating/unrealistic character actions to drive the plot forward. For the next 20 episodes, the drama kept doing good stuff, then throwing in a very predictable/avoidable/aggravating turn or misunderstanding, and undoing all its progress. Wash, rince and repeat. The main relationship followed the same pattern. By ep 35 I had no reason left to root for the main couple anymore and honestly thought they would be better off separated. Tantan Jin's obsession for Ye Xiwu was more disturbing than moving to me, and Ye Xiwu hated him enough that it seemed their relationship brought more more pain than happiness to her. All things considered Tantan Jin finding a temporary family in the Hengyang Sect around eps 30 was one of the things I enjoyed watching the most. Then the story took yet AGAIN a direction that I didn't like and I couldn't continue. If I needed a word to describe this whole watching experience, unrewarding would definitely be it.
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Rise & fall of the show
If it weren't for the two main actors, this show would be just garbage with good CGI. Bai Lu was excellent, as is her good habit, and Leo Luo surprised me quite a bit. As I'm not a fan of his, he convinced me that he can act and changed my mind about him.The whole story of this drama is just a dream of chaos, it doesn't make much sense and the production team tries to redeem it - save it with high-end CGI, which is really impressive on a screen of quality television. However, it soon ceases to entertain the viewer because that's basically all this show has to offer.
Novel readers seem to be able to get a better handle on the story, but for others it's hell. The writers have done this piece of work no favours. Rather, they've merely pointed out that it should be avoided by potential readers. I can't even imagine this drama having 60 episodes in the original when even in those 40 they considered filling in with filler scenes that could be skipped because they are irrelevant to the overall flow.
Moreover, if the writers and hence the novelist don't have enough imagination to keep the story going without letting every character die and rise multiple times, they should refrain from making any more. I find the amount of resurrections in this story almost disrespectful.
Despite all that, I was hooked at the beginning, but the second half went downward. It became a load of nonsense and overall it robbed me of my time. So if someone has nothing to do, they should check it out, but if they haven't read the original work, they'll find it preposterous on its face.
I give it a 7 because I'm too soft and kind-hearted. But if I had to rate it fairly, it's about a 5.
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Flawed Romance Flawed Execution
My heart goes out to the ML who fell in love sincerely with the FL who had ulterior motives behind her actions of keeping him alive and safe. Is a love like that worth glorifying? In the world of drama, it is as long as the FL falls in love with him too. If you’re not a fan of this type of storyline, skip this drama as there are other flaws that can either annoy you or make you laugh:1. Sleeping with all their hair accessories and gorgeous clothes - unrealistic especially in the mortal realm and somehow only restricted to the females as the males are seen without their headgear and with nightclothes.
2. Back and forth over and over again as the FL repeated left and easily returned to the ML. Too many times and too easily accepted by the ML made it so unrealistic.
3. FL was the most beautifully dressed up maid in all the dramas I’ve watched, complete with fancy headgear. She only wore the maid outfit once and subsequently was in fancy clothes although she was supposed to be a maid…
4. In the dream storyline, I am baffled by how the storyline forced in the sleeping together scene. So out of character for the FL to take action that way.
5. ML was a disciple in later episodes but you would never guess it from his fancy clothes and headgear particularly since his sect does have their own dress code.
A drama I expected to be flawed but I loved the actress playing the FL so watched this drama with my hand on the fast forward button as I mainly wanted to see the romance between her and the ML. And I am satisfied as these 2 actors did a beautiful job conveying all their emotions. The ML was in a class of his own making you feel all his torment and his love for the FL. I loved their interaction best when she was taking care of him when he was blind and although a common trope, my heart fluttered when his eyesight returned and he found out it was her taking care of him all along.
While this drama had a ton of misunderstandings to keep breaking up the main couple, I was glad that it reduced by the time the story moved on to when the ML became a disciple. In particular, I appreciated that there were both good and bad views from the immortals at the platform where the ML was being interrogated for causing the death of an immortal.
Above was written after watching till episode 35 which ended with a sweet moment. Then in the next episode, this drama unleashes a super huge misunderstanding that snowballs into a witch-hunt or rather devil-hunt as the last few episodes builds to a climax. Ending was a bit too short so it mainly focused on what happened next for the FL. Would have liked a few scenes on what the immortals did next or whether they ever found out about the ML’s sacrifice and regretted jumping to conclusions. No surprises or improvements in the overall story telling so my rating stays the same.
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Could've Been An Awesome Drama
This is a Critical Review, please do not read ahead if you're very attached to this drama, are easily offended, and/or do not like long reviews.Disclaimers: This review has many criticisms and spoilers from the drama. proceed at your own cost. Everything in this review is MY OWN PERSONAL OPINION.
Review Outline (in case anyone wants to jump around):
Plot/Story
Acting/Actors
Production Value
Makeup/Costumes
Music
Rewatch Value
Now then, like always, grab your tea/drink because this review will be long.
Plot/Story:
The biggest problem with this drama is its plot and storyline. Everything is very out of place and its (characters') goals are constantly changing. I haven't read the whole original novel, but I read a few chapters from the links provided on here and a lot of spoilers before all the episodes aired.
This drama is very frustrating and complex. The things that needed to be explained in this drama are not explained (well), and the things that do not need to be explained are explained too much. There were so many times where I was watching and was asking, "Why? But why? How? But how?"
For example, the smut scene of SJ and MY, why? What was the reason?! Another example is when TTJ suddenly appeared on land after being in the River of Stynx after 500 hundred years. Like how? How did these mortals live for hundreds of years? How does one become an immortal? Isn't BuYu the first and old immortal? *Btw BuYu is PangYiZhi, the little kid god that got kicked down by JiZe.* Why did it take BuYu 10,000 years to become an immortal or become PYZ? How come he didn't ascend as a god after so long? If the immortals like the sect leaders had been alive for 500 years or more, how come they can't recognize GYJW as XL? Didn't XL train in the sect for years?
The drama was a bit draggy here and there with its limit of 40 episodes. The drama spent too much time on the first arc (TTJ and YXW) in my opinion. The script writers probably dragged it out because they want "romance" time for TTJ and YXW. For the SJ and MY arc, it was that draggy but so many things were unnecessary. The drama could've ended at CJM and LSS having a good time after she saves him from execution. I wouldn't mind. The ending was very rushed. Have no idea how their child was conceived, but it doesn't even matter anymore because a lot of things weren't explained.
A lot of the lines were cringey. The flirting was milking every single last chemistry the leads had for each other.
YeBingChang and XiaoLin's romance...where? LOL.
Also, the script does a lot of telling instead of showing. BUT! When they do show, they've already told us about it beforehand. LOL.
A lot of things are repetitive such as the evil bone talk. We don't learn any new information, but the characters talk about it as if its something new.
I do believe that this is a very hard novel to adapt into a drama. I wouldn't personally adapt this novel into a drama unless I get to change a whole bunch of things. I applaud the production team on their attempt to do justice to the novel and even making this into a drama.
One big thing this drama failed to do is make us care about why anything is even important. The characters are not memorable nor likable. Why does the world even need to be saved?
Even if we do get the 58 supposed episodes, I don't think the drama would've been any better. I heard the production team said that because they can only air 40 episodes they stuffed all the supposed episodes into the 40 episodes. A normal episode used to be only 40 minutes, but now each episode is 58 minutes long. I don't think we missed anything much. I did hear that XL and YBC had more filmed but it was cut out.
Acting/Actors:
Y'all please be patient and kind with me. I do not have anything against the actors/actresses. These are just things I notice about the acting and writing for the characters that I want to talk about.
First off, the script isn't that good and I think all the actors did the best they could based on what they had. If you look at the behind the scenes you can tell how confused some of the actors are or misinterpreted some scenes. *Reminds me of Marvel fans asking why Tom Holland looks like he's confused half of the time. It's because he didn't know what was going on half of the time due to the script.*
All of the main characters are so inconsistent; their actions, their love story, their thoughts, their feelings, and ect. This makes it more difficult to act because not everything is filmed in order and characters has growth. *Ex: I remember in the Starry Love drama interview, Li LanDi had to often help remind Chen XingXu which character he was supposed to be along with what part of the story it was as things were filmed out of order. He had like 4 roles.* *Scenes are/can often film out of order due to filming locations.* Everything is literally out of place for a majority of the characters.
Leo Luo: This script did injustice to Leo Luo's acting skills. I know the man can do better and I've seen better from him. But he still did exceptionally well. I can tell he really enjoys his role as TTJ. His best acting scene was the whole episode on the boat explaining his misery/asking his questions before his execution by his brother--just not to die in the end. *I cannot with C-citizens catching his blood bags and pipes for the blood scenes. I can never look at those scenes the same again.* I wished that his voice was deeper and more scary. When he laughed evilly, it sounded a bit funny to me, like I wasn't scared nor did I feel/react like any of how the characters did. I was just...confused. He still did the best as MY, maybe because he has more experience playing characters similar to MY. The director said that Leo asked about a lot of things about the script and how to execute some scenes. TTJ is a very complex character and with a script like this where many things are unexplained. It can be very hard to execute because the actors have to fill in the missing blank and act according to their knowledge of the script and character given to them. I also can not comprehend how nice CJM is, like one does not just change over sleeping for 500 years. We see before TTJ gets the name CJM, he acts a bit innocent in order to get to talk to PYZ and find a way to revive YXW, but the overall sudden change was too quick. This feels like plot armor from the script writer(s) to make people like TTJ more. It also came off as if Leo just wants to create an entirely different person/character for CJM instead of convincing the audience that TTJ is CJM. It doesn't entirely work because CJM isn't a reincarnation of TTJ. Just because LSS took away the evil bone doesn't mean she took away all of his despair/hate/evilness/ect. CJM seems to almost act like he wants to be MY/is (like) MY, and an entirely different person from TTJ.
Bai Lu: It's very hard to differentiate LSS from the Old YXW and SJ. All of their personalities are just too similar. Their actions and motivations too, even LSS as new YXW. I found LSS to be too similar to SJ after the SJ arc. Also if you watch Bai Lu on a lot of variety shows/BTS/facetime, you can kind of see that sometimes Bai Lu is just being herself on screen and not her character. For example when LSS ate in front of TTJ to confirm that the food is not poisonous. No noble lady eats like that nor does someone who grew up like a princess in a sect. Even if LSS wanted to prove a point, it was out of character. Bai Lu's best scene is when she was SJ and went against TianHuan. Just in general, Bai Lu’s characters here are not easy to portray because her characters constantly go through life changing events. A lot of the time though, it seemed like those life changing events did not really affect the characters at all. It may seem like the characters didn't change. Her acting leaves me wanting more. For example, when LSS goes back 500 years as YXW, she forgets her stages of grief and jumps into focusing her mission and is in the acceptance stage. Same thing happened when she went back to the future, 500 years to her present. LSS just quickly accepts that the future has changed and that she has left everything behind as YXW. She doesn't feel much about anything and is very subtle. Like we know she's traumatized! But there wasn't a lot of emotion or showing of it when LSS came back. She got over things quickly.
Chen DuLing: This drama seems to be like it's supposed to be her breakthrough drama that makes her the next industry go to big/consistent FL, but sadly she wasn't shown much nor did she have any likable characters. The drama promoted her as one of the four leads all for her to be barely on screen and for them to list her later on as a supporting cast. Same with Ding Wei who played XiaoLin. Chen's acting is a bit forced and some scenes came off as overacting and over dramatic. For example, when TH ordered for SJ's clan to be killed, the scene came off as too much as she is not grounded in her acting. When she does the evil laugh, it sounds really fake. Also, instead of playing as an innocent YBC, who is actually greedy and quite evil; we see a YBC, who is (already) greedy and evil pretending to be innocent. YBC showed all her cards already through CDL's acting to the point that we could predict what type of character YBC is already. There's no build up or mystery to YBC. It was easy to tell YBC was faking her innocence, and therefore; everything YBC did to be innocent or nice came off as "she's totally faking" or "she's a snake". Favorite scene from CDL is when MN asked GYJW to stay with her after he left the mountain to supposedly find an answer to who he is.
Ding Wei: Like CDL, I wished his character also had more scenes. DW was also promoted to be one of the four main leads and it's disappointing that due to his short airing minutes/time, he and CDL are now listed as supporting cast. DW as an actor really plays and embodies XiaoLin as a main character. It was easy to tell that XL had his own vibe that is different from all the other characters. That vibe though was lost when he played SY and GYJW. Can't even evaluate SY much as he's barely shown in SJ and MY arc. GYJW was a questionable character. I was very confused by a lot of GYJW thoughts and actions. The script wrote GYJW as a resurrected XL but made him an entirely new personality/character. We didn't need that. GYJW just became annoying and despicable. Sometimes the camera would just cut to GYJW looking spaced out or looking like he's deep in thought. Yeah, if the script is like this and with GYJW's character being all over the place, I would be lost and confused too in what to do.
You know it's bad when the OG actors are just having fun filming. They're not even taking this drama seriously LOL. The BTS are so funny! The OG actors are just enjoying themselves as their characters and delivering their lines. Their roles is basically just to narrate a whole situation to pass time in the drama. I love their energy so much though. It makes the drama less serious in a way and reminds us not to take this drama too seriously. I've seen these OG actors do great acting before. Supporting roles did okay. Nothing too impressive. I do have to say though that Sun Zhenni is very pretty and it carried a majority of her scenes.
Production Value:
Money was questionably spent. I heard a lot of people say that the CGI in this drama is phenomenal but I dare to disagree. This level of CGI is normal nowadays for a decent to high budget fantasy drama. Underwater scenes are all too fake and change many times just for plot armor. Sets are very questionable. One scene we're in the palace meeting hall, then we're in a poor cottage, and then a rich cottage? No proper carriage or nice carriage for rich people or the Kings? Why does everyone own a horse, LOL.
Going back to sets, some of the places look very modernized, like it was just cleaned up for the shoot. For example, the rock and set/landscape that CJM and LSS was making out on after confessing their love.
Awful camera angles and close up on actors. Color lighting is constantly changing. Would've been better to stick to a certain tone per arc. Night never truly being dark...even when going to bed.
Majority boring/basic fighting scenes.There's more but they're not as bad as the above.
I do think money was well spent on the Gods CGI. I love seeing them. The best fighting scene is MingYe against the Devil God. It looked expensive, had good duel choreography, was well executed, and had great CGI.
Makeup/Costumes:
The makeup is just...all over the place. Whoever chose the foundation and put it on the actors...Why? Everyone looks as pale as a ghost. Pale means beauty but not this pale. This is legit white. No natural make-up. Everything was put on a bit too much. Maybe this next era of costume dramas is bringing back heavy makeup.
Eyeliners..OMG Leo Luo..What did they do to you?! Sometimes one eyeliner is shorter than the other. Sometimes one is thicker. Sometimes one is sharper than the other. Leo's eyebrows too. This is why they shouldn't have done so many close-ups of his face and the other actors!
Talking about close-ups. We can see pores. We can see those colored contacts, and how red some of the actors' eyes are from it. Lipstick and blushes, lots of shades, and very inconsistent colors on the actors. Close-ups were bad as the imperfections of the lipsticks can be seen. Like some colors just do not look flattering on the actors.
Now onto the clothing.
What is up with fantasy dramas nowadays just designing random outfits for mortals? You can't even tell if anyone is from the same Kingdom because they all wore different clothing styles. For the demons, can’t even tell that 10K years have passed due to their clothing and looks.
Also, why does the main cast (and some of the supporting casts) get better costumes than everyone else even when they're supposed to wear similar clothing/status to the others? CJM wears nice high fashion clothes as a disciple and has a different uniform. Same goes to LSS and GYJW. Their Shifus don't even have such nice clothes. No dress code, I guess.
YXW as a maid having an expensive looking maid outfit that is also a bit different from the rest of the maids... TTJ wears fur when he's a hostage prince.... SJ's evil purple outfit being a modern dress with overlay fabrics. Yes, we can see the straps that hold the dress. Paper Towel wrapped around CJM's shifu's headpiece. LOL!
I do really like the color palette for the Heavenly Gods and Goddesses outfits. Ming Ye probably has my favorite with his general outfit with the red and blue fabrics. I think the drama put a lot of money into the costumes because some of these costumes look EXPENSIVE AND BEAUTIFUL! But some of them are also just straight up filler outfits.
The mismatched earrings are giving...Korean Asymmetrical Earrings. It's pretty though. The hair dangles are so long and maybe a bit much. Pretty yes, but is it needed and practical? No. In the BTS their hair is constantly stuck due to the hair accessories.
Music:
I love a majority of the songs, but I do like all of the songs, so a 10/10.
I didn't like a lot of the songs when they appeared in the drama.TBH I didn't know that I liked all the songs because like 8/13 of them didn't even connect to me that it was from TTEOTM. The songs would just appear on my random chinese ost playlist. I had to look up the playlist and that's when I got a light bulb.
There's just something about the songs that don't feel cohesive altogether nor connect closely to the drama for me. I like to listen to a lot of the songs separately. When I listen to a majority of the song I don't even think about the drama.
A song I felt was used exceptionally well in the drama is 'My Body' - Huang Xiaoyun. It was perfectly used during the fighting scenes of MY and the Devil God. When the music came on before the last fighting moments...I felt the build up to that epic battle scene.
Rewatch Value:
Let's just say...there are hours of my life that I will never get back....
Funny thing is, I kept dropping this drama while it was airing. I watched around 10 episodes and then dropped, but I kept coming back due to the TT by Youku. Like I invested too much time into this drama already to not write a review. This review took me three weeks to write LMAO. I kept writing and got overwhelmed by how much I had to write about and kept stopping. I also overwrote my review that I had to delete over 1k words. I contemplated not writing or publishing my review, but I wanted to let out my rant about this drama so I can forget about it. And if I do ever need to rewatch a drama I can come back here to see exactly why I will not be rewatching this drama.
I actually rewatched some of the episodes because either I kept dropping it/slept through it/or just skimmed. On the episodes I did not rewatch, I was quite bored and I did find a lot of the romantic scenes cringey. Chemistry was too much for me LOL.
Overall, I think I'll just stick to the music and fan made videos of this drama.
Note : I do not hate this drama. Feel free to comment down below any questions or comments you have about my review. As a reminder, please be kind to each other.
Thank you so much if you've read and made it this far. I hope you enjoyed this review and were not too offended by my opinion. Have a wonderful day! Now then, peace out!
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a big dumpster fire
To keep it short: this drama is a dumpster fire.To keep it long, this drama has a very interesting premise - an anti-hero who was destined to become evil by a continuous cycle of abuse, betrayal, and abandonment falls in love with a heroine trying to prevent him from becoming evil. This had a lot of potential to be a great drama until the story became completely incoherent.
STORY AND CHARACTERS
The drama had disjoined plot and characters, nothing made sense, none of the characters told the truth, plot holes everywhere, and the values were completely skewed. A good guy was portrayed as a villain. Villains were portrayed as good guys. Tantai Jin was treated very poorly throughout the entire story by mostly everyone just because of whom he was destined to become and not because of what he did. He got no apology and no vindication. None of his good deeds got recognized and his "true love" never realized what kind sacrifices he had to make to save the world. There is no hope in this drama and nothing to look forward to.
The story started out strong with Susu and Tantai Jin meeting and immediately building a bond. They had a lot of cute interactions where they went shopping, she saved him from angry birds, they watched fireworks and played in the snow. This should have been the only story arc for the duration of the show. She figures out why he was evil because he had a hard life, so she shows him compassion and kindness, they fall in love, and he doesn't become evil. THE END. Instead, the show dragged on for multiple storylines adding no value to the main plot. The entire dream arc should have been reduced to flashbacks.
The story and characters were so completely incoherent, that it felt like the writers had no idea what they were doing. Everyone insisted that Tantai Jin was evil, but he was not written as an inherently evil person. About half-way through the show it became apparent that he was arbitrarily delt the villain card without actually deserving it. He was born "special", to a life of suffering and without love threads which would have enabled him to find love. But, he eventually grew love threads and fell in love, which should have derailed his destiny of becoming the devil god. But it was never addressed anywhere in the story. Inherently evil characters eventually slip up and do evil things. TJ never harmed an animal, never killed an innocent, never started a war, never betrayed anyone. He did not have an evil bone in his body, no pun intended. So, why was he still destined to become the devil god if he already changed his predetermined fate by finding love? Nobody knows, including the writers, who likely did not even understand their own characters. A lot of money was spent on the production and not enough on the writing.
Susu had an inconsistent personality and no real character development. One moment she acted like a crazed fangirl around TJ, the next she went on a sanctimonious rant about how he could not be saved because he was "evil". She always assumed the worst about him just to be proven wrong later, but she still never learned to trust him. Susu's problem was that she was never able to separate the individual from the devil god. It was extremely frustrating to watch that brainless woman going behind TJ's back all the time, doing something stupid and then blaming him for reacting to it. Betrayal was the one thing that was triggering to him. Yet, Susu kept repeatedly doing questionable things that made him feel betrayed and abandoned. It was absolutely cringe-worthy to watch this dumpster-fire of a romance imploding on itself because it was so self-sabotaging. Susu never had any trust in TJ, although he never gave her any reason to mistrust him. She always jumped to the worst conclusions and hurt him more often than she made him happy. While TJ went out of his way to avoid becoming the devil god and tried to do only good, none of his efforts were ever appreciated. Everyone always judged him without trying to figure out what actually went on. The only time when Susu finally understood him was in the very last episode when she became a goddess and was able to look into his heart. But, in my opinion, it was already too late for her. She had numerous opportunities to have his back and and to give him a chance. Instead, she always listened to rumors, superstitions, and speculations that often did not make any sense and accused him of a crime because he was a convenient scapegoat. There was no point even killing him at the end because he never allowed the devil god to control him.
One of the most infuriating things about Susu was her holier-than-thou personality. She saw herself as a good person. She was written as a good person, but she did some very reprehensible things. When she became Ye Xiwu, she found out that Xiwu was an awful person. Xiwu made TJ kneel in the snow. Any decent person would have ended that immediately, but Susu did not. She actually allowed TJ to kneel for days in the cold spying on him and having mental rants about how he "deserved" it. She also whipped him. Any sane and good person would have thrown the whip on the floor and said "I'm not doing it", but she was either not very bright or just decided to go with it. And, she whipped him. I seriously could not believe she did it. Not to mention that later on she drugged his food and drove nails into his heart. What in the actual hell....
Everything was awful. What are we supposed to derive from this story? Bullies don't get punished. Bad things will always happen to good people for no reason. No matter how far we go to sacrifice for others, they will never appreciate or even know about it. Again, what is the point?
On a different note, the blood spitting in every episode became very noticeable and looked disgusting. There didn't need to be so much blood coming out of people's mouths, especially in scenes where it wasn't necessary.
SET/COSTUMES/MAKE-UP
The set was beautiful, 'nuff set.
Taitan Jin's outfits were often ridiculous. The writers obviously wanted him to stand out. But, they made him stand out too much. Feathery outfits, flowing capes, and an over-powdered face full of make-up was a bit much. Susu sleeping in her head jewelry also looked stupid.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Usually, happy endings make me feel all warm and fuzzy. Sad endings make me feel bittersweet. This drama made me feel empty. More often than not I wanted to reach into the screen and drag Taitan Jin out of that mess. He was better than all of them and he deserved so much more. The writers broke every rule of writing. They wrote an "evil" character without actually making him evil. They wrote star-crossed lovers with only one person making any effort. Susu's original goal was to prevent TJ from turning into the devil god, but every action she took pushed TJ closer to the edge. She never even told him that she loved him in any meaningful way. This story was like the Pandora's box - it unleashed every single calamity on the world, except hope.
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This is one good xian xia drama. It's very rare that you get a "villain" good main character. Especially one with a complex psychological issue. Usually you get to have your heroic goody-goody ML in costume dramas that you will automatically symphatize and fell in love with, because well, he's just a good guy. This drama is different. You get to see the ML in different state of mind and the first few episodes tell his background story, how he was bullied and emotionally abused, and therefore became a demon lord. He has a difficult childhood, grew up to be someone nobody likes. The one who is supposed to love him unconditionally is no longer there and he was accused as the murderer as his mother, the beloved concubine of his father, died at childbirth. He is then said to be incapable of love. However, in later episodes, you also get to see his softer side and he began to loosen up and realized that he is capable of loving and caring for another person.This is a tragic love story. For me, those are usually a good one and stays with me for years and hard to move on from vs a happy ending one. The couple went through different realms and act as different characters, but they are the same person as the memory of other realms stays. The story spans hundreds of years, but the couple somehow always find their way to each other.
I have only watched Luo Yun Xi in Ashes of Love and he didn't stand out for me in that role (I'm probably bias because I like Deng Lun), but he did a remarkably well job as the demon lord in Till The End of The Moon. He is playing a really complex characters with so many emotional issues. He portrayed it very well. You can feel his sadness, his happiness. And also his cheeky side :) He is too skinny to my liking, but boy he is a good actor! As for Bai Lu, this is my first time watching a drama with her in and I thought she acted well too. But the award should go to Luo Yun Xi *clap clap*
Like AvenueX said, this drama has that video game nuance to it. I feel like playing an RPG game on PlayStation or Nintendo. Which is one of the reason why I did not give a higher rating for this drama. There are also some confusing parts, like you're missing something but you've actually been paying attention all the time while watching. The limit on 40 episodes is really a bitch sometimes. I know people hate many episodes in a drama, but I guess it depends on the drama. If it's really good, you hardly feel it (like Story of Yanxi Palace!) and perhaps want more episodes. But that's just me.
The OST is superb! I love all of the songs and have all songs on my playlist.
If you ask me will i be re-watching this drama? Sure, when I have the time or have nothing else to watch.
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The storyline is great
This is the second collaboration between bai lu and luo yunxi that's why I always wanted to watch this. This is my first ancient drama.The storylines are very good in all the three lives.They are well connected to each other. I always wanted to watch this type of storyline. The character I not like was ye biancheng at the last because she is not so much interesting villan.from her face you can say what is she going to do from ep 1 to ep 40.
The cast also had done great ? there acting skills are just wow ?. literally you can feel the emotion of the characters. Especially bai lu and luo yunxi their emotional scenes are very good.
The costumes have great impact on characters. The costumes are so good, creative and well-defined that they can tell about character. The costumes I love the most was Tantaijin devil Lord costumes, Li susu pink dress in that dress bai lu was looking beautiful.
And in the three wedding costumes. last wedding costume was amazing with dark shades. ming ye and sang jiu's wedding costumes was prettiest of all. tantai jin and ye xiwu's wedding costumes was also good.
The story line I like the most was ming ye and sang jiu it was very beautiful
The osts are very beautiful. The best ??ones are when we were like 10,000 years like this and mystical bird, my world.
vfx is great ?in scenes like great war or some beautiful scenes. It doesn't look unrealistic.
This drama is worth watching...
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When everything comes together this can happen
Where do I begin reviewing this 40 episode masterpiece? Ok, I will start telling you my viewer's experience. Although I have seen a few Wuxia's and other C-drama's, I had never seen any of Bai Lu or Leo Luo before. From the first second they appeared on screen I was captivated, mostly by the scenes they were both in. The chemistry is one I have rarely seen between 2 actors. Not just good, but almost otherworldly. If you know that in essence, they are both playing 3 different roles, and in all of these they hit the mark flawlessly, it is an amazing accomplishment. Bai Lu nails the fierce immortal Li Susu, the cold-ish Ye Xiwu and the innocent clam princess in the Bo're Life. Almost impossible, but Leo Luo is even better as Tantai Jin, the conflicted young man born with the evil bone but good to his core, the devil god, who wants to plunge the world back into chaos, and Tantai Jin the magnificent ruler of the united lands. Their love is as epic as Romeo and Juliet and just as fateful. By ep. 25 I could no longer watch more than 1 episode at a time as so much happens in one episode its dazzling. You get your hopes up that finally things will look up for our lovely couple and in the next minute it all comes crashing down because of a demon, a sister, a brother or a mission. I cried more times than I remember, i screamed at the screen and I told people I was not on my best since I was watching this series that kept me preoccupied. It took over my life!The supporting cast is just as amazing as the main couple. I loved the 8-tailed fox and the general's tale. They almost deserve their own series! The horrible sister who stole the love threads knew to invoke some sympathy despite her evil actions. The too good to be true friend/brother was exactly that: too good to be true when faced with real problems.
The story is so amazingly well put together that there are no significant plotholes or storyleaps. It all ties together seamlessly. This in itself is rare in wuxia's.
To top it all off, the visuals are fantastic. Beautiful colors, not too over the top effects (if you don't count the bloodspitting at least twice per episode lol), elaborate costumes. beautiful makeup.... perfection and an absolute 10/10.
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You are just Tantai Jin.
Captivating at the beginning till end. From all the dramas I've watched in the past including all xianxa dramas, this one has everything that makes a good xianxa drama. It almost feels like 3 different dramas in one considering Bo're life, mortal realm and immortality arch. I think that's also what makes this drama worth following. You almost want to watch the two main leads go through many obstacles in order to be together. I must also mention how great of an OST they have. I feel like all good dramas always have Mao Buyi, Liu Yuning and Tia Ray as some of the artists. I have never watched a xianxa drama where Mao Buyi has disappointed me. The music in this drama really elevates each scene perfectly. Okay, I'll start by reviewing some of the main actors and their characters.Luo Yunxi as Tantai Jin, Cang Jiumin, and Ming Ye:
Wow, he did not disappoint. The first time, I ever saw him was in Ashes of Love. Of course, I wasn't rooting for him at the time, but thinking back now, he did do a great job in that drama. I was more amazed by his acting in this drama, the subtle face expressions and his eyes. The way he can portray the look of betrayal and hurt is on a whole different level. I have never been so captivated by an actor. You can also see the love and care he can portray in his gaze when he looks at the main female lead. You can clearly see his acting change depending on which character he is playing. I love the kind-hearted, righteous and loving Ming Ye, but I learned to love the cunning, skeptical, and pitiful character Tantai Jin. I also loved how he could portray a character who has so much sorrow into someone who truly has nothing to a character who sees some glimmer of hope, but not in just everyone but only in one person. Which leads him to want to become a good person. I think after this drama, I'll continue to follow his works and I hope to see him as the main lead in many dramas to follow.
Bai Lu as Li Susu, Ye Xiwu and Sang Jiu:
Ah~ I've watched her in so many dramas and I was a fan immediately. She also did not disappoint in this drama. I didn't love a lot of the characters she played but I commend her for being able to bring out the characters so well. From a sweet naive Sang Jiu to the vengeful and unforgiving Sang Jiu. Her acting as Ye Xiwu was amazing as well, she was able to bring out a lot of playfulness within the role. This role also had a lot of painful scenes, I feel like the best ones would be the wedding night in the mortal realm and when she exchanged her own divine essence for the evil bone. The sadness and hatred in her eyes along with Luo Yunxi's eyes of hurt and betrayal are the ingredients to my crying session . She does have great chemistry with all the leads she's ever been paired with.
Sun Zhen Ni as Pian Ran
I really hope this girl gets other roles in the future. She did a phenomenal job. If there are fox demons out there then she would be the prime example of one. Her alluring presence takes control of all the scenes she's in. I loved her character with Ye Qingyu. I really wished they had more to their story and a better ending, but maybe one day these loose ends will be covered.
Eddy Geng as Ye Qingyu
UGHHH~what a loyal dependable man. This character is too good to be real. I hope to see this actor play more roles in future dramas. He truly fit the role of a young, innocent, loyal and righteous general. His chemistry with Sun Zhen Ni was very enjoyable to watch. I truly liked this couple a lot more than the second leading couple. Tbh the second leading couple's story wasn't bad but I definitely think this couple steals the show over the second leads.
Eh, I don't have many comments on the second leads, they played their roles very well and I'll leave it at that.
Overall, I am impressed by the drama's actors/actresses, production, plot and OST. I will not lie, I read spoilers ahead of time and knew that the ending was going to be a sad one. I can tell you now, I would watch this drama again. The writing is magnificent. This drama isn't about a happy ending, but more about each character and who they became, what they want to be and their love for one another. It's more than a drama about just two lovers, but about two lovers who have loved, hated, died, and sacrificed. I honestly think the ending is perfect for this drama. It perfectly portrays what the characters worked so hard for and shows hoe much love the two main leads had together. If there is a special ending episode, I'd love to see it, but I am content with how much this drama brought me. This drama has a new special place in my heart. Kudos to the cast for bringing these characters to life and their amazing acting.
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WHAT THE FOCK
i'm actually so speechless right now i don't even know what to say.I started this bc I read the first sentence from the first review on MDL and that got me hooked AND THEY WEREN'T WRONG
heartbreaking, beautiful and absolutely chaotic
that was not the ending I expected even though i should've seen it coming
stories goes across three life spans, three different stories, that find a way to connect with one another until the end
I didn't know Tantai Jin means the "moon" but it all makes sense when you put that together.
I absolutely loved this even though I was infuriated with some parts and bored with others, especially the 2nd LC. I think this is my first Bai Lu drama and its safe to say that it isn't my last. LYX and BL's chemistry was top notch and hearing that this isn't their first drama together, i'm def watching the other one.
there's so much to say about this drama and not enough words in my vocubulary. maybe i'll come back and write an even better review after i digested this drama since i just finished it a minute ago. let me tell you it left me sitting in a blank stare after i sat there sobbing during the last couple scenes.
edit: AND I ABSOLUTELY LOVED THE INTRO/OUTRO AND OST
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Sometimes Home is a person♡~
I am someone who also used to consider episode numbers. But I started this without considering this factor(Thanks to Netflix's beautiful thumbnail?). Now I will stop rambling.Li Susu,the lady of spirituality has a huge burden on her shoulders. Go back to time and kill the person who becomes THE DEVIL. But what if that person is none other than your Husband, Tantai Jin. The husband you hates because he ruined your devious plan to marry to your LOML ,the husband who is bull!ed by everyone,the husband who is the enemy of your country and held by hostage by your own country?
Tantai Jin looks like the disney princess on the surface since he has the ability to talk birds,suffers a lot and a voice motivates him to be evil? Li Susu, now Ye Xi Wu is a variable in his plan. Her little kindness start to melt his icy heart. But reaches a obsession in the later part(but thank God makers toned it down but I really wanted unhinged TTJ tho?). Ye Xi Wu/Li Su Su becomes his light in his darkness. She becomes his home,his guiding light♥️ His search for her is filled with angst and desperation.
What if their fate is not limited to 1 life but a fate of 3 lives? Where they are Mortals,Demons and Gods.
Tantai Jin reminded me of Eren Yeager. All he wanted was to be with his loved one until his last breath but had to chose to became the one you never wanted to protect his loved one.
This show has one of the beautiful OSTs I have ever heard. Especially black/mystic bird by Saji♥️I am happy to say that the a minute in 40 hrs~ was never disappointing. Only problem with this show was it felt too short??Anyways I would also recommend Love is sweet for all the happiness this series deprived us.
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