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Qyestionable pacing but is still deeply enjoyable and touching
My expectations of this drama was a drama with good chemistry between the leads (it's Zhang Linghe and Jing Tian after all), with an interesting plot. Other than that, I didn't really know what to expect regarding this drama, and I was pleasantly surprised.First of all, don't let the synopsis of the drama mislead you. Nan Yan was born into a world of immortals, she never 'entered' one, and I didn't sense any kind of dislike between Nan Yan or Ji Yang throughout the whole drama, light hearted annoyance at most. If I were to write a synopsis for the drama, it would be this:
Nan Yan is a practical, optimistic and down-to-earth poisoner who's working to find a cure for her mother's heart disease. She saves the life of Shao Cang, the former monarch turned fugitive of a righteous sect. Shao Cang is aloof, powerful and clever. They quickly establish a strong connection. Together, with the company of the naïve and humorous Young Dragon Lord Mu Zhanting and the pitiful yet witty fox spirit Yin Ya, they uncover conspiracies of the four seas about events that happened 100 years ago.
The positive aspects of this drama.
The acting is beautiful, especially the acting of Zhang Linghe, Jing Tian, Darren Chen and Chang Long. They're amazing actors and completely immersed me in the story. They really carried this drama in terms of pure hard work and skill.
The characters are all so real. They all had their own goals, fears and dreams. Nan Yan and Ji Yang are masterful characters. Their complexities were so well-written and portrayed. There was not a single character in this drama that I think was handled badly. They made me sympathise with them so much.
The OST. As a carat, I'm strangely proud to hear Xu Minghao's (The8's) OST for this drama. It always made me emotional and engaged.
The tone of the drama. I don't really know what to call this section. I basically mean the light-heartedness/intensity of the drama. The first half of the drama was pleasantly more light-hearted than I was expecting, I was laughing aloud in almost every scene. Then, the second half of the drama was more intense and darker, handling more complex and dark themes. However, the light-heartedness/intensity were mixed in with each other. The first half still had intense and sad scenes, and they were mixed in with the light-hearted scenes but were still impactful and taken seriously. The second half also still had light-hearted scenes, which was a nice breath of fresh air from the newfound intensity of the plot and characters. The tonal shift also made sense, unlike other dramas, where the shift comes out of nowhere. In this drama, it was extremely clear cut and had a justifiable reason for the shift. Considering the plot, the shift was barely jarring. Overall, the tone of this drama is one of the best I have ever watched. It has so much character, so much colour, so much tangible emotion and so much detail. It was genuinely a pleasure to watch.
Costuming. The costuming in this drama was super beautiful. I've watched four dramas featuring Zhang Linghe so far (Fox Spirit Matchmaker Red Moon Pact, The Princess Royal, Story of Kunning Palace) and I can confidently say that he had the best styling in this drama. All of the clothes are lavish and so much attention and detail were put into them.
The plot of the drama. Personally, I found the plot of the drama super interesting and enthralling, with lots of twists and turns and different aspects being introduced. Most things made sense and it wasn't just random events happening in sequence with no relation to each other. That being said, the plot was still messy and confusing at times.
The negative aspects of this drama.
The pacing. Well, the title of this review says it all. Honestly, the pacing of the drama is not all bad. For some people, the pacing of the first half was too draggy and too little was happening, but I thought that it was perfect pacing for the light-heartedness of that part of the drama. The second half was when the pacing really picked up, packing a lot more into the episodes. This pacing was also good for the more intense theme of the second half of the drama. My big problem with pacing is nearing the end, I would say about 8 episodes from the finale. This was when the drama realised that it had a lot more of the story to tell and not enough time to tell it all. So they started packing in scenes one after the other with barely any time to breathe and process in between before a plot twist is revealed or there's a new series of events. Instead of untangling the web which was already established, i.e. Nan Rao's heart disease, Shao Cang being framed for murdering the Great Path sect and the Evil Path sect trying to resurrect Sen Luo, they just added more and more convoluted conspiracies on top, leaving only two episodes to solve everything in reality.
Overall, this is a drama that I enjoyed a lot. It had amazing acting, characters and tone, but the pacing towards the end dragged it down. The characters and their struggles and emotions spoke to me. This is a nice, entertaining watch.
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An honest review
I think this was great. What I love most is how ji Yang and Nan yans relationship had no toxicity AT ALL unlike every other drama, no matter a misunderstanding or evidence that shows he’s a bad guy, they always trusted each other. The characters personality for these two is the best of all, they are niceVond je deze recentie nuttig?
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Since it has Zhang Ling He, it is automatically on my watchlist. (Ep 1 to Ep 17)
The good:The story has just begun and I am hoping that this will be another drama that I can add to my rewatch list. The beginning arc is not so great but I still like some of the characters.
The FL when possessed by that genie has the best visuals so far. Hoping to see her powers more in the future.
Mu Zhan Ting is the best character so far, he adds the much needed fun to the linear drama that lacks depth.
The bad: (I can ignore all of this if the story picks up by the end since it is my fav genre with a talented cast)
Zhang Ling He's character seems washed out for some reason.
The visuals are sadly lacking. They remind me of Ashes of love which came out in 2018. The lack is especially jarring because I am currently watching the Dashing Youth as well which has really good visuals. The genie looks so bad, the Last immortal's water condensing beast looked way better than this hastily put together genie.
What's more, since it Xianxia the visuals were one of the most important part of the drama.
Jing Tian is a gorgeous gorgeous woman and has that otherworldly look that makes it difficult for me to see her as a character. I can never forget that she is an actor. I liked her better in Wonderland of Love.
I don't know why I can't seem to get into this drama, does it really lack the depth? When it suddenly came out, I was so damn excited but now I just seem to skip through the scenes for the sake of it.
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Definitely worth the watch
I took a gamble and watched this series even though it has a fairly low MDL rating of 7.8 and I'm glad I did. I actually enjoyed it. Yes the editing was not great and it felt like some parts were missing and the last episode felt like it was put together very haphazardly - but you still get the gist of the story and the ending. All of this might be because of budget restraints of not being able to enact every aspect of what's happening and the limitations on number of episodes (although another 4 episodes could have made it more comprehensive). This shouldn't however be the reason for the low score as there are many good things about this series, which outweighs the editing issues. There are also much worse Wuxia Fantasy series's out there that have higher ratings than this.The story was good, interesting and engaging, my only regret is that I read some of the comments which hinted what happens in the end so I new more or less what would happen.
I loved all the main Characters and the actors did great in portraying their respective characters. There's honestly not one actor that I can remember being bad in the whole cast in the main Arcs. I always enjoy watching Zhang Ling He and he did great as ML. The love between Nan Yan and Ji Yang was obvious with their acting even though kissing scenes were minimal. The friendship between the main cast, Ji Yang, Nan Yan, Little Fox Yin Ya and young Dragon Lord Mu ZhanTing was great and will miss them. I also enjoyed Nan Yan and her mother Nan Roa's interactions as well as ZhanTing and his father. The bit of comedy, mostly provided by the young Dragon lord was fun and placed a smile on my face every time. I also enjoyed the fight scenes and character building that took place for most of the characters.
Everything else, Production (excluding editing), Visual effects and Sound effects were also good. Loved the songs that accompanied all the scenes.
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Enjoyed it nonetheless!
I know so many people are not happy with this drama but here is my honest opinion"I came here fro Zhang Linghe but i also had in mind the negative reviews i read.
Good points:
-Beautiful faces, set and costumes
-Overall good story, and good mother backstory
-ML great acting
-Side characters are unique and likeable
-Really nice OST & BGM i loved it
-When you get bored, it can get better than boring then better so there is a dynamic going on
Bad points:
(assuming tight budget was the cause, i honest tried my best to overlook them)
-Bad editing (Especially at the begining)
-Bad voice quality and why was Jiyang whispering all the time
-Abrupt cut in scenes ( again because they had to cut 2 episodes to fit the budget)
-Rushed in places that shouldnt be rushed and too draggy in some places when not necessary
-FL had like, stiff acting? (maybe it is the character herself)
-They cut way too many juicy scenes for the budget (wehyyy)
I always put myself in FL shoes but here i couldnt at all.. I was just enjoying ZhLH's eyecandy acting and hair and makeupe and clothes
They should add review for production lol
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The show is worth a try.
I normally rate a show based on how much i was entertained by it. thus yes i do end up overlooking some flaws.during the whole 36 episodes, you got the feeling that direction was different, editing was done by different groups and so many things which sometimes made so many episodes have a unique feeling. Epi1-15 had a feeling and flow, then in between another feeling, and post 30 there is another essence in the show. i will definitely recommend this show. It has another flavor as compared to many shows i watched.
Good points; all the actors were good, be it the main ones or secondary ones. ML doesnt turn 100% evil, FL 99.9% never distrusted the ML... I think music was something i liked the most in this show, and the ML's clothes especially when he was in demonic state were so pretty,.
Bad:
not sure to write it as bad or not, but i read about all the production issues this show faced. hence there was many scenes which were badly edited, a few important scenes never given at all (you'd understand if you watch the show :))
rewatch value: yes at least a few scenes are so beautifully done.
Watch this show for the actors, they did a brilliant job but unfortunately other issues impacted in general the outcome which was brought to us. But overall a good watch.
also after watching the show completely, i got the feeling that they wanted to deliver something really good here. because some scenes were indeed topnotch, but unfortunately could not.
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ZLH rocks, the drama doesn't
If I thought ML Zhang Ling He was goodlooking before, he is eye candy 10.0 here! (His styling in his guest role in Red Moon Pact last few episodes was his handsome-est tho)Rather than critique just this drama since other's have(yes, the editing sucked, and the plot falls apart everywhere), I want to share my thoughts compared to other works by these actors.
FL Betty Tian was far better in Wonderland of Love with Xu Kai--while I felt there was lovely chemistry between the leads, her acting (or the script) was lacking in this drama.
ML ZLH was so adorable in this even when he was 'evil' -and I totally accepted this character and his love story here even tho' I had just seen him in Princess Royal, Story of Kunning Palace, and My Journey To You each with 3 different-FLs--his subtle expressions and eyes convincingly drew me in here so I kept watching.
I thought there was too much air time for the support male lead playing the young Dragon Lord but he was predictably goofy as he has been in other dramas.
Darren Chen played his role as typically annoying at first but matured as the story continued--I still only have liked him in Sleuth of Ming Dynasty.
Master of the Great Path was equally as sinister as he was in Janice Wu's Faithful--I guess he is enjoying the bad guy roles.
For this 2024 Summer costume dramas, this drama was far more palatable than Red Moon Pact and less heartwrenching than Lost You Forever, but The Double and Princess Royal were better story/scripts.
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Recomended
I liked the drama very much.Since it has Zhang Ling He, it is automatically on my watchlist. (Ep 1 to Ep 12)
The good:
The story has just begun and I am hoping that this will be another drama that I can add to my rewatch list. The beginning arc is not so great but I still like some of the characters.
The FL when possessed by that genie has the best visuals so far. Hoping to see her powers more in the future.
Mu Zhan Ting is the best character so far, he adds the much needed fun to the linear drama that lacks depth.
The bad: (I can ignore all of this if the story picks up by the end since it is my fav genre with a talented cast)
Zhang Ling He's character seems washed out for some reason.
The visuals are sadly lacking. They remind me of Ashes of love which came out in 2018. The lack is especially jarring because I am currently watching the Dashing Youth as well which has really good visuals. The genie looks so bad, the Last immortal's water condensing beast looked way better than this hastily put together genie. What's more, since it Xianxia the visuals were one of the most important part of the drama.
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The Unconventional Love Story in Xianxia World(Happy Qixi Festival)
The StoryIt's a story about Love ,Kindness, Friendship, Mystery, Cultivation World with a dose of Humor and Healthy Heartwarming Romance.Both ML and FL are one and only for each other,No love triangle,No unnecessary misunderstanding,Decent side characters with their own growth.
Acting/Cast
ZLH +JT=guarantee for Chemistry Visual feast with heart fluttering and so many swoon worthy moments
plus Darren Chen's charming cuteness and Chang Long's fresh comedic vibes are pure gold.
Music
All OSTs deserve to be single album.
Special Thanks
Original Novel 183 chapters to drama adaptation 36 episodes is not an easy job.The scriptwriter department really deserve credits.
Thanks to the Director,you know us and give the best to us,we always grateful for those beautiful shots of ZLH.
We know the post production budget for this drama fell shorts for reason yet all the crew do their best in term of CGI and sound effects.
Overall
Refreshing, Feeling Good Drama will fill your days with warm vibes.
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The cast saves the day!
The audio and editing is not great, but the cast did amazing!The production should've done better. In one of the first episodes (I don't remember if it was the 1st or 2nd) I think you can see a cameraman in the background towards the right of the screen (the right of the person watching or left for the tv). Plus the editing overall isn't the best I've come across.
The story is pretty good but the script definitely could've done a bit better in the plot's development and its pacing. What is a good story could've very easily been a great one, especially considering the AMAZING cast they had!
Not going to lie, the cast (because of their great acting and chemistry) saved this drama! If not for them I wouldn't be able to rate this more than 7.5! I loved the main squad aka FL, ML, Fox and young Dragon Lord. Their relationship was so so wholesome! I enjoyed it, every time they were on screen together. They had a very strong bond like a real family or even stronger than that and they brought the best out of each other. I am seriously going to miss them!
All in all, despite being a bit disappointed (I bought IQIYI VIP for this) I really enjoyed this drama, though the production left a lot to be desired, it was quite easily hidden because of the main cast's great chemistry and talented acting. Given a better written script (although the script wasn't that bad), directing and editing, this could have possibly been a masterpiece. Such loss of potential is disheartening. A shame, really!
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Nice series thanks to the quality of the actors (no false notes) and a great CL.
Wuxia series (lots of magic) with Zhang Ling He & Jing TianPLOT: The FL, a poisonner in her small, quiet sect, takes in the ML (banished Protector who has just escaped from the prison where he had been locked up for 100 years by the Great Path, a powerful & aggressive sect). The FL keeps him as a medecine tester. They are joined by the son of the Dragon Lord and 1 mischievous fox. The 4 friends will little by little discover their past and the Great Villain who manipulates the world to achieve his goal.
+++ Great CL, with great chemistry
+++ Excellent actors and cute Friendship in the team
+++ Good production and pleasant OST. Decent CGI & good fight scenes.
### Quite twisted story, with a lot of plotholes including the HE.
=> Nice series thanks to the quality of the actors (no false notes) and a great CL.
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Série Wuxia (bcp de magie) avec Zhang Ling He & Jing Tian
PLOT: La FL, spécialiste des poisons dans sa petite secte tranquille, recueille le ML (Protecteur banni qui vient de s'échapper de la prison où il était enfermé depuis 100 ans par la Great Path, secte sur puissante & agressive). La FL le garde comme testeur de remèdes. Ils sont rejoints par le fils Dragon et 1 renard malicieux. Les 4 amis vont peu à peu découvrir leur passé et le Great Villain qui manipule tt le monde pr atteindre son but.
+++ Great CL, avec belle alchimie
+++ TB acteurs et cute Friendship dans la team
+++ Bonne réalis° et OST agréables. CGI corrects & bonnes scènes de fight.
### Story assez tordue, avec pas mal de plotholes y compris la HE.
=> Série sympa grâce à la qualité des acteurs (pas de fausse note) et à un great CL.
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