1Stunning cast & visuals BUT horrible script, badly executed plot & editing
This drama is my 2024 Biggest Disappointment. I had high expectations for the first instalment in the Fox Spirit Matchmaker series since it was iQiyi most anticipated high budgeted drama for 2024. As a xianxia lover + hopeless romantic + fan of the cast, I thought for sure this would be an easy 10/10. But unfortunately, this drama felt like I was introduced to the most stunningly beautiful wedding cake, only to be told it’s inedible. I truly feel the drama had the potential to be one of the best xianxias but it was totally ruined by the script writers whose budget must have been 0.99$... oh and don’t get me started on the horrible editing.The drama is about the female lead who is an ancient fox and Chief of Tushan, a magical land where fox spirits can live freely and humans are not allowed in. Except one human, the male lead, who, as a child, is rescued by her due to his magical blood. 16 years later, an evil fox shows up and tries to destroy Tushan and kill all humans. Also, part of the story is the Grief Tree, a place where humans and spirits can ask for love blessings. The female lead indirectly serves as a matchmaker to the three side couple whose stories are also woven into the plot.
The story that’s off well and is quite enjoyable in the early episodes although I always felt something big was missing. Up until episode 20 it was a decent watch but then the drama created a useless amnesia plot that ruined everything. The last episodes were the worst and the ending kind of made me feel like it was a waste of a watch.
Are all Fox Spirit Matchmaker dramas connected?
The world and characters are interconnected but each drama is a different story. IMPORTANT NOTE: this drama directly spoils the ending for the prequel Love in Pavilion.
THE COUPLES:
✨ Ancient Fox and her Human Disciple (Yang Mi and Gong Jun) main cp / cold woman and warm male vibes. Badly written love story. Read my negative point below.
✨ Carefree Fox and her Cheeky Prince Spirit (Cristy Guo and Miles Wei) second cp / bickering friends vibes / ep 5 love story beings. My favourite ship, I love them dearly however I hated the way they treated the male lead during the amnesia plot. All of their scenes were super adorable but at the same time they didn’t really have much of a love story.
✨ Human Princess and her Spirit Bodyguard (Bambi Zhu and Yang Shi Ze) third cp / Aladdin and Jasmine vibes / ep 7-13 love story. The best side story of them all with great political intrigue. The actor’s chemistry was fantastic. The plot had some much potential to be expanded into a full story.
✨ Human Detective and her Flirty Thousand-Faces Spirit (Sebrina Chen and Mao Zi Jun) forth cp / Beauty and the Beast vibes / ep 21-29 love story. Great chemistry, their love story had a lot of potential but not enough time to be fully explored. I loved the message of inner beauty. The only thing I hated was the massive red flag that guy displayed at their final scene.
✨ Mischievous Tree Spirit and her Dummy-cute Human (Chen Du Ling and Zhang Ling He) fifth couple / Fairytale vibes / ep 30-34 love story. The most hilarious and funny side story. Their screen time was extremely short but the actor’s chemistry made up for it.
POSITIVE:
- Good-looking and well-known cast.
- Stunning costumes.
- Beautiful scenery and a world that looks truly magical and fairy-tale like.
- Awesome side couples/stories. Hands down the best part of the drama is the side couples and their stories. Granted, they had limited screen time but were still impactful. The chemistry between the actors was sizzling and the only reason I kept watching. The stories were woven well into the main plot and it all felt connected
- Badass women. Pretty much all the women in the drama were always high ranked, independent and powerful.
- Male eye candy. All the men in the drama were feast for the eyes. I loved seeing Gong Jun as the male lead, his cheeky and youthful character was different from the unhinged and morally grey roles I had previously seen him in. Miles Wei was very charming, Zhang Ling He was super hilarious and Mao Zi Jun was wonderful to watch.
- Stunning artwork. A bit off topic but worth mentioning that the drama released more than beautiful 10 different art works with all 10 characters.
- Brainless watch. Well, it’s not exactly a positive but some days I was very tired so watching this drama was easy as it didn’t require much brain power.
NEGATIVE:
- Badly written main lead’s story. No proper foundation, no proper development and totally butchered in the second half. I feel the best love stories are those where we follow the leads, meet up for the first time, face challenges and fall in love. But in this case, the main leads have already lived in the same place for 16 years and then the male lead suddenly falls for her. Their love story doesn’t help the controversial fact that she has known him since he was a child. However she did look more like a mentor than mother figure to me. On top of all that, 98% of the time, the female lead was cold and wooden towards him which didn’t allow for any chemistry to be explored. The nail in the coffin was the amnesia plot after ep 20 that was totally useless, stalled any sort of development and in fact ruined the couple completely. In the end, I couldn’t root for the leads at all and in fact felt the male lead deserved better.
- Clown villains. Black Fox is the most one-dimensional villain I’ve ever seen. We are never given a backstory of her motives. She just wants to kill humans. Her only real superpower is boring the audience to death with her dialogue. Her scenes are useless and frankly embarrassing to watch. Her subordinate is just as useless, repeatedly failing to kill the heroes. The only worthy villain is the White Fox who unfortunately the writers never allowed to gain power and be an actual threat. He had a good backstory and unhinged personality to be a compelling villain that could have elevated the plot.
- Repetitive plot. The main plot was an absolute joke of useless and boring repetitions of heroes vs villains, tons of illogical parts and stupid things the characters said and did. Many things were happening but actually nothing significant or impactful ever happened. The worst past was the amnesia plot which lasted for 10 episodes and was beyond useless as literally nothing happened.
- Lackluster fight scenes. No martial arts ever used, just static hands up in the air and colours coming out of them to “fight”. In the rare cases of a weapon being used, the fight scenes end after 2 seconds.
- Horrible editing. All scenes are cut weirdly. This is especially noticeable when the emotional scenes end abruptly as the audience is not given enough time to process what’s happening and connect with the characters. All the key scenes end up anti-climatic. Sometimes, the characters pop up out of nowhere and you do wonder where they came from and what they were doing.
- Surface level relationships. As discussed above, the main love story was badly executed. The rest of the couples also suffered from a lack of build up and their dialogue at times felt forced and/or odd. I could argue that they didn’t have enough screen time for their love stories to be explored. But I do think the issue lies in the fact that the drama spent more time focusing on the useless plot rather than developing the characters, seeing them interact with each other and building the relationships between them. I never felt the characters were real people, I never felt I knew anything about them, who they were, what their dreams and fears were. Everything just lacked depth.
- Wooden female lead. This is my first time seeing the actress so I don’t have much data to go by. At the start of the drama her character was stoic and expressionless which suited her role as a Chief and ancient being however during the whole drama she lacked any sort of personality and portrayal of feelings. She could easily pass for wood in the forest. Towards the end though, when her character was evil, the actress did shine as the writers actually gave her a personality. Overall, I feel her character was badly written but I also wasn’t quite impressed with the actress’ micro-expressions.
- Underwhelming ending. It was boring, cheap, cliche, and lazily written. To satisfy the audience, the writers literally introduced a new random concept in the last 5 minutes of the drama.
OVERALL:
With a heavy heart, I award this drama as my 2024 Biggest Disappointment. A pretty package without any substance inside. iQiyi flopped badly with this one and I feel sad for the cast for being given such a bad script. Granted, it’s not the worst xianxia out there but due to the huge anticipation and money invested, it was a total waste of a production. The potential was definitely there but the execution was horrendous. I suppose, it’s only worth watching if you really love the cast, you are new to cdramas and/or you want a brainless watch after a tiring day. I can only hope the next two instalments don’t follow the same fate as this one.
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When good CGI meets questionable loveline
Having watched the trailer months ago I highly anticipated this drama. Especially with the amazing costumes, high profile actors/actresses and beautiful CGI effects. However my excitement got quickly met with disappointment upon watching the first few episodes and onwards. Not only did the plot fell flat, I also still can't wrap my head around the mainleads loveline.Let me explain: The story starts out with a child (ML) crossing the border of Tushan in an attempt to survive an attack. After this he gets taken in by a seemingly older lady (FL) who could've passed as his aunt. The difference in age, appearance and demeanor had immediately set the tone for me as to what their relationship was: either aunt-cousin or teacher-student. Even though ML grew into a full fletched adult as the story progressed, his personality remained more or less the same to me: playful (even childlike I might say) and expressive whereas FL remained stoic and authorative (haven't seen any expression from her other than the go to pokerface). The lack of character development made it nearly impossible for me to break free from the initial aunt-cousin perception that I had formed at the beginning of the story (I mean hell, she basically raised him, saw him grow up into an adult and from time to time still mentions this throughout the drama). Their love therefore, just felt downright wrong and out of place to me.
I honestly wished that they casted a more younger looking actress for the role of FL. I mean don't get me wrong Yang Mi looks absolutely beautiful for her age but when put next to ML, the age gap can be seen and felt, making it much more difficult for viewers like me to break free from the initial "protective/stern aunt - rebelious cousin" image. That being said, I'll still continue to watch the rest of the story as we're only halfway through. I wanna give it a fair chance though I don't have much hope for it.
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Another 'Noona' story and then ?
I really wanted to like this drama since I like many of the main leads but I've lost interest at 14 episodes in due to the simplistic plot is and how one dimensional the characters are. YangMi is playing the older woman to a T so much that basically she's just a staring monotone emotionless beauty (ok, the costumes and her makeup are great) and Simon Gong plays the naive smitten young guy since he can pull it off with his boyish looks but it's so obvious he's acting not-his-age--which is rather funny in that he really is younger than her in real life, but here, the age/maturity distance is even greater (hence my reference to 'Noona' which is what younger guys call their older female crushes in Kdramas). The relationships and roles are so obvious and the plot progress is so linear, that there is nothing to anticipate to challenge your expectations of the story..Basically it seems all of the actors are too mature for their script--the dialogue/interactions are like what you get in a high school dramas.
So if you are fans of the leads, it's fan-fav fluff, but if you're looking for a clever, engaging story with twists/surprises, this does not seem to be it.
PS. To kill time I watched the rest of the drama once all the episodes were done and I am sorry to say it never got better. YangMi never cracked her demeanor til the last episode-by which time, you are utterly not convinced of their enduring love.
The ending scenes I guess are to give you a sense of happiness after several tragic stories but totally felt just stuck in so it didn't end sad. I watched it at 1.25 and skipped to get through it. The last love story with Zhang Ling He and Chen Du Ling was lovely eye candy but hard to say it was critical to the story except to create a reason for the last clash of differences. Had this story been more about truly overcoming prejudicesand misperceptions and the growth of understanding different cultures/people it might have been more brain worthy but it was just a idol trafffic drama.
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Easy, fun watch if you don't take it seriously (and are aware of some things beforehand)
I began this drama with no expectations and no awareness of the hype around it, but having read the manhua before. I think these factors influenced my enjoyment of it.Rather than just listing likes/dislikes in my review, I thought I'd write about different aspects and what worked or didn't work with them.
Visuals:
Firstly, this is a very aesthetically pleasing drama. Some of the visual effects are breathtaking, especially if watched on a large screen. Costumes were beautiful, and so was the cast.
Acting:
The primary characters have been acted the way they were depicted in the manhua/donghua.
I've seen a lot of criticism about the FL's emotionless face, but that is very true to the source. There's a reason behind the character's lack of emotions, which probably should have been introduced much earlier in the storyline because viewers would have empathized more. She looks and acts like a leader with a lot of responsibilities and centuries worth of grief in a way that I don't think a younger actor could have pulled off.
The ML is supposed to be a hyper, over-enthusiastic young man (actually, *boy* in the manhua), and that's how he has been acted.
Whether it was a good idea to stay so true to the source is a different matter. It's fine when you've read it as I had, but viewers who haven't read or watched the source material may find her stoicism and/or his flamboyance difficult to understand. But this is not a fault of the actors.
Romance:
Don't expect a sizzling romance from the main CP. It's not supposed to be that way. It's about two people who make huge sacrifices to protect each other and the six realms. There are still sweet moments though. You have to look out for micro-expressions to gauge her feelings, while he wears his heart on his sleeve. I'm all about micro-expressions in stoic characters, so I could get her feelings most of the time. She does become more expressive towards the end, and maybe most viewers would have preferred if that change had come sooner and lasted longer.
Regarding the other CPs: Apart from the finale, the interim endings for the CPs follow the direction of the manhua as well. The drama has deviated hugely for their ultimate ending, which could be for various reasons. I didn't mind hugely.
For manhua/donghua fans:
Some key scenes from the donghua have been recreated here, and done really well. There have been some changes, but they were necessary (for example, ML's age).
Editing:
This is one of the biggest problems I (and many others) had with the drama. I've never watched a drama with such poor editing before this. Scenes change before you have time to grasp what's going on, and sometimes they just abruptly cut off. This doesn't allow viewers to emotionally connect with the characters or what's happening. There are frequent long shots of the scenery, which is ok once or twice, but we don't need it all the time. We can admire the scenery as things happen between the characters.
Storyline and direction:
The overall story would have been fine, if only it had been handled well. Instead, there was a slow start, too many pointless battles with the same villains over and over again, too many side characters, and a very irritating and poorly handled storyline in the middle. Important plot points (such as the reason for the FL's lack of emotions) should have been introduced during the setup episodes, not midway through. These factors, along with the bad editing, were probably reason enough for many people to stop watching.
Overall verdict:
My overall review score is probably on the generous side, but it's because, despite finding many faults with this drama, I still enjoyed watching it. I wasn't expecting something deep and meaningful. I wanted a casual watch where my brain could switch off and I could be entertained, and I got exactly that. (Actually, some fellow MDL-ers and I went back and forth with multiple theories, so maybe my brain didn't switch off, but I don't mind.)
I will probably rewatch the whole thing again after a break. I'm hoping iQIYI will have the grace to have it re-edited in the interim.
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Strongly recommend! A must see drama!
It’s an all-round experience of extreme comfort. It's the first time I've seen such a top-notch lineup of handsome actors and beautiful actress in a Chinese domestic TV series. In particular, Gong Jun's Dongfang Yue Chu is marvelous, which is completely different from the previous Prince Han Ye's character performance. You look at every shot of him, there is a strong sense of substitution, and you will feel the charm of the actor. In addition to good looks, every actor's acting skills are very natural online. To put it bluntly, a drama can continue to catch your attention after watching a few screens, so that you have the desire to continue watching, without changing the channel or fast-forwarding, this is a success, and This drama does it. Strongly recommend!Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
Great acting carries otherwise uneven script/storytelling
Positives: Gong Jun and Yang Mi are top notch actors and carry this drama series on their shoulders. Gong Jun's acting especially is a pleasant surprise to see - the range of emotions he goes through are remarkable in how it is brought to live very believably. This excellent acting makes the DFYC character a joy to watch on screen. Yang Mi has great moments on screen projecting private/ hidden emotions although the scriptwriter/director could have done her justice with more of such moments to help the audience emphathise better- as it stands the script doesn't do her acting skills justice and requires her to be the stoic/unbending strong leader most of the time. Good CGI and beautiful production sets, costumes are a great plus (sorely lacking in many xianxia c-dramas).Negatives: The series has its emotional high moments that really draw-in the patient viewer with rewarding storytelling but overall has strangely choppy editing at times, uneven pacing (slow/bland storytelling style at the start and only picks up episodes 9-10 onwards and the final 10 episodes are action packed), oddly bland choice of background music at many key moments, and comes across as having rookie scriptwriters at times. Could this drama have been a victim of the editing room/censors to squeeze into only 36 episodes and only 45 mins per episode. Why they don't make use of 1-2 more episodes to allow more meaningful storytelling (especially final 6 episodes felt like key scenes had been removed with seemingly key actions left unexplained).
Overall: The reason to watch this are the very good acting by GJ and YM, good production values. The actors are the key reason the drama is still enjoyable to watch.
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Enjoyable Fantasy
Gong Jun is captivating and effervescent as the spritely yet fierce DongFang YueChu. I really like how though YueChu's kind and easygoing, he is ruthless against those who has done truly unforgivable wrongs. Yang Mi's HongHong is taking a lot of flack, but HongHong is peak introvert representation. It's certainly weird that male versions of this personality type are beloved and have every minutia of their movements and dialogue analyzed and understood, but when it's a woman, suddenly that ability goes out the window. It's lovely how extrovert YueChu creates moments and opportunity for HongHong's personality quirks outside of her heavy responsibility protecting and running Tushan and it's great the drama lets the humor play out without either character dipping into childishness. It's so refreshing to see a drama actually use screen time to let the relationship of the main couple develop and strengthen organically and have the issues they are helping with also both parallel and explore their dynamics as well. I like the world building and the themes of different and evolving relationship dynamics, both of interpersonal/inter-species relationships and political conflicts. I'm always excited to see the next episode, can't wait till the new ones!Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
Gong Jun, the main lead actor, was exceptionally handsome at 31 and played his role brilliantly. I was rooting for his character throughout, and his journey to find the love of his life kept me captivated. His performance brought many smiles to my face.
All the main actors executed their roles with excellence. The Black Fox character was genuinely terrifying and reminded me of the deceptive people we encounter in real life, often described as wolves in sheep's clothing.
The costumes and headdress jewelry were stunning, enhancing the visual appeal of the series. The concept of the Love Tree was enchanting. I wish I could find one and make a wish or two myself.
A heartfelt thank you to the entire cast and crew for creating such an incredible story.
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It was incredible. Worth the watch
So to be honest I like this drama so much . The FL is dominat chief and the ml who is head over heels for her. Tbh I wanted their together time to be increased cause they were always protecting each other by pushing them so I wanted an episode only for them! Overall their chemistry was so good.Yang Me was influential. There were other good actors too but I can point one couple whose love I didn't understand - the tree spirit one . They fell too fastVond je deze recentie nuttig?
yangmi and gon jún epic couple
finally came a drama that is very interesting..yangmi never disappoints in a drama there are such beautiful scenes can someone tell me how you can make such beautiful scenes and they look so real yangmi is so beautiful in this drama and she is cool i love cold women warm man ,gon jun did not disappoint me either he is quite funny here he is 1000 times better than b legend of anle i love his character in this dráma , story he is very interesting Also little funny there are many famous actors who I love miles wei he is also beautiful and I saw only there is another female my favorite .. this drama will definitely be my favorite I've seen two episodes and it's amazing, definitely watch it, I've only seen four episodes, it's not enough for someone, I'll write a review, but I had the same feeling when I saw the legend of shen li and it's definitely the best drama this year...second in line to the fox spirit master red moon ..love itVond je deze recentie nuttig?
Not All that Glitters Is Gold
Fox Spirit Matchmaker: Red Moon Pact wows viewers with rich, vibrant colors, gorgeous CGI, an emotional and addicting OST, a beautiful cast, and…that’s it.While I was hesitant to start this installment because I am not a fan of Gong Jun’s acting, I was highly anticipating the Fox Spirit Matchmaker series as a whole since many of my favorites are part of the cast across all three installments. Who would have thought Gong Jun was going to be the least of my problems when it comes to this show? Certainly not me. The story is slow and tedious to get through. I had serious issues staying awake through most of the episodes unless I was multitasking. The villains were a joke. Their actions are repetitive and tiring. I hated them not because of their villainous nature, I love extra villainous villains, but because I was tired of watching them.
While the side couples oozed chemistry even in the background, the main couple’s love story fell flat. I do not care that Yuechu was a sweet baby angel when he met the much older Tushan Hong Hong. Both Yuechu, and herself, never saw her as a mother figure. So, if I don’t have an issue with ancient gods who are thousands of years old falling head over heels over a human with their short lifespans, I did not have an issue with this. However, they lacked that addictive chemistry I love so much which makes me yearn for love even when I don’t really want it in real life. There were no real fighting scenes, it was all “hand choreography” as some members called it. Dull “hand choreography” at that. Even the last showdown was so… spiritless that it did not feel like there was ever a real build up or climax. In fact, I recently saw a lower budget drama and their fight scenes, while not the best, were still significantly better than Fox Spirit’s. The story simply lacked depth in every aspect, whether it was the plot, the characters, and relationships.
I’m hoping that because this installment flopped, despite it being highly anticipated and featuring many popular and highly coveted actors, it does not affect whether the other two will see the light of day or not. However, I hope it does serve as a learning lesson; not all that glitters is gold.
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Great production value. Boring plot.
The cast is strong, so I thought this one would be good. Well... the production values did not disappoint - the CGI, costumes, props - everything is top notch. Really well done. Unfortunately, the good points kind of end there. The actress, while not my favorite, is usually competent. But here she played "cool and aloof" to the point where I get zero chemistry or any sense of feeling that she cares in any way about the male lead. I realize she is supposed to be hiding it - but she hides it too well. because there are zero emotions from her 26 episodes in. And literally zero chemistry between the leads. She likes the roast chicken in the drama way more than the poor ML. The writing and direction fall short as they fail to give us an interesting plot that would let us hold on despite the epic romantic face plant. Dropped at episode 26. Just too boring to continue.Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
