I like the cast very much. I feel like the main characters had a excellent chemistry. Both of the male leaders portrayed their characters very well. And Xin Yue was also great.
I also enjoyed the music. At first, I didn't like the Bai Tou Yin by Della Ding as the music was a bit odd. But you grow to like the two songs by her as they play throughout the whole drama. Also, the opening song is also very nice and has really meaningful lyrics. Definitely a 10 from me!
Actually, I have rewatched this drama two times, and every single time I just couldn't stop watching. Even though I already seen it before. It is just so good.
Overall, I think they have made an excellent drama! I feel like the clothing and scenery was quite nice. I definitely recommend this one to everyone that loves for example Prince of Lan Ling, which is also one of my favorite drama.
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Storyline? I liked it and the action and story developed well through all the many episodes - many times I felt like I was in the female lead's role and agonising over all the ups and downs and loving it all........until the final episode, when I felt it was a bit of a letdown. I'd like to request the writer/author/director to review the story and re-do it in a much better way, keep all the viewers happy!
I particularly liked the explanations of the plot coming through as "thoughts"in the actor's heads, which are helpful to those like me who don't really have much of a concept of ancient Chinese history or culture, and who really got lost sometimes along the way, due to archaic Chinese sayings etc that needed explaining.
Anyway, this is a good drama and I'd recommend it - the 36 episodes will go by in a jiffy and you won't notice the time as you follow the twists and turns along the way.
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The story was nice, but I was conflicted to finish when they changed everything very suddenly. I was not happy with the direction the story went in and could not seem to root for any of the characters at this point. The drama became disappointing, because I invested a lot of time and was ready for the character I felt most empathetic towards to find happiness. I was angry with everyone at this point, and did not enjoy the rest of the drama.
Everything else about the drama was pretty good. I enjoyed the costumes, music and acting. I would not watch this again, but would recommend others to watch it if they like this genre.
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The Good: Her characterization was refreshing, even if you have to close your eyes to a few things (where exactly did she learn to fight?). Our ultimate hero is pretty swoony. I love his unique profile, and that fact that he never gave up on the woman he loved. He pretty much always insisted on being seen as a man rather than a friend, but he never pushed her too hard or was an asshole. That's pretty rare in dramaland. When our MC's heart got broken, I really felt for her, so the acting here is relatively good.
The Bad: The palace politics were unecessary and dragged on forever. I skipped so many scenes because they had nothing to do with our main leads and didn't fit at all. I could not have cared less. I'm also in the tiny minority in which Hu Ge does nothing for me, so I had a hard time getting into that romantic aspect.
I actually really liked the end, and the fact that when our leads get together the story doesn't just end. They're lovely together.
I just rewatched it (but only the parts I liked) so it's not like I'd never see it again.
Overall, give it a shot.
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The show's music is great and I will never get sick of listening to the sound tracks. They really make the whole drama a lot more emotional and epic.
Lastly, I recommend this drama to those who like dramas like Lan Ling Wang and Tian Wai Fei Xian. And to those who like this drama, I recommend watching Princess Jie You! Its great too!
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The girl has great chemistry with both actors but I prefer Eddie Peng just because he flirts more. I hope you all enjoy this wonder drama that you will learn more about human nature. It will be scary to know about how we humans think.
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This review may contain spoilers
The biggest point for Sound Of Desert is that it has one of the most beautiful love stories I've ever seen in Chinese dramas for a long time (contemporary dramas excluded). A romantic story has that makes us happy, but the most important point is to feel connected. I do not mind crying an ocean on the journey of love, as long as I get a happy ending, or a tragedy full of love ... A great romantic story must be able to present us with a love so nearly impossible to find in real life . It should make us say wowow or even leave us amazed and dazzle us with its beauty.How about this masterpiece !!!
It's hard not to be envious of the female lead in the Sound of Desert. Seriously. How can a woman be as lucky as Xin Yue (Jin Yu)? How can men like Jiu Ye (Mo Xun) and Wei Wu Ji love a woman like Xin Yue? Sound of Desert and written by a woman so she has clearly different visions of how women are to be loved and what kind of man we deserve.
I hate spoilers, but for every drama I see, I need to know who the OTP is and if they will have a happy ending. In this drama is fundamental to avoid disappointment. The bad news is that both men in this drama are a love affair, apart from the good heart it has, two wonderful opposites.
A little about the male characters
Jiu Ye (Mo Xun)
With its world-wide beauty. So beautiful but untouchable. He is a mysterious man, and one of the richest and most successful entrepreneurs in Jian An having great power and influence. Although his reputation is known everywhere, only Jiu Ye seems not to know or in this case not wanting to know. He has no interest in anything but work. He even refuses the king's order to go to the palace to visit him. Your responsibilities are already quite high as we can see. He does not want to engage in intrigues with the king and the court. There is no room in your life for anything or anyone else. But as Wei Wu Ji, her interest falls on the wolf girl who dares to steal it in the Gobi desert. To be honest and a calm character of more and very reserved who let his condition and doubts, not be honest with loved .. this explains his loss
Wei Wu Ji
Second, we have Wei Wu Ji who may not have the extraordinary beauty of Jiu Ye, but owns tons of sex applea. It is absolutely HOT. No, he feels any attraction for beauties to prove it, and when he finally sees the most beautiful woman in the Kingdom that turns the King into his slave, he looks at her with sharp eyes that evaluate her and show her as they smile irrationally, completely immune to her feminine charms but fully aware of what her beauty is capable of. The only woman who captures your eyes and your cold heart is the wolf girl who saves you in the Gobi Desert. Let's say I fell in love with him the first maybe, for being a more direct and honest person with his feelings
Conclusion
This drama will make you stay up all day, will not stop consuming until you finish ... a wonderful love story.
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My first point, I did some research before watching and thought it would be romantic. I read lots on how the male lead loved deeply and showed it. But after 7 episodes with little to no romance, I gave into boredom and dropped it. My reason is that I was looking for something as romantic after watching" Lan Ling Wang" and this just wasn't it.
The other thing that irritated me was the amount of screen time Qin Xiang got. At first, I was curious and intrigued. But it's quite obvious she's up to no good. She got irritating fast with the way she tried to manipulate Xin Ju and Xin Ju let her. I liked Xin Ju because we saw her strength as a woman and an entrepreneur, but watching her interact with Qin Xiang became frustrating fast. Also, for a smart girl, she made stupid decisions that got her into trouble and required a man to save her. This is different to the damsel in distress that was Xu Wu in PLL because Xu Wu never pretended to be worldly or anything more than innocent.
Next thing ... a girl from the desert, being raised by wolves learns rather fast in six months!!! She must have gotten the best tutors in the land. Also, her fighting scenes - she learned that in the desert with which martial arts master???
The palace stuff takes up too much screen time and is too boring. Qin Xiang takes up too much screen time and it's like 1 scene repeated. Plus I hated her on sight.
Acting - all Ie got to say is it's hard to believe someone with the lanky figure like Eddie Peng was a general in the army. How did he survive so long? And someone with the buff, strong figure of Hu Ge was the sickly one. They did not suit their rolls physically.
Music was forgettable and sounded like it came out of the 60's.
Rewatch... since I dropped this at Ep 7 while waiting for anything interesting to happen, Hell No.
And that's my review. I apologise if I offended any of the numerous fans of this drama. Not my cup of tea.
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This review may contain spoilers
a great novel-like love story told, yet...
A timeless romance drama and a pleasure to watch for the first time even a decade after it's initial release.(spoiler warning)
I've seen countless dramas adapted from novels but in the case of "Ballad of the Desert" it truly felt like a novel-come-to-life. The characters, the interactions, the set up... everything felt like you could read it exactly like that on the pages of a book.
Script doesn't always translate well into reality but thanks to the cheeky and fun acting of Eddie Peng, the male lead came to life as all-in kind of guy that once he loves, he loves HARD. Possessive male leads can come across as toxic and icky super fast if they're only a tiny bit too close to reality and make you wonder how you'd react but here it's just d-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s, again thanks to the novel-like feel of the drama. I mean who doesn't want to be chased by a hot general, that makes you feel like you are the only girl in the world?!
But a good ML is not all that makes this drama so enjoyable. I really liked the desert scenes, the set up of the story - a girl from the desert, that can fight and is not shy, finds herself in a love triangle that is *finally* worthy of being called a love triangle. Because if I see the "love triangle" tag one more time in a drama where it's just unrequited love I WILL throw fists!
Even if in this case it does start out as a typical one it just gets sooo good, when Xin Jue loves both and is loved by both. I read a lot of people hated it but THAT right there is the essence of 2010s love triangles (see the vampire diaries, jane the virgin). I don't know at what point and WHY love triangles suddenly turned into this weird thing where the lead girl or guy can only ever like one person. Don't call it love triangle if there is no LOVE TRIANGLE but just a third wheel.
The best thing about it here is, it makes you conflicted. Only a few (realistic) tweaks in the story and she would end up with the other guy. Not in a way where you are thinking "SML is so much better" yada yada but rather the story takes you along and you realize sometimes courage takes time to develop but people move at difference paces in life and ultimately there is no great difference in love, but in who is faster.
In all things romance I really like the writing of this drama. Not just between the leads but also everything surrounding them builds it up quite well. So many moments where I was totally loving it, stomping my feet or audibly saying "OMG".
I know censorship has always played a part in drama production but in 2014 it was much more lenient. I am fairly certain that this could not air these days anymore, nor have we seen a romance like this in years. Simply too sexy :P
The "I'll be your unlawful wife" scene is something straight from wattpad imo. Also the end of ep23... um what?! is this a vampire drama now? -there is a lot of playful biting this drama, haha.
I can say all of this having finished the drama but you definitely have to stick with it for a bit until it gets good. I'd say it was interesting more after EP5 and I loved it most EP15 onwards.
One mega plus point of this drama is FL has no female competition in love, what a nice and rare thing in dramas. She is going through a lot of growth and also does some questionable things but I prefer this much more than a too nice to be true FL. She sees through people and is never easily deceived. Very satisfying in that regard!
As you can tell by now I really liked this drama and I just think it just really worked for me and I hope it will for you too :)... that goes to say I also read some people gave up on it midway, which I find a pity because it constantly picks up again after being a bit slower for an episode or two (when it focuses on other characters around ep 20-22). It never stays in one place for long and this made it easy for me (a serial dropper) to keep watching.
That being sad it’s not perfect …the dubbing actors, especially for all important male roles, are the ones you heard a million times before. Fight scenes done by the FL are a bit comical (sound effects) but get better the more wars happened. Just a few CGI scenes are laughably bad but thank god they only use it 3-4 times in the entire drama. I think back then (2014) it must have had quite a good budget and I think you can definitely tell…it doesn’t look cheap in my opinion and by ep15 I completely forgot to even think about how it’s an old drama.
The OST is still stuck in my head and I recommend you check out 'Bai Touyin (白頭吟)' and 'A Kind of Courage Called Giving Up有一种勇气叫放弃)' by Della Ding.
This review has been anything but spoiler free so far, but this is my official real SPOILER warning as I will be discussing the ending and the "yet..." part of the review.
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If I had to summarize the big downside of this drama it would be "a great love story told, yet another story left unfinished" because essentially only the romance is tied up nicely (happy ending) which - granted - is THE main story. I am also aware that this drama is the Adaptation of one part of a novel trilogy so it only makes sense that the story is yet to be finished but the sequel drama has nothing to do with this story so I doubt we'll ever see more.
Ironically this drama gave me the satisfaction of the kind of happy ending "A Journey To Love" only left us to imagine. But in that is also sadness because if everyone thinks they're dead and revenge never ever took place, a lot of the story has been in vain - except for the main's romance. Brings me back to the point that this drama is heavy on romance and proved it once more with the ending. We're given what we wanted - a happy ending for the leads - but all the schemes and other plot points are left untold. It's not super annoying either but just a bit of a "hm" moment. For example... what happened to Hu Wei Li? He only showed up for one glance in the second to last episode but damn, his character and desert kingdom was too interesting to not be given closure about! Also FL's dance house bestie. Is she really left to believe that FL died? I mean we know QX thinks so and she totally wasted her life, forsaking her happiness to seek revenge but nobody ever even knew that. Worst attempted revenge ever...in a sad way. Also Shan'er? I know he's not the real Er but he doesn't know that nor does the King so when he grows up people will tell him his parents abandoned him and that is just SAD. I really would have loved to see the falling out in the Imperial Court and Harem because there was bound to be one massive house collapse after the Emperor lost his right hand man. For Mo Xun... I think his ending is pretty clear. The small tweaks in the story didn't happen and therefore the ending is fitting. In a true love triangle only one couple can remain and if there is happiness for the third party at the end it's not a true love triangle in all it's painful glory (according to me, hehe).
But here comes my counter argument and somewhat explanation of everything I just wrote: After finishing the drama I did some research and a LOT of the characters as well as the story of the palace is actually based on reality. Wu Ji, QX, Li Jin, the entire Wan/Wen Family and the Emperor were real people (different names tho) and many scenes come from historical records (the deer incident with Li Jin for example). This explains a lot because those stories also did not end and continued for generations. If you read up on it you'd also find out that the way our leads escaped is how the actual people met their demise. Wu Ji is actually based on the infamous general Huo Qubing that only lived until 23 and died under mysterious circumstances. It's quite the tragic story, although it did not include romance nor did the FL or SML exist. This is not part of the drama review but I fell down the rabbit hole and now I see this drama in a different light. In all fairness most of the drama is fun and not much sadness but my view has been a tad bit tainted with sadness after reading the real tragedy of the story, LOL.
Ep15-19 were my favorite because that’s when the leads are in the desert at war away from the palace. But when they came back FL kind of abandoned the dance house and I don’t quite get what all the build up before was for, if she was not going to pursue that career (she manages the house). On another note I loved that this is not a palace drama… meaning neither ML nor FL live there nor are the controlled by them for the most part. There is palace scheming later on but it won’t break the leads up and they always care more about their love than the rules and regulations. PDA in ancient times is high with these 2! They don’t care to show public affection
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All this goes to say, I LOVED THE DRAMA and actually the end is quite alright. Would have been crazy if a drama from 2014 was that much better than dramas in 2024 so yeah :D But in terms of flirty ML Wu Wei Ji is one of a kind! Loved him a lot, the teasing chemistry between the two leads was great. Definitely one of my favorite romances.
There is a lot more I could say but I feel like this review is already way too long, so I'll leave it at that: It's well worth the watch if you are a romance lover and what a pleasure to watch Eddie Peng as his best romance Character one last time before he quit acting in dramas (as of now).
P.S : please, if you watched the drama and also fell down the rabbit hole trying to decipher the meaning of "funghi soup" in ep27, tell me you also saw the comment "soup is just soup" after reading through hundreds of disturbing replies and almost losing faith in humanity. Haha
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One of the common criticisms online seem to be that the political (or "palace politics") subplot is dull. Perhaps that is because the subplot merely provides obstacles to the main characters who have absolutely no desire to engage in politics or revenge. As such, the series is less about politics and revenge and more about the main characters trying to dissociate themselves in order to be with the one they each truly love. Because the subplot is unimportant in itself (only in terms of its effect on the main characters), the other characters are less developed and less interesting, causing the viewer to have little empathy for them, their situations, or their motivations. One character, in particularly, is perhaps meant merely to be a foil, whereby her function is simply to act as a contrast to the protagonist: Two people with similar backgrounds and starting points -- how will different outlooks and principles affect their individual lives?
Some of the songs appear strange and unsuitable at first, perhaps because they seem "too contemporary" for a period drama or perhaps because they seem more suited for some scenes (especially latter ones) and not others. The repetition of songs and flashbacks can be a little tedious at times, but at the appropriate times, the songs seem fitting.
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That being said, I completely agree with the female leads choice. The second male lead would do sweet things like personally handcraft jade earrings for her then push her away and reject her confession. Then he would again do things like buy her carrier pigeons to send notes to her or handcraft a flute for her but then again reject her. This went on for 3 years and the female lead was in constant emotional turmoil, often crying. Even though the second male lead rejected her for a noble reason, he should have drawn a line and made it clear he wanted to only be friends. But instead he chose to leave things very ambiguous and let her think they might be together. He lead her on and hurt her a lot for a long time.
But all along her ray of sunshine, the main male lead, would always appear to take her out to play and cheer her up. He supported her decision even though he loved her and never abandoned her despite her poor treatment of him. His devotion to her and their cute little arguments when he teased her was adorable. I was happy with her choice.
But then comes along the second male lead to start pursuing her and putting her into turmoil again. And again she’s crying over and over again because of him. She feels guilty towards him every time he does something nice for her which happens all the time. But it’s obvious that she’s now very much in love with the main male lead. But second lead just won’t let go which hurts both of them a lot.
Then comes along a lot of political intrigue and family drama. The palace drama gets pretty intense. What this drama teaches is that love doesn’t wait forever. And if someone leads you on or expects you to wait for them they may miss out. And finding the right person has a lot to do with timing and meeting the right person at the right time. It also teaches that letting go of the past with all of its hatred and moving on with your life is the only way to find true happiness.
In the beginning this drama reminded me a lot of The Story of Minglan. The love triangle was very similar in that the female lead starts out liking the second male lead first then later realizes that the main male lead is her true love. So if you like this one definitely go watch Minglan because not only is it similar but it’s better.
Overall, I liked this drama. It started out very sweet and cute. It got even cuter with lots of kisses and skinship. But towards the end it became very angsty with lots of sadness. The main leads have a happy ending and all of the loose ends are tied up. But it was hard to be happy for them when everyone around them suffered so much. And seeing that the bad guys got away with everything they did and even prospered while a lot of the good guys suffered or even died just killed me. My happiness for the main leads was dampened by all of this. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good drama, but it’s just a little too melodramatic and sad at the ending for me.
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