Absolutely No Rushed Ending Here
Do Not Watch This Without Watching Season 1. Nothing will make sense if you do.STORY:
The story plot is what appealed to me the most if not the chemistry. The plot isn't predictable, unlike other dramas. i often find myself wondering how they are going to solve some cases or problems. I really hate rushed endings and as you can see above, there are no rushed endings in this drama.
ACTING:
I have to admit; sometimes, the acting can be a little cringy. But overall, the acting was fine. The chemistry between the two main leads is phenomenal.
MUSIC:
Talking about music, I actually have the theme song in my playlist. the OST really suits the scene that they play in also.
REWATCH VALUE:
Lastly, but not least, the rewatch value. I gave it a 10/10. I've always wanted a drama where the FL has a higher status than the ML and this drama gave me that. I hate where the dramas often have a weak female lead that can't even protect herself. Definitely go watch this drama.
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A decent production xuanhuan/xianxia drama
Although this drama is not a high production like others in its genre, the cast and director provide a story that is still worth watching at least once. The costuming department did well enough. I felt they were a little plain looking at times. The CGI isn't the best, but for what it is it isn't the worst. The music isn't anything to write home about either, but I did like two of them and have them on my Spotify playlist. The acting of the cast is decent to good. I liked the portrayals of each character, some more than others. The chemistry worked out good for me, with smiles and butterflies. I was rooting for our leading couple. As for our secondary leading characters, I didn't feel any particular strong emotion or attachment to them. The story of the drama itself is fine but the script and world-building was lacking. I felt that the pacing was great at the start of Season 1, particularly if you like some investigation mixed in with fantasy like me. Toward the end of Season 1 however, the story began to feel draggy. Season 2 picks up where Season 1 left off, and I was glad to see that the drag was going to end. I personally enjoyed Season 2 more, and the ending made me overall satisfied with the drama. I would consider it to be in my top 5 favorite dramas of 2021.If you enjoyed dramas such as Eternal Love, Ashes of Love, Love & Redemption and so on, then feel free to give this a try! It may not be on-par with the others but it definitely deserves some love.
Updated: 17/12/23
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Underrated show with awesome acting and interesting plot
I really really liked No Boundary (Season 1&2) no matter how unbelievably everything escalates from one thing to another. You live, you die, then you live again and then die again to live another day. Besides this is a Xianxia, so remind yourself that logic and your sense of reality should be taking the backseat here. I don’t particularly prefer this genre, but No Boundary seemed to be the exception.This show is underrated, my guess is that since it was broken to two seasons there was a gap in between and earlier watchers had to wait for the next season.
But no matter, the characters was awesomeu and acting was great! I find Darren Chen and Zhang Yi Shang trully enthralling. Darren played the perfect weak-but-not-so-weak mortal sheriff who is completely devoted to our most beautiful deity of the three realms, which was played to perfection by Yi Shang. I am most impressed though with the actor who played Wengu. He almost portrayed 4 personas in the show, and you can actually see the distinction of each. If anything, Wengu had the most character development out of everyone else. The character I feel most sorry for is Hong Luan, and once again the actress did really well here (notice she always gets typecasted to these roles?).
The plot is interesting. There are obvious plotholes but I think it still kept a steady pace while a whole range of unbelievable things happen (remember the peach blossom tree will never die!). This drama has a mixture of everything, it has crime x supernatural investigation, demons, deities, forbidden love, time travel, war, you name it they’ve got it. The show which is 52 episodes in total is mainly divided to 4 arcs, and may not be entirely accurate but these are:
Ep 1-16 Zhan Yan x Duanmu Cui solving crimes/got together then Zhan Yan’s noble idiocy
Ep 17-28 Still solving crimes/Duanmu dies/Wengu turns villain/Zhan Yan unlocks Duanmu’s memories then lives again
Ep 29 -32 Duanmu’s turn for noble idiocy/Wengue dies/Duanmu and Zhanyan goes to the abyss which is basically 1000 years ago/Duanmu’s past
Ep 33-45 Demon vs Mortal war while Zhan Yan trying to change the past/General Duanmu falls in love with Zhan Yan/ the godfather turns villain/Duanmu dies again
Ep 36-52 Out of the Abyss/mortal world saved/Penglai invasion by evil godfather/Mortal world in trouble again/final battle/happily ever after
So that’s it in a nutshell. As to why the deities of Penglai are weaklings and the peach blossom never dies is still a mystery to me. No rush ending too, we got all what we are hoping for the ML and FL, perhaps just a small thing that I wished that our dear brother Magistrate also got his happy ending. Give it a try, you might also like it!
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Good first half but slow second half
Completed - 4/18/2022 - 7.75 rounding up to 8.0Having binge-watched season 1, I am glad I took a little breather before diving into season 2. Season 1 wasn't a very enjoyable experience for me (see my review here: https://mydramalist.com/profile/voicelesslove/reviews/203095). But taking a break allows me to reset and I enjoy this season more than the last. It might also due to the fact that there are only 20 episodes here, yet I still feel the pacing is quite slow at the end. You will need to watch season 1 first before this one, otherwise, nothing will make sense.
First Half of the Drama:
Season 2 continues where it was last left off. Our leads went through the Abyss, and the first half of the drama was set back 1000 years ago. I really enjoy this story arc, much more than the present day storyline. General Duan Mu is a character I can root for and is likable, much more so than the happy-go-lucky deity in season 1. I follow her journey of shouldering the burden of the Duan Mu army, continuing to fight for gender equality and the never-ending fight to prove that she's worthy of being the lead general. Zhang Yan (ML) proves to be a great support system for her emotionally, physically and in warfare. I enjoy their romance here - quiet, mature, supportive, and honest. On the other hand, we also see a different storyline about Hong Luan (2FL) and Wen Gu (2ML). We found out why Wen Gu was so attached to Duan Mu and why he likes her so much. Actually, who would not like General Duan Mu. At first, I wasn't a fan of Duan Mu's fiancee, General Hu Lu, but his character grew on me. He also had an amazing battle scene that was full of emotions and strength. His part was small but he made an impression on me. The villain of the drama was slowly incorporated into this portion of the story. I knew there's something fishy about him when he regained his past lives memories. You just knew he's up to no good.
Second Half of the Drama:
I would have given this drama a solid 8.0 or even 8.25 if it's not because of how slow the second half is. Now that everyone is back to the present day storyline, it's no surprise that the goal is to eliminate the villain. Unfortunately, I found our villain to be very one-dimensional, cartoon-ish and not "sophisticated" enough. I personally was bored towards the last few episodes and had to increase my watch speed. The scenes are slow, the talking is slow. On the other hand, after a very mature romance in the abyss, I suddenly found the romantic words spoken between our leads to be somewhat cringey. I did not like Darren Chen's acting when he has those sad puppy (somewhat bored) eyes. His facial expressions and eyes lit up more when he's in the playful and bickering scenes with FL (as in season1). Darren Chen is a very handsome guy, but I don't know why I find his more emotional/sad scenes to be less attractive. I prefer him being the quiet support of General Duan Mu. But a bright spot is introducing me to Gu Zi Cheng (who played Wen Gu). He has one of the more interesting characters in this drama. He's cool and aloof yet smitten as Doctor Wen Gu, then turned into revengeful Demon King, then loyal and faithful as Soldier Wen Gu and lastly as the young and innocent new Wen Gu. Towards the end of the drama, there are quite a few plot inconsistencies and plot holes in regards to Duan Mu's magical powers. Without going into spoilers, I feel that it was quite a stretch for her to have those powers in the final fight.
Overall, I feel that the drama could combine both seasons into one. A combined 40 episodes (instead of 52) is probably enough to tell its story with better pacing and a tighter storyline. For my personal enjoyment, I enjoyed season 2 more than season 1, thanks to the plot in the army.
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FRUSTRATING
First of all, excuse my bad english cause it's not my first languageNow about the drama, I regret watching in the first place. I only started watching it for Darren Chen (ML) but ended up watching the whole of this shit show only because I don't like dropping dramas.
The whole story is a mess. I only liked season 1 and about season 2, it's not my cup of tea. Zhan yan's god father is a piece of shit. I know he's the villain but even a villain has his own reasons but here he doesn't have any. He's just doing want ever he wants and killing people like mices and whatever he says is all non sense. They would have stopped it with the season 1. No need for the season 2 in my opinion. You may go for it if you like people killing eachother, predictable storyline, struggling for nothing etc..
IT'S JUST MY VERY OWN OPINION So you all who liked it don't come at me or hate me. Thank you!
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What an ending !
A very interesting development of relationship between the two main leads (Zhan Yan and Duanmu Cui), but IMO an odd development of the relationship of the other main leads (Wengu and Hong Luan). Three main clans Demon, human, and high-immortal (gods) are entangled in a great story. I combined the part 1 and 2 in this review.The story starts from a very fresh depiction of a high-immortal Duanmu Cui that is very proud of herself as the best, smartest and prettiest high-immortal but at many times are clumsy and meets Zhan Yan, a constable officer in Qifeng City . The series cleverly fills in background of each lead during select situations, for example how Duanmu Cui becomes high-immortal, how she is afraid of something, relations among high-immortals, how the "reincarnated" prime minister remember the past, how a demon becomes in such a pitiful state, and so on. As we expect that any pair will fall in love, and as as many other stories, the pair does not start with liking each other, the love developing bw the twos is the one I want to know, and what it is at the end! I like the stories mostly in the progress of the relationships in criminal case by case that they solve . As usually in many stories, there are always cases happening that support the relationship development. IMHO not all cases in this series are "logically" can happen, when it happens I just skipped them LOL. Overall 8.5 is my point for this series due to the super great acting of Duanmu Cui (Zhao Yi Shang), and the handsomeness of Zhan Yan (Darren Chen, playing Meteor Garden as Hua Ze Lei). Kudos to Zhao Yi Shang, hope to see her in other series!
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...
sorry for low rate but to much loophole and ridiculous things in this dramamaybe this drama have a chance to be a good drama but ,the story ,plot ,scene edit is worst,ridiculous! a lot of unexplained scene
i like them when solving a mysterious case, in this drama maybe have 9- 11 case or problems ,but they didnt showing all the scene ,sometimes the flashback scene didnt know when its happen,, the clue, things ,and person can changes if they adds the others new scenes ,and the editing go worst and worst as the drama progresses, a shuddenly scenes
the story is not bad ,but i just think its very absurd ,, alot of thing that imposible to be connected they forcing to be connect and make it happen ,
weird if they go together and have some feeling just in eps 4 ,its to fast ,because they first meeting is from being annoying to each others i think eps 10 is enough start to know each others feeling ,, but from eps 10 they are not even sensitive to each other , and trying to being a stupid person, trying to stay away from each other ,, duanmu and zhanyan ,, they take turns doing it,
Entanglement, but in the name of wanting to protect the each others, unintentionally hurt the others, to stay away from the others, causing damage to the heart or life threatening ,,that annoying me,
a lot of people dont want they go together! yangjian dont want they together because afraid she open abyss and ruins 3 realms ,but when she remember all things and i think her love for zhanyan can stop her to open abyss ceuase can ruins mortal world and ZY, but they still stop them together because can cause ZY harming by the death aura in xuanping village, its so annoying!
from episode 7-14 I thought I wanted to drop the drama for a several times. because, their relationship is very annoying, I just like when they work together to solve cases
and i feel the FL AND ML like have 偶像包袱 in 14 first eps，they seem to limit the use of fake blood in order to still look elegant and beautiful ,,but from eps 15 maybe? they become more dsre to use the fake blood ,but still lacking of effect editing ,, the effect and skill action not match ,the blood effect in their body not seeing when needed
@@ unexplained & Stup*d scene @@
#1. the son of bookstore owner ,from the first time they didnt show and telling about the bookstorevs owner have a child or what happen wi+ that child ,but when the mirror case they said that the child is the first missing victim from that book store,and that make me weird is ,how the child become the first victim? not her mother that contact directly with the miror demon? moreover, the child cannot be approached directly by the mirror demon, because the child is disabled and only live at home, even though he has obsession , butMost of the victims were women who went to buy rouge ,, no chronology showing how it happen
#2 . they know about penglai map ,and hoelw important it,, from the mirror cases, the mirror demon already tell them what the demon clan want ,until episode 19 they keep don't know about its and look nerd
#3. ep 4 zhanyan body get injury but no see the blood there ,but shangguan said he see the blood so why i said the effect and the scene not match ,even they very low budget,and cant get a blood props they can make effect from editing ,, 耍大牌？
ep 7 ,suck blood no blood stain in mouth ,drink blood no blood stain in mouth?! are you serious?!,just drink a fake blood ,the mosquito couple also do that why the lead cant do that?
the acting like this .... maybe their acting keep growing with the drama ,its go better from eps 15
#4. ep 11,, so who kill liqiongxiang father? zheng mom （silkwormg or demon envoy ? i still not understand what happen? 15 years ago zheng mom use her power to make lingxiao silk and make her weak ,, then 15 years later she make lingxiao silk again to "restore" her power? isnt lingxiao silk made by her demon power? ,
and how can the cocoon is the fragment of penglai map?
duanmu said silkworm weak at the night but why her daughter is stronger at the night?
if the cocoon is the importan things they searching for ,why they should use it to see zhanyan dream? for what? ridiculous!
#5. From the beginning they tried to prevent the opening of the abyss because it could threaten 3 realms but, the opening of the abyss was to finding the antidote for death aura, if so, from the beginning their efforts were in vain, only delaying, and prolonging the drama,, because even open the abyss, the story in the abyss cannot change their story 1000 years later , so its useless
#6.s2 ep 3, jiang (JWQ ) go to abyss and said to JY that his kindness can cause changes to the battle of chong city ,,, ,if opening the Penglai map is something that will definitely happen ,shouldn't this change will be in a good direction? not in a bad way? like gu chang, or duanmu doesn't have to be sacrificed, so jiangyi doesn't have to sacrifice his divinity for duanmu to live as a deity? , so jiangyi, duanmu, guchang,yue , yanjian ,everyone is a deity ,, jiangwenqing's opinion is unreasonable
If said the war was won because of the death of Guchang that made 哀兵必胜（sad soldier must win)， isn't winning because there are talented generals who live more useful for increasing soldier morale?, thats why so many soldiers retreat because the generals are killed first? that causing the soldier losing the morale
#7. s2 ep 12 ,i just dont understand, duanmu said abyss door open by her divinity ,,and the divinity recover her deity memories , i think she already get the divinity even not go to the altar?,,but why she still need to go to the altar to get her divinity and causing her losing her divinity? and i think she back to the altar naybe to get the divinity as the key to open the abyss door to go back to the real life, but two of that not valid?
if the divinity already back even she didnt go to the altar ,she can go to the abyss door(chongcity gate) to go back to the real life and didnt causing her losing her divinity,, no need to go to the altar just to seal jiangwenqing ,its a useless action ,because if she go back only with zhan yan ,automaticaly jiangwenqing is left in the abyss forever,of course without divinity
#8 isnt abyss just cant be open by the descendant of the heavenly maiden blood? how can be open by JWQ? even he absort the penglai map ,its cant causing the door of abyss open ,its a different problem because he never have heavenly maiden bloodline
#9.who buried duanmu and her mom? and why ? its not be telling in this story
#10. what happen with shangguan ce and zhanyan parents?
#11. and the last ! THE DEITY IN PENGLAI SO USELESS, how can they
not aware of the demonic aura of the heavenly envoy? and when annihilate him , they just stay in the mortal realm and order a human, and a deity without a deity power to annihilate him?
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Season two is so much better than season one and they are connected but not the same
I enjoyed this season a lot than the first one ,, the story of thousand years back in the past was so much better and more intriguing also had lots of interesting characters new and altered onesthe fluffiness of first season wasn't there and that was the best ,,, it was more mature romantic story with hardship in the middle of actual war and bloody fights
also the changes that happened to every character was for the better ,,, I don't know if they had changed the writer or what but the story got a lot better in second season and the end of first season
Wen Gu character was the one who excited me more than any character in his renewed character from doctor and a villain in first season to an out cast soldier to a king for his clan to a naïve innocent boy with amnesia ... all these roles was played perfectly and with a lot of emotions ,, I fell in love with him more than the main lead to be honest
the main leads in first season were boring and I wasn't actually feeling their love for each other or feeling that their love is real
especially the female lead at first season she was kind of dumb jealous most of the time with nonsense powers
but in second season she was a leader for a female army ,, she was kind of a role model and respected female leader
I loved her second season character more too
so overall just to know how the story started watch the first season fast then enjoy the second
the finale was ok and happy ,, it should have ended at episode 36 because that was more logical but it's ok didn't mind the last four episodes for a happy ending
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No boundary for it absurdity.
The story is continuation of season 1. It is soo dragging with same issue and problem which keep repeating again and again that i end up skip 4 episodes without watching it at all.And it so boring.
So yeah. I don’t I’ll rewatch it despite i always love both main lead couple drama. Especially the male lead from unicorns lady.
But this one. Their acting is good. You can feel sad. Mad. Annoyed or even happy with their acting. But the plot is too much. There’s lots of plot hole with unexplained things even the ending is quite good and not rushed.
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Excellent continuation from Season 1
Season 2 of No Boundary is a direct continuation of Season 1, and the quality is very much the same. Nevertheless, I sense some difficulty in sustaining the story for another 20 episodes so that Season 2 would be long enough.I think Season 2 continues from Season 1 very well at first. The part until Duanmu Cui and Zhan Yan manage the get out of The Abyss (a parallel universe that is based on Duanmu's memories) with the antidote for the toxic aura is excellent. After this point, however, the story falters a little. A dead character like Wengu is brought back to life, but it seems all to easily done, and it also seems to be for the purpose of having a prominent demon-clan character in the story again (because there's something about immortals, mortals and demons having to unite later in the story).
The villain who gets trapped in The Abyss also escapes a little easily. Oh well, if he doesn't escape, the story will end. But things also get a little over-the-top here as the villain infiltrates and takes over the heavenly realm of the immortals. It is rather intriguing, however, as a critique of authoritarianism. As the evil tyrant takes over the immortal, mortal and demon realms, he basically puts people and places under pervasive surveillance so that he knows what people are doing and whether his orders are being carried out. From what is at first a somewhat noble desire to improve things, the villain's descent into total villainy (while justifying his deeds as being for the greater good) shows how the lure of power corrupts and how hollow the justifications for authoritarian tactics are.
Despite being so powerful after gaining immortality, this villain also suffers from the headaches that plagued him as a mortal. In fact, they get worse, and these headaches are sometimes timely enough to prevent him from performing more evil deeds.
The plot development in Season 2 isn't as impeccable as it was in Season 1. Still, it is not so bad that it really affects the issue in a major way. The love story between Duanmu Cui and Zhan Yan is also given a nice, happy ending even if it is a little forced. One does, however, wonder why the people who saved the world a thousand years ago were conferred the status of immortals whereas Zhan Yan who has done no less to save the world from an evil immortal devil-dictator is just left to die, requiring Duanmu Cui to do something really drastic to resurrect him.
A flawed but still excellent continuation of Season 1, this series does manage to satisfy in many ways,
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Review for seasons 1 & 2 . . . you can't do one without the other
The story is what kept me going in the first season. I was really annoyed by Duan Mu Cui's personality, mostly when she starts falling in love, and I couldn't deal with Darren Chen playing Zhan Yan. I saw him in The Sleuth of Ming Dynasty and that's all I could see him as during the first season; he didn't fit the character of a constable. So when they fell in love, it just didn't work for me; there was no chemistry in my opinion. However, towards the end of season 1 and mostly during season 2, I feel like their chemistry got better and it was more believable.The story is somewhat unique. Humans and immortals fighting demons/evil, solving crimes, falling in love (nothing new); travelling to Shen Yuan (aka "The Abyss") was something new to me, and probably my favorite part. You get to see a different side to Duan Mu Cui and see what she was like; I really enjoyed it.
I really don't know what to say about Zhan Yan. He's what you expect his character to be like: righteous and loyal. There's not much development in his character, which makes sense since the drama is basically about Duan Mu Cui.
I just feel sorry for Wen Gu and Hong Lan's characters. They are just so tragic in my opinion (oh, unrequited love...the bane of all dramas). I loved Yang Jian as Duan Mu Cui's brother. He's serious and funny. He cares about his sister the most, and does everything he can to protect her and make her happy. And lastly, I can understand Jiang Wen Qing because seriously, why was everything left to Duan Mu Cui to deal with?
Anyways, overall I liked this drama. I'm glad I stuck it through the first season because the characters really annoyed me, but the story was interesting enough for me to keep going. And I'm glad I did because it got better.
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Nice to watch as a fight, fantasy romance
The story is not really logic per the spiritual logic, but as a fantasy romance movie is entertaining enough.I like the caracter and the way they play their role is nice, quite natural and good.
the CG is good, soundtrack is good, scene is good.
The female main role is nice beautiful and nice acting, the make up is good.
The male main actor is also good, not feminim but the make up is a bit too much, but he still look masculine, handsome but not feminime or girly.
The support role also olay their part very professional and quite natural, seem they know how to play the drama perfectly
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