Drama Addict
New Zealand
I would have given it a perfect 10 if...
This drama could have been rated in the same league as Ten Mile Peach Blossom or Nirvana in Fire and I would have given it a perfect 10 if...The drama would keep you chasing episode after episode. Story was intriguing. And the entire cast is first class - the main actors Kenny Lin, Zhao Liying, Li Qin and Shawn Duo were outstanding and though Allen Deng only appeared for a brief moment, his cheeky and comical acting brightened up the sombre drama. The chemistry between Liying and Kenny were amazing. Kenny acted this cold personality YuWen Yue who was softened by Xing'er acted by Liying. When the two were together, you could feel YuWen Yue's cold personality struggling to hide his growing affection for his slave girl, and left you wishing something would happen between the two of them.
There were times when I wanted to give Xing'er and Chun'er a slap in the face. Xing'er is an extremely stubborn character driven by her sense of righteousness. She might be a person of principle but her insistence in a crucial situation had indeed jeopardised Yun Xun's chance of a probable victory. Chun'er was this spoilt princess who wanted to get her way all the time and when things went wrong because of her willfulness, she blamed others for it.
Although this is fiction, the story is as complicated as the world's politics and indeed of China's politics. The emperor's narcissism and selfishness remind me of Donald Trump lol. The theme of a selfish emperor who is wary of his sons and ministers and purges them when suspicious of their motives is very common among contemporary Chinese dramas. I could see a shadow of Mao and the purges of his comrades before and during the cultural revolution. I hope I am not getting anyone in trouble here (the drama was already in a lot of trouble with copyrights.) What goes into fiction often is the influence of real life situations. This makes the story more believable and realistic.
With my eye for details and perfection, I cannot help but noticed that some Chinese actresses in period dramas dyed their hair but left the ends to grow, and Liying did that in this drama. This may be alright in modern settings but appears rather odd in period dramas when such fancy colour hair dye may not exist.
A rating of 8.3 on mydramalist.com is rather low for this drama. I think it was affected by two factors. It had a bad ending which deliberately left a door open for a sequel. Bad endings always leave a bad taste and a feeling of being letdown among the audience. Nirvana in Fire was an exception - unless you have that kind of emotional scenes displayed by Hu Ge and Liu Tao, and the intense story to match, it sets the rating back.
The second is some episodes were heavily and clumsily trimmed on some of the Asian drama websites, leaving the story rather disjointed and some important events poorly explained. Managing the duration seem to be a problem with Chinese dramas - this needs to start with the script. This series could have been split in two with a convenient ending at Yun Xun's escape to Yanbei. However, there is a recent addition to YouTube on the full untrimmed version - for this one, there is trade-offs, all the draggy bits are in it. Guess there is no win.
Look at what the Ten Mile Peach Blossom has done - it staged a comeback before the ending. That won it the applause - yes, you cry and then you brighten up and give it an excellent rating. This drama tried that too, but the effect was not strong enough to give a clear indication of that.
Heard that they are preparing a season 2. Hope they know how to end it properly.
So, if the ending has been better managed and the episodes were properly trimmed, it would be a perfect 10.
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This review may contain spoilers
Plenty of fighting scenes and amazingly well produced
This is an amazingly well produced fantasy drama. I am surprised it did not get better rating on mydramalist. Story was original and difficult to predict - there were some resemblance to the style in Games of Throne or Lord of the Rings (not quite in that league yet but very good). I would say it is as good as Nirvana in Fire 2 but fighting scenes were more intense and with the same lead actor. Battle and fighting scenes were well filmed - for this I think it would appeal to the male viewers - plus actresses were all very pretty. Acting was very good as well.The opening theme song was eerie; I watched it at night and had to skip it, although the ending theme song was good. There were a lot of gloomy night scenes. So you know what mood it is set in.
Some parts were abrupt - there was some trimming down of the length of the drama it seems. These might have affected the rating.
Although the romance of Ji Ye, Asule, Yu Ran and Xiao Zhou were well acted out but the romance between Xi Yan and Su Shun Qin were more memorable - these two more mature actors showed more intensity in the demonstration of emotions. However few could match the heart rending scenes between Hu Ge and his female counterpart in Nirvana in Fire 1.
At the end all were victorious in their political ends but not in their love life. If you are a romantic, you may not accept this ending.
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I had watched this quite a while ago and could not remember all the details but I remember the drama kept me chasing episodes after episodes. If you know the director of this drama also directed Ten mile peach blossom, Love and destiny, Journey of flower, you know the standard to expect.
Insofar, I have only been impressed with 6 actors who are masters with facial expressions and capable of wrenching viewers' hearts - Luo YunXi, Hu Ge, Wallace Huo, Wang Yibo and Zhang Zhen. The actors and actresses in this drama are great but are not in this league yet and therefore the drama is not of that emotional intensity.
Although I would not put it amongst the top league of Nirvana in Fire, Love and Destiny, Ten mile peach blossom, the Untamed etc it is nevertheless a very good production worth watching.
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You laugh and you cry
This is one of the best dramas (both English and Chinese productions) I have watched. It is wuxia, fantasy, romance, bromance rolled into one - with a rich mix of serious, suspense, comic and heart-wrenching moments. Of course, two dashingly handsome lead actors, and good looking support actors and actresses helped. Wallace Huo was outstanding in his expression of emotions - this is the first drama I watched of him and I am very impressed. I was hoping for a good ending to ChangQing's rather tragic love life.If I am to nitpick, I would say I do not like the silly and rowdy XueJian character, the depressive LongKui when she was normal or the forlorn ZiXuan. They seems to me very chauvinistic depictions of women. I much prefer characters like Fu Yao or BaiQian in Ten Mile Blossom - they have much more interesting characters and more fighting spirits.
It is rare that a sequel would beat its predecessor in quality - but that is exactly what happen in this drama. It is far better than Chinese Paladin 1. The emotions it invoked was more intense, and the story was more intriguing.
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Mesmerised
It had been some months since I watched this drama. At that point, it was the first Chinese drama that I watched after years. I was so mesmerised by it that I rewatched it twice and recaptured some of the scenes a number of times. I had not given Chinese drama production much credit in the past - I thought of them as sterile, politically influenced and boring. But this got me hooked onto Chinese dramas ever since.I have given it perfect scores for everything. The chemistry between the actor and actress was amazing. Costumes and scene setting was beautiful. Actors and actresses are good looking and acted their part well. The story moved from one life to another; each was intriguing. It held me in suspense wondering what the villain might do next to make life miserable for the hero and heroine of the story. It was an interesting development showing how the heroine of the story developed from a 'teenage girl' hurt by her first love to a 'mature woman' who moved on with her life. There are comic relief at various points.
Besides the actors and actresses, I gave the director, script writer and editor a lot of credit for putting together the plot so nicely.
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This review may contain spoilers
The night god will steal your heart
If you like the Ten Mile Peach Blossom, you may like this. Two good looking lead actors (and good looking actresses for the guys) certainly help. Mesmerizing theme songs, excellent acting, nice special effects, lovely costumes and interesting story plots makes it overall an outstanding production. I would have given it a perfect rating of 10 if some tightening of the plots had happened.There are however a lot of apologizing, voicing of regrets, negative talks and lecturing. This may be a cultural thing as I noticed a lot of it in Chinese dramas. However, viewers from English speaking countries may find a little unappealing as it appears like this is a bunch of self-pitying or self-righteous characters. A little less of it may help or convert it to thoughts rather than speech may help.
In the later part of the drama, it starts to get a little draggy due to side stories of secondary characters and slow moving scenes. The script writer could have trimmed off 5 episodes and tightened the plot - that would have been better. Alternatively split it into 2 series with a sequel could have helped too - there was opportunity to do this at episode 46 when the Runyu successfully seized the throne.
Although this is fiction, some realism may make it more convincing. For a girl who enjoys the attention of a young handsome emperor totally devoted to her, it is highly unlikely she would not fall in love with him and switched affection. Especially at moments when the rival was behaving like a jerk, it would have so easily to fall into the new young emperor's arms. If I were a young woman in that situation I certainly would. I guess most Chinese directors and script writers are too conservative to make the heroine looks unfaithful. Both the heroines in this story are unrealistically faithful to their first love.
Also, stabbing a love one with a knife is a nasty thing, much worse if it has killed him. Even with lots of apologies and good reasons, it is unlikely a relationship could be mended. Something more is needed to explain why Xufeng would still love and forgive her - some twist in the story is required.
For these reasons, I took away only 0.5 in the rating as I still like the series a lot.
I am much more attracted to the Runyu's character than Xufeng as Runyu earned sympathy and Luo Yun Xi acted it well. Hope to see more of him in future lead roles.
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Interesting beginning, interesting ending, middle so so
HuZi a descendent of a tiger 'demon', Wang YuQian of noble birth and Zhao XinTong a sorcerer gathered in Fulong City to participate in the selection of the Royal Sorcerers, an anti-demon organisation. Together with them was Qi Xiao Xuan who was a commander of the Royal Sorcerers and was hiding a secret of the Qi family who were descendants of the hero who slayed the Demon Emperor.Hu Zi, XinTong and Xiao Xuan met their nemesis determined to stop them from advancing their careers in the Royal Sorcery world. Chaos happened of unknown causes. The four went on to lead investigations, against the will of the Royal Sorcery Council comprised of useless elders whose interest was to save their face, promote Cheng JiNian the son of their Chairman, and do nothing to risk their positions.
The investigation of the four led them to Dianfeng Island, said to be the home of demons. There, they discovered the great secret of all, to their surprise. The twists towards the end were very interesting as a secret hidden over 500 years was uncovered. You would be surprised at the outcome.
The hygiene factors were all there: good looking cast, excellent performance, appropriate costumes, good CGI. Zhang LingHe as usual did well with his portrayal of different characters and emotions. I watched this drama because he was the male lead.
Amidst all these, the middle part of the drama was a little lacklustre. Things were happening much like just another day in the office. No drama, no new development - just the regular preparation in secret for the journey to the island. It might be easy to drop the drama here. You have to survive through this to get to the journey to the island before things starts to brighten up.
Overall, I would say it was entertaining but certainly boring in some parts. However, if you are a newcomer to the Chinese drama scene, I would say it is worth a go to watch as you have not been spoilt by other better Chinese dramas.
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Stockholm syndrome
Overall, worth watching: excellent and good looking cast, fantastic chemistry between the leads, lots of mysteries and twists in the story and great backdrop.However, be ready that the ending is open-ended. Would be nice if there is a sequel to tie everything up - but don't bet on it. I have not seen any Chinese drama sequel successfully released so far, and most of those released did not measure up to its predecessors.
Yun WeiShan was sent to the Gong clan as a spy by the WuFeng gang, disguised as a candidate for a bride. WuFeng was a notorious group which had dominated the martial art world and forced many clans to submit to them. However, the Gong clan rejected their demands and was about the last not to submit. And as the drama progressed, you would find there were other spies beside WeiShan. WeiShan found that she not only had to hide her identity from the Gongs, she had to deal with other scheming spies ready to betray her if necessary to protect their own identities and their mission.
The young handsome Gong ZiYu was thrown into the position of the clan leader when his father and eldest brother was assassinated, presumably by WuFeng's spies. While selecting his bride, ZiYu fell in love with WeiShan. Relationship between the spy and the new leader became complicated and it looked like she was a liability which might bring down ZiYu from the leadership position.
Highlights about this drama:
1. The story was very interesting. There was always new discoveries; nothing and no one was what they seemed to be.
2. There were good humour as portrayed by the character Gong ZiShang. Although her behaviour was funny in many scenes and helped lightened up the dark and serious drama, some were quite snapstick.
3. Zhang Ling He was as usual outstanding in this drama. He was the second lead in the drama Love between Devil and Fairy and was perhaps overlooked or overshadowed. But his subsequent performance in this and the Story of Kunning Palace along with Bai Lu was nothing short of outstanding.
4. The other main leads were equally good. Ryan Cheng played the cold faced Gong ShangJue who actually had a soft side. Yu Shu Xin hailed from the drama Love between Devil and Fairy - I am not quite convinced about her acting - she played the cool and calm spy - a character which was mostly quite boring - saved mainly by her chemistry with Zhang Ling He. By comparison, the scheming Shangquan Qian (Lu Yu Xiao) was more interesting and earned our disgust.
5. Everything was good except the last episode. Everyone was unhappy - a sharp contrast to the Story of Kunning Palace. I wish they could do a better job with the ending. I suggest with such lousy endings, come up with your own ending.
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An intriguing and complicated story of time travel
The characters crisscrossed time into the future and back to the past so many times that I lost track. However, it is an interesting drama. I followed it through continuously and completed watching it across three days while recovering from a flu.Two lovers from different time periods were star crossed and their shared memories were eventually erased. The drama cleverly kept its audience guessing the identity of two individuals- the missing boyfriend and the real killer, and wondering whether the killer could be stopped on time to save the lead lady.
The main actress Ko Chia Yen was excellent. She acted two completely different characters very convincingly - a timid depressed young teenager with an inferior complex and a confident university student who grew up very assertive.
The actors and actresses were good looking. The main cast acted their parts well. Some of the insignificant minor characters were not so convincing; however their less than a minute duration parts did not impact the overall drama. The backdrops were appropriate for the scenes.
The pace of the story was quite slow, so you have got to be patient. I nearly wanted to skip to the last episode.
As for the music, it's just that one piece 'Last Dance' and that's about all.
The main negative is the ending did not flow well. Suddenly, the main couple was on a bike appearing from nowhere - how they met again was not explained - if it was from the time when the female lead was a child, it would be very tacky.
If I were the writer, I would let them meet in the future with a role reversal - with Li Zi Wei returning from Canada, walking into a cafe and ordering his coffee. The waitress whose back was toward him, answered in affirmative, prepared his coffee and turned to hand him his coffee. Their eyes met, they found each other very familar, stared and asked each other simultaneously 'Have we met before?'
Overall I would highly recommend this drama.
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Don't upset those in power
This drama centred around Yun Xiang, an orphan who survived the massacre of his village. He was brought up by the mysterious head of Yantai with a hidden identity. Yun Xiang was trained to became a master of pretence and strategies. Like most dramas of this genre, he insisted on investigating the mastermind behind the massacre, although against the command of his Shifu (teacher).The drama was interesting as the people hiding their identity was not only the head of Yantai. The drama was a battle of wits and cunning between Yun Xiang and Nan Gong Fang who appeared to be from a rival sect. But it got boring after each identity was revealed.
I am not a supporter of child emperors and lineage, and a believer of: may the best person win. I think only when the upright and capable become the leader can then a country prosper. I did not favour either side of the power struggle, as it was between loyalists to lineage and a capable Prince who was not so upright and did not care that much for the people and would do whatever to achieve his end.
This drama scored well on an excellent cast who performed well, good looking actors/actresses, and appropriate backdrop. Costume was mediocre but fits the purpose. Not a drama of grandiose. Overall, still a good piece of entertainment.
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Romantic makjang blockbuster
It has been over 2 decades since the release of this drama. This drama marked the advent of Korean dramas outside of Korea. It took the drama scene by storm at that time and Bae Yong Jun became the heartthrob of Asia.While I had watched the Untold Scandal (movie) and The Legend (drama), and was impressed with Bae Yong Joon's acting skills and certainly his good look, and heard a lot of the Winter Sonata, I had never watched this drama, partly because of it 'low' rating on Mydramalist. With the large number of dramas to choose from, I typically do not pick a drama with rating less than 8. This time, I decided to give it a go - afterall, it was once a blockbuster and a classic.
I highly appreciated Bae's and Choi's (the main leads) acting and their onscreen chemistry in this drama, it had a very good cast and the cinematography was great. However, this story was not my favourite genre - the melodramatic romantic makjang with sobbing being the mainstay, but I had enjoyed most part of it. The entire drama would take you on an emotional roller coaster. And it is slow-moving as it worked to build up the emotions - given my impatience to get to how the story would develop, I clicked the forward button many times.
It had all the classic cliche of a makjang drama - love triangles, a scheming love rival, an upright patiently waiting fiance, unreasonable parental objections, unexpected death, dramatic return of an old flame, amnesia, attempted rape, flirting with incest, deceits, blindness, unwavering love, birth secrets and more. (Makjang = highly melodramatic, outrageous storylines that keep viewers hooked despite how exaggerated the stories become.) While all these can happen in real life, you have it all played up in one makjang drama. It played up my emotions so much that I was irrationally thinking: yah, just eloped together, who cared if you were half-siblings if you loved each other so much and had gone through so much together (although I did suspect that they were not real half-siblings).
Then, there was all these coincidences : the right / wrong person hearing what they should not hear, walking into the person you wish to see etc. I had encountered walking into classmates in countries away from where we had studied, seen incidences of being caught between 2 lovers, unexpected deaths, read in news about incest of siblings not knowing they were closely blood related. But they were few and far apart. Certainly the triangles were resolved quite quickly with little ramifications - there is a life to live, move on.
And definitely the moral of the story is: honesty handled with tactfulness is the best policy. Also, stop deciding for others what is best for them, let them decide for themselves. The obsessive, neurotic Kang mother in the drama and the two male lead characters certainly had lots to learn from this. If the mother was honest, a lot of anguish would have been avoided and certainly the accidents.
However, if makjang is your thing and you enjoy the emotional roller-coaster, then this is a must-watch for you. But if I rewatch, I do wish to find a version of the videos which are played in its original size and not stretched to fit the screen size of newer computer/TV screen, which makes it all blurry and the characters look fat.
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Makes your blood boils
This is a drama jammed packed with action and humour, although at times a bit snapstick. This drama is quite violent by my standard and I would only recommend it to mature adults.Vincenzo, a consigliere of an Italian Mafia family was in Korea to retrieve an illegal hidden trove of gold. But instead he found himself drawn into a fight for justice after the villain and his accomplice murdered a number of innocent people to cover up his illegal activities. Together with the daughter of a murdered friend, they pitted their wits against a duo of psychopaths: a sly ruthless lawyer and a wealthy cunning narcissistic brat with their network of corrupt politicians and bureaucrats. Did he manage to retrieve his gold in the midst of the distraction?
What I like about this drama?
1. Full of action
2. Fight for justice
3. Demonstrate how corruption can infiltrate a democratic society
4. Smoking hot first and second lead actors. Very often a second lead could make a lot of difference and sometimes overshadow the lead. Although Ok did not overshadow Song in this drama, I must say he is really good and smoking hot.
5. Outstanding cast, both lead and supporting - all were outstanding
6. Very entertaining
What I dislike about this drama?
1. Vincenzo's fight for justice is commendable but the final episode when he raved about how he handled his enemies back in Italy is a bit twisted.
2. The story has a number of loopholes and this is the biggest: the idea of buying a commercial building, digging out a basement to hide a large load of gold and then killing all the movers is a bit silly in a modern day setting. The construction of the basement and move of the gold could be very inconvenient - almost impossible for the rest of the tenants not to suspect anything.
3. It seems a bit too easy for Jang and Choi to manipulate the politicians, justice system and investigation bureau - is the system really so fragile?
4. It would be nice if Vincenzo has done something for the tenants especially since they had helped him so much. It seems he just pocketed almost all the gold except for some for his few immediate helpers.
Overall, an excellent production - highly recommended.
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Hilarious - dealing with gender identity crisis
This drama was hilarious. Jang Bong Hwan, a casanova and chef at the South Korean Presidential Palace fell into the water and was transported back in time into the body of a newly wed queen of the Joseon period, Queen Kim So Yong. She committed suicide throwing herself into a lake in the palace.This sparked off a series of humorous events when Jang faced an identity crisis being a man in the body of a woman - like having 'her' period and getting pregnant. He was infatuated with the King's favourite concubine and tried to seduce her. Given the two women were rivals and he was in a woman's body, all his advances was futile, of course, and very funny.
It was hilarious when King Cheol Jong tried to be intimate with his 'queen' and Jang tried his best to get away. Jang went berserk when the King claimed that they had an intimate wedding night when he remembered nothing of that sort as he was drunk. At the same time, there was a power struggle between the King and the Grand Queen Dowager, the regent who was from the same Kim clan as the Queen. As 'enemies' from different camps, the King and Queen were also suspicious of each other.
What I like about this drama?
1. It was hilarious and I laughed at every episode, although some of the jokes were a little snapstick.
2. Excellent chemistry between the lead actor and actress.
3. The lead actress was impressive acting a 'tomboyish queen' who was actually Jang with his rough modern ways.
4. The lead actor was equally good at acting the hypocrite.
5. Although clearly fictitious, it was very convincing.
6. Although time travel had become a common theme, this story was quite creative. The writer had picked a short-lived king and made him into a successful character who had changed history.
7. The period architecture and costumes and backdrop and cinematography were great.
8. The entire cast did an excellent job with no weak spot.
What I dislike about this drama? Not much, but if I am to nitpick, it would be the following:
1. The music befitted the comedy and the funny scenes but there was not much melodies.
2, The fighting scenes were good but not that well choreographed and a bit simplistic. But I like that they did not drag on to lengthen the drama.
So overall I would highly recommend this drama.
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Entertaining but dubious
This drama is entertaining with an excellent cast including Peng Xiao Ran and Jin Han as leads and 4 handsome leading actors. Costume is beautiful; cinematography is good. It scored well on all the technical aspects. The story is well paced and has a well developed ending.The story centred around Princess Chu Jiu Ling who discovered that her emperor father was murdered by her uncle, the current emperor. Her attempt to assassinate her uncle at her wedding failed. She was tortured but was rescued by her physician teacher and his daughter Jun ZhenZhen who swapped identity with her. ZhenZhen started a fire in the prison and killed herself. Subsequently the teacher died in a fall while collecting herbs. Jiu Ling then took on ZhenZhen's identity and went to the rich Fang family and took refuge with her 'maternal grandmother'. She then went on to discover further sinister secrets involving the Fang family. Along the way, she won the hearts of 4 different men, went through 2 weddings and broke off an engagement with one of them.
The drama ended well and we did not end up with some ridiculous child emperor. But there were several questionable unrealistic scenes:
1. It was inconceivable that a rookie in medicine could cure diseases that baffled well-known experienced physicians even if she was well taught - ask any medical interns if they could do that. Conversely, it could be explained that in the old days physicians were generally badly trained as there were no medical certifications required.
2. In those days, I do not think they had the plastic surgery skills to transform Jiu Ling's look into ZhenZhen's no matter how skilful the physician was.
3. In one episode, Jiu Ling threw the enemy's camp into chaos by throwing 3 'soldiers' into a camp of 10,000 soldiers, faking infection with smallpox. It was more likely they would throw the 3 soldiers into fire or quarantine instead of being frightened into chaos - these were people who had fought and killed in battles. I expected the writer to come up with something more convincing and on a larger scale.
4. Chu Jiu Ling insisted on keeping the heritage of her teacher's medical clinic retaining the name Jiu Ling for her medical clinic, which was coincidentally also her name. What a convenient coincidence. Since she wanted to keep her real identity a secret, it was rather stupid for a clever girl like her to want to use this name and of course invited a lot of trouble thereafter.
These were stretching imagination. I accept deviation from reality in fantasy dramas. But for period or historical dramas, I expect something more intelligent. The music was melodious and some of the theme songs were really nice but a couple somehow sound quite familiar in some parts. So I say, overall the drama lacked originality and realism.
However, the drama was entertaining. So if you are not too discerning about these, you could still enjoy this drama a lot.
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Love saves the 3 realms
Just after Little Orchid transformed from a plant into a fairy, she saved the God of War ChangHeng of ShuiYunTian (the immortal realm) when he was injured, returning from a war and fell in love with him. Although ChangHeng reciprocated her love, he kept away from her as he was betrothed to the Goddess of Xishan, arranged by the Heavenly Emperor who might harm Orchid if he knew of the romance. In the immortal realm, Orchid was bullied as her master was away and she was only a lowly fairy, especially by other fairies who were also in love with ChangHeng.In a twist of fate, Orchid fell into the HaoTian Tower, restored the primordial spirit of Dongfang QinCang , the powerful king of the Moon Tribe of Cangyan Sea and freed him. He was imprisoned in the Tower after the previous Goddess of War ChiDi sacrificed herself to seal him in the Tower. It was said that the resurrection of QinCang would bring great danger to the three realms and only the Goddess of Xishan could prevent this catastrophe. But the Goddess had been missing from the three realms for 30,000 years.
While in the HaoTian Tower, Orchid was accidentally bonded to QinCang by the heart curse. With this curse, QinCang could feel the feelings of Orchid and experienced any harm that happened to her, but not the other way around. Although deprived of feelings because of his training for the Hellfire power and ruthless, he could not kill Orchid without harming himself even when she was extremely annoying.
Meantime heavenly lord RongHao was trying to revive the Goddess of War, ChiDi with the help of a dark power as powerful as QinCang.
Was ChangHeng able to save his beloved Orchid? Where had the Goddess of Xishan gone? Was RongHao courting a dark power that was more dangerous than QinCang?
What I like about this drama?
- Chemistry between the lead actor Dylan Wang (QinCang) and Yu ShuXin (Orchid) was immense.
- Dylan was an excellent actor - playing the stern ruthless QinCang, then a naive playful Orchid as their spirit and body was interchanged, and an evil supreme lord as he merged with the dark power. His expressions were all different for each.
- The cast and acting were great.
- The story was interesting - there was creativity and the story was not quite the run-of-the-mill Chinese fantasy story giving a more refreshed feeling.
- Humourous moments when love rivals faced each other, and when Orchid would tease QinCang, as she wished under the heart curse.
- The rest of the hygiene factors were all there: good looking cast, special effects, computer graphics, beautiful costumes.
What I do not like about this drama?
- Odd and unnatural moments - why the three could not work together as a team to overcome the dark power instead of facing him individually? Obviously, this was to create opportunities for someone to die to stir the dramatic emotions among the audience. Feels very fabricated and did not flow very well.
- The hero died but you could guess what happened next. To pacify the wrath of the audience of a tragic end, the writer had to turn the situation around. But while trying to create a dramatic ending, it had the opposite effect - it became very predictable. The hero was resurrected just by hanging his ring below a flower and simply re-appeared without any explanation of how. Writers really need to work more on the ending of dramas.
- The beginning and ending trailers gave the story away a bit too much on who eventually Orchid would choose - avoid watching them until after the middle of the drama. Again, it takes a lot of skills to create trailers that do not give away too much and yet arouse the interest of the viewers.
- The ending theme song, although melodious, was a little too modern for a drama that had a period setting.
Overall, I say this drama is interesting and certainly worth your time. Also, it is short - only 36 episodes and covered a lot.
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