The Longest Promise is a love story between the exiled crown prince Shi Ying and princess Zhu Yan of Crimson Clan. It’s a slow-burn, master-disciple romance between two people who meet as children at the court, where Shi Ying (then crown prince) saves Zhu Yan from the undeserved punishment, and as the consequence of that ends up being forced to fake his own death and leave the capital. He goes into hiding to the Jiuyi Mountain where he later becomes a distinguished cultivator and priest. Zhu Yan never forgets what crown prince did for her that day, and feeling grateful and responsible for his death, decides to find a way to bring him back to life. Years later, that quest brings her to Jiuyi Mountain, famed for its magical prowess, where she meets a young and skilled ‘immortal official’ (basically priest in training) who she thinks can help her. Despite the initial hiccups in their relationship (because there is a prophecy that Zhu Yan will bring doom to Shi Ying & the fact that Shi Ying doesn’t want anyone to know his real identity) Zhu Yan ends up being his first disciple and from there their relationship starts developing and blossoming over time.

When people say this is a slow-burn romance, they mean it. You can see both of them developing feelings for each other over time, but the real confession doesn’t come until the last few episodes. As a priest, Shi Ying tries to push Zhu Yan away and squash his own budding feelings, while Zhu Yan, while devoted to her master, doesn’t believe anything romantic can come out of their relationship because of Shi Ying’s status and upright demeanour. That’s one of the reason why their romance, despite this imbalance of power between master and his disciple, feels healthy and natural. Shi Ying never flaunts his power over Zhu Yan but instead guides her to become her own person while at the same time trying to protect himself from the love that goes against his status.

Aside from the beautifully depicted love story and ML and FL of integrity, this drama has beautiful visuals. The CGI is one of the best (with some small exceptions) when it comes to xianxias, and flowy costumes (really fitting for the whole “holy mountain” concept) and landscapes are stunning. Another strong point of this drama is the acting, especially when it comes to main leads.

Xiao Zhan as Shi Ying was exceptional. With the way he acts with his eyes he really stands apart from others. The sad scenes in which he cried or tried to be strong and hold back his tears were heart-wrenching. The dignity with which he carried out the role of a crown prince and prominent cultivator/priest was impeccable. His microexpressions conveyed all of Shi Ying’s internal struggles, and despite Shi Ying being quite aloof and withdrawn as a character, there was no blank face acting.

Ren Min as Zhu Yan was also really good. Whether as a cheerful and optimistic student, defiant and stubborn disciple or heartbroken woman in love she carried it all gracefully. There was a lot of criticism when it comes to her character. People found her annoying, meddlesome and stubborn, but in my opinion she was exactly as she should be. She was someone who was always left in the dark by other characters. She didn’t know about the curse, she didn’t know Shi Ying loved her, she didn’t know her best friend lied to her about his identity, so she made mistakes. However, as soon as she would find out what’s actually happening around her she would become clear-headed and reasonable. All of her actions had logic and sound motivation behind them. She was wiling to sacrifice herself for her loved ones, she was wiling to admit her own mistakes and she was willing to understand others and forgive them for hurting her.

Now, the thing that I found lacking when it comes to this drama is the plotty part that connects with the romantic storyline. I’m not gonna lie, it was pretty mid. The palace intrigue and power struggle over who’s going to emerge as the crown prince was pretty simple. The emperor, Shi Ying’s father, is said to be a bad ruler who can’t save the decaying empire, but we’re never really shown how bad the situation in the empire is. There was a conflict (and later war) between Merfolk and the rest of the population (in which Merfolks were treated as subhumans) which was a major plot-line that defined relationship between Shi Ying and Zhu Yan, but it was kinda whatever. Aside from the personal tragedy that it brought to SY and ZY I didn’t feel anything towards either side. And then the whole time there was a villainous shadowy figure (with distorted voice, which made it kinda childish) behind the scene that pulled the strings and turned out to be THE villain, but until the last 2-3 episodes it didn’t really make me feel anything. It was just whatever.

All of these things had the great impact on the love story, but viewed separately they were just mediocre. The main issue I have with all of that is that (MAJOR SPOILER) Shi Ying and Zhu Yan in the end decided to sacrifice their ‘happy ever after’ (for which they suffered and fought SO HARD!) to save the kingdom, but the drama didn’t make me care about the kingdom and the people in it at all. Intellectually, I can understand their decisions and actions, but emotionally it feels like everything they did in the previous 40 episodes was pointless. The ending is open tho, so I just consider it HE.

When it comes to the music, the opening song and one of the songs/melodies used in the drama were beautiful, the rest was alright. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t memorable either.

All in all, it’s a good love story, visually stunning and well acted. The MDL rating doesn’t do it justice.