AMAZING drama. Shenli my fAVORITE FEMALE CHARACTER

I rarely give out 9/10 ratings. I have nothing bad to say about this drama yet!! I hope this drama doesn't let me down. This seems to be the first bigger budget Cdrama airing this year. I absolutely love the strong warrior female lead, and the male lead is a really great actor too. The looks he gives her later on are HOT! The on screen chemistry is great. These leads seem to work really well together. I haven't seen princess agents, but im not sure if i can handle 67 episode dramas anymore. I hope they get a good ending in this drama :)

About the divine/immortal plot, it isn't anything we haven't seen before, but i really love the way it is portrayed. The storytelling is not convoluted and makes you really immersed in the way a god would think. Imagine being alive for thousands of years, everything is boring and everyone around you perishes sooner. But finally, male lead finds his heart wavering against his duties to the heavens.
I also do get slight 2nd lead syndrome with her general( only because he knew her longer)! But even she says, it happened at the wrong timing.
This drama feels like watching a book. The characters narrate in their heads what they think of each other. The plot gets more involved past episode 20+, and ShenLi's history is not revealed until episode 30+. Getting to the plot is a long haul, but it doesn't feel like it if you really love seeing these two on screen together.
Overall do not skip this one this year. Great soundtrack all the time, always fits the mood of the plot.

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Watch the first season and be done with it. Season 2 becomes a mess.

First and foremost-stellar acting all around.

But damn, I have so many thoughts surrounding both leads I can't even put into words. I feel like Gil Chae didn't really deserve Jang Hyun, but at the same time Jang Hyun kept leaving her. Both characters were really flawed, I guess to a realistic point.

So now that it has concluded, this drama did not end the way I expected. I didn't quite understand Jang hyun's motivation to pursue Gil chae the whole time. To him, earning Gil chae's heart was partly a game(as he stated himself, he didn't want her to know he liked her too early or she'd give up on him). Gil Chae seemed..half interested in him for most of the show.. At episode 8, when they kiss in the field he says he is leaving to Qing and might die, she shows no urgency to keep him

One confusing aspect of the show was Jang Hyun's background itself. Why is he the way he is? How did he become a nobleman? Why does he seem to float around between countries?

The drama DID have some really high points, especially Gil chae's acting during the war and the scene in the cave where she helped her friend give birth. However the interactions between the leads did get really tiring after a certain point. Writers gave Gil Chae all this development during the war, and then seemed to take it back regarding her communication with Jang Hyun.
There were several beautiful locations in the film.
The actors playing the Qing enemies make you really mad at them too, so they did a great job. However the whole Qing plot was ignored in the finale in favor of romance that led nowhere.

Summary: The drama is a stellar level of production, but it still doesn't escape the miscommunication tropes seen in most other kdrama. Both of them refusing to say they liked each other became a bit tiresome. Despite the bittersweet ending i think it's still better than season 2

See my review for part 2 as well, but i think they should have left this drama as is.

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the plot is too random

This drama is meant to be goofy, and that is ok. i expected it for a lower budget piece.
My main issues with it are
-lack of story behind the villain. 20 episodes in and I don't know much other than the scorpion master is bad and he's apparently looking for his daughter. but why does he have a vendetta against the beast king?
-the makeup for kings wolf form is a little cringe. if the veins looked thinner and more natural, it might look better.
- why his brother has the false eyelashes on? it's hard to take him seriously as the second antagonist when he looks like this lol.
-The female lead will not give the king a chance romantically until episode 25. Any attempt he makes to be romantic to her is thwarted by her pulling away and making weird faces.
- Towards the end, female lead brings back gifts to everyone in beast kingdom. She uses the term cosplay and brings high heels back for her friend. This broke the historical immersion. What era this drama supposed to be?

Well, the side lead ladies are cute, i will keep an eye out for them in the future.(He wen jie and Wang Lu Qing)

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Scriptwriter is talented, but the drama lost the mystique and it was too sad

You follow the story of 3 siblings and an alcoholic neighbor who works for their dad's sink company.
Gu, the alcoholic neighbor, is basically the point of interest in the show. The writer made you want to figure out what happened to him to become like that. Writer made it seem like there was going to be a grandiose backstory on Gu.
But once you finally figure out his occupation the show loses the intrigue. He himself says he's just a loser and that's all he wanted to do with his life.
You may or may not feel a need to fast forward through this drama. The writer focuses on long dialogues for each character, and some of the conversations had good meaning.

Towards the end, you'll feel like you know the characters. . But maybe more than you wanted to. The brother is very loud and nosy, and usually hates to concede with others on their views. I did like how he found his liberation in the end though.
Female lead's sister found an "Ok" ending with the single father. The female lead either did or did not continue a relationship with Gu. The ending was open.

Basically all the characters do find liberation from whatever troubles them in their lives, but the drama doesn't offer anything profound to make me happier in my life. Thinking about this months later, I can only remember that it was a moody drama with an open ending that was really vague. As somebody who has had depression since 13 I certainly would not rewatch this.

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So much went wrong with this drama!! :(

Y'all i'm tired of investing 30+ hours into dramas that have confusing endings or plot points that repeat over and over.

Drama had a lot of potential. The actor playing the main male lead is probably the most gorgeously handsome person i've ever seen.

The good: Actors are great, Cgi is beautiful. Both leads had chemistry.

The bad: The plot oh my god, it's kinda strange and toxic. At the end of the show, things repeat all over again from the beginning of the show, and thus you feel the whole plot to save Male lead was pointless. The female lead always had conflicted feelings about male lead so you never really felt like she loved him. There are some uncomfortable scenes in this show like drugging and whipping in the beginning.


Story: The female lead's family was massacred by the demon lord in the beginning. She was sent to the past to try to kill him when he was a human. We know that he has an evil bone and that's why she can't kill him immediately upon entering the human world 500 years in past.
You don't learn about his evil bone and their past love till episode 11, if you even make it that far past the toxic initial episodes. From there you can literally skip the Dragon Dream Arc to episode 18 and still get a summary of the past 7 episodes.

To summarize: I got really bored when Tantai jin took on a new name. His whole disciple saga was meaningless because he became devil god AGAIN anyways even after the bone was taken out of him two times.
The ending was really confusing. He took her clam artifact and it just showed him in a cloud space somewhere. Would not ever rewatch this show unless they add a sequel.

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The things that made part 1 great are not here in part 2. It became boring

Sigh... I have a ton of hours invested in this one. I'm definitely going against the grain with the great reviews.
My issues with part two are as following-
1. The side characters don't mean much to the plot anymore.
2. Gil Chae becomes the damsel in distress
3. The action was better in part 1 and the plot is really going nowhere besides their romance (which I'm getting annoyed by)

I was really interested in the Qing princess and thought she would sway Jang Hyun but her character turned out differently.

Jang hyun's singing Male friend (or should I say friend who's in love with him?) whines for all the series that Jang hyun loves Gil Chae and provides no value to the plot anymore.

Jang Hyun is a "Mary sue character", and even though the stakes are always high, nothing bothers him. Ironically the crown prince and princess became more interesting than the leads.

I honestly think the first season was better even with the bittersweet ending. The second season is like over the top sappy. They make you think Male lead is going to die TWICE; but then he wakes up with the amnesia trope, all for it to resolve in one episode! I can't anymore lmao

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If your ship doesn't sail you'll just get mad..

I really loved this when i was watching it, but now it's over with a vague ending.

I don't know if i'll watch season 2. This is one of those dramas where if the lead doesn't end up with who you want, then you'll just get salty about it. Idk if i'd recommend for that reason.

I reflected on this drama a bit more and yeah..there was really no character development for female lead past episode 20. She aimlessly pines for Tushan jing even though he's married. Even her brother is like.. "come on girl you can do better than this" lol.

If you've seen Joy of Life, this one will feel similar. Each character is fleshed out a LOT, and there are many scenes of them eating and having deep conversations.

The political plot is a little interesting, but it doesn't even feel like the driving force to this drama.
Each of the 3 Male lead's have a goal. The princess's brother wants to unite his kingdom, and uses her to gain support in different lands. Princess basically wants a man to love her even if she didn't have her princess status. Xiang lu wants revenge for his military army, and even though he's technically Princess's enemy, he starts to gain feelings for her.

Xiang lu is a character that did go through some character development when he took on the human identity, but i don't know if he will ever come to terms with his feelings for princess.

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One of the better gender bender romances, but drawn out too much

I am not normally one that enjoys these kinds of dramas where the female lead crossdresses- and makes the male lead confused about his orientation. Usually these dramas have a lot of logic thrown to the side, (like obviously her voice was higher pitched and she has no Adams apple). However I did stick it out because the FL actor was truly amazing in this role. This is the only one I've actually seen the FL play a king.

I had some complaints:
-at about episode 11 or 12, the drama was getting a little boring. Male lead doesn't finally find out that she's a girl till really late into the show.
-you already knew who the evil characters were the whole time(her grandfather and uncle). the plot was taking a really long time to resolve.
-Conveniently FL also has a little brother that she could abdicate to.
-did not swoon in any of the kiss scenes because she was always dressed as a man..
The drama suffered from being a little too predictable and maybe that's because I've seen wayyy too many sageuks. I think they could've shortened this drama to 12 or 15 episodes.



**spoilers below***
Was a little disappointed in the second male lead's plot line. He was very handsome but just felt inserted into the story for the most part. It was kinda weird how he became king after his older brother killed Fl's younger brother. That felt like a quick move, or lazy resolution to the plot?
The ending was good, but a lot of random bloodshed that didn't really need to happen?
All in all it's worth a watch if you have nothing else to look at right now...

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if phantom of the opera was korean, except FL doesn't like ML for half the show

The plot of the drama was already revealed in the promo. You know that Wang So was going to be the prince to get the throne. If you watch this drama you will get a few swoon worthy scenes toward the later half, and a great OST.
Lee Joon-gi really carried the drama with his smoldering looks and the phantom mask. IU's character was not comparable to what Christine was in Phantom of the opera. They did not match well together, especially since she liked the other prince in the first half of the show. She was scared of male lead for half the show and then suddenly falls into a kiss with him and suddenly there are emotions now.
There was a divisive/not happy ending and the plot was meh overall. :( But the OST is probably one of the most memorable ones besides "Its okay thats love" and "the goblin" soundtracks.
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great cast but bad script..and bad cgi

I had no idea what i was going into with this drama. I liked Zhao a lot in love like the galaxy. This drama wasn't awful but not worth completing either LOL. I actually shipped FL more with the saucy nether king and his masquerade mask XD. He just seemed like a more interesting character than the clumsy ML.

PREMISE: Basically the female lead is the phoenix demigod, and the male lead is the son of "true gods", not just immortal cultivators. He gets sent to a banished land for dispersing her spirit earlier and accidentally killing her. She died and then became a water beast egg in this banished forest land. He finds her and helps her cultivate throughout the drama.

Male lead is the sweet/but clueless guy. There's a lot of bickering as if they were siblings. I didn't feel like there was much chemistry.
Some of the side leads are more interesting.(like the nether king & his brother)
There is some super annoying tropes here; like when she is revived finally as phoenix in episode 28, he doesn't recognize her. Yet she literally has the same face. I don't get why xianxia writers do this XD.

The villains are a bit flat since they're evil just to be evil.
The world-building could've been better explained but i guess the writers assume you saw "Ancient love poetry" prequel.
CGI-the magic effects were fine but the water beast form, it looks like a cheap mobile game cartoon... oof
Overall 6.5, it's ok but not worth a higher rating due to the iffy plot and the ML isn't the kind of saucy ML i'm into.

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Why is it rated so highly? Script is so boring

The drama is very cute fluff but hardly any relatonship progression even up to the episode I quit.. The actors play their part well and they are very attractive. As is the case with most Cdrama, the girl always acts like a baby with the baby voice even as she gets older.
Once FL turns 18 and goes to university, her exaggeration of how old he is(only a 5 year difference) is tiring.. She calls him an old fox.. what lmao?
Like she makes it seem as if he is a world apart from her.
Another tiring trope throughout the drama is that both of them never outright confess. And then on episode 15 when he does, she said "try to woo me harder so I'll know if I like you". YET prior to that she was pining for him since childhood. Eye roll

The communication issues are played out too much to the point that I fast forward a bit. We also get a quick backstory of what happened to male leads family and the crazy stalker girl involved, but not much has been done with that plot. FL's brother is on the back burner. He sometimes does not even show up in an episode. I decided to quit after episode 17 because the dialogue between both leads got so boring and repetitive. I don't think this show is worth being rated as highly as Move To Heaven.

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Back from the Brink? I think it stayed in the Brink

I think this drama had a good start, but it really lost its way. The CGI of the fantasy animals and his dragon form was always bad. The first villian Suying was mildly interesting, being that she was betrayed and wanted revenge. The second villain, the shadow lord, needs more backstory and the excessive makeup was very off putting.

The romance aspect was very lacking for the entire series to me. The male lead felt very wooden/cold. Male lead wanted to use female lead only for his dragon heart that he left inside of her body to save her. He eventually stabs her to get his heart back. Do most relationships develop after being stabbed/betrayed?lol
Even later on when they make up, I didn't feel anything other than "sweet puppy love" from these two leads. The screen chemistry wasn't there.

If this drama had a bigger budget for CGI, and more thought put into scriptwriting, it would've been a lot better..
Yea... I wouldn't say this is one of the xianxia i'd recommend to people.

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The drama had great actors, but poor plot that was drawn out

female lead min jae yi has all her family slaughtered by a mysterious person. she goes to the rude and cold crown prince for help.

One thing i find odd is that she DID really like 2nd male lead(at one point before her family was murdered, she was to be engaged to him). Suddenly she turns her romantic attentions to crown prince while they investigate the culprit of her family's murder. The writers never gave you a reason as to why she doesn't love 2nd male lead anymore.

Min jae yi's servant becomes a student under the goofy scholar who studies medicine. Why did these two not develop a relationship towards the end? What was the entire purpose of this sub plot with servant and goofy cute scholar??

Once they found out the culprit of female lead's murder, it takes another 5-6 episodes just to wrap it up. So slow.....
Only on the very last episode does min jae yi and crown prince kiss.
I kinda feel bad for her first love, the 2nd lead.
Overall would not re-watch, feel bad for the great actors involved.

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the past life is never explained, gets boring and random towards the end

The main focus of the story is that Female lead's dad constructed a water canal that collapsed for some reason. He was framed but why and by who? All while this is trying to be figured out is the confusing aspect of ML remembering past life and having heart pain when FL cries. The past life dreams are never explained even by the time i dropped at episode 18

Why i kept hanging on was mostly for second female lead. FL's sister is married into the Su An estate. What you think is a happy marriage for her sister turns out otherwise, and this ties into the political scheming of the Water canal collapse.


UPDATE: I got tired of this show. I gave it 8.5 at first but now down to a 7. The chemistry of the leads burned out. Not only that, but second female lead kept pushing away the man who truly loves her even after she divorced.

2 new characters were introduced so late into the show that made it hard to care about them.
FL's childhood general friend was introduced very late into the story line and his affection for FL feels forced. Same with the general's daughter. it's predictable that they will end up together. i also don't think empress has enough motive to be the bad guy. they barely had any screen time. The villain we thought was dead is alive still. the plot is everywhere at this point. even at 24 episode it feels too long

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I feel like the drama lacked direction at the end

Overall, the drama shows people overcoming their differences in their daily lives, and trying to live life happily. Even if there is no real coherent plot, I think the script makes up for it. In that manner, this drama reminded me of "My Liberation Notes".

I liked almost every episode, and all the characters were connected with each other. So many of the actors were amazing too. The two single fathers, the woman with depression, the lady diver, and Eun-hee the tomboy-ish woman.

I have problems with the way the show winded down. Towards the end (17-19), the writers added a new character, a grandson of the haenyeo's. The little kid and his dad getting hit by a truck felt inserted randomly.
The end of the show credits said 'the purpose of life is to be happy". Yet, the episodes leading up to it with the mom suffering from cancer were very sad. These high strung emotional episodes contradict with the message they were trying to say by the end.

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