Reviews

best xianxia drama of 2023

honestly watched it because im a diehard fan of bailu! her acting here was great, as well as the ml! their chemistry is really amazing, same as when they acted together as the main leads in "love is sweet". this xianxia drama was overall quite touching, how the fl was actually seeking revenge on the ml yet the ml falls for her and their relationship deepens. their wedding scene was literally my fav part of the show and the saddest i think? i'll try not to spoil it im sorry lol. i honestly wouldn't want to rewatch it since the drama is quite long like 40 eps long, took me a week to finish. i would def recommend this for those who watched "love between fairy and demon" since idk why i find these 2 dramas pretty alike.

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A drama with an engaging storyline, good production quality and enticing romance.

When I first saw the trailer for Wonderland of Love, I was intrigued because it looks impressive and grand. It generally received good reviews, so I decided to watch it as soon as I finish another series, and I’m glad I did!

What I like:
1) It's a fictional historical drama with romance, which is one of my favorite genres. The story is grand – there's romance, friendship, politics, intrigue, strategizing, battles – but it also has humor and it's not too heavy, so there is a right balance. The pacing is just right, so it's not boring. I especially like episodes 30 to 40!

2) The ML (Li Ni/Shi Qi Lang) and FL (Cui Lin/A Ying) are both smart, charming, strategic, and very skilled in martial arts and military tactics. Both are strong-willed, which is a double-edged sword. They are not one-dimensional characters, so there are layers and depth to their personalities, partly influenced by their backgrounds and upbringing.

3) Great chemistry between Xu Kai (Li Ni) and Jing Tian (Cui Lin)! I like their banter from the start, and their chemistry grows stronger as I continued watching the drama; it gets better as the story unfolds (I didn’t feel it strongly in the beginning). I’m so glad the production team is not stingy with the sweet and romantic scenes! They definitely enhanced my watch experience.

4) Xu Kai as Li Ni / Shi Qi Lang – He is a great leader, commander, friend and lover. He's also strategic, principled, prioritizes relationships (重感情), values his freedom and is not interested in palace intrigues, though circumstances forced him to be involved. He doesn't like infighting and competing for the throne. I think Xu Kai played this role quite well.

5) Jing Tian as Cui Lin / A Ying – She is a brave, smart (sometimes even cunning), strategic and independent woman. She is beautiful but not in the traditionally expected sort of way. I may not agree with some of her actions, but I do understand her motivations, where she's coming from. Right now, I couldn't think of anyone other than Jing Tian who could pull off her character.

6) Interesting supporting characters who add spice and flavor to the story, such as Tao Zi, Chang Er, Pei Yuan, Lao Bao, and the other soldiers in the Zhen Xi army. Even the SML (Liu Cheng Feng) and SFL (Gu Wan Niang), both of whom I dislike especially the delusional/obsessed and ungrateful SML, were good in their portrayal. I also like how the romance between Tao Zi and Chang Er developed; it's sweet and they look cute together.

7) I'm smitten by the costume design! They're generally beautiful and elegant, fits the scenes, and have good color combinations. I need to mention that their wedding clothes are just so beautifully designed and matched. I also like the colors and interiors of the Eastern Palace. It's serene and so calming to the senses.

8) The fight/battle scenes were well-executed. Nothing looked fake.

9) Good choice of songs for the OST! I especially like the opening theme “Wonderland of Land” sung by Curley Gao, which is quite upbeat and has rock elements, and the ending theme “If Love Still Remembers” sung by Liu Yu Ning, which is more mellow.

10) The ending is great! Love how they showed many happy, sweet and endearing moments, mended relationship, and the characters got what they deserved. Basically, it's a nice wrap-up for the drama, and they dedicated one episode to it, which I really appreciate :).

Other comments:
1) The emperor is such a lousy father – he's biased and played favorites, and he's partly to blame for how his 2 older sons turned out. It’s good that both sons got their just ends. He's also an incompetent ruler – unable to make sound judgments, and easily swayed by the advice of his ministers, some of whom have their own agenda to push. Good thing he got some redemption towards the end. I think Gao Shu Guang was able to play the character convincingly.

2) The SML, Liu Cheng Feng (Gao Han), may look frail and sickly, but I find him somewhat shady from the start. And when he tricked the Zhen Xi army (who had rescued them), it showed his true colors. The SFL, Gu Wan Niang (Zhao Jia Min), is actually smart and seemed nice in the beginning, but it wasn’t long before she showed her scheming side.

3) At some point in the drama, the ML and FL seemed to be in a deadlock, unable to move forward because of their opposing views. They would disagree, have a fight then make up, then repeat the cycle a few more times. I got a bit frustrated with some of the back-and-forth arguments.

4) I wished they had shown that Cui Lin eventually found out about what Li Ni went through just to clear General Cui Yi’s name, so the outcome was a good compromise already. I don’t know if it’s in the novel, but it was not shown in the drama.

Final Verdict: I really enjoyed this drama, it’s interesting, entertaining and a good watch, so I would gladly recommend it!

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second leads outshining main leads?

i honestly don't understand why this plot was so weird. the main leads are literally zhang linghe and esther yu yet the script and plot literally just showcases the "BETTER" chemistry between lu yuxiao and ryan cheng, the red flag couple.
yushuxin's acting was quite good, the contrast of her in lbfad and in my journey to you was really huge, her cuteness in lbfad and the cold vibe she's giving off in this show as the wufeng spy in this show was really great, showcasing her strengths in acting cute characters and cold/evil characters. she's such a great actress!! the casting was actually a solid 10/10. just a very unexpectedly weird plot, it seemed like the directors only used the main leads to gain fame for this show just to project viewers to enjoy the acting of the 2nd couple more. If there was more scenes and chances for the main leads to showcase their romance/chemistry in this show more, im pretty sure we can see how their relationship deepens. the ending of this show was also pretty abrupt and seemed rushed? i hope there's a 2nd season where we can see what actually happened in the end instead of an inexplainable and "forcing viewers to guess" kind of ending.

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enemies to lovers plot

i love ml and fl acting and how their relationship deepened when they went through good and bad times. honestly, some parts of this show was confusing to me and the characters of the ml and fl seemed like red flags sometimes. i thought ml was wearing wigs but apparently he dyed his hair blonde and even got it cut into a buzz cut just for this show. he really sacrifices his hair for this show lol. fl's acting was quite okay. my first time seeing both of them acting in a drama and their acting is quite on point. the plot was quite interesting and i really liked the start of the show! iost is soooo good, esp the theme song "Falling You"! this drama was overall worth my time bingewatching! :)

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Feel unfinished

After the complete feeling from HIStory2: Right or Wrong, this part again left me feeling like unfinished story. You can say they have the complete story, beginning - middle - ending. But when they close the curtain, for me, the leave with the feeling of something to be finished...

If only they have a little bit closure, like HIStory2: Right or Wrong, when they give us a little preview about their life after relationship. It's gonna make the drama a lot better. Like if they end it in the graduation scene for examples... Oh that's gonna be a lot better.

But the story itself you can't said bad or toxic. This simply story about teenagers that fall in love & learn about their feeling to each other, apart from gender & any issues regarding it...

Overall i can't say this the best version of HIStory2 series, but also not the worst of them...

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Will definitely be watching it again and again!

I really, really love this series! It's so much fun to watch with its cooking, friendship, and romance scenes. Plus, it's the only Chinese series where I don't skip the singing parts—I actually replay them because I love the songs! The way the main characters' relationship grows from being shy to becoming a strong couple is heartwarming. I also love seeing Gu Sheng getting to know and becoming pals with Mo Qing Cheng's studio friends. It made me smile all the way through.

Some people say it's too smooth and lacks conflict, but I think it's realistic. Real life isn't always full of drama, and not every relationship has outside interference.

Tan Jian Ci and Zhou Ye do a great job in their roles. They really capture the shyness and crush feelings so well. This series is just awesome!

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The best historical drama

I loved LLTG so much, it's so hard to find similar historical drama which made me rewatch it no matter the length of the episodes, I loved each n everything in this drama so much. No ckt was annoying or irritating as such, but I loved the king the most in this drama? he had such nice comic timing n was like a breathe of fresh air amongst the historical dramas king roles. I have literally watched so many historical dramas becos of LLTG to find any such similar one where I can watch n enjoy everything but didn't. This would always remain my no1 historical cdrama n nothing surpasses this. The acting, cinematography, chemistry between leads evrything is top notch . Must watch cdrama.

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ermm very disappointing

the military plot was so boring and seemed unnecessary, i had to legit skip like 2 episodes because i couldn't sit and watch it through. I'm not a diehard fan of song kang but honestly I don't understand why there were so little song kang scenes? the main poster is literally him (and he's the main character in this show too) yet he only appeared like 4 times in the show?? hopefully season 3 next year would be better and less boring. i don't get why the plot had to be drastically changed, especially the script writers unnecessarily getting rid of many characters by making them die in this season. honestly, overall it was so disappointing considering the fact that many sweet home season 1 fans waited for like 2 years for this.

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Unprecedented emotions

It feels like as the stories progress, the more risqué they get. The ending of this drama cleared things up well, but that's not to say that things weren't a little confusing all the way through.

The story is about fraternal twins Kun and Korn who are at a point in their lives where they're facing the prospect of not being the most important people in each other's lives for the first time. They're incredibly close, so much so that it takes a while to figure out that they're actually brothers, and when a new student named Tod, and an old friend named Pond are added to the mix, jealousy, possessiveness and the feeling of being unwanted flares up in the twins.

I feel like I need to clarify that this isn't romance (although they made it seem like it was, oof), it's more about the feelings of seemingly losing the person you love the most and them being unable to comprehend and adjust to the situation. The romantical inclination they showed may have been a small mistake in expression, they didn't quite nail the closeness of the siblings in the way they intended.

The ending kind of fell flat though, it was obvious that they would follow their own paths, but there was a better way to do it than have them just ghost each other for months. I would have preferred if they had written it to be a situation where the twins are still involved in each other's lives and still close, but realise that there are some things they're allowed to have that are just theirs. But I appreciate what they tried to do, and it's not the worst miniseries in this anthology.

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Nice female leads

I loved this drama unexpectedly. I loved both the fls here. Both were strong n had such a nice ckt arc where they grew as ckts individually due to the hardships they faced. I loved dilraba n wu lies chemistry too n loved their pair but sadly it had less of romance story of them n so I ended up feeling robbed off as the drama isnt abt romance much. But still it was enjoyable. Unpopular opinion but I didn't like hao du as ckt or with Zhao lusi as her love interest. He wasn't given a proper arc or reason to fall in love with yong in. He was jst obsessed with following his father's order to kill yongan, then suddenly realised he loves yongin after going in search of her?, maybe the need to find her safe made his protective side to feel he is in love with her or something.. Anyway, we move. I loved Shers ckt too, wanted to see more bromance scenes between sher n Sun. All in all a long n slow but interesting drama, I may not rewatch but enjoyed watching it nonetheless. Oh, Leo wu looked absolutely breathtaking with Ashile tribe getup n added the charm to the show. ?

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good casting, interesting plot, binged in 1 day

i absolutely loved how the ml and fl bonded as their relationship deepens. this is my 2nd time seeing both ml (strong woman do bong soon) and fl (20th century girl) and i must say their acting is pretty good! i seriously love the fl character so much in this drama!! i binged watched this in 1 day bc i was sick and bored and this drama really is worth my time. as someone who enjoys horror genre, i do not find this scary at all like how my friends tell me about it. it's just some infected psycho zombies who are desperate to bite humans and infect them and how the ml+fl along with their neighbours try to prevent themself from getting infected. honestly, this drama is more about showcasing the survival/life during the zombie virus breakout and lockdown etc rather than the ml fl trying to eliminate zombies. for me, i feel like my friends just exaggerate the drama too much for me lol(in terms of how "scary" and "intense" it is. anyways i love ml and fl chemistry, both of them their characters really go well with each other

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Annoying leads and their boring story

It could be the first drama where i hated the main leads n forwarded their scenes? I mean I wanted to like them but I couldn't at all to the extent I was happy that the fl is dying?? becos she was the most annoying ckt. She was wolfie obsessed not in love with ML as whole but only with the Wolfie with whom she played with in her childhood n wanted that Wolfie who was jst like her innocent pet but didn't like the grown up man much who has suffered so much n became wat he became due to circumstances. She needed to understand that people grow n change due to their good/bad circumstances, u can't expect them to remain same as they were in their childhood. I was so irritated with the fl doing stupid things, putting herself n evryone in danger n getting saved by either ML or SML n then getting hailed as someone so smart and noble n courageous ?.
I loved ji chong and yaoji ckts the most. Yaoji was such a badass n had such aura n charm n screen presence n ckt that i wanted her to endup with the ML n was rooting for it. But sadly she wasn't the lucky one, but I loved her anyway. The fl was only tolerable with ji chong for me. Ji chong was more suitable to the fl type ckt becos he really made her strong n reasoned with her n made her understand things in better way. ML as individual was okayish as ckt. The only enjoyable parts for me was of ji chong and from 2nd half when fl goes to Jin country. I was bored to death with first half n wanted to drop it bt continued anyway for ji chongs ckt and story?.
The ost n music was okayish too. Not much addicting. I didn't feel any chemistry in leads even though they had so many kiss scenes n skinship scenes. Ji chong n fl had some chemistry but that also was not much root worthy too.
All in all torturous experience watching this show for xiao zhan like many of his fans watched for him? was happy wen it ended, won't rewatch ever again.

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