2017 was a different time. Liked the romance, but some questionable aspects
2017 was really a different time for time-travelling historical romcom cdramas--before censorship on straight-up time travel plots and before voice dubbing became prominent. I was quite surprised and unsettled to hear most of their real voices (that seemed to be recorded on the actual set) and took me a few episodes to get used to it. The narrating voice was a bit unnecessary since it only appeared a few times and was a bit intrusive.Overall, this low-budget time-travelling historical romcom drama was enjoyable for several reasons.
First and foremost is the main leads/couple Mo Lian Cheng (Xing Zhao Lin) and Qu Tan Er (Liang Jie). The actors' chemistry and scenes carried this show--as proven by their reoccurring roles in the second and third season of this drama as well as their modern drama You Are My Destiny. They look really good together and just work so well together.
Besides them, the MVP of the show is Tan Er's maid Jingxin. She was the best and I love her.
The second reason is Liang Jie's acting as Qu Tan Er and Qu Xiang Tan. She's very good at switching between these two personalities and was very convincing. I had a hard time feeling attached to them at the beginning since both of them were kind of annoying in their own ways, but as their relationship deepens and become more harmonious, the better they both become.
The third reason is the potential of the plot, especially knowing that there's a second and third season. There's the mystery of a bigger story tied to who she is and the orb that's being searched. I enjoyed the deepening of the story and how that eventually explains the title of this drama.
However, there were a couple things that didn't sit right with me, especially regarding the issue of agency with Qu Tan Er and Qu Xiang Tan sharing a body. The disregard that Xiang Tan treats the body made me disappointed and almost dropped this drama. I only kept going because I was curious about how the overall story especially since there are two seasons after this. Characters aren't as complex as they could've been nor had as much character development as they should had. For example, Richards Wang is listed as a "main role" in here as Mo Yi Huai but he didn't have as much appearances as the main roles did and, at some episodes, barely showed up at all.
Overall, I think I'm surprised at the high rating this drama has on MDL, but for its time in 2017, it must had been pretty interesting. And, of course, the romantic scenes are pretty sweet and cute. Other aspects may suffer, but not them.
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a breath o fresh air, although a bit of a let down
I must say that I didn't start this drama with high expectations and almost dropped it because their outfits looked just so tacky and simply awful, but in the end, I decided to trust the reviews and pushed forward, and I'm really glad I did!This was obviously a low-budget drama, and it's evident throughout the show, however, don't let the tacky outfits and really bad CGs put you off because it's really worth it.
FL and ML have great chemistry and although some aspects of the drama annoyed me off at first - like whenever Qu Tan'er's personality came through, and I couldn't help but wish her dead 'cause she was so bland, however, as time went by I came to really emphasize with her and wish for her happiness as well, that to say that even the parts that turned me off a little at first, made a full turn around and conquered me at some point.
The story here it's truly engaging and there are so many cute moments full of fluff between the main couple that I was fully satisfied.
However... the ending truly was a bit of a let-down, from episode 20 on forth, I didn't enjoy it as much and actually skipped some parts here and there. Here's the thing, the CG on this drama it's truly horrible and because of >reasons< FL and ML end up in the spiritual world with a whole new set of drama to deal with and which I didn't appreciate at all. Out of the blue we are hit with an amnesia plot and honestly, what for? I don't know, but then, the next 4 episodes are about this memory loss, ML injuring himself even further to recover said memories, and then we're trying to recover his health, because well, he is dying now. Honestly? I didn't think it was necessary, and specially so the actual ending. FL goes back to the modern world and ML goes with her, but honestly speaking? It would've been so much more satisfying if they had gone back to the world where they met, and their freaking son!!!! Which they seem to completely forget about by the end... Seriously, I can't help but feel frustrated at this part of the drama, because I would be completely devastated if after going through all that I still couldn't be able to go back to my child's side and raise them alongside the man I love... like??? Seriously??? It was better for them to go to her world and start it all over again, than to go back to the life they had already built together?? I don't think so, but ok.
But in the end, I must still agree it was a really nice drama and I loved it, I just could really make do without all the meaningless drama in the end.
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The story was very entertaining and I had no problems pressing the next button. It's very difficult to come across a time travel drama nowadays which is one of my fav genres. Despite the Low Budget production, the drama had nice cgi, and there were no unnecessary scenes or characters. The female lead character can be irritating at times but overall it was a good drama compared to a lot of others I have watched this year, however it can't be compared with Eternal Love for sure, which is my all time fav.
Acting/Cast
I dun think the male actor was good looking at all and he didn't win me over with his acting. Unfortunately Mark Chao set a very high standard in terms of average looks with charisma, I fell in love with MC's character and although initially I felt he wasn't good looking, with every episode he looked even more handsome and at the end he was the most handsome guy to me that ever stared in any TV series this year. As for the female lead, her acting was moderate. I think her maid was a better actress. Overall what made me watch finish this series was the story.
Music
Music was good and sound track was nice, very appropriate for this drama.
Rewatch value
I certainly won't be watching this again, however it will be one of my TOP fav dramas this year.
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It has soul on it's own
Kiddos to FL, I like how she portrays the two characters well. This is my first time encountering an ML with a mischievous attitude and nyahaha.I dunno what's missing. It has a good plot and all. Yes, it is interesting but I think.... how they deliver and weave the story was kinda makes it lack of something. Some scenes are out of context and sometimes, things happen so fast that the essence becomes trivial (the start and end of it specifically).
Overall, this was good. They depict topics that are rarely seen especially in this kind of setting. Maybe this is me expecting some improvement and how they deliver it (I'm not pertaining about the actors, the storyline itself tells me that there's still room for improvement and what-ifs to enhance it). That's why I felt they lacked something.
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If you want to have a non-toxic romance, with a female lead that is actually funny, watch this!
In summary:This is currently my favourite romance drama, which says a lot, because I generally have an issue with most romantic dramas (e.g. coffee prince, it's okay that's love) .
It is kinda a parody of historical romances, and therefore more light-hearted than other historical dramas,
at the same time it does have some real tragic drama in it.
The female lead is really funny and she has great chemistry with the male lead, they have really sweet scenes together.
The ending is confusing; however it does make you interested in wanting to know more.
----------------- Longer version ----------------
I usually find most drama's not that fun, because they in general romanticise toxic behaviour (over dominating male lead, being too possesive, and/or a female lead which acts too much like a child, underdog behaviour). However, in this drama I found the interaction between the ml and fl very sweet. The male lead is really caring, in a not too overly possesive way. Ofcourse, the ml is in the beginning a bit cold, however, he actually has good reasons... like actually good reasons, not some cop-out 'boohoo I have a bad childhood, so I am justified to be a creepy jerk' reason.
The female lead is really fun to watch, she is actually funny (unlike ashes of love) and really goes into her character. She has to play having two souls into one body, and she really pulls it off. I think in general all actors fit their roles well, they have a certain likeability factor, which makes it fun to watch them.
The story is not super complex, but is well written. After every episode I wanted to see the next one, I cannot remember it having any fillers, every scene builds on to the next one. The ending is confusing though, but it had some interesting potential for follow-up seasons.
I really wish for more romance dramas like this one, but I have not found them yet.
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A thing that I didn' t like was how overwhelming it was because of all the terms that I had to know. I mostly forgot most of the terms so I didn't really understand most of the drama.
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It was cute, a bit silly, and not long enough to be bad.
Lol...where to start with this drama? The positive is that there's only 24 episodes that are 33minutes long.I think the main reason I stuck it out to the end was that the main couple were really cute together. The soul switching plot is very convoluted and doesn't make sense until the last 4 episodes.
There wasn't really a major villain in this drama. He appears in the sky from another realm and has his henchman search for the soul orb for most of the drama.
The Fl was actually a really good actor. She plays two different souls in one body. Apparently there's two more seasons of this but I don't know if I have any brain cells left to watch them XD.
The ending is kinda odd and funny for...reasons..I'll just say they gave their kid away to her maid..lol
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It should've just stopped at episode 15
This drama start off cute, lovely, and sooo romantic. The FL can portrayed both the character really well. The ML also have a great acting skills. It's just the CGIs are omg.... i've read it on wikipedia that this drama were a low budget one, so maybe it explained the CGI. the last 6 episode are just ridiculous, wth ure making a world up in the clouds and fighting against a dsrk evil king, and those episodes were full of CGI. if you cant afford a better CGI, just stop extended the drama till it move to the sky world (or whatsoever those place name)Absolutely rewatching it. But just till the 15th episode
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The main couple made watching it bearable
I don't know where to start with this.So I've held back on watching this because I've seen previews on youtube, and it was confusing, and watching it made it more confusing. So I don't normally need the synopsis' of dramas and I go by deciding whether to watch them by casts, posters, previews and stuff like that, so going into the drama without much knowledge was a mistake.
The drama chooses to go start to the plot without much reasoning or explanation and with a drama with this time traveling-body swap plot is a mistake. From the first episode, it is also evident that the production had a smaller budget compared to dramas of the same kind. The budget is not only evident in the sets, side characters but also in the script itself. With such a complex storyline, the drama really suffers because of the poor writing. The story suffer from many plot holes, what feel like last minute decisions and decisions for convience. The writing didnt seem very well thought out. I had had to check the synopsis to get the essence of the story and considering this is an adaptation, i guess i expect the story to be more put together.
The visuals of the set already made it hard to watch and then the poor script made it even harder. At the first few episodes of the drama, I found it hard to believe that many people actually found this enjoyable considering that this is about to have a third season and the rating this has on here. I tried to continue watching despite hating it, just to see what made people like this.
Because of the poor writing, I didn't even notice when the ML started becoming fond of the FL but as the relationship grew, I started to understand. It was all in their chemistry, they had really cute, sweet scenes that makes you giddy. I love the ML's glaze and how showy he is about his feelings, which not as common in other dramas. My favourite character has to be Jing Xin, the actress portrays her very nicely, it's sad that in the middle towards the end of the drama, she was absent for a lot of the episodes. Either than that, this drama was trash, really. The story is just so iffy because of the writing.
The main point is if you dont really care about the story and just care about the romantic parts, the skip button's your best friend. The main couple was really cute, the story's a blackhole and that's about it.
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First of all, do not watch this unless you can watch Season 2 immediately afterwards. It leaves you with a cliffhanger of sorts that would’ve drove me crazy if I hadn’t had known ahead of time. The villains were a bit cliche and silly at times. But the chemistry between the OTP was the bomb! And the kisses....they were probably the most kisses I’ve seen in a chinese drama ever. Even more than Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms. The pairs chemistry saved this drama when overacting and plot holes would have made it a “5” for me. I DID like the original time travel aspect of it. I also liked that the main female was feisty and intelligent. Also that she remained that way throughout the series. She wasn’t perfect. Sometimes needed too much rescuing at times, but otherwise she stood out compared to most Chinese drama heroines. Was this review helpful to you?
