Big appreciation to the main cast, who did an amazing job portraying their characters and all the internal and external struggles they were facing. Thanks to their hard work I, as a viewer, found it easy to connect to them and get deeply involved in the story presented. I'm a big fan of Zheng Qiu Hong and Johnny Bai and they did not disappoint in this project with their duality and variety of acting.
Both Bai Qi and Lin Xia are well written characters with smarts and wits, who are willing to fight the bad guys and make sure people they care about are safe. They show great passion throughout many brave acts, and you cannot do anything else but just root for them.
While the romance had great pacing, the overall story felt off at times. There were episodes where a lot happened, and some that felt a bit empty. While I know that showing these daily scenes was also important to develop characters and their relationship, having them more evenly spread throughout the episodes would be better.
The drama was filled with nice side stories, with Shen Zui being the ones that will stick with me forever. I wished we could see a full drama just focused on his character. If you watch the drama, you will know why.
I've got to experience happiness, sadness, anger and many different emotions while watching Fairyland Lovers. It leaves a hopeful message with both main and side stories. The love story was truly moving and made me cry more than once, though I overall do cry quite easily while watching dramas ;)
Overall, I'd say it's an awesome watch for anyone who wants to see some fantasy romance with a brave and strong female lead and caring and smart male lead, surrounded by a diverse cast of supporting characters that you end up loving.
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This review may contain spoilers
Too much of product placement
One of the reasons I picked this show was a fair amount of positive reviews here. So, I feel obliged to post mine for the new viewers to be better informed before they even start. I didn't like the writing in the first place: it's like when you're expecting some character cooking and brewing based on the material that has already been dropped into the plot, but, instead, the authors add some "out of nowhere" storyline details that give you the feeling of a broken rollercoaster. Too much screen time for insignificant and silly comedy scenes, while something really meaningful is being jumped over and blurred. With all my love to Bai Yu and his immaculate acting, the character looks like having a multiple personality disorder and it is not about his other Self that was chained in his inner jail for centuries (that part is nothing but adorable, especially the scene in the amusement park). It's about his rapid back and forth switch from the cold and arrogant "boss" to the socially skilled and sweet "best boy-friend ever". I know Bai Yu can do both, but the authors had been trying to convince us Bai Qi cannot and then... make him do the things he cannot. Feels very strange. Speaking of Bai Yu, my previous drama with him was the Guardian (safely dropped after the 5th episode) and it is kind of dissapointing to see him in a basically similar story. What IS better than in Gardian though are the charming vertical storylines, that ARE given a proper time and the characters keep reappearing as the main story unfolds. There are two reasons I completed the show: (1) an amazing cast, all of them. Some familiar faces from other dramas as totally different haracters from what I've seen before and it even took me time to recognize the actor or actress, so different they are (and it's about the character, NOT the way they look). (2) the language in the drama seemed easy and I used it as my Mandarin Chinese study material. I also watched it as a detox from tremendously good but harsh The Three Kingdoms and it now looks like a need a detox from this syropy love story. I join the club of those who didn't see much of a chemistry between the main leads, but they were still great, each on their own.Was this review helpful to you?
1) really like the chemistry of Bai yu ( main lead) and Zheng qiu hong (female lead)
2) the story was interesting and kept me really engaged it was more refreshing. The male lead is a doctor to spirits. The spirits reside/form through people's longing and desire through objects like knife/comb/brush. He helps cure them before they become evil spirit.
3) Each spirit's story is actually really interesting.
4) I really like the songs in there, esp the one the female lead sings.
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I love the style of this show- I really enjoy when couples are cutie and this is my fav type of show to watch just a little bit of everything to keep you entertained. Important- One of the few dramas with No 2nd lead love interests. Which is so nice to leave that plot out! Quick drama to watch- easy to flow onto the next epi without knowing.
Plot- A long long time ago- aliens landed here and their main job is to collect Penghai power that they lost and need it to go home. They call themselves Heaven Soldier's and are tasked with collecting the power from spirits who have an obsession. Enter in Baiqi ( spirit)- hunted by what he remembers of his past (5%- can't even remember his birthday or parents). He went from fighter to Dr and uses his skills to fix problems for spirits but always in exchange for their pride possession. Linxia- Small time actress, will do any role for money. Lives is a huge house and is trying to pay off her dad's loans. The leads meet in the best way- Confusing+ misunderstanding= fate hitting them in the face!
Side Plots- Best side plot ever:Chef Spirit- I would watch a full show just on that. I enjoy 2nd couple, but other than that I did not care about other plots- But I did enjoy watching about healing spirits.
Romance- Great kisses- selfless love- really enjoyed watching them together. This is not a show that stops romance plot once action happens. They keep growing as a couple. Once you reach the field moment- I had the thought a few ep later that you could stop there and be happy with the show.(not that the ending is horrible)
Its Funny- Love them messing with the Heaven Soldier. I need more of the plant early on!
Once you reach 20-ish ep you do know where this is going to end.
30ish- starts to drag a bit and you wonder what is left... I had a full " Oh ya, that plot" moment. LOL
Ending- Most everything is wrapped up, there are holes but not impotent enough to bother me. I accept the ending and the decisions that are made BUT it dose lower my enjoyment of the hole drama with how the flow/characters changed.
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What A Great Surprise
I was a little hesitant to watch this because fantasy dramas are not my favorite. I fell in love with this drama after the first episode. The characters in this drama are great and the story is not bad. The only thing that bother me about the story was all the push and pull love complications that the lead characters had to go threw. It became annoying and I wish they could have had less. All the characters are great and I love the chemistry and how they become friends and start helping each other. The special affect was not bad and the chemistry between the lead characters was amazing. It was romantic and adventure, with action scenes and even some cuteness. The actors performance is great and they all pull you in in every story. I love how we follow the characters threw the episode and how we get to see what happens to all of them at the end. The ending was beautiful. I love it and will see it again.Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
Aliens are in the human world to tidy up a mess of their own making!
Despite the title, this drama is more in the science fiction or science fantasy genre than plain fantasy with magic. Granted that Penglai is, in Chinese folklore, the abode of the god like immortals and a sort or fairyland "away from the human world". Here, Penglai is simply a far-away planet from where aliens were exploring the cosmos. These aliens looked remarkably like humans, but could live for thousands of years and they had superpowers including telekinesis (It was funny to watch Hei Qi unsuccessfully trying to move a glass with his mind-power when he was just out of confinement and recovering).Yes, superpowers needed to be known and somewhat trained. If not, like muscles, they would weaken and go completely unnoticed, as in the case of one important character here. But they could also remain hidden in the case of some aliens who chose to go incognito among humans. These aliens were awaiting the moment when they’d be able to return to their home world Penglai, far away in the cosmos. They were on Earth because of an an accident and used the thousands of years to try to clean up the mess left by the scattered “jade” pieces of their spacecraft, which was causing obsessive humans to become “spirits”, living without aging but also turning progressively evil. If these spirits could acknowledge and let go of their initial obsession, together with handing over the piece of alien jade, they could be “cured” and return as ordinary mortal humans.
This is where Bai Qi stepped in as “Spirit doctor”. Originally just a spirit who, instead of being wiped out by the Heavenly soldiers, had become the friend of one, Xiao Zhou, he had even fallen in love with her. But after being both pursued by a killer, she let Bai Qi escape with her Penglai jade bracelet which normally only should be worn by her tribe’s Heavenly soldiers. She also entrusted him with a small sapling or “herb” of paramount importance: “Peach Blossom”, a seemingly sentient plant. Next, she was killed by a mysterious hooded character.
Before releasing him to live on in the mortal world, Xiao Zhou had erased Bai Qi’s memory of their relationship. Nevertheless, when Bai Qi, through a misdirection, found young aspiring actress Lin Xia in his penthouse apartment, he was surprised to feel a connection with her face, which made the partly forgotten memories of Xiao Zhou reappear. When he discovered that not only had this young woman taken away the sapling, because she accidentally had broken the pot, but that the herb was thriving and flowering under her care, Bai Qi decided to rent rooms at her house and work from there, while trying to understand how a mere mortal girl could so influence the other worldly herb.
Many stories and adventures ensued while Bai Qi and Lin Xia became friends and after a while, fell in love. Around them, other characters were drawn into their wake: Yang Jian the naïve Heavenly soldier who fell in love with a young celebrity actress called XiaoXiao. A Li, who played pranks at the master he had freely chosen, but preferred e-games to entanglements with humans, seeing how pitiful the obsessed ones, turned spirits, were. Lin Xia’s dad, who suddenly came back from abroad, disrupted the routine at Lin Xia’s house and showed hostility towards the spirit doctor. Not only these, but patients and antagonists made every episode grow in mystery and dilemmas.
Also, as noted, there were no fairies to find in the drama, and although the antagonists and “evil spirits” were close to the demon definition, they were just long-lived humans who have no hell to go to except of their own making. The Heavenly tribe, on the other hand, listened to a more supernatural voice, that offered them cryptic choices. Ultimately, the aliens who had crash-landed on Earth, could blend in, and become fully human, like the “spirits”, if they so desired. Or they could leave this world altogether to stay away, separate and minding their own alien business. A promise of possible contact in the future didn’t feel very sincere: once separate, the aliens and the humans’ paths were likely not destined to cross again, since Earth had nothing that could attract these aliens by way of resources. Nothing like in “My Girlfriend is an Alien” which is more superficially comedic, and a very different story despite its obsession with love.
Overall, the story was good, although there were some draggy moments in the later episodes. The drama is after all 35 episodes long. Not short. Time runs fast in the beginning, but towards the latter third, the complications could feel over-dramatic, and there were “getting away” moments that might tax patience. Just admire the starlit skies then, and take a pause to follow the lead’s explanations to find the Big Dipper and the small bear… Stuffed teddy bears also abound in this drama, btw. One falls victim to a tiff and gets repaired cutely. And the letters left for Lin Xia are stored in a box labelled with a teddy bear face: this teddy bear motif is one of the recurring details that one may notice with a smile.
Another slightly annoying or amusing thing, depending on mood, is the product placement: 999 Ganmaoling keli (herbal granules adding caffeine, sugar, and acetaminophen analgesic) popular over-the-counter Chinese medicine to treat the common cold, Unifon face masks, Hoegaarden beer cans and bottles, Budweiser beer cans, high fashion clothes like Fendi branded sweaters, and and the Nintendo Switch game console, appear in a lot of episodes.
The actors were good, Bai Yu was a convincing stony faced “spirit doctor” turning progressively more human-minded and had a very satisfyingly mischievous alter ego (“Hei Qi”, his not so “evil double”).
Jade Cheng (Zheng Qiu Hong) played every sentiment from endearing, bubbly and funny, aspiring entertainer to heart-broken lover who gives up everything for the sake of her lover and the greater good.
Marcus Li was an unforgettable prankster sidekick to the main lead. He previously played noticeable supporting roles in the two ‘Go Go Squid’ series and plays “Zhou MingMing” in the 2022 c-drama “Light Chaser Rescue” (where he picks up funnily the new personality he assumed in episode 35, end of “Fairyland Lovers”!).
Ji Xiaobing as the “Big Baby” clueless Yang Jian alien was also very good; he played a private investigator in 2018 S.C.I.
Estelle Chen /Chen Yihan as XiaoXiao is also a good singer (with several songs published since 2018); she has two songs here: “Xihuan ni” and “Xiang ni”. As an actres,s she recently played “He Zhaojun” in the 2022 c-drama “Love Like the Galaxy” (Beware: she has a namesake Estelle Chen, born in Paris in 1999 who is a model.)..
We also get Jade Cheng /Zheng Qiuhong singing and playing the guitar in some episodes : she is a real-life singer as well and released her first single in 2012.) She also dances in the beginning to the funny Little Frog song.
There is also a song (Feng Qiu Huang 鳳求凰) by HITA, a singer who has gained fame for her non- drama related song “Chi Ling”; and Patrick Kwong contributed a sweet “Lullaby of you”. There are excerpts of other songs too: children’s rhymes, classics like Teresa Teng’s “The Moon represents my heart” (parodied by Hei Qi) and more. The background soothing piano or ominous theme music was spot on to underline moods.
The OST and music were excellent; it is a pity that YouTube and another platform cut out some songs and even sound of dialogues in the end episodes, where even translation is missing, so if it wasn’t for the Chinese subtitles, these parts would be totally lost to audiences there, if for some reason, they can’t access the main WeTV platform. Of course, with only reading Chinese subtitles to convey the dialogues, this is also an interesting exercise for Chinese language learners or for those who got too complacent relying on foreign language subtitles or spoken Chinese. (Hint to the Chinese learners: use a tool like Pleco, to draw the characters on an interactive mobile device, and get the meaning and pinyin to key in for sentence translation. Reading Chinese is difficult, but c-drama dialogues are not too hard to understand).
On Youtube, there is also an alternate proposal /private wedding scene, with a cute kitten on the lakeside: Lin Xia takes the initiative, but the “rings” are identical. It is also possible to find several OST songs, trailers and BTS,and an interview; but most of these additional features have no English subtitles.
Overall, Fairyland Lovers was an enjoyable drama with a happy ending for all the positive characters, no grand wedding scene, but some cute growing kids with, already, tooth decay threats!
I might go back re-watching some episodes: it is a nice drama.
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Worth Your Time
If you think this a chinese version of "Goblin", then no. It's much more than that. And I'll be breaking this review into parts.PLOT:
The story was well written. There might've been some dull moments here and there but that won't stop you from continuing the episode. First few episodes were build up stories and then main plot starts. The story flow was great and every story had equal attention. Romance, mystery, dark, thriller, every flavor was added. There might be some parts that you might not understand and have to watch 2-3 times to get the gist of it but it's all cool. No unnecessary love triangles, no good person turning bad, nothing like that. Story will keep you hooked!
CHARACTERS:
The main characters, Bai Qi and Lin Xia had amazing chemistry. The female lead, Lin Xia might act childish in the first 3 episodes but then her character develops into a sarcastic and mature one. Bai Qi seems cold and rude but as time goes, he starts to understand everything and let's that quirky side out! Second main leads Yang Jian and XiaoXiao are also absolute delight to watch. Yang Jian is a clueless mind who's still adapting to the ways of life whereas XiaoXiao is a glittery star who wants his attention (not in a bad way tho, it's just she's drawn to him). Yang Jian's character is adorable whom you'll want to protect and keep him safe!
Many people didn't like the storyline of the other side characters, specially Shen Zui and Miss Lu, but I loved it. The side characters story was really heartbreaking and emotional. It gave a break from the main leads story, which was good in a way.
CINEMATOGRAPHY:
Extremely well done! From CGI to appealing background and scenes, everything looked beautiful. Flow of scenes were also very well done. It'll make you think that you're actually in a fairlyland.
OST:
The main part. The background scores were so soothing I'm not even exaggerating. Probably my first show where I loved every ost to the core! Ost's are played at the right moment to connect with the scenes which makes it more good. If you watch the whole drama and listen to the Ost alone, you might cry. The songs are THAT good. It gave a heavenly, angelic vibe.
CONCLUSION:
Give it a chance! Probably the most amazing show you'll watch. It's not cliche, nor boring or anything in that line. This drama is worth your time! You'll fall in love!
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This review may contain spoilers
Started off well, then got lost in its own twist and turns
This fantasy drama in a modern setting has an interesting plot where immortal aliens from the planet Penglai are stranded on earth and become the natural antagonists of the spirits created by the accidental release of an alien substance. The ML is one who defies the set pattern in that he is a spirit himself, but one dedicated to releasing other spirits from the obsessions that brought them into this state. Bai Yu’s acting is solid, but somewhat lacklustre. His best moments were certainly those as his own evil alter-ego.The FL is one of the original Penglai aliens, but one who has died and was re-born without the memory of her past existence. Jade Cheng is believable as her modern quirky self, her scenes as a Penglai warrior were a bit of a stretch, though.
The couple meet by chance and their paths cross a few times before a bond develops between them.
They solve a couple of “cases” together and the initial antiques of denial, courtship and jealousy are quite fun to watch. The secondary couple provide some additional humour and at times are more interesting to watch than the main couple.
The sparkling appearance of Jeremy Tsui in a support role (ep. 12-15) is an unexpected highlight for a few brief episodes and after that there is a noticeable void.
In the second half, the writers seem to have run out of decent ideas and the plot is falling apart. There are reasons that would prevent the main couple from having a relationship and both come up with ploys to break up in one form or another. There are so many twists and turns that in the end I couldn’t care less whether they end up together or not. The repetitive filler sequences of them either gazing into each other’s eyes while the OST is playing or of them reminiscing about their time together, again while the OST is playing, becomes a nuisance in itself to the point of making me nauseated just hearing the OST.
The end was sort of anti-climactic and felt rather flat.
This is definitely a drama that would have benefited from being shorter (since the writers only had a limited amount of good ideas) and having the plot straightened out a bit so that it doesn’t feel like running in circles.
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you wont regret !!!!! watching this
this drama has all the things i want to watch. has mix of modern and ancient times and very good story line.love relation between alien and and a human . very unique story idea. really love the fiction, fantasy, sprits< little scary and horror type romance and interesting plots .. ....... ... ...
I really love the actors . they played the role on point. also the ost were so pleasing .
it is really funny drama makes you laugh so hard also at the same time you have to prepare some tissue along with you because you are going to cry terribly at last few episodes
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The part I disliked the most was when Baiqi loses his memory, especially when this happens near the end of the drama. Memory loss is so common in dramas that it has just become an obvious route to move the story forward.
The three main characters, Yangjian, Baiqi, and Linxia all have very good character development throughout the story, and through good writing, allows me, as the viewer, to actually care about what happens in their life. The saddest part of the story is when Baiqi knows he will die if he continues to love Linxia. That part is veryheart- touching since he rather dies in love with Linxia than being separated from her.
Overall, I think this drama deserves high ratings and people should give it a chance.
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A light romantic drama with comedy spread over it.
This drama left me in two minds. I really don’t know how to score it. It started wonderfully. The storyline is an interesting one, unique in that sense. The acting was good but it felt like the characters didn’t really develop until the last 10 episodes or so. But at that time, it felt like the producers were trying to milk and drag the drama out. There was a fair bit of “filled in” moments where the focus was on things totally not important to the storyline. The OST, I felt, was okay but there were times the music didn’t add much to the production, especially the English song. The lyric just didn’t match the mood. Though loved the song from Jade Cheng.In saying all that, Jade Cheng was great. Love her performance; entertaining to watch. The relationship between Ji Xiao and Bing and Estelle Chen’s characters was gorgeous and humorous to watch as it bloomed. Xuan Lu is divine to watch, she seriously steals the scene every time she appears. I have said it before and will say it again, she is an underrated actress; that smile and the cheeky looks are priceless.
The last scene pulled all the emotional strings. If you didn’t feel anything after watching it, please check if you still have a pulse. Love it.
Overall, it was too bad, especially for some light entertainment watching.
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Go for it
Different story ,starting few episodes were bored when they were destroyed evil spirit.Bit when there story had started story caught up with the interest ,there was an episode had some funny scenes . I enjoyed watching first male lead acting. He was too good .Each and every characters were good . But not happy with the ending . Need of one more episode I guess.You liked love stories , This will be a good choice.
The one who worked as his assistant was so cute , I like this character . Second couple lead was also cute and there story also.
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