Love of Thousand Years (2020)

A Waste Of A Good Story

Love Of Thousand Years could really have been an epic like Love And Destiny and The Untamed if it is better laid out. But the producers have wasted a good story to me. It does have a few things going for it to make it watchable though. Firstly, the main leads make a cute couple. Zheng Ye Cheng and Zhao Lu Si did their best to display the pull of a forbidden relationship as they toy with each other. They display a chemistry that makes it easy for viewers to root for a happy ending for them.

Secondly, I feel the main cast acted well in all their roles. At least, I did not cringe at their acting throughout the drama. Zheng Ye Cheng has the aura of a flirtatious immortal and he is able to capture on-screen attention with his stares. Zhao Lu Si gives me the vibe of a carefree princess who has matured due to the tragic events that she has experienced. Molly Wang has an arrogance and evilness in her character that are tempered with self-doubt and a desire to let go. She is able to portray a character in conflict with herself. As for Liu Yi Tong, he did well as a man wrecked by guilt and loathing because of his father’s betrayal.

Finally, Love Of Thousand Years is really a good story if you ignore the editing and details. The pacing is quite good as it doesn’t really drag on and on like some longer dramas. I know it is hard to overlook the drama’s weaknesses but do give the story a chance regardless of the ending. I think it is an interesting one but just that, it has not been fully taken advantage of to give viewers a truly epic tale.

Why You Should Drop It
Now that I have told you why you should watch Love Of Thousand Years, I should also warn you where it fails. The first thing that could put people off is right at the beginning. The drama starts with Angelina Jiang as Princess Yan Yan. Just as you think she is the main actress, that changes immediately to Zhao Lu Si in the second episode. So, the lady that Jiu Yun loves in the first episode has a totally different face in the second although they are supposed to be the same person. The plot requires the face change but to some viewers, it takes away the romanticism that is important in a love story.

The next thing that could make you drop this is the poor editing especially in the last episode. The scenes jump without proper explanation of what is going on. It could also be because the story is not being told in a right way with many things being left out and unexplained. Without the details, the drama is full of plot holes and guess work.

Another thing that annoys me is the flashbacks. It is fine to have flashbacks to emphasize a certain point or feeling but it shouldn’t be overdone. In Love Of Thousand Years, I find that they have inserted one too many flashbacks that repeat the same scenes. Perhaps they want to lengthen certain episodes but I find them to be unnecessary.

Finally, the ending for this drama sucks. There is no proper clarification as to what happened. I know some dramas do leave room for viewers’ imagination such as Legend Of Yun Xi. But this really takes it to another level when viewers are unsure if everything is a dream, a rebirth, or just a story in a painting.

My Verdict
As much as I want to, I can’t really give a high rating for this Love Of Thousand Years review. A score of 6.5/10 is perhaps fair given its weaknesses as laid out above. I wouldn’t really recommend you to watch it if you are very particular about having a good ending for your dramas. This one is most probably going to leave you disappointed.

It is also a pity that they have censored some of the kissing scenes. I know even modern dramas like Here To Heart have to take out steamy scenes to comply with the strict rules. You have the sweet moments for the main couple here but if you are expecting a bit more kisses to let you feel the love between them, it is going to fall short compared to, say, The Love By Hypnotic with its numerous intimate scenes.

Having said that, you can still watch Love Of Thousand Years for Zheng Ye Cheng. I like him from Love 020 and he has definitely matured with this role as the flirtatious Jiu Yun. Speaking of being flirty, I still prefer Ethan Juan’s Wuji in Legend Of Fuyao but then, I’m sure many female viewers can’t resist Zheng Ye Cheng’s handsome boy looks either. ?

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I'm a fan of Zhao Lusi and I tried to finish this series ..I think this series is okay but too typical of a costume period drama.

Another thing is that the role they had for Lusi in this series was a bit annoying. (gets into trouble, cold and ungrateful to the people who tries to protect her ?) 2/3 of the drama she's focused on avenging her people regardless of the lives she could hurt to achieve it. I'm glad she made a turn towards the near end.

Most of the cons are mentioned in the previous reviews so I won't go through it here. But it's not the kind of series that I would rewatch....

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Waste of my time!

I am a huge fan of Zhao Lusi.. although her roles are not very diverse, I love every time she tries to portray these cute characters. I have pretty much watched all her dramas except this one. When it came out, I was so busy that I didn't have time to watch. After it ended airing, there were so many bad reviews about it but I wanted to try it out myself. I had been contemplating it ever since and finally made some time to watch it and now I feel like I really wasted my time.

First of all, the storytelling was really bad. I heard the novel itself was really well-written but the way drama tells the story was so confusing. Only after reading the comments, I found out that Fu Jiuyan had been following Qin Chuan for ten lifetimes or something like that. The ending was so confusing too because I didn't know whether it was a dream or did the spiritual lamp redo the whole history. The story sequence didn't make sense to me too. 90% of the time Qin Chuan wanted revenge for the Li Guo but I feel like she was just being stupid and dumb. Xuan Zhu's character development was supposed to be emotional but her acting lacked a lot for me to feel sympathy for her. I think most of the actors except Zhang Ye Chang did a very okay job with their roles and nothing stood out. Zhang Ye Chang did play his role well and if the other actors could work well with him, this drama could've been ten times better.

Second, there was no chemistry between the main leads. I feel like if the storytelling shaped the POV from Zhang Ye Chang chasing her ten lifetimes, maybe it would've been better. But because the story started from Li Guo being invaded and Yan Yan having to run away, I felt like the whole story weighed on her. So her falling in love with the "wick of the spiritual lamp" felt so unnecessary. I feel like Qin Chuan, Zichen, Xuan Zhu, and the 2nd prince felt like a better squad, and Fu Jiuyan being a smaller role. The two leads didn't even spend a lot of time together for most of the episodes and it was Jiuyan helping her from behind.

I feel like this drama had the potential to be a great success if it met the right cast and the right staff working on it. The story wasn't very bad to start with but the way it was told sucked. Zhang Ye Chang is a very capable actor and I was definitely convinced by his role as Fu Jiuyan and look forward to his future works. However, Zhao Lusi like I said isn't a very diverse actress. This kind of role did not fit her because here wasn't much comedy in the latter part of the drama. She isn't fit for this serious role. Maybe only if she worked on roles like this she could build her experience.

Overall, I would say this drama was really a waste of my time. However, I'd still end up watching this because of my greed to finish all Zhao Lusi's works so I can't say I regret it. But the OST was nice lol

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So I randomly came across this while looking for dramas and I ended up quite enjoying it. It was not some really complex storyline but it was good for a pass time watch. The drama was like portrayal of progression leading up to the goal of our leads and how their love grew along the way. I liked the pacing of the drama and they did well for having 30 episodes only because usually we see costume dramas have 50 or more episodes. The script could definitely have been better honestly but that's on the writers. I would have liked to see more development of characters. And the show had many other flaws too but I don't know if it's the mood I watched it in because I didn't particularly care about them.

Now as for the cast, they did a good job with what was given to them. The best part was the chemistry between Zhao Lusi and Zheng Yecheng. The drama was sweet, had lots of funny moments, Scenary was pretty in parts, action sequences were satisfactory. I loved the OST. The soundtrack is just gorgeous.

One major gripe I had was the ending. It was just confusing and the last episode seemed like a waste. I wish they could have done better with it. The ending felt like make of it as you will and just left me unsatisfied.

Anyway, overall I enjoyed the drama. It was not on some exceptional category but it was nice and a good watch. I won't mind re-watching it again and I hope I can see the pairing of the two main lead actors again in the future.

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Could have been much better

I don't like to write bad reviews but in this case the show had the makings of something much better than it turned out to be and for me that's sad.
Your main couple FuJiuYun and Qin Chuan seemed to come out of nowhere to me at the end. FuJiuYun obviously loved her from the beginning but she didn't even know he existed, and when she did she thought he was more an annoyance than a love interest. By thee time things might have started heating up between them they went their separate ways for a while and she actually spent more time with her childhood sweetheart and the 2nd prince than she did with him. Then in the span of one moment she turns around and states he's the love of her life and she wants to die with him! it had almost no build up and although the actors where great the story left potholes regarding their relationship that could not be covered up.
Another thing that could have been done better in my book was, the show was called 'love of thousand years' yet only on a few occasions did FuJiuYun even drop hints that he had been watching her that long. There were no flashbacks into past lives, no discussions among the immortals about how long he had been watching. Nothing! it was like the past thousand years of him watching and protecting was something insignificant and could be pushed under the rug. Why bother including it in the title if you aren't going include it in the show?
The third thing I had a problem with was the end. Now I haven't read the book so maybe that makes more sense but the show didn't. Did she go back in time? was it a dream? did everyone come back to life in some alternate universe?......if she went back in time why didn't her face change back again?........it just didn't make sense. As for loosing Qin Chuan her memory of FuJiuYun, again it didn't explain why that would happen. To suddenly get pulled into the painting and find him there was a semi good ending but it seemed to concentrate on everyone but its main leads in the last episode.
The music and costumes where great and the acting was super. The ML and FL had good chemistry, in the little time they had their relationship. It was the plot that let it down. I hope I can see these actors again in something that shows off their skill properly.

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Girls don't need to trouble themselves with family or country's revenge and hatred.

It feels like you get beaten over the head with this line all the way through the first part of the show. I don't like the sentiment that we shouldn't seek justice for our families or our people just because we should live and let go. I especially don't like the narrative that because we are women we shouldn't go for that and instead should shove our morals and integrity aside and just consider having a fun and chill life with someone. Because if we do try to follow our own path, moral code, values, love and respect for our family and fellow countrymen, the show scriptwriter will make sure to beat us with the idea that revenge is bad and women can't do anything and need to be saved all the time. I wish I was joking with this statement, but then again I have seen this whole thing in its entirety. The amount of times the female lead goes about her plans completely recklessly and then needs to be rescued exceeds the amount of patience I had to watch it happen.

If I squint, it might be forgivable that she doesn't use her brain if that is just a part of her personality but the problem is, she lacks having any in the first place. In fact, the first actress that appears as the female lead has portrayed a completely different person from the second actress which made the transition between the two so jarring and questionable over the course of the rest of the show. I tend to like Zhao Lusi's acting but I have felt the very lack of it in numerous serious scenes that could have been done better. It often left me with a weird feeling of what the show wants us, as the viewers, to consider it to be. The comedy sure is there but with such a grim starting point, I have found it quite weird to swallow after the first episode.

Now here comes the biggest problem in the whole show, which is the plotline and its arrangement which most of the time doesn't make any sense. We start off with a big event, then there is a whole load of nothing but creepy behavior from the male lead upon his very disinterested female lead. Then there is this idea that the female lead should feel sorry for something she has done to the second male lead as if we didn't see the shitfest that happened in episode one. Why? Just for the sake of tying in the romantic aspect of the story while the female lead herself has absolutely zero interest in any of that. It comes off as so ingenuine and cheap that I wasn't sure what I was even watching.

All of that gets somewhat rectified in the second part of the drama where the plot starts unwinding at a rapid pace. There the romance and love scenes between the leads truly flourish and were enjoyable to watch. That is if I understood where such big romance came from in the first place. From the male lead, we understand that there is a big obsession due to plot exposition but when it comes to the female lead and her abrupt flip in feelings towards him, the transition makes zero sense.

The secondary couple suffers even more, as their scenes are boring and we are not given an explanation why the second male lead likes the second female lead; it just sort of happens as if it was there the whole time, even though she had nothing likable to him in the first place. I think there is a pattern here when it comes to shoddy romance writing.

The villain couldn't have been more cartoonishly evil so they made sure to give them the super evil-themed villain laugh as well. I guess if you gotta go the whole way, you just gotta.

The supporting cast besides the second couple I have found more enjoyable to watch, but sadly just like everyone else in this story, they never get any character growth. I understand the show writers; if you can't even make your own main character bearable to watch in terms of basic intelligence and logical reasoning or your main selling point (romance) believable, then fleshing out other characters would be a really difficult task to do.

The only thing I liked and never skipped in this drama was definitely the OST, as the song is bittersweet and tells of a story better than the one we got in the end.

When it comes to the ending, as you would expect after this essay of a review, of course, it's been stamped with the Chinese drama endings seal of approval. I honestly don't find it to be bad, albeit extremely confusing unless you have read the book or you have your fun at theorizing what did the writer want to say. Speaking of the book, I think the majority of the issues with the drama version could have been avoided if they revamped the order of the plot and added more backstory to the main characters. It would have helped to build upon that connection that they have shown later on in the show, as well as this great love of the male lead who has silently watched the woman he adores from afar for many years. Hey, Guardian has done it well, they could have too. Even if it meant extending the show length to another ten to twenty episodes.

All in all, I expected more and so should you.

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Somehow better after a re-watch

I completely agree with most reviewers who have criticized the show's script. It was difficult to put the dots on i, lacking coherence and essential parts to make the story understandable.

I thought at first it was the actor's, Zheng Ye Cheng's, fault but then I watched a couple of behind-the-scenes clips and concluded that Zhao Lu Si and Zheng Ye Cheng had incredible chemistry which doesn't surprise me because every male partner she worked with and loved her. She is funny and natural. It was clear as day they liked each other. This reminds me that I need to change my review of the drama “Under the Power”: the issue was never Zheng Ye Cheng, it was the actress and the script/director. Anyway, “Love in a Thousand Years” was good but it could have been THE drama of the year with better edits.

I had to wait for many episodes to understand he saw her die and be reborn 10 times within a thousand years. It took me many episodes to grasp that he loved her but didn't want to force her to reciprocate his feelings; hence, he became her protector. But even then, it was a struggle to understand. His constant smirking was bewildering until I realized it was an immortal's indulgence towards his beloved mortal.

I think the part that was terribly edited was the transition from new face up to immortal mountain. I needed more from the immortal who helped her, why did he changed his mind, how did she learn magic, etc. What happened during those 3 years was missing and this was important enough that I would have understood better the story.

The sudden shift in Lusi Zhao's character's love interest without any discernible transition only served to highlight the poor writing of the script. While the idea of true love spanning a thousand years and the protagonist waiting for his love interest to be reborn multiple times was intriguing, the sudden change of heart was utterly inexplicable.

On a positive note, the chemistry between the actors was very good. All the actors were good though. I like both main leaders. I follow their career close.

So yes, I recommend this drama but keep in mind that the script is unclear and it will take time to understand the full story.

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2nd watch a year later made it better for me

Watched this over a year ago and receny completed watching it again. It may have been my liberal use of the fast forward button before that made me understand and enjoy this series this time around.

I was so confused the first time i watched this causing depletion of my interest that itched for that fast forward button. I can now say the reason is the switched of the leading character wasnt done smoothly. The transition could have been done better.

Zhao Lusi did improve in her transition acting since this series. She is awesome in fun, comedic and quirky roles but in this series, I believe she was still on the learning phase for transitioning role from comedy to serious character role. Her acting nowadays is way, way better than from this series. She excels in smoothly transitioning roles.

Production wise, it is obvious the set, wardrobe and props were invested on heavily. I wish they took parts of it to invest more on editing.

The story plot is challenging and truly could have been a great one.

Rewatch value, like I mentioned here, I am doing this review after rewatching it over a year later. I honestly like this series more now than the first time I watched it. So my recommendation is reserving judgment after watching it the second time. Giving it a bit of time can make a difference based on my own experience.

All casts in this series were awesome and seemed to have portrayed their role well. It is interesting that I even noticed the acting of couple of extras who didnt have a line - just a facial expression.

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I picked this drama because of Zheng Yecheng as Fu Jiuyun - and he didn't disappoint in the slightest. There's something about his acting that makes everything he does on-screen feel natural. And as much as I'm usually not into alpha males, there's just something so very... sensual about him asserting his dominance that it makes my heart go all doki-doki.

I wasn't always on board with what Qin Chuan was doing, oftentimes I didn't like it, but I understood where she was coming from and I did appreciate her tenacity, her determination to avenge her people and then her helplessness when she realized that her people didn't want any revenge, they just wanted to move on and live peacefully if at all possible, that her efforts weren't really needed/appreciated because her people needed her to help them rebuild, not run around, playing avengers.

My favorite relationship in this drama was the friendship between Fu Jiuyun and his immortal friend Mei Shanjun. He was Fu Jiuyun's best friend, his confidante, his healer, his ride-or-die. And it was glorious.

There were several moments that made me cry really hard:

- When Xiao Bai, Fu Jiuyun's mirror, sacrificed himself to save him and Qin Chuan and Fu Jiuyun kept it from Qin Chuan, telling her instead that Xiao Bai was just sleeping, sleeping peacefully, and they shouldn't wake him up.
- When Xuan Zhu sacrificed herself. I didn't like her. Actually, I pretty much hated her throughout the drama but I did understand her feeling inadequate, always not good enough, always lost in Qin Chuan's shadow. Her death was really sad.
- When the Spirit Lamp was lit and Mei Shanjun realized that it meant that Fu Jiuyun was about to die. The way he turned away from the lamp and so very slowly looked at Fu Jiuyun who was already starting to disappear, turning into ash as he was burning up. And then, when the lamp was extinguished, the way Mei Shanjun screamed Fu Jiuyun's name.
- When Fu Jiuyun died, turning into these motes of light bit by bit while ignoring the pain of burning alive to watch Qin Chuan sleep for the last time.
- When Qin Chuan realized that Mei Shanjun lied to her and Fu Jiuyun wasn't coming back, that Mei Shanjun only relegated Fu Jiuyun's "dying message" to her, asking her to wait for Fu Jiuyun's return, to force her to live because it was what Fu Jiuyun would've wanted, for her to live.

What I really loved was that Qin Chuan's and Mei Shanjun's grief for Fu Jiuyun was treated as equal. Mei Shanjun cried as much and was devastated as much by Fu Jiuyun's death as Qin Chuan. A friend's grief wasn't treated here as something less.

The ending though was rather confusing and I had to look up what it actually meant in the explanation of someone who read the book. It was rather... head-tilting. I guess they counted on everyone knowing the book?

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Not that horrible of an ending

Though there are many people dissatisfied with the story, I enjoyed it. The acting and chemistry between the mains was there desite the censoring. As I watch the ending, I think it's clear the ending is showing a reincarnated life. The drunken sage told her jiuyun has to regather his soul to return, he just didn't mention that it would take many of her lifetimes if he was strong enough to do so. The next scenes show the rebuilding of Li, and her taking the lantern back after giving it her spirit energy. It then jumps to a seemingly same old Li except for some important changes, such as the young princess has memories of Jiuyan, she still has her changed face, her cousin is her sister, and her buddy Cui is back as her maid! No sign of her original form. With the title, along with her crying over losing memories of him, makes me feel this is scenes from a reincarnation a thousand years later, showing that eventually he does return and they are all reunited. The old painting was a surprise from the drunken sage of course. Jiuyun once told her he used it as a place to gather his spirit energy when weak, so once he gathered enough of his soul together, he went into his painting, slowly growing strong enough to return to her. I aso think both he and his buddy knew it would take many lifetimes before he could return, hence the little sparkles of energy flowing into her head before he disappeared was him ensuring she would remember him in the lifetime he was able to return.

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Before I go into the review of this series. I have to absolutely express my frustration and irritation towards the directors or those people who pick the casts. Whoever thought it was a bright idea to change the initial female lead did not do the show any favor. Rosy Zhao is a great actress but seriously. For the cast change simply to have a familiar face (maybe for publicity) I can’t give it a perfect rating especially since I feel the first actress would have been a better fit. So far Rosy Zhao has been in mostly romantic comedies. Her acting is sweet and unique but I don’t feel she was not suited for this.
They change the initial female lead due to script saying she change her appearance. First of all, there are so many shows that have characters change their appearance but actually keep their same face.
Our initial female lead is clearly a new young actress but appears to be a superb actress who did an amazing job portraying herself as a princess in every aspect. Her demeanor, appearance, character, communication and expression were flawless. I know whatever she stars in she’ll be great. .

Now to the review:
The show starts out at a really decent pace. Episode one was full of mystery and action but by episode two things somewhat slow down quite a bit and it becomes somewhat slow. What I like most so far about this series is that it appears to be about loyalty, and friendship and love. The character development was good.
WhatI did not like about the series is that at times it can be a bit slow and sometimes the male lead was just too suggestive. Fights scenes were unimpressive. The ending was cliff hanger and didn’t make sense.

If you’re looking for romantic comedy this is not it.
if you were looking for a historical drama you may like this one.
If you’re looking for a happily ever after you may not want to watch it although it is not awful.
If you’re looking for something overly romantic I don’t know what to tell you.

Overall decent show. Not a rewatch for me though.

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