Love and Redemption (2020)

The romance drama of 2020

Brace yourself through this journey of ups and downs full of bliss, heartbreak, disappointment, bitterness, and forgiveness. A ride you will not forget. This is the drama of 2020, the drama of this summer.

Firstly, the romance is well executed. It is heart-wrenching and warming. The chemistry of the two leads is very strong; their love is sizzling and buzzing. Their beautiful romance is what makes this drama extremely addictive: I am thinking about Si Feng and Xuan Ji when I go to work, when I go shopping, when I eat, and not watching this drama. I just cannot wait to watch it!

Our male lead Si Feng, played by Cheng Yi, carries the main weight. Si Feng's character design is well thought-through. He is firm on the outside but warm and kind from the inside. He loves the female lead profoundly but does not see her as his possession. While being cursed by the mask, he keeps all the suffering by himself and gives her space and time to love him back. Si Feng's character goes through a beautiful transition from learning about what love is about is to having the will to become the leader of his sect to protect what's important. Si Feng is truly every fangirl's boyfriend of summer 2020.
Cheng Yi's acting is flawless. I haven't seen this much suffering, both physically and emotionally, shown in a C-drama. Cheng Yi is so good at it. I am so grateful to the writer and the director who created these scenes, and I am thankful that they have chosen Cheng Yi for this role - I cannot imagine anyone else who can depict suffering as heartbroken and as beautiful as him.

Coming to the female lead Yuan Bing Yan, playing our heartless goddess of war Xuan Ji. I really like her character development. The way how Xuan Ji slows finds maturity and eventually, her heart and her love towards Si Feng is natural and wonderful to watch. During the last third of the episodes, she received criticism of not trusting Si Feng, but I find this extremely reasonable. No one told her anything, and she did not know about love. Listening to her family and clan's one-sided stories, how could she have reacted? When Xuan Ji's past life was revealed, I agree that Bing Yuan lacked in portraying the depth and complex emotions one would have loved to see in terms of acting. Her emotional scenes towards Si Feng could also improve. But I blame the script, partially, as it must be very draining to play this many griefing scenes as Si Feng just suffered way too much. On the hand, her scenes as War God are so badass. Two thumbs up for depicting this as little aggrieved Xuan Jin in one scene and revengeful heartless War God in another scene. For this, Bing Yuan really deserves more credit.

What makes this couple magical is there is no clear cut between roles. Sometimes Si Feng appears to have received the female's playbook. Si Feng suffers for Xuan Ji, but Xuan Ji also protects Si Feng. And isn't this what true love is all about?

Secondly, I also appreciate the excellent scripting. Whether this has been part of the original novel or developed by the drama scriptwriter, I enjoyed it how new characters are introduced, and hints are dropped that eventually weaves to a glorious thread that leads us to the grand finale. All characters have their roles and their motives along this thread, and no one is redundant. I haven't seen this level of scripting in a long C-drama for a while, and I hope to see more of this in future shows.

Thirdly, the CGI is excellent. Although we could not see real Hollywood type of CGI, but carrying this quality throughout 59 40min episodes is not easy. The audience enjoys full-blown action from fierce battles fought between gods and devils, between every imaginable species of celestial beings and affiliations, with all manner of divine weapons, cultivated spells and their destructive powers. There is one arc in the middle of the drama at which an island is attacked by demons riding on dragons. For a moment, I thought I was watching Games of Thrones.
A Xianxia drama is not a Xianxia drama if there is no CGI. So far, China is not very good at it. But L&R has shown that they can do it if they put the effort.
L&R also put a lot of effort in the soundtrack. The songs are beautiful and lyrics deep and suitable to story.

Lastly, I am thankful for the ending. After all the suffering, grudge, and misunderstandings among each other, the ending was heartwarming and satisfactory. The good deserves their happy ending, the bad their verdict. It has saved the ending of this drama.

As no drama is perfect, I want to point out a few aspects which make me deduct 2 points.
The last twenty episodes are not well-written. After the satisfactory clearance of the male lead's misunderstanding, the story continued on the same old path to making the male lead the evil of all. Many circumstances leading to Si Feng's downfall feel forced. The inherent problem of the Si Feng not willing/not able to explain anything to Xuan Ji further creates reasons for her to hurt him, up to the point that it takes away the angst. The audience becomes numb. In the final moments, I could not shed real tears, despite my love for the ML.
Also, a few dramatic scenes between the second couple Chu Ling Long and Zhong Min Yuan, felt watered and repeated.

The path towards the finale was a question mark: a giant pot that can destroy all three words, Yuan Lang, our raven, revived again and again to inflict suffering to our heroes and the back and force between Luo Sha Ji Du and Xuan Ji was rather embarrassing than touching, to be fair. I wished the heavenly emperor did not have to take such a key role at the end (the same way he did 1000 years go). Someone who has never intervened ever before suddenly intervenes at the end and turns the table. If there was such a force, I wished the story introduced him earlier.
Finally, I also did not enjoy the fact that our glorious antagonist Hao Chen suddenly was "white-washed" after the heavenly emperor showed him a few "what-if" scenes and gave him a few moral lessons. The whole world has been telling him that since day one, why now? Where did our manipulative, egoistic, hypocritical, and personated jealousy in the person of a villain suddenly go? Despite knowing where the makers are coming from, I felt the last scenes downgraded the deep character that 58 episodes have built for him. Despite all this, Liu Xue Yi did a fantastic job playing this three-dimensional character.

I am rating this drama a 8/10 because of the last 20 episodes. If I only rate the first 40 episodes, this drama clearly deserves a 10/10. Deep inside me, it has a 10 because of the romance, the up and down of emotions it has hatched in me and the love I feel about our Si Feng.

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HAPPY ENDING

Yeah it does have a happy ending
sorry for this light spoiler but because most of the drama addicted people out there aren't freaks who wants someone to die, I have to clear my self and give you an explanation at least
I don't know where to start and where I should stop talking
START: I really liked the fact that they acted naturally most of the times
I mean si Feng hadn't met a girl since the birth, of course, he shouldn't be impulsive the fact that he was shy and didn't want the xianji, at first sight, meant a lot to me believe me
Their love story is quite interesting since our female protagonist is not aware of what is love due to her six senses, they are lost, many would think this is why she couldn't love sifeng at first but I think it's because she really didn't have a heart come on, inside her was a small jade piece yet si Feng made it after 10 reincarnations to crave only for him
you see the difference between 10th reincarnation xianji and others, she was ruthless and revengeful
Anyway he really loves her and the fact that she didn't break the curse before really angers me I mean after she recovered her senses she should at least finished with this thing anyway
I MUST SAY IT AGAIN A LOVER ENEMY RELATIONSHIP even if it's predictable it's not bad either from the mess that happened in the last few episodes believe me
also, the king asura was such a handsome man, pity he couldn't have more scenes in the current years and we only saw a scene from the previous 1000 years
Overall I enjoyed their love, si feng you fool should be a bit selfish but I guess that's your charm
I have thought lately that wang rin from the king loves, si Feng, and taltal have some same traits but are quite different at the same times, i don't think the way they approach love is different, I think that if they were in each other's shoes they would act the same
Don't you think?

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One of the best love story

Character developments are master piece in the story,
Lot of twists,
Heart warming love story,
You can feel the emotions of protagonist,
It is one of the master piece I ever watched.
As we can say that there are some sad scenes because of the negative protaganist, but they may not disturb that much because of the love story running along with main male and female leads. The best and very cute scene's may make you love the charcter of female lead.
I can give you my word to who want to watch this show that they will enjoy till the end.
There is not a scene which can make you feel to quit in middle.

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Most Favourite and Interesting Female God Of War Character rarely seen in c-dramas

The first thing I truly appreciate about the drama is our FL (Yuan Bing Yan). She successfully portray the character Zhu Xuan Ji as naive and clueless girl (some might think annoy, but I feel so lovely and never tired of seeing her ?) who deprived her six senses. On the other hand she turn completely different person when the God Of War was awakened inside her. This female God of War character is very rare to see in c dramas, the strongest, aloofness and apathetic character that no one dared to mass with. I feel all her facial expression, body language are always on point when portray Zhu Xuan Ji, God of War and different characters in her past nine lifetimes tribulations. It is sad I don't see her in recent dramas.

The second thing I appreciate is it keep audiences feel excited and stayed in the drama from very start to the end with it's interesting story line, plots, twists and turns.

I have done my 3rd time watching of whole drama episode 1~59 within two months. L&R become my all time favourite Xianxia one and will be. Each and every character is interesting and doesn't make me think they are acting. Even the character Xiao Yin Hua and Wu Tong are lovely ?. I really immersed in the storey and love every moments of romance, torture, turn and twist. I definitely will try one more time watching in near future. I love this drama that much. ❤️

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One of the BEST dramas

This is one of the best dramas I have ever watched. The story, the chemistry, the romance, the fight scenes, cinematography, everything is perfect.

Watching the relationships grow between thecouples was very satisfying and didn't feel like it was dragging on. I have nothing but positive to say about this drama.

I watched this over a year ago and I still think about it every day. The ending is very happy and satisfying. I'll probably watch it again sometime soon. If you're looking for a sign on whether you should watch it, here it is. Definitely worth watching!

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Totally Unreaaaal

Ok to start with my review I just want to say that I didn't plan to watch this one at first. Because I actually started to watch Stand by Me and I just want to say it didn't impress me(yet- currently at ep3). I didn't really get the vibe of noble/monarch of ChengYi in SbM so I paused that and check this one out. And huraaaaah

Rewatch value @8:
Because its too long for me to watch the whole series but if just snippets I'm in

Favorite parts:
1. The early parts: SiFeng's reaction towards contact with XuanJi (he's so hot and bothered haha)
2. When they had a misunderstanding abt XuanJi liking her senior and they cleared it up. His face when he learned the truth?
3. SiFeng teaching XuanJi how to chase away guys who hits on her (I remember the cute video of a korean kid and her mom teaching her)
4. I also like that they only play snippets of the 9 lives they shared together and not a full blown several eps. He's so pitiful and so inlove with her
5. The Jade Emperor just chillin' and asking questions like its no big deal haha

Whuut moments:
•Ok so I was at the ep30 when I saw a clip(wc is around the end part) where Rahu Ketu became XuanJi. I was like whuuuuuut, all this time SiFeng likes a man, so is this kinda like a bl at the start hehe. So after patiently watching the rest of eps to get the explanation I still can't with the shock I received from that clip haha
•LingLong and WuTong tho, man I'm always tense when they show the both of them. I hate rape scenes so I'm always at the edge 'cause he's like full-on "I wanna eat you" kinda face. Is he gonna do it? Naw, probably gonna do it now. Hoping he's not gonna do it. Maybe it was chopped while on the run. Meh

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Sweet Romance and Epic Story

L&R took me on a wild adventure and it has the sweetest romance. I went in with medium expectations - kind of high because of the ratings, kind of low because the premise seemed tropey. The storyline and world-building is what drew me in but the cast of characters is what kept my attention.

Story: seems kind of tropey and predictable but actually pretty well thought out with interesting twists. The pace is pretty fast in the beginning which kept me interested and pacing is pretty good. I personally had a really hard time grasping what "loss of six senses" meant (the physical senses? also emotionless? but why does it seem more like trouble understanding social norms?) so that was an initial roadblock for me. The world-building is awesome partly in due to the excellent production and CGI. It felt like being immersed in a video game at times. It's only after finishing the drama do I realize the ending really makes this drama. In an effort to increase suspense, the drama purposely withholds things until much later. It makes for a great twist but as someone who likes to fully immerse and understand the plot, it kind of felt more like a plot hole or that the story was not well-written until the twist is revealed. Rather than an unpredictable revelation, it was more like 'oh, why didn't you just say that sooner'? The mask thing would be the best example. Some of the conflicts were overly frustrating and repetitive, which prevented me from giving a higher rating. There a few scenes that are overly flashbacked (like, you might get bits of the flashback as the story progresses, then longer versions of those bits then the entire sequence so by the end it is shown 4-5 times). On the other hand, there a few scenes or plot points that are hinted at or built up that never fully get explored. One of the villain's endings was too abrupt and it felt like all of his other characteristics were taken away. I have mixed thoughts on what they did with the female lead's character toward the end. But the overall story is cohesive with a sound message.

Characters/Acting: While the story is the foundation of the drama, the characters are the heart. I liked our main leads, which are both acted very well. I probably would not have liked these leads if it were not for the actors. The naive/cutesy/stupid female lead trope is a hit or miss (mostly miss) for me but I really liked Xuan Ji. Like I've indicated in other posts, despite her naivety, she is charmingly straightforward, relatively calm and values proper communication. When she is aware there is a problem or misunderstanding, she tries her best to fix it, through words or actions. This is very consistent throughout the drama. And her physical strength is a nice bonus. And who does not love Si Feng and his sweet devotion to our female lead? I melted at the way he would stare at her. He pretty much tops the charts for selfless love and is always silently sacrificing himself for the female lead's sake. But is that really a good thing? Si Feng is the kind of boyfriend/husband that would (if he could get away with it) hide the fact you have kidney disease, secretly donate his kidney to you and sell all of his assets to pay for the medical bills. That's...romantic, but it's also a bit much. IMO, communication is an important part of a healthy relationship. My point is, Si Feng is written as the most flawless male lead and superficially, it looks like it is the female lead that is causing all of their conflict. But (imo) he is not blameless, even though the drama never addresses this. That aside, the romance is still very touching and that two actors have a lot of chemistry.

The supporting roles are also well-written and well-acted. I loved Ting Nu, Brother Liu and Purple Fox. You could tell they had many years of cultivation under their belt because they were often the voices of reason our leads needed. Brother Liu was essentially the group relationship counselor. Wu Zhi Qi is someone who is name-dropped a lot and does not appear until very late into the show but he is so worth the wait. His causal swagger and lazy, flirty demeanor that hides a sharp eye and keen insight are so swoon worthy. But my #1 spot has to go to Teng She, who is a scene stealer and basically carries the drama. This actor is such a comedic genius; he is able to control the level of humor a scene has and also influences the other character's vibe around him. Take Hao Chen for example, who is a very serious person. The same facial expressions or eye widening that come off as serious or angry become completely comedic under Teng She's influence. Adding to that, I cannot believe he was the drama I has finished just prior to starting L&R (Miss Gu Who is Silent) and I didn't even recognize him! That aside, he is very witty and his commentary almost breaks the 4th wall. He is such a loyal friend. I loved watching his friendship with Xuan Ji because of how they trusted and supported one another. He reminds me of a more platonic version of Tal Tal in Empress Ki.

Music: beautiful, exciting and epic. The pieces were really nice to listen to on their own and really added to the emotions of the scene.

Rewatch value: I don't typically re-watch dramas but I just finished it and am skimming though episode 1 again while writing this review, mostly to help recapture my initial thoughts on this drama. Actually, it might be a better watch the second time around since I'm not so busy trying to keep everyone straight and all those details at the beginning now make sense.

Bottom line: Xianxias generally have an expectation to be epic, with an intricate storyline, detailed world-building, varied cast of characters and passionate romance spanning lifetimes. But they can get predictable, because it is always the same types of characters and same conflict . This drama does not escape from the tropes but presents them from a fresh angle. That, plus the good actin and great production make this a worthwhile watch.

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Anybody that says this drama isn’t worth it is just plain BITTER!!

I thought I would never see a drama I’ll love more than Ashes of Love(which I’m obsessed with) but this drama actually stole my whole heart and mind... everything was Epic...I literally cried my eyes out and it has tons of actions too compared to ashes of love..I’ve recommended this to some of my friends who doesn’t even watch C-dramas and they all loved it.. I’m Psyched!!! ..Kudos to everyone involved in this production..and to all those saying it was a flop..I wonder who broke y’all heart and made y’all to b so blind as to enjoy a great drama like this tbh..lol..

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This drama started out really good, until it dragged halfway through. I liked Yuan Bing Yan here better than in "My Sassy Princess" but her character became annoying towards the second half. I mainly plowed through this drama because of Cheng Yi's portrayal of a devoted man who sacrificed everything for the sake of love, including multiple deaths in several lifetimes and realms. How much more a guy can take is beyond me, but apparently a lot if you are to base on Si Feng's actions. This was supposed to be a tragic love story, with heart-wrenching moments, but what I found ridiculous are the numerous times characters are brought back to life, some who I even have long forgotten. Also, I found myself inappropriately laughing during scenes where Si Feng implores with Xuan Ji in the body of the Devil Star, as if they are starring in a body-swap BL drama. I just can't.

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honestly one of the top tier dramas i've watched

i just finished this drama like minutes ago and i need to rant so bare with

story:
the storyline is honestly really complicated with a bunch of plot twists and was a bit difficult to keep up with. the love story was so painful to watch and i can't even count how many times i cried during this drama. the ending was so fast, they squeezed everything into like thirty minutes. i don't really like the fact that they had a kid bc it just steers the attention away from them if there's ever a sequel. this drama was an emotional rollercoaster and if you want to cry, go ahead and watch it.

acting/cast:
i've found a new actor to respect, cheng yi is so good at playing this role, i can always sense the pain and that's what makes me cry lol. i don't really have much opinions on the rest of the cast, besides the fact that the actor who played the older sister is so annoying lmao. i heard she has a drama with cheng yi that is modern and thinking about it makes me uncomfortable.

music:
i mean it's a historical drama, the music will always be good. now i have more songs to add to my "listen if you want to cry" playlist

rewatch value:
i don't think i'll rewatch this just because it was so painful to watch si feng get hurt over and over again. the amount of times i cried out of frustration is just too many. the miscommunication and misunderstandings were so annoying to watch, i don't want to go through that again, even though i know it will be a happy ending.

overall:
again, watch it if you want to cry. i binged this in a couple days and pulled an all-nighter LOL overall great drama. just pretty stressful to watch.

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A full package, totally worth waiting

Love this drama from the beginning to end
The story was captivating, keeping me glued to my screen
It was so well acted
And the ost is so cooling
I love this drama too much,for me it is perfection.
The casting was totally on point
From the Heros to the villians you can't help loving them
The vice palace chief was very much it
He made the show even better.
I doubt ever finding something so addictive
It just gives the feeling of authenticity
It will definitely take a while to get over this piece if I do get over it
Overall the drama is captivating to watch
Prepare your tissues though
Let this drama take you on an amazing ride

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No matter how good one is, there are some who will hate them.

No wonder, when it comes to best xianxia lists, LaR is always one of the best. I couldn't search the right praise about this but one thing is for sure, i will always ask God to give me my own kind of SiFeng. This is also my first time watching a xianxia where a female lead is stronger that the male lead, nevertheless, both powers are excellent! The male lead could really protect the female lead easily. Also, the amount of frustrations whenever Xuanji don't believe Sifeng, and will stick to what the elders' sect are saying and her Senior annoying Hao Chen.

And for me, the title itself gives justice to the whole content of the series. For me, LOVE of xuanji and sifeng, and REDEMPTION for Dijun and Star of Mosha. Nevertheless, they're connected with each other. Stunning CGI and OSTs!!

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