unconditional true love , excellent acting ,masterpiece art work.
you are going to regret if you miss this drama . i have seen 100+dramas but never seen such a wonderful one .story revolves around yu si feng first leader of lizae palace and chu xuan ji daughter of sect leader chu. si feng and his fellows are restricted to remove the given mask or make new friends and never plan of marring. where as xuan ji is a loveable youngster without 6senses .there meeting and unusual bonding between the both leads to tremendous new series of problems . later they realize that their relationship and fate is not something new but a tragedy that has been tangled up for a thousand of years .unexpected plot twist and mind-blowing identities makes the series more enjoyable are interesting .more over by the end you will surely fall for the ML and its actor cheng yi. the love that si feng shows for xuan ji and trutha about false reality ,freinds and relationships make the show wonderful.Was this review helpful to you?
I’m impatient for this
Like I can’t tell you how much laughter and sentimental showed in me while watching this. I cry in every episode. I laugh in every episode. Beautiful scene and good looking cast. I can’t ask for more. The story is just so heart touching. Don’t be fooled by the cover of the drama, at first I didn’t like the cover image, but then I was like maybe it has some good content aside from the cover. Then I fell in love. Ahhhh that day. I recommend you at least watch the 1st episode, then ur off to crying with the gang.Was this review helpful to you?
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Poor character writing.
Starting off a really promising romance, the story gradually got bogged down in misunderstandings and thereby sacrificing the characters in it. The way the characters are written is the worst. Them disregarding the consequences when making decisions despite knowing they could possibly involve or harm other innocent people (FL), them making morally stupid decisions without a blink or repentance (MinYan), them sacrificing themselves despite all the risks and bodily harms inflicted (SiFeng), them imposing what they want on others (stupid dad), ... All of them are pushovers, especially FL when she took an oath to appease her dad (ep41).My overwhelming feeling while watching is frustration, which outweighs the heart-fluttering, roller-coaster moments i had for the romance.
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Why is this series so famous????
I thought I wrote my first review when I was at episode 7 but now when I search I did not post and don't know what happenedSo though I was not impressed by it and wanted to give up but I want on watching and now I am at my 28th episode . Did my view changed sorry to say No I still think its not a great series and frankly I am surprised who gave it ten points . Now knowing little bit about chinese fandom I think i know how it got such high ranking
story is nothing new in fact its a mix of all you have seen before girl has no senses, ashes of love, she is in her ;ife where she doesn't remember eternal love, she is God of war and she doesn't remember nything , Gu insect i heard about it in three different series
I m not impress by main male lead so far episode 28 and i dont see ny expression on him but yes female main lead had surprised me she has really done a good job , her acting is fine and she express well no over acting here
most irritating is the girl Linglong her sister
and worst character is of Dijun may be we were spoiled by Dijun from eternal love series this Dijun is selfish, conniving and self centered
There are so many loopholes in story and it stretched a bit in all these episodes from 20-28
Chinese drams need to improve tehir treatment and should do some good serious dramas instead of same repetitive stuff
Throw some love candies so that we can say wow , show some torture to make audience cry , create misunderstanding between the couples
OK I dont know how far I will watch , now I m watching it while cleaning my house Good luck to me
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Chu Xuan Ji and Yu Si Feng are enemies turned lovers in lifetime after lifetime. While the mythology and creativity of the world, and the different lifetimes are intriguing, there is no huge change in character growth or plot dynamics 40 episodes in. Chu Xuan Ji and Yu Si Feng are caught between their duties to their family/clan and their love and over and over and over again the same pattern repeats . .
The actor who plays Yu Si Feng is an excellent mix of intensity, brooding, with a bit of playfulness. Chu Xuan Ji has more of a split personality: innocent and hapless or arrogant and powerful. Everyone else dramatically overacts.
Music is fine, I would not rewatch. I grade on other criterias well:
Themes: 7.5
Elders can be misguided and not know what is best. Appearances can be deceiving: what's on the surface does not always reveal ones true character. Love that support, cherishes and empowers is far superior to love that suffocates and controls.
Character Growth/Development: 5.0
Yu Si Feng warms up a bit, and Chu Xuan Ji reveals her 'powerful' side every couple episodes, but that's about it.
Complex women/relationships: 7.0
Chu Xuan Ji does have relationships with an 'aunt,' her sister and friends she meets along the way. They do mostly talk about men or act as plot devices, but they do exist.
Cinematography/Production values: 7.0
Shows in this style (see Ashes of Love) are attempting a kind of deliberate, 2010 era video-game type CGI and it works decently well here. I wouldn't say there was anything shockingly beautiful or unique. Action scenes were competent but not particularly innovative.
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Not as great as I thought
Character Analysis: Crystal Yuan looks great as the cute, innocent Chu Xuanji, but she fails badly as the heartless, badass God of War. Her armor did not make her look great, and looked too big on her. There's nothing great about Cheng yi's role except when he pretended to be the Star of Mosha and became more decisive and focus on his goal. Other than that, his character is too weak for me, even as the Prince of the Heavenly Realm. The sets wasn't as grandeur as TMOP or Love and Destiny, and I'm fine with that, but the main actors did not fit their roles. (Also is it me, or did the camera person take more close-up pictures of Cheng yi's lovely face? LOL.)Music/Ost: It's ok. Nothing memorable or enchanting.
Plot Analysis: Dijiu Bailin should have been banished from the Heavenly Realm when he created the God of War from Luo Hou Ji Du. You would think this goes against Heaven's rules, but nope, he gets away with it. Why? If you know anything about the Heavenly Realm, Dijiu Bailin would NOT get away with what he did to create the God of War. Second, having such a twisted mind in his hacking of Luo Hou Ji Du, why would Dijiu Bailin help Chu Xuanji in her mortal form? After all, when she finds out the truth, she would revenge herself for the evil deed he did.
Yu Sifeng plays a character that takes all the beating for Chu Xuanji, lifetime after lifetime. I give him credit for loving her all these times, even though there are times when he annoys me for running away from her.
Overall the plot and character actions doesn't make sense to me. The story around Chu Xuanji and Sifeng would have been enough and was already good if they did not include all the crazy, unfitting stuff from the Heavenly Realm/Demon clan. I really wanted to like the drama because the title sounds great. One thing I did like was the last ending family scene and the kissing scene didn't feel awkward.
I watched the first 20 episodes and skipped to the last 15 episodes.
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Why I dislike this drama with a passion
When I first started the drama I loved it was so interesting and the characters were amazing but after each ep started to progress I started to hate every character besides Sifeng and now he's kinda slowly making me mad. I haven't finished the drama yet but I honestly don't think I ever will. The show was so repetitive and actually had no progression at all every 2 ep Sifeng was either close to death or heartbroken bc of the main female lead. She literally makes me mad because of how indecisive she is on wanting to kill this man. She puts his life in danger multiple times and yet she always comes out not hurt or just "heartbroken" seeing him in a bad state. I actually liked her better before she got her 6 senses back because her character was actually enjoyable during that time. Now she just keeps trying to kill him then wants to save him then kill him like she keeps doing this and all this is doing is killing and hurting Sifeng. And don't get me started on the other characters they literally are so annoying I hate all of them besides the purple fox lady and her boyfriend all the rest of them can go somewhere. But the character I hate the most would be Hao Chen this man did nothing but make the whole plotline of the story worse like his character wasn't needed. Like what really was his point of being down there in the mortal realm during her trials he wasn't there for the first 9 why for the last one. And to put that question to the side I just hated his character he literally started and was one of the main people besides the main female lead putting Sifeng in danger all for his personal gain. He talked about how he's there to help her, but really he was being selfish and because of his jealousy he tried killing Sifeng on multiple occasions. I would talk about each character individually but I'm not in the mood to do that so I will get into the acting even though I shit on this drama for being one of the worse dramas I've ever watched one thing I can say is all the actors where amazing. With my hatred for the storyline aside they really brought the show and characters to life and I feel only good actors can really make me feel the emotions of being happy to sad and angry while watching a drama. The music wasn't bad I wasn't personally paying attention to it and it had no actual impact on me personally to really talk about it. Overall I gave this drama such a low rating because it was repetitive a whole bunch of constant miss-communication and the show was predictable. Like most of the big events that were supposed to be a surprising figure out way before the part even happened. And I'm one who loves feeling being right and guessing the storyline but this show was so boring guessing it. Like every time I figured out what's going to happen, I just didn't care, and as each ep progressed the show just kept getting boring like I just didn't care about if the female and male lead ended up together. Like I really was actually hoping they wouldn't but they do I checked what happened in the end. The miss-communication parts were so annoying bc they kept repeating "I trusted you" or whatever bullshit when really this man gave her no reasons to doubt him. The whole show just wasn't for me and I don't think I will finish it I'm not saying that you yourself shouldn't watch it but it wasn't my cup of tea so yeah. In the end, I will always be a Sifeng supporter.( I just seen that I cant add 0 for the rewatch value so that's why it's so low but all in all this is a drama I will never rewatch again I wish I didn't even start the drama in the first place and to all the people who said it was like love and destiny and ashes of love ur messed up for that because this drama is nothing like those its literally a one a be show like them with a failed execution at trying to be "different" )
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1A Rare Drama with Perfect Cunning Antagonists and Wise Conflict Resolution
There is no use to repeat what other reviewers have pointed out. The romance of this drama is glorious. The love theme is crystal clear and strong. So, lets take other perspectives which are rarely taken for discussion. It is one among only view C-dramas with deep exploration of righteousness and evil, and perfect story execution.Story wise, this drama is not boring at all. 59 episodes are truly intimidating, but there are things in the story that keep us in the edge of our seats. For some aspects, it is not so different from other xianxia (Chinese fantasy genre). There are four realms (mortal, demon, devil, and heaven), five "righteous" sects of mortal cultivator, a great war in the past, fallen god of war and demon, martial arts tournament, an adventure exploring the realm, facing villains, and heading to cosmic war to defeat the final strongest villain. However, few things make it really different. First, good team building and teamwork. This drama starts by telling the friendship of four teenagers: Yu Sifeng, Chu Xuanji, Chu Linglong, & Zhong Minyan. Later, the group grows bigger (add Little Yinhua the snake and Ruo Yu) and they (six people) go adventure together. Almost all problems they face are solved together, sometimes with the help senior supporting characters. All characters have their own unique contribution and nobody are suddenly missing mid game or just left without explanation.
Second, the story is so consistent to its theme: love and redemption. There are several sub love stories aside the main pairs and all are finished well. Love to the romantic partner, love to family and friends, love to community/ sect group, love to the realm and other being. None of them involves love triangles, jealousy, and competition to grab other person's lover. Love is depicted as something a person must be true, loyal, selfless, and devoted to, and experienced with consent and acceptance. Also, there are several redemption stories that make viewer super satisfied with the ending. The happy ending in this drama is not merely defined by each/ main character's love life, but also reward and punishment each character received as their karma. Everyone get what they deserve justly.
Third, the villain/ antagonists in this drama is so brainy, charismatic, powerful, and good looking (Yuan Lang and Hao Chen). They are so sly, cunning, manipulative, meticulous, and careful. They think before act and always prepare back-up plan. They are so successful so that they can survive until the last episode. They characterization is perfect. Yuan Lang is so mysterious behind his mask and his inner states are well depicted through the movement of his fan. He never lose his composure. He is ambitious, confident, independent, daring, cold, non-emotional, scary, and ruthless. His emotional expression, like when he kneeled before Sifeng fearfully, is just an act. He never shows his true heart. He manipulate people with his rational/ logical words His enemy is the deity. Mean while, Hao Chen is a moralist, ambitious, and self-righteous. His enemy is Sifeng. He has egoistic personality and believes that he is righteous and never wrong. He manipulates other, especially Xuanji, through victimization of himself and finding Sifeng wrongdoings. He is a great liar and full of prejudice. Also, we have fake antagonists: just tragic characters that have goodwill but without means to achieve it, or a person that is (seemingly) bad in the past and later he turns good after experiencing betrayal.
Four, the conflict is very well developed. We never know the real problems until later. It is surprising that the story turns from mortal vs demon to demon/ devil vs deity. The scale of the conflict is grand, built from bottom to up. At first, it is just a quest to find the shards of a magic mirror to help Xuanji becoming a normal person. At the same time, a mysterious sect is searching four keys to release a demon. Slowly, the real identity of Xuanji is revealed, and surprisingly, the real identity of Sifeng. Midway, the story turns into a star-crossed lover story, a forbidden love between a demon and a mortal. It is getting bigger when all things are related to the greatest threat of the realm. Near the end, actually the story is a tragic one. The god of war is an anti-hero. The overall story of Xuanji is her way to redemption. In the end, it becomes revenge vs forgiveness, to force a change vs to let it flow with nature/ fate. Truly, a daoist story. Interestingly, the story ends in Heavenly Palace. The Heavenly Emperor is a wise person and becomes part of the conflict resolution. From the beginning, he already tried to solve to problem with the help of his son to guide the god of war through her tribulations and to achieve redemption.
***
Honestly, I watched this drama after Till the End of The Moon's fan comparing Tantai Jin and Sifeng, who is the king of blood vomiting. It is hilarious because I am really curious after that. IMO, Sifeng's blood vomit is more realistic because it is caused by apparent severe injuries, like heart stabs and heavy physical torture. So, the blood is expected. And he didn't start to vomit blood in early episodes. His vomits in later episodes indicate the intensity of danger, his physical limit, and that he is almost died/ very sick. That bloods along with facial expression and face complexion, send a visual message that he is really in pain.
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Never expected I will love XianXia drama after watch this drama!
I found this drama last year and heard many people gave their positive comments about it. I also know this drama is being recommended by many people. But I still hesitate to watch it because it has a very long episodes and it's a XianXia drama. I prefer Wuxia, rather than XianXia that use so many special effects or magical things, like people can fly, disappear, teleport, a life with monsters, dragons, and so on..of course it doesn't make sense in reality. Even 1 person can be shown as powerful with so many ability.Surprisingly I finally watch it to answer my curiosity and I regret that I just watch it now! I should watch it earlier!!! Let me give you top 5 reasons why you should watch this drama!
1. The chemistry between main leads (it's a bitter sweet romance yet very romantic). They are successfully describe about true love that willing to sacrifice everything for their love. They are loyal and determined, and there is no annoying third wheel.
2. The plot is very interesting, consistent, details (without loop hole of the story) and you can see the development of the story and each character from time to time. It's totally moving.. I don't even skip any part of this drama because every scene is matter. I never get bored eventhough it's 59 eps!
3. Every character is different and they have their own struggle and unique style. You will love supporting actors too, especially Teng She!
4. The title represent the main issue. It's an adventurous drama with many plot twist! I can say there is no right or wrong in each realm. They have their own good reason to protect their own realm.
5. Amazing drama ost (almost every main actors singing this drama ost and the songs are totally wonderful)
Si Feng's unyielding loyalty and love definitely come at the price of his pain. I understand why so many people call him a blood bag.. LOL.. I’m also in panic he will dead because of losing blood in the drama.. However there is always a good reason behind it. The blood spitting happened when he tried his best to protect his lover, friends and family. Also, there is no scene that make me think.. it’s impossible for him to not spitting his blood.. He always get those big attack!
Also enjoy the same excessive frequency of Male lead Blood-Spitting scene and female lead calling “Si Feng” name in every episode. After I finish the drama, Si Feng name go through my head for days. Thanks to Xuan Ji to make the name is keep ringing in our head. LOL. Xuan Ji is successfuly make us hard to move on from Si Feng. Overall.. I'm gonna miss this drama till the stage I'm gonna re-watch it. Every episode is so meaningful with bitter sweet story!
I wish to see the main leads play as couple again in other drama or season 2. But I'm a bit pessimistic after watch the different connection between Cheng Yi and Bing Yan in reality. They look very shy and affectionate with each other in the press conference and the opening show of this drama, but after getting criticized because of too many skinship, they start to avoid each other and you can see how they are trying to ignore each other in the Closing Show event (drama concert) to avoid further gossip. I feel they are losing their connection in real life because of evil comments from many netizen. Hopefully they can stay professional and still want to working together as couple again in upcoming dramas.
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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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My Very First Memorable C-Drama
My adventure in the world of c-drama couldn't have happened if it wasn't for Love and Redemption. Looking from the synopsis, I have been hyped by this show and always wanted to watch it until I got the courage to.In the first few episodes, everything was great especially the Hairpin Conference in which they had to catch a legendary monster in the wilderness. This conference also contributed to the first encounter of the ML and FL. Later, after 4 years old separation, they bumped into each other again, but ML seemed to stay away from the FL many, many times. As the story progressed, FL found out shocking evidences and the real identity of the ML. Then, they tried to heal each other and began spending more time together.
In my opinion, it could've been shorter, though. I skipped nearly all the scenes of the 'so-called self-righteous' sect leaders and the evil sect's scheme, crafted by the second lord of Lize Palace.
The friendship between Yu Sifeng, Chu Xuanji, Chu Linglong, Zhong Minyan, Xiao Yinhua, and Ruo Yu is one of the great aspects of the show. Their cute banter in the beginning is very funny before the show got angsty.
I become a hardcore fan of the ML because of this drama, but not for the FL (who is banned for tax evasion).
I've rewatched this, perhaps, 4 times already. Yeah, it's a very amazing drama and I love it very much. But, I do remind you to only look for the couple's scenes and skipped those unnecessary stuffs.
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