Dance of the Sky Empire (2020)

Could have been better....

A drama full of shortcomings but surprisingly they ain’t enough for me to drop this drama. I have mixed feelings about this one, here are my opinions:

1.Story : A typical fantasy drama with flawed script-writing and editing. The drama started quite well, with a certain amount of funny moments. Scenes in Academy are fun to watch but after Ep 12 or 13, it isn’t that fun anymore.
Pacing became a problem after Ep 12.At times, I feel like the story was progressing too slowly but at some moments, they were cut abruptly.They wasted so much screentime on 2nd Couple and Love Triangle stuffs,so main story didn’t progress until ep 20.
Then they have to put so many important parts in a few episodes, thus unnecessarily rushing the important scenes.

2. Acting : Acting is quite decent. Xu Kai, as always, is impressive and cheesy. He more or less carried the whole drama.Wu Jiayi, though criticized by a lot of Netizens, I don’t find her acting that bad.

3.CGI effects
Effects are mediocre but after watching so many C-dramas, it no longer matters that much to me

***Plot Holes***(These contain spoilers)

1. Why doesn’t Su Youlian look surprised at all when she knows Li Xuan’s identity?
This is very poorly done, she should show certain emotions (Maybe it was cut), still it isn’t acceptable.

2.Why would Su Youlian need a rope to go down the mountain when she has wings?
Poor Logic but hmm...

3.Li Xuan’s friends were surprised when they knew that it was Xiao Feng Ming behind the murder but after a few seconds they said Xiao Feng Ming is in power and even Lord Zi can’t beat him, so aren’t they talking things like they knew the real perpetrator is Xiao Feng Ming?
I would take this as a bad editing

4. Where is FL’s master when Li Xuan’s identity is known?
That’s unacceptable, he was literally the most annoying character and I want to see his reaction but hmmm disappointing

Overall, I would rate it as an average drama, it isn’t that good but not a trash either.
It could have been a lot better, but still disappointing.

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Promising start but could have more episodes for character development

If you like Xu Kai, you can watch through all 28 episodes. You can watch how devoted he is to the female lead. His acting is still on point and he expresses his feelings quite well done! For other actors, they are good as well.

The story synopsis and first few episodes looks really promising and it is enough to make you continue with the rest of the episodes. It was through the middle of the show where the story started to get complicated with new characters introduced. and then boom, we have reached the last episode.

This drama focus on too many side characters with little explanation and until now, when I watched the last few episodes, I have so many questions I need to ask lol. Ending feels like "Wait, that's it??? Shouldn't you be giving me some explanations? I cannot guess!" "Are they just stuck in the other realm forever??!" Honestly this ending needs so much explanation!

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I really like it!

There are quite a few negative critiques for the Dance of the Sky Empire (DoSE). Before you read my review, I have to say: I AM BIASED. People who read my reviews know that I love Xu Kai more than any actors in the C-Drama land. In this review, I am trying to be the most objective as I can: I really like this drama.

Be warned that there are some minor spoilers. So here we go.

1 "Emotional Rollercoaster": 5/5 ★★★★★
I agree with many of you that if you would look this drama from a serious perspective, it lacks in many perspectives: the naiveness and weakness of the "spy", the missing plot to develop the background story of the ML Li Xuan, the unnecessary second love couple. After a few episodes, it is clear that this is not a deep, mind-wrecking, spy-drama, in fact, it is a funny, romance, school drama, set in an ancient/fantasy world. The whole birth and spy thing are just how other school-romance shows create misunderstandings and put roadblocks for the leads but in a unique way. As long as they make the audience tear and cringe, they have achieved what a great school-romance drama supposed to do. That's why I really like this drama.
So what are the components of an excellent school-romance drama: comedy, romance, and heart-wrenching sorrow. And the mix of DoSE is perfect. I went from laughing out loud during the school scenes, to "oh my gosh, this is so sweet" during their time inside the realm, to crying from pain in the middle and around the end of the drama. The end of the realm arc has one of the most abusive scenes I have seen in drama land. Once again, I need to emphasize that Xu Kai performs the most beautiful crying scenes I have ever seen in a male actor. I actually think he has some sort of button he clicks to control the flow of his tears in terms of position and speed. This is just insane!
Wu Jia Yi did a better job in Arsenal than here, but I blame it on her character design rather than her acting skills.

2. "Sleepless Nights.": 5/5 ★★★★★
I was binge-watching the entire drama and could not wait for the new episodes.

3. "Natural and intelligent Storytelling.": 5/5 ★★★★★
Despite the light-hearted school elements of the drama, it cleverly integrated a serious topic: discrimination and how useless war and revenge between races are. Netizens have pointed out that the FL Su You Lian's is too soft-hearted and her behavior is not suitable/realistic for being a spy. Don't forget that not everyone can be cold and heartless once trained. YL soon realized how kind humans are in reality and was conflicted between her obligation as the holy lady and her foundness towards her school mates.
I would find it more unrealistic if LX would fall in love with a fierce and heartless spy who was determined to deceive everyone. I could also perfectly emphasize with LX or YL why they would behave the way at each point of the story.
There are some minor plot holes and illogicality (e.g. superpowers which are there when they need to be but disappear when they are not needed), but I was able to ignore them.

4. "Loveable supporting Roles.": 4/5 ★★★★☆
The show employs a few very beautiful and young actors, who did a pretty good job. There is a personality for everyone.
Big applause for the performance of Zhou Jun Chao, who played Xiao Feng Ming. I saw him in "Handsome Siblings" as the villain Jiang Yu Lang and do believe he has a bright future as an actor. I also really like the best friends Chang Qing and Ling Cheng, two very different characters but with a strong bonds that warm your heart. Another honorable mention is the crown prince played by Zhang Song. Despite playing this dorky, stupid prince, who no one seems to take seriously, his acting was extremely to the point, and his talent cannot be ignored!
Last but not least, Yu Xing Tong's performance as Long Wei Er. She has a, if not the most interesting roles in this drama that provides more depth than other dramas; her character development is convincing and heart-wrenching towards the end. I can understand why some netizen end up rooting for her rather than for the FL.
The one minus point is deducted for the siblings from the country of Sha Guo. There are both very pretty people, but their performance of playing the important ML2 Yu Feng Mu and FL3 Yun Shan is disappointing. I also saw myself fast-forwarding some of the scenes between Yun Shan and Xiao Feng Ming as I found the romance scenes forced and the chemistry missing.

5. "Proper Pacing": 4/5 ★★★★☆
With only 28 episodes, I saw myself wanting for more. The last 1-2 episodes feel slightly rushed and though I was hoping some of the emotional climaxes could have been depicted better, I find the episode number to be suitable for such a light-hearted school-romance drama. There is a nice climax in the middle following by a second arc. There are no unnecessary watering down, though sometimes there could have been fewer flashbacks.

6. "Technicalities": 4/5 ★★★★☆
Despite being a low-budget drama, the technicalities are nicely done. Especially, I was impressed with the CGI-enriched fighting scenes. This goes really badly with a lot of Chinese drama but DoSE did a decent job there. I also really like the rooms' internal designs - make me want to stay in one of those student dorms. And finally the songs are just beautiful - they are part of my frequent play list now.

7. "Solid Final": 4/5: ★★★★☆
For me, the final is not only the last episode but also how it is building towards the climax. In that sense, I like the ending. I am not going to spoil it for everyone but I understand why the writers have chosen such an ending. It would have been less convincing otherwise.
I love the fact that there was so much heart-warming act of forgiveness and letting go of hate. Many historical Wu Xia is so much about revenge from head to toe and it is great to see that the pointlessness of that (e.g. the last scene Long Wei Er was so beautifully taken).

Overall, I would give this drama a 9.0 out of 10. I would recommend it anyone who likes romance, friendship, school but with slightly more depth and twists. And of course to anyone who loves Xu Kai as much as I do!

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Kotori's drama review seven criteria definition:

After having watched many dramas and also written several reviews. I have detected that I rate dramas based on specific patterns. I formulated those into seven criteria.
1. "Emotional Rollercoaster": the degree of how much my heart was moving from the acting, scenes, and story development (e.g., in pain, pounding, fluster etc.). The degree on how much I care about the fate of the main leads.
2. "Sleepless Nights.": how much I have the urge to binge-watch this drama.
3. "Natural and intelligent Storytelling.": how logically the story was able to proceed and the roles are acting within their characters. I don't have a thousand question marks when watching the drama. The feeling that the makers take us viewers seriously and that we do not always think that this looks fake.
4. "Loveable supporting Roles.": how much I love and care about supporting characters. They are not merely tools to help the main characters but are 3-dimensional and have the proper motivation behind their actions.
5. "Proper Pacing.": how well the drama is pacing and not watered down to fill the number of episodes.
6. "Technicalities": professional camera works and shots, fight scenes, color grading, lighting, editing, music, sets, costumes, use of CGI etc. I try to grade this in relation to the drama budget, so a low-budget drama can equally get a high score when used at the right place
7. "Solid Finale": how properly the drama builds dramatic and finishes with a satisfactory ending. I have just watched too many dramas that start to lose their grip around half or 2/3rd of its way.

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Give this show a try

I have been waiting for this drama to come out for a pretty long time and this was it. I was so excited to start watching it. The trailer was well made and it gave it away to me so I stopped watching my other drama and started watching this one. Dance of the Sky Empire drama is so just cute and adorable to me, but it's pretty good overall. There are a few parts that are hilarious, which made me laugh pretty hard and there were sad parts as for choosing where your alliance stays. I think the scenery of this drama were amazing. They sure put a lot of effort into it. Story line was also great. It starts off with a pretty mysterious beginning and a back story. The actors and actresses were unique. I literally watched it all day trying to find out what happens next and I can't wait for the next episode to come out. Loved the first few episodes. Give it a try!

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I really like the overall concept of this series. I am a really big fan of historical dramas and we had a little bit of romance in it is just a bonus for me.
What I like most about the series was that it was closer in the action packed in the fight scenes were pretty good. They had a little mystery to it but not major mystery. I will tell you indeed have my least favorite thing in it and that being having characters believe a lie until the end. The acting was good, the fighting was good, the plot was good, the wardrobe fit the time as well. Overall if you’re looking for a upbeat historical drama/comedy you may like this one.
What I did not like about the series was that the writers drag the bombshell out to the very end. And that bombshell was very anti-climatic. You would expect some big fight seem to take place but it never really happened. I watch so many episodes of a person being lied to and when they finally figure it out other than being upset nothing else happened. Female lead character was certainly not hated but she was also not one that I ever route it for. This is strange especially because she was supposed to be a good person. Your character was just not likable for me. She almost never smiled, never showed remorse even though she deceived others. For me she just seem like a user. Although she had a mission she met some really good people along the way and she use them all and it was simply overlooked because she had a mission.
The ending was most certainly anti-climatic and in truth for me it just didn’t make sense after everything was revealed The ending should’ve been different. But of course we got a strange ending. Although it wasn’t a cliffhanger ending and you see our leads unified in a sense, you will still walk away after the final episode with questions. I for one am not inclined to watch season two if they even decide to have one.

Bottom line is you will definitely get some laughs while watching this. Our feelings aren’t really villainess. The only real bad guy in the series is the one of the writers deemed as a good guy. So you don’t have to worry about the extremely vicious people there is no big mystery to solve in some of the characters are extremely cute and funny. Although our leads have a relationship with each other I didn’t really feel a real chemistry between them. I mean they had really good on screen time but I just didn’t feel it maybe because our female lead had a frown on her face 95% of the time. I don’t know how you get good chemistry like that.

Did I hate it? No.
What I recommend it? Yes.
Is it romantic? Not really.
Does it have action? Yes.
Did you have a great ending? That is open to interpretation.
Is it my favorite? No.
Will I watch it again? No.
If there It’s a sequel will I watch it? No.

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Fairy mixed with Wuxia

It honestly started out really strong and really enjoyed it.. but towards the end it just felt outta place. I'm disappointed as to how the plot develops and at the end quickly tries to wrap it up with an happy ending for everyone.

Story: The beginning and middle of the story was actually really intriguing. The female lead is the holy priest of the Kun Lun tribe. The male lead doesn't know his identity because he has forgotten, but his identity now is the protector of the seal of the human tribe. Basically a long time ago the human tribe sealed the king of Kun lun. There is a ten years saying that someone will unlock the seal in ten years. Female lead disguises herself to try to get into the school of the humans. Whats kinda funny is that the school trains you to uses magic/ powers. To me, it gives off a harry potter vibes mixed with fairy/deity/ wuxia. The male lead Xu kai is portrayed as a bad boy. Of course the female and male lead fall in love with her each. The female lead main goal is to find the key/badge to unlock the Kun Lun king. She never really tells the male lead her true identity

Whats interesting is the times when they fight and use their powers against people who has been locked under seal. Also different parts of the school has different people who are locked or seal in there , in which they have to overcome those obstacles.

Now to the part I didnt like..... all this time the male lead is falling head over heals with female lead, but she never really trusts him to open up to him. the miscommunication/no communication causes a lot of problem and unnesscary plot, which resulted in hurting the male lead.
Also another thing is that the Kun lun king is under a seal/locked away but his inner demon spirit is inside one of the students inside the academy. ( he doesnt have much magic/powers) So basically the last 5-8 episode is around him.....

Also another part thats like....?? they have this character who cross dress, a girl but dresses as a boy. " he " is the second prince to the human world. He also goes to the academy. He doesnt like his brother the first prince.. "He" gets a little plot development... like how the male lead discovers he is actually a girl, and that she likes him... honestly a waste of time might of last like couple episodes..

Romance; I believed their romance. It was cute and sweet. It was not always kissing scenes, but I like the scenes they were together to develop their relationship. When there was kissing scenes , it was believable. Female lead is very cute , main lead is handsome . But i have to say the Prince Mu is the most handsome ( He is a prince from the desert? )

Besides those plot holes ... it was a good watch. I would of like to see the female lead come clean about her motives and see how the male lead would of helped her . Also it would of been better if there more fighting scenes like battling different creatures.

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Racism Stems from Ignorance

This drama is touching a chord of our current society on the racial issue that has been propelled to the forefront of our lives and is compelling all to come to its reckoning. As we can see gradually from the drama, racism stems from ignorance. This is the story about the human race and the Kunwu race, and their hatred for each other. As always, the human race is the destructive race, killing as many of the Kunwu as possible because humans feel that Kunwus are atrocious and bad.

After the killings, many Kunwus are left scattered, scared and hopeless. Their only hope is to raise their king, who has been sealed by the human race for 10 years, from his slumber so that the Kunwu race can be freed again. Of course, the human race fights tooth and nail to stop this from happening. At the end of the story, the human race realizes their flawed perception of the Kunwu race. Indeed we can all live harmoniously together in peace if we treat each other more kindly.

Su You Lian (Wu Jia Yi), a holy girl from the Kunwu race, comes to live among the human race in the Moyun Academy where the Dragon King is kept sealed. Her mission is to wake the Kunwu King. There at the Academy, she meets Li Xuan (Xu Kai) who is the protector of the human race. Unbeknownst to both, Li Xuan is half human and half Kunwu. They both fall head-over-toe in love with each other, and their conflict renders them in emotional turmoil.

The whole drama almost revolves around life in the Academy. It starts off with a lot of comedies as Li Xuan is an untamed kid and Xu Kai’s acting is fabulous. However, as the story progresses, the later episodes become more somber, and Li Xuan becomes serious as he grows.

Wu Jia Yi is a fantastic dancer. Her dancing scenes in the beginning episode are mesmerizing. As Su You Lian, she is tormented as she knows she’s not supposed to fall in love with the enemy. I love Wu Jia Yi’s acting. She depicts a Kunwu character so well as she exudes that unspoken charisma.

There are multiple love triangles here, but both Su You Lian’s and Li Xuan’s love for each other is unwavering despite their conflicts. A lot of time is spent on the emotional turmoil undergone by Su You Lian and heart brokenness by Li Xuan.

Once Li Xuan discovers his own true identify and Su You Lian completes her mission, the story comes to a conclusion very quickly. Like many other Chinese historical dramas where endings are shoddy with characters being written off in death, this drama follows that path. But to my surprise and perhaps to placate the viewers, the dead characters are somehow, miraculously resurrected.

Overall, this drama is not exceptional but watchable as it’s a mixture of being light and humorous to occasional heart wrenching. The CGI is like what you see in a computer game; in fights, people simply jump up and off the roofs and everywhere on the screen. The plot is pretty straightforward and easy to follow. Though not perfect, I have rather enjoyed it.

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It was enjoyable and average at first but became boring

I decided to watch this drama because the plot attracted me, plus Xu Kai's in it. To be honest, I would have dropped this drama at around episode 14 or so... but since the drama is quite short and not like a 40+ episode drama, I kept going. This drama wasn't complete trash, but it definitely had flaws that had me skipping a lot of scenes and had me rolling my eyes.

The first half of the drama was humorous and enjoyable, but it wasn't great. During the second half of the drama, it just became boring to me. The supporting characters weren't interesting because I've seen those kinds of characters many times already. I found myself skipping a lot of Xiao Fengming and Yunshan scenes as I did not care for their storyline. However, I did find Long Wei'er's storyline to be unique. I also had some problems with a few of the actors/actresses acting ability and that includes Wu Jiayi. I know some people have the same opinion as me and some think her acting was fine. Personally, I think her acting was quite dull. There were many scenes that gave her a chance to show some convincing emotions. I do believe she can act better and maybe she was just following the script. And lastly, the second half of the drama became draggy and then rushed. The plot only started to move forward at around episode 17(somewhere around there), and I think the writers should have moved the plot forward a few episodes earlier. And in my opinion, that resulted in a rushed ending. They also have another option which is to add more episodes(around 30 something episodes).

I have a few other things that annoyed me like the master and some illogical parts, but I'm not gonna get into it. Overall, even though I did enjoy the comedic scenes and the first half of the drama, I personally would not recommend it.

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Had potential but plummeted real quick

The first few episodes of this drama and the initial idea were great and honestly made this drama one of my favourites...that is before I watched the rest of it. Let me just start this off by saying that I have nothing against the actors (they were fine and very cute)....but the storyline was awful. I don’t want to spoil too much about it incase people actually want to watch this for themselves ( I highly do not recommend it or at least watching past like the first 10 episodes) but man oh man it was full of plot holes and honestly felt like going on a rollercoaster that never dropped. The drama was building up to all these big reveals and all these big events happening but when it actually happened it was either completely different than what it was supposed to be or very underwhelming. The main character himself didn’t even feel like the main character at the end even though he was very much built up to be. Overall the drama gave me such high hopes and utterly crushed them. If you do want to watch it for the great actors and characters you can (probably the only good thing about the drama) but if you’re looking for a genuinely good one that sucks you in and gives you all the feels I would recommend you jump ship now and not watch this cause it will literally disappoint you and waste your time. Even Xu Kai couldn’t save this drama for me.

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Nice and compact storyline

Xu Kai hasn't disappointed me though but I was surprised this drama was only 28 episodes long- seem like the budget wasn't very much and not enough fight scenes. I was eager to see Wu Jiayi with Xu Kai as leads as I actually quite liked her character in Military Arsenal Academy. Her emotion scenes aren't really on point. I expected more reaction from her in key scenes that would have been shocking or heartbreaking. Instead, I didn't really feel it from her- I did feel their overall chemistry was pretty good.

Xu Kai's character is written to have a prominent role but when he finds out his true heritage- it doesn't seem like that part of the story was well written. I ended the second lead love story providing comic relief.

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It started good, but the development was poorly written

Review (NO SPOILERS)

* For me, this story started good but with every episode it got worse. The storyline was terrible written
* I love Xu Kai, but the roles he plays are getting repetitive
* The female lead doesn't tell me a thing with her face, she lacks emotions so bad
* There were 4,5 unnecesary episodes that diverted from the main plot, I fast-forwarded them
* The story about the second prince was so unnecesary, I like complex characters, not only good stories in main leads, but it really felt unnecesary
* I really like Yu Feng Mu character. I hope to see Li Jun Chen as main lead in another serie

(SPOILERS) The worst: So many plot holes (SPOILERS):
There's a lot of things that doesn't make sense, I'll write the ones I remember

1) When Su Youlian touch the water, her forehead mark was suppose to appear, but when they fall into the lake and go to that other dimension/realm, it didn't ???

2) One of the important details in the story is that Li Xuan is half clan human half clan Kunwu. But noone looked surprised when they find out?

3) The Great Dragon king doesn't even care about Li Xuan and discards him at the end because he was half human? When he is her sister's son, the one who was captured and even got his memories deleted, he didn't even remember his mother and her death. And he was asleep for ten years, so he has no idea about everything his nephew did during those years, doesn't he remember his sister's kid?

3) When Su Youlian show her wings, she shows great powers, but when she needs it, she doesn't even use it! Even when it was no longer a secret she was from clan Kunwu

4) When Li Xuan tell his friends that Xiao FengMing was behind the murders in the school and city, a few seconds later they said Xiao Feng Ming is the one who has real power, not the prince. Didn't they just discover he was evil bc of the one in his body?

5) The annoying sword/the female lead's master hears or doesn't hear when it's convenient. Some times he is like "I know everything you did or said" and others he's like "what happened". And at the end we don't know, does he react in some way when he finds out Li Xuan is half Kunwu? And when he knows they are together? Does he return happily to the Great Dragon King, etc??

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