1
KiKo Tsukino
Wangxian Island
This review may contain spoilers
What Ashes of Love failed, LAR (love and Redemption) had succeeded!
What do I mean by that title? Well, to be honest, I knew about this drama, much earlier than 2022 i.e. in 2021, I knew about this drama, however, because fans have been saying this drama is similar to Ashes of Love, is what really puts me off from starting LAR (Love and Redemption), because I saw that as a minus appeal, since I didn't like Ashes of Love, where the Female Lead, Male Lead and Main Pairing is concerned.
If I am going to say something here, is that I am glad I picked up this drama, although late, but better late than never. I mean, it's always good to give a drama/story a benefit of the doubt before judging, and also since I felt like watching another Xianxia drama, and I am like "Why not? Since I was impatiently waiting for the episodes for 'The Blue Whisper'". And then when I started watching, you can say, I was hooked, and just want to continue watching it, and I have stayed up endless nights just to finish this!
The Male lead actor name is Cheng Yi is really a talented actor who really can express his emotions (especially those scenes where he expresses pain and his love) very well. He really made me cry in all those scenes, since he have successfully exceeded my expectations so I really love his acting. This is the second drama I saw him in, the first drama I saw him in was 'The Legend of Chusei - Noble Aspirations', he's the second male lead in that one. As the ML, this show has potentially propelled Cheng Yi to celestial popularity levels. His portrayal of the much adored character of Yu Si Feng through his seemingly innate ability to emote convincingly and project poignant scenes of excruciating torment while shedding tonnes of blood and tears has deservedly earned him legions of new fans, and you can bet that I am now a fan lol, so hooray, now I will be paying attention to his other dramas.
The Female lead being Yuan Bing Yan, I have never seen her act before, but as Xuan Ji (FL) she really played out her character well. She did played her character well, and while for a period of time I really didn't like her, for her lack of trust in Si Feng, and not believe the good in him, it really annoyed me, because given the situation was reverse, Si Feng will believe in the good in Xuan Ji. I also think this is the difference in their love i.e. Si Feng loves Xuan Ji (at the beginning) and is willing to give up everything/sacrifice his life for her, but Xuan Ji can be easily manipulated by 'what she sees' and not believe in the good in Si Feng, and this is why I think that even when she regain her six senses, she can't break the loveless curse placed on Si Feng. It is only when she lost Si Feng i.e. Si Feng left her is when she started to see how important Si Feng is to her, and how wrong she was to not trust in him etc, so that made her into a better character, i.e. character development, and her love for Si Feng had grown to the same level as Si Feng has for her. This is also why I think she was able to break the loveless curse. Honestly, I am so glad Si Feng didn't get back with her right away, because it allowed me to see how much Xuanji puts in to earn back Si Feng's love. Even when Si Feng had another reason why he kept his distance, but it's because of this, I get to see Xuanji putting in for this relationship, and while I still think that Xuanji didn't suffer as much as Si Feng when it comes to this relationship, but she really did redeemed herself for me, and earned back Si Feng's love and this relationship. I am just happy they are finally together again.
In terms of story itself is a powerful one, and the main pair have a powerful love/chemistry with each other. In 10 lives, 10 world's (the present time is their 10th life), and in every life(when the past is revealed) you can see how much the ML loves the female lead. I love their love and chemistry on my end. While people like to compare this to Ashes of Love, and while I can see those similarities BUT the FL in this one was so so so much better than Jin Mi (Ashes of Love), and the main pairing is actually true love to me, one that comes natural, and not forced, the way Ashes of Love is. I guess what AOL main pair FAILED to bring out for me in terms of making me like the 'pairing' and 'individual characters', this one (Love and Redemption) succeeded and have far surpasses Ashes of Love, in terms of characters on it's own and the pairing. The FL(Xuan Ji) is strong, and actually got strong in her own way (that development), and the pairing in this one (Love and Redemption) is much more genuine/natural touching(in a loveable way) when compared to the other fail one (AOL/Ashes of Love).
There's also quite a few interesting characters I really love, i.e. Teng She, Wu Zhi Qi, Liu Yi Huan etc, just to name a few that is not the male and female lead that are loveable too. So it's an enjoyable drama to me. I even love Luo Huo Ji Du, he's not evil to me, and I sympathise with his past and what happened to him. The one that is truly evil (irony) is.. PLOT TWIST Bai Ling Di Jun. Although I won't say evil as in evil, but he views all demons are evil, so I don't like him, although in the end, he got his retribution and he understood and learn he was wrong so that was satisfying, but throughout the drama, when I saw his actions, it really makes me punch him when he said he's doing this to protect the three realms when his actions contradicts it. But this really all stems from how he worries too much/have those insecurities, because he doesn't trust in demons... He's not an evil character that wants to destroy the 3 realms, I guess that's why it's conflicting to label him in the evil character list, I guess you can say he's more of a 'grey' character. But I don't like him, but to be honest, I really tried to like him and not want to hate him, but his actions some times really contradicts his "I am doing this to protect the three realms". And another plot twist, we finally have a wise and great Heavenly Emperor (Tian Di)!!! . He's a great character, and a wise ruler hahaha.
But yeah, like all Xianxia genres, there will be those people around to cause these misunderstandings for the main pair, so this is why the ending was happy and very satisfying as the good were paid for the good they did and the evil received retribution. While 59 episodes may seem long for some, it is definitely worth your time. In fact, you might even think that 59 episodes is far from enough, I actually felt that by the time I am nearing ep 59, I was like "Oh no... the last episode, I don't want it to end".
Music 10/10 - Love them all!!!
Rewatch Value: Definitely watching this again!!!
The last time I gave a drama 10/10 was TMOPB. I wanted to give Ancient Love Poetry 10/10 too since I love that drama very much, but the ending wasn't satisfying to me, so I have to say in terms of fully satisfying ending, Love and Redemption (LAR) tops Ancient Love Poetry even when I love both of the story and romance, and characters very much!
If I am going to say something here, is that I am glad I picked up this drama, although late, but better late than never. I mean, it's always good to give a drama/story a benefit of the doubt before judging, and also since I felt like watching another Xianxia drama, and I am like "Why not? Since I was impatiently waiting for the episodes for 'The Blue Whisper'". And then when I started watching, you can say, I was hooked, and just want to continue watching it, and I have stayed up endless nights just to finish this!
The Male lead actor name is Cheng Yi is really a talented actor who really can express his emotions (especially those scenes where he expresses pain and his love) very well. He really made me cry in all those scenes, since he have successfully exceeded my expectations so I really love his acting. This is the second drama I saw him in, the first drama I saw him in was 'The Legend of Chusei - Noble Aspirations', he's the second male lead in that one. As the ML, this show has potentially propelled Cheng Yi to celestial popularity levels. His portrayal of the much adored character of Yu Si Feng through his seemingly innate ability to emote convincingly and project poignant scenes of excruciating torment while shedding tonnes of blood and tears has deservedly earned him legions of new fans, and you can bet that I am now a fan lol, so hooray, now I will be paying attention to his other dramas.
The Female lead being Yuan Bing Yan, I have never seen her act before, but as Xuan Ji (FL) she really played out her character well. She did played her character well, and while for a period of time I really didn't like her, for her lack of trust in Si Feng, and not believe the good in him, it really annoyed me, because given the situation was reverse, Si Feng will believe in the good in Xuan Ji. I also think this is the difference in their love i.e. Si Feng loves Xuan Ji (at the beginning) and is willing to give up everything/sacrifice his life for her, but Xuan Ji can be easily manipulated by 'what she sees' and not believe in the good in Si Feng, and this is why I think that even when she regain her six senses, she can't break the loveless curse placed on Si Feng. It is only when she lost Si Feng i.e. Si Feng left her is when she started to see how important Si Feng is to her, and how wrong she was to not trust in him etc, so that made her into a better character, i.e. character development, and her love for Si Feng had grown to the same level as Si Feng has for her. This is also why I think she was able to break the loveless curse. Honestly, I am so glad Si Feng didn't get back with her right away, because it allowed me to see how much Xuanji puts in to earn back Si Feng's love. Even when Si Feng had another reason why he kept his distance, but it's because of this, I get to see Xuanji putting in for this relationship, and while I still think that Xuanji didn't suffer as much as Si Feng when it comes to this relationship, but she really did redeemed herself for me, and earned back Si Feng's love and this relationship. I am just happy they are finally together again.
In terms of story itself is a powerful one, and the main pair have a powerful love/chemistry with each other. In 10 lives, 10 world's (the present time is their 10th life), and in every life(when the past is revealed) you can see how much the ML loves the female lead. I love their love and chemistry on my end. While people like to compare this to Ashes of Love, and while I can see those similarities BUT the FL in this one was so so so much better than Jin Mi (Ashes of Love), and the main pairing is actually true love to me, one that comes natural, and not forced, the way Ashes of Love is. I guess what AOL main pair FAILED to bring out for me in terms of making me like the 'pairing' and 'individual characters', this one (Love and Redemption) succeeded and have far surpasses Ashes of Love, in terms of characters on it's own and the pairing. The FL(Xuan Ji) is strong, and actually got strong in her own way (that development), and the pairing in this one (Love and Redemption) is much more genuine/natural touching(in a loveable way) when compared to the other fail one (AOL/Ashes of Love).
There's also quite a few interesting characters I really love, i.e. Teng She, Wu Zhi Qi, Liu Yi Huan etc, just to name a few that is not the male and female lead that are loveable too. So it's an enjoyable drama to me. I even love Luo Huo Ji Du, he's not evil to me, and I sympathise with his past and what happened to him. The one that is truly evil (irony) is.. PLOT TWIST Bai Ling Di Jun. Although I won't say evil as in evil, but he views all demons are evil, so I don't like him, although in the end, he got his retribution and he understood and learn he was wrong so that was satisfying, but throughout the drama, when I saw his actions, it really makes me punch him when he said he's doing this to protect the three realms when his actions contradicts it. But this really all stems from how he worries too much/have those insecurities, because he doesn't trust in demons... He's not an evil character that wants to destroy the 3 realms, I guess that's why it's conflicting to label him in the evil character list, I guess you can say he's more of a 'grey' character. But I don't like him, but to be honest, I really tried to like him and not want to hate him, but his actions some times really contradicts his "I am doing this to protect the three realms". And another plot twist, we finally have a wise and great Heavenly Emperor (Tian Di)!!! . He's a great character, and a wise ruler hahaha.
But yeah, like all Xianxia genres, there will be those people around to cause these misunderstandings for the main pair, so this is why the ending was happy and very satisfying as the good were paid for the good they did and the evil received retribution. While 59 episodes may seem long for some, it is definitely worth your time. In fact, you might even think that 59 episodes is far from enough, I actually felt that by the time I am nearing ep 59, I was like "Oh no... the last episode, I don't want it to end".
Music 10/10 - Love them all!!!
Rewatch Value: Definitely watching this again!!!
The last time I gave a drama 10/10 was TMOPB. I wanted to give Ancient Love Poetry 10/10 too since I love that drama very much, but the ending wasn't satisfying to me, so I have to say in terms of fully satisfying ending, Love and Redemption (LAR) tops Ancient Love Poetry even when I love both of the story and romance, and characters very much!
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