Ruelux Prince
This review may contain spoilers
It's best to watch this drama with a split brain
On one hand, it's this disaster Romeo and Juliet romance of angst and will-they-won't-they and conflict and death and "I will literally die for this love" tropey xianxia drama stuff. If you've seen Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms or Love Eternal or the million other massively popular gods and romance Chinese dramas, you've seen this. This is our main couple.
On the other, it's this refined Hamlet of court intrigue, asking interesting moral questions such as "if my father is a genocidal tyrant and I have the ability to overthrow him, do I have the responsibility to do so, despite my filial piety obligations?" and "should I continue to care for a fiancee that has cheated on me with my brother because I still love her?" and "is it really true that to achieve justice in an unjust world one must commit unjust acts?" This is where the second male lead resides.
And yeah, I care very much more about Runyu's storyline than literally anything our main couple of doing, and that's not to mention the fact that those two did extremely shitty things to Runyu while they are pursuing their "forbidden romance." Apparently cheating on your fiancee is okay if it's true love, and asking your brother to annul his engagement because you want his future wife is okay if it's true love, but it's wrong if you want justice when your own mother dies in front of your eyes.
Anyway, the acting from everyone is top notch for such a mainstream blockbuster drama. Yang Zi pulls no punches during her crying scenes (she cries and I'm automatically on her side despite the fact that I don't agree with her side), Leo Luo embodies the ethereal and gentle immortal that has been living in the public Chinese consciousness for eons but has never been able to be brought onto screen until now. Deng Lun needs a lot of work, you can tell in a lot of scenes he is out of it and not acting at all, and his posture is terrible, but he's still okay. Everyone else? Wonderful, keep up the good work. Also, give the VFX team a bonus please, because everything finally looks phenomenal.
On the other, it's this refined Hamlet of court intrigue, asking interesting moral questions such as "if my father is a genocidal tyrant and I have the ability to overthrow him, do I have the responsibility to do so, despite my filial piety obligations?" and "should I continue to care for a fiancee that has cheated on me with my brother because I still love her?" and "is it really true that to achieve justice in an unjust world one must commit unjust acts?" This is where the second male lead resides.
And yeah, I care very much more about Runyu's storyline than literally anything our main couple of doing, and that's not to mention the fact that those two did extremely shitty things to Runyu while they are pursuing their "forbidden romance." Apparently cheating on your fiancee is okay if it's true love, and asking your brother to annul his engagement because you want his future wife is okay if it's true love, but it's wrong if you want justice when your own mother dies in front of your eyes.
Anyway, the acting from everyone is top notch for such a mainstream blockbuster drama. Yang Zi pulls no punches during her crying scenes (she cries and I'm automatically on her side despite the fact that I don't agree with her side), Leo Luo embodies the ethereal and gentle immortal that has been living in the public Chinese consciousness for eons but has never been able to be brought onto screen until now. Deng Lun needs a lot of work, you can tell in a lot of scenes he is out of it and not acting at all, and his posture is terrible, but he's still okay. Everyone else? Wonderful, keep up the good work. Also, give the VFX team a bonus please, because everything finally looks phenomenal.
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