Good (but pretty cheesy) fun
I saw more of Cheng Lei’s nipples than I saw my own in an entire week, and that was just the first 2-3 episodes.
Heads-up for an Untamed fans: the voice actor who did Lan Zhan/Lan Wangji did the voice of Cheng Lei’s Prince Annan /Duan Aodeng in this drama.
Shadow Love is visually low-budget looking, with super dull cinematography/lighting etc. which leaves you wishing for better in the supernatural types of scenes.
Poor Cheng Lei looks like he just strolled out of his mom’s van and into small town Comicon cosplaying most of the time, every harsh detail of his outfit glaring under bright lights, every wisp of his unsmoothed wig. At least the blue body special effects are done very well, ‘cept when they get too flashy and look like fake lightning (cringe). But it really feels like budget was def not on making anything look good, it’s not a feast for the eyes except the natural beauty of the leads.
Music: baaaaaad cheesy rock anthems (Liu Yuning, too! Dang!) somewhere between Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Pokémon. Scratch that, Pokémon movies had better tracks. Seriously.
If male lead Cheng Lei hadn’t been here, this would have been a flop. He is very capable and believable as perfect devoted boyfriend: warm and caring, thoughtful Jinan - this portion goes on for longer than you’d wish, though. He’s equally buyable as stern, authoritarian and quietly smoldering Prince Annan (wish there was more), as well as his blue sparks/shirtless/gorgeous vampiric superhero Man in Black (ditto).
His latching on to FL’s neck with his mouth for a quick vampire-esque pick-me-up was the sexiest thing you’ll see in a handful of romances and it wasn’t explicit.
I’ve seen him now in 2 other dramas (Fangs of Fortune and My Journey to You), both of these dramas are excellent and well shot), and it’s pretty obvious he has natural charisma.
Wish I could say that about literally anyone else here other than…serviceable. Did a decent job. Nothing bad to say. It’s a popcorn 🍿 fluff kind of series, entertaining if you like or are curious about the leads, skippable if not.
Heads-up for an Untamed fans: the voice actor who did Lan Zhan/Lan Wangji did the voice of Cheng Lei’s Prince Annan /Duan Aodeng in this drama.
Shadow Love is visually low-budget looking, with super dull cinematography/lighting etc. which leaves you wishing for better in the supernatural types of scenes.
Poor Cheng Lei looks like he just strolled out of his mom’s van and into small town Comicon cosplaying most of the time, every harsh detail of his outfit glaring under bright lights, every wisp of his unsmoothed wig. At least the blue body special effects are done very well, ‘cept when they get too flashy and look like fake lightning (cringe). But it really feels like budget was def not on making anything look good, it’s not a feast for the eyes except the natural beauty of the leads.
Music: baaaaaad cheesy rock anthems (Liu Yuning, too! Dang!) somewhere between Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Pokémon. Scratch that, Pokémon movies had better tracks. Seriously.
If male lead Cheng Lei hadn’t been here, this would have been a flop. He is very capable and believable as perfect devoted boyfriend: warm and caring, thoughtful Jinan - this portion goes on for longer than you’d wish, though. He’s equally buyable as stern, authoritarian and quietly smoldering Prince Annan (wish there was more), as well as his blue sparks/shirtless/gorgeous vampiric superhero Man in Black (ditto).
His latching on to FL’s neck with his mouth for a quick vampire-esque pick-me-up was the sexiest thing you’ll see in a handful of romances and it wasn’t explicit.
I’ve seen him now in 2 other dramas (Fangs of Fortune and My Journey to You), both of these dramas are excellent and well shot), and it’s pretty obvious he has natural charisma.
Wish I could say that about literally anyone else here other than…serviceable. Did a decent job. Nothing bad to say. It’s a popcorn 🍿 fluff kind of series, entertaining if you like or are curious about the leads, skippable if not.
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