Choice and Consequence

I'll be reviewing the drama more as a whole taking into consideration both parts rather than just part 2.

One thing about Lost You Forever, is that it's different from other Xianxias. Right off the bat, it doesn't give you the fantasy elements that most Xianxias are known for. No beautiful, mystical looking sceneries, or castles in the sky. No flying or cloud riding as it's called. It's easy to forget that these characters are supposed to be deities. Majority of the time not only are they dressed like regular people, the tools & items they utilize are rudimentary, and don't appear to be magical. So much so, I had a hard time conceptualizing where Dahuang is supposed to be situated in terms of the realms as it seems to be in the mortal realm. Though it didn't have many of the tropes I looked forward to in a Xianxia, it had it's own special uniqueness to it.

Acting:

The acting in this drama is top notch. Each character, whether main or supporting played their individual roles well. This in turn either endeared you to the character, tolerated the character or downright detested the character. However, the ultimate accolade goes to Yang Zi & Zhang Wan Yi, who play the main characters of Xiao Yao & Cang Xuan. Their acting in Episode 19 of LYF S2 is chef's kiss. What a moment.

Characters:

Moving on to the characters, we are first introduced to the two main characters, Xiao Yao & Cang Xuan as children. We meet them from their playful interactions to their pained separation as they experience loss one after the other in a short period of time.

After their separation, Cang Xuan vows to become strong, to obtain power in order to be able to protect Xiao Yao. Xiao Yao on the other hand after experiencing a series of traumatic events learns to not trust anyone, not to depend on anyone and most especially not to wait for anyone. We see how their experiences shape who they become and ultimately the decisions they make in life.

When we meet the adult Xiao Yao & Cang Xuan, they are both living a completely different life. One from life as a noble Princess to that of one of a struggling physician in the form of a male disguise known as Wen Xiao Liu. Cang Xuan on the other hand has become a hostage Prince, traveling around in disguise as a wine seller as he secretly continued his search for Xiao Yao whom he'd never forgotten.

We see that Xiao Yao has become a cold, calculating and distrustful individual who never truly lets others get close, while Cang Xuan keeps a calculating and scheming mind hidden behind his calm smiling facade.

Despite Xiao Yao becoming a very guarded individual she still yearns for companionship, so much so that she'll even settle for the companionship of her tormentor because in her mind, it is better than being alone as she verbally states in LYF S1. Her desire for companionship leads her to make all kinds of acquaintances along the way & ultimately led her to Ye Shiqi/Tushan Jing and Xiang Liu /Fangfeng Bei two very different men that will become prominent in her life for different reasons.

Xiao Yao as a romantic partner is not for the faint of heart. She is double minded as she falls for two different men, and she is quick to "drop a person", to put it in colloquial terms, if she deems it necessary.

Xiao Yao as Wen Xiao Liu initially meets Tushan Jing, whom she names Ye Shiqi, when he is at his worst and on the brink of death. At first she leaves him to his fate, but, later on decides to help save him despite whatever potential trouble it might bring her. Ye Shiqi in return becomes devoted to Xiao Yao in her guise as Wen Xiao Liu. Performing various acts of services in a gentle and quiet manner, he cooks for her, cleans up after her, takes on the tasks she usually tries to avoid, all while assisting her and quietly looking out for her during their time in Qingshui Town. Slowly, without realizing it Xiao Yao comes to rely on Ye Shiqi more and more. After learning of his true identity as Tushan Jing, she makes multiple attempts to cut him off, and forget him, but is unable to completely do so. Their journey to each other is littered with misunderstandings, lack of communication, falling victim to other peoples schemes. Xiao Yao eventually learns that love is about the choices one makes. One person can love but it takes two to build a shared future. From Xiao Yao's perspective, Tushan Jing went from being a suitable companion who was devoted to her to a man whom she deeply loved and wanted to spend her lifetime with. What I loved and their interactions was how tender they could be with each other. Once they'd both confessed to each Xiao Yao's almost any girlishness around Tushan Jing was endearing.


On the other, Xiao Yao while disguised as Wen Xiao Liu in Qingshui Town also meets Xiang Liu, the feared and ill reputed nine headed serpent. Xiang Liu known as being cruel, calculating, and a killer of both demons and deities lives up to his cruel reputation on this first meeting with Xiao Yao as Wen Xiao Liu. Having his pet Chubby brutally rip apart and devour the Feifei that she was trying to capture, he also had her harshly whipped many times, despite knowing she was a woman. He eventually sets her free on the condition that she must make poison for him, and giving her no option but to agree, because to refuse leads to her being harmed by him. And harm her he does, multiple times over throughout. With such an introduction, one would think she would have to be crazy to fall for such a man, but she eventually does despite never admitting to it. Her falling for Xiang Liu makes me think of victims suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, because it makes no sense from her perspective. For a lot of her dealings with him he either physically harmed her, threatened to harm her or doled out some form of punishment to her while forcefully taking her blood in the most inappropriate way without her permission until she was resigned to it. However, it seemed that for a person like Xiao Yao who hated loneliness even this form of companionship, if it could be called that, was acceptable. Even after gaining back her identity & noble status, Xiao Yao continued to make poison for him, in addition to hiding and protecting his identity a few times. This might have made some sense if maybe this attachment she formed with Xiang Liu came about after he saved her life or after her many interactions with him as Fangfeng Bei, but if anything it seems that those later interactions deepened her attachment to him. All this while she would still cry over Tushan Jing.

As Cang Xuan's closest relative, Xiao Yao took her role very seriously, doing whatever was necessary to help him secure the throne even if it meant becoming engaged & possibly marrying a man (Fenglong), she didn't love and living the kind of life that was the opposite of what she wanted. She used herself as a shield to protect him & learned archery from someone that was supposed to be an enemy in order to protect Cang Xuan. Cang Xuan is one of the very few people she trusted the most. He is her Cang Xuan gege, and someone she believed she could rely on always. Their relationship and rediscovery of each other as adults was enjoyable to observe yet poignant as it became clear that the more power Cang Xuan obtained the more they will become separated.


Cang Xuan is a man with a mission and high ambition. For his goal, he can use anybody as a pawn, even Xiao Yao, the one person whom he holds dearly above others. He is ultimately a pitiful character. His desire for power was driven by his desire to protect Xiao Yao and to keep her by his side so that no one can ever force them to separate again. However, it is this very power that when he obtained it came between them. In order to acquire power, he had to become the king, and to ensure that there was true peace throughout Dahuang, he had to unify the kingdoms and different clans, and to do so meant marriage alliances. Each time he married a new consort, he would ask Xiao Yao not to attend & not to congratulate him. Zhang Wan Yi played this role so achingly well. His portrayal of his character's emotional turmoil was palpable. From the sadness etched onto his face each time he married a new consort and felt the distance between him & Xiao Yao growing more and more, to the yearning every time he was around her knowing he can't have her, and his jealousy of the devotion Xiao Yao showed towards Tushan Jing. A superb acting.

Tushan Jing is a character whom we are first introduced to at his lowest point in life. We meet him crippled, dirty, on the verge of death and beyond recognition. After suffering the ultimate betrayal from a brother he looked up to the most, Tushan Jing goes from being a man who was once admired throughout Dahuang for his looks, his skills in poetry, art & playing the guqin in addition to his business savvy, to being the lowest of low. Crippled, brutalized, unable to walk he was shunned & scorned by passerbys who saw him on the street. Thrown into the river & left to die, he eventually drifted to Qingshui Town where he met Xiao Yao in her male disguise as Wen Xiao Liu. She saves Tushan Jing literally & figuratively. Tushan Jing in turn treats Xiao Yao in a way that she had not been for a very long time. They live a somewhat idyllic life until reality comes knocking no longer able to hide from their true identities. Having already known what it's like to be at the top of the social ladder, with the admiration of the people as well as to be cruelly brought low, & treated worse than human, Tushan Jing has no desire to return to the life he once had. However, it is his very admirable nature that makes it hard for him to escape his obligations & also fall into the trap of those he failed to guard against. What makes his character lovable is that despite the schemes against him, the brutality he'd experienced, he maintained a pure heart, which was what drew Xiao Yao to him. And he to many viewers. However, as XY told him, it is his greatest strength as well as his fatal flaw.

Nonetheless, his love & devotion to Xiao Yao was evident. He had no other ambitions than to be with her. He didn't seek power, and despite being able to obtain one of the highest positions as an official, he chose not to. His shrewdness & intellect is usually downplayed, except by those who know it. For him, nothing is more important than Xiao Yao not even his own life. With half of his cultivation gone due to the vicious torture he received at the hands of his own brother, despite not being as strong as he used to be, & still recovering from his injuries he used up what remained of his powers & his body to shield Xiao Yao's body from being burnt to ashes after her assassination, and was ready to die with her. His sacrifice is what allowed the opportunity for her life to be saved. Tushan Jing's devotion to Xiao Yao ultimately warms & heals her cold jaded heart. His kind, thoughtful, & loving nature made him the life partner she desired. A man who put her above all else & valued her more than his own life. While the first part of LYF did a fair job of introducing us to Tushan Jing and giving us his background and his duty bound nature, this second part/season failed in further developing his character arc, his limited screen time in the second half of the drama was noticable. Deng Wei did well to convey Tushan Jing as a lovelorn man mourning the reality of missing out on Xiao Yao, as well as portraying the devoted & loving man, whose sole desire is to be with his love assisting her in accomplishing her goals.

Xiang Liu is a character I have mixed feelings about. On first meeting him you are introduced to his cold harshness, even downright cruelty. I will never get over his whipping of Xiao Yao, throwing her off from a high distance on Chubby's back so that she was injured to the extent she couldn't even walk. The amount of times this man choked her, reacted violently to her, and then we are supposed to sympathize with him because he loves Xiao Yao is crazy. For those with a fetish for dark characters he would be their cup of tea. Xiang Liu behaves like an emotionally stunted person or a person suffering from a split personality disorder (maybe it's the nine heads? ?). When he manages to have civilized & normal conversations with Xiao Yao it almost never fails not to end in him doing something cruel or harsh that pushes her away. When he is doing something to help her or that's to protect her not only would he not let her know, but he would go out of his way to choose the meanest or harshest method to do those things. He's only ever treated her tenderly when she's unconscious. His love of Xiao Yao is like a backhanded compliment with the compliment getting lost in the insult. Others have waxed poetic about Xiang Liu being so self-sacrificial in his love. But I can't help but see his selfishness & cruelty. Love is an action word. You show love for a person in the things you do, in the same way you cannot show it in the things you fail to do. When the person you love has only personally experienced your harshness, coldness, your cruelty is that love? If inwardly & secretly is the only way you express & do things for this person while outwardly constantly causing them pain is that okay? Would anyone accept that kind of treatment in real life & call it love? Xiang Liu's character frustrated me a lot, because ultimately what he got was the result of his own choices. For his own principles he & the displaced Chengrong army refused to surrender viewing their ego, because that's what it ultimately boils down to, as higher than the greater good. Their principle wasn't about ensuring the peace of the people, their well-being or their safety, their principle was about holding onto whatever ideals they had than to give in to surrendering & unifying a land that was initially not divided into different kingdoms in the first place. It made their deaths needless & meaningless, but hey, they satisfied their desire to die in battle. On that note Tan Jian Ci played the dual nature of his character very well. I would love to see him in something else so I can erase the image of him as Xiang Liu.

With all that said, the notion of choice & the consequences of the choice a person makes is peppered throughout the drama. In life we all have a choice to make. We can choose to be happy or not. We also have a choice on who we love. In order for love to last it must be nurtured. Xiao Yao ultimately makes a choice she would rather spend her life with a man who loves, cherishes her & puts her first.

Further, the author does a good job of drawing parallels & similarities between Xiao Yao & her main "love interests".

With Xiao Yao & Tushan Jing you have both experienced torture. Both lost a significant amount of their cultivation that they didn't get back, both lost their prestigious identity & lived the life of a pauper.

With Xiao Yao & Xiang Liu you also get both experienced torture, and with them there's a parallel in their blood. While Xiao Yao's blood is a panacea, Xiang Liu's blood is poisonous.

Even between the two main "rivals" for Xiao Yao's love there's a parallel. Tushan Jing is a nine tailed fox spirit deity, while Xiang Liu is a nine headed serpent demon. ?

Plot:
Overall the drama did a good job in conveying the story it was telling. However, there is no denying that the second half of the drama suffered from the multiple episode cut. There were noticeable areas where it felt that something was missing. Nonetheless, everyone involved in the drama did their job well.

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A delightful surprise

This was my first time watching a short drama, literally, each episode is about 9 mins or so long. The condensed 3 episode version is a bit over 50 mins each.

Before I started watching, I read some reviews so I knew going in that this was going to be a very fast paced drama. Despite the dizzying pace of the drama at times, it wasn't hard to grasp onto the main story. However, because it is a fast paced drama, the plot lines are not greatly expanded on, so you are left filling in your own answers for certain storylines and events.

Nonetheless, acting by the main leads was solid, so is their chemistry. A lot of unexpected and humorous moments that manages not to come across as forced and cringey, so that is a delightful plus. If this were a longer drama with a more fleshed out story I can see it doing very well. Nonetheless, this drama offers a nice escape from some of the more mundane repetitive and dragged out dramas out there that just wastes your time and leave you feeling unsatisfied by the end.

Would highly recommend as a short and entertaining drama.

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Entertaining drama but do not expect much to make sense

An entertaining enough drama. If nothing else , it provides breathtaking scenery. Beautiful cinematography, but hole filled plot. Expect to leave this drama with more questions than are answered. It lacks cohesiveness, direction and oftentimes logic.

To get through this drama, I came to the realization that I had to abandon all efforts of trying to follow the plot because it became clear that there was no true plot, and too many story lines which do not fully conclude or resolve in a clear or satisfactory manner.

Nonetheless, the actors portrayed their parts convincingly, especially the child actors. Top notch acting.

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