54
191
11
The Butterfly
Tornado Alley
"There's always a cause that results in consequence"
An Ancient Love Song may have been a low budget, shorter Cdrama, but longer, more expensive Cdramas could learn a lesson or two from it. The story was written well and the writers believed in the old adage, “Give them what they need, not what they want.”
Shen Bu Yan is on a book tour touting his most recent title which covers the Demon Queen during the Nine Kingdom era. After an argument with his editor, he encounters an old woman selling trinkets to tie to an ancient wishing tree. He spots a broken jade pendant he’d seen in a dream the night before. Back at home his editor tells him he’s required to write a trilogy despite not having any more research for such books. A drop of blood touches the pendant from a nosebleed and he finds himself at the Great Sheng Palace in ye olden times. The Demon Queen is expecting him and the game is on.
I don’t know how this drama passed the censors and the “no time travel” edict, maybe Shen Bu Yan’s jade pendant dazzled them or there was enough standard warfare propaganda to appease them. Whatever the reason, I’m grateful. I’ve never seen Zhang Ya Qin in a lead role before and thought she played Lu Yuan well regardless of the character’s age. She brought Lu Yuan's patient love for Shen Bu Yan to life as well as Lu's determination to do the right thing. And a definite plus, she was no shrinking violet in a fight. Guo Jia Nan as Shen went from hapless fish out of water to strategist just as believably. The two had a nice chemistry despite the characters’ brief interludes throughout the story as each was traveling in different directions. I admire the writers for bringing the drama to a logical end, as logical as time travel dramas can be. Although no one seemed to be concerned about the Butterfly Effect.
Though not a big budget drama An Ancient Love Song was impossible for me to stop watching once I started. It took only the first episode to realize, one’s life and heart was set in “drive” and the other’s was in “reverse”. Forever in each other’s minds yet never quite together, it was a heart wrenching ride as they attempted to save each other and the kingdom, always hoping the next glimpse of the other would be forever.
3 April 2024
Shen Bu Yan is on a book tour touting his most recent title which covers the Demon Queen during the Nine Kingdom era. After an argument with his editor, he encounters an old woman selling trinkets to tie to an ancient wishing tree. He spots a broken jade pendant he’d seen in a dream the night before. Back at home his editor tells him he’s required to write a trilogy despite not having any more research for such books. A drop of blood touches the pendant from a nosebleed and he finds himself at the Great Sheng Palace in ye olden times. The Demon Queen is expecting him and the game is on.
I don’t know how this drama passed the censors and the “no time travel” edict, maybe Shen Bu Yan’s jade pendant dazzled them or there was enough standard warfare propaganda to appease them. Whatever the reason, I’m grateful. I’ve never seen Zhang Ya Qin in a lead role before and thought she played Lu Yuan well regardless of the character’s age. She brought Lu Yuan's patient love for Shen Bu Yan to life as well as Lu's determination to do the right thing. And a definite plus, she was no shrinking violet in a fight. Guo Jia Nan as Shen went from hapless fish out of water to strategist just as believably. The two had a nice chemistry despite the characters’ brief interludes throughout the story as each was traveling in different directions. I admire the writers for bringing the drama to a logical end, as logical as time travel dramas can be. Although no one seemed to be concerned about the Butterfly Effect.
Though not a big budget drama An Ancient Love Song was impossible for me to stop watching once I started. It took only the first episode to realize, one’s life and heart was set in “drive” and the other’s was in “reverse”. Forever in each other’s minds yet never quite together, it was a heart wrenching ride as they attempted to save each other and the kingdom, always hoping the next glimpse of the other would be forever.
3 April 2024
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