dropped but not for the bad AI
Everyone was incredibly hyped for this drama —especially because of Zhang Linghe's performance in Pursuit of Jade —and I really wanted to love it too. Just to make things clear: this review isn't coming from a fandom perspective. I'm not here to defend or attack any actor. In fact, I think both leads are doing the best they can with the material they were given.
A lot of the discussion has been about the AI-generated opening. Yes, I think it's a poor creative choice, but honestly? It's the least of this drama's problems. You can skip an opening. You can't skip weak storytelling.
The biggest issue is that everything feels painfully rushed. The dialogue is almost entirely exposition, constantly telling us how epic and emotional this story is instead of letting us experience it. Over and over information is given through dialogue. "He is the abandoned son." "She is X." "They do Y!" and it is so unatural it hurts. Relationships are established through a few lines and scattered scenes, but they're never given room to breathe, so none of the emotional beats actually land.
The editing and directing make things even worse. I've seen people compare it to a vertical drama you'd find on YouTube, and... I hate to say it, but they're not wrong. Which is frustrating because the production design is genuinely beautiful. The sets and costumes are gorgeous, and you have two very capable leads who have already proven themselves in other projects. Yet they barely get the chance to act before the camera cuts away again in blurry ways. Instead, we're constantly getting overly dramatic close-ups with generic background music, as if every single scene was designed to become a TikTok edit rather than exist as a complete, well-paced moment.
I only made it through episode 3, and by that point I was still trying to understand why the male lead is supposedly so deeply in love with the female lead. I know the script keeps telling me he is, but I don't feel it, and the chemistry is nule. The frantic pacing, the constant cuts, the awkward lighting, and the lack of properly developed scenes never give the story a chance to grow for me. For something that looks expensive on paper, it rarely feels like a high-budget production.
This isn't a hate review. It has nothing to do with the AI controversy, and it certainly has nothing to do with fandom wars. I'm criticizing what I actually watched. I wish people would stop dismissing every negative review as "haters being haters." Sometimes a drama simply doesn't work, and people have perfectly valid reasons for saying so. Unfortunately, for me, this is one of those cases.
A lot of the discussion has been about the AI-generated opening. Yes, I think it's a poor creative choice, but honestly? It's the least of this drama's problems. You can skip an opening. You can't skip weak storytelling.
The biggest issue is that everything feels painfully rushed. The dialogue is almost entirely exposition, constantly telling us how epic and emotional this story is instead of letting us experience it. Over and over information is given through dialogue. "He is the abandoned son." "She is X." "They do Y!" and it is so unatural it hurts. Relationships are established through a few lines and scattered scenes, but they're never given room to breathe, so none of the emotional beats actually land.
The editing and directing make things even worse. I've seen people compare it to a vertical drama you'd find on YouTube, and... I hate to say it, but they're not wrong. Which is frustrating because the production design is genuinely beautiful. The sets and costumes are gorgeous, and you have two very capable leads who have already proven themselves in other projects. Yet they barely get the chance to act before the camera cuts away again in blurry ways. Instead, we're constantly getting overly dramatic close-ups with generic background music, as if every single scene was designed to become a TikTok edit rather than exist as a complete, well-paced moment.
I only made it through episode 3, and by that point I was still trying to understand why the male lead is supposedly so deeply in love with the female lead. I know the script keeps telling me he is, but I don't feel it, and the chemistry is nule. The frantic pacing, the constant cuts, the awkward lighting, and the lack of properly developed scenes never give the story a chance to grow for me. For something that looks expensive on paper, it rarely feels like a high-budget production.
This isn't a hate review. It has nothing to do with the AI controversy, and it certainly has nothing to do with fandom wars. I'm criticizing what I actually watched. I wish people would stop dismissing every negative review as "haters being haters." Sometimes a drama simply doesn't work, and people have perfectly valid reasons for saying so. Unfortunately, for me, this is one of those cases.
Was this review helpful to you?
