Pretty solid romance, light on plot

I really liked this drama. I didn't like the previous drama I saw Ryan Ding/Ding Yu Xi in (The Romance of Tiger and Rose - which, to be fair, was less to do with his acting and more to do with his character and the whole non-consent threat they wrote in at one point, and also because I am one of those people who happen to find Zhao Lusi annoying in most things I see her in), so it was really nice to wholeheartedly like him in something this time. I thought he did very well here and this has happily replaced my impression of him from the last abovementioned drama, and I'll be interested to see what he might be in next.

I don't think I'd seen Peng Xiao Ran in anything before, but I thought she did fine in this drama. You could tell Nie Sangyu from Ji Man very well, and she was very earnest in this role. The costuming choice for her was interesting because this was the first female lead I noticed as pretty pared-down in that aspect - at a look, her dresses aren't very fancy, and her hair is also relatively simple compared to most other female leads, with just the one decorative headband or headpiece on a low half-updo, and no earrings. I later realised that this single crown-piece on half-loose hair/no earrings combo is also how Qing Kui is styled in The Starry Love, but which I honestly didn't notice at all there in that drama; but was very aware of here as it came across to me as a little plain. It likely has something to do with the lower height of the overall up-do combined with the usually open-work headpiece, which honestly looks like/is a decorative open metal headband with chains added onto the side corners, or sometimes even no headpiece at all in lieu of a few small decorative elements on what looks like a braid headband.

The leads play very well off each other, and I really enjoyed watching them together. I also genuinely cared about them as a couple and Ding Yuxi's acting as Ning Yu Xuan particularly shines in the sad and emotional scenes. The supporting roles and cast were all very good across the board and I have nothing to say other than thumbs up for the solid acting from all. Of the supporting characters, Gui Bai was my personal favourite, along with Miss Shui/Shui Niang Zi (whom I thought was stunning here) and their relationship, and getting to watch him smile for the first time was a treat. Ji Man's two maids, Mu Xu and Sang Ren, also get special mention for being very good in their roles.

The story was fine, with no major plot holes. It was simple and frankly not particularly memorable, but mainly serves as a vehicle for the romance, which it does well at. I liked the Emperor in this as a wise and steady emperor, which is what I remember most about the story, and I also liked Ji Man's father. The story drops off somewhat at the end, though not to the point of ruining things, but doesn't recover to the quality before. The ending likewise loses some points from me as it fell a little flat for me/in my opinion, and felt slightly anti-climactic - think the long tail of a graph, which sums up the ending/last couple of episodes.

The music was good and emotionally-hooking, and was used well to add emotionality to scenes. (Will give the OST a listen again later and possibly come back with an update.)

It's not a particularly short watch at 38 episodes clocking in at 45 minutes each, but it's not a terribly long drama, either. Pretty rewatchable, especially if you like Ding Yuxi, or just for the romance itself.

If you're looking for a light-watch romance and aren't too bothered about plot, this drama will serve you well. All in all, it is and does what it says on the tin.

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Slippery fish and flower

The title does little justice to the show. I had been interested in maybe watching this for a long time from seeing the odd screencap or .gif set, but based solely on the name had frankly written it off a little.

This is the most wuxia wuxia I've seen since the 2000s. From the fight scenes, depictions of any use of martial prowess and so on, to the array of villains with specific and detailed character designs such as the Ten Great Villains and Zodiac Twelve, it was wuxia to the bones. It's been a long time since I've seen a wuxia where villainous characters have been interestingly costumed and had concepts personal to them, so this was a treat for me.

The story has a neat opening and ending, in that it is essentially all one arc or event, and doesn't stray from it. The first few episodes were slow, perhaps up to about episode 10 or so, while the show was still finding its feet, but I was interested in the plot and what was going to happen from pretty much the start. The story however really mainly picks up after the mid-to-late-20s episode mark. The ending seemed odd to me initially in that it closed not on the two brothers but rather on Hua Wu Que and Tie Xin Lan, but this in fact reflects the opening of the show on Jiang Feng and Hua Yue Nu. and brings the story full circle and closes it roundly. I found it really interesting how the romance storyline developed for the main characters. This is the first time I remember ever seeing the female lead fall in love with one of the main male leads and then slowly shift to end up falling in love and ending up with the other male lead. I was really rooting for the original coupling to work out for the female lead at first, and it was an intriguing experience to watch and feel how it shifted into a different pairing instead, especially when it was driven by and came about as a result of the first. It was also interesting to me that the second female lead comes in so late in the show - at about the two-third episode mark, I believe. I've seen comments noting that this is faithful to the original novel the show is adapted from, which I haven't read. While I feel like it would make more sense to me if I were reading it in a book, it translates interestingly in the context of a show adaptation where it feels like I don't get to build much of an impression of the second female lead and feel the relationship build up, so that it felt a little sudden and underdeveloped for me. Nevertheless, it's a choice I'm rather glad they made if it stays true to the source material, because I think it's an interesting one and completely plausible in how meeting people works - you meet lots of people in the course of living and adventuring, but then you meet a particular someone after all of those other ones who came before who just becomes important to you, and you meet them when you meet them. I hated the main villains (which meant that they were doing their job), and I enjoyed most of the supporting characters of the same generation as Xiao Yu'er and Hua Wu Que. While there were some not completely-tight ends in the story, and I felt flashbacks were used a bit too often in showing some major pivotal events that would have been better served not done as flashbacks, overall the story pulled together.

I hadn't seen any of the main actors in other shows previously, and I thought they all did a terrific job. I really enjoyed Xiao Yu'er, and his portrayal by Chen Zhe Yuan was just right for me. Despite being played by the same actor, I felt the characters of Jiang Feng and Hua Wu Que are very easily told apart; whether this was mainly to do with the hairstyling or not I couldn't say for sure, but each certainly had their own aura to me, so props to Hu Yi Tian. Tie Xin Lan was possibly the character out of the main leads whom I felt seemed to do only one thing, but I still liked her, she just unfortunately didn't seem to have very much to do. The one character I did feel was slightly overacted was Jiang Yu Lang, but he is a sniveling weasel and in that sense I suppose it fits.

The music is also extremely classic wuxia sort of music. I really like both the opening and ending theme songs, and also loved the instrumental (flute?) version of the ending theme that plays during some scenes in the show as background music. Considering I'm listening to the ending theme on repeat now after finishing the show, 9 points for music.

A good rewatch if you're craving a classic wuxia, despite any slow bumps in the story, so overall 9 points from me for being such an enjoyable rendition of the golden age of wuxia.

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Pledge of Allegiance vibes, but straightforward and no betrayals

(Note: I didn't use English subtitles for this short drama, as I understand Mandarin.）

A wonderful little short drama to watch while eating or just on little breaks, or as a treat before bed.

The acting from the two male leads was surprisingly good, and really carried the whole show for me. It doesn't hurt that they're both very pretty to look at, which is always a plus - good acting and good to look at. I hadn't heard of either of them before or seen them in any other shows previously, but they're both actors I'll be on the lookout for or will click on a drama for just to check out if I see them in anything else. Simon Chen (Su Cheng Xi) stood out a little more for me acting-wise, and also seemed a little more natural besides, although this could also be chalked up to his character's more carefree personality than Li Pei Yang's character Sui Han Bai, who is a bit of an ice-cold face. Swen Xuan's Zhao Yin was also pretty good, as was Yin Rui's Zuo Han Qin. Zhou Wei's Yue Xiao Qiao was perhaps the stiffest among the cast, but overall, the acting was very good.

Story was pretty good considering the length of the episodes and overall, nothing to write home about but also nothing to sneeze at, and didn't feel dialed-in. The twist of who the masked man was at the end genuinely surprised me, although I'm not sure if that says more about me than it does the show... Nevertheless, despite its short length, it didn't feel rushed nor like it ended prematurely, although it was definitely streamlined and left out the finer details, that would likely have been more fleshed out in a longer format. The length also left no room for filler, which I appreciated; and the story always picks up where the last episode left off and gets right to the point. My only gripe was Miss Zuo's character seemed unfortunately left hanging somewhat and was never quite completely fleshed out as a character in her own right.

There wasn't much music to speak of, but the ending song felt very appropriate to the brotherhood and loyalty/action vibe of the show.

Finally, I'd say this is pretty rewatchable, as it's both short and again, no major flaws to be found at all, at least in my book. Whether it's for looking at pretty people solving crimes (kind of) and doing things or just to watch the relationship between the two male leads, I'd be happy to watch this again or have it on in the background while doing something else.

Overall, I really enjoyed this, so gave it an 8 - MDL suggested an 8.5 based on the overall subscores I suppose, so on account of how much I liked it and how easy it is to watch, upgraded per its recommendation.

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Secondary couples syndrome.

I watched this mainly for Ao Rui Peng, because I saw that he was finally in a main role. He looks dashing here and is very nice to look at, but is unfortunately somewhat failed by what ends up being a rather poor script.

As often happens, the original premise starts off pretty strong - girl who gets sick if she starts having serious feelings meets boy who can't seem to form (romantic) connections despite how much he wants one. As also often happens, unfortunately the execution falls short. This could have been a simple rom-com based on this pretty strong premise, but instead we are suddenly introduced to what are effectively 'mutants', or people with special powers (PwSP), mixed into the storyline as a whole thing of their own several episodes in, and which thereafter becomes the focus of the show.

!!! Very importantly and to warn those who may feel uncomfortable about non-consent (also content/trigger warning for non-consensual touching and wedding to follow), the female lead is tricked into being a body double and married off to Wei Qi (Ao Rui Peng's character) after being drugged and given a voice command from a person with special powers (whose special ability is that their voice commands must be obeyed) that she must go through and comply with whatever Wei Qi does on the wedding night, in one of the first few episodes. Huge red flag for me right there and I was incredibly uncomfortable for that entire scene. Thankfully he passes out not long after arriving in the room, but not before some extremely discomforting moments [for me].

As it is, the PwSP storyline is absolutely all over the place, and in my opinion really detracted from the story, and didn't need to be there at all. The story could have been told better without it, even, and achieved the same effect with different storytelling reasons (e.g., one character uses their special ability despite backlash from it causing harm to themselves to save their beloved, which could have been done just the same without some special ability - they could just have been beaten or cut while saving their beloved because they had to catch and carry their beloved who was unconscious or whatever). The writing also becomes rather one-dimensional near the end and characters suddenly become not clever at all for plot reasons. Much of the romance between the two leads also becomes completely misunderstanding-driven about halfway through the story and then remains that way until basically the end, which I found utterly frustrating and rather an insult to the characters' intelligence, especially Wei Qi's, who was supposed to be the head of an entire martial arts academy. In general, the writing does not do justice to the characters, and the ending especially so, as it retcons basically all the events of the entire show up till that point, effectively erasing the second and third couples' stories - which I actually found more compelling than the leads', especially the second couple - completely, as well as all character interactions that weren't between the male and female lead, and felt completely like just throwing all that in the mud. I also did not like the FL much at all, and found her annoying. At first I quite rooted for the leads to be together and it was very sweet getting to the first realisation for her, but after the first misunderstanding begins, it was all just downhill from there.

Story gets a 7 because I did love the relationship that developed between the second couple, and also for the intriguing premise it began with originally. I also really did enjoy watching the third couple's interactions and squabbling, and the relationship that developed between Wei Qi's sister and one of the PwSP, which turned out to be one of those tragic nonsense things that didn't seem to have a reason - let alone a good one - for it, other than just 'it's written like that'. They really didn't have to do them like that, but they did.

The acting was pretty good overall. Again, I thought the second couple Ning Lan and Lin Yan did a great job and felt genuine; I also really enjoyed watching the third couple, Li Mian and Bi Xing Yue, bicker with and grow on each other. The comedic timing was very good, but you could also really see how each couple cared for their partners. Ao Rui Peng did a fine job with what he was given, though I'd be curious to see how he fares with a better script, and I also liked the character of Xue Deng (played by Zhou Yu Yao) later on. Judy Qi's Zhou Yuan (the female lead) wasn't badly acted, but for me was one of the weaker characters and also acting-wise, and wasn't particularly complex or endearing to me as a female lead, although I'm not sure if that was more the writing. Patrick Quan as Pei Yin was a little camp, and Zhang Ke Ai's Cui Ying a little stiff upper-lipped, although I think those worked for and as their characters.

I didn't mind the music in this, although I have to admit that nothing really stuck out or in my head enough for me that I went looking for it afterwards, especially as I'm writing this review at least a couple of weeks after watching it. I do however remember thinking it was quite nice, if a bit cutesy, and don't recall it ever being inappropriate, so 7.5 points.

Rewatch value is only a 7 on the grounds of the second and third couples, mainly the second; otherwise, it'd be a 6.5. Still, I can't bring myself to put the overall score at any higher than 7. Ning Lan and Lin Yan really ended up carrying this story for me, despite Ao Rui Peng being eye candy - sorry, but that just wasn't enough to deal with the frustration at the lazy and bad writing, especially when it came to the main relationship. For me, the secondary couples' stories really were more deserving of the 'Love is written in the stars' title.

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A tale of two city lords.

!! Content/trigger warning for mention of sexual assault: At the end of episode 17 and beginning of episode 18, there is an attempted sexual assault on one of the female characters, which fails, and the perpetrator is punished in a later episode.

I thought this was excellent. I went in not really knowing what to expect and had meant to just watch the first episode to decide whether or not I liked it, as I usually do, and got hooked immediately.

No huge plot holes and no inane story or character slips that didn't make any sense, which is usually the main issue in Chinese dramas. The pacing was good, and the length of the episodes and series length felt appropriate and just about right, and nothing really felt like filler. Some things do happen very quickly, like the two leads falling in love, and there are some things that go against usual historical drama rule convention without much consequence, like there being no objection from people around the male lead for wanting to marry a non-noble, but for the most part these are peripheral enough to the main story and fleshing them out would only have dragged out the story for no reason other than to add unnecessary drama, so I don't really have complaints about that. Normally these omissions would annoy me very much, but in this case they didn't really bother me other than the occasional note of 'Huh, why is this random bucket-scrubbing maid allowed to just walk around the inner city/palace and command so much way-giving? Oh well *shrug*', which I attribute to the fact that it's a low-stakes rom-com that doesn't take itself too seriously with a 30min-per-episode runtime; and the level of (in)formality fits the format. The one thing that did trip me up the most was when, near the end, a character makes a pivotal choice to defend their city against another city's army based on their identity as a Muxi citizen specifically, and this is talked about by the female lead as 'sometimes your cultural/national identity is more important than your life', but shortly afterwards the three cities are then united into one, which is sort-of-but-not-really painted as the FL's goal to some extent as well. That whole 'sometimes people defend their identity before their own life and we call them heroes' speech was a bit 'Huh, propagandy' to me, but perhaps that was the trade-off with the censors or something to keep all the kissing scenes in, who knows.

I thought the comedy in this was great, including the 'What!' reaction sounds and occasional use of music that were English songs to emphasise certain moments. The first time I heard an English song during a Moment I had to check that I wasn't watching it on YouTube and they had replaced the music for copyright reasons, but I was watching it on a random Chinese streaming site, so that seems unlikely. Maybe it still was an insert, but either way, that was my experience of watching the drama and I found it very funny. I found this drama very funny and almost Douyin skit-esque in its humour. There was a lot of toilet humour, including someone falling in love because someone gave them clean toilet paper, and also a lot of fart jokes, which sort of really ties in with the Douyin-esque vibe of 'What!' reaction sounds and musical emphasis moments. The animal roaring sounds were a bit silly at times, and felt like perhaps were used a bit too often with the FL, but overall sort of fell into the general sense of comedy.

The kissing scenes are almost all early on and I have to say, they are very active kissing scenes with locked lips and not just faces pressed together, which I really liked about this drama. They actually like each other! They're actually kissing each other and kissing back! I usually look away during kissing scenes but in the case of this drama I actually really enjoyed them because they seemed genuine - not overdone so they were tearing at each other's clothes, but also not uncomfortably close-up of just the lips that sort of sensationalise it like so many other dramas tend to do. I also really liked the romance between the two leads - it's established early on that they're equals, and the FL very actively stabilises and backs up the ML in his role as city lord. There are no nonsense misunderstandings and the ML is very supportive of the FL throughout, especially once he realises that he really does like her. The one main argument that they have is resolved almost immediately - one might even argue too quickly - but even that is set-up beforehand with a lot of 'what-if ... would you forgive me?' probing and prepping, as well as the ML repeatedly noting that he likes the FL for her.

The romance between Yun Luo and Tan Rang was a little more '???' for me, but again, I wasn't particularly annoyed by it, although I did think Tan Rang was a bit too forgiving (I personally am unsure if I would be so okay with some random tricking me and doing the things Yun Luo does to him with the consequences they result in, even if the last consequence wasn't on purpose). Zhao Jing also had a bit of a weird situation happen for him with Zhi Lan and then Ke Qian Yue, and I do feel bad for him; it was very much not the usual clean-cut pairing up that normally happens, though I did also appreciate the 'random non-lead is a ladykiller' vibe that it gave off. I really didn't expect Zhi Lan's story to go in that direction and didn't quite believe it, and kept expecting that there would be some kind of 'Surprise! We tricked you' moment, but apparently they were serious about it, which I also found unusual given the genre - I kept thinking 'Ah, it's a rom-com, that won't happen', but apparently not. It was a shame, and she and Zhao Jing deserved better.

The second male lead was one of the nicest second male leads I've ever seen, and knows when to step back and when to exit. I never felt like he pushes the FL, although he does make it clear he likes her and tries for his chance. He also develops a friendship with the ML despite their love rivalry and is never bitter or entitled towards anything, including when dealing with Princesses Qi Meng and Hui Rou and their machinations. One of the most good-natured SMLs I've seen in a drama, and was supportive all the way, even solving multiple problems for the leads.

I've never seen either the female or male leads in anything before and was completely new to them, but I really liked them both, as I did most of the actors in this drama. The female lead especially is not your average FL-dressed-in-men's-clothes, but actually felt believable as somebody who grew up disguised as a boy. Even dressed in women's clothes she doesn't lose any of her ferocity, and she is always believable in each moment in her capacity of the City Lord of Muxi. When she is dressed as the 'male' Ye Zhao Nan her manner and demeanor genuinely swaggers, and even her voice seems to be deeper. Count me impressed. The ML on the other hand does a great cold and serious City Lord - and then you see him warm up and smile. Towards the end it was ridiculous, I was pausing the screen and yelling because he is So Pretty when he smiles. Who is this guy??? And why haven't I seen him in other things before??? He's also really good at the comedy and very quick with it too, especially with his facial expressions.

The other actors are also nothing to sniff at. From Zhao Jing to Lao Guan, the supporting cast also uniformly did a great job. The only one I found something to pick at about was Princess Qi Meng/Hui Rou, who seemed a little over-acted, especially with the sudden laughing, although I understand that it was meant to convey that she was unhinged.

The opening theme was light and cute, even catchy, and the ending theme was sweet. While the music didn't really stand out to me during the show, upon listening properly to the OST (I tend to skip the opening and endings of dramas when bingeing...), it is actually very nice. Okay, actually now I'm listening to the full version of the ending theme and the rest of the OST, honestly they could have made this drama a serious romance (which is not to say that the romance is a joke in this show but like. A Serious Romance with much less comedy) just based on the strengths of the ballads alone. I think I'm going to keep this OST to just pull out and listen to every now and then, actually.

I rate this very rewatchable, because I already want to rewatch it right now immediately. I binged this in less than two days, and the episode and series length adds to how easy it is to rewatch.

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The Crown Prince and his cat

I watched this mainly because I wanted to see Meng Ziyi in a main role and hadn't seen any of her dramas since The Untamed. I also hadn't watched Jeremy Tsui in anything else before other than trying out watching The Journey of Chong Zi not long before, but which I dropped, so this also handily gave me another chance to see what he was like.

This is a light rom-com with lots of fluff and pretty low stakes - which surprised me a little considering the lead actors. Unfortunately, it really is light on the story and mostly fluff. I was pretty sold on the story based on the strength of the MDL synopsis blurb, but unfortunately it seems like the story sold by the blurb was better than the actual plot and execution. (It certainly wouldn't be the first time...)

This is basically a story about the Crown Prince (Ji Yuan Su, played by Jeremy Tsui) chasing a cat (Hua Liu Li, played by Meng Ziyi), and the two of them batting at each other until they get tired of playing and then settling down to cuddle and snooze together. The 'sickly beauty' schtick that HLL pulls from the moment we meet her until the literal end of the show was incredibly annoying and got old super fast - like immediately, mainly because of how absolutely overblown and false it was - and frankly part of the reason I even made an MDL account at all was in part motivated by how annoyed I was by this show that it drove me to wanting to write a review here. The plot was okay, but because there was so little building up or actually showing what events or actual political motivations looked like and meant, etc., nothing felt it had any stakes. For example, the Hua clan is supposed to be the most powerful military power in the kingdom - but you don't actually see what that looks like. They just say that. There's no display of the family's huge army or even their mansion or a scene where you see them fighting on the battlefield in the sand or whatever to back this up; or if there was, it wasn't impressive enough that I remember it and going 'Ah, yup'. The saddest and most interesting part of the plot was probably the character of Yun Han and his relationship with Miss Du/Du Xiu Ying.

I did like the secondary characters (this is becoming a running theme), especially the relationship between Jia Min and the First Prince. The First Prince was Hilarious. I still remember his little nose scrunch and smug facial expression in that one scene where he's talking about how good he is to Jia Min or something like that. Honestly the best comedic character with the best facial expressions I've seen in a long time. Princess Shun An, Jia Min's mother, was also hilarious and I loved her relationship with Jia Min. I also liked Pei Ji Huai, whom I also thought was very funny, and thought it was cute that Yuan Wei, who was really kind of underserved in my opinion, especially given that she was mainly used as a maid but actually had a decent military rank herself, liked him. As mentioned above, Yun Han was an interesting and sad character and I liked his relationship with Du Xiu Ying/Miss Du, but thought his choice at the end was daft. Honestly, I think the relationship the Crown Prince/Ji Yuan Su has with Yun Han and Pei Ji Huai had much more chemistry than he did with HLL. I did not care for the He Yuan Ting character and thought that whole business was daft, but A Wa was kind of funny, even though he was very silly and not very clever at all. Also, they totally did Uncle Song/Song Shu completely dirty. It felt to me like it was absolutely one of those things where they did it just to round the trope because of course that's how it goes, although I get that it was probably how he wanted to go out. I just really think he didn't have to.

I found Jeremy Tsui very weird to watch, there's something about his eyes, I think? - it looks like he's wearing those huge circle lenses or something, which I found extremely distracting, and I didn't really like looking at him very much because of that, and it took me out of the story quite a bit. Which is not a good thing when they're the male lead. Meng Ziyi didn't fare much better for me either in this, I really didn't like her costuming here at all, specifically the hair, besides the gripes I had with her character. This might just be a personal pet peeve thing but I really don't understand it when they have the huadian (decorative ornamentation in the middle of the forehead) when they also have a straight fringe which is kind of blocking it. But anyway. Also, I couldn't stop being aware of the 10-year age gap between them. Nothing necessarily wrong with that, but the whole time I was watching I was thinking "Uh, he's like 37".

Music was fine, nothing really stood out to me, but I'm sure it was pleasant enough. Wouldn't rewatch this for the reasons outlined above, but on the other hand, the First Prince and also Princess Shun An were so funny they add to the rewatch value, so 7 points for that.

The best part of this show was hands-down, without a doubt, the closing short at the end of each episode that always began with the illustrated title card of the royal family members as their representative animals. That was my favourite thing about the show.

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I don't know what's happening.

Watched this because and while I've been sick at home with a virus, and had seen some photosets of this and was curious about it. Apparently this is based on a novel, which I haven't read, and am rating this solely on the show itself.

This is probably the first drama I've watched while doing something else most of the time or being on my phone while having it on in the background. Not enough was happening to keep me invested in paying attention solely to the screen, but I also wanted to know what happens, so I just kept watching - although not with a lot of enthusiasm, I have to say. Premise starts out strong - a sort of fantasy wuxia environment where you can acquire a spiritual beast partner and learn how to fight with spells. However, the plot felt very broadly-sketched, while the story just isn't tight enough, and instead feels too loosely-spun to hold all the many things and moving parts together - lots happen, or is supposed to happen, but it's all a bit vague, including the motivations and explanations for many of the characters and why they're doing things; so that things kept happening, but without much of an emotional result or even pay-off almost at all, or even any follow-up afterwards. It often felt like I recognised that there was supposed to be a build-up to things, but then when the thing actually came, it was simply flat - it didn't even fall flat, because there wasn't enough emotionally in the building up at all. It's unfortunate, because there's a lot of promise, but the writing falls short and the story suffers from a lack of detail, including within the characters. Others have noted that it's a bit draggy and didn't need to be the 48 episodes that it is, which I agree with; apparently originally it was meant to be 30 episodes but then became longer, though I'm not sure why. There was also so much use of replaying the same flashback cuts that I didn't really feel was needed, especially near the end, to support that it really didn't actually need to be this long. However, I acknowledge that this was a low-budget production and there may have been many limitations. Just as a mention as others have likewise also pointed out, the CGI isn't great, but I've definitely also seen worse, and it didn't really bother me at all. 6.5 for the story potential because it could have been great, but unfortunately was lacking in execution.

The acting was okay, but honestly no one really particularly stood out to me. I watched this mostly for Joe Chen's character, Yin Chen. I thought he was the main character, but he doesn't actually get a lot of screentime in comparison to the disciple generation (Qi Lin, Lian Quan, You Hua, Shen Yin, and Ni Hong). I found Qi Lin very annoying for much of the first part, he did become better later on and especially towards the end, but I don't think I could say I ever really got all that invested in his character development. Lian Quan was probably the nicest and most inoffensive character besides Yin Chen and I didn't really mind her, but I absolutely couldn't stand You Hua. You Hua was the Worst character and annoyed me So Much I briefly went in the Discussion section of this page and ranted about her (but then I deleted it). The actor playing Shen Yin was the only face I recognised from anywhere before (as Sujin from Three Lives Three Worlds: Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms/Eternal Love); I found her a little big-eyed and earnest, but not much else. You Ming (Shen Yin's Lord) was possibly the most interesting character to watch, and his interplay with as well as he and Lei Ya (4th Lord) in general was at least campy and kind of noticeably different in comparison to everyone else. Ni Hong was, I felt, the shortest-drawn stick - barely any lines, and so thinly-sketched that I'm not sure I ever even see him interacting with any of the other disciples other than Shen Yin, except for a brief encounter with Qi Lin about Shen Yin; and I have a soft spot for him because he really deserved much better. In short, all the characters seem to have some sort of Personality Feature that defines them, and they don't get to step out much beyond these, which I felt was as much to do with the writing. I did, however, enjoy the relationship between Yin Chen and Qi Lin, especially in the beginning, which at first seemed like might be the anchor of the show - and it is, but which isn't reflected in the screentime or plot focus somehow.

Music wasn't bad - but there were like, three songs. There was Sad Song, which was also the ending song, which played every time there was even a remotely sad moment, it felt like. Then there was also a Hero Song which played a few times, usually when characters were doing something 'cool' and/or as relevant, and then there was, I think, a female version of Sad Song. I got pretty tired of Sad Song pretty quickly, although it did hit during the emotional moments and definitely helped the feels along a lot.

I wouldn't rewatch this again. I can see why someone might or would, perhaps to try and get a better idea and grasp on what's happening with the characters and their motivations, but personally, I'm not sure that I wouldn't just come away with the same feeling of very loosely-woven openness at the end again - and 48 episodes is a long time.

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