janec
This review may contain spoilers
Another Generic Xianxia Romance - Mid-Season Review
As an FL-centric drama, TLP meets the criteria of the genre perfectly. FL has 50% of the screen time, the story unfolds around her goals, her development and her love story. ZY is not a combination of a spoiled princess and a feminist who not only fights for the right of equality, but also constantly rescues our ML, who despite being one of the most powerful cultivators in history can't handle three assassins. Fortunately, Ren Min is a talented actress and plays her role superbly. She is 100% believable. My impression is spoiled by the dubbing, but ZY is played great.
Even better is Priest SY, where Xiao Zhan again proves that he can bring history and realism to any character he plays. His eyes, as usual, are so vivid, able to bring joy to watching his character. Unfortunately, the script is not in favor of his character. His plot is completely focused on a love conflict. True, it's mentioned that he should come down from the Mountain and save the kingdom, which is in crisis, but the drama didn't show us a single scene of suffering citizens or any real threat to them (the epidemic scene doesn't count, it's a generic local incident serving only to strengthen the ties between FL and ML). This brings us to two interconnected points.
"Show, don't tell" and "stakes." Drama is a visual medium in which we should learn about events not from the characters telling us about it but from the scenes shown on the screen. We constantly hear that the kingdom is in danger, but we don't see it, making it have virtually no stakes, no real internal conflict for ML. Why would he come down from the Mountain and rescue people who don't need help? There are no refugees from war-torn regions. There are no pogroms of civilians. There is nothing. The existence of the prince, who committed the crime of lying to the emperor and hiding his identity for about 7 years, is suddenly revealed to the world and... nothing. No one wants to bring him to justice. The father does not crave revenge nor is he moved to see his son. His reaction is simply bland. So what was the point of hiding? Why was there a need to expose SY identity when exposure changed nothing? There were no stakes, no point that could engage the viewer in the ML story. All we got was solely his dilemmas about the love affair.
Visually, the drama makes a very good impression. You can see that adequate funds and efforts went into it. The music, however, is dull, flat, bland. It fails to raise the adrenaline in a fight scene. It doesn't support the touching aspect in tragic scenes. It does not portray anything that is not a sweet romance. Thus, it fails to fulfill its primary function.
In conclusion, this drama perfectly fulfills the requirements of a generic xianxia romance and nothing else. It beautifully depicts romantic scenes and nothing more. Good visuals are offset by painfully bland music. The excellent pair of actors Xiao Zhan and Ren Min clearly stand apart from the insipid plot and the utterly ordinary, downright bland acting of the rest of the cast. After six episodes, my rating was 7.5, and after every two episodes watched, where absolutely nothing happened but sugarcoating the romance, my rating dropped. After 20 episodes, it ranks at 3.5. More of this drama cannot be saved by the pair of main actors.
Even better is Priest SY, where Xiao Zhan again proves that he can bring history and realism to any character he plays. His eyes, as usual, are so vivid, able to bring joy to watching his character. Unfortunately, the script is not in favor of his character. His plot is completely focused on a love conflict. True, it's mentioned that he should come down from the Mountain and save the kingdom, which is in crisis, but the drama didn't show us a single scene of suffering citizens or any real threat to them (the epidemic scene doesn't count, it's a generic local incident serving only to strengthen the ties between FL and ML). This brings us to two interconnected points.
"Show, don't tell" and "stakes." Drama is a visual medium in which we should learn about events not from the characters telling us about it but from the scenes shown on the screen. We constantly hear that the kingdom is in danger, but we don't see it, making it have virtually no stakes, no real internal conflict for ML. Why would he come down from the Mountain and rescue people who don't need help? There are no refugees from war-torn regions. There are no pogroms of civilians. There is nothing. The existence of the prince, who committed the crime of lying to the emperor and hiding his identity for about 7 years, is suddenly revealed to the world and... nothing. No one wants to bring him to justice. The father does not crave revenge nor is he moved to see his son. His reaction is simply bland. So what was the point of hiding? Why was there a need to expose SY identity when exposure changed nothing? There were no stakes, no point that could engage the viewer in the ML story. All we got was solely his dilemmas about the love affair.
Visually, the drama makes a very good impression. You can see that adequate funds and efforts went into it. The music, however, is dull, flat, bland. It fails to raise the adrenaline in a fight scene. It doesn't support the touching aspect in tragic scenes. It does not portray anything that is not a sweet romance. Thus, it fails to fulfill its primary function.
In conclusion, this drama perfectly fulfills the requirements of a generic xianxia romance and nothing else. It beautifully depicts romantic scenes and nothing more. Good visuals are offset by painfully bland music. The excellent pair of actors Xiao Zhan and Ren Min clearly stand apart from the insipid plot and the utterly ordinary, downright bland acting of the rest of the cast. After six episodes, my rating was 7.5, and after every two episodes watched, where absolutely nothing happened but sugarcoating the romance, my rating dropped. After 20 episodes, it ranks at 3.5. More of this drama cannot be saved by the pair of main actors.
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