rainypuddle

The Most Beautful of the Immortals

Finally a happy ending. I didn't think the story was particulary unique or original (maybe because I watched it after a long marathon of xianxia and now I'm oversaturated on tropes), and as much as I adore looking at the leading man, something about him being 'the most beautiful of the immortals' really got on my nerves. It was too on the nose for me (yes we know he's hot guys, but mentioning it makes it less so and rather cringe). Also the set up of the romance between the female lead and him was also irritating. She was just like 'oh I'll have this one' and without any meaningful development it just sort of...happened? With her magic powers? There was no significant moment where it went from 'I don't like you' to 'oh maybe I'll like you now' to 'okay now I'll die for you to get you reincarnated.

I get that they wanted to accelerate the love plot development, but I still didn't feel it. At the very least there could have been a backstory or some sort of exposition. Also doesn't Deng Wei look hilarious in that wipsy beard? It just makes him look like a girl with a beard! It's like 'who is that girl trying to pass for a man?' It really kind of took away from him trying act evil, it didn't really land for me in the beginning - beard or no. 'He's supposed to be evil? Damn he just seems kind of like an annoying teenager.' But Deng Wei really nailed the evil role in the end. And he's just so beautiful while doing it. Did I mention this already? *sigh*

But the ending was great, nobody died tragically, everyone lived happily ever after and had a healthy crop of babies. I'm so relieved! It was wonderful seeing him be a dad, and hilarious watching him try to seduce his new wife (who, after about 70 years of not sleeping with her man, is still all nervous and confused when that moment comes, even with her past life memories!). But the dialogue in that scene is extremely funny and cute.

Also let's mention the VFX. I watched this right after 'Til the End of the Moon' and the difference is huge! I have a very good eye for that sort of thing, and even though they were shooting on a greenscreen for so much of it, the compositing was really good compared to most other xianxias! Nothing took me out of the scene. The fx sims looked really good (I do cringe at the thought of how long it must have taken for so much magic, but it was worth it!). Really worth the investment, and thank you thank you VFX supervisor!

And I could watch many series worth of Deng Wei being a cat. Please more cat roles for him. And he's definitely my favorite bai boy. So gorgeous it almost makes me upset.

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I only watched this for Deng Wei, and his exit scene was pure campy and ridiculous

I watched the original and the character supposed to portray is insane, yandere, completely unreasonable and totally eccentric. However, his character in the show is okay nice enough, clearly likes her but not crossing any boundaries. Then at episode 28 she goes to his city, he offers to fake marry her to sneak her into the city, says he won't force her. She says 'sure thanks' bc at that point they're friends. Also he is really aware of how much she is dating her boyfriend, played by Joe Zheng. He fake marries her, sneaks her in, and then suddenly he's like 'now we're engaged and you can't leave the house'. What? He's so clever, lord of the underworld, has a shadow army, rich af by his own means, also is the clan heir. And really a sweet, smart kid. And then this suddenly happens? There's no arc, there's no motivation, he just switches. Nothing like the anime. If you're going to switch his personality near the end of the show, let me know why. Does he have a disease? Is he on drugs? Is he eating too many pig brains. The whole set up is just silly.

And at this point, you notice he's coughed up blood like twice a little bit in like episode 35-36, but it's not clear why and it is lost in all the action happening during this part. Anyway, she wakes up dressed in a wedding gown. He's all dressed up (and looks fucking amazing *sigh*). He's ready to go. Forces her to perform the ceremony. And after the bows, they have to drink the tea. But she's like 'I've already drank the tea with my boyfriend and I won't drink it with anyone else!' He seems to take this very poorly and the scene isn't over. No conversations have been had. And then he just falls backwards into the ravine, beautiful gowns billowing, and that's it. MAKES NO SENSE.

Next day, she is overhearing some court hearings and finds out the antidote to his poison was the wedding tea.
Zheng Shi: "I am obsessed with an ordinary woman, and I have tried nothing to cure my poison even though the antidote is literally right there, so goodbye cruel world. Maybe if I kill myself in front of you, you'll remember me." *yeet*

It's so poorly executed, it's campy. The lines in this scenes are so funny. Just falling off a cliff mid-scene makes 0 sense at all. Nothing was resolved, he was just left. Also they cut out his 'sexy goth Tushan Jing' sequences, where he's wearing a black veil and now we are all sad because why are we here? And I think someone said he may have come back from the dead, dressed in said outfit, but I'm not sure about that. Also best line by Deng Wei. spoken to her, "You're not particularly special, so ordinary, but I like you." Nothing he does makes any sense, and his totally bonkers character in the anime was FAR more coherent.

It's obvious to everyone that a lot of this was chopped up poorly (it's weird, they had 3 years to finish it, why is it still so unfinished?). Hanging frames, technically unpolished. But Deng Wei for sure it just feels like they had to remove a LOT of his character and scenes. I hope so, I hope that footage exists, bc I would like to watch it. I seriously hope they even wrote it to begin with, because there's gotta be a reason this is so damn ridiculous.

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Actually Better than I Expected

I admit I only watched this because I ran out of Deng Wei xianxia to watch. It was nice seeing him looking normal, being crazy, and acting like a dork for once. The male lead was...aaaaaaa...fire fire fire! So damn hot. (but he looks like my ex, so I am able keep it on the dl). The overarching 'organ donation' plot really felt overdone, like I was being clubbed over the head with organ donation propaganda. For real guys, let's just enjoy the show.

Throughout, I wasn't sure if Qian Cheng (played by DW) was gay or not. Or if he killed that poor dog. His ex from middle or high school came back towards the end, and he was sort of like 'I'm not sure if I like her. Maybe I just feel responsible.' But there was a lot of hinting - by Baiju - that he knew that Qian Cheng had a thing for him. Anyway, it's nice to see a character that's somewhat crazy, kind of bitchy, probably closeted, addicted to anxiety meds, and with PTSD played by Deng Wei. Relatable! lol

I did watch this after watching 'Journey of Chong-zi', which I actually did not like, and only sat through - often painfully - to see Mr. Deng's performance. So compared to that show, this one was an easy, breezy breath of fresh air. Easy to digest, and the female lead didn't annoy me too much. The girls in the show were tolerable and the only 'princess' was William's girlfriend. Good job, writers!

So for a Chinese drama, it wasn't bad. It was cute, had the right amount of supernatural elements to keep me interested. It really did drag in the middle - as they tend to do - and I had to skip over a lot tender subplot drama to get back to the point, but the story and characters were engaging enough to keep me watching.

Gets extra stars for the super hot male lead and Deng Wei. <3

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Imagine being alive for 10000 years...

...and doing it exactly twice? (Once she had to roofie the guy, and it was in a past life). Talk about frustrating. No wonder why he was the demon lord. Would've helped if he could get laid more than once an aeon. I really enjoyed the setup for this show, I liked watching Tantai Jin become Tantai Jin. There were parts that definitely dragged of course as they do. Also it was a delightful surprise to see the lovely Ye Shiqi in this one as well (he keeps on popping up in shows I watch!). The spiteful sister who somehow luckily gets to hook up with said lovely prince reminds of my own sister, and makes me not like her face even more lol.

And if I had to drink every time they coughed up blood, I would be on the floor in 10 minutes. For real, I don't know if that was meant to be comical, but it was! Also the VFX were kind of bad. There was a whole 4 episode past life sequence plopped in the middle with tons of heavenly battle VFX and it a) took me out of the story (it should have been 1 episode), and b) really kind of shitty design on the visual effects. I didn't enjoy the effects at all, made these rest feel extremely cheap. They need a decent vfx house to handle their design and execution.

All in all though, I enjoyed the show. I enjoyed watching Luo Yunxi's portrayal of Tantai Jin and he looked great.

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I Can't Even

FL lead babytalking is a serious turn off. The fact that her creepy shifu who is hundreds of years older than her is attracted to her babyish behavior is a major creepy-ass red flag. Then he reincarnates her and gives her the same name! Okay weird. But if he just admitted he was obsessed with his ex-disciple, her second incarnation's time on the mountain wouldn't have been so tough. "Oh he's just weird, let's let it go." Then there's Sexual Harrassment Guy Zhou Hou who claims he loves her and won't let it go, even when she always says no all the time, after 2 lifetimes. And the two-dimensional, biased head of the sect who can't see past his nose. Don't forget the compulsory Annoying Shitty Princess who can't ever grow up. These are terrible, very boring, unsympathetic characters.

Best parts of this show:
- Wan Jie/Chu Bufu: best character so far, sweetest, best, most misunderstood, and died way too early. I wish he would come back. But in this show, probably not. The stars of this show are the most annoying.
- Qin Ke: even though all he does is be uptight and sulk, he is played by Deng Wei, and I can watch him pout sulkily with that mouth of his all day long. He's also the only one of her male friends who respects her feelings and doesn't objectify her even after she was reincarnated. I wish she would stop being a baby and hook up with him instead. Or that he would just stop being so uptight and find a nice girl to make out with.
- Mu Yu: I don't know yet, but I think he's actually a bad guy. But he's cute and sweet, so I'm all for it, whatever side he's on.
- Her bff Zhenzhen (I think), she's nice and normal. And her boyfriend is sweet too.
- Shifu's girlfriend Zhou-something. She's actually pretty cool, even though her destined boyfriend is obsessed with a child. I mean, she deserves way better and I hope she moves on soon.
- The demons are more interesting than the immortals, that is clear.

Anyway, I'm about to give up but I read in a spoiler that the FL turns into a demon, so it might be worth continuing on to see that.

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