I could easily understand fans shipping Yang Yang and Zhao Lu Si - they were magical together.
Zhao Lu Si impressed me in this drama. Its hard to believe it actually pre-dates Hidden Love. She seems to be a very versatile actress. And she is very beautiful in this drama - as an aside we noticed how straight her posture and carriage are when she stands.
As I am fairly new to cdrama I did not have a lot of familiarity with Yang Yang. I will definitely be looking to view more of his content.
Lulu Xuan aka Xuan Lu has a couple of my single friends lusting after her and with good reason. She has a great role here playing a strong, intelligent senior politician and family leader.
As others mentioned a refreshing aspect of this drama is that the writers resisted the temptation to make the 2 women enemies.
The other main and supporting cast are all deserving of acclaim. She has not gotten much mention in the comments that I reviewed but Carman Lee really nailed it as Madame Bai Li and really incited the hate in me for that character. Great job on her part.
I just finished Love Between A Fairy and Devil and I am a bit stunned. It was superb. I honestly did not expect it to be nearly as good as it was.
Yu Shu Xin (Esther Yu) was incomparable. Masterful performance delivered by her.
But the entire cast impressed me. I felt there were no missteps in the casting and acting.
We had love, unrequited love, a love triangle, revenge, body swapping and almost every other drama trope that I usually abhor, yet in this drama they did not feel tropey and instead of being annoyed I continued from one episode to the next in anticipation of where the stories were headed.
Something I appreciated was that for the genre of drama it was short at 36 episodes. Almost everyone of them felt concise with little wasted time spent on trying to drag out the series which we have so often witnessed in some of the much longer Xianxia type dramas.
The current overall rating of 8.7 here on mydramalist (Feb 2026) is a bit of a travesty IMHO. It is easily 8.9-9.0 quality. I suppose it got hit by some of the anti-Ester fans which is unfortunate. There is nothing to fault on her part in this show.
which is a legal streaming provider based in the United States and has a license agreement with ENA. First 2 episodes are online. I think it is available worldwide and they have an app which you can install on your smart TV and then you access it directly, or you just go to the url in your computer browser of course.
I thought the 2 initial episodes were outstanding.
Your likely mature beyond your years in character! (A good thing). It truly is an adult drama but its great to hear that some younger people got into the issues the drama explores as well as the romance between adults.
I wrote a review of this show. The women in the show were fantastic but the writing and direction were abysmal and the male parts were dreadful. When Gong Seung Yeon was in the actual "journeys" the show shined brightly. Outside the journeys the other scenes were mostly quite cringe.
The network and showrunners also "sold" to the public that the show was a romance drama. But it was not. Kim Jae Young's scenes were minor and has acting bland - it was very clearly a payday and nothing more and that is how he acted it.
She was in The Judge From Hell (Fall 2024) after Doctor Slump (filmed in 2023 released Jan 2024. Did you miss…
The male lead is Kim Jae Yeong and he is not a very good actor at the best of times - he really built his career on the male androgynous poser method. But his role in TJFH is actually fairly minor. The focus of the episodes is Park Shin Hye, and she has a "team" from hell and they are very funny and have much more screen time vs the male lead.
Really this is a one lead show and everyone else is a supporting role. She carries it fully and you would enjoy it.
I love Park Min Young but I have been concerned about her health in the last few months of 2025 - she looked very anorexic in photoshoots. Its hard to fathom what caused her to go down that route when she is so lovely. Few people wear clothing as well as she does and many of her past looks in different shows have been breathtaking beautiful.
Anyways, I will think positive thoughts and any show she is in always merits attention. She might be considering a return to romance because Confidence Queen and the salon reality show she did in the fall did not do that well in ratings. But a lot of that has to do with distribution - a show really has to be on one of the big 3 Korean networks and NetFlix (1st choice) or Disney+ (distant 2nd also ran choice) in order to generate high ratings and buzz.
Park Shin Hye has demonstrated great versatility over her acting career. One of the few actresses who can actually do real action scenes and does not have to fake it, but equally capable with melodrama or comedy.
As others have stated I have a hard time picturing her as a 20 yr old but I have no doubt this will be a funtastic series.
Agreed. She has not done a major kdrama since RBB. Being married to one of Korea's most famous actors, living life on a farm and being a mother seemed to be her priorities. Has done a lot of modeling shoots but no acting up to this series.
UEEE really rocked in Iron Girls. But she is simply not at all "sexy" in her persona and as a lead in a romcom she is just not a suitable choice. I think she is a capable actress and very suitable for other roles but not romance where she is the focal point.
Really stoked for this one. A terrific cast of lead women and what appears to be a very interesting storyline.
The show is supposed to be on ENA and Genie. I think that is potentially going to impact show viewership as ENA has only one past show Extraordinary Attorney Woo that managed to break out into double digits. Typically their shows dwell in the 0.5% to 2% range although a few shows in 2025 managed to exceed 3% average viewership.
I hope a major streaming service picks up the show. If NetFlix had rights it would be a big boost but I don't think they do.
no idea who he is so should i care? I think everyone beyond the primary leads is likely pretty secondary to the this show. Its a Park Shin Hye drama with a well known male co-starring and the rest really don't matter for this one. Its not an ensemble piece like say Our Blues or Twelve.
Zhao Lu Si impressed me in this drama. Its hard to believe it actually pre-dates Hidden Love. She seems to be a very versatile actress. And she is very beautiful in this drama - as an aside we noticed how straight her posture and carriage are when she stands.
As I am fairly new to cdrama I did not have a lot of familiarity with Yang Yang. I will definitely be looking to view more of his content.
Lulu Xuan aka Xuan Lu has a couple of my single friends lusting after her and with good reason. She has a great role here playing a strong, intelligent senior politician and family leader.
As others mentioned a refreshing aspect of this drama is that the writers resisted the temptation to make the 2 women enemies.
The other main and supporting cast are all deserving of acclaim. She has not gotten much mention in the comments that I reviewed but Carman Lee really nailed it as Madame Bai Li and really incited the hate in me for that character. Great job on her part.
I gave this a 9.5 out of 10.
Yu Shu Xin (Esther Yu) was incomparable. Masterful performance delivered by her.
But the entire cast impressed me. I felt there were no missteps in the casting and acting.
We had love, unrequited love, a love triangle, revenge, body swapping and almost every other drama trope that I usually abhor, yet in this drama they did not feel tropey and instead of being annoyed I continued from one episode to the next in anticipation of where the stories were headed.
Something I appreciated was that for the genre of drama it was short at 36 episodes. Almost everyone of them felt concise with little wasted time spent on trying to drag out the series which we have so often witnessed in some of the much longer Xianxia type dramas.
The current overall rating of 8.7 here on mydramalist (Feb 2026) is a bit of a travesty IMHO. It is easily 8.9-9.0 quality. I suppose it got hit by some of the anti-Ester fans which is unfortunate. There is nothing to fault on her part in this show.
https://amasian.tv
which is a legal streaming provider based in the United States and has a license agreement with ENA. First 2 episodes are online. I think it is available worldwide and they have an app which you can install on your smart TV and then you access it directly, or you just go to the url in your computer browser of course.
I thought the 2 initial episodes were outstanding.
The network and showrunners also "sold" to the public that the show was a romance drama. But it was not. Kim Jae Young's scenes were minor and has acting bland - it was very clearly a payday and nothing more and that is how he acted it.
Really this is a one lead show and everyone else is a supporting role. She carries it fully and you would enjoy it.
This show and UnderCover Miss Hong starting the day before plus Spring Fever already running has caused my evenings to jam up.
Anyways, I will think positive thoughts and any show she is in always merits attention. She might be considering a return to romance because Confidence Queen and the salon reality show she did in the fall did not do that well in ratings. But a lot of that has to do with distribution - a show really has to be on one of the big 3 Korean networks and NetFlix (1st choice) or Disney+ (distant 2nd also ran choice) in order to generate high ratings and buzz.
As others have stated I have a hard time picturing her as a 20 yr old but I have no doubt this will be a funtastic series.
The show is supposed to be on ENA and Genie. I think that is potentially going to impact show viewership as ENA has only one past show Extraordinary Attorney Woo that managed to break out into double digits. Typically their shows dwell in the 0.5% to 2% range although a few shows in 2025 managed to exceed 3% average viewership.
I hope a major streaming service picks up the show. If NetFlix had rights it would be a big boost but I don't think they do.