Love between the Flower and her Guardian

The Starry Love (2023) is the best Xianxia I've come across in a very long time since most plots have been done to death and it's quite difficult to find something even minutely refreshing. This drama, to my delight, exceeded my expectations in many ways.

Let me start off with what this drama did best- it created an unforgettable romance between two multi-layered characters. Their interactions and feelings for each other blossom into a realm of pure love that consistently upholds the values of trust, understanding and emotional reciprocity. So if you’re tired of angst, betrayals and the overused trope of unnecessary misunderstandings between the primary love interests, you won’t ever regret giving this drama a shot. Their love was mature yet playful, passionate yet deep, challenging yet healthy, tragic yet readily blossomed through all the adversity. The emotional atmosphere created by their connection will swallow you whole leaving you yearning for more.

The main leads Shaodian Youqin and Liguang Yetan are characters that I love with every fibre of my being. Chen Xingxu is perfect for the role of Youqin, who isn't your typical cold Xianxia hero. He would be stern and stiff in the hands of a less skilled actor but Xingxu plays a young, lonely and socially awkward male lead extremely well. Most of the male leads in Xianxia dramas are cold, inexpressive ice blocks who hide their love behind grand gestures. I don't know about you but I found this trope to be quite lacklustre and exhausting to watch. It makes their everyday interactions feel very one sided and at worse, we spend majority of our time feeling sorry for the female lead who is the only one being expressive and completely desperate for the male lead’s affection and attention. Thankfully, this drama takes a wonderful turn away from this cliché.

Yes, the story starts off by painting Youqin as distant and cold but they justify his behaviour with a solid backstory that makes us empathise with him. However, as soon as he realises his feelings for his bride to be, he becomes the person Yetan truly wanted as a romantic partner- someone who puts her first before everyone and everything. He becomes truly consistent in displaying his affections and communicates his emotions very well with her.  As the show progresses, you can actually see how his dedication and admiration continue to grow for her. 

Some of my favourite scenes included Lamu/Fiery calling Yetan "wife". His innocence and devotion left me breathless and turned the butterflies in my stomach into crazy love-struck chimps on steroids. Thank you Shaodian Youqin and Chen Xingxu for revealing to me what I love most in a man.

The female lead on the other hand is an extroverted, mischievous and tough girl. She is funny not to the extent of being too annoying. Her actions whether morally right or not are true to herself, her values and are backed by solid reasoning. Her transformation from a girl who cares only about herself and her loved ones, someone who believed that the world was not worth saving due to her traumatic past breeding within her a wormhole of distrust as a defence mechanism to someone who is taught through love that the world deserves to be protected simply because love and kindness exist is very moving to watch. Through her we learn the negative consequences of revenge and how it can come back to inconvenience our loved ones even if it seemed like the right thing to do at the time. Morality, ethics and emotions are complex topics and this drama did a good job of showcasing that.

Li Landi in my opinion is one of, if not the most beautiful woman my eyes ever had the pleasure of gazing upon. I mean, I started this drama because Pinterest randomly decided to drop a gorgeous Yetan in my feed. This drama does not fail to present her in all her vivacious attractiveness- her smile being a deadly weapon you cannot escape from. She looks best in her black and purple outfits as the ‘Devil of the Void’.

Speaking of the drama's other merits, we have to appreciate how the director teases the ridiculousness of ancient times by poking fun at certain recurring themes in Chinese Fantasy Dramas- Yetan being weirded out by the concept of a 2,700 years old immortal getting married to an 18 year old girl or the scene that involves Youqin desperately pleading with his mother to allow him to get married to his beloved quickly as the couple ended up sleeping together before marriage because fuck ancient customs, right? Annoying characters are also kept to a minimum though occasionally I just wanted to wrap my fingers around General Cremation's neck- that son of a b-*coughs*. Additionally to my relief, they refused to follow the predictable plot line of turning the sisters against each other but rather chose to strengthen their bond and deepen their love for each other with each episode. This drama is truly a sismance at its core.

I have to admit that I wasn't as interested in the romance of the side characters even if independently as characters, they were all well-written and shaped with their own individuality and motivations. The reason why the side romances seemed dull in comparison was because the romance between the leads was so profoundly captivating and touching that the insane amount of screen-time allotted to anyone else seemed wasted in my eyes. With each episode, I wanted to see Youqin and Yetan more frequently AND with each other. The side couples merely distracted me from the romance that mattered.

The OST on the other hand, is brilliant. Liu Yuning, Mao Buyi and Sa Ding Ding never fail to deliver and I’ve been listening to them all day everyday since their respective songs were released. The songs are a perfect fit for the drama.

As someone who took a break from Xianxia for 7 months, this drama surprised me in the most wonderful of ways. I hope it does that to you too. I’ll conclude my review by stating what the Empyrean says to the Heavenly Emperor as it perfectly sums up my feelings about this drama- “Forgetting the past may be easy. But forgetting this love is…. difficult.”

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