Reviews

It was a good drama

It was a good drama but it was also kinda weird because he fell in love with a women that looks exactly like his sister. I found that a bit disturbing. But overall it was a good drama. The female lead is kinda annoying. The male lead his handsome and good at acting. There are a lot of plot twists Wich makes the story even more interesting. The male lead is a strong character that has a sad past. Thankfully at the end he found out that his mother was still alive. That made the end even better. The female lead could have had a bit of improvement during the course of the drama but sadly she didn't. The story is kinda sad but it has a happy ending. I love the music in this drama is super catchy. I recommend this drama 100%

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Almost but never quite

Let me start by saying, Gong Jun is very pretty. But as another commentor put it, his acting is vacous and uninspiring. He found moments in 'Unique Lady' and Zheng Ze Han provided him a place to do very well in 'Word of Honor', but he needs to be a second lead at best. Han Ye with Wen Shuo were his best moments, more relaxed and normal than any other time. Dilraba is a master at all levels of acting. Liu Lu Ning is also extremely talented. Some of the characters that surprised me were Linlang and Leng Bei. The actress playing Linlang should be playing more prominent roles. The scenery often looked too fake. The story was very good and very bad. Why wasn't HanYe in more despair over lising his sight? Why and how did Mo Shuang find him? Where were other soldiers when the Princess was fighting? The music was excellent. The CGI...was that actually CGI? Was the emperor that paranoid in the book? Editing was ok, not great. Did the director even watch the series? A lot of problems should have been fixed if he did. I am not disappointed, but I am.

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YET ANOTHER FLUFFY TAIWANESE BL SERIES! A MUST SEE BL!

I've always been fascinated by Taiwanese BLs, the way they craft such good show and how they promote it is underrated. Taiwanese BLs is one of a few BLs that deserves a lot of recognition in terms of story, character dedication and castings.

STAY BY MY SIDE is one of those BLs that i can't describe well, it's like a fruit that isn't ripe but when you eat it, still taste great! This series is far from perfect but sure far from bad one.
Wei Zhe and Isaac portrayal of their characters are spot on! Even in Fan Service, you can see the dedication, still sweet and caring.
The gradual development of WeiZhe and Isaac's characters is well defined in every episode. Especially Isaac being so so caring of WeiZhe it's so cut and adorable.
The ending though is not that perfect but its "okey", I thing this series deserves SEASON 2 or "special episode", to see where they go from being boyfriends, finishing college to real life dramas.

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND WATCHING THIS AND ALL UPCOMING VIDOL TV PRODUCED BLs. IT IS WORTH YOUR TIME!

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It's better than it looks!

I really love the OST, especially the one near the ending! It's a really great show with lovely storyline.

It's a refreshing plot with interesting ways of presenting crimes and police investigation

I especially love the bromance between the buddy. The casts are surprisingly funny and adorable to watch. They might not be your typical visual in drama, but they are really easy on the eyes

I laughed a lot and also cried here and there.

The only thing is it's a little slow in first few episodes, so I though there wasn't much going on and it suddenly took a turn and become a wild ride, with real good ending

Stay tuned and watch till the end.

It's also a nice break from typical Kdrama lol..I found Jdrama has its own style of humor that might take some getting used to. but once used to it, its very nice to watch!

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Definitely not a re-watch drama

I liked the gradual build up in the initial episodes but as their story further unfolds, you will find that there was nothing really to tell about. It was highly unrealistic, female protagonist was consistently shown in a bad character, if you want me to hate her so bad why not make her a villain. Her behaviour could even be justified but you got to make room for audience to do it, instead every other character in the drama is shaming her for it.

The chemistry between them is also weak, at some point you wouldn't even want them to be together because it seems to look like a toxic relationship, which includes yang yang patronising her most of the time.

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Let King the Land take you on holiday prepare to laugh cry and enjoy superb.

I’ve just finished king the Land and I am a total mess. If your life isn’t great at the moment, if everything you do goes wrong. Just sit down relax and be pampered. Set in beautiful locations, it’s absolutely superb sets, the clothes, the tiniest details have not been missed. I’ll probably never ever get the chance to stay at such a grand hotel. However the drama opens the doors, takes you by the hand and says welcome. The drama brings you in to these peoples lives, you are wanting praying everything will work out. It keeps you centre stage with them. Clear story lines, brilliant wonderful chemistry between the whole cast. I would love for this to win awards. That would shut the haters up. Why can’t people be kind. The whole premise is to smile proper smiles. Thank you for letting us join in their lives just for awhile. Totally awesome. 10 out of 10 everyone concerned. I was laughing crying and clapping right at the end. I was not disappointed in anyway. Totally lifted my world. Thank you King the land. Best drama by far this year. Will be hard to top it.

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This drama hasn´t lost me yet!

Using my personal rating system of "loved," "liked," "meh," & "nah," this is a “liked”.

The deets*:
This is a xianxia/xuanhuan with a random mix of immortal and mortal living together without a great deal of explanation as to why. A “young” deity is hiding out in a small village mostly populated by mortals, living as a man despite being a woman. They imply that she actually IS a man, but I’m pretty sure censorship made the writers deliberately keep that part vague. Some other immortals move next door and one of them turns out to be her cousin because our young deity is actually a long-lost princess with a tragic backstory. She recognizes her cousin right away, but he has no idea who she is despite the fact that he’s supposedly a powerful immortal and she isn’t—and despite the fact that the other MLs almost immediately recognize that she is female (despite the fact that she, actually, for real, is not). During this time she rescues an immortal male descended from fox demons and attracts he attention of a blood-sucking nine-headed demon (the aforementioned MLs whose girl radar was NOT broken, unlike Cousin’s). For some reason, our FL is desperate to stay away from the notice of any of her relatives and then decides, “nevermind, I’ll go back to being myself”. Hijinks ensue as she returns to her role as the eldest princess of an entire kingdom while also being the granddaughter of the king of a neighboring kingdom with an ambiguous relationship with her cousin who wants to inherit their grandfather’s throne.

*I know it says not to do this, but how else is someone who doesn’t know if they want to watch this understand the rest of the review?—those descriptions on the main page aren’t always accurate.

Things I liked:
OMG has Yang Zi been wasted before! I have been unable to complete her previous three xianxia dramas because she literally played the same character each time (naïve, vacuous, with a heart of gold)—and I have pretty low standards for xianxias so its saying something if I can’t get through one. But she had some serious acting chops hiding in there this whole time! She’s practically unrecognizable and her portrayal of the different versions of the FL appears effortless. It also doesn´t hurt that all of her MLs are easy on the eyes. Please check out AvenueX´s initial impressions review on YouTube for other positives about this show as I agree 100% with her assessments.

Things I did not like so much:
Who, exactly, is the love interest here!? I mean, at least from the FL’s point of view. Obviously, it starts with Tushan Jing (seriously, who forgives and forgets with after YEARS of torture!? C’mon, there´s kindhearted and then there´s just stupid). Every time demon boy gets a little vulnerable, he does something cruel and stupid to chase her off. Cousin is literally, well, her cousin. I get that in the ancient societies this story is based on, marrying one´s cousin was not considered incest in the way it is today, but it still makes me hesitant to root for him. Finally, there´s Chishui Feng Long, who out of all of her options has the least amount of baggage which, of course, makes him the least exciting choice. lol. The only other thing I struggled with was the huge gaps of time. I get that the leads are immortal, but as a puny mortal myself, I have trouble considering 300 years to be the equivalent of the passing of just 3 years.

Should you watch this?
If xianxia/xuanhuan is your thing, definitely. If you´d like to see Yang Zi break out the box acting-wise, definitely. If you´re not into fantasy, then this won´t make a whole lot of sense or be interesting.

Myself, I´ll definitely be watching Season 2!

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Not exactly “legendary” but not bad, either.

Using my personal rating system of "loved," "liked," "meh," & "nah," this is a “liked”/ cheerful “meh”.

The deets*:

Noble family gets framed and betrayed, tons of folks die leaving only a daughter to avenge them. The only thing that saved the daughter was her engagement to the crown prince who, despite being an preteen, apparently had already met the love of his life and couldn’t bear to see her killed. Daughter gets banished to a temple, crown prince grows up and declares he won’t marry anyone but our female lead (the daughter of the framed/destroyed family). Jump forward many years and a brash, outspoken pirate shows up on the scene and declares her undying love for the crown prince. Crown prince tries desperately to be faithful to his lost love, but finds himself falling for the pirate instead. A woman claiming to be the long-lost daughter of the framed family shows up, but she is so incredibly different from what our male lead remembers that he mourns the fact that he must marry her (due to his promise) and not the pirate who reminds him so much of his childhood sweetheart. Hijinks ensue…

*I know it says not to do this, but how else is someone who doesn’t know if they want to watch this understand the rest of the review?—those descriptions on the main page aren’t always accurate.

What I liked:
At first, I was put off by the trailers. I’ll freely admit that I have some implicit bias against pushy female leads (for example, the female lead in “The Legends”) but I force myself to put it aside because I realize that just that: implicit bias. But in reality, the story is much more complex, and the female lead is far less shallow than she seems. There is some decent depth to the plot, the leads are all nice to look at (I think our SML is actually 6’2” if my metric-to-imperial conversion is correct!?), and there were some impactful scenes (like when the FL exposes the royal family’s treachery against her own family). The leads’ chemistry was believable, and their relationship did not set of any red flags of toxicity. It has a happy ending which, if I’m wasting all those hours of my life on a drama instead of what I should be doing (my dissertation), a happy ending alleviates my guilt somewhat. Lol.

What I did not like so much:
It kinda bogged down in the middle. I think the “truth” was revealed a bit too early and the show kind of lost steam afterwards. The CGI was wretched, especially during the sea battles. There were some pretty unbelievable parts like, for example, a female lead who has the unswerving loyalty of 40,000 troops yet never actually spends any time with them and the trope of falling off a cliff and surviving (seriously, if someone falls off a cliff in ANY Chinese or Korean drama its almost a guarantee of survival. Note: if you ever find yourself in a fictional universe and your life is threatened, go jump off a cliff. You’ll be fine). The whole enemy prince and princess ark turned about to be pointless because they didn’t exploit it like they could have and in the end the prince just sort of turned himself in (dude, if you’ve just been threatened with being heinously tortured to death, don’t just walk off calmly with the guards, fight to the death!—at least that would be a better end!). That could have been a great cruel romance, but they failed to take advantage of that plot line.

Should you watch this?
I started this at the same time I started season 1 of “Lost You Forever” and it kept me from gobbling down all of those episodes at once. It never pissed me off so badly that I had to stay away or drop it. I guess it depends on your level of tolerance—my standards are relatively low for period/costume dramas that are not placed in any historical reality.

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I could easily give this a 10...

..If it was a higher budget production.

But i have to say that with the budget they had they did an amazing job!
Stay Still lacks nothing compare to high investments and large production companies..but money!And i wish anyone who is wiling to make a BL/gay drama and has the funds to do it,take examples from all those underrated low budget projects which deals with more realistic,dark and troubled issues and show raw and real feelings.

90% of all the low budget mini series and sort films i have watched are little gems indeed.I had to rate them lower only because the quality. The money -not-spent really shows and unfortunately most of the time ruins the entertainment value.And i personally as a viewer always take into consideration the technicalities when rating.

Ok end of the rant but if you ever come across my watchlist and see low rates on such dramas you know the reason.

So back to the drama itself.
The cast did their very best.Acting wasn't the best,i don't even know if they are professional actors.One thing i know for sure.The kisses and all the hot scenes were more real than -many-others we see in high-rated ,high budget series where we just laugh with those dead fish kisses.Here at least show some genuine passion.Also Im glad at the end credits shows everyone's name(it will be really nice if here in MDL add them too)

Yes it is too short to properly develop the story(ies).Yes we don't get enough time for the primary couples and -why not-for the side hetero too.

And i want to start with this couple.Ive read many found it unnecessary and even skipped all their scenes etc.First of all i liked the idea the story to be told through them.It also somehow connected the 2 main couples as their stories are totally irrelevant and most likely never will cross paths.
So many complaints about this couple.But i don't agree.Showing them in bed,having sex,talking and smoking wasn't a filler neither wasted screen time.Not to me.Was a very clever way to show us that every couple,no matter their sexuality,homo or hetero,all faces problems,all struggles for different reasons,all have to deal with society/family/friends etc,one way or another.
We see the hetero girl is forced to marry someone she doesn't love and her lover asks if she can cancel it.I was happy we get the first happy ending among the couples, when she nodded "yes".

This is a very short drama and i don't want to go deep into the main characters and their stories.
All i can say is that both stories portrayed in the most realistic way.Is not always fluffy,cute and full of butterflies because life is not either!

Both couples in their own way fight, for their happiness.I was so glad they didn't give up on each other.
My last comment is about Kelvin and Archie story.Is NOT a cliché story.Is NOT a common,lame or boring trope.
Kelvin is a married, with a son, gay man who was trapped in a life he never wanted,by a bitchy woman who uses their kid to keep him.Don't take such stories as a bad trope.It is the real thing,in real world.

I want more series like this.I hope such productions get more sponsors in the future.

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Enough bl for your needs!!

If you want to start this show because you are a bl fan (like me) but you are not so sure, due to the fact that the drama is censored. I get that. That was me too at first, but then i started diving in the reviews and the edits on tiktok, so i started to watch it.

Yes its true, the drama is no longer a bl romance and Wei Wuxian are platonic best friends. However, they only removed the the confession and kissing and stuff. I like to keep in mind that although they never actually got together in the drama, they both felt "a connection" between eachother. The way Lan Wangji looks at Wei Wuxian is just perfect. Wang Yibo did such a fantastic job at his facial expressions. I found myself just constantly replaying the parts where Lan Wangji looked at Wei Wuxian. The moments his eyes softened, the moments his face wasn't as cold as always.
So although this drama is officially no bl, with just being a little bit delulu (which I know you are), this show has more than enough to feed your bl needs.

This was my first ever Chinese drama, so it was really difficult. Especially with the different names and characters. The first two episodes is about Wei Wuxian when he was reincarnated, but i didnt get a thing about these two episodes. It was so bad that when I was around episode 20, I started to rewatch those two episodes, and finally understood the context.

Also, during the whole show, I constantly kept google close. For example when the were talking about someone, but I forgot who it was and what his background was. I really recommend doing this, because it makes your understand the drama way better.

I would one hundred procent recommend this to every single person who is just a tiny bit interested in south-east asian content.

For me, I still love to see the actual romance scenes between Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji, so for me, the novels are next.

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One of the best drama for me!!

First the story-line, it's great and solid, well packed and the ending wasn't rushed. And this is the best chemistry I've ever seen in any drama, I feel like the leads are real marriage couple!! Every actors and actresses are talented, and they really choose the perfect pairing, every single character shined with their plot and emotions, I've watch some dramas of Song Yi and I wasn't really satisfy but here she improve soo much!! Bai Jing Ting did a awesome job here too with his character and shout out to actor Liu Xue Yi for portraying the emotions very well. And the cinematography is really suit with the drama, I like the costumes and accessories and the OSTs are really great too!! This is one of the best drama for me and definitely in my Top-3 list!! ( Overall 9.5/10 )

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Story, acting cast, ost

The story is grounded, all relationships are believable and beautiful in their own ways, each character was well-developed and acted out (cast is a.ma.zing.). No stupid decision-making, no stupid xianxia tropes, a credible story that just draws you in.
One of the unique dramas where there's 1 female lead with 4 male leads, but you root for every one of them in their own ways.
OST is lovely, the instrumentals are poignant and grand, each major scene held strong on its own with each lead.
Definitely worth rewatching, especially when there's season 2 coming next time.

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The story and cast in this drama show promise, but unfortunately, the direction leaves much to be desired. It becomes evident that the creators attempted to cram a complex narrative into just 16 episodes, resulting in a disjointed and confusing viewing experience from the very first episode.

However, it's worth noting that the cast delivers commendable performances, which adds some redeeming quality to the show. Had this drama been given more episodes, it could have allowed for a more meticulous editing process. It often feels like the creators hastily stitched together pivotal scenes and tried to make sense of them by incorporating various disjointed footage.

The climax, in particular, feels rushed and condensed, as if it's trying to wrap up multiple episodes' worth of content in a single installment. While the potential for a great story is evident, it falls short of being well-executed due to the constraints imposed by the episode count. With more time and a more thoughtful approach to storytelling, this drama could have truly shone.

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A cute romance that doesn't feel ankward!

I went into this show already feeling skeptical, because our leads first meet when Sang Zhi was still a child and Duan Jiaxu already a university student. The writer did however an excellent job.

Sang Zhi fell for Jiaxu from their first meeting. Jiaxu only saw Sang Zhi as a younger sister he should protect.

They lost touch and met again when Sang Zhi was in university herself.

That's when they get close again and Duan Jiaxu slowly starts to see Sang Zhi from a different point of view. Sang Zhi is now a grown-up and shows her MATURITY numerous times by being there for Jiaxu and protecting him at all costs.

Their relationship is like a blooming flower. They have a beautiful bond and you'll see many sweet scenes.

When Sang Zhi's family finds about their relationship - keep in mind the 5 year difference. Duan Jiaxu does all he can to receive Sang Zhi's family's approval and the way both Zhi and Jiaxu treat this issue show immense maturity.

The ending was beautiful to watch. The leads had amazing chemistry, the story was beautiful... everything was beautiful overall.
So yes, don't be shy and give this show a try. Who knows?

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