Reviews

Youth Xianxia Provides All The Feels

The Last Immortal's Chinese title (and its first title before they changed it) is Hidden God. I'm disappointed they didn't keep it because it was very apt and would have given the viewers clues about the plot.

Hidden God (TLI) has many hidden gems. It starts out with a mysterious ghost/spirit on her way to being reincarnated. She seemed fine with all her unhappy endings, somewhat cavalier in fact, while discussing it with the god in charge. Seeing an image of a handsome but sad young god in a magic mirror which appeared and, upon learning that he was using it to look for the leftover spirit essence of an immortal he once killed, she remarked that if she were said woman, she would never want to see or talk to this god again.

Thus begins the story of Ah Yin/Feng Yin, the hidden god(dess), the Fire Phoenix going through her tribulation of death and rebirth. Her story is easy to follow, the xianxia cycles of innocence and misunderstanding, pain through injustice and loss, and finally wisdom and responsibility. Its complication lies in the nuances projected by its characters, how actions in this drama mirrored each other (and giving new discoveries in each rewatch) and the unexpected pleasure of enjoying the growth of four friends who were the Scooby Gang of the Immortal World, all four reveling in their youth, suffering in their trials and still ending together as four strong immortal friends who helped each other in times of need.

For me, as a fan of xianxia, my topmost demand for this genre can be distilled to one question: does the drama deliver the xianxia feels?

The First 10 Episodes-Youthful Friendship
***
Because a good xianxia starts with innocence and fun. YES THE LAST IMMORTAL DOES. It was humorous and Lu Si as baby hatchling and the teen Ah Yin was funny, sweet innocent but smart FL. Also, the story gave an unexpected twist--Gu Jin, the ML, was equally naive in his expectation of life and love. He was only a few hundred years old at the beginning of this journey and he acted it. He had a foolish boy-crush. He acted impulsively. He wasn't the usual cold and calculating 60000 or how-many-zeros-added-on year-old ML who held all the power. He didn't. He was going to make the mistake of his life as his tribulation as the god of Chaos. He was the other Hidden God of this story.

The other unexpected twist was the 2ML and 2FL. There were no toxic friendships and betrayals. Both were from different realms and had their own challenges, but 2ML was also a naive young immortal who showed a soft heart for those he cared. The 2FL did not play the jealous card, like any number of 2FLs in other historical dramas. She was always the supportive friend, with no other agenda. I LOVE THIS about the drama.

The Second Ten Episodes--Youthful Love
***
Because a good Xianxia must make me feel good about love and to worry about their future. YES THE LAST IMMORTAL DOES. This segment of episodes had a quest-like feel to it as our friends went around the world looking for pieces of FengYin's soul. We as the audience know the irony of the Hidden God: that Ah Yin was looking for herself. Gu Jin was already being shown his fate: he was going to be looking for Ah Yin and never seeing the real her. We could see the horrible thing called tribulation coming up as our couple went about building loving memories.

The Third Ten Episodes--End of Innocence and Youthful Love
***
Because a good Xianxia must deliver Epic Angst. YES THE LAST IMMORTAL DOES. In heaps. Oh my god, does it deliver. The pain built into a crescendo as the misunderstandings grew through the evil Hua Shu and her father's manipulation. Everything was against our young couple and their friends. There was so much pain, we wonder how Ah Yin was going to make it. We forget that Ah Yin was Feng Yin, the Fire Phoenix. And what do phoenixes do to achieve rebirth? Yes. You got that as a clue.

And our Gu Jin, having giving the oath to accept any tribulation from the Magic Rock to get Feng Yin's soul pieces back, had no idea what that meant. But did he find out. These ten episodes built to a crescendo that kept this xianxia fan clicking to the next episodes. And the tears. Get that box of tissues ready. Zhao LuSi was amazing in these episodes. I don't remember crying while watching her sad scenes in Love Like A Galaxy, but here? She made my heart hurt for her character. As for Wang AnYu as Gu Jin/Yuan Qi who paid the price of being young and noble, trying to fit in his parents' big shoes, he played the role of bum-turned-tragic-god masterfully. A two-hundred year-old master of all five realms who had to learn that being fair and just was a difficult balance in a world where the adult immortals play for power, whatever the price.

The Last Ten Episodes--Rebirth, Retribution and Love
***
Because a good Xianxia must give me back my couple, must make things right, and punish the Big Bad. YES THE LAST IMMORTAL DOES. Everything came back full circle. It's the same and not the same. Our Scooby Gang has grown up. How are they now that 1000 years have come and gone? Are they any better at dealing with these more experienced immortals who played them like a deck of cards?

The surprise of Feng Yin being the cold and more calculating character here was a good twist. Yuan Qi had to figure out how to chase his wife. He was the God of Chaos, whose duty was to sacrifice all for the realm. We learn in these episodes how much he had sacrificed for those he loved, especially Ah Yin. She was the Phoenix Queen now, who had fulfilled her death and rebirth tribulation to rule as a demi-goddess. Having gone through 1000 years of tribulation, she was in no mood for love and Yuan Qi and immortal games. But she knew, to put Ah Yin to rest, she must investigate what had happened 1000 years ago. And thus the Scooby Gang came back together, but no longer the fresh-faced four. They were now the God of Chaos, the Phoenix Queen, the Demigod and King of Demons, and the Eagle Queen. No one could stand in the way of their quest now! Esp. Hua Shu, that Peacock Bitch who was the root of all the pain. Was it fun to see her smackdown by Feng Yin and then, Yuan Qi!

There are two more Hidden Gods in this drama. I'll let you figure it out for yourself. I've rewatched several times as the hidden gems kept coming. And the OST was one of them. It snuck into one's subconscious and although at first I thought it was just all right, I ended up loving it, with all its lyrics.

Way to go, TLI cast! You've made this drama very memorable for this viewer.

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PENDAPATKUUUU

Untuk story nya ini menurutkuu kurang, karena diselipin kasus pembunuhan yang berbeli2 tp disini tersangkanya bener2 gak bisa dibilang plot twist juga karena terlalu keliatan bgt malah jrg ada sceen nya, nahh kalau olahraga ssireumnya oke sih cukup gak kurang gak berlebihan jugaaa, chukaaaee baek duu yang td nya mau pensiun akhirnya juara jugaaa ?? karakter baek du juga pas ngomel ngedumel sendiri fav banget HAHA
untuk warga sekitarnya juga gak diraguin kalo dipedesaan gitu pasti solidaritasnya julidnya gosip nya kenceng lebih2 dari 5G seruuu suka ngidupin dramanya

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Disappointing

The story started out great until about episode 17. The humor gave me endless laughs, the adventures of the main characters were fun to watch, and ML and FL had a lot of chemistry. The villains were compelling and gave us plenty of reasons to hate them. Then, the story went off the rails and started introducing new plotlines and characters who didn't need to be there. I normally don't like love triangles because they usually follow the same tropes and deviate from the plot. This show was no exception. Bai Xiaosheng (BX) was a fun and neutral character who should've stayed neutral. Suddenly, we had to watch multiple episodes involving a love triangle between BX, Tianyao and Yanhui because Tianyao and Yanhui had some tension in their relationship. There were better ways to get it resolved and to get Tianyao gain back Yanhui's trust, instead of sticking BX between them for several episodes. In the second half and towards the end, BX mostly disappeared from the plot making the entire love triangle angst completely pointless.

Even the chemistry between Tianyao and Yanhui became stale in the second half. They had no physical or even romantic chemistry although they were married. They kind of regressed from being a dynamic due to an old boring couple. When Tianyao protected her from any threat, she looked at him in surprise like he wasn't supposed to do it. Ya'll are married. Why are you surprised? Thankfully, or not, they finally shared a very chaste kiss in episode 38 after being married for how long? Pretty damn long,

An endless slew of minor characters and their stories, too many flash-backs, and fillers made the story progression very slow. An entire episode was dedicated to some weird demon capturing Tianyao so she could marry him just to be defeated and never seen again. We did not need to watch short lived romances between minor characters, who all died an episode later, or flashbacks from Yanhui's childhood in the Taoist sect. It was all boring and irrelevant. We also did not need to see Suying's sad romance with the general. There was nothing redeeming about her. She was a reprehensible person, so there was no point trying to make her even a little bit sympathetic.

The end boss was incredibly boring. He was a cookier cutter villain without any motivation or personality. He did bad things because villains do bad things, not because he had a compelling reason to be bad. Taoists were much more interesting and complex.

There were problems with the acting too. Zhou Ye was really cute as Yanhui who was lively, dynamic, and funny. Neo Hou was the opposite. This is the first drama I watched with him and I was completely unimpressed with his acting. He spent a huge amount of the time standing around and staring - forlorn staring, sad staring, observant staring, romantic staring, staring, staring, and more staring. In many scenes involving multiple characters, he just stood around and stared like a place holder. It seemed like the actor either needed more lines or the dialogue needed to be sped up. After some time, the constant staring became very noticeable. Tianyao was the main character with the plot revolving around him, but he looked like Yanhui's side kick most of the time.

Overall, I enjoyed the first half of the show because it was funny and engaging. Unfortunately, the story that started out as an interesting tale of redemption, forgiveness, and new beginnings turned into a constipated mess of stale plotlines and a crusade against a cliche villain. I am actually very disappointed with the way it turned out because it had such a great start.

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I was right there with them

I am a fan of Chinese pals in since the first one with
Hu Ge and Liu Yifei. I really like this one as well. I find the plot to be interesting and engaging. I feel like I was a part of the four main characters journey, and it was fun and sad to go along the ride with them. There’s no good without evil. The message of the story is to bring justice and peace to the world, and Tianhe did just that even though the consequences didn’t excuse him. I like the relationship and friendships between Tianhe, Lingsha, Mengli, and Ziying. They all have a strong bonds and will always be friends.

This drama is focused on our main ML, Tianhe’s and his journey to finds out about what happened in the past to his parents. It was interesting to find out that not always the demons starts the trouble, but it was the humans that got greedy and starts the war with the demons clan first. This story also teaches about being selfless and supports each other.

The ending was a bit sad because Lingsha passed away, and she didn’t find the cure to her illness. Her family members died early because her ancestors got punished for invading a sacred area. Her purpose was to find a cure for her and her family. Sadly, that didn’t happen.

Mengli - I like how she went from innocence to maturity. She went from a young lady to a strong sect leader woman. Each character all becomes stronger jj the end, and mature a lot.

It was a good Chinese Paladin 4!!! The cinematography, osts, and CGI were all good. Great castings!!!

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I anticipated this drama for a very long time and the only thing i can say in a short form is: it exceeded my expactations.

i love everything about this drama.
the ost: geez, its so catchy!
the acting: i love how every actor is acting with their whole body. the nuances were great. don't let you fool you from the first kiss. ;)
the plot - how it's unfolding episode per episode.
the humour: i am a sucker for sarcasm and goddamn, myung ha serves really well.
the characters - i hate love triangles, but love for loves sake serves from this day on my favourite love triangle, because all the characters are just absolutely likeable and endless adorable. loved myung has self-talks. but also yeo woon has such a golden personality. they all have their flaws, but it doesnt make them less likeable. at most even more relateable. i clicked with all the characters a lot and thats also the reason why i am that much emotionally connected to the drama. my eyes got teary all the time towards the ending.
the pacing: i wasnt bored at all. not a single second. i devoured every scene and rewinded all the time, to see some parts multiple times (it took me 14 hours to finish this show lmao)
the depth: yeah, you will realize pretty quickly that this show serves absolutely nice humour, but is also capeable of way more than just being funny.
the emotions.
everything.
i expected a light, fluffy, funny drama. i loved the game theme! i like transmigration and it sounded fun. but this drama is really not compareable to any other bl out there. its refreshing, new, innovative. it had me seated and i was so overwhelmed, because i got really excited and thrilled in a short time.
the ending was absolutely satisfying. for me, it wasnt predictable at all. i was so stunned multiple times through the show and that got me even more excited, because most of the dramas today are a bit boring, when it comes to this. they use the same old tropes over and over again and you already know what will happen. but love for loves sake surprised me multiple times and that made me sooo excited. its thrilling. and i couldnt imagine a better ending for this show. 0.5 stars reduced, because there are things about the plot, where i am not fully sure if i understood them correctly. if they would have made them more clear, it would be an easy 10/10
The wait was ABSOLUTELY worth it and i dont miss any second of the 14 hours, that it took me, to finish this drama.

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Best drama I’ve seen in months

I absolutely LOVED this drama- the story way amazing- I never got bored- ugh it was just amazing.

The premise of being stuck in a game is such a cool idea and I loved how in the later half of the drama they changed it up with the world getting corrupted and all the errors- kept the drama from getting boring and had me hooked till the end.

I’m not sure if I interpreted the ending correctly (please tell me your thoughts) but I loved what they did with it. In my head I saw the ending as he was dead and the whole time the „game world“ was heaven/a dream? And the senior he kept thinking about was god or an angel. I’m not religious by any means but that’s how I took the ending and I really did love it.

The romance was so adorable and the scene where they broke up had me in SHAMBLES. The actors were amazing, the story was amazing, everything was just amazing- I can’t praise this show enough.

If you are reading this I’m assuming you have seen the show (if not stop spoiling yourself) and I wonder if you enjoyed it as much as I did !!

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Short and sweet!

I loved this show through and through. The tsundere character trope is my favorite. Toki is such a green flag. The show really used these two to highlight a healthy line of communication and trust rather than the theatrics of jealousy.

My only complaints are:
-Sahara's former love interest got too much screen time.
-In the novel they are 16 & 24 and it appears they aged Toki up to 17/18, but then in the last episode they did a flash back with a little kid and Sahara to give us the we've met before, fate kind of trope. That really threw off the age gap and made it make zero sense. How would Toki go from that to a high school senior in a few years? ?
-The rain confession flashback was shown too much.

Overall, if you're looking for a cute and short JBL and you're not up in arms about an age gap, I highly recommend this one!

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Amazing, well acted, soft but angsty drama

Not much that I can rave about without spoiling but if you’re a fan of Korean BL you really need to watch this as in my opinion it really tops a lot of them and stands up there with all the best. The acting and writing is natural and real, and the scenes come across emotional and not flat. You feel for every character and what they’re going through. The plot is also very unique and not something you usually see. Since the main character is in a “video game” all of his actions might have consequences or are done to avoid a certain consequence which was a unique element that added urgency. Anyways, the main couple also has amazing chemistry which is also important so you don’t need to worry about that. Just watch Love for Love’s sake you will NOT regret!! It’s super short and gets interesting near the end!!

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Could have been better

I have seen the original Korean Drama W (2016) and its natural to make comparisons. The chemistry between the two leads in W (2016) is undeniable.

I was glad to come across The Next Stop W (2023) but its not very well-written or executed. Everything is a miss.
The lead actors didn't have much of a chemistry.
While the ML is attractive, he lacks the charm that Lee Jong Suk brings to the table.
The FL was fine, the script poorly written, trying to smash everything together, just rushing to the ending.

I believe this could have turned out better if the durations of the episodes were longer, and the script better written.

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Toki's expression are everything, also with a lot of running.

First and foremost, Toki is my favourite character. He is literally someone who just came out of a Manga. Episode 1 and 2 were my favourite. It was peak comedy.
While a lot of people might argue the fact that they don't like characters acting the same way it is in the manga. I personally love it. It is soo fun to see those unrealistic expressions and funny shouting and people around them acting normal.

Every character in the show were green flag (Except for the bullies). Even Sahara's ex Nekoto also didn't create much of a drama and just encouraged Sahara to confess to Toki.
However, I would have prefered some intense plot with the love triangle to add some jealousy and realisation. Anyway, for a lighthearted drama such it might have been too much.

The only thing I think was lacking in the drama was the chemistry between the leads. Some lovey moments and offcourse a better kiss could have solved this. But I also do understand that a lot of people are not comfortable with teacher student romance and Probably the directors decided to take the safe side.

It was fun to watch anyway, Japanese BL never disappoints.

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