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Actors: female lead stayed doofus - silly so long she became tiresome. So little character development. Seems she is typecast for silly doofus roles. Seriously aggravating. Two male leads, great casting and delivery.
Overall: the length of the silly JM blissfully bobbing through was a major distraction. The meat of the story gets fleshed out around eps54 -60, with the last couple eps as "really" writers, you want to stretch this more? For the life of me, trying to see why this drama is so highly rated. Okay at best - the main lead just wore thin. 40eps could handle this storyline.
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- Interesting set design and world building
- I liked a few of the side characters, Moon Immortal & Pu chi were both very enjoyable to watch. As well as the side couple.
- Run Yu is definitely the best character in the show (even though he isn't always the most likable character). He was honestly the reason why I stuck through with this drama. He is well acted and is honestly one of the few multi layered characters.
Bad points:
- The two main characters has the personalities of two wet socks. The main male lead is honestly boring and I never felt for him. The Main female lead is super annoying and acts like a 8 year old, I did start to like her a bit (just a bit) around ep.45. But that's about it. Both of them are just very bland.
- It feels like the story wants the viewers to cheer for the main couple and feel sympathetic toward the Heavenly Emperor/Empress, which was just annoying since they both where awful people. (Run Yu was definitely right about them)
- Way to long (very typical of cdramas). This drama could've been 30 episodes.
I had a very hard time rating this drama. On one hand, It is a drama with major flaws, one the other, I did find myself still enjoying it. However I don't see myself ever re-watching it nor even really thinking about this drama.
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I was not into their love story
I have given a second chance to Ashes of Love, because I'm fan of this genre and a bit obsessed with the fantasy stories about heavens and demons realms.The drama is very beautiful. Cinematography is on top.
I was not into love story unfortunately.
Female lead has lack of character development. Even thought I was prepared to the kind of insensitive women, but expected other line. She didn't persuade me in her feelings toward male lead.
Male lead is a bit blind to other's feelings, like also has lack of emotional intelligence.
Second male lead is too much obsessive with the female lead. Triangle clishe here.
In general the writer has missed up the romance line between three of them. It could be better, but 4 of 10 overall, not good, not bad, somewhere in the middle.
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This review may contain spoilers
(I've tried to make this as spoiler-free as possible but if there is any spoiler I will indicate it beforehand!)Story (9.5/10): I love love love the plot in this drama, especially the main characters' love story. In my personal opinion, this is the best love story I have ever seen portrayed! I did not, however, give in a 10 because there were arguably some mishaps towards the 45-50 episode mark of the drama, where the side characters' stories got a little bit too draggy. The production devoted a lot of time to the side characters' background and love story - which, although interesting, takes the focus away from the main couple who were undeniably THE most attractive factor of the drama. Hence, it was a little frustrating, but I just mainly skipped through these scenes to get to my OPT moments. I've read the book for Heavy Sweetness Ash Like Frost (HSAF) so I could still understand what was going on, but I think that even non-book readers can still easily grasp the plot without sitting through all of the draggy scenes. For me though, the best part of the drama was the hilarious beginning, the adorable mortal arc, and the epic finale (I initially doubted this could live up to my expectations because there were only a few episodes left for the final arc, but the drama did a phenomenon job!). These were moments that will forever be embedded into my memories!
SPOILER: The ending is happy!!! This is so rare for an ancient Chinese drama! Honestly, the ending is very satisfying! Jin Mi and Pheonix could not be happier!
Acting/Cast (10/10): Did I say that I love love love Deng Lun in this? Actually, did I say that everyone in this drama was so perfectly casted? But first, we'll go back to Deng Lun because I think he is the BEST Pheonix we can ever ask for! Appearance-wise, he straight up walked up of the novel! His Pheonix eyes are honestly just what I imagined the character to have! (SPOILER: AND WHEN HE BECAME THE DEMON LORD I SWEAR HE LOOKED 100X HOTTER I COULD NOT CONCENTRATE AT TIMES ON THE DRAMA BECAUSE OF HOW HANDSOME HE LOOKED. I PETITION FOR THIS GUY TO DRESS ETERNALLY IN BLACK). Acting-wise, he completely sold the character to me! I actually love how his Pheonix is a lot softer than the novel's, who was more arrogant and proud. Deng Lun's Pheonix, on the other hand, was kind of dense (which earned him the nickname of bird-brain, lol) but he was devoted and gallantry and the God of War in the sense that he fights his battle head-on. Deng Lun's eyes were so emotive and everytime Pheonix looked at Jin Mi I could feel myself melting into a thousand puddles. Deng Lun and Yang Zi have the best chemistry ever and their every moment on screen was electrifying! Yang Zi was also amazing in this. First of all, she is beautiful and I've never doubted her as the daughter of the Flower Goddess. It is actually amazing to watch her transformation from a naive girl into a mature woman throughout the drama, and I thought that Yang Zi did a phenomenal job on portraying both Jin Mi's humour and maturity. I think she is one of the best actresses of her generation. This drama has made me a fan of both Deng Lun and Yang Zi. I will for sure watch out for their future projects (especially if they star in another drama together!). Regarding the rest of the cast, everyone did an amazing job - I don't think there were any bad acting in this drama or anybody who did not suit their characters. The casting for this is pure genius.
Music (10/10): The intro is beautiful, the outro is beautiful, the OST is beautiful!! There is especially this song about a love letter and every time it plays I just melt.... the lyrics are absolutely heart-wrenching! The score used by the production to build up certain moments was also very effective - it was intense and really hype up the action! Overall the OST in this drama was perfectly made and perfectly utilised to enhance the whole watching experience.
Rewatch value (10/10): This drama is perfect for rewatching! Unlike political dramas where you have to utilise mental prowess to understand the nuances, HSAF is a fantasy drama that makes you feel, not think. Throughout the course of this drama, you will feel humour, pain, angst, frustration, joy, happiness, and many more feelings. These feelings are conveyed in such an authentic way that even upon rewatching, they will still impact your heart! I believe that this is a timeless masterpiece that I will come back to many times.
Overall (10/10): Overall, this is honestly one of the best drama I have ever watched, Chinese, Korean, Taiwanese, etc.. After finishing this, I can't imagine that there will be another production which can leave such a big impact on me and make me so invested in the characters. The only downside to watching such a beautiful story is that I'm afraid everything I watch from now will seem so bland and not live up to HSAF. But honestly, though, I recommend everyone to watch HSAF - this is a must-watch drama that possesses a captivating sense of magic which no drama in recent times have been able to capture, and I believe that it would be very hard for future dramas to replicate this ethereal formula. Truly, watching HSAF, for me, was a rare experience that I don't think anybody should miss.
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I saw this recommended on Netflix, I was skeptical at first because not only do I hate Chinese historical/fantasy dramas but it was also a whopping 63 episodes long! I was desperate to find a good show again, I've heard so many good things about Ashes of Love and I have the biggest crush on Deng Lun; so I thought, why not? There's 8 more days until 2018 ends but this drama is no doubt the best drama I've seen in 2018; or maybe ever.
I finished this drama within two days (along with buckets of tears.) This drama is no doubt an emotional rollercoaster, a story about forbidden love between two good looking actors that's extremely well made, what else could I ask for? The character development along with the production quality and symbolism was far beyond my expectations. I usually hate Chinese historical/fantasy dramas because the CGI would be over the top and just plain bad, but the execution of the CGI was undeniably the best I've ever seen in any drama.
Without a doubt, the writing of this drama is pure genius. I couldn't bring myself to hate anyone because all their actions; good or bad, was so understandable considering the situation they were in. I feel like every character was based on the meaning of the Yin and Yang, there's good in the bad and bad in the good. Every character had an immense depth of character, every choice, speech, movement made sense. As for character development, observing from the start of the drama when each character was introduced compared to the last second of the drama, there's a drastic character difference which I love.
All in all, I most likely wouldn't rewatch this drama. Not because it's bad, but because this drama was quite heavy on tragic themes and I don't want to sink in debt buying tissues.
To be honest, I don't look forward to Season 2. This drama was so good and the ending was wholesome, I don't want to sign myself up to potentially ruin the whole series. However, if it's the same people producing and writing this drama, I would definitely sign myself up for another emotional rollercoaster.
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It's best to watch this drama with a split brain
On one hand, it's this disaster Romeo and Juliet romance of angst and will-they-won't-they and conflict and death and "I will literally die for this love" tropey xianxia drama stuff. If you've seen Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms or Love Eternal or the million other massively popular gods and romance Chinese dramas, you've seen this. This is our main couple.On the other, it's this refined Hamlet of court intrigue, asking interesting moral questions such as "if my father is a genocidal tyrant and I have the ability to overthrow him, do I have the responsibility to do so, despite my filial piety obligations?" and "should I continue to care for a fiancee that has cheated on me with my brother because I still love her?" and "is it really true that to achieve justice in an unjust world one must commit unjust acts?" This is where the second male lead resides.
And yeah, I care very much more about Runyu's storyline than literally anything our main couple of doing, and that's not to mention the fact that those two did extremely shitty things to Runyu while they are pursuing their "forbidden romance." Apparently cheating on your fiancee is okay if it's true love, and asking your brother to annul his engagement because you want his future wife is okay if it's true love, but it's wrong if you want justice when your own mother dies in front of your eyes.
Anyway, the acting from everyone is top notch for such a mainstream blockbuster drama. Yang Zi pulls no punches during her crying scenes (she cries and I'm automatically on her side despite the fact that I don't agree with her side), Leo Luo embodies the ethereal and gentle immortal that has been living in the public Chinese consciousness for eons but has never been able to be brought onto screen until now. Deng Lun needs a lot of work, you can tell in a lot of scenes he is out of it and not acting at all, and his posture is terrible, but he's still okay. Everyone else? Wonderful, keep up the good work. Also, give the VFX team a bonus please, because everything finally looks phenomenal.
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Story: We all know that Chinese historical drama has many episodes. The story process is moving at a very slow pace, but trust me it will become very interesting later. Even though I was hooked in the first episode of watching. This drama will make you ride an emotional rollercoaster with no end. You will experience all kind of emotions while watching this show. The greatness of this drama is knowing how to develop the characters in the drama. Because they all experienced conflicts in their life, towards the mid-to-end, the character shows off their maturity after the realization which I really like.
Acting/Cast: There are literally no words to describe it. The acting and casts are WAY more than Awesome. They really did a good job of expressing their character's emotions. Yang Zi, the main character literally became the character in the story by portraying her innocent, cute personality, the little girl in the Flower Realm that doesn't know what love is, later on, she shows the audience how her personality and heart mature in her acting. Yang Zi also displays her splendid chemistry with Deng Lun, the main guy making everyone feel the real romance between the two characters. The pain, sorrow, depression that they portray really touch the audience heart and you could really feel them. After watching all 63 episodes, There's nothing that I dislike about their acting. I also want to give props to other casts as well. Each cast has their own color and kind of character to portray and they all make me wanna cry my eyes out.
Music: The opening song of the drama really got me hooked. The lyrics, melody really explains the drama a lot. When there are sad scenes with the music theme playing in the background. That adds more feels and make me cry like a river. Other songs are good as well.
Rewatching Value: Well, I already am rewatching the drama. It's so addicting and sad to know that it is officially ending. This drama is so good that how many time I rewatch it, I won't get bored. The drama overall is so good. It literally ties everything together and answers all of the unanswered questions that the audience had. This drama is really No.1 C-Dramas of all time. Once you get into Ashes of Love, there won't be any way out so be prepared and grab your snack in hands ready!
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Hyped up for no reason
I'm so excited to watch this drama, because all the great reviews and how so many people love it. I have such a high expectations, but, oh boy, what a disappointment. I'm forcing my self to finish all the episodes, hoping that along the line the it will eventually get better. But, nope... TT TTFirst of all, the story is dragging too too much, this drama shouldn't be this long. And then there's the female lead. I don't know why the writer had to write her like that, so annoying, and to make it worst, Jin Mi was not performed well by Yang Zi. The two male leads however is quite enjoyable to watch. Leo Luo done a great job with his character. If you like a fantasy love story it's still watchable with a lot of skipping and fast forwards
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Ashes of Love...After being literally obsessed with this drama for the past 3 months since watching it, I decided to rewrite my review. These are the main reasons why I loved Ashes of Love and still obsess about this show 3 months later. Forget the cons, because if a drama can keep my attention for this long, the cons mean nothing.
1. Ashes of Love is quite simply a beautiful, multi-layered love story. Yes, there was a stereotypical love triangle, but, the way the love triangle unfolded was not typical at all. Xufeng and Jinmi were the main couple pairing. However, this drama left many people rooting for Runyu, who was not only the third leg of this triangle, he was also a main antagonist with ZERO chance at getting the girl. How does that happen you ask? Good writing. If the screen writers can make you understand the perspectives of an antagonist, I think they did a good job. Xufeng and Jinmi's love was absolutely spell binding. I was entranced by XuFeng's hopeless devotion to Jinmi and Jinmi's courage of pursuing Xufeng despite his crusade to break her spirit. This drama was 60+ episodes, but I felt like I would have loved more.
2. Deng Lun, Yang Zi and Luo Yunxi were incredible actors. Lower caliber actors would have reduced Xufeng, Jinmi and Runyu into caricatures, especially XuFeng and Jinmi. Runyu had a more blatant character arch, but XuFeng and Jinmi's had subtle arches. Without Deng Lun's warm, lovey dovey eyes and piercing stare as the God of War/ Demon Lord, Xu Feng would feel like an useless door mat. Without Yang Zi's range of emitting emotions in order to portray Jinmi in the growing stages of her character, Jinmi would feel like a Mary Sue. Without Yunxi's ability to portray all aspects of Runyu's character, we would have hated Runyu. Additionally, all three are incredibly good looking. That helps.
3. I binge- watched this show in three days, while on vacation overseas, forgoing sleep. After obsessing about this story and re-watching three times, I continue to want to re-watch clips of my favorite scenes, or listen to the soundtrack, or watch BTS videos. It is that addicting.
The only reason why this show is not rated as high as Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms is because it came later. People find the two shows to be similar so people might not want to give this show any due credit. Personally, I loved TMOPB... I love AOL wayyyyyyyyyy more.
Honestly, just watch it. If you drop it after 4 episodes, you are definitely going to miss out on an incredible love story. Also people who love TMOPB and drop AOL for being a "slow burn," like come on... YEHUA does not show up until episode 8! You have NO EXCUSE.
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Some good parts, but a repetitive plot
Wow, I don't know how to review this.The good:
1) Deng Lun and Yang Zi's chemistry. The lighthearted scenes between the two of them were the BEST thing about this show and they were sooo fun. I wish this show had been a twenty episode modern romance, not this long and dragged out mess.
Xufeng reminds me a bit of the main guy lead from What's Wrong with Secretary Kim. I loved it when Xufeng was being tsundere or jealous, it was so funny. The scenes where he grieves for Jinmi, especially near the end, were also amazing.
2) Luo Yunxi and what he did with his role. He was SO good. I'm totally going to watch the upcoming drama, Immortality, coz of him.
He played this ambiguous antagonist figure. He starts out as a quiet, gentle and kind person, who is picked upon constantly by the cruel Empress, causing him to be isolated, without many peers or connections. It makes him very lonely. He immediately falls for Jinmi, who is lively and kind to him.
The episode where the Empress then kills his birth mother before him was amazing. Some wonderful acting there. I felt for him when he debased himself and begged on his knees. That was the turning point in his arc, where he got darker and darker.
I really hated the Emperor and Empress that I didn't even care that he was turning immoral. I was just so glad that the Emperor and Empress got their comeuppance.
Luo Yunxi was able to convey Runyu's complex motivations, making you both sympathize with him, while also feeling more and more uncomfortable with what he does. It was really sad that he was still so lonely all the way at the end.
The bad:
1) The pacing. It was so uneven. This show started off really strong in the first few episodes, and it's quite fun to watch, but then it lags, and around episode 30, it gets so slow that I put it on 1.5x speed, and then in the end I ended up skipping all the way to episode 45, which is when the good stuff happens. Then I skipped all the way to the last three episodes. This leads to my second point:
2) Overly repetitive plot points. You know, you can only make a character die and revive ONCE to make dying have an effect. In this show, characters die and come to life all over the place. It just loses any emotional weight. What's the point? I barely feel anything when I see a character die. I'm just waiting for them to come back to life again.
This was not the only repetitive plot point. Jinmi and Xufeng's romance just about made me want to bash my head into the wall to end it. Their love story basically goes like this: they grow close together, Jinmi realizes she can't be with him due to various reasons and draws back, Xufeng chases after her, they get close together, Jinmi realizes she can't be with him... You get the gist. I literally exclaimed, 'Are you kidding me?!' when I skipped to episode 60, and they were STILL DOING THIS. After Jinmi and Xufeng both died and revived, after 60 episodes, they are still at this hot-and-cold, two-steps-forward, one-step-back mess. Many of the scenes could have been cut, many of the mini arcs could have been more succinct. A lot of the characters have repetitive plot arcs.
3) Evil characters who are evil for the sake of being evil. The Empress' arc was pretty much just her being progressively more and more evil until she finally gets her comeuppance at episode 40. FORTY. And then she's still around for convenient deus ex machina reasons. Ugh.
My overall opinion: could have been better. Other shows did it better.
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Two Mama's Boys Fighting Over a Doll
I watched this because of the favourable reviews and I was interested in Chinese mythology and culture.The actual story is fairly interesting to me, as it really draws you into the world of the heavenly realms, where nothing is as it seems, and anything is possible.
To be an immortal with all the power, magic, and time everlasting, yet when it comes to affairs of the heart, they must be conducted clandestinely, and never end well.
The gods are one part homicidal, one part suicidal, and all parts bored out of their little minds. That is what watching Xanxia dramas has taught me.
The CGI in the final battle of good vs evil is absolutely stunning, and it's worth skipping to the end of this melodrama to watch that one scene.
The FL, instead of being wooden, makes cheesy faces throughout the drama in a bid to have us relate to her through her quirkiness. Maybe that's your cup of tea, but it isn't mine. I think there is a difference between innocence and stupidity, after all, a child is innocent, but they aren't stupid. I understand that FL characters in C dramas are meant to be naive and innocent, but, in my opinion, they just come off as stupid, and I can't imagine anyone who thinks this FL was anything but a brain-less "quirky" child inside a grown woman's body. That makes the love triangle all the more cringe-worthy. Imagine two somewhat intelligent (well, ML wasn't very intelligent), grown male gods attracted to a cognitively challenged child inside a grown woman's body. Doesn't sound good, does it? Well, that's exactly what ends up happening in every Xanxia I can think of, and it bothers me to think that someone came up with this trope for it to be repeated.
This drama could have been half as long, if the ML and FL characters had just communicated with each other in the first place. There wouldn't have been any misunderstandings turned into feuds. Near the end of the drama, the FL figures out what the ML really is, and it was refreshing to hear her tell him how and why he is a manipulative douch-bag.
The drama is really all about two half-brother mama's boys, fighting over their quirky fairy doll. The ML tortured the FL physically, and the SML tortured her emotionally. The ML's inability to prosecute his mother properly, even after he knew of her crimes, is the most selfish act of all, in my opinion. I don't even see the SML's manipulation of the FL as being nearly as detestable as the ML believing hear-say about the FL, as the ML being cruel to the FL, and as the ML denying justice to the FL and SML. Subsequently, I was rooting for the SML the whole time. He was more fit to be a heavenly ruler than any of the other characters.
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