This review may contain spoilers
My top 3 fav cdramas
Ive lost track how many times ive watched this dream this drama made up for the sad ending these leads had in enteral love from what i heard it had to do with copyright. The couple got their happy ending. However the leads chemistry is just chefs kiss all around the sadness and the happiness and fought together as one against their enemies through 3 lives times. This drama highlight of first love was sweet. I def recommend this drama if you watched enteral love.Was this review helpful to you?
Because of this drama i started watching fantasy dramas
First I watched Eternal love but drop it, but wanted to know more about Dong hua and Bai Feng Jiu.Let me tell you it was good decision.
If you watched eternal love you have to forget about their story there.
What I liked?
- Chemistry between Ml and Fl (Fireee!), even tho he is an old man and age gap is pretty big. Love their scenes together
- FL was cute and stupid but we can see her development, also she is not weak, she has powers and she is good at fighting
- I love dong hua and his face expressions (not only because my weakness are men in their 40s)
- cinematography
- Ruler of the Green Demon Clan, his relationship with FL
What I didn't like?
- I can't remember all because I watched it a while ago,
- I think that this Big Woman demon with which ML was fighitng etc. was not evil enough if you know what I mean
Anyway i highly recomend this dramas and I think it will become one of my favorite chinese dramas
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I've watched this series until the end, actually ㅡforce myself to watch this series until the end.
Good job for Feng Jiu for not giving up even though Dong Hua seems like he doesn't really give a fuck about you. You're the definition of loyalty and I'm so proud of you. I like a cold male lead that only warm to his love interest, but this Dong Hua... idk I just dislike his attitude so much to the point that I want to smack his face.
Cheng Yu, I feel you and you're right, at least for me. Let's smack his face a couple of times, idk I just want revenge I think.
I like the visual of it, it is a good drama but I'm the picky one here. I hope I didn't offend anyone.
The song is really good too, I actually adored the CGI and the magical effects ♡♡
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Beautiful actors and amazing story.
This drama is so beautiful and but actors is so beautiful, this is the second story. The first one was as beautiful and heart wreaking but don’t worry both have happy ending.I love both actors, the scene is beautiful and sweet and best action and best fantasy and best hardcore scene and best love story and best. Because it’s just too beautiful to not said it beautiful.
I’m looking forward to more drama from both of them and I’m currently watching miss S and I’m obsessed watching it! Waiting for it to update everyday.
I wish the male lead have many more drama. It’s so rare to see mix asian being the main actors but I think the girl is became popular in China now. Can’t wait for more!
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I Can't Move On!
Never have I been so obsessed with a drama couple that brought me to a point of searching and looking for video clips about them. Story wise, this drama's plot is okay for me. If it had different actors and actress to portray the characters of this drama, I don't think it would have been as fascinating. They did a good job in choosing the artists, specially the leads. The ML and FL gave justice to the characters they portrayed. I tried watching TMOPB before but dropped it early because it never really aroused my interest, this one even took me too long to watch given the fact that it is a historical fantasy, and these genres are not my cup of tea. But watching their clips on my facebook video feed caught my attention. As I was finishing the whole series, it broke my heart that its about to end. The couple got me so obsessed I pray they will be together for real. I don't intend to spoil, but I really acknowledge the fact that they made me feel the emotions this drama would like to invoke from the viewers, the heartaches of one sided love, being loved and the sacrifices you have to endure for that someone you love. That it did not matter whichever time or world they are in, their love will be eternal.Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
Observations about the drama:A) Xiao Yan is THE GOODEST OF BOIS! He is made of starlight and all that is good in the world. I love him.
B) Pretty much the emotional arcs can be divided into 4 which makes for great character development
1. Fengjiu falls in love and we see it mature from adolescent hero worship, to real enduring love (to the point that she was prepared to not have him as long as he is happy and fulfilled
2. Dong Hua falls in love and we see it mature from curiosity to deep (Possessive - but then again he is a known conqueror, what do we really expect?) love. We see the consequence of him loosing her (Chen Ye anyone?) and despite threats to the contrary he never kills anyone out of jealousy in the end so I count that as real growth.
3. They test the boundaries and roles of their relationship. He treats her like a kid (despite the handy 'weak fate' excuse, he does!) and she runs away from her problems (guys it's really not about Jiheng)
4. They find an equilibrium. He starts treating her like a partner, she faces the problem head on. And they live happily ever after.
C) I like that the drama went linear with the timeline. Judging by Viki comments, people were confused enough as is!
D) Speaking of Aranya's dream. I actually like that she knew the Xize was Donghua early on. Neatly avoided the whole 'icky consent' thing from the book. I personally didn't like that part.
E) Kudos to Vengo Gao, his acting is amazing. I honestly found it difficult to reconcile Donghua and Chen Ye together. I found it super hard to even look at Chen Ye. He constantly felt like he was in the very edge of madness. He literally exuded crazy and it was painful to even look him in the eyes.
F) The Biyinao queen (in the dream) is cruel but she was shaped by her experiences. She had a large capacity to love but an even larger capacity to hate. The king is an asshole. He wanted the kingdom and the queen so he rebelled committed fratricide and took what he wanted. Neither of them would win any Parenting trophies.
G) Probably obvious, but only occurred to me on the 2nd watch that Aranya is a child borne from rape. And this is why the queen hated her so much that she threw her in a snake pit and why the king, after her reinstatement keeps 'indulging' her (Highness Qing etc)
H) The queen loved her 1st husband and this transferred to Ju'nuo, the only child they had together. She hated the fact that Donghua's version of Xize is suddenly close to Fenjiu/Aranya because she knew that Xize had enough power and influence to challenge her claimant to the throne. No matter how inappropriate her other daughters were with Xize she turned a blind eye because it suited her. She probably hated the fact that the king even got Xize and Aranya together (I suspect the king gave Aranya to a powerful but disinterested husband so she has the backing and the freedom to do what she wants; his warped way of caring for her)
I) Su Moye loves Aranya, but he is NOT in love with her, I'm convinced. He loves her like a father/teacher/brother but not as a man. He found her love misplaced with Chen Ye, felt sorry for her and I think he went away from her all those years to sort out his feelings, to see if he can give her that romantic love that was missing. In the book he cultivated a reputation of being a charmer, probably testing the waters, and by the time he had convinced himself he could love her romantically it was too late. After all that effort, of course he would be obsessed with what happened.
J) All you Furries out there probably liked the baby fox part early on, but I literally could not stand the juxtaposition of overwrought romantic music and scenes with Donghua and babyfox!Fengjiu. That part was a bit cringe to me.
K) In fact if I had to rate the 'arcs'
1. Biyiniao/training/competition arc
2. Aranya's Dream
3. Pre-wedding arc
4. Human Trial Arc
6. Bai Qian's wedding arc
5. Maid/Baby fox arc
L) I really like eternal wingman Liansong. I loved him in TMoPB and I love him here. His interactions with Donghua is hilarious.
M) People kept comparing the actor for Ah-Li, but come on, this Ah-Li is super adorable, people just have to get used to it.
N) I love Fengjiu's character a lot more here than in TMoPB. Here she's whimsical but mature, feisty but soft, clever and capable (not as much as Donghua but who is in this world) beautiful and brave and I literally had no issues with this pairing despite the age-gap. She is what he needs, and he is what she needs. They balance each other out.
O) Donghua is too good looking. He is unbelievably easy on the eyes. Rewatching is easy just for him alone.
P)I laughed so hard every single time someone fell into the hole trap. The comedy in this drama is ON POINT. In fact kudos to all who worked on this; the cinematography and editing, costume, sets, choreography. Amazingly well done. This is a beautifully made drama.
Q) People complaining about the ending, this it LITERALLY HOW IT ENDS IN THE BOOK! That's what fanfiction is for!
This got a bit long, but I really just wrote it for myself because it's the end and I am still obsessed ?❤️?❤️?
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Better Dong Hua
This drama is very faithful to the Pillow Book, from the characters and the story. Dont refer to TMOPB because they didn't have the pillow book copyright so they had to alter Dong Hua & Feng Jiu love story but they end up ruining it. Vengo Gao's acting as Dong Hua in TMOPB was a little bit over the top because he frowned a lot like he easily get annoyed by every little things and I think Dong Hua was supposed to be an ice face & bored because he had everything figured out. Even so, I still like DH&FJ couple a lot more than than the main couple in TMOPB.In ELOD, his acting is on point. You really need to pay attention to some of his scenes to notice his subtle change of expressions. So rewatching it is very recommended.
Storywise, ELOD is a bittersweet love story. Bitter at the start, sweet at the end. No plot twist but there are a lot of sweet & funny moments between the couple. It will cure your broken heart caused by TMOPB.
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This review may contain spoilers
My most rewatched C-Drama
What an absolute joy to have watched this series in my life.THE THINGS I LOVED THE MOST
The Music: There is something so special about the music in this drama. From the xylophone melodies to the orchestral accompaniment of scenes, it was done to perfection. Rarely does a drama get it so right like they did here.
The relationship between Feng Jiu and Dong Hua: It's not your conventional romance. Through the different sagas you get to see admiration, first love, playful moments, childish jealousy, working together and sweet words of innocence. This series provides such a wonderful spectrum of experiences for both the main leads. At times I heavily related to their experiences and cried my eyes out, and other times I simply smiled ear to ear from their interactions.
The Humor: Rarely do we get so many funny moments out of a C-Drama, but they really "knocked it out of the park" with this one. Simply a joy to watch.
WHAT I DIDN'T LOVE
Ji Heng: Most of the cast provide a stellar performance, however one character that just was "not it" was Ji Heng. I am yet to hear anything positive about this blank-face, conflict-creating, screen-stealing character. Obviously she served a role, but upon re-watching, I skip most of her scenes. Xiao Yan's friendship with Feng Jiu was delightfully entertaining, but his relationship with Ji Heng was cliché and dry as toast.
Despite the character Ji Heng , Eternal Love of Dream is as good as a perfect series as I have watched, and a strong 10/10 from me. Would highly recommend people give it a go to see if it's something they also love.
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So much better than Eternal Love
I quit Eternal Love in the middle because I found it extremely depressing and there were too many obstacles/misunderstandings. I felt like the main characters barely spent any time together, but I had enjoyed these two as the second leads so I decided to give this a try. I was immediately sucked in to this love story and hooked for the first time since The Untamed. Finding out these two are engaged in real life explains so much because the chemistry is palpable. fWatching Feng Jiu mature into herself and the depth of Dong Hua's emotional growth was a huge payoff. I did not get annoyed by any obstacles and just saw them each growing independently into a person (immortal god?) that was capable of giving themselves to each other without losing who they are. Feng Jiu is a great heroine who loves Dong Hua selflessly and without expectations of reciprocation, and I enjoyed that in the end it's Dong Hua who has to try to prove he deserves her rather than her begging for his love. They are adorable and I will definitely be rewatching this. If you, like me, did not understand the hype around Eternal Love, I suggest you give this a try. It's really quite a beautiful love story.Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
DISCLAIMER BEFORE YOU START: Forget everything you know about Dong Hua and Fengjiu’s story in Eternal Love/TMOPB since that was entirely made up due to lack of copyrights. This drama actually depicted what happened in the novel Pillow Book!!!I loved TMOPB so much so I was very excited to watch this sequel! And boy, I can say that it really delivered! A 1000000000 out of 10 in my book :).
- FIRST AND FOREMOST, Dilraba Dilmurat and Vengo Gao’s chemistry, starting as a red nine-tailed fox & the almighty Dijun to being the true power couple at the end, was palpable and heart-fluttering! Their chemistry alone, with expressive eyes, facial expressions and subtle movements, made this drama a win for me. We got a Fengjiu who courageously follows her heart through many realms, non-hesitantly sacrifices herself for that one and only love and bravely proves her worth to not only be the head of Qing Qiu but also as his Imperial Lord’s partner. Then we got a Dong Hua who unexpectedly falls hard in love, surprisingly becomes a puppy sick in love and boldly shields her from any trouble that comes her way. Together, they made the perfect OTP: they fought, misunderstood, hurt, made up, trusted and loved each other ever so strongly in this “nonexistent” fate. After all, age is just a number (hopefully this is also true for their off-screen relationship as well - praying hard for this ship to sail and dock) and fate is truly what people make of it.
- The cast itself is nothing short of amazing (huge props to the production company for keeping original FJ)! I definitely think Reba and Vengo have personally grown as actor/actress since their TMOPB performance and truly perfected their characters (most of the time, you won’t even feel that they were acting at all and you’ll see A LOT of real life, intimate ear rubs, hand caresses, waist hugging 🤗). And believe me when I say the chemistry try is sizzling here - being a diehard fan for each individual actor for so long , I haven’t seen Reba and Vengo have ever come close to having this kind of “chemistry” with other leads in their long experiences of acting haha. All the supporting actors, esp Xiao Yan and the Third Highness Lian Song, were a bunch of hilarious love-stricken idiots that provided much needed comedy relief during sad times. The villains were still formidable in both annoyance and tenacity levels (*cough cough* I’m looking at you Ji Heng 🙄). All together, each character had time and playground to develop their own stories and each was perfectly orchestrated into the storyline. Plus, it doesn’t hurt that most of them were pretty nice eye candies (even the evil ones lol).
- The plot itself is definitely a lot more well-paced and well-developed compared to their story in TMOPB. It had fun, suspenseful, heart-wrenching as well as heart-warming moments packed with a lot of actions! I really liked how the whole story mainly revolved around FJ and DH without feeling too overbearing - you’ll learn about DH’s background, his perseverance (and his thick-skin) to be the respected person he is today, FJ’s growth and maturity which often excludes jealousy but includes self-acceptance of who she is as a person and how these two polar opposite characters crossed paths in different realms.
- Amazing cinematography with excellent OSTs (one of our main OST was sung by Reba herself!). Film sets looked more polished in this drama and outfits were nicely put together that matched with the setting and the scenes!
- Excellent adaptation from the book! This is one of those scenarios where the drama adaptation stayed pretty true to the book and explained some of the details sooooo much better and more concise. The drama weaved a lot of the plot holes together and made the story so much more flowing!
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this sequel (even better than TMOPB *gasp at myself for saying this* even tho TMOPB was my top fav for a longgg time) probably because I can now ship the OTP in real life lol. All jokes aside, I felt the plot was more focused, leads have an AMAZINGLY REAL CHEMISTRY, it had a lot more funny moments that I didn’t expect, enlightened the book to another level of excellence and the angst was, if not more, painful (however rewarding) compared to TMOPB. I went into watching this as a filler for my TMOPB withdrawal and ended up binge watching it for the 10 million time today so I highly recommend this series for everyone!
COMPARISON TO SIMILAR FANTASY ROMANCE CHARACTERS: It’s actually really hard for main leads, one being thousand years old and stoic/indifferent vs the other one being extremely young and innocent/sheltered, to pull off toe-tingling, believable chemistry on screen (Watch Love & Destiny with similar aforementioned characters for comparison since leads there didn’t quite accomplish what our Vengo & Reba did). That’s why ELOD still stands FAR apart from other xianxia dramas! So let me forever be trapped in this Dream of Eternal Love ❤️
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Story: Even though lots of review said that this drama's story is so good because it's stick to the novel, I didn't find it extraordinary. Just like another common romance wuxia drama, and some middle episodes I found them so boring which I fast-forward lot of time.
Acting: As I expected from TMPB, Dilraba and Vengo Gao are professional actors, their acting are very touchy and I love their chemistry despite the character's age gap. Although Vengo Gao is not a very handsome actor,but he truly can deliver Dong Hua Di Jun aura as a supreme god who is invincible. And I always like Dilraba, she is a very expressive actor so every character she played always have remarkable impressions.
Music: Same as TMPB, this drama's OST are very amazing that I will save them in my playlist
Rewatch value: Perhaps I will only watch the scene of Donghua and Fengjiu, they are so sweet together.
Oervall: I love all the production of this drama except for the story that I found a little bit boring and cheesy. Worth to watch in your spare time if you like TMPB, but not for someone who prefer deeper story and twisted plot
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This review may contain spoilers
A Fantastic Adaptation
I fell in love with this novel after seeing Etenal Love and then reading the Hamster translation of Eternal Love. In my opinion, this novel is better because it is more rich and developed. That said, this is a different story from eternal love with some similar themes. But the biggest difference is what keeps these two people apart. In eternal love it was outside forces. In this show, it is literally fate influencing everything around them. The directors did a good job emphasizing the coincidences that conspire to keep these people apart. And the consequences of fighting it....Now the show...
I was always curious about how they would adapt this given the simple fact that the author 1)tells her stories via flashbacks and 2) a chunk of time is spent as a fox. But the advancements in visual effects and creativity led to a good decision: a lot of FJ’s fox form was her visually but like a spirit form. It is what they did in Eternal Love when Ye Hua was the flower on Kunlan.
I did not expect them to spend so much time in the mortal world because a lot of it well most of it did not happen in the book. However it helps provide depth and character development because so much of the novel is based in character development they had to engineer a lot of conflict (like the prime antagonists) to keep an audience engaged because a lot of the novel is FJ struggling in her own mind how to deal with her feelings.. Good job directors.
For those of you who haven’t read the book and are reading my review, I recommend it, the drama is Very Very good. Anyone who has ever felt or struggled in one sided love will find that this drama resonates very well with the barriers and uncertainties you might face in pursuing that love, doubting your decisions, and facing the interference of your loved ones who don’t understand why you just can’t stop. If you’ve ever liked someone and asked yourself ‘why can’t I stop it would be so much easier if I did’ then you will feel a strong connection I suspect with this story. I also liked how the script incorporates very well different types of love, obsessive love, and even addresses how unhealthy it can be, but in the end, it’s your choice, whether the outcome is good or bad. Because this is a fairy tail it has a happy ending.
Acting was great. The Chemistry between these two actors is so good everyone wanted them to star in it. I hope they do more dramas together. I think liking this show boils down to what you like. It executes story and plot well, but if you don’t like one sided love don’t watch. If you don’t like the ditzy kind of female lead don’t watch. If you are eaten up inside with anger watching a female lead suffer for love because it disagrees with your values don’t watch! You don’t have to like it but be fair. They did a good job. Not an easy book to adapt.
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