The Legend of White Snake

Such a boring drama. The beginning was interesting: the snake, after 1000 years of cultivation, finally took human form and had a rat (who also transformed into human form) as a friend. She then went to the city and met the male lead, who played the role of a physician, and their love story began.

But there was no spark in their romance. The acting felt loose, and I couldn’t emotionally connect with their relationship. The male lead’s role was particularly weak. He was a physician who sacrificed his life for the white snake, but I still don’t understand how he realized she was a demon.

The second lead couple’s love story was better—it showed how deeply they were connected—but even here, some things were unclear. When she gave him water to make him forget everything from his past, including her, how did he find out she was a snake? She made him drink something that erased his memory, and then this character disappeared from the drama entirely. I thought they would meet at the end, but nothing happened.

The ending was disappointing. When the first lead characters finally met after so many hardships, they just smiled at each other and the drama ended. There was no real emotion shown—no tears of joy, no hug, nothing to reflect the reunion after such a long separation. It was extremely boring.

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Review: The Legend of White Snake (2019)

Wow! Just started this but want to say that the pictures have such perfect colour so attractive and pleasing to the eye.
Some incredible scenery and backdrops. Impeccable filming and photography. As time passes the technology improves and so does the quality of the cinematology. You just want pause and just look at the unimaginable beauty of the surroundings. These pictures are better than Disney. I just love the images.

So this mortal(human) and demon are in love. He has the love poison but she will give up immortality to save his life to live with him for decades. She will give him her thousand years of cultivation to be with him and suffer every hundred days. Wow! Powerful love. I will give up immortality to have these moments with you vows the White Snake. She has given him her life bead.

Throughout this drama this white snake sacrifices everything for that man(human) she loves so deeply. She brings him back from death. She risks everything for him so many times.

When the green snake meets the white snake for the first time she(the green snake) just totally falls in love with her. She pretending to be a boy and never wants to leave her but changes back to a woman when the white snake says she cannot follow her if she’s a man because its immoral for an unmarried man and woman to be together. From that moment forth they were more than sisters and were always inseparable.

I was thinking is this the monk that falls in love with the green snake? I think he likes her a lot.

The green snake meets the hunter and they hit it off so much first as drinking companions but he likes to collect snake products to sell as medicines. She can’t stand that. Gradually she falls in love with this man but their story becomes a tragedy.

The white snake was in her ideal world but:

2 Nephi 2:11
Book of Mormon
11 For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, my firstborn in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility.

I love these two women(white and green snake) warriors” Mo the whenua, mo nga wahine ko whawhai tonu tatou. For land and women we fight.”
E tino tapu te whenua mena e kore te whenua ko kore te tangata The ground is sacred if there is no ground there would be no people.

I find this awesomely fascinating and compelling watching. Why? Is it the magic? Is it the two snakes? Is it the mysterious story of fantasy? Is it the unusual phenomena? Is it the philosophy and quotable quotes? I can’t tell you. I just keep my eyes glued to the screen so much so that I haven’t written copious notes about the story people or actions like I usually do.

The ending though I wasn’t that happy with it. She just had a baby a chosen reincarnation(the wisdom star) that chose her to be his mother but she give imprisoned in the Leifeng Pagoda until the pagoda collapses or the West Lake dries up. So she must have been there over 25 years before her son whom she hadn’t seen since he was born petitioned the Emperor to inquire of Heaven for his mothers release.

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I was excited to watch it....

I enjoyed watching the drama series. The story was interesting, the acting of the actors was good, and the music was ok. I loved the sceneries in the story, the special effects, and the rythme of the story was nice.

I did have some high expectations before watching this drama series , since, I have already watched The Destiny of White Snake. I think the lead actors in this story were too soft and gentle. They were both firm about their thoughts, their decisions and their care for each other; however, the romance between the white snake (Ju Jing Yi ) and the physician ( Allen Yu) was not felt well. The green snake romance in the other hand was more felt , but it was cut short too fast, and Zhang did not take him long to move on after he forgot Qing, and I don’t even know what happened to the guy after.

The Monk (Fa Hai) in the story his character felt too robotic, or too disciplined, and had hard time to leave a grey zone for certain thoughts or beliefs. His character kept developing slowly,

For me me the characters that stand out more are Jin Song and Qing. As far Su Zhen and Xu Xuan I enjoyed watching them together as a couple, but I did not feel the on-screen romance it felt more like friendly romance. Even though they both made sacrifices to protect each other, it did not show the spark of romance.

I liked the story overall, but I am not sure if I would re-watch it often.

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The storyline was intriguing and good. However, the main execution of the story was decent, and it had few different directions, which is confusing. I noticed it have few unnecessary plots that is not needed be in that story unless it have more episodes to explain it well. I can see the director and writers lack creativity obviously. The actors and actress have a good job with their roles. IMO. I honestly don't mind about the color looks washed out. The ending was not bad. Overall, it was enjoyable and good. I gave it a 8. The rating should be high If the director and writers find a good way to have better storyline and good necessary plot. It is too bad that they ended it with 36 episodes.

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Great to begin with, sours quickly.

Although the idea of the spirit realm and a forbidden love do make a good story, the character arcs and development gets torn apart ranging from great to evil. I found myself hating the love interest and Qings love arc (was so pointless and fruitless). The main actress is good although very much a Mary Sue. I feel like the series went downhill considerably after the first centipede demon storyline. This is a show I'd warn people not to get attached to because of the poor character development in the end. Reminds me of the Game of thrones ending with Daenerys suddenly switching morals. Honestly the stories and characters all get a bit crazy and absolutely everything happens to all of the characters!!

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I really liked this show, the fact that most of the dramas I've seen are tied with power and royalty. This one was different. We didn't see much of a king or queen, but we only saw a little of the royalty. Honestly, if I were Bai Suzhen, I would have already killed Jin Ruyi, she's so annoying and stubborn, I feel like Jin Ruyi doesn't like Xu Xian for himself but likes him for his looks. The part when Wang Daoling morphed into Xu Xian for a night and Ruyi didn't realize anything is kind of weird. Not to mention I don't know why, but Bai Suzhen's child, Shi Lin looks more like Jin Song, than he looks like Xu Xian. Fa Hai is also a really stubborn person too, other than that I really liked the show. I really like fantasy shows and I like it, even more, when they go to the mortal world.

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The intrinsic ambivalence of the venomous snake conferring the elixir of life has necessitated its split into the fair (white) human double standing in contrast to its dark (black) demonic original. Because the narrative structure revolves around the risky elevation of the serpent power to (sexually) unite with the individualized consciousness, Xiaoqing has been rendered as rebellious handmaiden to the lead female LWS protagonist, Bai Suzhen. This accounts for the former's prolonged but (barely) suppressed hostility towards Xu Xian, even while inevitably deferring to and even furthering her alter ego's consuming desire. From the (not too well) hidden esoteric perspective, however, the male aspirant owes his full enlightenment to the conversion of her demonic vitality into ultimate liberating principle.

Whereas the temple-deity partakes only symbolically in the food offerings, the four immortals are shown dutifully gorging their ravenous "Chief" Xiaoqing in front of serpent-goddess Nüwa's divine image. When a woman devotee unexpectedly arrives to pray for the weal of her family, the impudent demon interposes herself, lantern-in-hand, as if they are being addressed to herself. Stealing the food offerings for her deprived family, the poor woman eats Xiaoqing's hastily 'leftover' (ucchiṣṭa) apple only to end up mortally poisoned upon reaching home. Bai subsequently shows up to demand the same as antidote that the unwitting green snake concedes, but only after being defeated in a vicious show of force. White snake is however obliged to alter the composition of her slippery sister's venom to effect the cure. When Xiaoqing is initially shown ensconced amidst the branches of a tree munching the apple, her servants are ridiculing her for consuming it grilled. This poisoned fruit, upon transmutation, is the elixir of life.

Whereas Bai strives to remain respectful of Fahai, her contemptuous sister is cheekily abusive of his character and motivations, even accusing the puritanical monk of intent to molest. Though his most violent confrontations throughout are with Xiaoqing, he intuits her to be a "demi-god" and attempts to reform the infuriated demon by imprisoning her in his shrine to learn the joy of copying the Buddhist sūtras. She is the orphaned daughter, unbeknownst to her bitter self, of the illicit secret union of the Dragon King of the East, divine guardian of the world's waters, with her serpent-mother, unjustly punished for transgressing the barrier that separates gods from demons. At the climax of this saga, it is loyal if unfilial Xiaoqing who steals her father's water-diversion token for Suzhen to flood the temple-city. That her white 'sister' has no known, let alone exalted, parentage would confirm there is only a single snake.

Long-lived Buddhist aspirant Bai Suzhen entered the entangling human world not to fall in love with a mortal but, at Guanyin's behest, to attain ultimate liberation. Yet, when all is said and done, the other now remorseful protagonists are mildly rebuked, forgiven, and restored their privileges. Despite the palpable justness of her cause, White Snake, on the contrary, is banished into the crypt beneath Leifeng Pagoda, humbly resigned to separation from not only beloved husband but also newborn son. The supreme Goddess of Mercy, who had repeatedly intervened to protect her favorite snake, even against the rulers of heaven indignant at her demonic violations of the divine order, seems inexplicably harsh and partial in her sentence. Instead of at least sharing Bai's guilt and punishment, unrepentant accomplice Xiaoqing, now reconciled with her father, is allowed to roam freely, cultivate her own spiritual powers and return, not as snake-demon but as fire-breathing green-dragon, to dry up West Lake and reduce pagoda to ashes, thus liberating her alter ego to reunite, if only briefly, with son and husband.

This poignant ending to a beautiful love-story—which accounts for its ancient and continuing hold on the collective imagination—is trying to tell us that the secret of enlightenment, of death-transcending freedom, the bedrock of all human virtue and the ultimate source of artistic creativity, is to be sought in the demonic instinctual energies that have been locked away with and in the serpent power.

[Above review is a single post in an ongoing blog (re-) interpreting the entire White Snake story narrative cycle by drawing on a variety of productions in different genres, ancient and modern.]

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Good to watch at the start, be warned that ML will get annoying and romance had not much spark

It started out great and I really love how the story was progressing. Honestly, I love this drama because the cast was great and despite the many ups and downs, you will slowly relate to the characters and come to love every single one of them (excluding the monk and the ML). Despite me saying that the monk, you may not like him but he is still not so bad as ML. I have no idea about the ML's actor, so this is an unbias opinion from me. Acting wise can say that he is good so I don't think it is the actor's fault, the problem lies with his character. His character is so blended and I get that there were many factors that may influence him to make those choices but if he had trusted FL more, this will help with the romance.

You can literally see the FL's love for the ML but time and time again, there was so many time where even though they have overcome a lot of problems and destiny, yet he still doesn't trust FL until he loses her which is quite sad for the romance. This does not only apply to only that particular scene but countless moments. Honestly, I felt more hurt for FL and thinks that ML doesn't deserve her. So overall, the Romance started off well but because the ML's character problems aren't as well developed.

Story-wise, I felt that overall, it is a good drama to watch because it really shows how humans are and how a demon can be the same as humans and vice visa. The villains... the centipede story arc was super good but like I say the beginning is great. The villain after... makes me feel like it is all over the place and quite annoying to see the villain lady die because even though I hated her but she had many losses, I was hoping she had some character development before she died. So overall the t could have been better executed. The monk, I got to see the character development but like the ML, something is wrong but despite me saying that... he is better and more bearable. The ending is a bit weird because some things don't add up and it felt too scripted and felt that the writers did the white snake dirty.

Overall. I recommend you to watch it! The story is great, with many problems but it is fun to watch the white snake and green snake relationship and their journey.

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Maybe it's because this is the first version of Legend of the White Snake I saw, but I liked it. While it wasn't memorable and did not leave a lasting impression (what was up with that ending?!), felt that attempts were made with the cinematography, casting, and music.

Casting
- Good chemistry between the leads! Ju Jingyi is really beautiful -- fits these kinds of roles really well. I liked how they attempted to make Xu Xian more independent. I just wished they pushed him a bit more. He was a bit ... flat. One thing I need my characters to have is the ability to grow and develop. They did a bit for this one, but not what I hoped them to.

Cinematography
- Beautiful. There were just a few scenes that looked really washed out (I had to adjust my tv to accommodate this) -_-

Music
- Probably my favorite thing about the show. Beautifully positioned and composed. Give the music director a raise!!!


Overall a good version, 8/10!

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Amazing

Love this drama ...... it's shows us that we r the only demons to make ourselves miserable......and every kind has both good nd bad people...we can't simply judge them by there way,power, appearance etc.....And the love b/w to lead charracter r really amazing....they hv a great understanding power which is called love❤️💗💕 ..in this drama they didn't get separated by there misunderstanding(like other dramas)..but due to circumstances...still they understand each other's feeling (reason behind there separation)..The lead charracters are amazing...😍😍😍

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When it comes to the tale of Madame White Snake, I am a fanatic. I’ve seen almost all of the remakes from old to new. I have to say, it wasn’t the best nor the worst. It was okay.

The music sounds beautiful. Costume designs were absolutely breathtaking. However, I had a problem watching the series due to bright lighting that made the screen unwatchable. In fact, too bright that it hurt my eye.

The two main female actress did well in their rolls which made their character likable. As for the male leads, they’re acting wasn’t convincing. I laughed most of the time not because of the comedy but how awkward the dialogues were. I did get bored towards the end. I haven’t watched the last episode and might never get to it.

Overall, it’s tolerable and forgiving in some ways. It’s not the best nor the worst remake. I do have to say beware of the brightness, it will blind you.

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