When 'Love and Destiny' run our lives... Gods become human too...
Add this one in alongside another classic Wuxian Drama: Eternal Love/Ten Thousand Miles of Peach Blossoms. These stories are both so mesmerizing, and the Gods and Goddesses so human. They can be just as principled or as petty as the people below them in the mortal world. Happily, in Love and Destiny, we get to see both. The love story works well because the length of this series allows us to see the ups and downs and watch as the small flame that kindles between two opposites fans into a blaze of enduring, passionate love. There are others who fall for each other too...and many who try to keep them apart, but it's wonderful to watch how the 'lazy Fairy' and the disciplined God of War, work out their differences.PROS: Amazing costumes , hair design and outstanding acting talent (how could the bragging, full-of-himself God of Thunder make me smile so much whenever he tried to out-do Jiuchen?😂). Ni Ni who plays our Fairy, is such a beautiful woman and she manages to wring her face into impish smiles & haughty pouts without being clichéd. Excellent actress. As for our God of War, I haven't seen him before, but Chang Chen didn't quite have fun with his part until the last third, when he'd learned to smile and savour life & love...all for Ling Xi.
Also liked the world the writer created. There were rules in the heavens which made it easier to understand the characters' motivations when they followed them...or how serious it was when they broke them.
CONS: Just one. I really did appreciate the subtitlers on the streaming site who offered us some backstory about customs or objects we might not understand. For example 'the 'Shwuanxi Double Happiness Lamp' for engagements. However, I did have a problem throughout the series with the non-immortal language that kept popping up. Here we are in the Heavenly Realms where the Gods have self-cultivated to a 'higher order of being' and then suddenly, their words are translated into our own no-so-high modern american speech. The subbers gave us : "done deal", "Little brat", "A pain in the ass", "long time no see", "Do your thing" and.... coming from the mouth of a Princess: "Is that bitch here?" Even The Immortal and very ladylike Doctor Quinhao tells her brother to "Shut up!". Totally out of character. For me, this breaks a wall somewhere between the viewer and the characters. I am immersed, enjoying and believing the story of our Gods and Goddesses, where time is in thousands of years, and then, when I hear modern-day slang, my brain trips a bit and takes me outside the story , reminding me that this moment isn't real. It breaks the trust we have in the storyteller and the tone of the drama suddenly drops. We are not in the high heavens anymore but on the lower-east side of New York.
A small point maybe...but this show in particular would have been much better without the intrusion. But all in all I absolutely LOVED this series. Brava!
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stereotypical story done right
Love and destiny, disregarding the horrid English title, is truly wonderful drama with engaging plot, fantastic acting, nice visuals (even though I noticed that some complain about their, especially male, hairstyles) and music and surprising lack of traditional plotholes and horrendous editing. Even though the ending was a bit rushed it still retained the coherence of the story. Love and destiny is genuinely worth your time.The story is not original, of course. On one hand, there is the mythology, on the other hand, as far as I know, Love and destiny was the director´s third (?) attempt on the three-lives-same-love narrative. Not to mention is a love story in Chinese fantasy realm, there is only so much originality you can put in it. All its genres have their set of narratives, stock characters, subplots, motivations etc. Love and destiny, however, does a great job in delivering them. The drama plays around and subverts nicely various tropes and clichés connected with this type of story (and generally fantasy-romance drama), making them seem a bit fresh and more realistic (nice example is of course main couple falling into the overused category of older powerful male & young naive girl; but also Shi San-Si Ming story etc.).
So you don’t have to turn your suspension of disbelief on maximum, accepting the fact that "the plot-said-so" is a valuable narrative device and instead you can enjoy the logical and wholesome journey and interactions of well-rounded characters (not only the main leads but also side ones ).
Most of the characters have an inherent flaw, or at least dominant trait that determines their behaviour (being it rigidness, pride, low self-esteem, inability to let go of the past or laziness) and moves the plot. The value of character, so to speak, is then based on their ability to understand this flaw and, at least try to, overcome it (apart from the ML, of course; I do like him but he is quite set in his ways… well, he is the ML and not the youngest of gods). If they try to, overcome it or at least accept it, they are the "good" guys (not only main cast, but also side ones such as Lin Mo sister). If they remain blind - you have tragic ones (such as the Queen of Shang Ling or her daughter) or the bad ones (even though it can be argued that even those are mostly tragic). Again - quite normal narrative device but in the dramaland not so common, unfortunately.
There is quite a number of “bad guys”, however, not one of them is truly evil – even the villainess is portrayed with enough empathy to accept her actions (what I enjoyed is the fact that her obsession with ML is not her only motivation. I would be happier if they omitted it completely or played down even more but still, she has her aspirations and dreams (and traumas) that are independent of ML. And she is rather bitter when they turn into naught. She is… a career woman, so to speak. And yes, we could complain about the fact that the only truly ambitious woman is the bad one, but I think it is better to just note it as a representation of the culture.). Not to mention the God of Thunder – finally an arc where having different opinion (than the main couple) does not mean to be evil. And I must admit, as the story progressed, I came to like him quite a lot, especially his unintentional comedy.
The story itself is engaging – it consists of nice and quite balanced mixture of comedy, tragedy, love, fantasy, action, and a bit of mystery. It is essentially a bildungsroman – the story of a girl growing up into adulthood, responsibility etc., but also of an old man overcoming his occupational burn-out mixed with depression and PTSD. Apart from their individual journeys and common rom-com, there is the arc of demon tribe and great wars, side love stories and all the little bits from everyday heaven realm life which are truly endearing and help to evoke the stagnant time of the Heaven, where the life span is measured in ten of thousands of years. On a side note; the timeline, generally, is wonky and I had quite of lot of trouble to determine whether it was hours, days or years that passed between certain events. Can be annoying but in hindsight, maybe intentional.
The only real problem I had with the story is the ending. The last arc, in contrast to the first two was unbalanced, relied quite a lot on telling and even though you could understand why it happened the way it did, it still felt a bit rushed (in comparison to other drama in similar situation still a very good job). I guess this was due to technical issues and various… bureaucratic reasons and not because of laziness or fatigue of the authors.
As for the acting… it was just fantastic. No awkwardly standing actors with absurd dialogues acted out in a manner of four-year-old. Even the "cute" (i.e. kitschy) ones were bearable, the speech and expression human - so refreshing!
Love and destiny is quite often more about showing than telling, as it is supposed to be with visual media. (Chang Chen was in this regard a treat, of course - to convey so much with so little - truly wonderful!) The only sad thing is that I find it so strange, even though it should be the standard for acting profession, should it not?
As for the chemistry, I enjoyed it quite a lot, whether they were silly, flirting, serious or in love. Especially their interaction in ep 50 and 51. Big applaud to the actors and the director & screenwriter for embodying the whole thing without much description (that came latter from other characters, unfortunately... but still) or even dialogue.
On the side note – I was surprised to note that so many viewers were unhappy about ML appearance, or age. I think, as many others do, he was perfect for this role, which is the most important. As for his looks, I personally enjoyed that he doesn’t look like a 15-yo lead singer from a boy band but still - I think his (or anybody else´s) youth, beauty or attractiveness should not have such an impact on rating a show.
Overall, it is a worthy addition to the world of Chinese fantasy drama that should set standards for acting and character development; if nothing else.
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This review may contain spoilers
While it was entertaining and beautiful drama and it did execute well, I personally am disappointed with the last few episodes. I felt it rushed too fast and sometimes slow paced. Some plots don't make sense to me. I think the age is a little ridiculous, and yes I know it doesn’t matter as long as they love each other. Despite these ones, it had a good storyline that didn't have melodrama. This drama has great cinematography and settings, which are strong points. I praise their acting as they did well with their emotions and facial expression. Ni Ni’s acting is a champ. I like how their love is powerful and beautiful and able to break the barrier. The production values are indeed top match since the design of costume is appealing. The OST is amazing. Overall, I enjoyed watching it, and it had good potential. I don’t like the ending because it was very flat and we don’t know how he gets out. I am very disappointed the second strongest person barely has action scenes. I recommend this drama if you like beautiful love stories. Was this review helpful to you?
Tedious
Chang Chen was too old for this role and it had nothing to do with his looks but with the story that they were trying to sell us, particularly when the FL's acting looks so amateurish when juxtaposed with Chen's many years of experience. That more than anything pulled me out of the drama and despite attempting to watch it several times, I couldn't bring myself to care about any of them.XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
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The plot was boring and the Father ANNOYED ME SO BAD, I MUTED!
I get that some dramas you have to suffer for the first couple episodes but this was too much suffering for something that seems mediocre. You can tell where the plot is going with the pretty obvious girl with mysterious origins awaking an evil creature and then you throw her into a world she doesn't know with a silent War God just awoken trying to get his bearings and figure out what's she's about because again, she freed the monster and him so OOOOOOO intrigue! BORING! They'll probably fall in love but face terrible dangers together or some generic thing. I would have kept going even despite this but every time the father of the main character came on, I muted it. The most shrill annoying sound! I get that's the character but no thanks.Was this review helpful to you?
Por qué fue este drama tan importante para mí y lo valoro tanto?
Seguro que "Love and Destiny" también tendrá algunas debilidades como algunos episodios entre medio que fueron un poco lentos retomando inesperadamente la dinámica de nuevo en los próximos, pero como es el primer drama de este género que yo vi, sencillamente me dejó completamente impresionada y cautivada, sin palabras ante tanta belleza, fantasía creativa y ensueño por disfrutar.Me transportó tanto a otro mundo que los días restantes me sentí extraña en este, el nuestro de cada día. Me di cuenta que necesitaba soñar más en mi vida particular. Fue así entonces cuando empecé a buscar otras obras parecidas entre las producciones chinas y di de golpe con todo el nuevo mundo del arte de la producción audiovisual y musical actual de los asiáticos.
Desde "Herr der Ringe" y "Avatar 1"no me había vuelto a sentir así.
Para mí "Love and Destiny" es una obra maestra en todos los aspectos que además me llevó a descubrir un tesoro más todavía escondido para mí.
Me ha abierto un mundo completamente nuevo y más amplio y enriquecido mucho en el alma.
Por esta transformación doy gracias !
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