Song of the Moon (2022)

Difficult Choices made in the name of Love & Protection

What is worth memorable for me after watching this drama is the love story of the second main couple, A Fu Jun & Luo Ning. However, I do badly wish the story of A Fu & Luo Ning was written out differently with slight modifications, and given a happy ending. In addition, the way the main male lead (immortal Luo Ge) falls for the main female lead ( mortal Liu Shao) all over again after he ascends to an immortal is also worth memorable.
One thing about this drama is true for sure: This drama lacks a proper well fleshed-out plot. This drama lacks a proper story. The storyline is hazy, confusing --- not coherent or organic.
The only good thing is: the story gets quite fast-paced towards the middle ( the in-between eps,18-35) .
However, the problem is the story writers of this drama really know how to confuse the audience by churning the plot into an entertaining, spicy masala story with dissatisfactory endings. The director really knows how to confuse the audience and get themselves tangled in myriad emotions such that, in the end, one is left wondering with questions like "what the hell is happening? " & " this is not how I expected it'd turn out"...

However, this drama really deviates from the usual stereotypes shown in the xianxia dramas so far. That's the unique factor of this drama.

The feel-good aspects of this drama:
1) the beautiful osts, especially two of the osts sung by Zhang Bin Bin ("If there's a prophet " & "Half-hearted"), and " Month by Month" Intro ost
2) beautiful, handsome actors with excellent acting skills: Zhang Bin Bin's acting and looks in costume as both Luo Ge, moon god & evil spirit is really sexy. His acting skills is the best out of all other actors in this drama. Only the actor who portrayed character He Na, Wang You Shou matched Zhang Bin Bin's skill levels in terms of both looks & acting.
3) in-between thrilling, enjoyable, entertaining developments in the love stories of all main couples, and engaging action scenes (especially in episode 40).
4) the thrill of watching the main leads duel each other
5) good duel scenes such as duels & fights in which all major characters get involved in the desert-like great wilderness battle scene clip, the fight scenes in ep 40.

Leaving all the above factors aside, both the endings (Liu Shao's chapter & Luo Ge's chapter), left my hurt crushed with disappointment. Yes, there were likeable aspects in both episodes such as the female lead sacrificing for the male lead in ep 39 & the coming together of all main couples in episode 40. So, personally, episode 40 was more satisfactory to watch. But there was no killing of the male lead in episode 39, so from that viewpoint, ep 39 satisfied me. In the end, it is confusing for me to decide which ending to choose because both endings felt highly incomplete. In episode 40, Liu Shao seems to be someone who survived, and roaming the mortal world as an immortal, and she happens to meet Luo Ge, A Fu and Luo Ning. Yet, it seems all of them except Liu Shao, have turned into mortals and living ordinary lives ( which is not what I expect in a xianxia drama). Both endings were disappointing. The only good event in episode 40 seems to be the reunion of immortal Liu Shao and Luo Ge( who could be mortal/immortal? Not sure) which isn't explicitly conveyed.
There are several flaws in the story of this drama which left me grievously disappointed. Firstly, the story was unique, different, refreshing till ep 36, but towards the end, the plot progression became so convoluted that viewers will be left puzzled. In episode 40 especially, the viewer will be wondering whether Liu Shao time traveled and came back with her sun spirit unsealed, to fight the evil spirit ( because in there, the plot progressed uptill that point in such a way as to leave viewers wonder whether the story has suddenly merged with Liu Shao's chapter in episode 39 ) or whether it portrays another alternate ending altogether.

Another big blunder in the plot progression is the marriage of one of the main leads to his brother's wife. Honestly, couldn't understand why the writers would complicate things between the next main couple (A Fu-Luo Ning couple) that way. Of course, the bride abduction by A Fu Jun & the forced marriage scenes compensated for that blunder in the storyline, because all the clips & scenes related to those two events were really entertaining to watch --- something that I've never come across in other Xianxia dramas so far. Yet the director, and storywriters again played spoilt sport by coming up with a sad ending for the second main lead couple (A Fu Jun-Luo Ning). If it were a happy ending, I'd have tolerated the introduction of 'the brother's fake marriage to one's bride' idea. The only thing consoling for me is that this couple at least died together without killing each other ( this is one aspect of episode 40 that I love) unlike the main couple.

Yet another big blunder is designing an attractive darker version of moon god character only to kill him off in the end. In the drama, the evil spirit doesn't behave truly like a typical evil being. It has an obsession for Liu Shao, prefers straightforward fights with its enemies and even gives its enemies time to prepare to scheme against him! Now, this was really funny. This evil thing seemed to be designed more like a sophisticated, borderline person with psychosis or split personality disorder. For such a character, I'd have prefered an alternate ending where the dark part of moon god's heart integrates with the light, good part of moon god's heart(who's Luo Ge) in a wholesome, positive way where both parts of the heart of moon god decide to arrive at a compromise, and get a happy ending with Liu Shao. Afterall, both are affected by Liu Shao. Even the so-called evil spirit ( dark version of moon god's heart) didn't chose to eliminate Liu Shao though she kept attacking & hurting him with her bunch of immortal friends. Even when the evil spirit was in its angriest moments, it only hurt her hand, and didn't kill her off while she went into sleeping mode to recover. So, why not unify both the light & dark parts of the heart of moon god and give this new being favourable traits of the evil spirit & favourable traits of Luo Ge just like "venom" Character in Hollywood's marvel franchise movies?
And a happy ending could've been given to this newly integrated version of moon god & Liu Shao. It'd have been better for the drama as a whole. Afterall, the chemistry between Liu Shao & the evil spirit was quite spicy, entertaining to watch. And the evil spirit even utters a monologue in episode 40 when it gets puzzled by Liu Shao's rejection. This was another flaw. The dark version of moon god/evil spirit isn't portrayed as completely evil. It still spares Liu Shao, and likes the feisty side of her whereas if it were really cold & evil, it should be focusing on how to eliminate this weakness of its host, Luo Ge. So, I felt this was another major flaw in the drama where the evil spirit was designed more like an anti-hero & given a bad ending. It's hard to stay detached from a character who doesn't completely behave like a true psycho-evil, but more like an anti-hero with borderline psychosis. Such a character will only appear more unique, appealing ( especially the way the dark version of moon god was portrayed in the drama) .

In all, I would've loved to see a completely satisfactory, fulfilling happy endings for:
1) A Fu Jun-Luo Ning couple ( where they don't lose their immortal powers & live like ordinary people or die & disappear)
2)the immortal Luo Ge and Liu Shao couple ( where both the bad & good parts of the moon god's personalities reach a compromise within Luo Ge's mind or heart), and thus the evil spirit turns into an anti-hero immortal Luo Ge & he & Liu Shao gets a happy ending.

But both of these never happened. What's worse, no other satisfactory alternate endings were written for these two couples which felt COMPLETE, SATISFACTORY.

The only satisfactory ending was the one designed for character, He Na in episode 40. I didn't like the ending for He Na in ep 39 which I found disastrous because it seemed to take all attention away from the main couple, and instead seemed to put the limelight on the chemistry between the main female lead & He Na. For a moment there, you might wonder whether Liu Shao-He Na is the main couple /main leads because He Na's poignant dialogues in his dying moments in ep 39 are so heartbreaking to watch, and one gets to sense the potential chemistry between him and Liu Shao.

To sum up, Overall, the episodes that focused on the mortal world were downright boring. And there is very little logic in this drama. It beats the logic of even xianxia dramas. Every event is made convoluted, dialogues made contradictory --- especially from ep 38. If the endings of all the main couples were happy in a satisfactory manner, I will definitely be willing to accept, enjoy even the illogical aspects of the story, but, unfortunately, that was not the case. In the end, there were interesting twists and turns in the story which made most episodes from 17-40 entertaining to watch, but the dissatisfactory endings didn't make watching the last five episodes that fulfilling.
The only episodes worth watching are the episodes that focus on the deepening of love between all main couples after they start living in the immortal world --- maybe from episodes 17-35. Uptill ep 35, the plot of this drama had lot of potential --- it was going strong (even without logic it is interesting & worth a re-watch). Each episode from ep 17 till episode 35 brought pleasant surprises --- not nasty ones.
I especially enjoyed watching the progress of the love story between the main leads after Luo Ge left his mortal life as Lu Li forever. The love story of the main leads gets more poetic and more intense after that. However, I didn't like the look of the wedding costumes of the main leads. They both looked like modified versions of santa clause, all dressed up for Christmas.
Lastly, I enjoyed the progression of the love story of the second main couple, A Fu Jun & Luo Ning ( Luo Ge's sister) till episode 35. Things go downhill from ep 36. At least, their ending, though not completely satisfactory to me ( because I love this couple the most), at least, it made sense and was beautiful, poetic.
Also, I found A Fu Jun character truly designed to be behaving like a main lead at many crucial points in the story, and Luo Ning behaving like a main female lead befitting the xianxia genre at many crucial points in the plot progression of this story. Their love story is sweet, simple, classy to watch. A Fu Jun reminded me of Dong Fang Qing Cang of Cang Lan Jue Xianxia novel. The only thing missing was a happy ending for them. Their story itself could've been made into another drama worth a happy ending.
As for the main leads, I really love their 'lantern floating scenes & dialogues' in episode 27 & ep 39, especially in ep 27. Immortal Luo Ge & mortal Liu shao's interactions felt magical to me as a viewer, while watching the 'flying the wish lantern scene' in ep 27.

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This is almost be one of my favorite. I love all the cast and story. I'm so into the story. I love He Na characters, friendship between Liu Shao and Luo Ning and the red flag A Fu Jun also the handsome Lu Li. The costum, CGI, everything is also good. But I prefer they make a sad ending than make two ending like this. I remember when I watch ep 39 I'm cry really hard when He Na died. And when it comes to the last minute I keep remind myself there's one ep left and I thought it will happy ending for Lu Li and Liu Shao. But than when ep 40 start I'm really shock and confused see He Na! So I make a research and found there's two ending. This is make me lost my interest for the second ending and also for this drama :(

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Okay

First two episode was little confused ,I mean the story was not clear ,so many questions were bumped into my head which were cleared at the end of the drama .
The story is some what similar to the above mentioned drama,"till the end of the moon ". Though "song of the moon drama had released first but I had watched above mentioned drama first.
Actually at first I chose "song of the moon"drama but after watching four -five episodes ,I get bored and decided to drop it . But instead of drop it . I discontinued watching it and starting watching ,"till the end of the moon. After its completion.Then I read some reviews of"song of the moon drama and decided to resume it . When it was reaching to its end ,I started liking it . Actually in this drama there were some other characters than leads who fetched my attention towards them . And I emotionally connected with them .
But when the drama reached its end ,we had seen it has two ending ,so last two drama had shown two ending of the drama.
,in first one ,one of the main lead died and other ending another lead died .
I liked the other ending , which had shown in last episode ,In that ending the one who died may come again means may rebirth because this person was god before died . So may their soul scattered and can assimilate but in first case the one who was died was a mortal so can't be possible to take rebirth.
But both the ending didn't have happy ending and that disappointed me so I hope there must be second season.

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Falls into the Same Trap as Other Dramas in the End

This starts out as charming and dynamic. I loved the chemistry between the leads. They felt like a real couple despite the fantasy elements, because their personalities compliment each other and they see each other as people. All of that disappears about half-way through the story. When we get to the immortal segment of the show, the male lead becomes too serious and boring. It never feels like she loves this new him, but the old him that she used to know. And since he's essentially a wooden block because immortals apparently can't have personalities, I can't say that there's much to love there. Beautiful music, incredible acting, but oh man, the story did them dirty half-way through to the end.

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Refreshing Drama

The acting are good. Zhang Binbin always did good job for his dramas, Xulu is nailed too. but why the couples are hard to unite, it pisses me off.

Ultimately, I hope God of The Moonlight and God of the sun will be happy together. Lu Li/Luo Ge and Liu Shao deserve happy ending. Will Luo Ning be happy with afu in the end? or will they be cursed? Luo Ning is adorable, but Afu is totally demon.

How come the immortal Palace didn't know any demon energy around Bai Feng meanwhile the demon knows her energy? It doesn't make sense. how come the immortal palace has such weak security?

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Has potential

I don’t know how I feel about this series. It has potential, a strong and amazing cast, lots of beautiful cg, and a solid beginning storyline. But it leads on to these hints that underline the issue of reincarnation of immortals and how there this big bad guy, both main leads always injuring themselves and giving up their lives countless times for the three worlds. I don’t know how many times I was like again?? He going to give himself up and she going to do something stupid again and he going to save her. It got boring…very boring fast but I stayed for the second lead and second couple. I was rooting so hard for A Fu and Luo Ning. I knew it was going to be a sad tragic love story between the two of them and it was. I personally like their story way more than the main couples.

The other downside was the ending. Maybe I did skip too much but how many of you were just as confused about the ending and what was going on? Like did time rewind and skip what happened after He Na died after attempting to kill the moon god? Or were they stuck in a dream of a realm of another realm?? I don’t think I want to go back and find out.

This series had potential, it really did but the connection between the storyline and the characters just feel flat. I couldn’t bring myself to give it more than 5/10

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Good Story

At first, I began this drama because of BinBin (I like him a lot because he is a versatile actor and I know his acting never disappoints me unless I drop the drama because of the storyline). Even though there are a lot of dramas that I drop midway or they become pretty annoying and long, Song of the Moon is not lengthy compared to other XianXia/Wuxia dramas. It is not very unique but it has some unique features to itself. If you are a fan of this genre and fantasy series it can be satisfying. The same as every other series it has its pros and cons which I will mention here.

Pros:
1. Capable actors all around this series. All five main actors were very capable and matched with their respective characters. There is a lot of chemistry between all the couples and friends in this drama (honestly all the actors were matched perfectly with their characters, I was wondering how all of these actors gather together).
2. The main story and side stories are moving forward together and they become intertwined with each other.
3. In this story there were a lot of gray characters among both immortals and demons. Almost nobody was evil from the beginning to the end. It showed how desires and actions can mix together and create good or bad results. This part of this drama was so realistic and unique among the Xianxia dramas. I like this feature to the point that I like to rewatch this drama only because of this feature.
4. I like the ML (Zhang BinBin) as 3 very different characters. He nailed all the characters pretty well. While he portrayed all the differences between them and the instance changes between Lu Ge and Dark Moonlight, he also showed the intertwined moments of Lu Li and Lu Ge with each other. So I never become tired of his acting and roles.
5. The costume was pretty good, especially for the Demon King (He Na). We always see demons in darker shades of colour but for me, it is the first time to see a demon in white and it was absolutely matched with his perfect personality.
6. The music was very good and it was not disturbing.

Okay, it is time for the Cons:
1. Between episodes 22 to 30 it becomes a little bit annoying and dragging with despicable acts from those gray characters which can make some viewer desire to drop it in this part (*Warning*: there are a lot of important events in this part which answer a lot of questions, so if you fast forward this part you will miss a lot and make you confused at the end. I noticed this from some of the comments).
2. The childish voice of the female actresses (both Luo Ning and Liu Shao). Honestly, who created this thought that if a fully grown woman has the voice of a 5-year-old kid make her cute? I almost become allergic to it.
3. Well, I think the biggest disadvantage of this drama was its ending. I will explain the ending in the next paragraph please be aware of the spoil alert.

The Ending:
Since the ending is very important to me I checked its ending before I began to watch it. So I found out, it has 2 types of endings. I don't like to watch more than one ending, so I always pick one ending in both novels and movies with more than one ending (because it can mess with my feelings towards that story). I picked the one with the happier ending (episode 40). So, I can't talk about the other ending because I will never watch that episode. The reason that I picked this episode is because Lu Ge and Liu Shao get together at the end. It also has some other good points like the fate of He Na and the action of A Fu because I couldn't see any other way for him to redeem himself after 37 episodes of wrongdoings.
But there were a lot of cons to this ending all of them were because of the rushed ending:
1. First there were some confusing moments like the wedding. It was all of a sudden without any opening and explanation of why this happened only the voice of God of Moonlight which didn't have any mention of a wedding.
2. Second I could understand how the seal of Liu Shao's ascension to God was broken but how she went back in time was not clear at all. The last episode was a very rushed episode to finish the story.
3. The third aspect, I didn't like about the ending was too little screen time for Dark Moonlight. From the beginning to the end, we heard about that evil character while we saw all types of evil actions from others or mixing of this evil being with other characters but the moment that the Dark Moonlight came to life we couldn't see a lot. The screen time for him is too short to show anything. So the only thing that I saw was a gorgeous devilish guy with a lot of charm who did what bad thing exactly? Ah, he killed only 2 characters who caused a lot of destruction through the drama. So anyway it was too hard to hate that character and the only reason was short screen time.

Based on all of it together I could ignore the disadvantages in the last episode and even watch it for the second time. So I suggest this drama to those who like a fantasy with some realistic characters, an interesting story, and a big group of talented cast.

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Boring leads - still watching because I love the cast and I am enjoying the side characters...

1st off I came into this drama with high expectations.
1. I love Wuxia/Xianxia dramas
2. Vin Zhang is one of my favorite Chinese actors
3. I love Xu Lu too!

****Maybe slight spoilers about the leads?****
The beginning was very promising. It started with the typical Wuxia formula of overly optimistic and "fun" beginning which quickly begin turning dark no later than episode 8. I loved the plot idea of them not being able to be together due to the opposite Moon/Sun energy (which seemed to suddenly become not an issue at all?? Or did I sleep through a way they figured out to be together even with opposite powers? Are they even together? Cant even tell...) and couldn't wait to see how they tried to overcome it. Vin Zhang as Lu Li was such a fun character and I loved his chemistry with Liu Shao but once he became Luo Ge their relationship became a snorefest. The pining to be together again become redundant after like 5 episodes and I never felt the relationship recovered once they were "together" again, if they are? I can't tell..and again I did sleep throuh some parts of in episodes 28ish-32ish...I am at episode 36 now and I forgot they were even supposed to be in a relationship. At this point, I wouldn't even notice if they were gone. They quickly became the most boring characters in the show. I am way more invested in the Demon King He Na, his brother A Fu Jun, Luo Ge's sister Lou Ning, Wan Sui, and Shang Yu Rong. I was even more invested in the relationship between Wu Shi Wei and another guy for their brief appearance.

I only have 5 episodes left so I will most likely finish but I am seriously disappointed in the main characters. Their relationship appears nonexistent and they have become boring.

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WE SHOULD BE USED BY NOW...

Correct me if I'm wrong but the quality of iQIYI dramas is now becoming a serious concern to me and probably a number of others. It's come to my observation that nearly ninety percent of the dramas released by iQIYI aren't on par with its competitors in WeTv and Youku who by the way usually release hits. You don't have to look so far, the most recent banger from Youku has been Immortal Samsara, falling into your smile, Ashes of love and Love and redemption, WeTv on the other hand also airs Ancient Love Poetry, Love like the galaxy whilst iQIYI releases My heart which was a flop, thousand years for you which faired quite well but I still thought the graphic and filming area were a bit off. And that's the other thing, for some reason most dramas that air on iQIYI are filmed in not so fitting environments. I definitely not saying iQIYI drams are poor but it's to my concern that they release competitive dramas so seldom, yet their competitors are doing it more often. I really liked Dance of the sky empire, The great ruler, no boundary which were actually aired on iQIYI.

But enough of that, let's discuss the currently airing drama that we've all longed for, for almost an entire year. I was hyped up for this drama and I’ve got to put this out there that it didn't disappoint. If at all you are watching this as one of your first dramas, then this should be a good and worthwhile drama. The cast was lit, I really loved it. Having Chen Yu Qi as your support actress is a bit ballsy and it faired decently. Vin Zhang (male lead) did well, and we shouldn't be criticising him so much as he has taken on an entire new role of being quite talkative and naughty, he actually did well. And of course, not to go unappreciated was the female lead, Xu Lu who was absolutely brilliant. The rest of the cast played their roles fittingly well, the antagonists were fantastic.
The story was a magnificently written and of course it's the stereotypical ordinary guy goes to an academy and cultivates to surpass the rest -ish, which I by the way love and can never get enough of. However, despite the fact that the story was brilliant, I noticed that it was being rushed. Much had happened in the first few episodes that I thought the drama was nearing the end. Much is exposed in the first few episodes which I personally thought could have been held for later. The romance between the male lead and female lead could've have been delayed at least to the sixth episode but it is what it is, and the current episodes have so far impressed. Lu Li's senior is the perfect antagonist, she does well in all her films, I actually like her performances. We just have to keep watching to see how the drama fairs going forward. It's definitely a worthwhile drama, that unquestionable unless you have your personal agendas against the actors but except that, the drama is, I wouldn't say among the best but it's hovering between C-B ratings category. And please try to be realistic when rating this drama though, I usually see unrealistic ratings given to the drama as if the people rating have no knowledge about Chinese Dramas, so please don't rate if you know little about the subject. Thank you.

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kinda meh, but will give it a chance because of the cast

I only just finished episode 10, but like the headline says, meh. Strictly speaking it's not bad, but it's also not like GREAT. I expect I'll update this as I watch more.

So far, I like the relationship between the ML and the FL, they are cute and sweet without being overboard. I love the little nose tap the ML does to the FL, so sweet.

Thus far, the ML's Senior (Bai Fang) and Master make me want to smash my head into a wall. Nothing like people doing things for their own selfish reasons and claiming they're doing it for others.

I like Duke Wu, and much of the supporting cast, but find the "chubby sidekick" a bit much with his over acting at times. I'm sure I would love the character if he weren't quite so cartoonish as he seems like a genuinely good person.

The 2nd ML, Ha Na(the Demon King) seems to be one of those "I'll suffer in silence for my love" kind of characters which are incredibly tedious and I'm sincerely hoping he doesn't turn out that as he has a lot of potential to be interesting.

Well that's it for now, I tend to watch dramas in chunks so will update once I've finished episode 20. 👍

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Great series

This is a good series I just happened on to it ..
I love Li Lu he is the moving fur e in this series. Full of personality and well acted. The start of it was a bit weird and I m not crazy bout these baby like voices of some of these female roles but getting used to it Hey tough girl give me a tough voice. Lol. Seemingly gits the part better but the demons are very acted and chosen w great people in this one too. Will be interesting to see where it all goes. I like the action and it s very roantic in a good way not dilly like constant fights etc. Between the two .

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Fantasy/Historical Genre not my cup of tea - bad plot and production quality

Song of the Moon is another fantasy/historical drama that I dropped. I don't like this genre, and I dropped all of them, like Immortal Samsara, Blue Whisper, etc. The plot is not realistic; hence I cannot relate.

I like Vin Zhang and Xu Lu, but their recent dramas like "A romance of the little forest" by Vin Zhang and "Gentlemen of East 8th; Are you Safe; and Women Walk the Line" by Xu Lu are all bad.

I watched 5 episodes of Song of the Moon and can get myself engaged in this drama, so I am dropping it.

I am also giving this drama a 4.0 rating because of the bad plot and production quality. The CGI is so bad that it hurt my eyes to watch it.

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