The Legend of Shen Li

10

The best drama I have watched in a while. After watching many dramas, I was missing the magical spark, which made me fall in love with watching dramas.

Legend of Shen Li has an interesting start with a forbidden romance, strong FL, nice and graceful ML, cute side characters, quality music, action scenes and CGI. Occasionally the story feels like nothing is happening then boom, it gets interesting. Perhaps that's the only hindrance to not loving this.

The days I keep contemplating of dropping this show, it comes back with a banger episode that makes me swoon.
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Edit -

Loved the ending. So sweet. Worth the watch and the rewatch.

Things I liked
Shen Li's origin and her parents
Character Growth of Furong
Mofang's arc
Furong's Sister watching Furong's memories
The events leading to the wedding of Jin
Mortal realm scenes
Painting formation
ShenLi as Cluck Cluck

Things I didn't like
CGI fights though good were not my cup of tea

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A captivating tale of love, adventure, and self-discovery.

The Legend of ShenLi is a delightful and captivating series that takes you on an unforgettable journey through ancient Chinese mythology. With its rich world-building, engaging characters, and thrilling plot, it's a must-watch for fans of the fantasy genre.

What sets this show apart is its strong and dynamic female lead, Shen Li, who defies stereotypes and stands out as a powerful and capable heroine. The chemistry between Shen Li and the male lead, Xing Yun, is both heartwarming and humorous, making their interactions a highlight of the series.

The stunning visuals and epic fight scenes are a feast for the eyes, while the emotional depth of the story will keep you invested in the characters' fates. Overall, The Legend of ShenLi is a captivating tale of love, adventure, and self-discovery that will leave you wanting more.

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A Fantasy Romance Reignited: A Review of "The Legend of Shen Li"

It's been far too long since I've been swept away by a fantasy romance drama. But "The Legend of Shen Li," a Chinese drama starring the captivating Zhao Li Ying and the ever-charismatic Lin Geng Xin, has reignited my love for the genre.

This epic tale unfolds across the three realms: the divine, the immortal, and the mortal. We meet Shen Li, a powerful yet compassionate ruler burdened by pain and duty. Xing Zhi, on the other hand, carries the weight of immense responsibility, leaving little room for personal desires. Their paths collide, and as they navigate the treacherous waters of the three realms, they find solace and strength in each other.

This drama is for those who enjoy fantasy-romance genre or Chinese mythology.

Synopsis:
Shen Li (Zhao Li Ying), a ruler of the Immortal world also known as Lord Bi Cang, is forced into a loveless marriage with a lord of the Divine realm. But it turns out the man she is to marry is a playboy and idles away his life. To escape this ill-fated marriage she tried to run away but is in-turn chased by the soldiers of the immortal world.
During her escape she experiences life-threatening injuries leading her to turn into her original form, a phoenix and falls into the Mortal world.
There, mistaken that she is a chicken, a butcher captures her and plucks all her feathers making it hard for her to escape.
A kind but sickly man, Xing Yun (Lin Geng Xin), finds her and recuperates her back from her ailing health and some how is the only one who understands her. To repay this man for the kindness he's shown her, Shen Li protects him from all threats and dangers. But her past soon catches up, forcing her to confront her responsibilities. Can love blossom amidst duty and destiny?
How will fate work between them? Are the gears already set and turning?

Personal remarks:
After the c-drama Princess Agents, I finally see the two leads reuniting in this wonderful drama. The storyline was so engaging I couldn't help but personally feel that 39 episodes is not enough. The actors performed beautifully and their on-screen chemistry is undeniable, creating a romance that will leave you grinning from ear to ear.
The plot unfolds with satisfying consistency, leaving no unanswered questions.
The supporting cast shines brightly, with each character bringing depth to the narrative. (Prepare to fall for the second male lead, Mo Fang!)
The direction and cinematography are top-notch, making the wait for this drama well worth it and the engaging plot, complex characters and thrilling fights made this drama a beautiful one!

I hope you all too enjoy this drama!

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This is wonderful. My favorite actress of all time. Love the overall cast.

Wah all the great actors are together. Halleluyah.. . It's hit and hilarious 🎊💯umma..We love it already. We specially I have been waiting for them together.. and also my favorite actors together in a wonderful drama. ❤But I must say princess agent should have a one more season...😢😊 This is already good. The beginning was hilariously funny 😆 I hope to see more happy scenes, but with that I know we will see some sad 😔 ones. Specifically the side characters I will love to much & then they die 😢😂. I know it will make me very emotional 😭. Here is hoping for a happy ending.. 🤞🏻🤞🏻. The leads have great chemistry. Congratulations 🎉 to all
I hope there will be a happy ending.

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Gods and the Natural Law

I enjoyed this xianxia very much, thrilled to see that it got over 100 million views lately, to share in the excitement.

There was a sprawling cast, with over 70 characters that played a large or tiny but always significant role. Realms and Beasts composed a variegated tapestry that the ancient god, left lonely after the departure of his former many friends, still added to with his magic brush. The core was important, but not so much that it couldn't be lived without. Finally, the time of the gods ended but not our favorites', to enjoy peace and love, and mischief, that added spice, after the worlds shattering events they'd gone through.

The division of that world in Three Realms was explained in a fun "puppet theater" moment, to the Mortal assembly at the marketplace.

There were a lot of endearing and funny moments, some amusing birds, a Cluck Cluck (Kekeda) ; a mischievous Shush (Xuxu) parrot; grand phoenixes ; some fearful monsters ; an awful wizard and his ghostly but murderous ilk. There was banter and wars. Correcting a school of shape shifting Koi fry. Taming a lion. Playing leaf music.

That piece had many look for it : it was the tune, played on the Chinese flute "dizi",of one of the main songs: 不知返 (Bu Zhi Fan, No Turning Back) sung by Wang Heye ; the music, main songs and background music, was beautiful, composed by Yang Bingyin for whom this drama will become a signature work. The opening theme : 碧苍战歌 (Bi Cang Battle song) even got played on a televised full orchestra concert. Among the most remarked pieces of instrumental bgm were : See Vastness (见苍茫) , Invoke the River of Oblivion (引忘川) , and the clucking and mischievous Person Selling Three Things (卖叁之人) that accompanied Furong Jun's pranks.

Almost never a dull moment, despite the flashbacks to remind of key points or offer revelations.

The main cast was excellent:
Lin Gengxin at his best as full and manly, but considerate, God Xing Zhi,
Zhao Liying as an almost Goddess Athena-like immortal wielding her spear,
Xin Yunlai as Mo Fang, the ambiguous subordinate of Shen Li with a hidden past,
He Yu, as the ebullient "playboy" Furong Jun who grew out of his youthful pranks such as hiding a full armory in a Qiankun bag.
Zeng Li as Shen Muyue, the Master of the Immortal tribe and surrogate mother of Shen Li,
Liu Guanlin as the comically feckless Emperor of the Divine Realm, whose indecision triggered the events,
Li Jiaqi as the "Goddess of the highest Daoist Heaven" (Luotian) leader of the fangirls of Xing Zhi in Divine Realm, with blunt methods to get info, was grown enough to consider his personal as well as the Three Realms best interests.

I was puzzled that Huang ChengCheng was included in main cast, although his role as Wang Bao was the least significant.
Qiu Xinzhi as Liu Ming was also less impressive than his main cast status announced, and did not get much screen time.
Wei Zixin as Fu Sheng was not included in main cast, although his fear-inducing scenes were essential in many episodes.
Others not in main cast were remarkable :
Xuan Lu as Liu Yu, and Xu Haiqiao as Fenglai , played as secondary but essential couple,
Wang Yiyao and Zhou Junwei, as the Golden Lady and "cultivator", played another type of couple.
Dong Jie and Song Ningfeng, as Yun Niang and Zhou San Liang, announced one painful way to ascend to immortality,
Li Zifeng, Hu Dandan and Huang Yi played the recurring love triangle that was a cursed cycle, yearning for a choice and end.
Zhou Xiaochuan as Shun Bei ; Chen Zhen as Zhu Fei ; Yang He as Chi Rong ; Liu Yu as Qing Yan were some of the generals that served as necessary personnel for the military parts
Chen Lu as Rou Ya, Shen Li's maid, was lively and fun to watch.

Sometimes, deep reflections and thoughts were proffered : are gods still needed in our new age ? Do they need to be violently killed or cremated, or can they just retire and live for themselves ? Can those who have been put into power and accepted the duties, always be up to their tasks ?

I liked that the drama was a soft romance too, satisfying if not of the steamy sort, and that the marriage question was shown as not that necessary, as a political or society requirement, but just as a cherry on top of the cake, sealing the union in less flamboyant way as sealing an Abyss, but leaving room for sparks and continued slow burn but long lasting fire. This viral message to those who still see marriage as needed at a certain age, with desirable or not age gap, and body appearance in terms of height, roundness of face or filling the clothes as well as the shoes.

The God walking bare feet on the shards was one striking moment to show how despair and depression can hit even those that are relied on, taking them for granted, watching their moves and judging behaviors from below.

This drama actually went further than only pure entertainment.

I added as a companion piece a series of interlinked posts, that offer information about the drama, thoughts about xianxia realms and the abyss, an illustrated and complete characters' gallery with an alphabetical key to the 63+ portrayed.
https://kisskh.at/discussions/yu-feng-xing/124265-notes-about-the-legend-of-shen-li-xianxia-drama?pid=3002697&page=1#p3002697

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best costume dráma 2024 !

I give this drama a well-deserved 10 stars, you must see it! I liked them very much in princess agent this couple is one of my favorites the drama has a very beautiful story the chemistry between the main leads is unreal crazy I love them ..zha liying is so beautiful in this drama I love dramas where women protect men this is exactly what I am I needed to see ... I have to admit that Zhao Liying is my second favorite ... the first and my idol is Dilraba, I love her and all her dramas, so this review is not because I am a fan of the actors, but because of the beautiful love story of the strong female lead. perfect scenes, beautiful music, and great talent, I've only seen 10 ep, but that's enough for me to rate it a definite 10! definitely one of the most beautiful costume dramas

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An unconvincing story

The first half was generally quite enjoyable, but the pace just dragged to a halt around episode 20 and the story never really recovered. I don't think I've ever seen any drama that abuses flashbacks the way this show does. The amount of filler time is just insane, and it completely kills any momentum. And all of the pacing problems are made worse by the story not being at all creative to begin with, so the margin for error was always low. There were way too many scenes of characters just going around in circles saying the most cliched lines possible.

I generally liked the acting here, and visually it was quite impressive. But the story is just so poorly written, it really lets the actors down.

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Redemption after PA

This was a very high budget drama with great fight scenes and CGI. It had an equal mix of humour and seriousness between the main leads; ZLY and LGX played their roles perfectly, and the banter between their characters was fantastic. FL's usual serious demeanor worked very well with ML's much more lax and teasing personality.

However, the humour completely missed the mark for me for the other characters. This affected the plot for me quite a bit as when the conflict actually came, everything seemed low stakes and not as serious since we've seen all these characters cracking jokes like two episodes before. The main antagonist was also a pretty bad actor so it was another thing I could not take seriously. To be honest, other than the main FL and ML, I didn't care about 98% of the side characters as most were just for comedy purposes or their characters weren't fleshed out enough for the audience to care about them.

If you're looking for a high-paced drama - this is most definitely not it. It's a slow burn with a slow moving plot but it's a beautiful production so you don't really notice it as much. It's also got a wonderful, no doubt about it, happy ending which is A+.

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Accompanying the phoenix, Romancing the god.

The appeal of xian xia dramas to me was always the power, strength and magic of the characters. But many dramas I have watched over the years left me wanting. How I have suffered through 'powerful' leads spitting blood every second frame.
THIS DRAMA DELIVERED
It showcased a strong male and female lead.
They showed us romance, foreplay, and affection in a tastefully done way.
The fight scenes were amazing.
The costumes and CGI beautifully done.
And very importantly engaging little side stories that did not take all the air time.
I write this review happily. Yes, I will miss the drama but it finished well that I can also move on without regrets. An easy one to rewatch in the coming years.
I gave it a perfect 10 well aware that it has some flaws. This rating is because in spite of the flaws it is a show well worth one's time.

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slow burn

I think there's a lot of overhype behind this drama. it's a little slow and dragged out. The story is decent but I find that it would be hard to binge watch this show cause some episodes are pretty pointless.

I think the hype is around the actors and visuals more than the actual story itself. the show does visually present well, with all the fights scenes and scenaries of the worlds.

The title character has these internal monologues that I find quite annoying at times as she's constantly doing it in every scene instead of talking to the male lead. She's also presented as being very brave and confrontational as she's always ready to fight. it's OK to be brave but her cockiness is quite irritating.

Overall there's not much drawing attention other than the look of the show.

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I Watched It So You Don't Have To!

It’s astonishing how average and mid modern dramas have gotten. This shouldn’t be normalized, it’s borderline criminal and just continues to prove that it’s young kids that’re writing these storylines and handing them to teenagers to select actors and direct the dramas. This drama in particular (just like any other to be fair) overlooks the viewers, thinking we’re all stupid and I don’t know if this is as a result of the actors’ sheer incompetence or just the basic shortcomings of this storyline. For one, the actors keep showing us subtle hints of what’s about to happen making it really easily and at best ‘basic’ to predict how things pan out 10-20 episodes later.

The beginning (episode 1-4) to be fair had me hooked as I expected a lot from the lead pair following their astounding success in Princess Agents and honestly speaking it’s been underwhelming, and the saddest part is this is not new to most of us, we’re pretty much used to these average shows. The storyline is WEAK, all over the place, and lacking a sense of direction. Loads of pointless scenes taking up most of the screen time (this isn’t new tough), and most scenes just lacking the gravity of maybe what the writer would’ve wanted to be depicted. Take for example “The Extra natural Heaven.”, it looked just like any other mortal palace AT BEST and throughout the entire drama I never even understood what the extra natural heaven looked like, just some blue mountains drawn in Adobe Illustrator and rendered into the footage.

The CGI was another aspect of the drama that I thought was all over the place as well. I got the sense it was all designed by an overworked drunkard. There didn’t seem to be any kind of articulation in the CGI or any form of distinction. I’ll just save your time on this: The CGI is rubbish basically.

And finally, on to the acting which wasn’t that bad to be honest mainly from the lead pair but beyond that it was such an average or less than average display. The storyline doesn’t seem to help out and compensate for the average actors at times instead all I saw was them getting more screen time. And then the amount of the times the FL got saved by the ML were countless that it even got boring and predictable. You could literally see it coming miles away. LAZY WRITING!! I think the Western women will have to skip this one lol.

It's the first time I’ve seen two useless episodes in a drama that had me question WHY. They were better off just ending the drama at episode 37 but guess what, they needed to remind us of some annoying and irrelevant character and give her a happy ending. Them shamelessly adding two episodes to the drama simply because they needed to build up a quick love story for the woman in red (couldn’t be asked to search for her name) that no one cared about and hardly even remembered. To this point I’m still wondering why they did that and as if that wasn’t enough, they spawned a new character (potential husband to woman in red) that they just shoved into the last episodes and left it for us to figure out his background or even who he is. Honestly do these guys thing we’re this thick.

Just to sum this up, this drama suffers from lazy incompetent writing that’s been given a platform and a reckless director who couldn’t be asked to get more from the actors.

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