Love on the Turquoise Land

I truly enjoyed this drama, the acting was excellent, the music added depth, and the chemistry between the main couple was captivating. Dilraba brought Nie Julou to life perfectly: fierce and independent on the outside, yet tender and vulnerable within. Yan Tuo complemented her beautifully, always offering his strength, support, and protection when she needed it most. Together, they were outstanding throughout. The story, however, felt a bit uneven: slow in the middle but rushed toward the end. There were so many unanswered questions, especially about the earth fiends, Lin Xirou, Xing Shen, and the rest of the Southern Mountain Hunters team. The ending felt abrupt and left too much unresolved, which made it feel somewhat empty. I truly hope they release a second season to continue the story and give us a more complete conclusion, because ending it this quickly doesn’t do justice to the world they built. One more aspect that felt out of place was how the fiends seemed to overpower the hunters in almost every way. Their strength and abilities made the hunters look pitiful and even embarrassing at times. The fiends, having learned to live among humans, were portrayed as far more intelligent, adopting modern techniques and strategies, while the hunters remained stuck in their overly ritualized, old-fashioned methods. In a sense, it made sense that the fiends adapted quickly to human life and used modern approaches to their advantage as they were still learning about humans and gradually adopted to human's new way of life, but it also highlighted how conservative and limited the hunters appeared in comparison. While I wouldn’t call it the best drama, it’s definitely one worth re-watching.

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Wolves in Sheep's Clothing VS The Grizzled Sheep Herder

Hello and welcome back to my dear review as usual. First of all, I need to tell you guys a great news – my exam period is over and now I’ve got a large amount of time to skim through dramas and write numerous reviews again (unlike my on-off hiatus period where I kept delaying). So, today’s review is about “Love on the Turquoise Land”, one of Wei Yu’s latest works which has gotten its live-action version. See my take about it below…

“Love on the Turquoise Land” is a thriller sci-fi based on Wei Yu’s novel, which has a similar name as this one. It tells the story about the earth fiends, which has been terrorizing the humankind for centuries. I don’t really know how earth fiends come to exist today, but they may have some kind of mutated DNA or contract an unknown stuff, transforming them from ordinary humans into earth fiends. Due to the rampant earth fiends on the earth, the ancient emperor sent a special envoy to thwart the earth fiends and protect the humans. They will be later known as Nanshan Hunters, its legacy continues until this day (though the number of members is dwindling day by day).

By chance, one of its hunters is none other than Nie Jiuluo, also known as “Mad Blade”. She inherits the title following her mother’s sudden disappearance and her father’s suicide due to depression. As “Mad Blade”, Jiuluo isn’t exactly thrilled and badly wants to resign from the organization because it constantly reminds her of her late parents. Years pass and Jiuluo grows into an astute yet exceptionally beautiful woman. To spend her free time, Jiuluo practices sculpting and sells her arts to make ends meet.

In one of her travels to the countryside, she accidentally meets her fated partner, Yan Tuo. On the outside, he is Roadsound Group’s general manager. But inside, he is being controlled strictly by a mysterious woman named Lin Xirou (who steals his mother’s original name) and is seeking to gain the so-called freedom. At first, they have the kind of enemies-to-lovers vibes as they never see eye-to-eye plus they’re on different sides from the get go. However, as time passes by, they begin to understand each other’s inner wound and heal themselves as they carry out high-stake missions to end the existence of the deadly earth fiends.

Joining in their groups are Lv Xian (Yan Tuo’s doctor friend), Lin Ling (Yan Tuo’s adoptive sister), Yu Rong (“Ghost Whip” who only returns to China for the sake of quelling the earth fiends), Xing Shen (“Mad Dog”, a queer bigot who has a high prejudice against Yan Tuo, definitely always up to no good), and more Nanshan Hunters on the go.

If I want to be honest, the premise is actually intriguing and makes me deep-seated for this drama (since it’s Wei Yu’s project, of course I’ll watch it). Moreover, the earth fiend also sounds like a new plot device, which has never been touched by other sci-fi dramas before (except for “The Seven Relics of Ill Omen”). Last but not least, we’ve got a new plot twist where the earth fiends ACTUALLY transform into humanoid creatures and blend into the human world seamlessly that it is very hard to make a discrepancy between a human and an earth fiend. So, Nanshan Hunters’ task is to learn how these virulent creatures manage to turn into humans and how to stop them before the whole world is turned upside down by the fiends (FYI, fiends need blood bags to ensure their well-beings by forcing humans to have sexual interaction with the fiends and produce an offspring (blood bag, I mean)).

Despite the mysterious yet enthralling premise, the drama falls short in the plot including the how’s and why’s. First of all, Nanshan Hunters need to be modernized fully – since when people still use hammers as weapons? I do agree blades and whips are also antique weapons, but I still have a deep affinity for them, which is why I won’t be complaining about those two. Nanshan Hunters are quite indigent in terms of income earnings since they won’t even buy new equipment and prefer to eat and laugh and drink or brooding instead.

Second, the antagonists always seem to be having an upper hand (same case with “Snow Eagle Lord”) and Lin Xirou and her little gang get a considerable amount of screentime, which I immediately skip because I can’t stand how slow she speaks and talks (it’s an essential point for an antagonist, but maybe I’m just being impatient here). In addition, Lin Xirou also has many modern gadgets in the mansion and the farmhouse (where she experiments with the transformation). Also, other than Feng Mi, I can’t stand the other earth fiends (especially get pissed off by Xiong Hei).

Third, weak ML. If you watch carefully, Yan Tuo is pretty weak and fragile in combat skills (on par with Qin Fang from “Rattan”). All he does is acting and sweet-talking Lin Xirou as if life were a slapstick comedy series, tailing other people, spying, recording, trespassing, or brooding (waiting for Jiuluo to save him). Even when he cradles the tranquilizer gun as if it were a little baby, it doesn’t help with his brittleness and makes him look more pathetic, if you ask me.

Fourth, the wacky ending and WTH the amnesia plot is for? To me, the ending seems to be off a little bit and why does Jiuluo has to forget everything about Yan Tuo, but remembers other people like Ms. Lu and Yu Rong? And after he takes her out from the membrane bubble her mother creates, how can he dive back to the shore with Jiuluo on his back (oxygen may not be fully sufficient)? All of these are plot holes like blah blah blah and suddenly you’ve got a beautiful ending even though it’s not.

Fifth, Yan Tuo’s sister Yan Xin is another wasted plot device as he’s hellbent on searching for him when Lin Xirou only takes a second to inform him that she’s also dead alongside his murdered parents.

After the plot holes, I’ll talk about the acting. As usual, Dilraba Dilmurat delivers a phenomenal act as the badass Nie Jiuluo and embodies her character seamlessly. Other than her, I can’t imagine who can pull off such a complex girl like her. Meanwhile, for Chen Xingxu, it’s my first drama of him (I’m sorry to say that I’m not a fan of his, so I’ve always been avoiding his projects, and if it hadn’t been for Wei Yu, maybe I would’ve skipped his drama), and I don’t what to say about him honestly – he does well portraying Yan Tuo’s conflicted emotions, but he still has room for improvement. For Lin Xirou’s actress, Zhang Li, I truly want to say her performance is laudable and I hope see her more (but not in Lin Xirou’s fashion anymore). Other casts are good to mediocre at best – that’s all I can say.

CGI, background, settings are so-so to me (the fiends look tacky, and the lighting is so f*cking dark, I have to enhance my screen’s lighting so I can see visibly, normally I won’t do this tho). As for the OSTs, I can’t say too much as I tend to skip the opening and ending credits (my habit) and the drama provides only “Paper Star” by Yisa Yu during the confession part. I badly need an ooze of the opera song, but I’m just too lazy for it TT.

Will I be rewatching? Only for the first few skirmishes between Jiuluo and Yan Tuo. And the rest can be buried beneath the grounds. I’m sorry if I’m yapping too much because I’ve been bottling my feelings up for days before I finally pour it into this review. Okay, time to end it, good luck and happy watching!!!

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Brings up the conspiracy theory of Reptilians

Do you think those Earth fiends are the menace from outside? They are very well our primal instincts. Most people kill to eat and survive! Even if they are not the butcher themselves. Primal instincts, from the depths of our evolution are hard to hack and avoid. If you kill these desires, you kill yourself! Like the legendary serpent guarding the Golden fleece, you have to put it in sleep! Not slaughter! How can the drama escalate without a major character's death? It's the self-sacrifice. But it's not the wisest choice.
But it's not only the allegory of our hidden nature. It's an overt allusion to the mixed beasts that walk and live around us and they dominate us! The wars and shrewd businesspeople are not the result of human empathy or idealism! Please beware of the hidden race...maybe the Reptilians...Or those bunny-hounds! I never met them...but then, why would they reveal their nature? Why wage a war against them? Their inhumanity causes the human race to bleed, in a civil genocide...

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a must watch

This drama is one of the few shows l've been interested in and willing to watch from beginning to end. Some might think the subject matter isn't particularly popular or slow paced, but for me it's truly outstanding among the mass-produced cliche dramas of recent years. The cinematography is exquisite + the plot, characters and setting are interesting. There's no excessive filtering or skin smoothing, the bgm/osts are magnificent and the actors performances are all excellent. If i have to nitpick about something it would probably be about how they handled some plots just to pass the review. But overall this a good watch and worthy binging on

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Well-written, well-styled, well-acted

Smart, relatable villains with personal conflict, working brains and solid writing from the authors? I'm in.
A gray and weavering good side, with an honorable goal and dishonorable means? I'm in.

Add some 7-8 good actors for the main characters and a solid secondary cast for the secondary characters (which is rare!), and I'm watching. I haven't skipped or ffw anything.

When the villains are cartoon villains, mindless and cackling, who only know how to beat or kill like animals, there is no suspense and there is no display of inner character strength of the good guys. Everybody can decide to take down a cackling cartoony villain, but a person has to have absolute personal integrity and a functioning moral compass to take down a relatable, sympathetic villain they used to like.

When the good side is gray, it's very interesting to follow their journey to victory. I had low expectations, because cdramas are usually too superficial with why the good side must win, but this drama is deeper and grayer than usual. I may have watched less than 15 Cdramas that don't hesitate to paint the good side with dark tones.

The story makes sense, if you don't expect a romance and some decorative battles with little cute blood stains. There are centuries' old secrets that can't be revealed on episode 01, nor wait to be revealed on the last episode. There are interpesonal stakes and grudges and the paths are not clear. At times, there is a fuzzy line on who is on the villain side or whethere there is a line at all.

Even the minor characters have a background story, and I'm glad we are told about it but we don't linger on it with tedious side story arcs. The tropes are well-masked and well-integrated into the story, you never get the feeling that you are watching a to-do list.

The styling (allowing, of course, for the actors' good career management and fandom) is adapted to the story and is not focussed on pretty-pretty, unless the scene is about looking pretty. The cast looks nice, looks scruffy, looks beautiful, looks beaten to death, looks tired, looks ill, looks morning fresh, looks whatever the specific scene is about.

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Should u watch it?

I always admired Dilireba for trying different genres and she did it again! This drama was so out of the box and amazing.

I'm ngl but I was super sceptical for the first 3 eps cuz this isn't my type for genre but once the base was set, the story took off so well. I was obsessed and literally couldn't wait to watch the new eps.

The acting of the cast is very good and Reba and Chen Xing Xu have such an amazing chemistry. Their banters, their romance, their kisses stole my heart away.

overall I think this drama is perfect balance of romance, thrill and action and I think everyone should give it a try.

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There was so much potential....but

The LOW rating is for the storyline and not the Acting/actors.

The actors were great! But the storyline could have been so so much better. This drama had the potential to be nitty, gritty, more VIOLENT and I'm sure the actors would have done a great job at it as well! BUT here we are 😞

First of all, why so many filler scenes and bad lighting during fight scenes??? There are only a few good fighting scenes in the drama and still I have to squint to watch them! Urgh!

The scriptwriter had a lot of room to change things up, to replace the whip and hammer with something more scary? Right? C'mon its Horror genre with the most ugly looking monsters haha Earth Fiends! But I feel like this drama made them look tamer...not scary enough to give me goosebumps!

The only character arc I'm loving so far is Ms. Lin! She stole the show for me! I'm absolutely in love with her acting! This actress knows her stuff! Less is more! Yess!
Be it cold expression, the scary eye talk and then those ghastly teeth picking out of her mouth! Loved it! Only she was the one who seems to be the true monster, the others are just cattle in terms of acting freakish! Even that stoic face maid following Lin Ling around is nothing. A lot of the side actors could have done better, but mainly my issue was with the storyline....

They really could have made it better, with less explanation and more ACTION and FIGHTING and torture if need be. After all they were dealing with Fiends who have been around for millions of years! They gotta be thick skin right? Won't die off easily smh

If you’re looking for visuals, this drama is good, but other then that, I would say, there are better dramas airing that you can watch

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Dilraba slayed ???

After Coroners Diary, this was the second Chinese drama this year that I watched while it was airing. I started most dramas this year but dropped them after the first episodes—they just didn’t make me want to continue. But this one really tempted me to keep watching.
The moment it truly became one of my favorites—when I told myself “I really like this”—was episodes 5 and 6, and by episodes 9 and 10 I was completely in love with it.
I don’t agree with people who say its pacing was slow. Sure, some parts moved calmly, but it had a beautiful sense of tranquility, and within that calm, it gave you good information about the plot—like the quiet conversations between Xing Shen and Mahanzi.
My favorite episodes were 28 and 29. They were all amazing and turned out so well. Usually, the final battle in dramas feel repetitive to me, but this one was exciting—especially when a third enemy suddenly appeared and made everything even more interesting.
The ending can be seen as open, meaning there are still Di Xiao wandering on earth, and this story will never truly end.
I just hope Jiuluo and Yantu can live peacefully for a long time.
The acting was incredible. Dilraba shone beautifully, and besides her, the supporting roles like Lin Shirou and Xing Shen were excellent. Lin Shirou played her part so well—despite her beauty and charm, she was a charismatic villain.
I also really liked Feng Mi and the doctor.
My rating for this drama is 9. 5 out of 10.
I wasn’t okay with some of the scene pacing, but they weren’t a big deal.
Overall, I enjoyed it, and if you’re a fan of the genre, I recommend it.

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