Love beyond the Grave

A Slow-Burn Romance Entwined with Death, Fate, and Mystery!

After watching the first thirteen episodes of Love Beyond the Grave, I’m already completely hooked and honestly, it’s sitting at a strong 9.5/10 for me right now.

What immediately stands out is the atmosphere. The drama balances an eerie, almost haunting tone with deeply emotional storytelling. It doesn’t rely on cheap thrills, instead it slowly builds a sense of mystery that keeps pulling you in. Every episode reveals just enough to keep you guessing without ever feeling dragged out.

The chemistry between the leads is another major highlight. Their connection feels intense yet fragile, especially given the supernatural elements surrounding their relationship. There’s a lingering sense of longing in almost every interaction, which makes even the quieter scenes feel meaningful. You can really feel the emotional weight behind their choices.

The pacing so far has been surprisingly solid. Nothing feels rushed, but it also doesn’t waste time. Each episode adds layers to the story whether it’s uncovering bits of the past, hinting at hidden motives, or deepening the emotional stakes. By episode thirteen, I feel invested not just in the romance, but in the mystery as well.

Visually, the drama is stunning. The cinematography enhances the haunting vibe perfectly, using lighting and color to reflect the emotional tone of each scene. The soundtrack deserves a mention too it complements the story beautifully and makes key moments hit even harder.

If I had to point out why it’s not a full 10 (yet), it’s only because there are still some unanswered questions and character motivations that I hope will be explored more deeply as the story progresses. But honestly, that’s also part of what makes it so compelling.

Overall, Love Beyond the Grave is shaping up to be a beautifully crafted mix of romance, mystery, and the supernatural. If the next episodes maintain this level of storytelling, it could easily become one of my favorites.

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Shallow Acting, Low-Class Cinematography - A Waste of Dilireba

Unbelievably shallow. Is this really a series led by someone like Dilireba?

There’s something seriously wrong when a drama makes you want to fast-forward even the leads’ scenes. That’s what’s happening here. I can’t sit through all these going-nowhere conversations between the main couple. If even the leads can’t make the viewers stay, that says a lot about how boring the drama is.

I wrote the review below after watching ep.9. I add this intro after watching ep.13 and still stand by everything I wrote below. It’s boring. The atmosphere feels cheap and phony. The camera angles and cinematography reflect the lack of skills. The ML’s run toward the FL in ep.13 also looks fake.

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🍅 Shallow Dialogues

There are too many vague and unnatural lines. Some are so melodramatic they become ridiculous. For example, no one would allow a prisoner of war to casually have a long ping-pong conversation with someone on the city wall, asking whether there’s enough food inside before execution.

There are also too many long speeches that exist purely to explain things. Instead of showing, the drama constantly tells. Characters, including the leads, deliver extended monologues that feel forced, artificial and pretentious. These monologues are the result of the laziness and/or the lack of skills from the writing team.

And it's even more absurd when the FL suddenly starts narrating her thoughts through voice-over in ep.9. A character who is supposed to be mysterious ends up explaining everything directly to the audience.

At this point, it’s hard not to feel that the writing team lacks capability. They don’t know how to craft sharp, meaningful lines or distinguish characters through behavior. They rely on blunt verbal explanation, which is the least convincing way to tell a story.

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🍅 Shallow Acting

The weakest performance goes to the ML.

After seeing him in several series, I think it’s fair to say his acting lacks depth. There’s no real interpretation behind his performance. It feels like he’s simply following instructions, like “smile here,” without understanding why.

His repeated light smiles throughout the first 9 episodes feel eerie rather than meaningful. There’s no emotional layering behind them. I can’t tell what he’s trying to express and it doesn’t feel like he knows either.

When he starts to show his love toward the FL at the end of ep.9, I can't figure out at all how or when this love actually begins.

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🍅 Shallow Atmosphere and Cinematography

The cinematography lacks sense of artistry. This becomes especially obvious when comparing to other dramas airing around the same time, like Generation to Generation and Pursuit of Jade, which have more beautiful, impressive scenes. I can see how these other two dramas had designed their storyboard scene by scene while I don't think Love Beyond the Grave's production team knows what a storyboard is.

The atmosphere and camera angle combined have made Love Beyond the Grave feels outdated, almost like older TV productions that the main goal is to simply push the story forward without creating moods or visual identity. They don't care to build any emotional engagement for the audience at all.

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🍅 Weak Supporting Cast

The supporting characters don’t help. Many of the extras feel exaggerated or flat. The ML’s female subordinate is particularly annoying, while the male subordinate leaves almost no impression at all. There are almost no memorable side characters.

The only one that feels natural is the child who follows the FL.

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🍅 What a Waste of Dilireba

I’ve always liked Dilireba. She’s capable and established enough to choose high-level projects. I don't know why she ends up surrounded by what feels like an inexperienced team across the board: directing, writing, cinematography, CG and even her co-lead. The result on the screen looks cheap.

There’s also a noticeable mismatch between her and the ML. It’s not just the maturity, but also the difference in acting.

And when she has to act with weaker actors, her own acting starts to feel less convincing as well. Instead of elevating the scene, she gets dragged down.

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A light hearted storyline about romance

I enjoyed watching this series, the playfulness of FL for being curious and openess such as being open to new experiences, asking "what if" questions, and having a "beginner's mind" that is willing to experiment without the need for perfection. Yet a strong decisive lead to make a good decision when she needs to. I love her curiosity about 5!senses and she acted perfectly. The ML is totally smitten by ML curiosity and intrigue by FL character. The two leads are indeed charming to watch , interesting pairing indeed. You could see the twinkle in ML s eyes how much he is drawn towards FL, it is magic chemistry between them.

The story line is fresh to watch how the innocent of romance develops between the leads. Let’s see how the story develops till the end … at the moment I love the cute comedy, fun and entertaining story .

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Let me off this merry-go-round

I need to take a breather so I'm sloth quitting this drama. I don't hate this show, but there are aspects that are starting to grate and I can feel myself wilting. 😞

Confession time. I'm a low-key fan of our leads. They certainly kept me entertained in the early eps. Dilraba looks beautiful. As the sovereign of the spirit realm, her pose and demeanor are haunting. My only complaint is the amount of make-up can be excessive at times. Arthur Chen looks handsome as always and that mischievous grin . . oh la la! Their chemistry is what this house of cards is build upon.

I was fully engaged for the first 10 eps or so and then my eyes starts to glaze over. There are too many subplots, too many characters and too much CGI.

The world of Duan Xu is complicated enough. All the machinations and power plays in the mortal realm. His upbringing is hardly normal. He is a general as well as a trained assassin. Probably a scholar and a lover as well. Busy boy! 😅

His story would normally sustain a period idol drama. But wait, there’s more! The writer superimposed He Si Mu's story on top of his or is it the other way around? The chick is having philosophical discussions with the egg.

Si Mu's storyline is even more complicated. It is basically two lots of palace intrigues jammed into one. Whoever thinks that is a winning formula needs professional help!

To further cascade the complexity, the spirit realm is completely fictional. It has its own lore and internal logic. This type of world building needs time to bed down. It is just not the case here. They tried, but we are bombarded with facts and details constantly. Some aspects of the lore are particularly bothersome.

To wit, spirits come into existence when human has obsessions when they die. If they give up their obsession, they can be reborn. So answer me this, dear reader . . why can't the ML die and become a spirit and spend all eternity with the FL? He is totally obsessed with her. He went through “hell” just to be by her side. Did the lore just shoot itself in the metaphysical foot?

While my feeble mind is trying to take all this in, the production doubled down on the CGI. Green screen is like oxygen for any xianxia drama. The spirit realm gave the art director carte blanche. No more boring white heavenly glow. Huzzah!

To be fair, some of the settings do look striking. It certainly has an otherworldly look . . dare I say gamified? I just wish it is consistently good. There are times when I find it lacking. Quality vs quantity, hmm?

So after watching 22 eps, I need a break. When it is good, it is entertaining. There is just too much of everything now. I appreciate the writer flexing her creative muscles, but sometimes less is more. Just saying.

I'll definitely wait for it to finish airing and check the ending before making the final call. Peace.

P.S. Are we in the era of femme fatale girl boss? There was The Art of Sarah, then Siren's Kiss and now this series. That's quite a trifecta. BTW, I'm not including Pursuit of Jade as the FL is too well grounded and she doesn't want to be a girl boss anyway. ;)

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Character integrity is sacrificed for the sake of a forced romantic plot.

I want to love the general who is willing to sacrifice his life, but at the same time, I cannot forget the violation of personal space he committed when he bit the female protagonist's neck. Even though she didn't mind it much due to her sensory naivety and weakened senses, it goes strictly against the values I hold regarding a woman's dignity.

Furthermore, as the Ruler of Spirits, the female protagonist forbids other spirits from interfering in mortal affairs, yet she constantly meddles herself. She provides weather reports to a human general, which ultimately determines the army's victory—is that not interfering in mortal matters? She uses magic to defeat attackers targeting her sedan chair—is that not interfering in mortal matters? She uses magic to aid the male protagonist in war just so he would agree to exchange senses with her—is that not interfering in mortal matters? She even gives a human an amulet that protects him and harms those who attack him—is that not interfering in mortal matters?

She forbids spirits from killing humans, yet she eventually kills a human to protect the one she loves. If other spirits do it out of physical hunger, she does it out of a desire for love. She forgets that life and death are not within her power, but in the power of fate. She has become exactly like the people she has been punishing, all because of her personal obsession. If she wanted to protect her loved one, couldn't she have adapted to human strategy? Why fight humans with magic? It is unfair. Although she eventually punishes herself because of one life that truly died at her hands, in my view, she should have punished herself the moment she provided that weather report—information no human could possibly understand.

My disappointment isn't because the drama was poorly produced, but because, to me, the characters were poorly written. When the writer suddenly decides to make the female protagonist punish herself after killing a human, do they not realize they are mocking the character they previously wrote as someone who enjoys abusing her power?

He Si Mu is like someone who once burned down an entire forest without feeling an ounce of guilt, only to suddenly burst into uncontrollable tears because a single garden flower withered in her hands. Should I feel pity for her, or should I simply laugh at her? 😏

Overall value : 2/10
Rewatch rating: 0

The Reasons:

Destruction of Character Integrity (-3): The protagonist is no longer a fair "Ruler," but rather the number one lawbreaker in her own world. The writer makes her look like a "corrupt cop"—punishing others for the very same mistakes she has repeatedly committed herself.
Narrative Hypocrisy (-3): The writer seems to be "mocking" their own character. Having her punish herself at the end feels like a cheap redemption arc after spending numerous episodes abusing her power for the sake of a romantic plot.
Ethical Violation (-2): The neck-biting incident remains a major stain on the male character for ignoring the female protagonist's autonomy and dignity.

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Utterly disappointed

(Before anything else let me make it clear that Xianxia/Xuanhuan is not my cup of tea and rarely I find myself completing the whole drama in this genre.) The drama is everything what you would expect from Xianxia/Xuanhuan. The set design looked okay but the CGI just didn't do justice to the environment, to accentuate the beauty of the scenes and it looked all flat and lifeless because of it. I loved the way they introduced Reba with that lamp thing and all, she looked beautiful and definitely had the presence of a spirit lord but as we go forward they challenged my notion that anything would look good on Dilereba. Oh my goodness what terrible costume choices. I mean in one scene she is strolling in the market of common folks with such vibrant colour and those dangling headgear, what an interesting way to mingle in the crowd by standing out the most! And it is not just the costume, even the makeup has started to bother me a lot with each passing episode. Why is everyone looking so pale and plastered? They already have a beautiful cast!
In terms of acting both the actors are in their comfort zone...and for the first time I feel Reba should really try some antagonist roles because she ate that one scene as an evil spirit. Loved her hysterical laughter there. Arthur on the other hand is not a grumpy, cold person...he is smiling a lot here, quite a lot that it is overshadowing all other emotions. It is so empty at times that I can't believe he is the same actor from 'Lighter and Princess' and the onus is on poor direction and weak writing. There is so much disconnect that I can't feel the emotions, the chemistry and even the world building is so bad that I don't believe in any character.
None of the side characters, except for the little boy and sml, held my attention and to be honest none of them gave warrior vibes to me. There is so much more than just dialogues to a character to make you look like a fierce seasoned warrior and they look anything but that. They don't feel believable. I was yawning and constantly skipping many scenes where main leads were not involved.
Now that I have seen many dramas where battle scenes are so breathtaking and I know what they are all capable of, it has raised my expectations a lot so here battle scenes in particular did not leave an impact whatsoever. Or maybe it is just because we directly entered into the battle part without much story building and attachment to the characters...for instance take assassin part, did anybody actually feel any pity or sympathy with ML? It was just a passing scene, and with better story building it could have such a great impact. There were some weird editing parts but that can be ignored. I was cutting this drama so much slack only because of the main leads and simply because I have seen their earlier works and I know what they are capable of. Despite having so much potential and interesting plot, it feels soul less and if people are extremely enamoured by it then it is simply because they are fans of the cast and having few lovey dovey scenes is more than enough for them. For me atleast it feels soul less. I have been patiently waiting for a moment where I could really feel attached to it but I was left utterly disappointed. And to think I have been waiting for it for such a long time...I would not recommend this drama to anyone unless they are fans of the main leads only then you will have the patience to watch it till the end.

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*flings imaginary papers into the air* I give up

This is a rant.

Often, even when I drop a show, I usually have something nice/decent to say about it. With this one, idk. Maybe there will be some good buried in here somewhere underneath all the things that frustrated and left me wanting

The Characters

🧚🏻He Si Mu - I found her boring, indecisive, and one-dimensional. She is so obsessed with humans, and for what exactly? The fact that they get to suffer through life and die? Or does she want the life of a noblewoman? To spend all her life pampered but sheltered, only to be married off for some familial/political/business purpose n live in the shadow of a man? Forgive me, but the thought of an all-powerful ghost supreme lamenting that she's not a human is annoying AF to me

🏮She is bored with her long 400-year life, and I feel like this is her fault. Honestly, I feel like an immortal who gets bored with their existence is at fault for the mundanity that is their life. Maybe this is me applying my 2026 brain to some (fictional) historical world, but.....
Do you know how vast the world is? The multitudes you can encounter if you manage to leave your backyard? She leaves the spirit world to go to areas that are essentially her backyard. Of course you're bored, babe. Humanity changes, but not that drastically. You can 'whoosh' yourself to literally anywhere, leave your people, and go elsewhere. See if you're bored then

🏮Her indecisiveness with Duan Xu is also off-putting. You want love, but also don't want it. She kept changing her mind on how close she wanted this mortal man, which gave me fucking whiplash. The entire plot, at least till where I reached, is a fucking push and pull. 2 steps forward, 15 steps back. Ma'am, I'm tired. Make a choice so we can move on. Let him go or pick him, and let both of you protect each other and your love for one another

🏮One-dimensional - I thought that perhaps her love with Duan Xu would change her or something. make her care. sure she smiles more and is carefree when with him. I liked that bit, but all other areas of her life remain the same. She is bored with her job and the supreme, bored with her subordinates, bored during the fight that comes about every 100 years, bored when people try to assassinate her, and sad that she isn't human and can never die.
Girl.... I'm bored too. Give me something to work with! I wanted to see her get mad for once and act on it. Let her go crazy or something. Let me see another side of you, other than detached boredom and perpetual annoyance at your subordinates and their scheming.

They could have made her so interesting, but this is what they chose to give us... UGH!

🤺Duan Xu - I actually liked the fact that he was a golden retriever puppy around her. It gave a good contrast, giving me that grumpy-sunshine trope that I adore (especially if the grumpy character is the woman). However, I was let down by the fact that he doesn't fight much. I remember how impressed I was back in ep 10 when he infiltrated the enemy camp, threw everything into chaos, and killed their general.

I was like 'yes!!! The puppy finally shows that he is, in fact, a mad dog underneath it all.' It gave such a wonderful layer to who we'd seen him as by that point. Unfortunately, we don't see that side of him again. The man was a trained assassin since he was a preteen to his late teens, and we just get to see him walking around holding the hilt of his sword for the majority of the plot.

He is relegated to a love-sick puppy constantly chasing a woman who wants him, but won't claim him, and having petty (but sometimes hilarious) jealous spats with Yan Ke and any other man (un)fortunate to get close to si mu. Yan Ke was right in calling him a love-lorn husband. An absolute waste of a character

Yan Ke - What a boring villain. There is nothing as unimaginative as a man whose sole purpose is to possess a woman who doesn't even want him. All-powerful and all he wants is to have the more powerful being to be submissive to and stare googly-eyed at him as they share tea. I dislike him on principle alone

Jiang Ai - I did actually like her at first, but the fact that her weakness was not money as I initially thought it'd be, but love (love+hate? ) for a man who was basically Yan Ke version 1.0 is disappointing to me

The Cinematography, The Set, The CGI, The Makeup

🎥The cinematography & Lighting - Lord, is it bad. It gives bland and old. I remember leaving a note after I completed ep 1 and stating in part, 'The colour palette for all of episode 1 was grey, black, and white with some touches of red, blue, and yellow. It's giving depresso' (Ha! I'm funny.) The world, especially in the 1st arc, feels cold

The cinematography in this is flat and doesn't evoke any emotion. Unlike my experience with POJ, I never once felt like I was a part of this world. I was always a spectator. The look of this show doesn't make you look forward to watching it.

Aside from 'Pursuit of Jade', another example of a show that makes you want to look at it is 'Veil of Shadows'. I couldn't tell you what's going on with the plot (apparently, you need to understand a decent amount of some specific Chinese mythology to understand the story), but it's quite pretty to look at. VoS gives 'feed of a beauty and lifestyle content creator with a very powerful camera'. Compared to those two stories, this one is just...meh

🏠The set - It's fine when we're in the mortal world, but when we move to the spirit realm..., by God is it horrendous. Let's take He Si Mu's throne room as an example. It looks like something I'd expect to see in a show that aired in perhaps the mid 2000s to the early 2010s. Her throne itself looked like it was made of plastic that got coated in bad gold spray paint... why? Also, the big eye that was in the streets of that world... It's just big and plastic-looking. I just... they really didn't care about this, did they?

💄And can we talk about how the people in hair and makeup couldn't be arsed to make the actresses' natural hair colour match the wig? All through the 1st half i couldn't get over the fact that her hair had brown tones in it and the wig was jet black... how in the entirety of hell was that missed?
Can someone tell me why the supreme leader of the ghosts sometimes had the same complexion as people who were quite literally alive? It made sense when she was paler than those around her, but when they were all the same shade... girl, lemme go laugh.

Storytelling & Worldbuilding

Considering what the story gives us (as per ep 28), I can for sure say that this story did not deserve a 40-episode count. The plot, romantic, political, or otherwise, doesn't have a lot of figurative meat on its bones to justify this length. We spend most of the episodes watching the characters not do much to further the overall plot. They are kinda just going through the motions.

The world-building is also rather weak. A lot of things are left untold/unshown. Some examples
a. Duan Xu's sword - We are told that a man gave it to him. Who was he? How long had he been carrying it? How did he manage to hide this sword that so many wanted? And what did he see in Duan Xu that made him hand it to him

b. The eye in the spirit world - What did it do? What was its purpose? Aesthetics?

c. The obsessions - We are told that if an obsession is powerful enough, a human will turn into a spirit upon their death. Once this happens, they only die if a more powerful spirit offs them or they ultimately and willingly let go of their obsession to ascend.
Now, Duan Xu was in love with He Si Mu to the point of obsession (if his 'dreams' in that prison were anything to go on). So if he was that obsessed, why not love each other till he dies a natural death (you know, unless something bad happens on the battlefield and she cannot for some reason save him), and he can then live as a spirit with her instead of the never-ending back and forth?

d. Why was there a curfew at night in the spirit world? Was it better for them to go scream and wail in their houses than do it all up in the streets?

All in all, this story dragged with more filler than plot or answers, very mid cinematography and lighting, and bland characters. If you love the actors in this, perhaps it'd be best if you went and found some of their other works coz, this ain't it.

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Watchable, but with problematic CP and plot

LBTG was still watchable despite the plot holes and some unrealistic elements of the characters/story.

Most of the actors filled their roles well. The story stayed focused on main characters, not too much on side stories. The costumes and CG looked awesome!!! 👏 🎉🎊

My very pleasant surprise was Dilraba making me like HeSimu a lot! I read a bit of the novel and didn’t like it much, so her performance exceeded all my expectations. 👍 👻 Thank you so much for the hard work! It truly showed, and as a fan, I’m proud of you! 👏 🎉🎊 Also, Hesimu looking breathtaking here was a BIG plus 🥳🤩

I was also taken by surprise by Hesimu/ Yanke dynamics. Such tension and twisted passion! This was the first time I saw WJM acting, so I was excited to see how well it had worked out! I also liked Hesimu and Chen Ying dynamics. They were so cute. Haha 😊

For the main couple, I tried to give it a chance for about 10+ episodes, but it just didn’t work for me. The unbalanced relationship was hard to pull off, but a solid acting from ml could have saved it. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the case here. When I watched, I didn’t see DX’s thoughts, I saw the actor thinking of what to say next, when to tilt his head, when to smirk, etc. His postures seemed forced and awkward. Except ep. 8 where he had some cool moments, his overall acting was very jarring. It interrupted the flow of the scenes. At times, it even felt like they were not in the same TV series. 😵‍💫🎬

Another reason I felt that the romance didn’t work as well as it could be was how the writers seemed to be conflicting with their ideas. Hesimu yearned for tastes of life, but most of the time, she was just very lonely. She liked humans, but never suggested to become one. It was a little difficult to believe that their romance was THE great romance of her life by the way they portrayed her (cold, pragmatic, decisive). If he were her first love (or within the first 5 or so), then maybe. But 23rd??? This factor from the novel actually made it hard to believe that her love was deep enough to give up her inmortality for anyone. In the series, though he was her only curse bearer, they made it so that she stopped asking for the exchange, or she dropped him the moment she needed to run an errand. She surely loved him, but then the writers would reduce that feeling by making her leave him easily again. They tried to show her love by having her kill a human for DX, but it felt unconvincing because it was unnecessary at that particular moment. It seemed like it happen just to move the plot in certain direction. The writing confused me as an audience whether how romantic/unromantic this story was supposed to be. 😅

In the end, a huge relief for me was that they chose to end with Hesimu live on, still retaining her spirit powers. Without her powers, she would lose identity as a character. The alternate ending with a goddess showing up at the end seemed like a cheap way out of the problem.

I would still recommend this series to people who aren’t bothered by this pairing. If the actors were your favorites, then this would be a must to watch 🎬✌️

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Interesting Story, Terrible Main Leads’ Acting

An interesting, refreshing fantasy story, I watched it mainly for the plot. The main leads deliver terrible performances and feel completely miscast, in my opinion. Supporting cast, however, is solid enough that I’ve been generous with the acting score. Visually, the drama is quite strong, with very beautiful costumes in the spirit world and pleasing aesthetics.

I haven’t read the novel, but I believe this drama had potential and could have benefited from better direction, storytelling, and different main leads. The story remains fairly surface-level throughout, but it works well enough as light entertainment. It is one of those shows that, once finished, doesn’t really leave you with anything… except the fact that you finished it. Not great, not terrible, just sitting in that very specific category of “I watched it, therefore it exists.”

Still, one does hope more fantasy dramas continue to be made. They are flawed, certainly, but still more entertaining than many recent dramas that try to chase depth and end up with none. At least fantasy knows it is a fairy tale, and behaves accordingly.

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Beautifully crafted, terrible issues.

A blend of supernatural, fantasy, romance plot done.
How was it? A well-flavored, curated dish was brought to me, it was actually good, only to find out the plot pushes me away. The flow of the plot, I find it deliciously great, remarkably done, I felt in constant need for more, but the need for the plot to give me more was a big fail, to my big appetite. The plot sneered at my face by turning a general into a love puppy, "even if his general's plot was not the main point of this drama".

Dilraba was a powerful head of ghosts (spirits formed from obsessions). Now, the plot makes it DELICIOUS "I found it delicious, and from the beginning she's gone down to the mortal realm to make deals (granting humans their wishes at the cost of their obsessions).
Now seeing Dilraba in this powerful, badass role, it was amusing. I found her nailing this cold, expressionless role perfectly, and her transmigration to this soft, cute, bubbly girl with one of each of the five senses was showing her versatility in her acting career.

The supporting characters are making their waves into my skull
Miles Wei gave in a spirit infatuated in love for about 300 years, and like he was the main man for this love infatuated character, not thinking of any actor playing this better.
Zhang Ai, she was no better for making me grow more curious about her money-love character, and I was really debating whether she is gonna be good/bad; her character was proving an enigmatic presence, with constant moves for me in this show.


The mortal world arc was a major world-building. In their love story, I loved it a lot; it was, in fact, my best and the real giver of my rating of this series. It showed more of their relationship, the growth of their dynamics, and the introduction of the characters. My major love of this series
He Si Mu's dynamics with the young child in the initial story were lovely. When the young child cried at the mention of He Sim Mu leaving soon, I was very sad, for that young child draws me into his emotions naturally & in an innate manner. He deserves an award.
The battle scenes were raw, interesting, dwelling on the moment of how the crew members delivered me an outstanding performance. It was innovatively interesting how we see Arthur Chen make a bet with himself to step out of the enemy's zone alive. He killing the many soldiers felt real, cuz he isn't just a general, he is a trained killer. The slaying off the general's head was exceptionally done, Showing it isn't just about strength, skills or supernatural concepts, it is the use of strategy, your brain cells, using the senses in you skull to devise a means that isn't about using fantasy, physically strong to the extent of being prenatural, a means that is realistic, human, believable.

The ost is unbelievably compelling, scarily strong, hauntingly mixed with the occurring scene. It makes me more focused on the immediately occurring scene.

❌General turned into a pedantic love puppy.
We have this strategical general who is battle-wise strong, and we have a ghost queen, their love starts in the mortal world with schemes and tricks and I found it more fun, upon entering the world of spirit I question myself, "why did he bother entering", what could he possibly help her with in such a dangerous an assassinating world, now the possibility of him surviving without the help of He Si Mu (Ghost queen) was 0.001%, that just means he was trying to be dependent on the woman he loves, that could be good to some, if you may say he doesn't know the dangers, then why bother entering a place with supernatural elements when he doesn't have any supernatural powers which he knows nothing about, means certain death. Then he became a pest to the Ghost queen, trivial affairs with no work to do, "Hey, why don't you go to your mortal world and do your job?" I'm pissed. That's all.

Rating this 7.0.

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Not my cup of tea!!

This drama is about the love between a mortal general, who had a rough past as an assasin and the Lord of Spirits who is 400year old.
Duan Xu, played by Arthur Chen is revealed to be the spell bearer of He Simu, played by Diliraba, who can get her five senses through him and hence starts a love story of a spirit and a mortal.
The first 10 episodes seemed quite interesting and though it started becoming less interesting, still I managed to watch it. But after the arc where Duan Xu, our male lead enters the spirit realm, I somehow completely lost interest. I didn't find any interesting elements that would make you stay or make you wait for the next episodes eagerly.
When it reached episodes 25-26, I felt myself completely bored.
With no solid storyline, no progress as it proceeds further, not so well developed romance track(which was not at all entertaining for me)., I think this drama has disappointed me.
The only saving graces are the beautifully designed costumes, especially for the people in the spirit realm and the lavish sets that are my only reason to watch this far.
The acting of the actors was perfect.
But the characters they play didnt make me stay.
Personally I couldn't bring myself to like He simu's actions or character and as for Duan Xu, his character went downhill after few episodes.
Personally, its not my cup of tea or maybe I failed to understand the dynamics, but I lost interest in it.
Anyways, the first 16 episodes were good, imho.
This review is purely my opinion.

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