Failed fantasy historical drama with weak leads
I watched Fangs of Fortune because of the beautiful trailer but sadly it didn’t live up to the hype.The visuals and costumes looked nice but the story felt slow and emotionally flat.
The fight scenes used slow-motion way too much which didn’t feel exciting at all.
Instead, it felt awkward and annoying because the director relied on it too often instead of creating truly epic fights that move the story forward.
I found myself more interested in the side characters than the main couple which made it hard to stay emotionally involved. The drama started with a lot of potential but ended up being a big disappointment.
The male lead, Zhu Yan, he’s supposed to be a powerful, ancient demon but he felt weak and not believable.
Hou Minghao’s acting didn’t bring the character to life.
His expressions were either too flat or over the top and his emotional scenes didn’t convince me. Something about the way he spoke felt forced and unnatural which made watching him difficult.
The crying scenes were especially frustrating, he cried way too much and it never felt real.
It was like he was trying hard to make tears come out but couldn’t, almost like a beginner actor.
Instead of feeling sympathy, those scenes just felt repetitive and tiring.
His chemistry with the female lead didn’t feel real either which made their romance fall flat.
For such an important role, I expected much more emotion and presence.
Honestly, the drama felt like it was pushing BL vibes more than a real romance and I wasn’t even sure what it was trying to show me.
On the bright side, Cheng Lei was one of the few good things about the show.
His performance felt strong and layered and he caught my attention every time he was on screen.
He showed calm strength and real emotion which really stood out compared to the leads.
Even though he had less screen time, he made a much bigger impression.
I honestly wished the story focused more on him. They should have cast a male lead as good as Cheng Lei.
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Hou Minghao did very well, thank you for working so hard as always baobao❤️
a lil bit more to 10/10 but i chose 9,5 because yeah :") I love everything about this drama especially how Hou Minghao turned Zhou Yuanzhou into a living character successfully. also the OST makes everything fall into the right place, with the scene and ambience and the great acting of all actors, it's complete. And of course for me my Dayao ape cute demon Zhou Yuanzhou is everything, now everytime the rain is fall, we will always remember you Dayao. Wooooooooo ai niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii baobao🥹🥰Was this review helpful to you?
The most crying in a drama award goes to...
Best OST ever. Ofc the song Liu Yu Ning sings, 'Unintentional Dreams' is the banger. And Huo Ming's 'Yuanzhou’s Youth' is so so lovely.Great costumes, great cast, great sets, great visuals, great production. Huo Ming Hao is stunning as always and does a great job creating this character. Chin Du Ling is adorable and does great as well in her role. Great dynamic relationships. Li Lun and Yichen are great characters as well and the actors do such a great job.
I enjoy the demon hunter setting and different micro stories with different demons. There was a lot of learning and growing for each character. However, a lot of it really seemed superfluous. Truthfully the story-telling was the biggest let down of this drama. The story has great bones, and is deep and emotional and interesting..
So here is the BUT - there are way too many long monologues used to tell the story. Many scenes are drawn out too long. the filler and fluff of it all is where the let down of the story telling happens. This drama uses a non-linear narrative and it honestly is just too much of back storytelling. Also, there is a lot of crying. Yes the drama has a dark and sad story as the big picture but everybody is crying like all the time...literally all the time.
That said, I'm so thankful to get to watch this drama and support the entire cast and crew. Thank you so much for all your hard work. It is definitely worth watching. But I will not rewatch it.
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If you want Romance drama and romantic scenes between casts,then skip this.No romance here
I have watched a lot of fantasy cdramas before.And let me say FOF is really beautifully different from every other dramas.The story, the visuals,the casts,the vibe they give,the instrumental background sounds and music,the friendship,the CGI effects (i don't know if i'm correct with the usage), even the way they speak and the tone of their voices.....Even we don't see a lot of romance scenes,we're still satisfied.Their unity and their bond of friendship help us forget the love scenes.Every single thing in this drama is beautiful.I watch this separately because i don't want it to end so quick.I'm stuck with these episodes.I really love FOF......
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Fangs of Fortune – A Mythic Tale of Love, Redemption, and Immortal Bonds
Fangs of Fortune is an unforgettable journey of myth, sacrifice, and love. From Zhu Yan’s tortured soul to Wen Xiao’s rise as a quiet goddess, this drama left me in awe. It isn't just a tale of demons and gods—it’s a heartbreaking ode to love, loss, and the devastating beauty of holding on too tightly. The story lingers like a half-remembered dream, haunting, healing, and wholly unforgettable. It teaches us that power without compassion corrupts, that even gods can grieve, and that sometimes, the hardest battles are not against monsters, but against our longing.Full review here:
https://veiled-echium-730.notion.site/Fangs-of-Fortune-Heartfelt-Review-20fa1fcfae738059b073f8da6d0e08a7
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Perfect
My best Chinese drama for 2024 😭❤️❤️ everything is perfectKkmkkkkkcnehsuxbxbisbshxxhhxjcjcn jdjsjxj j jcncn n n n jsiaon b jsizb j icnsicbcbj ixnsbxb n
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Too many fine characters
Since last year, I have been seeing YouTube recommend FOF, so I decided to hop on the train. At first, episode 1 seemed intriguing, but I was starting to lose interest. I managed to survive three more episodes when things started to get interesting, and before I knew it, I was done.Pros
1. Fine characters. The characters were all visually appealing, including the villains (Li Lun especially). This made watching the drama a lot easier as I got to see fine faces on my screen all the time, minus the middle-aged villain
2. Dialogue. I found the dialogue between the group quite entertaining, bringing smiles to my face from time to time. The dialogue aided in setting the fact that there was a great friendship among the group
3. Stunts. I must give the director kudos because the fighting scenes were on point. Pei especially always blew my mind whenever she fought, as the stunts were quite impressive, just like the other leads. I love how strong her character was in this drama.
Cons
1. Weak female lead. It still makes no sense how the fl was weak from the beginning till the end, even when she had the title of a goddess. At least a simple martial art would have sufficed. Even after obtaining the baize token, her ability didn't seem to improve, as 80% of the time she was either crying or looking helpless on the floor, compared to the other female lead, who was stronger and not a liability to the group.
2. Too many tears. I could feel the emotions from the character as the plot progressed, and I love how well each character expressed their feelings. But the director abused it so much that I almost didn't feel much when it mattered.
Overall
It is a great watch with a few twists. I love the friendship, but the drama could have been shorter.
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This review may contain spoilers
Recommendation Challenge feb 2025
Watch this 2 times. 1st because of Neo & all the CGI & cast, but drop it cause I don’t feel this is my vibe. 2nd because of the Recommendation Challenge from Hanshu. And since it’s a Challenge, of course that means I need to get this done… Haha… But till the end I still stand with my first impression; Great drama, amazing CGI, amazing cast, but still not for me. Haha…As usual, story first…
Story about a great demon, Zhao Yuan Zhou (YZ), who visits & was captured at the demon-hunting bureau. At the same time, the demon-hunting bureau suddenly received the task to unravel the mystery regarding the water demon. And with the Chong Wu Camp order, they formed a team; Wen Xiao (WX), Zhuo Yi Chen (YC), Pei Si Jing (SJ), Bai Jiu (BJ) & lastly YZ.
YC started the journey with a huge grudge against YZ, cause YZ is the one that killed YC’s family, YC & YZ also had a pack that YZ will die in the hands of YC. But with this journey their feelings toward each other also changed.
SJ started the journey with a huge scar regarding her younger brother. BJ started the journey with a mission on his own & problem with his dad at home.
WX turns out has a special status. After searching, they find out she is the reincarnation Bai Ze goddess. But with the revealing of this fact, their journey just began to a whole new level…
Together they embark the journey to bring peace for humans & punish the demon that made the chaos in the world. Before the journey started, each of them had a burden on each of their shoulders. But this journey finally teaches them how to hold it together, how to share their burden to each other & not only think it as their own burden, cause now they have each other.
That's pretty much the story without giving any more spoilers. Now what I like and don't.
What I like:
+ Great CGI, great fighting choreography, great acting, good story
+ Great friendship between all our lead
+ Good nasty old villain. The villain is one of the most evil in the Xian Xia story.
+ The ending... Where the cast dancing... Oh yeah that's quite a show to watch...
What I don't like:
- I don’t know what, but it just doesn't really click with me.
Overall this is quite an interesting story to watch.
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Beware of the Over Indulgence
PROS: The actors were all fabulous. Even the kid with his cracking voice and annoying scream. Neo Huo and Tian Jia Rui was the bromance I didn’t know I needed. The sets, costumes, makeup and hair were all gorgeous. With the same production team from MY JOURNEY TO YOU, I couldn’t expect anything else. And last but not least, the OST was beautiful. It invoked a lot of emotions for each scene and even listening it after watching, it brought back a lot of pent of feelings.CONS: Unfortunately, the main theme for this cdrama was Over Indulgence. It went overboard with every scene, every look, every dialogue. It dragged things out to death. Literally. The beautiful music was overplayed that it got on my nerves. The comedy clips towards the beginning were excessive and awkward with sound clips to match. The director and editor might have had a quota of episodes to meet, so a drama that could’ve only had 16eps was doubled.
The death scenes for the two younger characters were so agonizing and heart wrenching. But the ML’s death was glossed over practically. Thankfully there was the 23min Bonus scene that gave semi closure.
I would still recommend the series though. It’s a unique vibe with a unique production team that gave a unique experience with the storytelling.
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Massive disappointment due to terrible editing, direction and pacing.
Almost everything about this show was very good. Lovely, talented cast. Great costumes, sets, cinematography, OST. But the editing and direction were just awful. So much over-use of long, drawn-out 'dramatic moments'. Events that should have taken 2-3 minutes to convey were constantly taking 10-20 minutes of screen time! And this happened more and more as the show progressed. The last 4 episodes were ridiculous and barely watchable. You can literally just skip through most of these episodes and you won't miss hardly anything. And the show really just wasted the talents of Chen Du Ling as the FL because her character is nearly useless in most of this story. Not the actress' fault. She's just rendered by this story as simply incapable of doing much other than getting hurt and watching others getting hurt and crying about it all. Overall, very disappointed in this show and don't know how it got such a high rating. I literally wish I had not watched this show.Was this review helpful to you?
Not all laughs.
April 2026I so enjoyed this fantasy/Xanxia C-drama. It has humour, sarcasm, action and subtle romance.
There is also tragedy, and I cried on more than one occasion.
Demons come in all forms, and this story proves that, as is so often the case, it's the human looking ones that need worrying about the most!
Expect signature beautiful sets, costumes and actors (m&f).
A great band of characters (who don't all want to be together at all, and don't all get on), with varying abilities and very different personalities, are tasked with catching demons that have escaped the Demon Realm. They also have to fix the 'leak'!
A few eps dragged a bit, but for me, not unbearably.
One particular scene also gets revisited a bit too often, and whilst it's an important one, it did irk me a bit.
A couple of irritating support characters (again, not massively so, as covered by others), and I found Wen Xiao a bit 'wet' at times.
Still, overall it's another that's recommended and one I really enjoyed.
Note: Not that strong on romance, incase it's your thing.
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Fangs of Fortune: A Surprising Hit with Stunning Cast and Intense Villains
I was originally really apprehensive about watching Fangs of Fortune, but I'm really glad I did, as it turned out to be quite a good drama. The entire cast is full of really good-looking people, so there’s eye candy in almost every episode. I really liked how the villains weren’t push-overs and definitely put up a decent fight against the main team. They brought many tactics and well-thought-out plans to the table, and I'm glad the leads didn’t just defeat them in one move. ZYZ and ZYC had a really interesting relationship to me, kind of a borderline love-hate dynamic, but they both need each other for their own interests and benefits. The male leads had really great acting, and so did WX, but when it comes to PSJ, portrayed by Cheng Xiao, it felt a little too stiff. I understand the character isn’t the most expressive, but it seemed like a bit of an overkill with the straight face. The cinematography is absolutely phenomenal, and I really enjoyed the OST for this drama. It matches well and sets the mood, especially during the fight scenes. LL is, unsurprisingly, my favorite character. I actually didn’t realize it was Yan An until I read something about it; he certainly has better acting skills than most K-pop artists transitioning into acting. Overall, this is one of the best shows released this year, and I definitely recommend watching it. I’d rate it 7.5/10!Was this review helpful to you?
