Fangs of Fortune

ok, i was expecting more from this. as my first Hou Minghao along with the Cheng Xiao, Cheng Duling and Tian Jiarui I have watched before, I was expecting a mind-blowing drama yk? Plus I've always wondered what made people like Neo so much to have him be the second most flowered actor on MDL when I hadn't seen any of his work before. However, gotta admit, Zhao Yuanzhou was my fav character. That lil smirk and his humour was really nice to see as well as his character development and personality. In the beginning, I was a little put off by casting Cheng Duling as the female lead as the memory of Ye Bingchang from TTEOTM is still lingering like a bad taste in my mouth, but decided to give it a shot anyways. That shot was a shock to me. I thought it would be a romance. There is no romance between the ML and FL at all. Like help. There was zero chemistry. Although they sometimes acknowledged the fact that the two were a couple, if I had not watched it I literally would not believe you if you told me. Like help. Zhao Yuanzhou had more chemistry with Zhuo Yichen than Wen Xiao. It was a literal bromance. AAaaaaand in the middle of watching I was sorely tempted to drop it because of lack of interest to keep going, thus proved this show was not my thing. At all. It caused me a lot of pain to keep going till the end. Too long, haiyah. Overall, it was an eight for me. Possibly in between 8 and 8.5 if I could. But Fangs of Fortune was not my cup of tea. (p.s. looking forward to see if there are any better works of Neo out there:)) (p.p.s but this drama was lowk hilarious at parts. and the ost was such a funky happy tune. a strange mix of emotions this gave me lmao)

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Beautiful drama about friendship & redemption with many heartfelt moments

I needed something different after watching Fated Hearts like 3 times lol and picked this up because of Cheng Lei, but wow I loved Fangs of Fortune! Different vibe and atmosphere. Very beautiful, artistic production from the team behind My Journey to You which I also loved.

I got so attached to the main characters, especially Zhao Yuan Zhu and Zhuo Yi Chen ♥️. I feel so sad with the incredibly poignant ending but it makes one reflect and appreciate life and all of its joys & messiness 💔.

Another amazing part of FoF is the beautiful OST ♥️. I'll be listening to this for a while.

If there was any kind of weakness, I think the ending could have been paced better. Also the plot / journey was a bit chaotic and I had to stop a few times and think, ok what are they doing and why, but then I just let it go and let the plot flow. Also had some issues with the acting like I didn't think the actor that played the main antagonist, the doctor, was that great. Also a bit disappointed that Wen Xiao was not able to do much at the end. Otherwise, I loved it ♥️.

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Beautiful relationship between characters, but plot need to be more consistent

Overall it was a good drama, I would recommend it because of the relationship between the characters, the comedic aspect and the cinematography that was great even if I disliked a few things.

Good points :
1. The acting was good and sometimes scenes perfect. The costumes were great, the OST too.

2. The characters : Honestly they are the reason why I can't rate this drama less than 8. They really grew on me, because I love found family plot. Their chemistry together was amazing truly that's why even now, as I'm writing this review, I feel so sad about the ending. Zhuo Yichen and Bai Jiu's relationship was something father/son and big/little brother and this was honestly my fav duo. Zhu Yan was so silly and hilarious. Wen Xiao, even if I didn't like her character individually, blended well in this family. Pei Shijing and Ying Lei (I won't forget you ever 🥹) were great too.

3. The silly little dance in the ending : It was wholesome to see them dancing every time at the of the ep, they seemed enjoy it as well. First time I didn't skip the end credits, so this idea should be reused in every drama.

Things I didn't like :
1. The drama was way too more melodramatic, I felt the writer really wanted to create emotional scenes but it was way too much. I was honestly excepting something with more action and less tearing scenes.

2. Wen Xiao : The actress did was she could with the role the writer gave to her so it's not her fault, but she wasn't that important in the story. I mean she wasn't impactful, she felt more like a side/background character. At first I just thought she only needed her power to comeback for her to be a great character but nope. The more the story progressed the more I was annoyed at her crying nonstop and doing nothing when she should be powerful. She was kind but that's all unfortunately.

3. The romance : No chemistry, No emotional connection. Their bickerings were fun though, but I couldn't care less about them to the point where I didn't mind if they were separated. I found myself getting more annoyed every time the drama tried to force a romance between them.

4. The pacing & overused plot : This drama is a one where you feel it would've been better with less episodes because the pacing would've been much more enjoyable. I found myself skipping or fast forward some scenes because it was TOO SLOW and that's something I usually hate to do.
I think the point that annoyed me more was the fake death trope ; We kill a villain and he comes back to hunt us a 2nd time. I don't like this plot and it's obviously related to the pacing and the number of episodes. At some point, the story was not moving forward, they kept having meaningless conversation and this is clearly dark point of this drama. Don't need to stretch the story, if you don't have the material for it. Less episodes but packed would be more impactful.

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Heartwarming Friendship Drama

A great friendship-centered drama with a cast of lovable characters. The pacing felt a bit slow in the beginning but improved as the story progressed. Ying Lei was my favorite character, and the actors delivered excellent performances throughout. The OST was amazing and really added to the overall experience.

Perhaps the drama could have been shortened to around 30 episodes to reduce some of the slower moments, though it’s hard to pinpoint exactly where cuts could have been made. Overall, it was a great drama though a happy ending would have made it even better.

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Laugh now, Cry later | The team who disses and slanders the Best!

"I'm happy that I'm no longer your burden. I've become your armor. But... the fate of the armor is destined to break. Just like how the fate of snow is destined to melt." Pei Siheng/Aheng

Finished this drama while I am in troubled times and it became an inspiration and motivation for me to move forward and fight for myself no matter what. Thank you for being an unintentional source of motivation and energy. I appreciate it a lot! <3

This drama started like a comical skit on some random comedy bar out there with their outright exchange of subtle yet blunt insults every moment they got. It was such a breathe of fresh air simply because of how good they are in delivering such skits in the most unexpected way.

The editing was insanely on point in making things so hilarious. They're so unseriously serious about it that I cannot stop thinking how much time they spent to deliberate and brainstorm to formulate all those exchange of derogatory ciriticisms the characters delivered through their lines. They truly nailed this show with that alone and I almost died from choking because of the random timing they're being thrown at. Help! Hahaha!—To top it all that, they carried this stint till the final parts of the show which show their dedication to consistency. Impressive!

Although the comedic scenes on this drama are its gems/treasure. I would still say that what made me stayed to watch it till the end is the bond between the characters and how they carefully molded and builded it with time and experience to become unbreakable as it is now. Their selfless sacrifices and togetherness in protecting one another is what brought me to love this story as a whole.

Talking about chemistry and synergy, I feel like all of them has showed great compatibility with one another. It even stood out despite their difference in personality and demeanor. I also just wanna mention how much I love the ending clip of the drama where they are all goofing around having fun and seemingly enjoying themselves. That's such heartearming part for me. <3

Antagonists and main villain - I am really fond of how they depict the "Demons" of this story as a race of living creatures that comprises of good and bad individuals same as humans. That most of the demons who commited crime, have done so for mostly a valid reason and are still morally aware just misguided but are still willing to be redirected into goodness. However, there are also some individuals like the main villain of the story who are beyond saving and deserves an ultimate death! Lol

Climax - The story started to get so draggy and eventually boring towards the climax. It's totally understandable when they set up such hurdles for the main characters but I feel like it's overdoing it when the plot of the story is only focused on saving somebody only for the other remaining people to be involved in a life saving situation as well that will lead to their death. I feel like that's straight obsession to tragedy right there!

Finally, the ending - Hate me all you want but dang this story! I know that it was set up even from the very start that the main character (Zhu Yan) is destined to die but why do I feel like killing 3 other significant characters one after another was unnecessary? I understand that it was done just to heightened the grief and sorrowful vibe of the story but isn't it overly stretching things? Like couldn't they come up with a better scenario that can trigger such emotions without ruining the joyful environment they painstakingly built in the first place? It feels like "A Journey to Love" all over again! Sad!

Looking back now, maybe the reason why they incorporated tons of comical scenes into this drama is to prepare us audience for the tragery it will ended up becoming... They must have foreseen people getting angry and disappointed of the story's ending so they've decided to include as much 'gag' as they can to somehow, hopefully! ease the frustration and pain we might feel towards the ending—I say that it didn't help but only made it feel worse!

Story - 9.5, Everything was almost perfect not until you reach the climax where all the build up becomes draggy and questionable followed by the ending that may seem justifiable and heroic but is in fact traumatic in all angles.

Acting/Cast - 9.5, Acting is good and I am satisfied with the cast! However, I must say that they did Wen Xiao (Chen Duling's character) dirty in this drama. She's a fucking goddess who should be the protector of both race but ended but a damsel in distress who always needs saving. Neo Hou's character here is calm yet extra mischievous. Loving all the shades getting thrown left and right in the most cockily irritating manner. Hahaha! He's annoying but it show how charismatic he is as well. Gonna miss Bai Jiu (Lester Lin) iconic screams and screeches and all the main characters unique personalities. Love them all.

Music - 10, ballad songs used are all so comforting. It has this vibe that can make you fall aaleep like a lullaby and can make you heartbroken when needed. I also like the song they typically use to hype and indicate that the main characters are back and ready to fight again—their fight song!

Rewatch Value - 9.0, I would love to watch it again in the future specially all the dissing amd shades minus the last 10 or so episodes. Those episodes should be scrape out completely.

Overall - 9.0, This could have been a solid 10 only of they didn't turn Wen Xiao into such a pathetic character and if they didn't overly obsess on making the ending into a heart-wrenching and emotional tragedy. They really messed up so bad in that deparment. What a pity!

If you find my review helpful please let me know.

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n aguentei

ai vey eu tinha começado esse e tava obcecada, mas no final ja foi meio q dando uma enrolanda e meio q tava mt chato tanto q larguei faltando quatro episódios pra acabar. acho q o grande problema é que tem episódios demais e parece que fica uns 5 episódios enrolando sobre a mesma coisa, depois que o li lun deixa de ser o vilão principal ficou uma chatice só. Youtra q n consegui comprar o casal principal e muito menos gostar da FL, fiquei abismada q ela é apresentada no começo do drama com uma boazuda, q se vira sozinha e q se defende sozinha, mas agora na reta final ela se transformou em uma coitadinha que sempre depende dos outros pra ser salva e que literalmente fica sentada enquanto ver os outros morrer mesmo sendo literalmente uma DEUSA. Ai sabe eu n consigo comprar, eu acho q n vou mt com esse diretor pq tb n curti mt my journal to you, e n acho q vale esse sacrifício todo se todo mundo morre e é um grande final aberto. esse drama parece q faz mt esforço pra parecer uma grande produção e direção sendo q o roteiro é cheio de furos. achei q ia gostar mais pq tem um tom de comédia diferente de mjty e tem mts atores queridos, mas simplesmente não da, eu to bem há um mês tentando terminar isso.

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Simple but beautiful

Fangs of Fortune is a visually stunning drama with an outstanding cast and breathtaking color grading. I’m eager to rewatch it and analyze whether specific colors carry hidden meanings.

At its core, this drama follows a simple storyline: a good guy chasing down a bad guy. However, it’s so immersive that you quickly forget the simplicity of the plot. Instead, it feels like embarking on a journey with the characters. We meet a diverse group of individuals, each with different backgrounds, strengths, weaknesses, and personal demons they battled. This dynamic makes the drama captivating—if you love character-driven stories, you'll be drawn in instantly. As the characters progress, we learn more about one another, making you cheer for them along the way. The male lead, a great demon, finds ways to help those who have walked down the wrong path, and together, they overcome one obstacle after another to defeat the bad guy.

What I Loved:

The Cast

I follow many of these actors and actresses, and they portrayed their roles very well!! For once, Neo was exceptional—I’d love to see him take on more roles like this! Cheng Xiao, who always shines in variety shows, looked like she truly enjoyed herself behind the scenes. While I love her cool and composed roles, I do hope she gets a different type of character next time for more variety. As for Chen Du Ling, I watched an interview with her and felt she deserves more opportunities—she seems like such a fun person! Her teasing and playful energy were perfectly showcased in this drama.

The OST (Original Soundtrack)

I can’t praise the OST enough. Each song felt like a story, told from a perspective that belonged to that character. I shed so many tears whenever specific songs played. Initially, I struggled with the frequent song transitions, but by the end, I found several tracks that I couldn’t stop replaying.

The Editing, Colors, and Cinematic Beauty

One scene that lingers in my mind is Ying Lei’s sacrifice to save Bai Jiu. As Bai Jiu sits in sorrow with flashbacks to the past, he sees Ying Lei’s shadow and follows him. Then comes the dramatic song and the stunning golden-yellow color palette—I was completely drawn. The lyrics struck me deeply:

"You’re in front of me, blocking the pain,
Who cries with swollen eyes, with a broken heart,
Walking, stopping, chasing your voice,
I’ll turn into raindrops, an ancient song,
Running towards you, looking for you… find you."

This drama was so visually mesmerizing that I couldn’t help but admire every bit of detail. I’ll definitely be following this director’s work in the future!

The Side Characters

Seeing Ai Mi and Zuo Ye again brought me to tears! I know this isn’t a direct continuation of Journey, but it certainly felt like it. Ryan Cheng’s minor role was a wonderful surprise, and it was fun to see the Gong brothers back in action!

What I Didn't Love:

The ending felt unnecessarily dragged out, a pace I didn’t not expect. I also disliked how Ying Lei wasn’t acknowledged as part of the main group. When they mentioned "the five"—Zhou Yuan Zhou, Wen Xiao, Zhuo Yi Chen, Pei Si Jing, and Bai Jiu—I was heartbroken that they didn’t say "six." Ying Lei always felt like an integral part of the team.

Final Thoughts:

I highly recommend Fangs of Fortune if you’re looking for a visually captivating drama with alluring aesthetics and a simple yet emotionally engaging story. Just be sure to have plenty of tissues ready!

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Finally watched this, but it fell short of my expectations

The high rating had my hopes up and I honestly wanted to watch something with a little more comedy. To be honest, Bai Jiu's screams brought me here lol. But unfortunately, it fell short.

What I liked:
- Strong start: the first few episodes were pretty good but after they solved the case of the murdered brides the storyline just didn't interest me that much anymore.
- Hou Ming Hao: He's just really fits this role as a demon or powerful being. I watched him in Love in the Clouds and I swear this kind of role is just made for him. His expressions and mannerisms are so good.
- Friendship and side characters: I really liked the whole group and the friendships and their different personalities.

What I didn't like/ Could've been better:
- Pacing: Way too slow. Sometimes they just be showing visuals on the screen and they would talk so slow. No way it takes 10 min of talking about one thing and then the ep is over like come on. Maybe if it was faster paced, I wouldn't lose interest. I had to do stuff while watching so it didn't feel like I was wasting time :(
- Useless Goddess: No offense but what was her purpose? Like she had no power, she moaned and hates herself for being weak, it just felt silly. I feel her character could've been written better. Maybe she could've been super smart and outsmart the villains. Her character when she was introduced was super interesting, I thought she'd be really intelligent, but it went so downhill :( I was shouting at my screen
- Deaths - Ying Lei's death was so sad. He deserved more. I get why he died but it was so sad. I also considered him part of the crew. I know he wasn't originally part of the group but for me he was there. Bai Jiu's death... I'm still in denial. I always thought he'd appear screaming and then they'd laugh and joke. The ending was so sad. Zhuo Yi Chen lost his family and at the end he also lost all his friends. Like give my guy a break. So sad :_(
- Villains coming back from the dead: I hate when someone who you fought died reappears a few episodes later like bro, just die already. Like I thought we dealt with you once, why you back!

I hope it's not too harsh, I did enjoy parts of it but I feel it was just too slow paced for me and the storyline became a little boring. And if you don't like sad endings like me, beware.

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An incredible story that lets you feel every emotion with its stillness

This drama is a journey that teaches the importance of bonds between people (and demons), while also pondering on the nature of evil and the value of personal choices. While watching this drama, I often pondered about the ways experiences shape us into who we are, and I must say, I had ample time to do so.

I gave the story a rating of 9, because in the end, it was a very strong and emotional story that never tried to lie to the audience about its core. Surely, there are many twists that leave you stunned, but the story knew what it wanted to tell, and it told exactly that. It promised, and it delivered.

When I had to rate the acting in this drama, I hesitated a lot, as I had a lot of mixed feelings. I believe two of the actors in the main cast have carried the drama on their shoulders, making up for the lakings in others. Hou Ming Hao's portrayal of Zhu Yan was incredible, his character captured my attention from the moment he appeared on screen, and he dominated every frame he was in. The other actor who made a major contribution is Lester Lin (Lin Zi Ye), yet I absolutely cannot even begin to describe what impressed me in his work so much here without revealing any spoilers. He had a difficult role to play, and he performed it perfectly.
I was not as impressed with the other members of the main cast. My honorable positive mentions would be Xu Zhen Xuan and Cheng Xiao - their characters were memorable, and their acting was solid. As for the remaining two... I believe this was Chen Du Ling's weakest role out of what I've seen. Compared to TTEOTM and Journey to love, and even Lotus Casebook, she was just not it. I watched FoF before I wached the other three, and I was genuinely impressed by her performance in them, as my first impression of her acting came from FoF.
Tian Jia Rui also deserves a comment from me here. I believe he remembered that he can actually use his facial muscles to portray his character's emotions by episode 10. Or rather, he started using expressions other than blank stare and frown to play his character, which was a welcome change.

The music was a highlight of the drama, with ending song being the perfect balm for your soul after emotionally charged moments that this drama has in abundance. Seeing actors perform their adorable dance while in character outfits was a real joy.

So here we come to the rewatch value. Surely the story is amazing, the music is incredible, and you can disregard Tian Jia Rui's poker face without much effort, but there is one aspect where this drama really loses its rewatch value - framing and pacing.

Throughout the entire show I had a feeling I am watching a comic where every panel is a GIF, so now I actually have to wait for the entire GIF to play before I can move to the next panel. There is a neverending supply of long shots with no action happening in them, other than characters doing one thing. Some thing. Any thing. But one per shot. Every emotion is felt and shown for several seconds while the world stands still and lets the character to feel it and the viewer to absorb it. Action scenes sometimes become a turn-based RPG, where everyone just stands and waits while someone is performing their moves. I believe that if you watch FoF on 2x speed, it becomes an action drama. But as it is right now, it is a comic/manhua that forces you to look at every panel for longer than it deserves.

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Amazingly beautiful and very well directed

I waited a long long time for this drama to be out. OMG WOW! It was definitely worth the wait!

Everyone has played their roles very well and the little details in the acting and story was very well designed. All the intricate details were amazing. This drama is definitely different from the spoiled princess dramas out there and all the palace power struggles....all same story line. This drama is definitely different and it's a good different.

Neo Huo has played his role extremely well and the chemistry between all of them are in synchrony which makes puts the drama in a different class of its own.

Very well played 👍

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Worth a watch

*Cinematography*:
Spectacular rich, sombre set design. This is the thing I loved most about GJM's works, whatever other criticisms I have for his directing. If you're kind of not into the light airy colours lots of period dramas use and loved the dark tones of My Journey to You's aesthetic, then this is for you. Colours aside, GJM seems to really know what kind of shots and scenes he's going for. Nothing is tonally out of place. Everything could be a wallpaper. I'm not kidding when I say this drama is worth a watch based on cinematography alone.

*Music*: absolutely amazing, almost every song is playlist-worthy. Liu yuning's been deployed once again and producing masterpieces as usual.

*Story*:
Well right off the bat the casting is amazing. You won't EVER catch an actor slipping in their acting, not even when they're the background of a shot. If they act off, it's because their character is up to something. That's how good they are.

As for the actual writing, it's too early to judge them on character arcs yet. What I'll say is that these characters are written as organic human beings with understandable motivations. So no awkward dialogue, caricatures, etc. On the other hand, the 'elite team' that the main cast is supposed to be feature some people who just. can't. fight. So you need to stretch your imagination a bit there. The good of this is that the show generally lets every character be useful, even if you're sometimes left to wonder if they should be running around fighting demons at all.

Thematically, the show does a great job giving it's antagonists understandable philosophical perspectives that conflict with the heroes'. However, it does 'cop-out' too many times by giving them convenient resolutions instead of letting the clash of ideas run its course. So while the heroes have been challenges ideologically pretty much every arc, they've not changed much. Another thing is, while the show is very good at show not telling for establishing personalities, lore, backstories, you name it, it kind of drops the ball on thematic content and prefers to deliver them through long, rambling monologues copiously inserted between climactic fight scenes.

Some very minor points: this show delivers it's lore in bits and pieces (no intro infodump here). This can be fun or confusing depending on how you see it. Next, I really like how demon characters get demon names. Like not titles but mythological names. It isn't something I see often and suits them way more than 'The ___ king of demons'.

Also, even though the plot is technically 'investigations' of demon crimes, it's not really a crime solving show so don't go into it with that expectation. It has the crime show aesthetic of morbid atmosphere and corpses and running into creepy places, but it delivers them to the bad guy's lair without much piecing together clues because that's not what this show is about. Most twists (and there are plenty) are delivered via dialogue, not figured out by the main 'detectives'.

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Too grey,Arty,Corpses' make up . Dullness overload

Really good acting and story line but the director is obsessed with his own "artiness" so much so it destroyed vewer's enjoyment.
Every single frame is like a painting with beautiful scenery and art form sometimes with beautiful music and camera work but hey, 40 minutrs every single episode can kill my endurance .
Everything becomes "flat"with flat speech,flat voice,flat grey light to the point my brain dies and I feel depressed. Everyone speaks in whispery flat voice.
To fit the grey dull "arty" pictures,the actors have ugly overly white thick pasty make up which destroyed their natural beauty again totally depressing the viewers. They look like corpses

So my rewatch rating is zero and I will recommend watching it if you want to cultivate endurance of boredom and depression watching corpses talking in exactly the same tone for 30hours

The diector need to reflect and stop being so Artym this is a drama not a painting so totally one dimensional

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