Love in the Clouds

Beautiful drama with a great couple

I would say the story is great, interesting (with some good plot twist) but the drama is way too dragging especially at the end. I struggle to finish it (I did skipped some scenes)

However I did really like both leads - actors are great and have good chemistry. I really do like the scenes when they're only both characters because the emotions delivery is top notch. And those scenes like in the pool aaaaah that was hot haha

I really like the decors, the OST, and the whole universe: one of the reason why I'm always tempted by those chinese historical dramas. It's so pleasing to watch really.

I would definitely rated 8/10, 8.5/10 if I did not get bored towards the end

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Refreshing story and great cast

This drama is a fun watch. It brought me out of a wuxia slump -- we all know these types of dramas can feel overdone and heavy-handed. Love in the Clouds feels refreshing and unique, and avoids falling into typical wuxia tropes -- the story keeps you on your toes. The plot is a tight and self-contained without a lot of extra fat. 36 episodes was the perfect length. It doesn't try to do too much, and I didn't find myself skipping any episodes or fast forwarding to avoid boring character arcs.

The cast is great and the drama is well-acted. I almost skipped this one, then realized the female lead is played by Lu Yu Xiao who was phenomenal in My Journey to You. Her acting really drew me into a character type that I don't normally enjoy watching (the manipulative female lead). Ming Yi is played as a more self-aware, less frustrating version of Bai Lu's role in Til the End of the Moon. Her character is believable and very likeable.

I also found Hou Ming Hao to be a delight as Ji Bozai. At first I found his performance to be too understated, but as the show goes on you realize that's just part of his character, and also serves to keep the spotlight on Ming Yi.

The supporting cast is great as well -- of note, Love Like the Galaxy's Yu Cheng En plays an amazing second male lead. His character gets more and more interesting as the drama goes on. The animal companions were fun to watch, especially Twenty-Seven. The Shouhua Academy group helped break up the story in an interesting and fun way. I found myself just as interested in Tianji and the warriors' stories as the main story.

The only reason I didn't rate this show a perfect 10 is because it feels like it's missing something that's hard to name. This was a fun watch and a tier above the average Wuxia, but it didn't capture my heart like my all-time faves. Maybe there wasn't quite enough angst between the main leads. Either way, I really enjoyed and highly recommend this drama.

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Intrigue, Comedy, and Characters that captivate

⚠️ Written after completed the show, this review contains minor spoilers. I have not read the web novel.

This wasn’t the typical enemies-to-lovers trope I expected. Ji Bozai never truly thought he would kill Mingxian — he even had respect for her. And Mingxian didn’t want to kill him either. The story felt more like a lying trope than a pure enemies-to-lovers dynamic.

Let’s first talk about what I especially enjoyed.

I was amazed by how involved I was while watching this drama. It’s quite rare for me to binge a fully released drama this quickly. I can’t exactly explain why I was so captivated this time, but the story and characters kept me hooked. I believe the actors were great, although I’m not the best judge of acting skills. I also liked visual effects and the combat scenes, which I usually find quite laughable in wuxia dramas. The comedic moments were enjoyable as well; they help ease the tension when it gets too intense.

The story was by far my favorite part of the drama. One reason is that new villains keep appearing throughout the show, each with their own motivations, which keeps the plot dynamic and engaging. But the main reason I loved it was Mingyi’s prolonged deception. It added a tragic layer to the love story and prevented things from becoming too predictable or smooth between the leads. Even though some plot twists, like the true identities of the main characters, were easy to predict, I actually enjoyed that—I love when I can figure out the story ahead of time.

Mu Tianji was an amazing character. I could write a lot about her and how touching she was. I really liked the actress He Nan’s expressions. Mu Qibai behaved terribly, but he was right about the need for a change in the political direction of Jixing Abyss. While I did not hope for great political strategy when watching this drama, it’s interesting to consider it when it comes to Mu Tianji’s role. She was effective in both ambition and leadership, which men in the royal family were unable to. She forced communication — something many characters lacked — to make decisions. She trusted people based on her instincts and emotions, and she was right each time, as shown by how she built the successful Shouhua Academy.

The visuals were incredible, and the actors and costumes were beautiful. I especially liked the makeup on Xunming and Situ Long — they looked very handsome!

However, there were also elements that frustrated me to some extent.

First, the repeated patterns of plots and miscommunication. The plot can be a bit repetitive at times, especially with Mingyi’s identity storyline. There is also a lot of push-and-pull, which I usually enjoy, but overall it sometimes felt like the drama existed just for the sake of drama. This might seem contradictory with the fact that I liked Mingyi continuing to lie, but Ji Bozai was questioning things like the love Mingyi had for him — which he couldn’t really doubt. The tension worked well when it was about her not revealing her true identity, but the repeated questioning of her feelings felt irrelevant. Ji Bozai irritated me so much when he decided to misunderstand Mingyi, even though she had just slept with him. Near the end of the show, I was also so exhausted when he started being distant again because he wanted to sacrifice himself.
The miscommunication between the leads was very frustrating. Ji Bozai jumped to off-base conclusions, while Mingyi was too passive to clarify the real issues. Miscommunication is such a typical element in drama series, but I would love to see some innovation with communicating leads one day, lol.

Then, let’s talk about Situ Long’s character development. I saw a review saying Situ Long went from being a good villain to an obsessive creep, that is so real lol. I liked his initial role, Mingyi saying that he mistook gratitude for love, and I was hoping he would focus on getting the Golden Millet Dream for himself, especially when Mingyi never showed any interest in him. She was so polite and kept her distance, without any ambiguity. It makes the shifting from being a supportive intelligent ally to this manipulative obsessed guy even worse. I hoped he would gradually let go of his interest and would eventually stop, especially since he didn’t seem to mind hurting himself, but in the end his partner Fuyue also suffered because of his actions. In the end, the purpose of his character was for anything else that the need of an ultimate villain with charisma.

Finally, the missed opportunity of a tragic love-and-friendship. I also had high hopes for a tragedy regarding Zhangtai and Mingyi friendship regarding Zhangtai and Xunming’s marriage. When it was showed as love at first sight, I was hoping for a story where Mingyi might hesitate to harm Xunming because of his relationship with Zhangtai — a tragic love-and-friendship element. But my hopes died as soon as we saw that the wedding happened so quickly, understanding Zhangtai has become the victim of Xunming and that there was no true love between them.

So, I would recommend this drama to anyone. While it’s not entirely unique and some parts aren’t perfect, I think its main strength lies in the constant renewal of its plotlines and the fact that many of the characters are interesting. It never feels boring, and overall, it’s easy to watch.

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Unnecessarily long miscommunication and misunderstanding with no proper resolution

Their relationship is what I really like, the unrealistic of unconditional and sacrificial love (yes i am hopeless romantic when it comes to fiction) however, i think the drama is unnecessarily long. It's just unlimited miscommunication and misunderstanding — i mean, it does make sense that they have miscom and misun bcs that's literally where their relationship started but that doesn't have to be THAT long. For me, the plot became boring but I got hooked in the plot twist in the later episodes (blew my mind tbh). Because of how bored I am, it was my first time watching with 2x speed. I love the side couple, princess tianji and Yan xiao, istg i love the angst between them I have to find a drama similar to their story cause i was eating that drama they're having, no screentime of theirs is wasted. The writing felt lackluster to me: Jbz clearly showed he trusted Ming Yi, but she never grasped that fact. It would have been nicer if there was a realization or monologue instead of just resolving it with "I’m tired of lying". I understand Ming Yi’s lack of trust, but the way it was handled at the end was disappointing.

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Second Lead Syndrome, Enemy-to-Lovers, and a Story That Soars

Love in the Clouds was a surprisingly refreshing watch. Even though it centers around fairies and immortals—a theme we’ve seen many times before—the storyline felt fresh and engaging throughout. One of the highlights was how well the enemy-to-lovers trope was handled; it developed naturally and added depth to both the romance and the emotional tension. Easily a 10/10 for me.
The cast was very well chosen. Both the male lead and female lead delivered fantastic performances, with strong chemistry and emotional depth that made their journey together believable and compelling.
A special mention goes to the princess. Her character was incredibly emotional—at times she was mostly crying. Honestly, she deserves an award for that.
I also have to admit I suffered from a serious case of second male lead syndrome. His character was complex, layered, and deeply memorable. While his journey takes an unexpected turn, it only adds to the emotional impact of the story rather than taking away from it.
Overall, Love in the Clouds is a beautifully cast fantasy romance with strong performances, a well-executed enemy-to-lovers arc, and an emotional storyline that stands out despite familiar elements. Definitely worth watching.

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Hou Ming Hao is Anime Pretty

I enjoyed the initial push and pull of the leads trying to outsmart and outmaneuver one another in charming and amusing ways. Both leads were attractive and exuded chemistry with one another.

Once they knew one another, the drama suffered a bit in trying to manufacture conflict that wasn't sensible and only served to pad the episode. Noble idiocy struck often and hard. Misunderstandings abounded when just one sentence could have cleared everything up. Thankfully, the leads started to work together and actually communicate without massively lying to one another, but it was frustrating getting to that point.

The OST was good, the costumes were attractive, and the cast was beautiful.

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AFTER A LONG C-DRAMA SLUMP, THIS MADE ME CAME BACK

Writing a review few weeks after I finished the drama. This is the first ever c-drama that I watched while it was on-going/airing (I don’t have the patience to wait). The episode gets better and better I’m telling you.

At first, I was skeptical but as the episode goes on? AHHH WORTH IT. There was the romance, the comedy and the angst between the couple. I really love how Ji Bozai fell first and fell even harder —will really do anything and will cross oceans and mountains for Ming Yi 😩🤌🏼💗

The plot? For the first time it revealed the unexpected—in a way that you think you already knew it? Nah, there’s more ✨

AND THE OST? HOU MINGHAO, JI BOZAI HIMSELF SANG IT AND IT’S STILL ON REPEAT IN MY SPO— ✨🎧

The actors are amazing!!! It was like a feast in our eyes, they’re all so beautiful! AND LU YUXIAO IS SO PRETTYYYY AHHHH 💗

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No romance just fantasy

So after watching some fantasy and historical I'm done with these chinese genre overly Melo dramatic always, always weak FML , always dying, sacrifice? this isn't the part of love or how love is shown ? story focus is 100% fantasy and 10 % romance? i watch for romance not for other genre? i have skipped last 6-7 eps because they don't show up main lead but fantasy and side characters, so this is not for me ,I do enjoy fantasy but with equal amount of romance included, this is like some Korean manwha I read that name it romance fantasy genre when they don't show romance at all ,I liked the couple so wanted to watch if all historical and fantasy like this I rather quit ,I had avoided this in chinese but decided to watch I should say they're 10-9 for fantasy or historical but romance in these is 1-4

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a must watch!

This drama was fire! I absolutely recommend it.. It completely exceeded my expectations and honestly reminded me why I still love watching c-dramas in the first place. Compared to other dramas that start dragging or losing their pace after a certain number of episodes, this one did the exact opposite. Every episode kept me hooked, and I genuinely couldn’t wait to see what would happen next. Not to mention the chemistry between the two leads! honestly one of the best couples I’ve ever seen on screen. It had been a long time since I got this obsessed with a pairing and their chemistry...

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