The Unclouded Soul

Cotton candy with a Buddhist veneer

I was in the mood for a dreamy fantasy, and the first episode of THE UNCLOUDED SOUL looked like it might do the trick. But by episode 2, I began to realize it had turned into a children’s flic with cute little pixies, a demon school for newbies, and a menagerie of talking animals and plants. The meanie demons (not the nice ones) were always dressed in black–so you could tell who the bad guys were. The decor reminded me of Snow White, Cinderella, Peter Pan or even the Wizard of Oz with a dash of Harry Potter thrown in.

At first, Demonland ( Valley of Ten Thousand Demons) had a feel-good glow. As for the plot–there were enough contradictions to confuse a quantum physicist. When the FL accidentally tied the match-making red thread around her own wrist and that of the ML, he told her that from now on the two of them would never be separated. They would forever have to stay thisclose to each other. Two scenes later, the FL is back in class with the other kids (her demon besties), but the ML is off doing grown-up demon stuff.

There’s a school “test,” which is described by the “teacher” as having two goals 1) steal a pillow, and 2) make a human child cry. The pillows are duly stolen, but...make a child cry? Really? I was hoping for Darth Vader, but these folks have all the menacing gravitas of a group of trick-or-treaters on Halloween.

The FL learns a spell to make silver, but seems to have totally lost this ability in a later episode when she needs a couple of ingots to pay a merchant. A certain character, supposedly an immortal, is stabbed to death. Other “immortals” are also killable. Little things like this had me grinding my teeth.

On the other hand, the FL is cute and spunky. The ML, in spite of being a demon, is the perfect boyfriend: handsome, protective, warm, and sensitive. He even learns to cook the FL’s favorite foods for her birthday.There’s something sweet and poignant in their relationship that kept me hanging in there. Then there’s the dashing captain whose only flaw is that he takes himself way too seriously – and that he’s a little too bonded with his sword, who is also his sister (don’t ask).

A group of human women (including the FL) are sent to a mysterious island ruled over by a a beautiful immortal who has kidnapped the ML and injected him with poison, in an attempt to break his spirit. These women are forced to cook and clean and dodge magic manifestations in a series of degrading competitions, meant to bring out their greed and selfishness – all for a chance to become immortal. Mixed in with this display of sappy banality is a haunting atmosphere of tragedy and gloom that hangs over everything like a pall.

In short, this series doesn’t seem to know what it wants to be. Is it a children’s story? A romance? A tragedy? A Buddhist morality play? I felt pulled in a dozen different directions at once.
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Such a beautiful story, I waited a whole year for this!

Hou Minghao... lemme just say.. I'm never ever disappointed in this man!!! He's so talented,his expressions makes you feel what he feels the second you notice a tear or a smile... he's a wonderful actor and great singer, I love his voice, I'm so glad I got to hear it in one of the eps today. He's so fine in every way!!! And I've always liked Tan Song Yun, she's really cute and funny in this and not annoying at all, she adapts so easy with the demons and understands them, she has a huge heart for every race... I love her and Neo's chemistry, it's so good. I'm so glad they work so well together!
As I watched, I hated the humans, and in ep 5, we see that Bingzhu has a very sad story. I can see why he is the way he is but I still don't like his ways and I think humans are awful but there is also that creepy face demon, whatever his name, hmm. I wonder who is behind all the evil, maybe they haven't shown up yet or they have and we didn't think anything of it. But all 5 eps are top notch, I enjoyed every bit of them. The story, the chemistry, the actors, the OTS, I have NO ISSUE with anything. I love the demons, the cats split personality, the adorable little green fluffballs, (I want one), the costumes, and, oh, the VISUALS ... The CGI is so beautiful!!! I love it all. I love all the characters. This is very fun, it's hilarious, and it is going to be emotional, I'm sure we are in for a rollercoaster but I think it'll be a fun ride! I can't wait for the next eps. This is truly an amazing drama. Well done, guys!!

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Mixed Emotions but Worth Watching

I honestly don’t know where to begin with this drama. Seeing the rating drop from 8.4 to 7.8 truly broke my heart because I genuinely love both lead actors. Still, I can understand the reason behind it.

Some episodes are really engaging and pass by quickly, while others feel quite slow. Even then, skipping isn’t an option because you want to watch your favorite actors. Open endings are always difficult to process, and the ending in particular made me lower my rating to 8.

Personally, I don’t see this drama going above 8.2, and I believe the lower ratings are mainly due to the ending and the uneven pacing in certain episodes. That said, if you are planning to watch it, go ahead but be prepared to push through a few slow episodes.

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Lazy writing at its best ?

After the huge success of Love In The Clouds, The Unclouded Souls was definitely something I was looking forward to. Can't say I'm fully disappointed cause I could see both Hou Minghao and Tan Songyun did everything they could to save this lacklustre of the plot...but even they had their limits!

Lets talk about the pros.
Well,HMH as the Demon King Hong Ye was absolutely gorgeous. He's a king,who is not someone with arrogance or show off but a leader who has this huge responsibility to protect his people from human...a King with morality,sense of duty,someone you can always rely on.But when he's with Xiao Yao,he's a lover,a protector who has been betrayed in his previous life but still his heart belongs to her and he acknowledges it really well. HMH did real Justice to this role.He had that calm,elegant,gentle sophisticated aura that immediately makes you respect him as a King who is always ready to protect his subjects or a lover who despite being hurt deeply, loves with his everything. I could feel Hong Ye's sadness in his sorrowful eyes before that first time travel and loved how eventually his eyes changed after he finally fell in love with Xiao Yao.

Tan Songyun,even though she was older than HMH,was so lively,beautiful as Xiao Yao who is naughty,cheerful,vibrant,cheeky, always smiling and making everyone smile. She was weak but never solely depending on others. When needed,she delivered powerful performance. As a dragon lord from 10,000 years ago,she was looking majestic.She was one of the reasons for me to finish this drama,loved her as Xiao Yao/Ning'an.

And this pair worked. Not in a "set the screen on fire" way,but in a mature,more understanding, subtle way. Hong Ye who even after everything,his past with Ning'an,his enmity with human,his responsibility as Demon King, still loved his Xiao Yao till his last moment. Xiao Yao even after her heartbreak 10000 years ago due to Hong Ye,after everything she went through,still loved her Hong Ye till she found him again and again. They understood each others sacrifices,their past never became a hindrance to their love.They were destined to be lover,a miserable pair mocked by destiny who just wanted to live with each other in every timeline. HMH and TSY was sweet as a couple, understood their character and delivered well.


Cinematography and cgi was good. OST's were really lovely, I absolutely loved "Afraid It's Only A Dream". Comedy bits were good too,some were really laughable.

Now...cons.

1.Story writing was really lazy...perhaps bad at some points.There were times when I had to skip cause it was so boring.The whole plot with Dreamshard Immortal was so painfully boring...making Hong Ye almost disappear for like 4/5 episodes,making him a prisoner with no power, the trials with those girls,suddenly Dali becoming evil for no reason..... Nothing was appealing at all. Later they again made Hong Ye powerless only to make Xiao Yao have time travel and when she came back,she had to go back again...there has to be some limits of stupid writing! Also Bingzhu-Pianpian plotline was another headache! Bingzhu who always hated Demons suddenly becoming one and Pianpian behind all these calamity that fell upon Demon valley for no apparent reason....nothing makes sense.


2.Since time travel contains a huge plot of the story,some effort should've given to make it somehow logical. Now the " chicken-egg" theory makes everything questionable.Xiao Yao kept going back, sometimes she's clueless,sometimes she remembers,she knows whats gonna happen but still did the same thing...it was painful to watch.Also after the story unfolds,it felt like it was Xiao Yao as Dragon Lord and her obsession with Hong Ye that started everything. Didn’t understand how it was Hong Ye's fault 10000 years ago when it was him and his people who was tortured,killed by demons and he deceived them only to protect his people. Yes,he did deceive Xiao Yao too,but he didn’t deserve to be killed by her for that,that part was illogical. Also,why Hong Ye didn’t go with Xiao Yao in time travels when he also was a main part of whatever happened??


3.Bringing back three big Demons,giving them likable characters only to kill them so easily was another bad turn of the plot. Other small demons and Demon valley also got sidelined since the story started to heavily base on past incidents.

4.The ending could be much much better if they didn’t take the typical sad xianxia route. Hong Ye already got punished and suffered in the past two timelines. Even after becoming a demon, he's been atoning for his sins for 5000 years.....so why make him punished again for eternity??? Why nothing happened to Bingzhu who been killing demons left and right?He suddenly became a demon and out of nowhere Tan'er appeared on Pianpian's body and he stopped fighting???? Why Pianpian not punished who's been behind everything? How can that greedy emperor die so easily and after that suddenly human and demons were on good terms???? Out of all these people who deserved to die,why Hong Ye was the one who had to sacrifice??? Its not like people will forget about Yuli Spring,they will keep finding it and make chaos.Hong Ye's sacrifice was'nt needed.


Overall if we ignore the plotholes and that bizarre nonsense ending, its really enjoyable as a eye pleasing drama with sweet mature likeable leads.The story wasn’t that bad,a better writing could actually give us something really memorable.

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this drama is hot mess!!

it's really hard to rate this drama. even thou it isn't bad the drama itself makes it hard to like it.
the pacing is all wrong, the main plot gets lost in the sauce, some characters actions don't make any sense.

basic plot: the entire world inhabited by humans, demon and immortal deyates are after the Yuli springs which grants immortality. in other to access the spring water, one must look for the 8 pieces of a magical mirror.
that's were the story starts and where it ends , but the middle part is a whole mess.

we quickly put aside this mission and get lost in endless "quest focused" episodes.

main observations

The dynamic between characters are forced. The start of this love story doesn't make any sense. The 2 main leads are at best acquaintances but the plot wants to see us they falling in love. If you just skip this step, you'll enjoy the drama even though the actors don't have "couple vibes" but "friends vibes".
Same thing for the soldier guy. His only encounter with Xiao Yao is at the military office where he sees her as scammer. Later in the episodes she just flees away and later we are supposed to believe is respects her as a " kind person".. sorry...but when did this happen?😅
Adding to the strange dynamics between characters, Dali revolting against Xiao Yao doesn't make any sense. The was no foreshadowing of this conflict..it just appeared.
She was the one who volunteer to save the demonic Lord with Xiao Yao...

Ep 20: we are halfway through the drama and the main mission, finding the mirror pieces is on hold... They managed to obtain 2 pieces... Until now there is a lot of side quests but a main fil Rouge is missing. Where is this drama going?

Ep 28: the drama has lost the plot. We make 2 steps forward with the main plot and waste episodes on episodes on side quests. Xiao Yao went back in time to collect the primordial spirit of the demon King... Was are they doing? Solving crimes around town. Side stories no one cares about.

This drama started out with endless people looking for the immortality spring and 3/4 into the stories no one is really talking about it, they collect 2 pieces of the mirror so far. 2 pieces...

Hong he is such a boring character.
Pace is uneven. Everything happens at once or nothing happens at all.

The more the drama progreses the more I dislike the main FL. I get that you love Hong he but she treats everyone else like shit when Hong he is involved.

This drama is basically them falling In love because of "kindness" towards one another and eating noodles.


episode 40:
I am finally done with this drama. man, what a mess.

if would have been better to watch to first 10 episode and the last 10. everything in between is basically filler .

the last 5ish episodes cointain all the important information about this drama and we're still hard to swallow.

the only completely positive thing for me is the cat character. he is just too lovable.

watch this drama only if you have endless patience and don't care about coherence.

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A neverending story

I was so excited for this drama because the previous shows I watched with Hou Minghao were absolute bangers but this one.... yikes. It was a rollercoaster I didn't like and wanted to get off as soon as possible.

The story follows Xiao Yao as she's caught up in the middle of the continuous feude between Demons and Humans. During a fight among them she discovers that she's part human, part demon but doesn't understand how the hell that happened. Before she can decide what to do the demons take her away to Demon Valley and tell her she can't leave due to her demonic powers and her practicing them. Along the way she makes friends and gets to know the demons. Instead of human eating beast they can be gentle and kind. She even makes friends and becomes very protective of them.
Can she stop the fighting between both worlds?

The plot above seemed interesting to me but I fell for a cheap scheme. Most of the story was dull, too long and most of it didn't make much sense. The characters didn't do much for me. I didn't feel attached to a single one and kind of hoped something interesting would happen. I'm usually a big sucker for romance but this one just felt off. It didn't feel like a real love to me because there was no time for them to actually fall in love. They just decided they were at some point and chose to not live without the other. Or to die protecting the other.

Maybe this is just not the story for me. I really thought it was going to be this epic drama that would blow me away but it never did. I ended up skipping through most of the ending, not really caring about the Feiyu gaurds, the humans or the entire storyline around that demon bat (with a name I keep forgetting) who wants to steal Hong Ye's demon throne. And it just became ridiculous after Xiao Yao started to travel back in time. At that point I started wishing Hong Ye (in his first life) was the manipulating and spiteful human who betrayed the demon queen and killed her entire race just to get to the Yuli Spring but that never happened. Even back then he was a lovestruck boy without any real power.

I really think this show overreached a little. They used great actors but the characters were outright stupid and too goofy. The power level of their demon king was weak ( I mean... that whole "I lost my powers so we have to bluff our way through" thing was silly. It was probably meant as comic relief but it came across as a weird plot).

Like:
- The OST is superb. I fell in love with most of the songs and have added them to my playlist.
- The cast is amazing.
- The costumes are beautiful!

Dislike:
- Most of the earlier episodes are story-to-storyline. Early episodes are filled with stories that are not connected to the main characters and most of the mains are reduced to background characters (as in, you don't see them for a while).
- Dali. They ruined her character for me by doing that "jealousy" arc.
- The main couple. I get that they fall in love over three lifetimes but the way time goes in this show and how time travel is a thing... they just didn't spark for me. I didn't feel the chemistry. They became annoyingly in love at some point. Always choosing each other (even when it was obviously a stupid choice) and I had to roll my eyes so badly they started to hurt.
- The overal storyline. We spend so much time on watching Xiao Yao sit in Demon Academy (which was a thing) and helping other people or demons in trouble. I actually liked watching her work with both demons and the Feiyu guards and was expecting them to reconcile at some point and make peace between both races, but the story took such a deep dive into randomness I was mindblown... and not in a good way.
- Hong Ye was supposed to be this all-powerful demon king but if I had to compare him to other Demon Kings I've seen he's probably the weakest yet. He's easily broken and felt like a king only by name.

Do I recommend? No. But if you're in for a long haul of a drama with a not-so-great story but great actors, this just might be your next watch. But if you're wanting something with a little more plot and interesting characters, this might not be the one for you.

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Its good, but i was disappointed

I don't usually write reviews cus usually im pretty spot on with the ratings for myself. If i expect it to be good its usually good (imo btw) and when its bad its bad. But this show disappointed me, I expected an 8.5-9 but this show ended up at an 8 specifically because of the story.

Don't get me wrong overall the show was great, acting great, quality is great, pacings not the best but still fine. But what annoyed me was the ending.

Considering the leads loved each other for 3 lifetimes and 2 of which hong ye dies by the hands of xiao yao, I felt there was no reason for them to have a tragic ending. Hong Ye dying the first time, atoning in his second life and by karma experienced betrayal by the hands of his loved one (ik xiao yao didnt have control but in terms of his pov) was more than enough of suffering for not just Hong Ye but also Xiao Yao.

The tragic ending I felt was unnecessary, and honestly it would've been better if either of them died or both died, but instead we have Hong Ye forever sealed and Xiao Yao going through a memory loop.

Eternal suffering and torture for both the leads, I think it's unnecessary especially after the 10000 years of suffering they both already endured.

In fact I think the supporting characters Bingzhu, Tan'er and Pian Pian had a far better ending and hence better story.

I'm overall still going to say its a good drama but I'm just disappointed and I think there was more potential for satisfaction.

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Absolutely loved the first two episodes!!
The storyline is great, and I love the other worldly elements and special effects ❤️
The valley of ten thousand demons is so beautiful ❤️ and not to mention Demon Lord Hong Ye (you'll fall in love the moment you see him on screen ahhh😍😍❤️❤️)
Xiao Yao is cute and brave too ❤️
Can't wait for the rest of the episodes to air and watch their chemistry grow🥰❤️💗💕
Will add more comments later hehe ❤️
In short: It's a must watch drama for the year ending 🥰🥰❤️❤️

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Is it worth the 40 Episode commitment?

I'm 5 episodes into The Unclouded Soul and I'm hitting a familiar wall. I love xianxia and I'm a big fan of Hou Ming Hao , but so far, this feels like a checklist of every trope in the genre, executed without a standout twist.
We have:
· The plucky, adaptable human girl crashing the demon world.
· The awe-inspiring, world-weary Demon King .
· The obligatory cute companion (swap out the fox/rabbit/etc.).
· The second couple who already seems to have more backstory and chemistry than the leads.
· The demon-hunting organization that will inevitably go rogue.
· A slow-burn "end of the world" threat buried under side quests that kill any urgency.
· The predictable over-the-top big bad.

I know all stories are recycled to a degree, but the great ones give you a hook—something unique that makes the formula feel fresh.
Think:
· Love Between Fairy and Devil: The body swap/kiss plot device that completely changed the dynamic.
· Till the End of the Moon: The leads actively and compellingly trying to destroy each other.
· Fangs of Fortune (TMOPB) / Lost You Forever: Deeply intertwined, ensemble-driven storylines.
· Love Is Written in the Stars (Live Game in Eastern Fantasy): The meta, transmigration-into-a-game layer.

For those who have seen it all: Does "Unclouded Soul" find its unique voice or twist later on? Does the core romance between the leads develop truly compelling, off-the-charts chemistry? Or does it stay in "pleasant but predictable" territory?

I'm willing to commit 40 hours if there's a pay-off, but not if it's just a competent but utterly standard paint-by-numbers xianxia. Is there any reason to keep watching besides my admiration for the ML?

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