Veil of Shadows

Not a proper ending

Overall, the story is good and acting by everyone is very good. The CGI is of top class. The acting of Ju Jing Yi and Chen Du Ling is of top class, and the expression of all the actors/actress is very good.
It started as a normal drama and then the buildup happened. The story progressed in a very steady manner.
There could had been some part of dragons and foxes, which the story missed.
The only regret is in the ending scene. Everybody has got separated. Both the ML and FL are strangers. They did not get united, which is weird. One more episode would have been better, so that everybody could had been united and a proper ending would have been better

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Beautiful Chinese drama.

This drama made me laugh, cry, get angry, and feel the rage, helplessness, and pain that the characters, especially Ji Ling, felt. 🥹 There was no dull moment; all the characters were well-developed and had very distinct but charming personalities. I was absolutely charmed by the character Ji Ling, my baby, my little boy, my sunshine. I cried a lot with his story; despite suffering many misfortunes, he was always a ray of sunshine and a sweetheart. I really identified with his character and I was surprised that he was an INFP LIKE ME AAAAHG OMG. Despite everything, I'm very glad he had his happy ending, living like a normal person without the burdens and suffering of loneliness. I really liked his character development. Tian Jia Rui is a spectacular actor; he did not disappoint at all, perfectly portraying several characters. I clearly noticed the difference in each of their attitudes; he was able to convey to me the pain, loneliness, suffering, devotion, and love he felt for Lu Wuyi.

I loved the romance story of both couples, both well-developed. My favorite without a doubt is the WuWu couple/ship; their chemistry was incredible! I honestly didn't expect the bed scene.It was well done, I completely loved that couple. For a moment I thought it was going to have a very tragic ending, but thank God it didn't. My favorite arc is when Wu Wangyan and Wu Shiguang entered the dragon illusion; their relationship was very romantic and sweet. And the fact that Wu Shiguang cut off his arm and leg to get closer to his beloved Wangyan, who was worried and desperate to have him near 🥹. My favorite character is Wu Wangyan, although sadly he didn't have much screen time, he still managed to capture my attention and that of the viewers; he has a natural charm. Chen Duling perfectly embodied Wu Wangyan; she has the beauty and talent to do it, it's a shame the director didn't appreciate her despite the dedication she put into the role.

As for the visual aesthetics it's incredible, no actor or actress is ugly at all, everyone is visually appealing and the costumes worn by all the characters looked high quality and spectacular. I really loved the fox sisters' outfits, and Ji Ling looked divine in the Dragon God's clothes, even though they had a painful meaning; he looked gorgeous in those hanfus.

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10/10

Okay, this is easily one of the best C-dramas of the year so far—I absolutely love it!
​Everything from the special effects and the cast to the direction and the OST... absolutely everything is beautiful. It’s a literal work of art and has definitely made it into my top favorite dramas of all time.
​It keeps you entertained at all times and you never get bored. I didn't feel the need to skip or fast-forward through any scenes because they felt dull; it’s worth every single minute.
​Even though the story was a bit hard to follow (at least for me), I loved it. I cried and felt every single emotion possible.

​If someone asks me for a Chinese drama recommendation, I’m definitely recommending Veil of Shadows.

​Wu Shiguang and Wangyan—I love them so much, and their song is stunning! ♡

​P.S. This drama has one of the best OSTs I’ve ever heard; I even created a playlist so I can listen to it all the time.

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finally an actually good fantasy drama LOL

sorry i really haven't enjoyed any of the recent popular fantasy cdramas until now. from the story, production, casting, music, and characters, i feel like they hit everything quite well.

want to preface this by saying i'm a really picky romance drama fan in the sense that i will not enjoy it if i find the ml ugly which is more times than not because i don't usually like most male actors in general lol
- although i didn't necessarily find tian jia rui to be "attractive" but i really loved his character(s). he pulled of his role SO well, and the styling was top tier omfg like why don't more fantasy dramas do a better job like this im sorry like the sparkly fits long hair makeup accessories YESSSSSPLEASE
- any scene w the dragon deity ended up being what i cared abt the most LOL

although the airing time between the two couples was kiiiinda disproportionate i really felt like i connected with all 4 of them. lu wuyi's character was so insanely interesting, although i did get thrown off that we suddenly really stopped seeing anything from her pov in the entire last quarter of episodes (when her role was most important)

thought the story was well executed and i expected that silly open ending sacrifice thingy with ji ling i'm glad the actual plot was solved in a way that didn't waste all the build-up from all the previous episodes.

chen du ling is so beautiful and mesmerizing in all her roles. wish we had gotten more from her has a "main" lead!

was interesting to see how all the side characters stayed important throughout the plotline just random cameos (on that note yay huasen appearance)

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Please get comfortable with confusion - you'll be rewarded

Veil of Shadows is one of those shows that can blow your mind and in a good way. The synopsis does not do it justice, but I don’t think one can describe this story properly other than to oversimplify.

The cinematography was better than any Hollywood film I’ve seen recently. Amazingly beautiful work…….watch this show just for the incredible film work.

I love this drama…..it is exactly my kind of story.

STORY
Veil of Shadows is about five characters that must figure out who they really are and where they came from…..full stop.
These five characters interact with each other and a whole host of individuals that force them back into answering those two questions.

The actual story is told in flashbacks. This may be difficult for some to process. Personally, I’m not a fan of flashbacks but it was done in such a way that layers of the mystery of who everyone was were peeled away with each flashback.
Get comfortable with flashbacks and this story will take you for a roller coaster ride.

CHARACTERS
I suppose Lu Wu Yi is the lead character….not sure as all 5 are on screen quite a bit. Ju Jing Yi had me captivated from the beginning. Is she a bad guy or is she a good guy? Frankly, other than Joseph Zeng’s character, that question could be asked of pretty much every character that graces the screen.

Chen Du Ling plays Wu Wang Yan, Lu Wu Yi’s nine-tailed fox sister. The two “foxy” ladies meet up with the other three lead characters, Wu Shi Guang (Joseph Zeng), Ji Ling (Tian Jia Rui), and Li Jie (Yan An) at the Wei mansion to solve a demon problem.

All five were powerfully portrayed but Yan An STOOD OUT! He did a fabulous job (and fabulous abs). My eyes were glued to the screen every moment he was on. Tian Jia Rui created an equally compelling character from beginning to end. I hope he wins some award for this, because now I want to see everything he’s acted in.

Ju Jing Yi and Chen Du Ling made me love them from the beginning. Their sisterly bond was so believable that I wondered if these two women were close friends in real life. Truly, I was fascinated by both performances and vow to watch them in other dramas.

SOUNDTRACK
I LOVED this soundtrack. I will be downloading the Liu Yuning song for sure (best one yet). Spectacular music all the way through. The chanting thing they had going on in the background during climatic moments was out-of-this-world.

REWATCH VALUE
I will be rewatching this for sure. There are several support characters that need more than one watch to understand their place in this fantasy world. I love Xia Zhi Guang from other shows and enjoyed his guest role. I want to experience his character again, just to relive his impact to the storyline.

OVERALL
I believe if the viewer is someone who can keep an open mind and go with the flow, the current rating is too low. The characters, cinematography, the music make it worth at least a 9.0 on MDL.

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This is such a great series to hook viewers who needs brain simulation with the back to back plot twists it offered. Some were unexpected, which I fell in love with as I have a hobby of predicting plot lines.

The chemistry in acting by couples and as a whole for the casts, it went so good as everyone was excellent with their performance. Not to mention, the aesthetics didn't disappoint. It is so satisfying to see when they matched so perfectly.

I was already a fan of Dudu but this sold me to Joseph, Ju Jing Yi and most especially Tian Jiarui. I am looking forward to checking out other works of GJM and the casts.

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Fiasco in Styles

Prior to watching “Veil of Shadows”, I admit that I have a lot on my plates right now, with “Love beyond the Grave” still ongoing and other stuffs catching behind. I wouldn’t have been tempted to have a peek on “Veil of Shadows” if it hadn’t been for my pretty boys (Tian Jiarui, Yan An, Chang Huasen, and more on the deck) casted in this drama. To be honest, I try to remind myself to be as realistic as possible to the painfully obvious fact that we’re dealing with the one of the most notoriously controversial directors, Guo Jingming. Back in 2024, I had an unpleasant experience of binging “Love Game in Eastern Fantasy” and “Fangs of Fortune” simultaneously – and ended up giving the latter a 9.0 due to my gullibility. But this time, it’s going to be another way round because I won’t be deceived for the second time anymore. I’m also fully aware that this may be an unpopular opinion, yet I still have the urge to pour out my inner words in this review, because I can’t bear to see a lot of people wasting their time on this type of drama. There will lots of yapping below (I can even yap about Youku as the laughingstock of all C-drama's platforms, or even Ju Jingyi's controversy about tax issue with Siba Media and yeah, I know that company is always up to no good), so please bear with me.
Edit: You can simply skip the first paragraph as I've changed my mind quite a lot from my earlier perspective.

“Veil of Shadows” is an original script written by Guo Jingming himself and is loosely based on one of his previous movies, Painted Skin: The Guo Jingming Edition. The story itself features four leads who are divided into two couples – the first couple comprises of a vengeful flood dragon demon Wu Shiguang and a cunning nine-tailed fox demon Wu Wangyan; the second an innocent-looking demon hunter who turns out to be a Dragon Deity himself, Ji Ling and an equally sly nine-tailed fox demon Lu Wuyi. Through interwoven fate, they meet in a chance encounter, when Xiaowei (a traitor of Formless Moon Sect) devours humans’ hearts and wreaks havoc in the human world, thus reluctantly join hands to catch Xiaowei. However, fate hasn’t stopped fooling with them yet, as they are faced with numerous life-and-death trials involving the blooming love of hundreds of years prior to this era.
Edit: The storyline improves gradually as the drama proceeds, even I begin to find my pleasure in watching "Veil of Shadows".

All the paragraphs below will be dedicated for my yapping session as I find numerous issues in this drama. Beware of spoiler alert too.

Firstly, the overly loud BGMs and the painfully inaudible voice-over. Honestly, I grow frustrated over times because of adjusting the volume of my buds and sometimes the BGMs are ear-splitting too. However, I still have to praise Guo Jingming for his bold move on using EDM-based BGMs with strong bass and beats in historical dramas, which is rarely seen in other historical counterparts. The more I listen to them, the more I'm getting possessed by those instrumentals.
Edit: I'm no longer yapping over the BGMs, rather I'm waiting for the production crew to release them globally. More people need to appraise those beautiful instrumentals.

Secondly, Guo Jingming still sticks to the so-called label of “all styles no substances”. Why do I say so? If you pore over the drama properly and strip it off from the xianxia trope, you’ll see that the main core of the plot is of murder mystery VR game-esque (if you have watched “Love Between Lines”, you can try to compare them), with the leads sitting and discussing what they should do to catch the murderer (Xiaowei) while trying to do something productive at the time being. Furthermore, the drama is plagued by tons of shallow empty talk which leads to nowhere and ends up becoming a humdrum to me, even ChatGPT can write a better script than him. Those dialogues aren’t even meaningful too, just an obvious attempt to force the plot to move from one scene to another. And who in their right mind would still flirt when murders are happening left and right (pointing out to Ji Ling and Lu Wuyi)? The only setback may be the main couple's interactions and the void conversation they have (sometimes I fast forward the second couple's scenes due to similar reason too).
Edit: EP 12 and 13 show remarkable improvement and no longer stick to the VR game's scripts, beginning to venture into a more intense game of manipulation amidst the hunt of the Star Stone. Another thing is that I'm completely invested in Li Jie and Yuan Wuhuo's backstory and I badly want to see how their arc will evolve (six-eyed butterfly demon is a nice choice, though. I always love butterfly demons). Also, EP 21 will become my latest favorite as my baby Tongguang finally shows up with his own love story (I mean Chang Huasen). In addition to that, we get a proper revelation of Li Jie and Yuan Wuhuo's flashbacks and how they are created. EP 24 showcases a lot of emotional impact regarding Ji Ling's flashbacks, why he volunteered to become a fake dragon deity, and his gradual transition from a simple-minded little fox to a mature and emotionless god.

Thirdly, Guo Jingming’s tendency to include sismance (and perhaps GL) stuffs as the girls always have intimate touch with each other. This also occurred in “Fangs of Fortune”, but it can be categorized as a minor issue to me.

Fourthly, Guo Jingming also loves over-the-top theatrical flair, which can be tedious over time. I know that he means to create huge emotional impact for the watchers, but I don’t feel anything at all – just staring blankly with a meh on my face. I’m not someone who can be affected by emotion, so maybe I’m an exception here, but who knows?

If you read this yapping session and perhaps, you’re a hardcore fan of Guo Jingming, you may see that everything is dedicated to castigating Guo Jingming. Well, I can’t blame the actors because they’re given those materials and have to make do with them. The boys are fine so far (but I don’t fast-forward Tian Jiarui and Yan An’s scenes only). For Joseph Zeng, I’m sorry that I’m no longer your fan, so let me fast forward a bit. The girls are more troublesome, and I literally fast forward all of their alluring tempting small talks – Chen Duling and Ju Jingyi have both worked hard to embody the vibe of nine-tailed vixens, but I still can’t help it and have least sympathy when skimping through their parts.

There are 20 OSTs in this drama, which is a shocking number for a moderate drama like “Veil of Shadows”, but my favorite will be Zhou Shen’s title song and Tian Jiarui's about the innocent fox. Other than that, I also like Yan An's song for Li Jie's theme. It hooks me up since I play the OST preview in loop.

I also want to commend the production team for creating grandeur background settings, beautiful costumes, and dozens of magic trinkets and artifacts. After a back-and-forth consideration, I decide to go all out with a 9.0. Honestly speaking, I should've made the score lower, but I can't bear to do it myself as I'm rooted deeply for "Veil of Shadows". Who cares about substances anymore?

All in all, I take back most of what I yap before, and perhaps I may rewatch the part where the over-the-top EDM tracks are played. One more thing I need to remind you is that don't get dizzy after going through the whole yapping. Good luck and happy watching!!!

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what a journey ....

a superb fantasy drama with a lot of plot twists and intriguing characters , at first it was very confusing with same actor playing multiple characters but it will be clear in the end .

great story, acting , cinematography and music yet the unequal screen time between main leads for me affected the story somehow , I mean it would quite difficult to give 4 leads equal screen time and it will end being focused on one couple more than the other .

wu shuguang's story felt rushed for me , I mean we didn't get see wu wuyuan and his love story as ji ling and lu wuyi's love story and even after becoming a dragon he was still quite weak and still needed ji ling's help, it felt like although wu shuguang has the dragon's power ji ling is still the true dragon deity , wu shuguang at sometimes felt like a supporting character rather than a main lead .

ji ling and lu wuyi 's story was great on many aspects , glad they got a happy ending .
you chi was quite funny throughout the drama, glad they gave his character some depth in the end and he got his happy ending and love interest " mu long ".

even the great 4 demons had great stories of their own which was great .
considering this is a GJM drama , I watched this with my hand over my heart thinking how would he make it a sad ending yet it was a happy one .

overall great fantasy drama on many aspects .

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Veil of Shadows is the child of Fangs of Fortune and Till the End of the Moon

First of all, I want to say that of you are triggered by loneliness, abandonment, death and related, please watch at your own pace and have someone to console you. This drama has such strong acting and story, that it might affect you.
That said, this is why my title is what it is. This is the similarity (along with time travel and changing the fate) to Till the End of the Moon. The similarities to Fangs of Fortune are obvious - Mr. Director, half of the FoF cast, the camera work and angles, the noir mood and the amazing soundtrack.
Story. I'll start with what I disliked - the first six episodes are. Chaotic. They didn't quite pull me in storywise, only acting wise. We are literally thrown into the middle of the story, no introduction to the main goal or past, that all is unraveled later. In my opinion, eps 7 and 8 should've been first, then eps 1-6 as a retrospective and then the programme should've continued as scheduled. Otherwise, really good story, although I was kinda lost during the time returns but that cleared up. I'm not going to describe any further of the story, as it would reveal some spoilers.
Cast. The cast of FoF had great chemistry and they proved it yet again (that's probably why the director chose them again) with the addition of Joseph Zeng and Ju Jingyi. I really like Ju Jingyi as a seductress, it fits her so much more than tomboy princesses. I especially love Yanan in his multiple characters, he really brings out every one. The multiple characters per actor are what makes this drama special. Every actor who has two or more characters here does an amazing job in giving something special to every character.
OST. The perk of having actors who used to be or are idols or singers is that they create a special soundtrack with its own soul. This one really hits different, it is quite similar to FoF soundtrack. I really like the songs.
Rewatch value. Personally, I don't think I'll rewatch this, because as I wrote in the beginning, this drama has a very strong emotion and while it is brought out exceptionally well, one can handle only so much. But if you are a fan of this, I think it's worth it.
Overall, a very solid 9 out of 10, I'm sure that I'll be satisfied with the ending (if not, you'll find an edit to add under here).

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