Veil of Shadows

Of Dragons and Foxes...

I went into this with zero clue as to what it is all about. I just knew that it was partly based on Painted Skin, a short film Guo Jingming directed some years back which I haven't seen. I must admit, the first episode pulled me in like Alice following the white rabbit into a hole new world. Yes, I made a pun. But kidding aside, the world it drew me in was a world of dragons and demons, rich with lore and characters that are not quite what they seem.

As expected of a Guo Jingming drama, the visuals in this are impeccable, from the sweeping shots to the dramatic angles. The costumes and makeup are some of the best I've seen in any drama, including Guo's own works. Everything about it screamed high production quality to me. This was indeed a treat to watch. But... and this is a big BUT, the writing leaves something to be desired. Despite the promising premise and complex characters, the execution is poor with a plot that's all over the place and confusing, and a feverish pacing that ends almost abruptly. Perhaps this is the result of the shortened number of episodes or maybe Guo Jingming is simply not a very a good screenwriter in spite of his artistic approach to filmmaking. I don't think I have rated a drama of his higher than an 8. Even though I largely enjoy them, they don't hit as hard as I want them to and that's mainly because of the not so satisfactory writing.

I do like the fact the drama keeps you guessing and yet also gives you enough clues to figure things out by yourself. I was also deeply moved by the backstories of each character. I never thought I would feel compassion for an obviously CGI blind fox and empathize with his suffering. I have to hand it to Tian Jiarui for breathing life into this character. In fact, he played seven distinct characters if I'm not mistaken and he did it like nobody's business. I have to give credit to Yan An as well, it was because of his believable portrayal that made me grow attached to his Li Jie and his close relationship with Ji Ling.

I'm just a little disappointed that they dropped the ball on Joseph Zeng's character, Wu Shiguang. He started out to be this awfully cool and mysterious character with a badass weapon. I wanted to see more of that, but the moment his backstory was revealed, he started becoming less interesting. So he's a dragon too. Yeah... I don't really care. Ji Ling as Chi Wen was mesmerizingly ethereal and pretty, but the humanity of Ji Ling was what made the character far more compelling to me. Even the weasel demon became more interesting than Wu Shiguang right before the end. And even though I liked the musical score and soundtrack for the most part, I didn't appreciate that weird trap music with the freaky chanting blasting like no tomorrow every chance it got. Did they have a quota for the number of times that song was supposed to play? Seriously, there were scenes that didn't need it, but no, they just had to play that darn song! It drove me nuts! lol

Fortunately, the pairings were a hit. Surprisingly, Joseph Zeng and Chen Du Ling had real chemistry! I didn't think their pairing would work but it did. They did end up looking like an old married couple who had learned and accepted each other's good and bad habits. They were adorable together. But I must say, I liked Tian Jiarui and Ju Jingyi's pairing more. Ji Ling and Lu Wuyi's epic love is reminiscent of romances I've only read in old high fantasy books. Their journey as lovers, the sacrifices they made for each other, and the lengths they went through to be together reminded me of Luthien and Beren's story from JRR Tolkien's The Silmarillion. It was overly melodramatic bordering on ridiculous but incredibly romantic. This kind of love is one that exists only in fairy tales, something people only dream about, but it sure is a beautiful dream. And their love is the core of this story, poignant, tragic, but ultimately triumphant!

So for the stunning visuals, well-fleshed out characters, strong acting, engaging love stories, and great tracks from Liu Yuning, Yan An, and Tian Jiarui, I give this a solid 8.

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Best drama 2026. Plot twists and oufits on point

If you love complicated plots with lots of fighting and mystery, this is for you. If you like more straightforward plots, with not a lot of pondering, this is not for you.

Each character had great stories and the plot twists were surprising and unpredictable. Fighting scenes are some of the best that I've seen. Music is S-tier, evoking emotion and being used in the right moments. Visual effects never missed and was extremely impressive.

Chemistry between the 4 main characters were amazing. The sisterhood was especially great. I loved both couples, but my favorite was definitely Ju Jingyi and Tian Jiarui. Their moments together were touching and cute. They can't do without the other. The last half of the series got me crying at every episode because of them 😭

I was impressed with everyone's acting, but especially with Ju Jingyi. Her facial expressions and portrayal of her character was incredible. I'm glad she was able to show everyone in this drama that she is a very talented actress.

Outfits were extraordinary. I was awed everytime a new outfit was worn by each character, especially the 2 sisters.

Spoilers:


The ending was what made me rate this show a 10/10. Everyone got their happy ending. I was very satisfied with the ending. Some people might not like it since it involves going back to the past to change the future. But it made sense to me if you think about what would've happened if everything went accoding to plan since 50 years ago and they were able to easily defeat the bad guy and have wu shiguang become the proper dragon deity. It made sense no one else remembered the true past except for wu shihuang since he is a dragon. Most importantly, Ji Ling got the happy ending he derserved 😭.

If I had any minor complaints, it would be that the storyline is VERY complicated so you had to remember everything and piece it together. But I love complicated plots so I don't really mind lol. And using the same actors for characters could get confusing. And I was very sad that the connection between the 2 sisters were no longer there because they do not have memories together anymore 💔 I know it unavoidable, but I'm still sad about it. And it wouldn't affect my rating for the drama as much.

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Convoluted plot, but loveable characters

Director Edward about Tian Jiarui: I want that man in countless headbands! And I want him to cry at least once an episode! Also get him a brother! It doesn't matter if they die or if he's just a replacement brother, make it happen!

What can I say about this drama? I think at this point I know what I'm getting into when I watch this director/writer's work. He's fantastic at creating relationships and characters that feel so alive. He's not so fantastic at creating coherent plots. It's often convoluted and confusing, and I think that's the dividing line for people that enjoy his work and those that don't. For me, I love his characters too much to really care about the messy plot, and honestly even if it is messy at least it's different and interesting (unlike the many copy and paste cdramas coming out every other week).
I will say that Veil of Shadows is certainly one of the most convoluted of Director Edward's dramas. It really got confusing at the end and if he is going to have five climaxes and deaths (oh wait! they're alive again!) it begins to loose it's impact. I totally respect the people that didn't like this drama, but I'm not one of them. I'm completely aware it's not that great, but Li Jing and the rest of the crew were there pulling me along all the way to the end.
So keep it up Director Edward! Keep making your messy dramas. But please hire Tian Jiarui for them all.

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The good, the bad, and the ugly

I'll start with what was good about this drama:

The acting was great. Tian Jia Rui was a standout for me in the first half, along with Chen Du Ling. I felt Joseph Zeng deserved a more fleshed out character arc but he made the absolute most of his character, and gave a performance that would be easy to undervalue but would be obvious if you would have swapped him out for a lesser actor. Yan An ended up surprising me in the best way, as he played his 5 different characters so differently and so well, and ended up having a lot of impact overall. Ju Jing Yi was the weakest of the main characters, I felt she had a hard time transitioning believably between the different sides of her character, but still put in a solid performance that I would still rate as good and did not detract from the story at all.

The first 2/3 of the plot felt like a spool of yarn unraveling, as we were introduced to multiple mysterious characters who clearly had secrets, only to slowly uncover them one by one as the the two mini plots of tracking down the heart ripping demon and the time spent in the star illusion played out. The plot was complex but in a good way that made you really invested in finding out who these people were and how it would all turn out. All the characters felt layered, no one was purely good or evil.

Here's where the good ends. Cause the last third of the drama it all fell apart.

The show became a tedious mess of endless flashbacks, repetitive storylines, and cringe-worthy exposition dumps that constantly over-explained things we’d already seen or under-explained key points to understanding what was going on. The characters also became more one dimensional, as all of them ended up being super duper really good guys, without the realistic shades of grey that made them so interesting in the beginning. It got to the point where the main plot and the character arcs didn't have much impact anymore because it was a convoluted slog.

That was the bad. Where it got truly ugly was the staggering levels of cheap emotional whiplash. I lost count of the dramatic, sobbing "death" scenes and heart-wrenching emotional confessions/breakups/revelations, only for the dead character to miraculously wake up in the next scene or the people to reunite half an episode later and forget they ever spent 5 minutes of slo mo pouring their hearts out or for the dramatic "truth" to be contradicted or forgotten about.

I'm not even joking when I say every character fake-died at least twice and every main character must have "died" 10 times by the end. One duo spent most of the last third dramatically trying to sacrifice themselves for each other over and over, having drawn out dramatic scenes crying over their poor fate each time, surviving by some random twist each time, only for them to seemingly be fine with one of them dying in the end. (Only for them to also magically survive yet again). One character spent like 10 minutes in an emotional monologue about how another character couldn't be saved from a "loneliness demon" cause no one was willing to die for him, only to have multiple people die protecting him literally a scene later, only for him to still "die" of loneliness cause no one cared about him apparently. (Don't worry this character came back to life after that and then died and came back to life like two more times before the end)

Somewhere around episode 23 I was completely checked out. It’s impossible to care about the story or the characters when you know every high-stakes emotional moment or idea will be undone probably within minutes. It made the whole journey feel pretty pointless and superficial. The ending, which essentially just undoes everything that happened in the entire story just to force a happy ending, is like the grotesque cherry on top.

I really enjoyed the first 20ish eps, and it may be worth a watch for those alone, just get ready to make ample use of the fast forward button for the last third.

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Idk, on the edge of dropping it.

The first episodes were great, they were interesting and got me keep going. But then, like the in the middle or somewhere like episode 23, the episode I'm on. It started to get boring, I found myself scrolling on tiktok while watching that.

I love ju jingyi. She's one of my favorite Chinese actress. I hate to admit it, but her acting was low-key.. not so good. Still love her though, and I'll continue support her. The rest of the cast were OK ig.

I won't drop this drama, I'll finish it even though its boring. I hope the rest of the drama will get better. And no I won't rewqtch this.

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Unlikable leads, repetitions, cliches and tropes

Do you like wasting your time watching something you hate? Do you want your leads to be unlikable and annoying? Do you enjoy watching one cliche after another? Do you like watching filler episodes? Do you like repetition? No? Then, this is not the show for you.

It takes a lot to make me drop a show altogether. There are shows I've watched at 2x speed or skipped through scenes. But even at 2x speed and skipping many scenes, I couldn't keep watching this.

I didn't expect a masterpiece or a 10/10 show. I just wanted a xianxia that's enjoyable. It was too painful to keep watching this. I feel sorry for the actors and other talent who had to be a part of this.

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Veil of Shadows.... is not that bad?

Okay. My second work of GJM. I personally don't think it was bad. At the start of the drama, I really did not think that I would enjoy the drama. It has so many plot twists that I was struggling to keep up. Matter of fact, I almost dropped it on the 6th episode. But, one thing that really really upset me was the use of artificial intelligence. Yes, a lot of dramas use it nowadays, but I'm disappointed at how much it was used in VOS. I really think it would have been better without it, but that's just a personal opinion. The use of CGI was balanced though.


Story:
I love how they incorporated Chinese folklore into the drama. Besides that, the plot is so all over the place. Xiaowei was introduced like she was the MAIN antagonist and some secret "ninja-hiding" fox and the sixth episode is the last we saw of her? Are we serious? There were so many characters that were introduced under the impression that they were very important, but they're so forgettable. I had a friend of mine who introduced me to this drama, and after watching it, I wanted to make some small talk with her about it. I talked about Xiaowei, Yu Shengwei and Han Ba, and she looked at me with a confused expression and asked me who they were. Mind you, this friend of mine was non-stop sending me VOS edits for days. I felt so confused as so many actors play so many characters! And some of them were given names, but it turned out to all be the same person?? Tian Jiarui and Yan An was worked to the max with how many characters they were playing. The arc where Lu Wuyi goes into the soul of Ji Ling's doll will never not be confusing to me. Does that mean the world is still in a time loop? Because if LWY cut off her tail WHEN she went into the doll, why doesn't that make changes to the original timeline?? I'm also confused on how Ji Ling and Wu Shiguang's master suddenly rose from the dead. Like, did I miss something??? I heard rumors that there was going to be a sequel so I really hope the plot wont be as messy.


Acting:
Perfection to the tiniest bit. The casting was perfect and the chemistry between TJR and JJY was so entertaining and perfect. I might now be a little obsessed with Xia Zhiguang after his performance here. He nailed every emotion to the tiniest details, and you could tell in his eyes that he was yearning. Wish he sang an OST for Veil of Shadows though. This is also my first JJY drama, and her acting didn't disappoint. TJR did a great job too, easily going to be big in the future. I almost thought he was some underground veteran actor, but he only recently made his debut and he's already exceptional. Will be tuning into his future works. Not the actor/actress's fault, but I really felt that the main leads shouldve been TJR and JJY. We barely get much stuff from WSG and WWY, and the main couple should've been them.


Music
TJR and JJY's singing blown me away. I find myself playing the OST on repeat because IT IS THAT GOOD. VOS did not disappoint with the OST and I was blown away by TJR's singing. He really is an ace. Exceptional acting and beautiful singing.


I'll make sure to rewatch this after my watchlist has cleared down, but an OK drama for me. I really like the outfits though especially for JJY. I'm very excited for the sequel, just hope the plots.... can uhh lessen a bit.

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