Kill to Love

Dance of Love and Betrayal

I’ll be real, it is beautiful, but also so damn toxic.
Like, I get the whole “tragic romance” aesthetic, but that dove poison arc with Sha Qian and that Huo Ying and the way they glorified it as love, that was manipulation disguised as love. Till the end, Huo Ying never really saw the efforts of Shen Song, like idk what evolution of stalkhome did Huo Ying possess. Holding an antidote hostage just to get info on Shen Le. Wild

And Shen Le — yeah, he’s elegant, powerful, but half the time it felt like he never really saw what Dan Zi Lang went through. This man literally built an empire, spilt blood, carried guilt, made Shen Le his whole world, and Shen Le kept crying over his brother, who literally killed their dad. This whole dynamic between the main leads after episode 6 makes you feel like "okay, finally things will get better" and BOOOM "fall down a cliff".

The first episode felt like a puzzle dump — faces, names, kingdoms, but once it clicked, it clicked. Still, the ending didn’t need to be that tragic. The whole “afterlife reconciliation” with his brother felt unnecessary. Sometimes you just wish they’d let love live instead of killing it for symbolism.

Still: the show matters. It's worth watching, it's worth crying for, it’s not just beauty, it's brutality. Not just romance, but wreckage. And even in wreckage, there’s longing.

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A Bold Attempt

I can’t help but be reminded of The Untamed series. Kill to Love was definitely one of the more ambitious projects this year, packed with potential, but it didn’t quite hold together the way I hoped. As a historical BL, it had the setup to be really compelling, but somehow it just didn’t hit the mark emotionally. There were moments that felt underdeveloped, like certain scenes didn’t get the buildup they needed. The story started off strong and ended with impact, but somewhere in the middle, it kind of lost its rhythm. Still, it wasn’t a bad watch. I’d give it a solid 3.5 out of 5 stars. Worth checking out, especially if you’re into the genre, but don’t expect it to blow your mind all the way through.

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Unforgettable

I liked this drama so much, I created an account just so I can write a review. This drama is not without flaws, but the flaws can be easily forgiven how great the acting and the storyline is.

Why I Like This Drama:
*The story is good. It's not boring. Read the synopsis! You can already tell it's unique storyline. It's not "together they solve a problem or figuring out a mystery".
*The moral dilemma is realistic. Sometimes when I watch other drama, I feel they just make up a problem for the sake of having a problem. It leaves me wondering why can't the character just choose another course of action? In "Kill to Love", I thought it over and over, the characters could have not chosen a different path. As a result, viewers have to accept it.
*The acting was compelling, natural and believable. The crying scene wasn't dramatic, but very heart felt. The shy look from the Shu He was perfect. The anger in Duan Ziang was believable. Sometimes I feel the actors in other drama went to the same acting school; therefore, all their anger expression, crying expression, all look the same. I genuinely feel the acting here was more natural and different. Maybe due to their low budget, they were able to cast better instead of just buying high rated actors. The casting of the 2 main characters were perfect. Duan Ziang had to go from a kind gentle lover to an angry obsessive lover, which he delivered to perfection. Meanwhile Shu He had to be a calm character through and through, yet somehow able to delivered feelings of innocence, remorse, and strength.
*The script was good. It was poetic and deep. It wasn't conversational. Kudos to the writer.
*The outfits and scenery in this drama was so beautiful. For the low budget that they had, they must have spent all the money on the 6th prince because he was stunning.

What Can Be Improved:
*Because this is a lower budget drama for such a complicated storyline, it's hard for viewers to understand since it's so fast pace. They didn't have a lot of time to explain the storyline. You have to fill in the plot holes. If you missed a word, you missed the trajectory of the storyline that can leave you to favor one character over the other. However, if you didn't miss a word and actually understand the storyline, both characters have their merits and downfall. You can't blame either or both are to blame.
*I'm not a behind the scene expert, but I think the directing can be better. It's a little choppy in the beginning. The choppiness leads to viewers to feel the actors aren't doing a good job, but it's actually the directing and the budget. They had to cover a lot of ground in the beginning.

Conclusion: I almost dropped the drama because it was hard to like the first few episodes. I think it had to do with the directing (bad scene transition/low budget). However, I felt the acting was good and the storyline was intriguing. As a result, I kept watching. By episode 8, I was hooked. When it ended, I'm not ok.

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Beautiful ancient BL drama which deserved a 10/10

This is a truly beautiful ancient BL drama that deserves immense recognition for the incredible effort and talent of the lead actors. They masterfully convey longing and emotion through just a glance, and a single tear can evoke the deep heartache they've endured.

The acting layers from confusion to confession to tender, sentimental kisses are absolutely top-notch. Their chemistry is undeniably intense! No wonder both actors hail from a renowned Chinese acting college.

Without giving away too much, I highly recommend this drama to everyone! Among over nine years of watching BL dramas from various countries, this one ranks firmly in my top 10 favorites.

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A first class example of the BL genre within the Chinese history costume drama category.

The sad, fateful unhappy endings of so many early gay films or series, which once upon a time seemed almost to be a requirement, that gay people do not deserve long, happy lives, makes a grand re-appearance in “Kill To Love” but in a manner that works and makes sense for the characters and the historic times they lived.

This Singaporean effort at a sweeping Chinese costume drama of rival princes and hostile neighbouring kingdoms in medieval China, within its limited budget, does well despite lacking the forces of extras in palace scenes or battle enactments that Chinese productions gloriate in. The key to this compensation is the casting: all of the principal actors inhabit their characters with conviction, and the two main leads with especial impact.

The lack of information in the notoriously difficult production environment of Chinese language BLs, created by Chinese creatives, starkly contrasts with the abundance of intermingling story lines, character interactions, and plot developments. While the novel on which the series is based has been described as both a buxia (martial arts) and a danmei (bl), the resulting drama, while compelling in its unfolding, resides ultimately in its own category, unique to Chinese storytelling.

It is equally admirable and intimidating that Chinese storytelling should be able to envelop so many prominent themes into an individual story.

Familiar to each other as young boys, the two main characters, Shu He and Si Ang, meet again by chance at a critical juncture in the history of their kingdoms (Nan Hui Kingdom and Ji Bei Kingdom). Their attraction to each other has to play out against the political forces and characters of their time; in the end, this environment, beyond their control, shapes their destiny. This may give the appearance of lives determined by fate, but the fascination behind “Kill To Love” (an awful title compared to the novel’s “The Mountains and Rivers Are Forever Silent”) is that it is in the characters of Shu He and Si Ang where the core emotional conflict and passion emerge, combust and consume.

In the first episode, we meet all the main players, and, in addition, the director and writer cleverly combine two different scenes of injury. Si Ang, who has been surprised in his assassination attempt of the Crown Prince, receives an arrow wound to his shoulder as he flees; immediately following, the young Crimson Shadow Guardsman Huo Ying is seen visibly distressed and in pain.

One would’ve thought that the young aspirants for admission into the Crimson Shadow Guard would have noticed something amiss about a military guard in which the members experienced ten years of poisoning, from which their loyalty was secured by receiving, as part of their pay package, so to speak, regular antidotes. But that’s not really the point (even though it very much plays into the action). Just as it's speculated that the poison is administered internally to the Guard members in their diet, the defining force in this drama - the need to love and be loved - is inside of Shu He and Si Ang, and can not be extinguished.

At their first meeting in this series, standing in the dark one behind the other where they cannot see each other's faces, Si Ang runs his hand around Shu He’s waist. The camera lingers on this moment for a reason: they recognise something about each other in this moment - Shu He responds passively to the touch of another man, and Si Ang understands Shu He’s response because Si Ang’s touch is innately sensual on the other man’s body. Once unleashed, the forces that bind each of them to another also become painful wounds.

The drama and its ensuing tension are well sustained from beginning to end by the talents of 24-year-old Mi Jin as Shu He and 25-year-old Zhang Zhe Xu as Zi Ang. Production values are good, even if budget constraints limit the famed aerial flying of the martial arts Zi Ang and/or the appearance of large military forces to only two scenes. Costumes and production design are first class; the makeup, from time to time, strangely, is out of kilter with the lighting. I mention this only because the camera work (camera & lighting are hand-in-glove) is excellent. The two-camera setups on some of the more emotionally intense scenes between Shu He and Zi Ang are particularly notable.

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Amazing

always at the edge of my seat when watching this series

. I have never watched a series I wanted to comment on ..let alone recommend..

casting..on point
script.. have not read the novel .however the story never slows ..keeps one interested in what is to follow
acting.. strong solid performances by all..intriguing and changes very believable.
the emotions from the characters to the script dazzled me..
I have not seen all of the episodes. I am on ep 9. ..but I am sold ..this series leaves one excited for the next episode
It clings to you with all the different emotions required for these actors to. handle..I love it

thank you ...such a masterpiece

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