Self-Sacrifice Left a Bitter Taste
I often say that I enjoy dramas as much as I enjoy reading reviews about them. There’s nothing like different opinions to broaden our perspective.
Unfortunately, this time, I found myself in a painful dilemma. The discrepancies and divergences in opinions about *Moonlight Mystique* among viewers, instead of providing direction, often left me feeling unbalanced.
To put it another way, the drama was either deeply loved or intensely hated. Balanced or middle-ground opinions were rare.
Even though I watched the drama sequentially—pausing others I was following—I place myself in the smaller group, meaning the middle ground.
Starting with the episode openings, I agree that there was poor direction in the editing of the scenes. Impactful moments, accompanied by captions, ended up spoiling the element of surprise in many episodes.
Another major flaw in the editing was the use of the same OST in intense scenes. Although it was a pleasant piece of music, it became tiresome due to its excessive repetition in nearly all the scenes—and worse, in every single episode.
The vibrant color palette that bothered some of my peers was not unpleasant to my eyes. The deep green, the vivid red, and the striking purple and lilac captivated me. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for the three main clans. Both the Ye clan, from Lady Xing Yue, and the Demon Lord, Jing Yuan, as well as Yin, from Lord Mo Li, were dull, extremely tacky, seemingly low-budget, and lacking in quality.
On the other hand, some clans were stunning, such as the fox clan and its love tree.
The male costumes were absolutely impeccable. The imposing garments, in exceptional colors, were always perfectly matched with the hair accessories. Rui Peng, both as Fan Yue and as Jing Yuan, looked brilliant.
The female costumes also seemed very beautiful to me, though the excessively heavy makeup left much to be desired in several aspects. Not even Bai Lu’s beauty could compensate for this oversight by the makeup artists.
The script, though heavily criticized by many, had several arcs that I enjoyed. There were emotional, delicate, and even quite controversial moments.
The deeply rooted self-sacrifice in this drama left a bitter taste for many life philosophies. There were so many deaths that, at times, I wondered whether there would be enough characters left to carry out the story’s conclusion.
Seen from another perspective, this significantly reduced the participation of strong characters whose potential could have been better utilized until the end. If there is one major flaw in this drama that I must highlight, it would be this.
Although the narrative wasn’t the best, the cast’s performance was very good. If there were flaws, repetitive and unnecessary moments—such as the countless times Fan Yue fainted and revived or was an excessively sweet and weak demon in front of Bai Shuo—we should blame the execution, not the actors.
Within the demands placed upon them, each did their part.
In the end, a classic Xianxia—romantic and quite enjoyable to follow. I recommend it to fans of the genre and suggest preparing for the collateral losses.
A good, serious drama!
Was this review helpful to you?
