LaurieSand

funny, heart-rending, then sweet

Finished 4-5-25



Rating: 8/10 stars



Pros:

• Frequently laugh out loud funny.

• There is a llama, and a llama-related song. It. Is. Amazing.

• Cute main couple with a very slow burn romance.

• Cute secondary couple who offer a lot of support to the main leads.

• A strong theme of self-acceptance.

• I loved that the male lead kept falling in love with the female lead because her personality was just so attractive to him, regardless of her appearance. It was so cute, and really resonated with me.

• fun scifi McGuffin in the form of the bracelet. It was often used by the characters to solve problems in quite clever ways. There was a logic to how it worked that made the show scifi rather than fantasy, and I really appreciated that. Cdrama fantasy often feels illogical and random to me.

• At times deeply emotional. Even though a lot of the plot was comedic, I really believed in the connections the male lead had with the various forms of the female lead. And I really believed in his devastation when he was forced to let them go (because of course the female lead doesn't want to keep playing these characters forever). I actually cried at one point. (If you're wondering when, it was the goodbye at the bottom of the rainbow staircase. The Fang Jin story arc SLEW me.)



Cons:



*some spoilers below*



• In-universe, the female lead is supposed to be unattractive and also super strong/athletic. In reality the actress is pretty and tiny. So yeah, some major suspension of disbelief is required, and it also really waters down the supposed core message of the show: that it's what's inside that counts and you should embrace your authentic self. Easy for the female lead, when her only problem appears to be low self esteem, since she is clearly pretty and about 90 pounds!

• There was not nearly enough time dedicated to working through the trauma the male lead experienced. He literally saw a woman he cared about die from being struck by lightning right in front of him. And that was just the start! Although he is understandably enraged and bitter at the female lead when he realizes what has been going on, he fairly quickly gets over it. His friend even tells him, "Nobody actually died, that's a good thing." He was angry for about a half an episode before he starts realizing that all the things he loved about those other people were actually the female lead. He basically falls in love and forgives her in half an episode.... I feel like I'm underselling this so let me emphasize: in half an episode he forgives the person who forced him to literally watch people die in front of him MORE THAN ONCE. Yeah. I needed a bit more of him being mad and processing that shit.

• The last three episodes were totally pointless. Seriously, if you watch this drama do yourself a favor and consider episode 29 to be the finale. The last three episodes are really slow, not funny, lay the schmaltz on way too thick, and for some reason introduce an idiotic storyline involving the second female lead being pregnant, totally going against her character the whole rest of the show. It was a struggle to finish what was otherwise a great show, so please SAVE YOURSELF.

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Disappointing

So I finished Part 1 of this show...and I don't think I have any desire to see part 2. There was a lot of potential here, with an interesting premise and attempts at cool fight scenes, humor, and romance. But it just did not gel, at least for me. The characters and relationships were underdeveloped, and there were SO MANY missed opportunities for really exciting revelations and for the main characters to get to do cool things. For instance, the scene were Naksu/Mu Deok is being killed so that they can demonstrate the power of the ice stone to resurrect people--this even results in her getting her power back as Naksu, at least temporarily, so it should have been incredibly dramatic, but it really wasn't at all. Then, when she is taken over by Jin Mu this is when the mysterious power of Jin Bu Yeon should have come into play. Instead, she is just taken over, murders a bunch of people, and is forced to jump into the ocean and petrify. Basically, our main character has little to no agency. She has no main character energy! There is the sense that the Jin Bu Yeon connection should be important, but that never materializes. Such a pity, because this really could have been an amazing drama. I wish I could say I have hope for Part 2 to bring everything together...but I just don't.

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so good. Where's my second season??

ok so...I understand all the commenters now!!!!! Like, it's a 10/10 all by itself, but I NEED A SECOND SEASON

Spoilers below.





It actually wraps everything up. Mingyue haa broken Zhao's heart and returned to Ten killing Gate, presumably saving Zhao's life. Gong has a thing for Sima Dang now and is chasing after him--so cute by the way. And everyone who saw Wang Hua at Shuji Valley is now dead. If Jian just...let's it go, he could live happily ever after? Except there is clearly this other mysterious figure out there who knows who he is!! So basically, there is a lot of closure and it's a great, great ending, but still clearly setting it up for another season. AAAAAHHH!!

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Visually stunning. Emotionally...not so much.

heard the ending song on youtube and absolutely loved it. I have to believe that such an incredible soundtrack must go with at least a passable movie...

watched 3-24-25

A fun watch with cool visuals and a good soundtrack but unfortunately the characters/relationships were really underdeveloped. I will keep listening to that ending song, but would be unlikely to watch the movie again. I need a lot more romance in my bromance, if you know what I mean. I know some have complained that some aspects were ripped off from Doctor Strange, and I think it's at the very least a strong homage. I was literally thinking, hey, just like Doctor Strange! And: this is really just a Marvel movie! But honestly that did not put me off. Give me glowing teleportation rings and two hot guys fistfighting on a CGI monster any time. Just maybe make it seem like the two leads want to make out? Pretty please?

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The closest to a perfect drama I have ever seen

Where do I even start with my review??? I'm still vibrating with how amazing it was. It was funny, it was exciting, it was just plain fun, it was angsty, it was heartbreaking, it was logical but also surprising! AND THAT AFTER CREDITS SCENE!!!!!!!!! I may never recover. The visuals were incredible, the music was perfect, the casting was perfect, I loved everybody. I even felt bad for poor Chu Gui Hong, even though he spent almost the entire show sliding toward villainy--I could understand WHY he did, and it was heartbreaking even while I wanted him to die. The redemption for Nan Rui was one of my favorite things ever, and I NEED to write a fanfic about him and Ji Xiang. AAAAAAAAAAH JUST SO AMAZING. Honestly, this is the closest to perfect of any drama I have watched. The pacing, the production quality, the humor, the romance, the friendships, the HEART of it were all just spot on for me. 10/10 no notes. I absolutely have to post my review on MDL, just to offset some of the inexplicably negative reviews and low ratings. I have to imagine a lot of those were people who just DNFed for whatever reason. Poor fools.

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A story about turning darkness into light.

Incredible drama! 9.5/10, or maybe even higher (I certainly plan to watch again, and it's the kind of story that gets even better watching it again knowing the context that is revealed at the end)

What I loved:
--Fun premise (modern girl gets sucked into the game version of a novel by her favorite author)
--Enemies to lovers romance
--Love, love, and more love! this was just such a joyful story from beginning to end. The main character is a source of light and hope for everyone she meets, and it has an enormous inpact--she literally rewrites a dark, depressing novel about secrecy and animosity into a story full of friendship, adventure, and redemption for literally every character.
--broody hero to make anyone swoon. Seriously, his smolder is 10/10

What maybe could have been better, in my opinion (WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW):





--no real kiss for the main couple. Seriously! They are even engaged and have only hugged and held hands. Even at the very end, when they are reunited in the real world, NO KISS. I can respect this narrative choice on the one hand (it does make sense that Ziqi, being at some level hiding his real identity from Miaomiao, would want to wait to kiss her until she knows who he really is and they have a chance to develop a relationship in the real world), but still, I as the viewer DESERVE A KISS, I deserve that closure. There is a sort-of kiss at the end of the credits...but they are clearly working the angles (not an actual kiss), and it was in no way built into the story.
--I would have liked to see more hints about Ziqi's real identity built into the story from the beginning, and I would have liked Miaomiao herself to figure it out. Her character started out with a lot of agency, but by the end I felt like she was turning into kind of just a stand in for "happy character that the male character has to experience character growth in order to earn". This was pretty disappointing to me. It wasn't really egregious--she still is the reason that the world was saved, everyone is brought back to life, and even that Ziqi makes it to the top of that stairway to heaven in order to confront his true self. In other words, still quite a strong FMC...I would just have liked her to be the one who figured out who Ziqi really was.

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