This review may contain spoilers
Breathtaking Visuals, Superb Acting, & Extremely Disjointed Plot
Love Beyond the Grave (2025) is a romantic drama that follows a powerful ghost sovereign He Simu (Dilraba Dilmurat) and a young mortal general Duan Xu (Arthur Chen) as they work to maintain peace between the mortal and spirit realms while a slow, impossible romance unfolds between them.
If you decide to watch this drama, don't set any expectations just because two big names that have been in a variety of successful romance dramas are attached to it. Love Beyond the Grave is a very different C-drama experience unlike any other romantic drama you've seen. Unfortunately, despite the absolutely stunning cinematography and very good acting, the disjointed plot ruined it for me. No, this isn't a horrible drama — I've definitely seen worse ones that I dropped. I did power through to the end, but for about two-thirds of it (last two-thirds no less), I kept asking myself why it was taking so long to get to the point and when it was going to end. So as far as the enjoyment and entertainment factor go, this drama was absolutely underwhelming.
Now that I've shared my personal experience, let me expand on why you might still want to watch this — and why it may not be for you.
The Pros
First and foremost, Love Beyond the Grave has the best cinematography and the best CGI I've seen in a Chinese drama so far. It beats everything else. All the fantasy elements are extremely nuanced — color, graphics, composition. The camera work, the slow-motion sequences, the music, and the visuals come together to bring you a one-of-a-kind experience. If you appreciate good cinematography (like in The Double) and scene composition, you will genuinely enjoy this.
The acting, including the child actors, is amazing. I have absolutely no complaints.
The Lead Pairing
I see a lot of criticism about Arthur and Dilraba giving off "aunt-nephew vibes." That's absolutely not true. I think some viewers simply forget that it's intentional for her to read as older than him — she is literally four hundred years older. He is young, ambitious, and full of life, and I had no problems with their pairing at all. I've said it before and I'll say it again: this criticism of age gaps between actors when the woman is older in real life needs to stop. Women have been judged and stigmatized for centuries, and for some reason their entire identity gets tied to their age. Dilraba is a talented actress who absolutely inhabited the role of He Simu. She showcased her range immensely as we follow her character from the cold, unfeeling, and calculating figure at the beginning to her devastating breakdown in the final episode. It's a stellar performance.
Arthur Chen is a great fit for Duan Xu. He has the youthful energy, but as an actor, he doesn't fit the typical mold of popular C-drama actors with an insane face card. He has this mature and masculine energy about him that allows him to embody the role of an army general convincingly. As far as chemistry between him and Dilraba goes, this is not a story that concentrates strongly on romance in the traditional sense with all the bells and whisles and crazy skinship, but the chemistry is there. It's executed really well in the scenes where both leads are present — I liked all of their interactions, all the tender moments and the way they were set up and excuted by the production team. I believe considering the actual age gap between the characters in the story and the difference between their life experiences, these two actors were very well matched in this drama to represent what needed to be conveyed on the screen.
The Plot Problem
Now…the biggest issue. The plot and how different storylines are presented absolutely did not work. I don't know if it has anything to do with the source material, but rewriting source material to match what viewers expect on screen is never off the table. So here's what went wrong.
The pacing at the beginning was slow but done really well. There was a lot of focus on our lead couple during the first military campaign arc where we get to know our characters and learn Duan Xu's backstory. The story was developing in an engaging, eerie way — almost a noir feel to the entire picture. There was this dark on the current of suspense that transported me elsewhere, and I truly connected with it. Duan Xu's fighting scenes when he infiltrated the enemy camp were a visual feast. Arthur Chen did so well in them. Some of his scenes were extremely intense and were great to watch, which mistakenly set up certain expectations for me as to how the rest of the drama may unfold.
Then the second arc comes in, set in the Spirit Realm where he follows He Simu, and nothing happens. Absolutely nothing. Everything that occurred there could have been wrapped up in two to three episodes. It didn't need to drag on for ten. The characters didn't get quality interactions, we didn't see any real high stakes, and Duan Xu spent most of the arc in bed or walking around the realm and doing random things. It stretched on for multiple episodes until I started skipping. We had characters introduced who only lasted a few episodes and existed solely to be killed off — I did not understand why they needed that much screen time. That valuable screen time could have been given to the lead couple so we could experience more romantic situations between them.
Meanwhile, one of the most interesting supporting characters, our antagonist Yan Ke, was robbed of a proper backstory and story arc. Miles Wei was amazing as Yan Ke, but he was written as a villain for the sake of being a villain. We've had several really good villain origin stories in recent 2025 dramas (I still can’t get over how well Situ Ling was written), so I don't understand why Yan Ke had so much screen time but didn't even get a proper backstory. It was extremely disappointing. His character was flat and not even charming. You absolutely didn’t want to route for him or understand him.
Then in the second half, additional characters start popping up in the mortal world. We had an interesting storyline developing between Fang Xian Ye (Gao He Yuan) and Duan Xu's sister, only for it to end in the most underwhelming way. I understand why Fang Xian Ye sacrificed himself, but you just feel sorry for the man because he never had a chance — his entire life was reduced to dying for somebody after already doing so much for them. Then there's an emperor who shows up out of nowhere for a handful of scenes, and every single one of those scenes dragged on unnecessarily. I started questioning why we were suddenly deep in the mortal world politics without any fantasy elements. This drama started off as a fantasy drama very strongly, but then shifted to the mortal world and most fantasy elements just disappeared until the final few episodes. Essentially, I could not understand the direction of the drama. Was it going to stay a fantasy drama or was it going to become a court politics drama? It was neither. It kinda just wobbled unevenly through the poorly paced script. We also have too many episodes where our lead couple did their own separate things (that weren’t very interesting to watch) and had no screen time together at all.
Character Arcs and the Romance
Overall, the character arcs for most of the cast were flat, incomplete, and not woven into the story evenly. Poor Duan Xu also lost his steam as a character toward the end — nothing ever came of him owning the magical sword, and I'm not sure why that element was even introduced at the beginning. If this information was somewhere in the drama and I missed it, the writing wasn't good because the sword presence and a promise of Duan Xu becoming immortal just wasn't explained very well. Why was it mentioned at all? The one character who made complete sense was Xia Qing Sheng. He was saved by He Simu and ended up taking over her duties, which is a twist I did not expect but was totally fine with. It worked. The child actor who played his young-self was very good.
The romance itself starts off great, but the love story between our lead couple is sweet and slow and not overly exciting, especially later on. It's very different from a typical romantic drama. There's almost no comedic relief with the exception of a couple of scenes. The music sets the mood from the very beginning — it's dark and becomes foreboding toward the end, and you can tell something is going to happen. While some characters do survive and get a good ending, the ending for the lead couple is different. I wouldn't call it open because it's easy to guess what will probably happen in the future, but I still wish we could have had a glimpse of them together one screen one last time.
The Last Stretch
The last ten episodes are absolutely convoluted and they just keep dragging. There are a couple of exciting episodes toward the end, and the final episode will probably make you tear up. I enjoyed the wedding scene and everything that happened after—it made me fele things. But essentially, the biggest flaw with this drama is that the script was underdeveloped. It didn't develop supporting characters or supporting storylines well, the pacing was off, and there was a lot of foundation-building that led absolutely nowhere.
Final Verdict
My advice? You may enjoy Love Beyond the Grave if you haven't yet seen the top-tier romantic C-dramas, because this one lacks most of the classic elements of a typical romance. It could probably serve as a good entrance point into Asian dramas if you are just starting out and want to dip your toes into something. But you may not enjoy other fantasy dramas after this, because as I've mentioned, the CGI is superb here, so everything else that has heavy CGI you'll watch after this drama mught a disappointment. But if you’ve seen a lot of C-drama romance and are coming in expecting a swoony love story packed with romantic tension, this is not that. But if you want something visually stunning with strong performances, it might be worth your time. What works here is the cinematography, the graphics, the visual storytelling, and the acting — it is an absolute stunner to look at. What doesn't work is almost everything else underneath. So think for yourself and decide if you want to give it a try.
If you decide to watch this drama, don't set any expectations just because two big names that have been in a variety of successful romance dramas are attached to it. Love Beyond the Grave is a very different C-drama experience unlike any other romantic drama you've seen. Unfortunately, despite the absolutely stunning cinematography and very good acting, the disjointed plot ruined it for me. No, this isn't a horrible drama — I've definitely seen worse ones that I dropped. I did power through to the end, but for about two-thirds of it (last two-thirds no less), I kept asking myself why it was taking so long to get to the point and when it was going to end. So as far as the enjoyment and entertainment factor go, this drama was absolutely underwhelming.
Now that I've shared my personal experience, let me expand on why you might still want to watch this — and why it may not be for you.
The Pros
First and foremost, Love Beyond the Grave has the best cinematography and the best CGI I've seen in a Chinese drama so far. It beats everything else. All the fantasy elements are extremely nuanced — color, graphics, composition. The camera work, the slow-motion sequences, the music, and the visuals come together to bring you a one-of-a-kind experience. If you appreciate good cinematography (like in The Double) and scene composition, you will genuinely enjoy this.
The acting, including the child actors, is amazing. I have absolutely no complaints.
The Lead Pairing
I see a lot of criticism about Arthur and Dilraba giving off "aunt-nephew vibes." That's absolutely not true. I think some viewers simply forget that it's intentional for her to read as older than him — she is literally four hundred years older. He is young, ambitious, and full of life, and I had no problems with their pairing at all. I've said it before and I'll say it again: this criticism of age gaps between actors when the woman is older in real life needs to stop. Women have been judged and stigmatized for centuries, and for some reason their entire identity gets tied to their age. Dilraba is a talented actress who absolutely inhabited the role of He Simu. She showcased her range immensely as we follow her character from the cold, unfeeling, and calculating figure at the beginning to her devastating breakdown in the final episode. It's a stellar performance.
Arthur Chen is a great fit for Duan Xu. He has the youthful energy, but as an actor, he doesn't fit the typical mold of popular C-drama actors with an insane face card. He has this mature and masculine energy about him that allows him to embody the role of an army general convincingly. As far as chemistry between him and Dilraba goes, this is not a story that concentrates strongly on romance in the traditional sense with all the bells and whisles and crazy skinship, but the chemistry is there. It's executed really well in the scenes where both leads are present — I liked all of their interactions, all the tender moments and the way they were set up and excuted by the production team. I believe considering the actual age gap between the characters in the story and the difference between their life experiences, these two actors were very well matched in this drama to represent what needed to be conveyed on the screen.
The Plot Problem
Now…the biggest issue. The plot and how different storylines are presented absolutely did not work. I don't know if it has anything to do with the source material, but rewriting source material to match what viewers expect on screen is never off the table. So here's what went wrong.
The pacing at the beginning was slow but done really well. There was a lot of focus on our lead couple during the first military campaign arc where we get to know our characters and learn Duan Xu's backstory. The story was developing in an engaging, eerie way — almost a noir feel to the entire picture. There was this dark on the current of suspense that transported me elsewhere, and I truly connected with it. Duan Xu's fighting scenes when he infiltrated the enemy camp were a visual feast. Arthur Chen did so well in them. Some of his scenes were extremely intense and were great to watch, which mistakenly set up certain expectations for me as to how the rest of the drama may unfold.
Then the second arc comes in, set in the Spirit Realm where he follows He Simu, and nothing happens. Absolutely nothing. Everything that occurred there could have been wrapped up in two to three episodes. It didn't need to drag on for ten. The characters didn't get quality interactions, we didn't see any real high stakes, and Duan Xu spent most of the arc in bed or walking around the realm and doing random things. It stretched on for multiple episodes until I started skipping. We had characters introduced who only lasted a few episodes and existed solely to be killed off — I did not understand why they needed that much screen time. That valuable screen time could have been given to the lead couple so we could experience more romantic situations between them.
Meanwhile, one of the most interesting supporting characters, our antagonist Yan Ke, was robbed of a proper backstory and story arc. Miles Wei was amazing as Yan Ke, but he was written as a villain for the sake of being a villain. We've had several really good villain origin stories in recent 2025 dramas (I still can’t get over how well Situ Ling was written), so I don't understand why Yan Ke had so much screen time but didn't even get a proper backstory. It was extremely disappointing. His character was flat and not even charming. You absolutely didn’t want to route for him or understand him.
Then in the second half, additional characters start popping up in the mortal world. We had an interesting storyline developing between Fang Xian Ye (Gao He Yuan) and Duan Xu's sister, only for it to end in the most underwhelming way. I understand why Fang Xian Ye sacrificed himself, but you just feel sorry for the man because he never had a chance — his entire life was reduced to dying for somebody after already doing so much for them. Then there's an emperor who shows up out of nowhere for a handful of scenes, and every single one of those scenes dragged on unnecessarily. I started questioning why we were suddenly deep in the mortal world politics without any fantasy elements. This drama started off as a fantasy drama very strongly, but then shifted to the mortal world and most fantasy elements just disappeared until the final few episodes. Essentially, I could not understand the direction of the drama. Was it going to stay a fantasy drama or was it going to become a court politics drama? It was neither. It kinda just wobbled unevenly through the poorly paced script. We also have too many episodes where our lead couple did their own separate things (that weren’t very interesting to watch) and had no screen time together at all.
Character Arcs and the Romance
Overall, the character arcs for most of the cast were flat, incomplete, and not woven into the story evenly. Poor Duan Xu also lost his steam as a character toward the end — nothing ever came of him owning the magical sword, and I'm not sure why that element was even introduced at the beginning. If this information was somewhere in the drama and I missed it, the writing wasn't good because the sword presence and a promise of Duan Xu becoming immortal just wasn't explained very well. Why was it mentioned at all? The one character who made complete sense was Xia Qing Sheng. He was saved by He Simu and ended up taking over her duties, which is a twist I did not expect but was totally fine with. It worked. The child actor who played his young-self was very good.
The romance itself starts off great, but the love story between our lead couple is sweet and slow and not overly exciting, especially later on. It's very different from a typical romantic drama. There's almost no comedic relief with the exception of a couple of scenes. The music sets the mood from the very beginning — it's dark and becomes foreboding toward the end, and you can tell something is going to happen. While some characters do survive and get a good ending, the ending for the lead couple is different. I wouldn't call it open because it's easy to guess what will probably happen in the future, but I still wish we could have had a glimpse of them together one screen one last time.
The Last Stretch
The last ten episodes are absolutely convoluted and they just keep dragging. There are a couple of exciting episodes toward the end, and the final episode will probably make you tear up. I enjoyed the wedding scene and everything that happened after—it made me fele things. But essentially, the biggest flaw with this drama is that the script was underdeveloped. It didn't develop supporting characters or supporting storylines well, the pacing was off, and there was a lot of foundation-building that led absolutely nowhere.
Final Verdict
My advice? You may enjoy Love Beyond the Grave if you haven't yet seen the top-tier romantic C-dramas, because this one lacks most of the classic elements of a typical romance. It could probably serve as a good entrance point into Asian dramas if you are just starting out and want to dip your toes into something. But you may not enjoy other fantasy dramas after this, because as I've mentioned, the CGI is superb here, so everything else that has heavy CGI you'll watch after this drama mught a disappointment. But if you’ve seen a lot of C-drama romance and are coming in expecting a swoony love story packed with romantic tension, this is not that. But if you want something visually stunning with strong performances, it might be worth your time. What works here is the cinematography, the graphics, the visual storytelling, and the acting — it is an absolute stunner to look at. What doesn't work is almost everything else underneath. So think for yourself and decide if you want to give it a try.
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