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This review may contain spoilers
*flings imaginary papers into the air* I give up
This is a rant.
Often, even when I drop a show, I usually have something nice/decent to say about it. With this one, idk. Maybe there will be some good buried in here somewhere underneath all the things that frustrated and left me wanting
The Characters
🧚🏻He Si Mu - I found her boring, indecisive, and one-dimensional. She is so obsessed with humans, and for what exactly? The fact that they get to suffer through life and die? Or does she want the life of a noblewoman? To spend all her life pampered but sheltered, only to be married off for some familial/political/business purpose n live in the shadow of a man? Forgive me, but the thought of an all-powerful ghost supreme lamenting that she's not a human is annoying AF to me
🏮She is bored with her long 400-year life, and I feel like this is her fault. Honestly, I feel like an immortal who gets bored with their existence is at fault for the mundanity that is their life. Maybe this is me applying my 2026 brain to some (fictional) historical world, but.....
Do you know how vast the world is? The multitudes you can encounter if you manage to leave your backyard? She leaves the spirit world to go to areas that are essentially her backyard. Of course you're bored, babe. Humanity changes, but not that drastically. You can 'whoosh' yourself to literally anywhere, leave your people, and go elsewhere. See if you're bored then
🏮Her indecisiveness with Duan Xu is also off-putting. You want love, but also don't want it. She kept changing her mind on how close she wanted this mortal man, which gave me fucking whiplash. The entire plot, at least till where I reached, is a fucking push and pull. 2 steps forward, 15 steps back. Ma'am, I'm tired. Make a choice so we can move on. Let him go or pick him, and let both of you protect each other and your love for one another
🏮One-dimensional - I thought that perhaps her love with Duan Xu would change her or something. make her care. sure she smiles more and is carefree when with him. I liked that bit, but all other areas of her life remain the same. She is bored with her job and the supreme, bored with her subordinates, bored during the fight that comes about every 100 years, bored when people try to assassinate her, and sad that she isn't human and can never die.
Girl.... I'm bored too. Give me something to work with! I wanted to see her get mad for once and act on it. Let her go crazy or something. Let me see another side of you, other than detached boredom and perpetual annoyance at your subordinates and their scheming.
They could have made her so interesting, but this is what they chose to give us... UGH!
🤺Duan Xu - I actually liked the fact that he was a golden retriever puppy around her. It gave a good contrast, giving me that grumpy-sunshine trope that I adore (especially if the grumpy character is the woman). However, I was let down by the fact that he doesn't fight much. I remember how impressed I was back in ep 10 when he infiltrated the enemy camp, threw everything into chaos, and killed their general.
I was like 'yes!!! The puppy finally shows that he is, in fact, a mad dog underneath it all.' It gave such a wonderful layer to who we'd seen him as by that point. Unfortunately, we don't see that side of him again. The man was a trained assassin since he was a preteen to his late teens, and we just get to see him walking around holding the hilt of his sword for the majority of the plot.
He is relegated to a love-sick puppy constantly chasing a woman who wants him, but won't claim him, and having petty (but sometimes hilarious) jealous spats with Yan Ke and any other man (un)fortunate to get close to si mu. Yan Ke was right in calling him a love-lorn husband. An absolute waste of a character
Yan Ke - What a boring villain. There is nothing as unimaginative as a man whose sole purpose is to possess a woman who doesn't even want him. All-powerful and all he wants is to have the more powerful being to be submissive to and stare googly-eyed at him as they share tea. I dislike him on principle alone
Jiang Ai - I did actually like her at first, but the fact that her weakness was not money as I initially thought it'd be, but love (love+hate? ) for a man who was basically Yan Ke version 1.0 is disappointing to me
The Cinematography, The Set, The CGI, The Makeup
🎥The cinematography & Lighting - Lord, is it bad. It gives bland and old. I remember leaving a note after I completed ep 1 and stating in part, 'The colour palette for all of episode 1 was grey, black, and white with some touches of red, blue, and yellow. It's giving depresso' (Ha! I'm funny.) The world, especially in the 1st arc, feels cold
The cinematography in this is flat and doesn't evoke any emotion. Unlike my experience with POJ, I never once felt like I was a part of this world. I was always a spectator. The look of this show doesn't make you look forward to watching it.
Aside from 'Pursuit of Jade', another example of a show that makes you want to look at it is 'Veil of Shadows'. I couldn't tell you what's going on with the plot (apparently, you need to understand a decent amount of some specific Chinese mythology to understand the story), but it's quite pretty to look at. VoS gives 'feed of a beauty and lifestyle content creator with a very powerful camera'. Compared to those two stories, this one is just...meh
🏠The set - It's fine when we're in the mortal world, but when we move to the spirit realm..., by God is it horrendous. Let's take He Si Mu's throne room as an example. It looks like something I'd expect to see in a show that aired in perhaps the mid 2000s to the early 2010s. Her throne itself looked like it was made of plastic that got coated in bad gold spray paint... why? Also, the big eye that was in the streets of that world... It's just big and plastic-looking. I just... they really didn't care about this, did they?
💄And can we talk about how the people in hair and makeup couldn't be arsed to make the actresses' natural hair colour match the wig? All through the 1st half i couldn't get over the fact that her hair had brown tones in it and the wig was jet black... how in the entirety of hell was that missed?
Can someone tell me why the supreme leader of the ghosts sometimes had the same complexion as people who were quite literally alive? It made sense when she was paler than those around her, but when they were all the same shade... girl, lemme go laugh.
Storytelling & Worldbuilding
Considering what the story gives us (as per ep 28), I can for sure say that this story did not deserve a 40-episode count. The plot, romantic, political, or otherwise, doesn't have a lot of figurative meat on its bones to justify this length. We spend most of the episodes watching the characters not do much to further the overall plot. They are kinda just going through the motions.
The world-building is also rather weak. A lot of things are left untold/unshown. Some examples
a. Duan Xu's sword - We are told that a man gave it to him. Who was he? How long had he been carrying it? How did he manage to hide this sword that so many wanted? And what did he see in Duan Xu that made him hand it to him
b. The eye in the spirit world - What did it do? What was its purpose? Aesthetics?
c. The obsessions - We are told that if an obsession is powerful enough, a human will turn into a spirit upon their death. Once this happens, they only die if a more powerful spirit offs them or they ultimately and willingly let go of their obsession to ascend.
Now, Duan Xu was in love with He Si Mu to the point of obsession (if his 'dreams' in that prison were anything to go on). So if he was that obsessed, why not love each other till he dies a natural death (you know, unless something bad happens on the battlefield and she cannot for some reason save him), and he can then live as a spirit with her instead of the never-ending back and forth?
d. Why was there a curfew at night in the spirit world? Was it better for them to go scream and wail in their houses than do it all up in the streets?
All in all, this story dragged with more filler than plot or answers, very mid cinematography and lighting, and bland characters. If you love the actors in this, perhaps it'd be best if you went and found some of their other works coz, this ain't it.
Often, even when I drop a show, I usually have something nice/decent to say about it. With this one, idk. Maybe there will be some good buried in here somewhere underneath all the things that frustrated and left me wanting
The Characters
🧚🏻He Si Mu - I found her boring, indecisive, and one-dimensional. She is so obsessed with humans, and for what exactly? The fact that they get to suffer through life and die? Or does she want the life of a noblewoman? To spend all her life pampered but sheltered, only to be married off for some familial/political/business purpose n live in the shadow of a man? Forgive me, but the thought of an all-powerful ghost supreme lamenting that she's not a human is annoying AF to me
🏮She is bored with her long 400-year life, and I feel like this is her fault. Honestly, I feel like an immortal who gets bored with their existence is at fault for the mundanity that is their life. Maybe this is me applying my 2026 brain to some (fictional) historical world, but.....
Do you know how vast the world is? The multitudes you can encounter if you manage to leave your backyard? She leaves the spirit world to go to areas that are essentially her backyard. Of course you're bored, babe. Humanity changes, but not that drastically. You can 'whoosh' yourself to literally anywhere, leave your people, and go elsewhere. See if you're bored then
🏮Her indecisiveness with Duan Xu is also off-putting. You want love, but also don't want it. She kept changing her mind on how close she wanted this mortal man, which gave me fucking whiplash. The entire plot, at least till where I reached, is a fucking push and pull. 2 steps forward, 15 steps back. Ma'am, I'm tired. Make a choice so we can move on. Let him go or pick him, and let both of you protect each other and your love for one another
🏮One-dimensional - I thought that perhaps her love with Duan Xu would change her or something. make her care. sure she smiles more and is carefree when with him. I liked that bit, but all other areas of her life remain the same. She is bored with her job and the supreme, bored with her subordinates, bored during the fight that comes about every 100 years, bored when people try to assassinate her, and sad that she isn't human and can never die.
Girl.... I'm bored too. Give me something to work with! I wanted to see her get mad for once and act on it. Let her go crazy or something. Let me see another side of you, other than detached boredom and perpetual annoyance at your subordinates and their scheming.
They could have made her so interesting, but this is what they chose to give us... UGH!
🤺Duan Xu - I actually liked the fact that he was a golden retriever puppy around her. It gave a good contrast, giving me that grumpy-sunshine trope that I adore (especially if the grumpy character is the woman). However, I was let down by the fact that he doesn't fight much. I remember how impressed I was back in ep 10 when he infiltrated the enemy camp, threw everything into chaos, and killed their general.
I was like 'yes!!! The puppy finally shows that he is, in fact, a mad dog underneath it all.' It gave such a wonderful layer to who we'd seen him as by that point. Unfortunately, we don't see that side of him again. The man was a trained assassin since he was a preteen to his late teens, and we just get to see him walking around holding the hilt of his sword for the majority of the plot.
He is relegated to a love-sick puppy constantly chasing a woman who wants him, but won't claim him, and having petty (but sometimes hilarious) jealous spats with Yan Ke and any other man (un)fortunate to get close to si mu. Yan Ke was right in calling him a love-lorn husband. An absolute waste of a character
Yan Ke - What a boring villain. There is nothing as unimaginative as a man whose sole purpose is to possess a woman who doesn't even want him. All-powerful and all he wants is to have the more powerful being to be submissive to and stare googly-eyed at him as they share tea. I dislike him on principle alone
Jiang Ai - I did actually like her at first, but the fact that her weakness was not money as I initially thought it'd be, but love (love+hate? ) for a man who was basically Yan Ke version 1.0 is disappointing to me
The Cinematography, The Set, The CGI, The Makeup
🎥The cinematography & Lighting - Lord, is it bad. It gives bland and old. I remember leaving a note after I completed ep 1 and stating in part, 'The colour palette for all of episode 1 was grey, black, and white with some touches of red, blue, and yellow. It's giving depresso' (Ha! I'm funny.) The world, especially in the 1st arc, feels cold
The cinematography in this is flat and doesn't evoke any emotion. Unlike my experience with POJ, I never once felt like I was a part of this world. I was always a spectator. The look of this show doesn't make you look forward to watching it.
Aside from 'Pursuit of Jade', another example of a show that makes you want to look at it is 'Veil of Shadows'. I couldn't tell you what's going on with the plot (apparently, you need to understand a decent amount of some specific Chinese mythology to understand the story), but it's quite pretty to look at. VoS gives 'feed of a beauty and lifestyle content creator with a very powerful camera'. Compared to those two stories, this one is just...meh
🏠The set - It's fine when we're in the mortal world, but when we move to the spirit realm..., by God is it horrendous. Let's take He Si Mu's throne room as an example. It looks like something I'd expect to see in a show that aired in perhaps the mid 2000s to the early 2010s. Her throne itself looked like it was made of plastic that got coated in bad gold spray paint... why? Also, the big eye that was in the streets of that world... It's just big and plastic-looking. I just... they really didn't care about this, did they?
💄And can we talk about how the people in hair and makeup couldn't be arsed to make the actresses' natural hair colour match the wig? All through the 1st half i couldn't get over the fact that her hair had brown tones in it and the wig was jet black... how in the entirety of hell was that missed?
Can someone tell me why the supreme leader of the ghosts sometimes had the same complexion as people who were quite literally alive? It made sense when she was paler than those around her, but when they were all the same shade... girl, lemme go laugh.
Storytelling & Worldbuilding
Considering what the story gives us (as per ep 28), I can for sure say that this story did not deserve a 40-episode count. The plot, romantic, political, or otherwise, doesn't have a lot of figurative meat on its bones to justify this length. We spend most of the episodes watching the characters not do much to further the overall plot. They are kinda just going through the motions.
The world-building is also rather weak. A lot of things are left untold/unshown. Some examples
a. Duan Xu's sword - We are told that a man gave it to him. Who was he? How long had he been carrying it? How did he manage to hide this sword that so many wanted? And what did he see in Duan Xu that made him hand it to him
b. The eye in the spirit world - What did it do? What was its purpose? Aesthetics?
c. The obsessions - We are told that if an obsession is powerful enough, a human will turn into a spirit upon their death. Once this happens, they only die if a more powerful spirit offs them or they ultimately and willingly let go of their obsession to ascend.
Now, Duan Xu was in love with He Si Mu to the point of obsession (if his 'dreams' in that prison were anything to go on). So if he was that obsessed, why not love each other till he dies a natural death (you know, unless something bad happens on the battlefield and she cannot for some reason save him), and he can then live as a spirit with her instead of the never-ending back and forth?
d. Why was there a curfew at night in the spirit world? Was it better for them to go scream and wail in their houses than do it all up in the streets?
All in all, this story dragged with more filler than plot or answers, very mid cinematography and lighting, and bland characters. If you love the actors in this, perhaps it'd be best if you went and found some of their other works coz, this ain't it.
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