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Dance of the Phoenix chinese drama review
Completed
Dance of the Phoenix
0 people found this review helpful
by 50FiftillidideeBrain
Sep 5, 2025
30 of 30 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 7.0
Story 6.5
Acting/Cast 7.0
Music 6.5
Rewatch Value 6.5

✨️ The Left-Footed Phoenix °6.8° °good&bad°

The 2-sentence review: This is a show for lovers of 🇨🇳fantasy. It's a tasty snack for the initiated, but it will not win over new fans to the genre.

“Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,” wrote William Congreve. It's a good thing I looked it up because I thought it was Shakespeare. Anyway, women scorned are the primary conflict generator of this show.

DotP Follows the 🇨🇳fantasy template of Immortals, or Cultivators (think ancient superheroes), sailing through the sky over ethereal blossoms, bamboo forests & bouyant waterfalls. We will see many warriors, men and women alike. Their swords can act like both magic wands and flying carpets.

There's plenty to enjoy in DotP, however, it is still one the lesser 🇨🇳fantasy pieces I've seen. If I watched this before Love Between Fairy & Devil-8.9; Douluo Continent 9.4; Handsome Siblings-8.7; Ancient Love Poetry-8.6; or Love and Redemption-10, no doubt, I would have loved it. Stacked against the greats, it doesn't measure up.

At least, that's what I wrote in my original notes. But I never finished the review and a couple years went by. I put the show on to brush up on some facts now that I'm circling back to reviews I never finished due to extreme illness, and I got sucked right back in again! Clearly, I didn't dislike it as much as I first thought. I initially scored this a 5.8, amended it to a 6.3 but now I see this as closer to a 7. I've also since watched a couple 🇨🇳fantasy shows that are much worse (The Legend of White Snake-4.9 being an example). Fantasy fans will want to see this. There's many great elements. It's a shame there's a flaw to match every positive. On the 2nd watch, I realized this show is marvelous through the mid teen episodes, at which time it slows significantly and loses its spark.

Meng Yuan is in medical school, but not for long. We don't get the details until the show's nearly over, but she was magically transported to an alternate reality and now lives in the personage of Feng “Wu” (Yang Chao Yue of ‘Love You Seven Times’, who looks quite a bit like a female Xu Kai with her round face and full cheeks). Wu was born with ultra powerful & rare phoenix blood. The only other person who carried the same power was the legendary hero, Mu Jiuzhou who conquered the demons but mysteriously disappeared just before he obtained immortality.

So, Wu's a child prodigy. The family wasn't able to keep it on the down-low. She garners lots of attention; not all good. When Wu was young, her father passed away which ushered in bullying of her & mom. Wu walks the forest one day in frustration over it. What's this? 😮 She looks down to see a strange ring in the middle of the forest. When she looks up, a man is standing before her! Mu Jiuzhou's spirit was in that ring! He offers to be her master - he'll teach her how to cultivate power and protect her mom. Why? Mu was the last person to live with powerful Phoenix blood. Wu is his spiritual heir. Soon, Wu's one of the most talented & powerful young cultivators on the continent. There's only 1 other woman who can rival her. Unfortunately, that woman doesn't want a rival. She ambushes Wu & steals the Phoenix Blood by dark means. Then she kills Wu.

Or did she?

Wu woke up! She's in the forest with no memory and no cultivation base and Master Mu is watching over her. First things 1st: To restore her power she will need to restore her base. For that, she'll need the Nine Transformations Spirit Restoration Pill, which is made from the Celestial Fruit. (Nobody outdoes the Chinese when it comes to naming things🏆). Mu continues his info dump, but all Wu is thinking is: “Who IS this weirdo?” Memoryless Wu simply has no clue! Wu must snatch a fruit that ripens every 60 years. It won't be easy, as every cultivator on the planet will be after it. Even if she gets it, she won't be allowed to keep it. She will go in disguise. Before any of that, she needs to /understand that she needs it/. She brushed off most of what her master told her; it was too.much to process. The show does a poor job with the exposition, but this is likely when the soul switch occurred - this is when her personality completely changed. It changed so drastically that her family sent her away to live in a hovel near the border. Everything about Wu's life is now a mess. She resorts to selling medicine at the border town. For some reason, she now has a passion for medicine.

Before we get too ahead of things, let's check in on Wu at the Tea House enjoying a nice snack with her friend when AHBL (all hail breaks loose). A monstrous creature (The Firecloud Giant Hawk, which looks part dragon) raids main street. The cultivators come in to expel the threat, but just before they're about to clip the Hawk’s wings, it snatches up Wu and flies away with her. Jun was there. In fact, when he reached his hand out to summon his sword, Wu put her hand in his thinking he was offering to help her up. He shook it off like she was covered in slug slime.

So much for first impressions.

Jun follows after Wu. They end up in Frozen Forest where the Celestial Fruit is. The whole forest sequence does not feel unlike a Harry Potter book; there's even dementors. Cultivators are already wandering around looking for the fruit. Jue's rival, Mingye, the casual, almost cheerful evildoer, is there. He gets the most enjoyment from competing with Jun, but he actually takes no glee in anything. "In the best case scenario, I won't kill anybody on my birthday as a way to celebrate it.". He does what he does and there doesn't seem to be any difference between doing it or not doing it. His heart just isn't in it. He seems like more fun than the CP, Jun, with a more complex character. While in the forest, he falls for a plain girl (Wu in disguise) based on her personality and tenacity. (True, he saw Jun help Wu. It seems Jun cares for Wu, therefore, he MUST have Wu for himself. It next turns into true feelings). He wishes he had met her earlier in life, before he was tainted by what he was forced to do while growing up. He's also sincere about Wu. It might be a better story if those two had ended up together. No kidding. By contrast, CP-Jun is a little dull (though handsome and decent); Wu will have to be the life in the relationship. He may be a bit boring, but he does have true passion for Wu. She is adorable, and she makes the show fun, but I'm not always convinced that she loves him. The secondary romance is just straight glazed icing. It's a sweet light cover over the feature.

Reality is cracking and demons are wreaking havoc, we learn. Wu has a vision in which the Firecloud Hawk (in the form of a tiny bluebird) talks to her. These are dangerous times, and she must figure out a way to wake up Master Mu. He gave up the last of his Phoenix blood to save Wu's life, so he's in a coma.

As for the players, Xu Kai Cheng (Novoland: Pearl Eclipse) portrays Jun. At 30, he's alittle old for the role and it shows, but he does a good job. He's so serious! In Well-Intended Love-7.5 he seems stern at first, but he's an affable goof. He & Wu were engaged before they ever met, but Jun canceled the engagement a few years back. As for Wu's rival, elegant beauty, Jinna Fu (Heroes, You Are My Destiny-6.8), plays Zuo Qing “Luan”. Usually the most beautiful woman in any feature in which she appears, this is the 2nd time I've seen her land in 2nd place for the affections of a man. In some ways, she represents outward perfection. The ML passes on perfection, favoring the more human-fun-down-to-earth woman. Luan makes quite the descent in the course of the show, from a perfect goddess to a hardened mean girl who cannibalizes her own heart. It started when she couldn't contain her jealousy.

The king is silly and overestimates his own importance. He seems to believe all the nonsense that people say in his presence. On the other hand, the queen is diabolical. In some shots it's easy to tell that the Queen is a beautiful woman. However, they managed to make her look creepy. She's never in a truly flattering color or hairstyle. Her lipstick is too dark for her face, her ghastly makeup is caked on but colorless without the accent of rouge, and weirdly, her teeth look the same color as her skin. The effect is unsettling in a way I've not seen before. In all, the character molding is weak and ill-defined early on, but things take shape as we reach the halfway mark.

They go to magic school! Located in the capital and more like a grad school, Junwu Academy is the most prestigious of all schools. This is where the mean girls kick it into high gear. (Jun is such a starched shirt. He cannot believe his 😲 eyes when he looks across the row and sees Wu sleeping in class!) Not everyone is a fan of Junwu. The Dark Knight Court is opposed to the place and actively fights against it. This goes beyond mere school rivalry - it's racism, too. The DKC is composed of demons, and in Chinese fantasy, demons are merely another race. Most shows expect the viewer to accept or already know about the tension between humans and demons. In another fantasy show the explanation is that it takes much more time and effort for demons to cultivate. One shortcut is eating humans, as consuming one human is worth decades of cultivation for a demon. Some demons succumb to that temptation and the whole race is tarnished by it. No one wants to trust a demon.

DofP is truly wonderful in the opening episodes. The first pothole we encounter is in ep7. Wu's cousin is jealous. She loses her mind one day and attacks Wu (Dong Yan from Sword Snow Stride is Feng Liu). They were using the scene to awaken some of Wu's abilities, but it's ham-handed. The saddest thing is that for every good element there's a handful of problems. It's sloppy and lackluster. They took shortcuts, cut corners, and didn't tie up loose storylines. There's poor, or unrelatable motivations, characters acting out of character. The problems lead to dead ends and unnatural cutoffs. There are unclear origins for some of the plot devices - things spring out of nowhere, and that is NOT an example of good writing. In the 1st couple episodes, Wu is under an ugly curse. The way they represent that in China is, sadly, by darker skin, freckles, and bad hair. They caked on the bronzer. It's quite a contrast to the other actors who are almost as white as their silk robes. Ah, tan skin, messy hair, and freckles - arguably, that version of Wu is cuter. This millennia's old light-is-right mentality has roots that aren't as deeply planted in ethnic hatred as they are status. Working in the fields is associated with darker skin and therefore a lower status. Not all the old ways are worth perpetuating. The overall effect is emotional flatness. In fact, toward the end, it became too difficult to maintain focus. Riveted to the screen, I was not.

The art, costumes, sets, are very pretty. There's nice camera work. From a technical standpoint, the directing is good. There's no lag & the timing's good for half of the show, Their first (intended) kiss, for example: She turns. He catches her hand and pulls her back as the camera looks way up at their silk & locking lips from a mouse's view.

Some special effects are clunky and nearly antique appearing, which is evidence of budgetary constraints rather than skill. The demonic beast in ep10 is fantastic, but more of the effects are distracting in their lacking. Generally, one has to put up with this to watch Chinese fantasy shows. As every other element is magnificent, I find that quite easy. What I don't find easy is films in which all the money goes into the effects and the plot and dialogue are awful. (Deliver me!) There's some fun, positively catchy music. The old school bell is magnificent.

Suspicions abound. Wu seems very suspect to Jun. Part of the conflict is Jun working through his feelings while wondering if Wu will turn out to be evil. Evil is even closer to home, though. Sometimes this dynamic is funny: When Wu is being questioned by Jun in front of Bai, the ancient potions master, she fake-cries. Bai's expression is priceless. He is astounded at her boldness and doesn't seem to think she has much chance of convincing anyone. They keep suspecting Wu of being in league with DKC, especially after she befriends Mingye, but it's another bigwig who is working with the villains. “No matter how chaotic the world is, be kind and don't stoop to evil’s level,” Mu tells his student.

After watching twice I'm still conflicted. Guilty pleasure? Don't think it qualifies. 1st of all, it doesn't give one enough to feel guilty about, and the pleasure trade-off is not enough, either. Guilty pleasures are something that is generally panned or disliked, but you just like it. You like it enough to watch it again. Maybe again and again, even though you know it's bad on many levels. This is a show that is mediocre part of the time, fun part of the time, and exciting part of the time. The worst thing is that the very ending is lame - it's awfu/l❕ I have to pretend it didn't happen.


QUOTES🗣️

It's good to be kind. But kindness without principles and bottom lines is just cowardliness.

Don't argue with those who are nothing like us

No matter how tough a man looks, he must have a soft and vulnerable side.

Addition, subtraction, multiplication and division decide the universe.


〰🖍 IMHO

🎬7 🖊〰6 🎭7.2 💓5 🦋6 🌞4.5 🎨7. 3⚡6 🎵/🔊6.5 😅2.7 😭4.5 😱3.5 🤢2.5 🤔4 💤3 🔚3

Age 13+ $h!+ hell, violence 5/10


Re-📺? My first thought is NO WAY. But, eh, never say never. I love 🇨🇳fantasy. My ratings aren't my personal favorites list. I can like a show that I've given a 7 rating to more than I like to show I've given a 9. At the end of the day, technical confidence matters but ultimately, it doesn't have a chance against what touches the heart. Once a show is in the 6's I would probably never want to rewatch it… until this one. I liked it more the 2nd time around. This show is like a dirty diamond. It still has plenty of sparkle.

2020 release. Episodes: 30 @45 min ea. Director: Chan Ka Lam (The Untamed, The Last Immortal), & Wang Zhu Ming (Weaving a Tale of Love).



🎎 -
C🇨🇳: Overlord 8.4,
Under the Power 8.6,
The Rebel Princess 9.1,
The Sword and the Brocade 8.6 (in ancient Chinese opera style),
The Rise of Phoenixes 9
K🇰🇷:
My Only Love Song 8.7 excellent comedy;
Mr. Queen 8.5;
My Sassy Girl 8.5;
The King's Affection 8.3;
Mr. Sunshine 9

🔮🐉-
C🇨🇳: Love Between Fairy & Devil 8.9;
Douluo Continent 9.4;
Handsome Siblings 8.7;
Ancient Love Poetry 8.6;
Love and Redemption 10
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