Hmm...
Interesting costumes, mysterious start to drama, entertaining story... but missing the X-factor.
Zhu Yan (aka Zhao Yuan Zhou) was a powerful demon who was troubled by malicious energy which gathered around him. As an individual, Zhu Yan was a kind and loving soul. But when he became controlled by the energy, he turned into a killing machine.
Led by a leader of the Demon Hunting Bureau Zhuo Yuan Zhou, Zhu Yan, the powerless BaiZe goddess Wen Xiao, the skilful archer Pei Si Jing, and teenage doctor Bai Jiu set out to investigate the case of the serial killing of brides and a series of other demon crimes.
Zhu Yan had in the past killed Zhou's father and brother when controlled by the malicious energy; Pei previously served under a rival camp. Distrust among the team members prevailed as each were from different backgrounds. Indeed among them were traitors who were serving other evil lords hidden in the dark.
Usually after each drama, I could recall the flow of the story quite logically. But the feeling this drama left me was that it was messy. The pace of action moved quite quickly and was exciting during the first 20 episodes but coming to the last 10 episodes were a lot of draggy parts. The drama suddenly slowed down in pace and inserted a lot of time fillers to drag it on. There were a lot of flashbacks (repeats of the same scenes), hesitation, emotional reminiscing and prolonged fighting. The last 4 episodes were mainly centred around fighting the villain who resurrected. I got really impatient.
Frequently at critical moments when things were going badly, suddenly it turned out that Zhu Yan had anticipated the villain's intents and had plotted counter strategies. So the crises were averted, but in ways, I felt was not convincing.
Eventually, the story ended with someone sacrificing his life to save his sweetheart and to atone for the bad deeds he had done. Amidst all the crying and sadness that the director was trying to portray, I actually felt nothing. Yes, nothing.
I became a fan of Neo Hou after watching 'A Girl like Me'. But the subsequent four dramas I watched of his were all fantasy dramas, and his characters were mostly childish. I think he needs to move on to more mature character, or else he might just be left behind as he aged. And all these fantasy dramas are going to make him into a single-character actor.
Overall, I recommend watching this drama - given the 8.6 rating which is high for mydramalist, it showed a lot of viewers enjoyed it. I gave it a 8.5 which is not particularly great as my ratings were usually more generous than the rating on mydramalist. I therefore have a lower opinion of this drama than the general viewers here.
Zhu Yan (aka Zhao Yuan Zhou) was a powerful demon who was troubled by malicious energy which gathered around him. As an individual, Zhu Yan was a kind and loving soul. But when he became controlled by the energy, he turned into a killing machine.
Led by a leader of the Demon Hunting Bureau Zhuo Yuan Zhou, Zhu Yan, the powerless BaiZe goddess Wen Xiao, the skilful archer Pei Si Jing, and teenage doctor Bai Jiu set out to investigate the case of the serial killing of brides and a series of other demon crimes.
Zhu Yan had in the past killed Zhou's father and brother when controlled by the malicious energy; Pei previously served under a rival camp. Distrust among the team members prevailed as each were from different backgrounds. Indeed among them were traitors who were serving other evil lords hidden in the dark.
Usually after each drama, I could recall the flow of the story quite logically. But the feeling this drama left me was that it was messy. The pace of action moved quite quickly and was exciting during the first 20 episodes but coming to the last 10 episodes were a lot of draggy parts. The drama suddenly slowed down in pace and inserted a lot of time fillers to drag it on. There were a lot of flashbacks (repeats of the same scenes), hesitation, emotional reminiscing and prolonged fighting. The last 4 episodes were mainly centred around fighting the villain who resurrected. I got really impatient.
Frequently at critical moments when things were going badly, suddenly it turned out that Zhu Yan had anticipated the villain's intents and had plotted counter strategies. So the crises were averted, but in ways, I felt was not convincing.
Eventually, the story ended with someone sacrificing his life to save his sweetheart and to atone for the bad deeds he had done. Amidst all the crying and sadness that the director was trying to portray, I actually felt nothing. Yes, nothing.
I became a fan of Neo Hou after watching 'A Girl like Me'. But the subsequent four dramas I watched of his were all fantasy dramas, and his characters were mostly childish. I think he needs to move on to more mature character, or else he might just be left behind as he aged. And all these fantasy dramas are going to make him into a single-character actor.
Overall, I recommend watching this drama - given the 8.6 rating which is high for mydramalist, it showed a lot of viewers enjoyed it. I gave it a 8.5 which is not particularly great as my ratings were usually more generous than the rating on mydramalist. I therefore have a lower opinion of this drama than the general viewers here.
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