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I would want a lawyer like Cheon too!!

I had little expectation for this show as I had just recovered from the awful Doctor Lawyer.

The story is about a quirky lawyer who charges only 1000 won of consultation fee to his clients. He is crazily goofy with mysterious background but clearly has an exceptional investigative techniques. While FL is a pampered granddaughter of a lawfirm moghul who is also a lawyer in training. She first met ML in the courtroom as he represented a pickpocket suspect while she the prosecutor in training. They started off really bad and she had real horrible impression of him. As her training term ended in the prosecution office, she was expected to finish training in a lawfirm, which her grandfather moghul tasked her to go to ML’s firm instead of the his lawfirm, the Baek Law Firm. That is the start of their adventure unraveling the ugly reality of white collar criminal world.

I especially ship the love story in this show although it was shown as ML’s past only. In this part of the story, ML as the junior prosecutor was really quiet, cold and reserved but fierce in the courtroom. He didnt make many friends at work, and people call him the crazy person from seong dong. He didnt speak to people unnecessarily and Lee Juyeong, an attorney from Baek Law Firm, represented the person he was prosecuting, and called him an antisocial. But she was attracted to him after their first courtroom session, and kept appearing around him when he least expected it. She didnt look desperate or clingy, just curious and fascinated at how ML carries himself. She wanted to be friends with him, and said that if she managed to make him smile for the third time, he would have to go on a date with her. LJY managed to make him smile three times, and they stayed friends for two years before he went down on his knees to ask for her hand in marriage. That scene was truly unexpected cuz ML had always been reserved and cold, he never really express how he feels to others. Although his proposal had been sudden, i could feel the spark between them. It proves that you dont need any awkward proximity scenes between the ML and his love interest to show that they fell for each other, and you dont need staring contests between the them to display their deep love for each other. Mind you, they dont even share romantic, cheesy dialogue with each other, the most romantic thing they did was to hold each others’ hand, and yet i could feel their chemistry and love for each other. It’s truly beautiful and I cried hard when the incident happened which robbed her from ML. The story started off so goofy of ML as the attorney that I never expected how emotional the scenes from ML’s past would be.

I totally love love love the supporting character Na Yejin, the senior of ML in the prosecution service. Her character was so laid back in the beginning i thought she’s just a minor neglectable role. Damn she appeared more and more towards the end and became ML’s key in prosecution to take down the bad guys. I love her cool and yet take no nonsense character. I love her attitude, her expressions, the way she talks, well everything about her! The actress is really good.

ML is shown to be goofy and acts like a coward, but when needed he could fight his way out and take down the enemy. They dont have much of fighting scenes, but it doesnt bother me as an action packed freak, because this show is anything but boring.

I hope there’d be season 2 although i highly doubt it. I wish more of kdrama would follow american series format that renews every year, like The First Responder or Taxi. Kdrama has lots of promising and good series that can be a syndicate, like Prosecutor for Justice, GRID, The First Responder and Taxi, but they rarely go for it. It’s just too bad.

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Mediocre Plot but with satisfying ending

It’s about a former-policeman-now-bodyguard who is on a path of revenge for his best buddy’s death at the hands of a murder-for-hire. He suspected the commissioner for stopping his investigation into the death, resigned and stayed in Manila where his friend was killed to gather intel. It led him to Hwain Corporation when he was following a lead and inadvertently rescued the director for Now Foundation, a subsidiary of Hwain. He then secured a job as bodyguard to the director and started to poke his nose into the power struggle in the chaebol family which unravel twists that he never imagined, capturing the director’s heart in the process.

Maybe I had my bar too high after watching Blood Free, this show somehow fell short to become an utter disappointment to me. Although the outline of the story is the same - enforcer turn bodyguard going undercover to catch the killer of best friend, falling in love while doing so - the tension and smoothness of the story flow had not been like Blood Free, and the romance thrown into it is just too awkward for someone bearing as big a vengeance as the ML. At least the hint of romance was very vague with Blood Free, whereas it had been too quick and too obvious for Red Swan. It’s understandable if it was the FL who was quick to fall for him, after all she had been in a loveless marriage for so long, but for the ML to fall in love at first sight like he did is just too unreal to digest. I also failed to feel the spark between them.

I also thought the FL looked too old compared to ML, maybe thats why i couldnt feel the spark? I know Rain isnt that young, but the FL just looked much older than him. I couldnt figure out what age the roles are supposed to be, but my guess would be late 30s early 40s maybe? Well out of curiosity I looked up the casts, no wonder she looked old, she was indeed older than ML and SML.

The fight choreography is top notch tho. I like how characters dont recover so fast from injuries like in most shows.

If youre not too into romance, this might not be for you. the romantic scenes made me cringe. I wanted to see the action, not longing stares between the leads, awkward hugs and cringy conversations.

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Action packed with a rollercoaster of laughters and tears

The show is about a top assassin, Ren Xin, who had been framed and imprisoned of killing the empress of An kingdom, who happen to be her benefactor. She had to escape prison, fake her death, change her name to Ren Ruyi, and later reinfiltrated the An kingdom’s spy organization’s branch located in a rival kingdom to track down the mastermind behind the empress’s murder and avenge her. With a twist of fate, she encountered the head of spy organization of the rival country, Ning Yuanzhou, and striked a deal with him, tagging along with the envoy entourage to her own country to teach the envoy in return for NYZ gathering intel to help her get her revenge. Many things happened along the way, and she started forming a bond with the members of the spy agency in the entourage, and a special liking towards NYZ.

I like it how the show had a solid premise, good storyline and they executed it in perfect gracefulness and rather fast paced too. Although it started out in a serious and intense premise, they manage to blend goofy scenes seamlessly within. The goofy parts were well executed and didnt looked forced, leaving me smiling or laughing throughout - definitely didnt look out of place or annoying like those in Fighting for Love. Despite the goofy scenes, they were able to execute the action and serious scenes tremendously well too. The action scenes were superb, the choreography was on point and well executed. The intimate scenes between the leads were well paced. With this show i can really feel and make sense of how they fall in love with each other despite coming from rival kingdoms, without having senselessly overbearing and cringe-worthy proximity moments like those in Ancient Love Poetry.

The only show ive ever seen Liu Shishi in was Scarlet Heart, although she acted well in it, i felt that her face didnt really suit to be in ancient drama, cuz i thought she looked too modern. I changed my mind when i saw this show. Maybe its due to hairdo, costume, age or makeup, but she looked perfect in AJTL as a retired top assassin on a mission to avenge the death of the closest person to her. Now this character Ren Xin/Ren Ruyi is one of my favourite FLs of all tv shows I’ve seen so far, the writers wrote her really well with almost no flaw at all. She is strong, quick-witted, resourceful, brave, resolute and capable with a sound and collected mind despite facing conflicts of interest. Basically she is the badass of all badasses of the mortal world, while Shen Li from Legend of Shen Li wins that spot for the fairy fantasy category. Although ML being the understanding other half, contributed too. I liked A Mai from Fighting for Love too, but the writers slightly botched it with poor decision-making when in comes to love in the earlier part of the show. Ren Ruyi did not suffer from this. I guess I had to give it off to the the writers for not messing up. FL was constantly with a sound mind and not the type who would get emotional. Although she did went berserk quite a bit when the red uniform guards killed her adoptive mom, and ML ended up knocking her unconscious to stop her. But hey, even a flawless character had to have some flaw or else theyd be inhumans.

My most favourite character of the whole show is Yu Shisan, one of the spies in the envoy entourage. He’s easily the most handsome of the spy group, he’s not shy to flaunt it too as he is proud to be known as the shameless, flirty playboy who has a way with girls. He was extremely popular and admired by female inmates and workers in the prison (he was imprisoned for kidnapping a noble’s daughter) because he loves to do make up on them (and obviously because he flirts with them) before ML picked him up to join the entourage mission. He’s the goofiest person in the group, most of the goofy scenes are caused by him, but also the closest to ML, being a good listener and confidant to ML, especially with regards to dealing with FL. ML also revealed to Yu Shisan of how bad his condition was before the final showdown of the emperor rescue, and entrusted Yu Shisan to take the rest of the troop to safety if ML couldnt make it. And I totally ship him and Chu Yue. Theyre the cutest not-yet-a-couple ever!

Princess Yang Ying is probably the character with the most progress. She started off as an extremely timid, weak with zero self confidence, unfavored princess of the late emperor, born in the cold palace and looked down even by the palace maids, let alone the rest of the harem,but later grew into a full fledged ambitious, capable, confident, resourceful and quick-witted princess aiming for the throne. She is the youngest sister of the current emperor, who was lovesick with the only palace guard who showed her kindness thus willing to do anything to marry him. When her brother the emperor was taken hostage by Emperor of An kingdom, she volunteered to be the envoy to deliver the ransom in return for her to be granted fiefdom and ability to choose her own husband. Because one of the conditions of ransom is it must be delivered by a prince, she had to disguise as one and learn everything a prince should know during the trip. She was slow at learning at first, but the moment ML, as the head of security of the entourage, changed her tutor to FL, she made great progress in terms of learning capability and the building of her character as a pompous and snobbish prince with ample political & court knowledge. I must commend the actress, she definitely nailed it as a male impersonator. Although she looked soft and delicate as a princess, she also managed to pull off the look of a snobbish yet graceful teenage prince and as time passes, i no longer see her as a girl. This is the second character after Fighting for Love’s FL that I ever saw able to pull off as a male impersonator, and she did it perfectly well without even having to try too hard to act as a tough boy. I’m glad they didnt forget to bind her chest, i hate it when characters are portrayed to be disguising as a male and yet the chest totally gives them away, and lets not even get into the girly voice and acts. Fortunately, those cringy parts that give away male impersonation are nonexistent in this show. Well done!

Another interesting character is Qian Zhao, one of the spies with medical expertise. He’s literally the medic for the entourage. He is very quiet and reserved, only speaking when necessary, but in fact is very stubborn and steadfast in his decisions. Nobody could stop him when he set his mind to kill FL when he found out she was a spy from An, and everybody had a hard time persuading him against seeking revenge from Emperor Wu for his reckless decision of going to war with misleading intel and information which resulted in high war casualties. The only thing stopping him from finishing the emperor off was the flare signal from nearby fortress indicating that they were under attack. Even ML admitted in the end that he had everyone else figured out but Qian Zhao.

All in all i think the whole production team did a tremendously great job with this show. I really couldnt find any other loopholes other than the hand injury of Deng Hui that went missing the next day after his hand was stabbed by Emperor An. The make up artist and director must have forgotten the script. Anyway, I wonder who wronged the writer team so badly for them to come up with such a huge massacre of characters. It saddens me but the show was so good I cant seem to hate it for making me cry with each episode after Ep34. For a show that is laden with goofy scenes all over, i was so not ready for the last 6 episodes that are pretty tragic and tearjerker. Boy sometimes I hate this show for being so damn good at bringing laughter and tears to its viewers.

If youre like me who love shows with strong leads, action packed with non-domineeringly sweet and non-cringy love story, and do not mind a tragic-possible-emotional-damage-inducing ending, then this might be for you. If youre all that but cant handle super tragic ending, well, maybe stop watching at Episode 34, 35 is where the massacre starts. But if u want closure to all power struggles, then stop at 38. I just cant wrap it around my head why didnt they just end the show with 38. It was actually perfect. Somehow they just had to drag in more episode just to break our hearts. 😭

Despite hating the ending, I just cant seem to strike off a star from my 10 rating. The show was THAT good!

I am currently rewatching the show and realized ML’s near death situation on Ep 20 and his ultimate exit on Ep40 were both due to saving that brat I dont want to mention. The first time because that brat recklessly went for the leader of the assassins despite his mediocre (in my eyes) martial skills, and the second time when he again, stupidly went into the enemy’s camp ALONE to supposedly kill/capture the marshall. The first time, ML saved him because he was An emperor’s envoy keen for peace between the two kingdoms hence they needed his support, and the second time because he was An kingdom’s regent. Well, the second time was because he didnt want FL to go on the suicide rescue mission, and because he knew how much that brat meant to FL. This sorry piece of sh!t, gosh i hate him so much that I didnt want to even mention him when i wrote this review the first time because i didnt want to reveal spoilers, but when i am rewatching right now, damn i just had to say this at least once. Okay finish rant!

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Fighting for the right cause with a huge price

I was attracted to Love in Pavilion without knowing anything of the Fox Spirit Matchmaker universe, solely due to Liu Shishi after her superb performance in A Journey to Love. Although she hasnt climbed into my favourite actress list yet to stand alongside Zhao Liying, she definitely left a mark in my mind.

The story is really engaging from start to finish without much boring scene. The opening scene of the masked group joining hands with the Dongfang sisters to fight off demons already ignited enough spark to keep me watching. Then the clash at the Nan Gong household only fuels the fire even more.

They didnt leave us the audience to lament in sorrow much after our main leads started to fall out due to FL Dongfang Huaizhu’s distaste of political strategic manoevres by ML Wangquan Hongye, as they pitched in the ‘back to the future’ arc as ML went to rescue FL 20years in the future. Then came the Beast Kingdom part where they started to get lovey dovey and then the showdown in Tushan & Beyond the Boundary. Real fast paced despite being a show about love stories.

Although I fast forwarded much of romance scene of the other side couple (but not enough to miss the whole of their own love story), basically I get the gist that this is a show that lays out multiple love stories around the main leads. Some unrequited and many managed to get reciprocated although all met with a tragic ending.

Basically this is one of the superhero story of how huge power comes with huge responsibility and may cost you your whole life.

Liu Shishi is gorgeous as ever, of course, i think she ages like wine. She looked better in ancient costume now compared to the one I saw when she was younger. Her talent is unquestionable, she carries her character well as the gentle and aloof but strict Dongfang Huaizhu, then a 180deg turn as the evil and scheming Left Guardian Huaizhu of Sky City 20 years in the future. Her romance scenes are all on point except for the kissing part cuz she looked rather stiff. But romance and sad scene are definitely her forte!

I am not familiar with the actor playing ML, but I just thought he looked weird and too pale here. Do they purposely do his make up to look like a vampire? He looked so pale and gaunt. But putting aside his looks, his acting is equally superb with Liu Shishi’s, especially the sad scenes. Simply powerful. But to be honest I kinda prefered if the one who played Zhang Zheng to cast as ML instead. He had the looks of handsome, decisive and scheming person. 😬

The songs are so pleasing and brilliant, especially the opening OST Divine Fire by Yang Bing Yin, oh gosh so beautifully done. I have a playlist costume drama OST that I listen to when I run, and realized that most of the songs here mostly sung by Yang Bing Yin, Zhou Shen, Sa Ding Ding, Liu Yuning and Zhang Bichen. I guess my ears also have a preference. So yeah I’m adding Divine Fire to this playlist next. The slow songs for romantic scenes are equally great, although I wouldn’t add them as I am not into slow type of songs.

This is the third show I’ve seen with Liu Shishi as the FL, somehow it makes me wonder if she has the tendency to pick stories with tragic ending? 😆 but honestly, i must thank the super traumatic character massacre of A Journey to Love for hardening me to face tragic endings in other shows. They don’t affect me much anymore after I cried buckets for A Journey to Love.

All in all, if you hate sad endings and can’t handle them, then avoid the Fox Spirit Matchmaker series (3 in total - Love in Pavilion, Sword and Beloved and Red Moon Pact) at all cost. But if you love the actions and can handle tragic endings fine, then hell yeah you can definitely binge this! This is definitely one of the best productions of 2025.

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I cant get over the last arc at the Beyond the Boundary. It’s totally the others’ fault that they still follow ML even as he already left them to go alone into the Boundary despite knowing their future. i mean, at least ML tried to change something by leaving them behind. And the fact that they didn’t help much other than making things worse for ML is even more frustrating. Their fights didnt weaken the Black Fox, in fact only feeds its power as their hatred after seeing their beloved getting killed is absorbed by Black Fox. More importantly had Yang Yitan remained behind, Black Fox wouldnt have known all ML’s moves in advance and ML’s shield wouldnt have been broken.

The Black Fox only started to engage and absorb the Grief Tree in Tushan’s power (at which point FL can start to purify the tree, thus weakening Black Fox) after ML started to go crazy when his sister was killed and seeing all the others dead. This wouldnt have happened if they had stayed behind as per ML’s original plan. I believe if ML hadnt been distracted and his mental strength weakened after seeing their deaths, he wouldnt have been controlled so easily by the Black Fox to kill himself. After all, all she did to convince ML to kill himself was by blaming the others’ death on him. So yeah, i think the real reason why ML’s life was ripped to shreds was due to the other Masked Group members who recklessly and stupidly follow him across the Boundary.

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A show with mixed vibe

The show starts off with FL, Maisui, trying to find her adopted brother, Chen Qi, who killed her whole family back when she was barely 10yo. Her journey was entangled with many people of interests, mainly the ML, adopted son of Marquis Dingnan Shang Yizhi, who was actually son of the previous Crown Prince, and SML, a general of noble birth of a rival kingdom Chang Yuqing. She drafted into the army to search for the real mastermind behind her family’s extermination, inadvertantly rising to power from a mere foot soldier to the marshall of an army.

This show has a very good storyline, as badly of an adaptation as it is, the only drawback is how badly the characters are written except for FLOkay they kinda messed up FL a little bit too but it’s acceptable. Compared to the book, they totally dumbed down ML from a proficient yet extremely ruthless and shrewd military officer who is also renowned for his excellent archery skills, to a basic puppet general who is madly in love and with no skills at all, how frustrating. But the biggest flunk of this adaptation piece is probably how they turned the show into ML’s story instead of FL’s as written in the novel, and changed the ML from Chang Yuqing to Shang Yizhi. Although the main character is Maisui throughout the novel, there are definitely more significant encounters of her with Chang Yuqing, more romance and grudge between them, but more importantly, the story shouldve been about Maisui and Chang Yuqing instead of Maisui and Shang Yizhi. Shang Yizhi is like the third wheeler in the novel, he got much lesser mention in the novel and definitely not a focus of the whole story.

Book aside, I’m actually impressed that it has the most convincing male impersonation by the FL. She was beautiful when dressed as a woman, but also manly as a man. She looks rough like a boy, she acts rough like a boy, she has a deep voice, and she doesnt have even a tinge of girlish trace on her when she was dressed like a man. Her complexion is even more tanned (indicating that she had had a hard life) than ML and SML (i commend the make up artist). Had she had a bigger body build, she wouldve passed 100% as a man and no one wouldve guessed she could be a female. When she was training in the army, she did everything everyone else does with no exception. She could wield the sword very well too and didnt look like it was flailed around her. However, in the book, she was supposed to be 1.7m, which would make her height not much difference from an average man. But in the adaptation, she was easily the shortest and smallest one around.

The only thing I dislike about this character is how easily she had fallen for ML. She initiated the first kiss (on the lips mind you!) and it happened out of nowhere! Like come on! There’s no spark and she suddenly falls in love? They barely have any chemistry too! Because they wrote ML to be this foolish stupid brat who never grow up despite his hardship (because he always has backup in the right places), and FL being the matured woman who grew up on the streets with wit and intelligence, both of them looked more like siblings instead of lovers, FL being the elder sister and ML the stupid younger brother. It’s so damn cringy each time they hug or kiss. Despite her shortcoming, I think she was the most pitiful character, as well as Chen Qi. Theyre merely the victims of court politics and selfish emperors.

FYI in the book, the first kiss was with Chang Yuqing, initiated by FL, but as a guise for her to escape from Chang Yuqing’s mansion when she was taken prisoner. I really cant get over the fact that they decided to change the ML from CYQ to SHZ. CYQ is obviously much more interesting of a character than SYZ!

Other important characters they didnt botch are Princess Shenghua (ML’s adopted mom and real aunt), General Tang and Mr Xu. They remained consistent throughout, although Princess Shenghua changed a bit from a loving innocent looking woman to a scheming one. But I still like this character because she is among the sound of reason around ML.

On to my most cringey character, the ML. He must have been the most useless and weakest ML I’ve ever seen. He has absolutely no strong points at all, other than being kind hearted. It’s a total contrast to the Shang Yizhi depicted in the novel. He’s also too madly in love with FL that he would disregard a whole army’s lives just to save FL in situations that FL wouldve survived on her own, a total contrast to the book SYZ who would even sacrifice FL on the battleground for his own victory, that’s how big a shrewd he is. The book SYZ is so ruthless that he punished FL to be whipped 200times just because she was late to muster, because she drank wine with Tang Shaoyi the night before, and this happened when SYZ is already interested in FL, as he knew she was a woman very early on. Meanwhile, The adaptation SYZ has no deduction, analytical nor strategical skills and boasted to be extremely kind-hearted and soft. This version of SYZ could only survive as a puppet general just because he had FL and Mr Xu as his strategists, Lieutenant (later general) Tang Shaoyi for his muscle, and they do all his thinking and actions for him. Had he not have these people, he wouldnt survive a minute into a battle. Heck, he wouldve been dead before he could even assume the role at all. I am quite disappointed at how badly this character is written, because he had many chances to grow up and mature but it seemed that he never did. The book SYZ is a million times more interesting than this one. In the show, He was stupid, reckless and short-sighted as a bratty son of a noble family, and he was still the same as a Marshall of a huge army and even after becoming an emperor. It’s pathetic that even as emperor he still looks at Mr Xu asking what he should do to save FL’s life when she was set up by the ministers. What a loser, still clueless and stupid even after spending all those years on the battlefield with the brightest minds of the kingdom. And that naughty comedic tune whenever he was fooling around with FL is so annoying that I can never take this character seriously. His fake laugh also makes him sound stupid and foolish too. He drastically changed into a selfish and an evilly scheming man in the end which made me loath him even more. Now that is one similarity that they manage to capture the same as the novel. The book SYZ is as selfish and ruthless as the adaptation SYZ after he became an emperor. They are both greedy to cage FL in the palace as concubine, and theyre both scheming and shrewd who caused the demise of FL’s important people.

As for the emperor, I have Never seen an emperor so eager to kill his leading generals in the midst of a war with neighbouring country. Like seriously? He’s killing them left and right with no reason but fear of revolt. He would rather lose people whom he could rely on to defend and strengthen his empire as long as he can quench his thirst for absolute power with no contention. He was so messed up in the head that he doesnt even remember why he ordered for FL’s father to killed, a leading general of his too. All he knew was, “What if he pointed his sword at me? How will I defend myself,” I really wonder how does he think he can protect the throne from rival country forces when he has no capable generals to ward them off his land? Fear has ruled his world and messed up his head. The way they portray this character is also messy. Never seen an emperor so haggard and and beggarish looking like this one. He was distraught all the time and never looked like he can run a country. No wonder his sons are out of control and his court is in chaos with ministers scheming and stabbing each other.

The final 5 episodes are so boring, mainly on palace political scheming and harem jealousy. I like it how FL never dressed up as a girl even after she was forcefully created as Imperial Consort, even when ML summons her to see him in the palace.

Loved the final episode. Its a perfect ending. Glad they stayed true to the book for the ending. And it’s nice to see her wear her hair as a girl and no longer had to disguise as a man. But I’m still striking a star off for making the story deviate from the novel. The novel storyline is so much much better.

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One of the best shows out there

I had to admit Zhang Ziyi was the main reason why I clicked this title. I thought she’d play a great empress or wife of a seasoned general. Was taken aback when she came up in 1st episode playing a teenager(15/16yo i think) instead. Wth? She looked like she could be the wife of the father! How ridiculous. And they didnt even put much effort in make up to have her look like a teenager. She looked bare faced throughout, although I admire her beauty, it’s definitely the beauty of a matured woman. I could accept if her role had been a princess in her 30s, but come on, to have 39yo to play a teenager/young adult role is pretty hilarious. She looked as old as the rest of the cast who plays the ministers and their consorts 🤦🏻‍♀️

However, I stuck through the show because it had a good storyline. She’s a talented actress, of course she could pull through despite the obvious seasoned look. I must say that this series is really fast paced, there are no wasted pointless scenes, and I can’t seem to put down the screen. One episode seduces me to continue to another and I feel bad when I had to put the screen down so my life wont be halted. I even brought the phone into the bathroom to watch while doing no 2 and bathing, finished bingeing all 68 episodes in 4 days!

Now this is the real palace conspiracy and politics is all about, it kept the audience on edge with one intense episode after another. I truly admire FL and ML. ML, although not handsome with rather big nose which bothered me during the earlier episodes, had me charmed with his outstanding performance. He looked perfect as the boorish man from a poor family background who spends his whole life on the battleground. He’s not flawlessly handsome with boyish look like the typical ML, he’s not ‘mad’ madly in love like any typical ML (and yet we can still feel his ultimate love for FL), and he carries the countenance of a courageous intelligent general and strategist really well. I like ML’s look with the goatie in the final parts though. He looked so much more handsome this way. I never liked men with face hair but he’s one of those men who looked extremely handsome with them.

This show is so good it even has one of the most intense, believable and astonishing battle scenes that I’ve seen on screen. My heart was pounding throughout the battle as I was anxious to see what would happen next. And whats more important is that they really go all out on the battle sequence, arrays, armors, heavy equipment and they don’t use CGI! Thats a pretty big WOW, right? The show really exudes magnificence and grandeur in every detail. I’m not sure how accurate to the book this show is, but I’m glad I didnt read the book beforehand else it wouldve ruinned the suspense.

Im just frustrated that in every scene of them reuniting, there are no touching moments. They just look at each other longingly and then the next scene came up where everyone’s safe. So frustrating. But honestly this is one of the best shows ive seen so far. Although I wouldnt rewatch the entire show, I definitely would rewatch some real good episodes. I am actually rewatching episodes with the main casts and battle scenes.

The only thing I dislike about this show is the fact that almost every other male character who is supposedly around the same age as FL’s character, and not related to her immediate family, seem to fall head over heels for her. Come on, they even made the supporting character to fall in love with her too! One of my pet peeves on dramas like this is when the FL seem to be the love interest of every other male characters, and they all obssess over her. Come on, so she’s a beauty, but to be the centre of everyone? So cliche!

Oh and I agree with other reviewers that the title doesnt really reflect on the story. Definitely not a Rebel Princess, FL was like one of the most obedient ones out there. Intelligent, yes, rebel, definitely a no. I guess they chose that title to make it intriguing. At least I clicked because of the title, then after reading the synopsis only knew that ZZY was in the lead casts. The story did not disappoint of course. One of the must watch shows out there and I would definitely recommend to people.

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Pretty sad love story

I had just finished Legend of Shen Li, and was curious about Lin Geng Xin’s performance in Scarlet Heart as people had been writing good things about it. I have been putting this off for quite a while (actually ever since I finished Princess Agents in 2020) because I am not fond of palace drama, but i decided to give it a go after his stellar performance in LoSL.

Oh well, I was right all along, palace love drama is just not my thing. It was an ordeal to get through the episodes, they were so draggy with longwinded love triangles and political conspiracy drama(well its more to a picky father who is constantly angry at his sons, and of a brother who is constantly suspicious and angry at his brothers, a vast contrast from the true palace political drama like Joy of Life etc), especially when i dislike the ultimate love interest of the FL. The only consolation is seeing the development of 14th Prince friendship with FL even though I knew it had never been about love. Its her friendship with the princes that was beautiful, although I have always wondered how come such energetic and interesting character didnt have a single friend among the princesses. But hey I’m fine with that because if they were to add princess characters then the show might have to drag the episodes out over 50 to include more female drama. Still didnt stop me from wondering.

Anyway, I think it’s quite boring with FL’s inner battles and constant love conflicts. The brotherly love of the princes towards her is super sweet though, and that was among the things that kept me going. As I said, the genre isnt my cup of tea as I am more of wuxia/xianxia/action fan with strong FL characters who are not damsels in distress.

I dislike the ML right from the start, though, even when I didnt know he was the ML. I think Nicky Wu doesnt look good as a half bald man with pigtail, he looks weird and extremely unapealing. All the other princes look waaaaaay better than him and more handsome. As the show progressed, I fail to see any spark between FL and ML even as they were developing feelings for each other. It looked much too sudden that the FL would shift her love interest to the least caring prince among all, especially when she knew he would become the emperor which would mean a whole life of her tip-toeing around the volatile figure. Maybe it is just me, I just couldn’t see the the chemistry and explanation of how she would suddenly fall in love with him, especially when he forced himself on her the first time. Just because she didnt want to become Crown Prince’s consort so she suddenly asks to marry 4th prince? Damn thats too weak of a turning point.

I kinda gotten tired of how she would cry at everything too. She cries when she’s happy, she cries when she’s afraid and she obviously cries when she’s sad. She also has this one kind of expression on her face and that is what she wore throughout the show. I am not fond of her looks too, but hey, it kinda grows on you as the show goes on. It still didnt stop me from fast forwarding all those draggy love scenes though, especially the love scenes between the two (those after ML ascended the throne are even more cringier than others, thank god they were not many), I honestly enjoyed the arch on the 8th prince and 10th prince with their consorts and 13th prince with his mistress. Those felt more genuine than the main love story. 8th Prince story was the most devastating while 10th prince was the only one with a happy ending.

Even though I got tired of FL crying, I must admit there are scenes that moved me, like the one of her begging for 13th prince, the pure friendship turmoil between the princes and FL, and the one where she begged for 8th prince to divorce her sister who was in the verge of death. So much unrequited love in this show, it’s so tiring to feel for every one of them. They were all pitiful. Oh I think the one playing Ma’ertai Roulan is the most beautiful of all, she had the perfect look for ancient costume. Her character’s love story is so pitiful I couldnt help but feel her pain.

Despite the boring storyline and the excessive crying of the FL, one thing I really commend this show is how closely accurate to the history this show was. Between the plot of 4th prince usurping the throne and the emperor passing it to him, of course they would have to choose the more conflicting plot. The cast did a stellar job. And I’m soooo glad it had been only 35 episodes to endure compared to more than 50 episodes of other palace shows out there. Wished it was less. The first 10 episodes were soooo dragy it was such a pain to go through. But the last 5 episodes were golddddd! I never expected the surprise in Ep 33. 14th prince definitely became the star role in the last 3 episodes, he was practically the knight in shining armour whisking the maiden away to safety. No wonder people had been praising of LGX’s performance here. Before watching, I thought his role was a passing small role with little significance, which was also one of the reasons I kept putting off to watch the show.

I think the ending never bothered me because I never shipped the MC love story. It was an apt ending for both and everyone involved. Am so glad she died in 14th prince arms instead. The bosom childhood friend that she used to quarrel with and afraid of, but in the end became her saviour from the Forbidden City prison.

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Strong FL and ML but too many plotholes

When I watched the first episode, i felt that it was really promising, with the FL as a modern soldier turned bodyguard leading a group of biologist in a forest looking for specimens.they were attacked by a giant serpent and while protecting the group, she fell into a cavern or some sort. As the FL was looking for a way out, she stumbled upon a dagger which transmigrated her to ancient time Longyuan Continent after she unsheathed it. The girl FL woke up in was an illegitimate daughter of the chancellor of Tianque, who had been mistreated all her life growing up in the mansion as her mom the concubine died early when she was a young. The story followed FL’s journey to find a way to return to her time, while at the same time standing up for herself in the family who had mistreated her. Turned out she had a body that is immune to all kinds of poisons, and the 4th prince -the ML- her evil sister was aiming for had taken a liking at the FL during the consort candidate lineup, and chosen her as the princess consort instead of the original arrangement by the emperor for him to be with FL’s sister.

As princess consort, the FL had to keep dodging bullets thrown at her by her own family, the royal family and others who looked down upon her, while trying to find a way back to her time. She was also thrown into the royal political turmoil surrounding the ML while at the same time finding herself falling in love with him.

I liked the FL in the earlier parts of the show cuz she’s good at the portrayal as an arrogant,confident and self-reliant young lady, the personality that is apt for a soldier and bodyguard of modern time. She’s also very beautiful and pleasing to the eye. However as the story progresses, i found her to be rather stiff and wooden in intimate and romance scenes. She liked to put up a puzzled/clueless face in such scenes, and she’s really bad at sad scenes too. The emotion just didnt come through. Also, she’s just too mischievous and lively as princess consort compared to the serious persona she had in the first episode as a weapon wielding soldier. The contrast is just too big. I would expect her demeanor should be closer to Ren Xin’s in A Journey to Love as she was member of the armed forces before transmigrating. Maybe the writer forgot that she was a transmigrator rather than a native of the ancient time.

The number of times FL got kidnapped and captured hence tortured by ML’s and her enemies is also ridiculous to the point of being comical. It just seemed like FL’s superpower is getting kidnapped and captured repeatedly right up towards the end. How can a modern special force get so bad at defending herself all while posessing superb ancient ability like sword wielding, cultivating inner power and qinggong, archery and horse riding? It became comical because these ancient abilities had nothing to do with her special forces training or even the ability of the original owner of the ancient FL’s body. 😂 she just automatically became good at everything after transmigrating. Funnier even that she became good at everything and yet still need to be saved by ML over and over again. Gosh the plot repeats so much that I literally rolled my eyes and laughed. One thing i was grateful is that they did not use the common and ever so popular “got injured, in a coma, woken up with an amnesia” plot.

As for the ML, i thought he looked too old to portray a 20yo+, and isnt as handsome as most ML of other shows that i’ve seen. But one thing i had to admit, he looked very masculine and manly befitting the role as a prince who rose to power by his achievements on the battlefield. He basically volunteered to go to war at 14yo just to escape the awful life he had in the palace. The actor grew into me just like The Rebel Princess’ General Xiao Qi who didnt give much impression in earlier episodes but grew into the audience as the story progresses. The ML’s emotional expressions in all of his scenes came through unlike the wooden FL. The way he looked at FL also looked convincing, in the beginning when he was intrigued by her origins, and later as a longing lover. The happiness, sadness, anger, crazy, basically everything was executed perfectly well, as opposed to the FL who would always looked confused/clueless even when she was supposed to be looking into the eyes of the love of her life.

The show also had a ridiculous amount of flashback scenes which some can be repetitive too! Omg, i fast-forwarded so much of those. They also love to do slowmos which i ff too. What a waste of time. I guess thats why i manage to finish everything in under 3days. There’s many unnecessary scenes which are lengthy! I didnt like the scenes with second ML so i ff most of them too.

Other casts arent impressive too, many had to work harder. The supporting ML looked so awkward around FL and some of the other casts overact. I also fail to understand the plot about finding music scores to discover the origin of ancient FL. And it is also funny that the distance between kingdoms looked so close that they can move from one capital to another in a matter of a short time like they just went through a portal or something. Gosh so many plotholes and the plots are predictable too! The ending is also too stereotypical for time travel genre.

However all in all it is an enjoyable show. Both the FL and ML are likable and they looked good for each other. I could feel the attraction between the two. The storyline on the other hand, needed better writing. I understand that it was a novel adaptation, so it is acceptable that the plot might have been cramped to fit into 40 episodes.

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Smashing medical drama

This title is definitely smashing as medical drama, especially when they centre it around unpopular field - pain management and contraversial euthenasia. Such a fresh and rare aspect of the medical field.

I love every single part of the medical department, but abhorrr the romance department. At first i couldnt quite like the FL, kang si young, because she was such a crybaby and damn too clingy. And then i hated ML towards the end because of how he left FL hanging without so much of a word. Didn’t even finish watching the last episode cuz it’s too cringy for my liking.

I also think the ML is a coward when it comes to romance. it is always FL who is chasing after him, and even towards the end, he wouldnt speak his mind about his feelings for the FL without some nudging by others. What a lame guy. Dont know how many times did I roll my eyes at those scenes and end up fast forwarding them. Btw if it were me, I wouldve never gotten back to ML . Somebody who makes decisions about the relationship without even considering the other party’s views, even if he thought it was for her own good, is not fit for a relationship. Guess he expects his other half to just read his mind and be understanding and just agree with whatever decision he makes about their relationship. 🙄 So yeah. Hated every part of the romance scenes, i fast forwarded most of it especially those of the side couples. I’ve had my fill cuz i was only watching for the intense medical parts and not the cheesy romance.

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Fun enough to keep me watching

The plot is very light and comedic, mainly revolves around the building of relationship between the Crown Prince and Hua Liuli, amidst the lingering espionage from neighbouring warring country. Hua Liuli is a daughter of prominent general of the nation and had been crowned as princess for her parents’ military contributions, and invited to live in the capital, where in reality she was actually held as political hostage because the emperor was wary of how big an influence both her parents wield as mighty generals and worry that they might steal the throne with their huge army. Upon her arrival at the capital, she acted like a weak, sickly maiden to avoid people (especially the emperor) from getting wary of her, where in reality she was quick witted and very good in martial art.

The palace drama in the harem and the political conspiracy is minimal with ridiculously comedic kind of vibe so they tend to look stupid.

I didnt like how the ML (crown prince) look. He looked like a gaunt porcelain statue whose face been dabbed with too much fair coloured foundations and he had very weird face expressions. He tried too hard to look like a calculative, evil, indifferent crown prince. I think FL did okay although the part she acted as a sickly maiden is rather exaggerated (not sure if they intend to do it this way as it is a comedy). The acting is mediocre and they include so many awkward moments of proximity between the ML and FL which I failed to find the spark. I find them pretty lame.

The costume is sooooo over the top with ridiculous-looking dangling hair accessories and ugly flowy dress. Colour combination of the female dresses are botched too. The female’s makeup looks weird too as they put the blusher around the eyes instead of cheeks, and they drew the eyebrow wayyy across the temple.

I just realized everytime they want to portray a character of being sick, it’s always with the slight fake coughing. It’s like even when the character says,”i have a headache/stomach ache,” they would always cough. It’s so annoying.

The first kiss being on the forehead is pretty sweet though. I’m getting sick of lip-kissing between two yet-to-profess-their-love persons. It’s unrealistic in the ancient society that doesn’t even let females and males to mingle freely.

Towards the end the FL became rather stupid though, the plot also became rather ridiculous. So there’s a revolt going to happen and they know when the rebels will take action, one wouldve thought they had prepared backup properly. But nooooo, they had to make it dramatic by going about on how Liuli was going to mobilize the whole Hua army from outside the capital to storm into the palace as backup. Even funnier thing is that the emperor also knows about the plot and feigned sickness, and only came out when the mastermind revealed herself. Interestingly, the emperor conveniently forgets that a band of murderous assassins are pursuing his Crown Prince outside the palace while he was having a chat with the mastermind. I wouldve thought it’d be a brilliant plan by the scheming Crown Prince or even the quickwitted Liuli. It was big disappointment instead.

The show ended with a wedding of course.

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Truly a masterpiece!

I just cant move on from this drama. Everyone did a great job in it, even the small roles!

I read the novel first and thought that it was a total masterpiece despite not really into BL. I was actually reluctant to start watching this because the novel had excessively explicit sexual scenes. I didnt have much impression of Wang YiBo and XiaoZhan as I dont really know them and havent watched any of them on screen before The Untamed. I was actually curious when people keep talking about how great their friendship was when it's clear the novel had them hooked up as lovers. To be honest I was skeptical and delayed watching because I was preparing for the worst. However the drama proved me wrong as they manage to stay truthful to the novel despite a few changes to show bromance instead, which I truly adore! It's definitely different from typical love story like the other wuxia dramas that I've watched. There's no silly female characters chasing after the male leads, I hate it when they flock around male leads like leeches. And I dont care how much other people keep saying that they have BL element in this, I personally see those scenes as bromance!

I especially LOVE the sibling relationship between Jiang Cheng, Jiang YanLi and Wei WuXian. The pain suffered by WWX and JC when JYL died was so heartbreaking and I cried each time. In fact, I actually like the drama more than the novel, especially the scene where WWX broke down after JYL's death. I love the ending too!

Watched the special edition twice to relive the memorable moments after I finished with the full version, watched the anime version (up tp season 2) too, and still cant get over this. Watched behind the scenes shots and was surprised WYB was actually more goofy than XZ. It takes considerable talent to play the cold stoney Lan Zhan with someone of that character, and my hats off to all of the cast to be able to make the characters real. It was indeed really hard for me to move on from this story.

This is indeed one of the best cdrama I've ever watched. My only regret was not watching it much earlier!

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A redemption for Princess Agent fans

This is like another journey back to Eternal Love days. It’s about a spirit who is also the God of War in her realm, who falls in love with a human during her short stint of falling in the mortal realm. This human, however, turned out to be an ancient god who decided to experience mortality due to boredom. Because of his status as the only ancient god left to govern the world, he could not reciprocate her love, and she, being the main general of her realm, understood that they were just not meant to be. Well, turned out she understood and willing to forget her love, but the ancient god had a hard time of letting her go. Things happened, and their fates got entangled even more.

Honestly I did not have much high hopes on this series when I first saw its trailers. They looked over the top and ML looked silly because they featured Xing Yun. I thought it was going to be strong FL with weak ML (didnt read any synopsis before it was aired).

Another doubt that I had was because of Lin Geng Xin. I tried watching his other works after his superb performance in Princess Agent but I was met with disappointment. Didnt finish Zhao Yun God of War because he was so bad in it. So I had my doubt when I heard about LoSL. It was a mixed feeling because I really love his character as Yuwen Yue in PA but he fell short in his other tv series. Amazingly it turned out he did really well as an ancient god. I thought I wont see any better performance of a god after seeing Vengo Gao in Pillow Book (forgot the official tv title), but amazingly Lin Geng Xin managed to surpass my expectation.

Most xianxia shows that I watched mostly had sad/open endings which is obviously less than satisfying, mostly frustrating (still cant get over the traumatic ending of Princess Agents, cuz the book had such a lovely ending!). Many claim to be adapted from novels and yet they really love to deviate from it. I finished reading the Yu Feng Xing novel and am happy that it had a happy ending, but then I didnt know if the tv series would be faithful to it, which kept me on edge as I watched the show.

And as the story progressed, I was quite happy that they try to stay on track with the book. Only minor deviations/add on like the scenes of You Lan and Fu Rong Jun, and the ending scenes with Jin Niang, which didnt happen in the book. You Lan actually got more screen time than the author wrote her on the book.

The good:

- no contradicting personality of any of the characters. The general acted like a general, the pauper like a pauper, the king as kings, the diety as dieties and so on. There’s no strong FL but with damsel in distress attitude when around ML, no clumsy trying to act cute scenes, no immature/ridiculous actions etc.

- There are no silly misunderstandings, stupid jealousy, ridiculous confusions around the love relationships. FL is clear about her stand on this topic, and she stayed true towards the end.

- Actors display superb performance, I couldnt really find any flaw with any of them.

- Costume is super gorgeous and not overly extravagant. I especially love love love costumes of the generals here. So smart looking and yet not overly done.

- Music is sooooo breathtaking and easy to catch on.

- storyline is easy to follow hence not many loopholes to pick on. However, this also means that the story is much too simple and straighforward.

- I really love that they decided to do the last episode. It was a bonus because it didnt happen in the book. This one episode is the only moment that we get to see Shen Li and Xing Zhi as a real normal lovey dovey couple with both of them acting cute with each other. It was so fulfilling. A real closure of both LoSL and PA combined.

The bad:

- there’s no real tension/conflict. Both Shen Li and Fu Rong Jun didnt like the arranged marriage so no conflict there. Both Shen Li and Xing Zhi know that theyre not meant to be together due to their respective responsibilities, so there’s no conflict there. In fact, Shen Li is more adamant about this more than Xing Zhi. At least Xing Zhi thought of living away quietly with Shen Li, but Shen Li never did. I truly enjoyed the moments when Xing Zhi was treating Shen Li’s torture injuries, I think that was the only sweet moments of them as lead general and ancient god setting their huge responsibility to the side to enjoy the brief moment with each other. There’s no love triangle either cuz Shen Li rejected Mo Fang right from the start. Her heart is set on stone and she never deviates.

- CGI is quite over the top. The earlier episodes of Shen Li as a phoenix looked cartoonish. Not seamless enough. The underwater scene is badly done too. But some of the battle scenes and the ocean freezing scene was great.

- Lack of good battle scenes with the villains because theyre just not strong enough until Feng Lai emerged. Yes even Fu Sheng was not really strong. The only memorable battle scenes of Fu Sheng was only the East Sea (eh was it the north sea, i get confused) battle which forced Shen Li to burn everything to crisp including herself. That was it. The torture scene was disappointing too. The torture by Fu Sheng and treatment by Xing Zhi was more gruesome in the book. But hey since they tried to stay true to the book with all the important details thenI’ll let this slide.

I watched the series twice back to back because I just couldnt have enough of them. Am thinking of rewatching again in near future. Basically, I’d rate this one as one of the great pieces by Zhao Liying that I’ve watched, it was hard to move on from like how i felt after watching Ten Miles Peach Blossoms and The Untamed. I actually watched this show three times.

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One of the Best!

I have been putting off this title for soo long cuz I didnt quite like Zhao Lusi in The Long Ballad and I didnt think she would make a good main lead. But she definitely proved me wrong in Love Like the Galaxy. I must admit that this show stands almost at par with The Untamed and The Rebel Princess which are in my top favourite list, and her performance here was spectacular.

The show opened up with 15yo Cheng Shaoshang - FL - finally reunited with her parents who had left her in her grandmother’s care since birth to go for war. On the way home from where her grandmother made her stay, she met with our ML the 21yo great young general Ling Buyi on the hunt for a criminal, which turned out to be FL’s grand uncle (grandma’s bro). She showed him where she suspected the man to be hiding, which was in a strawpile in front of the small hut she lived in. This is where FL caught ML’s eye. It was like love at first sight, though he had only seen her hand at that time.

When she thought her life would be better now that her parents are home, it turned out to be even worse when her tiger soldier mom could not accept the daughter that she turned out to be - illiterate, brash, full of trickery with a loose mouth of rebuttal. The mom tried to make up for those years she lost of raising and educating FL, but it made FL hate her even more due to the harsh educating method. The mom also openly favoured FL’s cousin who was well-read, gentle, and compassionate. As FL traverse her new life with a full family that she couldn’t seem to fit in, she learned to grow into a mature young lady under the wings of the empress when ML asked the emperor for her hand. ML was the last descendent of the Huo clan, which the emperor was hugely indebted to, thus had ML raised by the Empress. With FL, he too traversed his life to avenge the extermination of his clan while at the same time fighting for the woman whom he loved.

I totally totally love love love this show. I love how they are more focussed on the familial affection than romance between the main leads. Although FL had a hard time bonding with her mom, she was on an extremely good terms with her dad, her 2 brothers (1 was actually her twin), and the demure cousin. There was no sibling rivalry at all despite their 15 year-estrangement, which i totally love. Am so tired of sibling fights, bickering and getting jealous at each other all day long. Its non existence in the Cheng Household is totally heartwarming. The only tension would only come from the mom-daughter banter as FL keep stirring up trouble whenever she got criticized by her mom and bullied by other girls outside.

I totally get the FL character. Imagine the emptiness in her heart, she was abandoned as a baby by her family and left in the care of those who doesn’t love her at all. She grew up having to rely on her own self without the ability to love other people. And even when her family returned, she still found herself drowning with her mom’s constant criticisms and complaints of her shortcomings. She was drowning and eager to grab a life line, something that her parents should have provided but failed to do so, and that was why she was quick to accept her first bethrothal and then ML’s, thinking that it was her ticket to freedom.

Although I am not a fan of damsel-in-distress type of character, which the FL is, i totally love her guts. She has no physical prowess, with a body so frail that she would faint at extreme sadness or agitation, but her wit, intelligence and stubborness make up for that. Despite her gentle look, FL is extremely quick-witted, relentless and unyielding. She has no problem talking back to others with a sharp tongue in her defense, against whoever it may be. Her mom failed to appreciate her strengths, but the Empress did, and it is understandable that FL quickly allevated her as a mother figure. I was super satisfied when FL decided to stay with the Empress in isolation, leaving her home without much qualm. Back then, her mom had left her for the loyalty to the emperor, and now when she bade farewell, she said she too chose loyalty to the empress over filial piety. What a great “in your face” moment though FL had not meant it to be a revenge. I loved FL mom’s character because she is a tiger mom like me, but it is still so satisfying to see her take her own medicine. I can’t forgive her for favouring Yangyang and keep denouncing FL in public over and over again.

Leo Wu had proven his talent in The Long Ballad, so I totally know he’d definitely be able to pull off the fierce general look, and a love stricken lover. ML is basically hell bent on taking a revenge on his clan’s extermination, and is ruthless in seeking out the truth. Him being most favoured person of the emperor made him almost untouchable. Although he was busy investigating, he realized he could not miss out a chance at romance too. And so when FL’s first bethrothal was rescinded, he immediately asked for her hand in public, without even asking if she would be okay with it or not. It showed how much confidence he has in himself, and he made sure she could not refuse by shamelessly asking the emperor to do it for him, putting FL’s parents in a tight spot. ML is a resilient soul, very similar to FL, and as they get to know each other, they realized although they very much love each other, they still lost sight of accepting each other’s shortcomings, which had cost them very dearly.

This is the first show ever that I saw where the empress and the concubine got along with each other, and they are not even pretending to be just for the sake of looks. The Emperor is quirky and lovable and I totally ship them three. Their love for the ML and for each other is truly genuine and pure. And as usual, ML’s two sidekicks always get my vote of favourite goofy characters. I don’t know how they do it, but in most of military oriented shows like this, the ML always have two sidekicks with opposite characters, 1 usually serious and 1 goofy and every time, they always caught my eyes and make it to the favourite spot. Ah Qi and Ah Fei, you guys rock!

The fights are excellently choreographed, one of the best I’ve seen without the flying or superhuman sh!t, and this is also the first show that I’ve seen where people don’t vomit blood for every injury they have. In here, even as they were being hit on the abdomen repeatedly, all i see was water or saliva coming out of the mouth, and no blood. Now that is what I call realistic! It is so stupid to see injuries like sword wound or pierced by an arrow or beatings on the butt and yet they vomit blood. Duh 😒🙄 oh and the show doesn’t pull off any poisoning or amnesia trope either. 👍🏼

All in all, the screenplay is so damn good. It is 56 episode long, but it didnt feel like that due to how engaging the story is. And although none of the main and major support roles died, I still cried buckets due to the emotional rollercoaster they put me on. This title couldve gotten an all 10 points from me had they not slacked a bit on the music side. None of the OST caught my ears or stayed in my head, so there goes the music category.

However, this is also the first show that I wished it had a tragic ending. I wished FL died on that cliff on that few last episodes, and ML lived in regret forever. He had not suffered enough for abandoning FL at the earlier cliff scene. Too bad it had a happy ending instead.

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Vengeance that turn to love

Basically FL is Lu Zhaoyao, who was born at the Sealed Demon Mountain where she lived with her grandfather. Years ago, the Demon King sealed his son in the mountain and casted a seal on the mountain so that none of the nearby villagers can go out and none can come in too. FL is part of the Lu clan who was tasked to guard the sealed mountain, so she never stepped out and never saw anyone from outside. One day Luo Ming Xuan, titled Golden Diety from the Immortal Sect, came to the mountain to kill the son of demon king, but failed and was injured by the seal. He was found by FL and she took care of him secretly as she was smitten with how handsome he looked. He was the first person she ever saw other than her grandfather, so she clung to him and asked him to marry her as payment for her taking care of him. LMX brushed it off as a joke, and he told FL to be a good person and to live for the good of others. LMX left and after pestering by FL, the grandfather agreed to let her out if she could train hard enough and lift the seal herself. After a while, she managed to do this and set off to see the world, clutching tightly to LMX’s advice to be good and live for the prosperity of the world.

Little that they know, when seal was struck by LMX and backfired, it was broken momentarily and the son of demon king managed to slip out. So all this while the son of demon king was wandering outside, becoming an outcast because he didnt know how to interact and communicate with others. Disciples of the Immortal Sect started to notice him hence captured him to be killed. On the day of the killing, with all other 10 immortal sects convening to commence the sentence, FL came flying and freed him, as she heard from the people that this kid had done nothing wrong besides of being the son of demon king. They fled together and FL named this kid the ML, as Mo Qing with nickname Little Monster because of the mark of the seal on his face . Being the naive girl that she was, FL decided to confront the LMX as she didnt believe he would order the execution of an innocent kid just because he was the son of demon king. LMX imprisoned and tortured FL to force her to reveal the whereabouts of ML, and when he was about to kill her, the grandfather appeared and whisked her free. He cast a spell to open a portal and tossed FL through, and as he did this, LMX killed him. This event marked the point where FL swore defiance against Immortal Sect, where she started her own sect called the Wanlu and fought with Immortal Sect whenever she could. With the title Demoness, she became the worst enemy the Immortal Sect has ever seen. She crashed LMX’s wedding and sealed him, but later died when she tried to obtain the Wanjun sword that was sealed by the Demon King. ML managed to get the sword, unsealed his powers, lost the mark, and he became the Wanlu Sect leader ever since. 5 years passed, FL was revived when Qin Zhiyan’s blood was splashed on her ice tomb. She awoke but realized she had Qin Zhiyan’s face instead. With a huge grudge for ML’s betrayal, FL agreed to help Qin Zhiyan seek revenge for her father’s death if Qin Zhiyan would help her get around Wanlu Sect as a disciple so she could find an opportunity to kill ML and retained her position as leader again. But as she spent time in the sect, she realized everything did not seem like what she believed anymore. At the same time, 2nd ML Jiang Wu appeared, who was actually a demon in the heart of the purest person the immortal sect Qin Qianxian that had materialized while Qin Qianxian was meditating in front of FL’s ice tomb. Jiang Wu wreaked havoc in Jiang Hu and the immortal sect and wanlu sect was forced to join hands to defeat him, which led to a series of events that would unveil the true colours of the Golden Diety that the immortal sects has revered for years.

Gosh that is super long summary. No wonder i was puzzled by the summary in dramalist and other sites, they didnt tell quite the exact story cuz they all started when FL already became notorious as demoness. This super long show took 30 episodes for the ML and FL to reconcile and 32 episodes for the misunderstanding between them to straighten out. OMG cant believe I stayed for that long. 😂

Anyway, i think this show is okay, it’s too long but okay enough to keep me watching. Better than Burning Flame that i watched prior to this one. But the theme is kinda the same. The immortal sect that was supposed to be good and uphold justice turned out to be the real demon, and the
bad, demonic sect that was ostracized all this while had been the good one.

I especially loved the way the story is strewn. There were goofy parts and there were serious parts. Love the goofy parts when FL was walking around the sect with Qin Zhiyan’s face and thought she was seducing ML, when in reality ML had seen through all her facade right from the beginning. The proposal scene is probably the sweetest yet the goofiest that I’ve seen on screen of all cdrama so far.

This is the first time that I saw Bai Lu, and I thought she has an uncanny resemblance to Li Qin. From her facial expressions, the way she portrays the arrogant Lu Zhaoyao, the way she acted as the mischievous and haughty Qin Zhiyan double, the way she dress, looked exactly like Li Qin’s characters in Princess Agents and The Song of Glory, so from start to finish i keep seeing Li Qin instead of the one named Bai Lu. Anyway, the actress executed this character well, love her domineering act as demoness and the cutesyness when she was impersonating Qin Zhiyan. She is really good playing different types of characters at one go.

I think the one playing ML was extremely handsome with a boyish look. But even with such boyish look, he managed to pull off the look of a strict and arrogant sect leader, and that look of evil as the demon was consuming him. He didnt get much dialogue at the beginning of the show, so I failed to feel the attraction between him and FL, but as the story unfolds, the attraction becomes strong and real really quick. He was really good at sad scenes too. I really like the blue hue of his hair. The red hair on Jiang Wu is brilliant too, it kinda gives off good-bad vibe on their characters ML and 2nd ML. Blue being good and red being bad.

I need to specially mention Qin Zhiyan as the 2nd FL, gosh at first i hated this character, so cowardly, always making silly mistakes bringing trouble to FL, very childish and weak too. But I guess this character was important to nurture FL into what she became towards the middle of the story, as this may be considered the first friend she ever had after ML. This character started to be useful when the Wanlu Sect almost broke apart with Jiang Wu’s intervention as she helped with the sect management. And the ending for her is truly unpredictable cuz I never imagined it to be as such. But she looked the part so I guess this 2nd FL character must have the biggest progress among all. She became wise, reasonable, and capable in the end.

I have not much memory of the music, i think they were good but not captivating enough.

I love the fighting scenes. Although the CGI in the last few episodes especially of ML in limbo is horrible and those zapping sounds when he was fighting the dragon only make it worse, the rest of the show is bearable and okay, definitely better than Burning Flames.

SPOILER BEYOND THIS LINE !!!!!!
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When i was watching, i thought the editing isnt as bad as the chats have been mentioning, because I have seen worse edits than this, but when i reached episode 53, okay this show really topped it out of having the worst editing ever. How come everything got jumbled here and there and not streamlined? They really love to keep the audience confused and frustrated is it? The ending episode is the worst, although it shows they finally got together, the scenes are all haywire! One scene FL was all in white and reminiscing her memory while waiting for ML outside the sword tomb, looking all mature, soft and aloof, and the next where ML and FL were grinning and laughing while holding hands, walking down the street filled with people, in the attire they were in was what they wore years before. Omg is this a flashback or what!!! And the next scene was of a pair of their teenage kids reenacting the scene where supposedly the parents met. Omg yes this is the most unfulling ending I’ve ever seen. 😡

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Weird Xianxia Universe

So in this BF universe, there are Immortal Realm, Mortal Realm and Demon Realm. There is no God or way of heaven like the usual xianxia because in this universe, instead of being the one maintaining order of the three realms, the Immortal Realm became the evil one with no one to constrain them, the demon realm is actually the good ones, theyre the original immortals who lost the immortal war back 100,000 years ago and were forced to live underground by King of Immortal. And the mortal realm is in chaos with people being enslaved to do the immortals bidding.

ML is Wu Geng, a prince of the Xin kingdom in the mortal realm. His father is King of Xin, and the story opened up to him declaring war with the immortals and fight for freedom for the mortal realm. He was very strong and gifted and he was beating the immortal army to pulp, which forced the Immortal King out of his seclusion to fight him head on. You see it was supposed to be a big deal if u can get the king of immortal to come down to the mortal world as in a sense his henchmen should be fighting it off first. So you should get an idea how powerful King of Xin was. Although King of Xin had forged a bond with the Undying bird, an ancient divine spirit, it was still not enough so of course the Immortal King won and King Xin died. Empress of Xin brought ML to the palace tower for their last stand but in the end decided to kill both his son and herself when the immortal high priestess Xinyue Kui arrived to the tower.

Wu Geng, however, had his soul transported into A Gou, a dumb orphan of Xin Kingdom. Apparently, A Gou was a wisp of Wu Geng’s primordial spirit which the Empress had casted upon his birth into the mortal world as backup for this event that she foresaw coming. The Empress, whose name was Xinyue Hu sister of current immortal high priestess, was actually a priest of the immortal realm before she defected to the mortal realm when she fell in love with Wu Geng’s father. And so began Wu Geng’s new life as A Gou where he lived in a hut with FL - Bai Cai, and 4 other ophaned kids.

After the fall of Xin Kingdom, Bai Kingdom took over as they were in cahoots with the immortals. Under the Bai Kingdom reign, all able bodied adults are enslaved into mining bloodstones for the immortals. Bai Cai and A Gou were taken to Northern Mountain mine and stayed there for a few years before A Gou led an escape and start his journey of leading the league of anti-immortal army across the three realms. The objective was to defeat King of Immortal Realm - Hei Long, and set those who had been oppressed by the Immortal realm free of slavery and oppression.

The concept on this show took some time to sink in. Instead of the immortals usually being the ones sacrificing themselves to maintain order of three realms, they became the source of chaos instead. There was no entity that can keep them in check and the world was left in chaos for more than 100,000 years since Hei Long won the Immortal war. The demon realm was the remnants of the immortals who lost the immortal war and most of them were good, and the immortal realm was actually filled with new immortals that Hei Long had created to do his bidding, so most were evil and brutal.

The CGI was truly horrible for a 2024 production, and how they introduce skills used by the experts were so comical - with big caption of the name of the skill running across the screen. It reminds me of those shows back in the 90s.

I first saw Ren Jia Lun in The Blue Whisper, so thought this show hadnt exploited his talents to the max as they did with TBW. His character here is too one way street. Even as a prince he was still upright, although quite arrogant and brash, but the good trait was still similar to what he carried on as A Gou. This prince only lasted for 2 episodes so there’s not much depth of his character as Prince Wu Geng of the reigning Xin Kingdom.

The FL, Bai Cai, is one hell of an annoying character. So clingy always calling my a gou here my a gou there. The only thing she’s good for was for her healing ability. And I also don’t get the ancient divine soul thing. How come she becomes evil once this soul is awakened? It’s weird cuz divine power shouldve been good and just cuz theyre supposed to be the thing that keeps the world in order but here, everything that relates to immortality and divinity seem to be bad and evil. The universe here was so weird.

I truly pity Xinyue Kui. She was supposed to be the closest one to King of Immortal, the supreme high priestess that governs the three realms on his behalf, but she always gets her butt kicked all over by mortals, immortals and demons alike 😂😂 whats even more pathetic was that all the evil things she did to protect the reign of King of Immortal was due to her crush on him only to find out that all the things that the king did for the past 100,000 years was because to revive his loved one 😂 Gosh that is so lame.

2nd FL, A Lan is an immortal from Shenyin clan that turned their back upon King of Immortal’s reign after the war. She tries hard to fulfill the high priest of shen yin clan’s last wish that is to protect Wu Geng at all cost. The shen yin high Priest is Wu Geng’s grandfather, and father of Xinyue Kui and Xinyue Hu. He was the immortal clan’s high priest before being toppled out of his position by his own eldest daughter. I first saw Zhu Xu Dan in Fateful Love and i see her performance here hasnt improved at all. Still beautiful and yet still as wooden as ever.😂

The good thing about this show is that there was no love tug of war between the 3 women who fell in love with ML. A Lan knew ML and FL was in love with each other and she maintained her distance as a friend to both instead. The third love interest was not even worth to mention because she was like a teenage kid who just had a crush for the first time. She also got killed off quite quickly after being introduced (within a few episodes). so because everyone acts amicably, there was no tricks and jealousy drama to win ML’s heart between the women. FL also fully put her trust on ML and never wavered come what may.

The battle scenes are horrendous and hard to watch, both the first battle with Xin King and the final battle on immortal island. The CGI was bad in the first, and the manpower was laughable in the final. It’s like they came to wage war in the immortal island with less than 50 footsoldiers. 😂 gosh what a joke. Really tell you theyre on a super tight budget.

For me personally, i think Burning Flames belong to the same category as Ancient Love Poetry, the category where I had been duped by the reviews to think that theyre good. 😂 but yeah at least Burning Flame had a good enough plot to keep me watching to the end compared to ALP which i dropped after 5 torturous episodes.

SPOILER BEYOND THIS LINE…….

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In this show, the ML’s skills are vastly acquired by other people giving him their cultivation years or skill. I dont know, i still think as a half immortal, ML is still too dang weak to take on the king of immortal who had reigned for 100,000 years. Even at the final battle i didnt think it’s logical even in xianxia terms. All the skills and strength he acquired was from people of the recent 2-3 generations, except for the remnant power from Sea spirit ancestor who of course was much weaker even at his prime compared King of Immortal - thats why the sea spirit ancestor ended up dead in tue immortal war.

There was no special skill from ancient people at all. Then how come he was able to win against an entity who had cultivated since over 100,000 years ago? How come he won just by using Nitian Erxing’s last breath? Nitian Erxing isnt ancient. He’s of the same generation with ML even. Although he’s the grand marshall of the demon realm and the descendant of ancient immortal, he’s a far cry from a notable ancient figure compared to king of immortal. I would understand if the ML came across really ancient power while he was gaining his skill and strength to fight King of Immortal. I could even understand if he was granted a power by a supreme being after he got pummelled to death by King of Immortal. I could also understand if somehow all the sages came together and supported him at the last minute so they somehow won over the king, but really none of that happened. So the result of the final battle is baffling to me.

I’m puzzled at the last episode too. FL is just a mere mortal, so how come she gets to be revived back after she was killed compared to other demons and immortals with higher cultivation than hers? For example A Lan. It’s puzzling even in xianxia concept of rebirth and reincarnation.

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