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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Great show with promising storyline
This is the second show i saw with Dylan Wang, the first had been Evernight, which he didnt disappoint. Despite the criticism that I read for his role in Evernight, i thought he did a good job in accordance to the novel.The show is about ML who got immersed in a game that he was playing with his friends in modern time. When he started playing, he went right into the game, playing the ML Xu Qi An, a somewhat low rank policeman in Dafeng. He rose through the rank and martial skills as he met with numerous significant people along the way, captivating them with his poetry, investigative skill and no nonsense persona.
I must say this ML is quite a character. I especially love his handphone-like gadget (complete with earbud 😂) when he got involved in the heavenly-something guild. I particularly love the relationship he had with his family, which didnt sound good before but improved after he got into the game. Love how they built his working relationships too, progressing from hateful superiors to loyal ones who would jump in to save him in a blink of an eye.
I didnt really want to mention FL much cuz i thought that her character was absolutely unnecessary. Had she not have that relationship with Princess Pingyang, which provided somewhat backstory information for ML’s investigation, she really doesnt function at all. The romance is totally negligible and unnecessary cuz this show is more to investigative/martial/comedy type. I feel squat spark between them, nada,zero. Honestly speaking, i thought ML has so much stronger chemistry with Cai Wei and consort of Zhenbei, even Princess Huaiqing! Whenever ML and FL got on screen, all i see is sibling vibe rather than a couple. And because FL’s character is so damn annoying in the earlier episodes, i ended up fast forwarding her scenes later on. Although this character progressed for the better towards the end after she discovered the true fate of her best friend Princess Pingyang, i still fastforward all scenes with her especially the romantic ones.
Other supporting characters are all great. All costumes are so nice, the uniforms/armours are smart and cool, and the female costumes are apt and not too flamboyant.
What did i dislike about this show? Well some of the comedic scenes are just over the top and extra. The final showdown was too short and i believe since they plan for season 2 (based on the post credit scene), the cliffhanger is somewhat a downer.
Although this show come close to Joy of Life vibe, it still falls short of it. Still a good show though, and i especially love ML’s powers and upgrades here. Overall it’s an enjoyable show and i hope season 2 wont take 4-5 years like JoL 😭 anyway, im off to read the novel since the series provided no proper ending.
Edit: ive just reached the arc where Xu Qi An beheaded the traitors Que and Cao in the novel, and as expected, novel Xu Qi An isnt as stupid as the series Xu Qi An who easily got duped by the second princess posing as Imperial Princess. Thats the one flaw of the series that doesnt compute with Xu Qi An’s intelligence. It’s impossible that he cannot deduce that Second Princess was an impostor with that many tell-tales shown. Even before reading the novel, I’ve felt that production somehow dumbed down Xu Qi An with that Second Princess. Glad i dont have to read so much of Second Princess in the novel. They shouldnt have changed this character and made her the FL. What a pointless character. Btw I liked the book’s version better than the adaptation cuz there was no memory erasing of Xu Qi An on the population at all. Everyone remembered him as a hero and the despicable Emperor was forced by his ministers to issue self reproach which exonerates Official Zheng and Xu Qi An of any wrongdoing. Wow what a satisfaction to read that part in the novel. I wonder why didnt the show follow the same line. Why make everyone forget XQA? Just for the sake of cliffhanger?
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Straightforward Romance with a Slightly Brilliant FL
I have never heard of the names of any of the actors in this series, so u can say my review is very unbiased as i picked up this title just by the whim of the moment. Finished it within 3 days too.
The story started off with a somewhat cute cartoonish creature flying around the FL, Nan Yan, which i first thought was her fairy friend or pet. But then it was revealed that even she herself doesnt know that this creature resides inside her. Then a mysterious ML comes along, then a few others she befriends with as she was supposedly curing ML’s heart disease which was similar to her mother’s.
First off, i gotta say FL is one of the brightest and quickwitted characters ive ever watched. She just looked soft, gullible, and easily manilulated, but as the story progresses, it is revealed that she’s the exact opposite of that. Yeah in the first one third of the story, she was weak in physical and magical strength, because she only focusses on her medical skill and not interested in cultivating. But after the first love tribulation, when she came back strong and reknowned as the top demon slayer, with the combination of the intelligence and strength, she became someone you dont wanna mess around. And the best part of this character is that, in situations where FLs of other typical drama would go down the rabbit hole of misunderstanding and grudge against their better half, Nan Yan did not! Ha!
As for the ML, i like it that he manage to put on two very different attitude and demeanor of he as Shao Cang and later as Yin. Shao Cang appears to be arrogant and yet humble in his own way, aloof as the monarch of his sect and yet still cares of lives around him. While Yin, although still has the aloof aura as he doesnt really interact with people due to his demonic possession, has a much brash attitude and rather harsh in his actions.
Other supporting characters are all great. Costume are nice to look at and doesnt look too flamboyant.
The thing i dislike about the series is how badly the editing is. One scene jumps right to another in the middle of a conversation, which i sometimes had to backtrack to confirm if i had been spacing out and missed anything. This scene would eventually be explained in another scene through flashbacks. So yeah they wanted to keep it a surprise as not to reveal everything in a streamline fashion, but cutting in the middle of a conversation is such a turnoff. I keep getting dumbfounded as the scenes dont tally with the next that i eventually stopped backtracking and just went with it. Sure enough, that dumbfounding scene would then be explained later.
I feel that there is not much chemistry between the main couple. I almost felt it between Shao Cang and NanYan, but later when he came back as Yin, it somehow got diffused and became lost. The villains keep popping out episode after episode but Sen Luo is probably a major disappointment after they build up his reputation as the owner of three divine hearts and conqueror of 5 demon prisons which cannot even be vanquished by the best demi god of the realm - he can only be imprisoned while the demi god himself perish later on. All these hype and this demon lord get kicked out of the scene just like that? There was hardly any battle at all. And those banter between Yin and Sen Luo made it look like this demon lord is a mere joke instead of second biggest villain.
SPOILER BEYOND THIS LINE_____________
I dont get the point of Yin having to be killed by Nan Yan in the last episode too. The drama is just nonexistent as two minutes later (3 years by the story) he would resurrect yet again. There’s no explanation of why or how he manage to live again though. So I see it as pointless. The last episode seemed rushed especially the the last battle between the lovers.
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Subpar execution, expected twists, predicted ending.
A doctor was framed for malpractice, forced to admit guilt, had his medical license revoked and jailed for two years only to return as a lawyer 5 years later to exact revenge against those who threw him under the bus.Kinda lame storyline, right? Wait til u see the ML, he’s even worse. Can only hold one type of expression throughout the show - furrowed eyebrows, agitated/confused eyes with constipated look. A pure downer when the main poster made him look so dashing and sinister. The only things that kept the show from falling apart are the fiery prosecuter ex fiancee of his - the FL, and the conniving korean american lobbyist - the SML - who keeps stirring the pot with unexpected moves.
The ending plottwist is also expected, u kinda get the hints as the show progressed cuz they showed too much. I wouldve prefered if they had made do without those hints.
I wish these kdrama directors would make their actors who supposedly play characters that lived abroad to take conversational english classes so that they can deliver their english lines right. It’s really cringy to see how these supposedly koreans living abroad who came back only to speak English that no audience can really understand. The only one who can speak decent english on this show is Jayden’s sidekick. Honestly I dont really expect them to speak with an accent like native speakers, but at least pronounce them right so people can understand without relying on the english subs. So far that i’ve seen, the only character that managed to pull off korean-living-abroad role is Stella Hwang from Partners for Justice, and thats because the actress Stephanie Lee is Korean American. That is how the english should be delivered for roles who are supposed to be from abroad. And if the actors cant speak it, the least the directors could do is not include english in their lines. It makes the roles less convincing when they speak poor english.
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Impressive storyline for a zombie show.
It’s a survival story of a group of townspeople who had been attacked by black smoke that came from a sinkhole, which can turn people into super athletic zombie-like mutants upon inhalation. In the chaos, ML, a towtruck driver met with FL, a detective from Seoul on the hunt for a serial killer whose among victims had been her husband, although they got separated in the beginning of the disaster, they eventually cross paths again and joined hands in their quest to find a safe place for the survivors.First off, I am not a fan of zombie stories. I especially dislike korean zombies cuz once turned, they instantly become superhumans. When i clicked this title, i thought it’d be a sci-fi mystery show of some sort. Nuh-uh, in fact this show has the highest functioning zombie-mutants of all, some of them can even read, speak, think with vengeance! Wth man. Almost dropped it when I realized it is a zombie show, but decided to stay on cuz I was curious to see the showdown between the FL and the serial killer, and how the mainleads were going to defeat the shaman who can control zombies, and the thing in the smoke that controls everything that got infected.
I must say, Lee Hwa Seon the FL, is the most combatworthy Kdrama female detective I’ve ever seen. Other policewomen ive seen so far usually rely on brains and wits while pretty bad at hand-on-hand combat. Not Hwa Seon. She’s not No Mercy type of fighter who does the martial artist kind of fights, but a realistic ordinary person who fights with brawn and wits. She also doesn’t give a second thought at going against higher ranked elders. One pet peeves of mine on kdrama is as asians are people who puts high regards on our elders status, we rarely talk back to them, let alone fight with them. And the elders with power and status (especially those despicable chaebols) in kdrama are usually exceptionally loud, foul-mouthed, super domineering and really love to hit people. It’s satisfying to see FL standing up against those types for once. She’s not rude or anything, she’s just brave and firm. Lee Hwa Seon has become the most badass female detective in kdrama in my eyes.
I really like the chemistry of the main leads. They do not have any romantic relationship, but the chemistry is damn striking. Both are willing to go out of their ways to save strangers, even at the risk of their own lives. In earlier episodes I couldnt understand how this tow truck driver suddenly becomes a hero ready to save everyone around him disregarding his own safety without even giving it a second thought, i even got annoyed and thought this character as reckless. then they revealed who he was before and then only everything falls into place. Pretty neat, really.
The screenwriters are also really good at suspense building. Else how can anyone explain how someone who hates zombie shows like me got hooked? How humans can be desperate and sinister enough to stay alive even if it means to kill others in the name of cult sacrifice. How each characters’ dark secrets are thrown into the plot is also rather brilliant. As each secret is revealed, I got impressed even more.
One thing i noticed about kdrama is that they do so many flashbacks! I get it that it’s to build background of each character, but the flshbacks on this show is just waaay too much. For example, The scene of ML telling his partner that he got fired from the police force, was shown at least 4 times. I mean come on, 4 times? It’s no longer character background building, it’s background overload! I think if the repetitive flashbacks are compiled they couldve filled up an entire episode (or more!).
Also, I really dont get the staring contest in kdramas. They stare at each other in fights when there are still enemies around and they stare after the fights when time is essential. It’s really getting on my nerves. And when they do it in zombie shows where people can get attacked from literally anywhere, it becomes annoying af.
I can’t shake off the thought of how the enemy in here is somewhat like a combination of Train to Busan and Stephen King’s The Mist. Scary right? Superhuman zombie plus mysterious monster in the smoke. However I am glad this show has better and much more satisfying ending than the two shows.
If youre someone who love zombie or disaster survival shows, then this is definitely for you. Those who arent, well it doesnt hurt to give it a try. You can always drop it if u dont like it. Personally it has been an entertaining ride for me.
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Good storyline, Amazing Chemistry, Satisfying Ending
Gangster boy ML turned his life into an interesting one when he followed his mom’s footsteps to become a lawyer. He made his living with conniving methods of helping out his gangster kingpin uncle to work around the law, up to tricking a policeman to catch him red handed asking for bribe, has earned a luxurious life with quite a reputation in the lawyer community. While FL, a hot-headed lawyer got suspended after she beat the crap out of the judge who sentenced her client unjustly for killing her wife beating stalker husband. They end up working together in ML’s Lawless Law Firm taking uncanny types of clients.Good start for the first episode, and it got me hooked. The following episodes revealed a much sinister plot that revolve around the life of ML, FL and the most revered person in the city - Judge Cha.
The screenwriters did a superb job in laying out the storyline and mysteries, then have the main leads unravel one secret after another in the courtroom. Both main characters spare no effort if they need to use force while chasing the leads to free their clients.
Although I was impressed by FL’s resort to brute force in Episode 1, the following ones become a downer before they never show her in action anymore. All the fightings are done by ML and his stooges. Although it is undeniable that theyre pretty good ones. Every episodes kept me on the edge of my seat, anticipating ML’s next unconventional move.
I hope they make season 2. Would really like to see the Lawless Law Firm in action again.
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Nice warm rom-com but rather mediocre storyline
It’s about a bandit, the FL, whose stronghold had been raided by the army after she snatched a tribute of Yeming kingdom to Pei Kingdom. She was thrown into court political struggle when the official leading the raid saw that she had an uncanny resemblance to his daughter, who died after jumping off a cliff in response to the arranged marriage to the Crown Prince of Pei, the ML. The official, the Prime Minister of Pei, grabbed the chance to threaten FL into posing as his daughter to become the Crown Princess, lest all occupant of the stronghold be killed. She had to do the Prime Minister’s bidding as she racked her brain to rescue people from the stronghold. Along the way, she grew to like the Crown Prince, who was wary of her at first, but eventually he too had fallen in love with his wife whom he consider just a spy from the Prime Minister’s residence. As the story progressed, mysteries and plots get revealed, but one thing remained for sure, the love between the Crown Prince and his princess.I dont know where to start with this one. It’s definitely a hearty romantic comedy, but fell short of all the other aspects. The storyline, the conspiracy plotting, the court politics, the fightings, oh well like I said, everything. But the music scores are fun and catchy, although sounded much too modern for a period series. Although nice, it’s really annoying that there was too much of these interlaced songs in the scenes, especially romantic scenes, which made it sound repetetive and annoying.
Although the FL is good in acting, i think the ML has much work to do. His expressions sometimes doesnt fit the scene. He is supposed to be this intelligent, kind-hearted, quick witted Crown Prince, but ended up showing the audience someone who is adorably stupid and too slow to react in intense situations. He was shown to be quite bad in martial arts, and other characters have also mentioned this multiple times along the show, but suddenly without training much or studying from great masters like a wuxia series would show, he just suddenly become good at swordplay towards the end of the show.
Plotholes are aplenty in this one, you cant really make sense of the scenes presented unlike a high budget show has. Oh yes I blame the budget. They definitely dont have a budget high enough to hire good screenplay writers, action choreoghrapher and wardrobe manager.
Not only does the storyline strewn with plotholes, the fighting scenes are also horrendous and painful to watch. Too slow, too rehearsed, and too much wirework. Definitely not one of those that run like fluid while keeping us on the edge of our seats. They look cheap and too mediocre.
Lets not make me start on the costume the filmset. Theyre much too modern-looking, both the costume and the set, looks weird to see those designs in a period setting. The head gears are also too dangly. The make up is nice though, although I cant figure out why they had to make the FL wear such moisty lipstick that made her lower lip look swollen and bleeding. Another too modern look.
All in all, its just a show with two beautiful leads. That’s it. Definitely wont rewatch it. Recommended if youre into light romcoms. At least this is better than Royal Rumours.
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Intense action packed sci fi series
The show is about an ex-navy officer now working as a bodyguard to infiltrate corporations that he believed to be linked to a bombing of a korean foreign military base a few years ago, that killed a number of local children, his best friend and injured the prime minister of that time. He is now working with the former prime minister to track down the mastermind behind the bombing, which eventually brought him to BF, a biotechnology company that specializes in cultured meat - or so he thought. His time there unravels things that he could never have imagined, and eventually led to the real culprit behind everything that was happening around him then and now.This show started off rather slow in building the plot, i almost dropped it cuz I thought it was more to corporate power struggle rather than an action packed show. Glad that I stuck through, it actually turned out to be quite an intense action packed thriller sci fi show. The Finale is mindblowing with plot twists I didnt expect.
The performance of every single person involved in this show is excellently mindblowing. I mean, even the unnamed lady who were lining up to send off the prime minister Seonu Jae was full of facial expressions that looked really genuine - she really looked like a staff who loved and admired her boss and is sad to see him leaving the office. The casts are THAAAAAT good.
The action is really intense, fights are superbly choreographed and thrilling. It really blows my mind how much fake blood had to be spilled for those action scenes. Theyre aplenty 😳
The music is good too. Sounded modern and intense in dual language. I think im looking it up. And i really love the futuristic setting with the Jang Yeongsil AI that gives off the ironman vibe.
They didnt leave any untangled knots regarding the conflicts at the end of the finale. No cliffhangers on the main plot. Everything is amicably resolved at the end although they kept the viewers on edge for hiding our leads throughout the last quarter of the episode, I really hope theyre making season 2.
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This review may contain spoilers
A merman was caught by an evil fairy Shunde, a disciple of the Immortal Master who basically revered by all beings in the immortal realm as he is the most powerful. He was sent to Flower Valley, one of the places where Spiritual Masters whose sole job as the enforcer of the realm’s rule lives. They catch and neutralize spirits and immortals who violated this rule. The merman was sent to be trained by Ji Yunhe and Young Master of the valley, where he was supposed to submit and serve as Shunde’s attendant. Ji Yunhe has always been renowned for her skill of taming spirits and immortals by manipulating their hearts while Young Master and the rest of the spiritual masters usually resort to more violent means. As she started to manipulate the merman to win his trust, little did she know she would fall in love with his absolutely innocent nature. At first she was just doing it because it was her task, and that she needed to win the competition so she would be able to escape from the valley with her little attendant Luoluo to live in an immortal island free of restraint and control, but as she got to know the merman and how he was wrongfully taken by Shunde, she later decided to help him escape. The merman fell in love with Ji Yunhe and gave up his tail and pearl for her, only to be heartbroken by Ji Yunhe, done so that he would be willing to run away from Shunde’s clasp without her. The merman held huge grudge against Yunhe for deceiving him and betraying his love, and this sets out a series of misunderstandings, breaking of hearts and mind, in their journey to finding a true meaning to love and friendship.
This show has the most pitiful character of all that ive seen/read so far. Ji Yunhe had been tortured and in pain for most of her life, being used as experiment subject by Master of the Valley and later embroiled in the power struggle of the world. She was physically tortured when she was in Flower Valley and Immortal Master’s Mansion, she was mentally tortured when she was in North Abyss, went through separations and deaths, and yet she still stood tall, not losing faith in life and humanity. She was stubborn and steadfast despite all hurdles that come her way. Dilraba has once again proven me wrong, she’s not just a pretty face. Her chemistry with the co-star is stunningly strong. Although i think she would have to work on the ‘sick look’ more, other than droopy eyes and weak neck. The time when she was waiting for death at North Abyss while being mentally tortured by ML began to look cringy as it dragged for so long. I get the arc was long because they wanted to show how badly ML was hurt by Yunhe’s refusal to admit her love for him, but like i said before, the droopy eyes and weak neck got cringier as the show went on (taking half a star off for this). I like the reborn arc. She was the happiest and most adorable in this. The reunion was also cute.
My first expression when I saw the snippet of the show was that the ML didnt quite have any appeal. I have never seen his work before so I dont have any expectation, but as i watched on, he turned out to have given a spectacular performance. He nailed it as a wary person wrongfully captured even though he hadnt spoken a word, he nailed it again as a person who was innocent and childlike, and he did it again as a vengeful master of the North Abyss. And he had amazing chemistry with his co star. I mean I couldnt find a flaw on his portrayal of the prince of merman kingdom, Chang Yi.
Dilraba is an actress with a non-conventional look. The first time i saw her in Eternal Love, I thought she was at least of mixed blood or even not chinese at all. So finding a child actor with a resemblance wouldve been hard. How can she grow into the adult her if she looks very chinese as a child, right? So i think The production scored jackpot when they hired Kristina the child actress. I first saw her in Legend of Anle, playing the child character for Dilraba too, she was perfect for the role! To see her again here in The Blue Whisper is a joy. It showed the production’s care for details.
I especially liked the Heavenly King too. I first saw him as Crown Prince in The Long Ballad, a character that is extremely irritating and overbearing. To see him carrying a total contrast of that character as a sensible and kind king in this show is amazing. His face expressions nailed every aspect of how a revered king should behave, despite being just a child.
One thing that i love about xianxia is that death usually isnt the end of the story. There would be second and third chances so there wasnt really room for tragic endings. Glad that this show doesnt massacre important characters and let them stay dead. It’s A different take on mortality and long lasting love, which made us feel good and happy.
I regret that I didnt watch this show sooner. I thought it would be boring. Glad it wasnt so.
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Path to Revenge that turned into Patriotism
Story is about the road to revenge of a fallen princess of Tang Dynasty who ended up defending the person whom she believed to have killed her whole family. Along this revenge seeking adventure, she met with rival kingdom’s lead general, Ashile Sun - the ML - and they ended up going through life and death together. She eventually realized the right path for her was never revenge, but to live on without hate as her late mother had intended and to help ensure peace across the land.The show had a good storyline and great line of actors and production. I must say the production is actually quite clever in reducing cost. Instead of hiring enormous amount of extras for battle scenes, or great hours of CGIs, they resorted to sketches instead. Im actually disappointed that there are no actual battle scenes. There were just sketches of battles and the lead actors waving their swords around on the foreground. Although undoubtedly a fresh idea, it made the show look rather cheapskate. Although they went frugal on battle scenes, im very satisfied with hand-on-hand combat performed by ML and SML. The fight sequence are seamlessly elegant which doesnt look rehearsed and awkward.
This is also one of those shows where they spend little effort in making the actress disguising as a male look convincing because she looked so damn feminine with ample contour on the chest area. Although, admittedly there really not much u can do when u hire an actress as gorgeous as Dilireba. She can never pass as a male no matter how much they disguise her. Her features are just too feminine, her voice cant get any deeper and well, her demeanor is much too graceful. It’s because of shows like this that I value shows like Fighting for Love where they go all out to make the disguise believable.
A fair warning to romance lovers, this story aint a feast for the lot of you. There is not much romance going on, as the story focuses more on revenge line and how each character developed into maturehood. The development of FL, ML and SFL is pretty significant. Even the small support characters gets their characters developed along the way, like how Wei Shuyu changed into a more confident man, Hao Du into a flexible and humane person, even Shiba got a decent growth into a real free woman. Her love story with Xu Jing is the cutest because she had always been this stone-cold fighter who cares nothing but for her master. Meanwhile, the main love story is pretty slow moving. The ML had shown fondness towards the FL quite early on, but he didnt realize it was love yet until quite to the middle of the show, and this had only been reciprocated by the FL towards the last 10 episode. It took a life-threatening arrow through ML’s chest before she finally confesses (when ML was unconscious) that she cannot live without him.
The music score of this show isnt that memorable and catchy enough so they didnt stick really stick in my head. Although, i especially liked the tune they use each time the scene with Ashile tribe is on.
The reconcilation scene on the episode 46 is gold! Throughout the show, I have never viewed both of them as any other than father and daughter, even as FL hated him so much. I knew there’s something behind her mom’s death that wouldnt have been his fault. I just hope FL wouldve hugged him before she left for good. I really like the Li Shimin character.
However, it is unconvincing to see Hao Du as general in the last 2 episodes. Throughout the show he had always been that lone ranger imperial guard and has always been working alone. He had shown no military prowess before this other than his brawn as an imperial guard. Pretty ridiculous to see him donning the general hat all of a sudden. So yeah maybe after being Prince Consort he’s given an army of his own, but to lead one as general is rather unconvincing. Just doesnt go in line with his character at all. It is more believable if it was Changge leading the troop to intercept Princess Yicheng’s fake carriage, she had always shown to be a military strategist and have actually fought in battles.
Leo Wu has proven he’s no longer that actor with a babyface. I was not convinced in the earlier episodes, but his look as a fierce general kinda grows into you.
All in all the show as a whole does not disappoint. A plus plus for having a happy ending too. This covered up for the loss of star in music score. After A Journey to Love, I’m so sick of tragic endings already. Is it worth a rewatch? I wrote this review after a rewatch, so yeah definitely worth it.
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Anyway, This s2 moved at a much slower pace than s1, cant say much about that because even in the novel, the arc after Fan Xian’s return from Northern Qi until before his wedding was indeed pretty boring. I love the fight at Xuankong Temple though.
I really loved the book, i think its one of the best that ive read so far. And the fact that its a sci fi in a wuxia premise made it a thousand times better cuz i definitely did not expect this plot twist when i was reading the novel. As i was reading, i tried to imagine how would it look if it were made into a tv show it wouldve been so gooood. The action in this book is aplenty and very satisfying. Cant wait to see them materialize on screen in s3. Thats where all the heartpounding actions are. Special Kudos to the screenwriters for smoothing out the Fanxian character into a loyal lover. I love everything about novel fanxian except how he constantly cheats on Wan er. Glad the fanxian on screen is nothing like the novel’s in the love relationship department.
So far the production has done a tremendously well done job on this show. The actors have given their top notch performance. A must see for a court politics/wuxia fan. U wont regret it.
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Every villain got what they deserved.
The show started off real fast paced (but slow burn towards the middle) as FL was carrying out an assassination on ML, Peng Cheng Wang (Prince of Peng City), the regent of the historical Liu Song Dynasty. The assassination turned out a disaster (of course, duh). She hid in an orphanage and was later found by Madam Shen who recognized the jade bracelet she was wearing, immediately identifies her as the Shen’s long lost daughter abducted as an infant during a battle in the north. The bracelet was actually given by her best friend (another assassin of course) with a promise to help find her birth parents, before the bff died as a distraction so FL could flee the botched assassination venue. FL grabs this chance and takes refuge in the Shen Mansion, a family of top general of the empire, as she plans for her next move to finish her failed assasination on ML and Minister of War Lu Yuan. It seemed like the team of assassins were driven by the belief planted by their master that Lu Yuan was a corrupt official and Peng Cheng Wang was an incompetent ruler who covers up for the corrupt officials in his court. They both needed to be killed because of their crimes to Liu Song Empire and its people.Ironically, as she keeps on failing to kill Lu Yuan, she met a merchant who was also investigating Lu Yuan and this dude manages to convince her that killing won’t stop Lu Yuan’s corruption as another would just fill up his spot. The merchant, whom FL calls as Old Man (she was 18 and the dude was supposed to be 30+), convinced her to team up with him and topple Lu Yuan using rule of law. Things happened and they later developed feelings for each other. Then the decree came that the daughter of Shen family is bethrothed to Peng Cheng Wang as reward for their contribution in winning the war in the North, and FL decided to take this chance to kill ML on their wedding night. Meanwhile, Lu Yuan’s smuggling of weapons for private army was foiled, but the Shens were implicated as Lu Yuan slips out of their grasp with a mere slap on the hand by ML. This only angered FL even more and her hatred for ML grows. She got her biggest shock on the wedding night, as she only saw the face of the Peng Cheng Wang she hated to the core as she stabs her poisoned dagger into his belly, and he turned out to be the Old Man she fell in love with. She tried to kill herself after stabbing ML as to not implicate the Shens for her assassination crime, and because she regretted her actions, but ML instructed his personal bodyguard to take her away so the imperial guards wont catch her. Later things happened, plot after plot, surprise after surprise, villains after villains, misunderstandings and slanders came one after another, and they stick together through thick and thin.
I love the FL character, she’s one badass assassin who doesnt let injustice to happen. She thrives in jianghu, and is smart and witty enough to stand up against the palace harem bullying (yeah come on how can anyone bully an assassin, right?). And having an elder sister (the first wife) as back up does wonders to her too. She doesnt really need any saving, she can take care of herself although of course ML will need to be the saviour every now and then, even though he’s inferior to her in terms of fighting skills and brawn, so he depended on his power as regent and his scheming and manipulating skills. She is also very intelligent and isnt one of those characters who love to panic and jump to conclusions with baseless suspicions . I guess she learnt a lesson after being fooled by her master into wrongfully thinking that ML is a bad person when he was not.
One of the most pitiful but righteous characters must have been Princess Consort Xie, ML’s first wife. He had to marry her in accordance to the emperor’s decree, but never loved her. Never consummated the marriage and Empress Dowager had to make it a rule for him to have dinner at specific dates at the Princess Consort’s place or he wouldnt have even visited her at all. For someone who loved her husband in totality, her heart was so pure that she never envied the love FL gets from their shared husband when she entered the household as concubine. Instead she saw FL as a companion, BFF, whom she was willing to protect and support. I almost thought the Empress Dowager would be able to corrupt her mind against FL due to envy (like the plot of most drama), but it never happened. She stayed true to her character to the end.
Although I like this show, i find that the repetetive plot of getting poisoned, memory loss, faintings, fake deaths to be pretty annoying. I love the part where they dismantle the villains plans, but the journey to get there is quite annoying with things that I mention above. I find the scenes after ML got stabbed by FL was pretty dramatic and admirable, him braving his way through the pain for several days before succumbing to his injury and went into coma, as to cover up for his newly wedded wife’s actions.
Also I cannot wrap it around my head how come these assassins dont know how their target looks like? That is so messed up. The production couldve made the merchant’s disguise better and not reveal his face throughout their time together, maybe FL recognizing ML as the merchant on their wedding night using the tokens they exchanged if anything at all, but they didnt. It was quite early through the show that FL saw through his fake moustache and took it off (revealing his true face), I really thought she would identify him as Peng Cheng Wang but she didnt! So the whole team of badass assassins didnt even know how their target looks like before killing them?! These righteous assassins killing corrupt officials to keep them from ruining the prosperity of the nation didnt think that knowing how their target look like so they dont kill the wrong person was important. Really? 😑🙄 So messed up.
There were so maaaaaaany fillers and side love stories which I fast forward most of them, but I just need to give a special mention of FL’s handmaid XiaoXin as super duper annoying with her loud and unruly character. Looks much too exaggerated. So they wanted to make her that fun character who brights up people around her, it just went overboard. Characters like this would never survive in the palace as palace maid, she’d be dead by day 2! I was fascinated by ML’s personal bodyguard Xu Zhan too, he looked so feminine that when he wore full body armour and helmet during the North war, I didnt recognize him and thought he was a female character i hadnt noticed before! I also cannot wrap it around my head how they could let Zijin tag along to the north border for the war too. I could understand when FL wanted to go cuz she definitely has the qualities to fight a war, but Zijin? I almost thought she had hidden talent or skills to contribute, with those dramatic horse riding, serious look on her face and wearing full body armour including helmet, but when they were ambushed by the enemy, she became a burden to Shen Zhi (her love interest who is also FL’s eldest brother of the Shen family) as he needs to fight while holding her hand to protect her. What a disappointment. So they made her go to the north so ML, as regent and commander of the north army, could grant them a marriage 🙄 just for that. Bleerghh that is just too cheesy, man. Another annoying characters are Shen Leqing and Lu Wan. One a conniving scheming vengeful ungrateful person who didnt know when to stop, while another was super naiive and stupid who wasnt even sure of her bro’s crimes and yet think that he was wronged and decided to get revenge. Such easily-manipulated expendable pawns.
———-*SPOILER BELOW THIS LINE* ————
I *love* (-_-) how every good characters can get sliced and stabbed with swords, stuck with arrows and still can jump around the next day (or in an instant in FL’s case) as if nothing happened. With exception of Shen dad and elder brother, their deaths are pretty gruesome and tragic. But the rest of the characters are a-okay with all those injuries, so no worries!
The ending is one of those with question marks. At first I thought FL killed herself so Peng Cheng Wang would not be stuck between his love for her and the emperor’s decree of not sparing her as she was an assassin. It went pretty dramatic with ML’s joyfully running to meet with her only to see the place empty, dropping the decree he was holding. Then there were flashbacks of the FL drinking (poisoned?) wine and later looked dead, but the next thing they show was events three years later with ML doing great in court, and later went to the secret place FL brought him once upon a time, and there he dined with the joyous FL. So another fake death? Sheesh.
I thought they’d have kids by then though. I was a little disappointed that there was no 3yo dining with them at the end. Though I can say it’s a happy ending. At least to me. But because I am one of those who hates sad and open endings, I’m taking off 1 star due to this horrible Ep53. Wished they had ended the show at Ep 52.
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Memorable wuxia drama
This is one of the best xianxia series I've ever watched, action packed with court conspiracy (which I love to skip though). Best thing is Main Character is not quite the best in cultivation but can survive each battle cause he's witty and intelligent. No mushy-mushy love scenes so you can forget this series if youre looking for one, and not quite the harem type too. As for me, this is definitely my cup of tea.Arthur's Ning Que is so on point and adhered to the novel's Ning Que. His air and antics are truly spot on and I cant really see anyone else playing this role. Song YiRen's Sangsang is superbly played, she really looked and behaved like a teenager, I was shocked to see that the actress is already 27yo! Thats truly a wow!
I love the action sequence. This series gives off particularly special air which made it stand out compared to other series. The plots are unique and unpredictable. Real nice adaptation indeed.
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Mediocre
When I started on this one I was ready for horrible acting and story, but to my surprise, the story up to the middle of the show is actually quite okay and acceptable for a low budget production. The acting is okay too, and for once I kinda got engrossed into the show. The leads are ordinary looking couple, so it kinda relate to the audience since we are generally ordinary. You don’t need extra handsome ML and super cute gorgeous FL to make a story works. Just good story and good acting actually suffice. Up to Episode 21, everything looks good and acceptable to me.Then they went on to use the misunderstanding trope. Get the wife jealous with another woman so she would leave the husband then the bad guys won’t harm her. WTH man. Like seriously? With all the things that she knows of the bad guys, they’d just leave her alone just because she left you, is it? Whoever came up with this stupid idea? The budget is so low you cant even hire bright people to write the story is it? Youre so damn close to the ending too!
So thats it. Dropping it so fast and I actually wrote this review right after I hit the stop button. What a waste of my time.
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This review may contain spoilers
Great Sequel
The second season closely adhere to the original novel, with slight changes which I truly prefer much more than the novel. The adaptation changes actually gave more humanity to Ye Hongyu and shows the strength of the Three Addicts, which is very admirable. The changes also made the story tolerable because the novel is super lengthy with draggy scenes. Im pretty much happy with the cuts the adaptation had made where they skip those draggy scenes without jeopardizing the main plot. Although many people say that this season is draggy, for those who reads the novel would know that this is already shortcut compared to the novel! The production team did a brilliant job indeed!Although there were numerous actor changes, for me its not much of a distraction. However I still liked to see Arthur Chen as Ning Que more than Dylan Wang. Generally Dylan's acting is ok, he definitely able to nail it as the NQ who is matured yet lovesick as depicted by novel writer. Its just that I feel that Arthur suits Ning Que more, I guess. Dylan just didnt have the 'air' that Arthur gave off on screen. Also the character change of NQ from season 1, from cheeky, mischievous, filled with grudge, shameless to matured, slightly dumb and love sick boy in season 2, is exactly like the novel writer wrote him to be, so I saw nothing wrong with Dylan's NQ unlike the other complaints. Dylan nailed it, Arthur also nailed it, but I felt the NQ character is somewhat made for Arthur, rather than Dylan, that is all.
The rest of the actors did amazing job, and I actually liked the mischievous Emperor of this second season more than the lofty one in the first season hahaha. The actress who played Ye Hongyu and Lu Chen Jia were superb! The current Lu Chenjia gives off strong air of Flower Addict, and her character is more believable and tolerable than the Lu Chenjia in the novel. I really liked the changes that the screenwriter made on her character development. Current Ye Hongyu shows a stronger front and air than the previous one in season 1, although I have to say YHY in season 1 is much more beautiful than Season 2. But regardless of that, I loved the season 2 YHY than the YHY in the novel and Season 1 YHY (I feel like that novel YHY acts more like the devil than someone devoted to Tao). Needless to say, I truly love Mo 'mary-sue' Shanshan. Her willingness to step back and watch NQ and SS be together for once, doesnt look forced or fake. It actually felt sincere and the actress did so well! The way the novel writer did it in the novel is amazing, and how the actress portrayed this character is super accurate with no cringe-worthy scenes. Gosh, I love Mo Shanshan!
Mr First, Mr Second and Miss Third are amazing trio, exactly as depicted in the novel. Oh god I truly love the Academy people. They're true family even though NQ only walked into their life a little over a year and yet theyre willing to sacrifice everything for him. The adjustment for Tang Xiaotang's scene rescuing Chen Pipi is a total blunder though. IN the novel she was supposed to be this truly strong lady character with body made of steel, she was supposed to freaking defeat the Papal cavalry guarding the Peach Mountain forgodsake, and arrived at Chen Pipi all bloody and heroic, and yet on screen, the rescue was made as pathetic with her running and stumbling all over while calling Chen Pipi's name like some lovesick maiden. What a disappointment!
However, I especially love the adjustment from the novel where the screenwriter actually included reunion of NQ and General Ma Shixiang. I was so disappointed by the novel because they never met after NQ left Wei Cheng for the Academy exams. Delighted as hell when I saw the series actually included tonnes of scenes between the two. That actually gives some closure to the readers who would love to see the father-son-like interaction between them.
The only thing thats lacking is the battlefield scenes. They're ridiculously cheapskate! Where the novel says THOUSANDS of cavalry, I can see only 30-40 people at most on screen. And the scene where the King marches into battle out of Wei Cheng, how come there's only 20-30 people escorting him? Where are the thousands of elite soldiers? And the heavy armour cavalry ambush, my god, THAT IS NOT HOW HEAVY ARMOUR CAVALRY LOOKS LIKE! How come the invincible heavy armoured cavalry thats feared throughout the land dresses exactly like NORMAL light cavalry? Where are the heavy armour that needs constant maintenance which only Tang could afford?? Gosh, The production team should learn a thing or two from Princess Agent, Eternal Love or even Ashes of Love team when it comes to battle scenes. Ever Night battle scenes are truly pathetic and disappointing!
Anyway, Cant wait to see season 3. and I hope Arthur comes back to the team....
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