decent love story
TLDR: decent watch if you keep at it. positive point: great kiss chemistry (everything else is ok/decent) and a HE (albeit way too short), negative point: I still don’t like jieli.
Review:
while I can follow the story easily enough, and I can see the merits of it, at time, it was rather boring and I fell asleep a few times. the first 4 episodes do take a bit to start (i.e. if you are not a fan of either Dylan or Esther, and not in the mood for xianxia, you might find it hard to get pass the first 2 eps). the pace at time is slow, there are boring parts (talking with the ultimate bad guy to explain stuffs, interactions between the supports) and there are annoying parts (95% of jieli’s time), the sweet moments between the two leads are far few in between those moments that it’s barely holding me on. this series is lucky because my view of WHD has improved and my iqiyi subscription is about to run out, so I was determined to finish this. luckily, the OST (while not amazing, there are like 2 good songs, Thats good enough to put you in the mood but not good enough to re-listen outside the drama) works well with the emotions the scenes needed to convey and hold the audience’s attentions. the leads’ kiss on first watch does pull your attentions and feeling, however, I can’t say it does on rewatch 🤷♀️the acting: WHD’s acting here is quite good, I heard ppl say because of his dub voice, his acting was a lot better, but I watched with dub, and I like his acting. his coldness are demonstrated with complexity, it’s not all the same, I’d call it 50 shades of coldness. meanwhile, I disliked it when Esther took over his soul, her coldness is just that of a dead fish, it doesnt match with DFQC’s usual coldness, you can tell it’s not gel well. meanwhile when WHD become orchid, you believe it’s orchid, maybe because orchid is rather simple to portray but his face, acting, legs n hands all point to orchid. Esther, this is the second drama I watched of her, first was LGIEF, and while she looks pretty in certain shots, her acting does not move me in either dramas so far. the guy has always shine better. does she act badly? no, not really. on the first watch, where I did abandon the series because her voice was a bit grating to the ears and I was not in the mood for it, on second watch, because it was dub over, her voice isn’t as noticeable, but I can still hear it, so her acting is fine, it just doesn’t touch me 🤷♀️maybe because of that, the love story of orchid n DFQC doesn’t leave any emotional fixation for me, and this is why this series is only an 8. not a bad watch but it doesn’t hold any place special for me. at time, I stop watching and didn’t have a desire to come back, but I thought since this series was so famous, I should really finish it n see what’s the huha about! I wouldn’t mind giving this a 9, as there are parts Thats quite good, like DFQC’s confession on the love bridge, and some of their kissing scenes, as it does portray well the emotions it try to convey, but these are so little that I feel it’ll be injustice to other better, more rounded series.
the complexity of the story: we wasted a lot of time on this past god of war story, n it was not used effectively! if you get to see how Rong Hao had to witness each of his master’s life time ended, in the end, this series will be their story lol, because it’s emotional impact is far greater than anything on the show. but they had to tone it down, added a bunch of boring dialogues, how it was told and so the potential was wasted. Orchid and DFQC love story while nice, it was just ok for me. we get to see character growth for DFQC, not so much for orchid, her character is rather meh, not bad, but nothing to ride home about either. they take turn to be punished/tortured so they can be together also somehow bored me 🤷♀️with DFQC - great! with orchid, not bad but only happen once so it wasn’t as strong 🤷♀️their seperation also did not have enough time to stew/brew lol. Orchid grew back so fast, n she barely acknowledged his efforts 😒 mood killer lol. and the end came so fast, we don’t see her suffer/yearning for him either. in this sort of idol story, a bit of brewing goes a long way.
In the end, the character I love the most was DanYin lol, she’s the usual spoiled brat become good, she didn’t have that much screen time (even less than jieli 🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️), but none of it was filler or wasted. and her unwavering desire to protect the one she loves, be it her dad or her crush, while knowing what’s right and what’s wrong, is admirable, especially when you know she ain’t special in anyway lol. all in all, her character progression is easily the best in the show. sadly, her twin was indeed her polar opposite, for as much as I love DanYin, I hated Jieli, she can die, n she annoyed me and almost made me drop the series. you know when I have to skip her parts even though I’m watching this as dubs (meaning if I want to, I just ignore it n let it run on the background!). idc for her or her love story, if this is the second lead couple 🙄🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️
Do I recommend it? yes, I guess so. would it be the top of my recommendations: not really, but it’s still pretty high on my list, better than LGIEF (which I haven’t bothered to complete the last 2 eps 🙄😒🤦♀️).
Review:
while I can follow the story easily enough, and I can see the merits of it, at time, it was rather boring and I fell asleep a few times. the first 4 episodes do take a bit to start (i.e. if you are not a fan of either Dylan or Esther, and not in the mood for xianxia, you might find it hard to get pass the first 2 eps). the pace at time is slow, there are boring parts (talking with the ultimate bad guy to explain stuffs, interactions between the supports) and there are annoying parts (95% of jieli’s time), the sweet moments between the two leads are far few in between those moments that it’s barely holding me on. this series is lucky because my view of WHD has improved and my iqiyi subscription is about to run out, so I was determined to finish this. luckily, the OST (while not amazing, there are like 2 good songs, Thats good enough to put you in the mood but not good enough to re-listen outside the drama) works well with the emotions the scenes needed to convey and hold the audience’s attentions. the leads’ kiss on first watch does pull your attentions and feeling, however, I can’t say it does on rewatch 🤷♀️the acting: WHD’s acting here is quite good, I heard ppl say because of his dub voice, his acting was a lot better, but I watched with dub, and I like his acting. his coldness are demonstrated with complexity, it’s not all the same, I’d call it 50 shades of coldness. meanwhile, I disliked it when Esther took over his soul, her coldness is just that of a dead fish, it doesnt match with DFQC’s usual coldness, you can tell it’s not gel well. meanwhile when WHD become orchid, you believe it’s orchid, maybe because orchid is rather simple to portray but his face, acting, legs n hands all point to orchid. Esther, this is the second drama I watched of her, first was LGIEF, and while she looks pretty in certain shots, her acting does not move me in either dramas so far. the guy has always shine better. does she act badly? no, not really. on the first watch, where I did abandon the series because her voice was a bit grating to the ears and I was not in the mood for it, on second watch, because it was dub over, her voice isn’t as noticeable, but I can still hear it, so her acting is fine, it just doesn’t touch me 🤷♀️maybe because of that, the love story of orchid n DFQC doesn’t leave any emotional fixation for me, and this is why this series is only an 8. not a bad watch but it doesn’t hold any place special for me. at time, I stop watching and didn’t have a desire to come back, but I thought since this series was so famous, I should really finish it n see what’s the huha about! I wouldn’t mind giving this a 9, as there are parts Thats quite good, like DFQC’s confession on the love bridge, and some of their kissing scenes, as it does portray well the emotions it try to convey, but these are so little that I feel it’ll be injustice to other better, more rounded series.
the complexity of the story: we wasted a lot of time on this past god of war story, n it was not used effectively! if you get to see how Rong Hao had to witness each of his master’s life time ended, in the end, this series will be their story lol, because it’s emotional impact is far greater than anything on the show. but they had to tone it down, added a bunch of boring dialogues, how it was told and so the potential was wasted. Orchid and DFQC love story while nice, it was just ok for me. we get to see character growth for DFQC, not so much for orchid, her character is rather meh, not bad, but nothing to ride home about either. they take turn to be punished/tortured so they can be together also somehow bored me 🤷♀️with DFQC - great! with orchid, not bad but only happen once so it wasn’t as strong 🤷♀️their seperation also did not have enough time to stew/brew lol. Orchid grew back so fast, n she barely acknowledged his efforts 😒 mood killer lol. and the end came so fast, we don’t see her suffer/yearning for him either. in this sort of idol story, a bit of brewing goes a long way.
In the end, the character I love the most was DanYin lol, she’s the usual spoiled brat become good, she didn’t have that much screen time (even less than jieli 🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️), but none of it was filler or wasted. and her unwavering desire to protect the one she loves, be it her dad or her crush, while knowing what’s right and what’s wrong, is admirable, especially when you know she ain’t special in anyway lol. all in all, her character progression is easily the best in the show. sadly, her twin was indeed her polar opposite, for as much as I love DanYin, I hated Jieli, she can die, n she annoyed me and almost made me drop the series. you know when I have to skip her parts even though I’m watching this as dubs (meaning if I want to, I just ignore it n let it run on the background!). idc for her or her love story, if this is the second lead couple 🙄🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️
Do I recommend it? yes, I guess so. would it be the top of my recommendations: not really, but it’s still pretty high on my list, better than LGIEF (which I haven’t bothered to complete the last 2 eps 🙄😒🤦♀️).
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