Anoif

This was super refreshing, highly highly recommend!!
Totally Men-In-Black style… defo a Ghostbusters+MIB+Marvel genre…. Appreciate the effort made by Chinese producers to venture into uncharted genre by spending on casting, props, CGI (series would have been a complete fail without decent special effects make up and CGI) and a surprisingly solid storyline, truly deserves praise. Even K-dramas don’t have anything similar, at least not that I know of.

Storyline/plot was generic at the start… basically modelled after MIB (they did it successfully, was natural and believable, surprisingly pretty funny/comedic as well), so the watch was really enjoyable..
but surprisingly as it progressed, the plots/cases actually have quite a bit of depth to them.. and were quite creative + interesting. The flow and editing was really smooth which is surprising given C-drama standards.

Also the final arc was really good, that completely caught me off guard. Usually C-dramas have messed up and/or rushed endings…

Think to begin with they could have casted a different actor for the ML…. Whomever it was had big shoes to fill esp when paired with a strong actress like Seo Ye Ji, just her gaze itself is naturally piercing (even more so with makeup) but the actor for the ML has a flat and unfocused gaze naturally. Just empty when he looks at you…

I failed, couldn’t get pass the poor production quality…. Not even kidding, was just really really bad. Shows how much C-dramas’ production progressed in the past 5 yrs.

Ah… that explains it… but in a way I felt the storyline was more realistic for an Asian woman even in current times (maybe it won’t be the case in 20-30yrs)…. Esp since her husband isn’t actually a jerk, he actually didn’t do anything “wrong” aside from not being the greatest husband + partner….. the issues they faced was actually super realistic for most married couples, and not everyone would get a divorce because of it considering they share a child.

Exact same thinking! I think it’s a solid 8.5.

Ah…. I never knew, then seriously poor Deng Lun…. This is just an error and overlook. Even I’ve made errors with my taxes… on many occasions. Lol.

Good list. I have a lot of overlaps too.

Would say that he’s more of an antihero…

Lol. Sad that it doesn’t have a huge fan base for its novel like Daomu Biji.

Lol. I rewatched Season 2 and prior to rewatching Season 1 I thought the same as you…. I was like…. I don’t remember them being very close…. AFTER rewatching Season 1 then yea, there was some weird “sexual” tension between them for most of the series, there was even a scene whereby she used her mouth to pick a necklace he was wearing!! But could tell that it was mostly her being very intrigued/attracted by him..

But yes, Elvira totally owned the role, Aliya was kinda odd as Huang Yan Yan, chemistry was off. Totally missed Elvira as Huang Yan Yan, she was a real badass!

No but there are similarities… so there is the whole mystery and secret factions surrounding this series as well. Like different sects with different skillsets + secrets and they get passed down from one generation to another.
There is also a lot of adventure because of that. It is more “realistic” than the tomb hunting genre because there are no supernatural elements.

Just to add…. With my intermediary Chinese…. I only get about 70-80% of it, the jargons, definition and plot is too technical….. I’m also rooting for Eng subs….

Hope this gets subbed in Eng for international viewers. It was really good…

Also, totally appreciate the production crew for casting actual bilingual Japanese + Mainland actors, makes the viewing experience so much more enjoyable and pleasant… also makes it very believable/realistic…

This is basically a prequel to the Mystery of Antiques and Midgame right? It’s basically the story of Xu Yuan’s grandfather? 🤓

Yeap. Was rushed but at least it turned out reasonable and sensible.

“Theoretically” it should be Zhang QiLing… well at least based on the novel for sure it is.

Liang Wan here really really really annoyed me. Shitz… and she is quite crucial to the plot…. I cringe almost like every time when she is in the picture.

Seriously… was perfect… like I mean there are soooooo many actors that play the China Emperor roles… like I can’t tell A from B honestly coz there are just too many… but he nailed this particular role head on. Very impressive and also memorable.

I did a short Google check on him and apparently he is the go-to Emperor actor though….. but I don’t think I’ve watched him prior to JoL.

Claps to the editing and production crew. It was rushed BUT the flow was natural unlike the crazy Mystic Nine drama I just rewatched.
Am glad C-drama editing seems to be somewhat progressing…

Ending was rushed but was smooth and coherent, they did address the ID theft issue!

Ideally it should have been a 1-hour episode then it would be close to perfect… surprisingly they closed the water contamination arc pretty abruptly… so they took a “shortcut” there…