Apurva

Heartbreaking & yet that didn't stop me from adding this to my rewatch list!

Writing this review on my second rewatch. I'm already on Part 2, but wanted to drop the review before completing that one since I still have things fresh in my mind.

I found this show as a recommendation of the drama "The Starry Love". When I played the first episode, I kept wondering if one of them was a remake.
The visuals in "The Starry Love" are much better than first few episodes of "Immortal Samsara: Part 1". However, the visuals got better from then on. The effects were more believable.
While effects might have been an issue in the first few episodes, the outfits were always astonishingly good. I coveted many of Yin Yuan/Tan Zhou's outfits.
So, thinking that they were a remake I was committed to watching the entire thing. (I don't mind watching stories with the same trope if I loved one of them)
So, the scene started in the heavenly realm, the dances, sisters born out of twin flowers, immortals forbidden to love, the disturbances from the demon realm, and so on. There were so many similarities. But it didn't take me long to realize that while they shared a resemblance to each other both "The Starry Love" and "Immortal Samsara" tell different stories.

Characters:
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Zhi Xi: The elder sister, twin to Yan Dan, was one of the first characters that made me realize that the differences in the stories. The Starry Love's Ye Tan got a sister who was the sole person who cherished her, however Samsara's Zhi Xi was always envious of her little sister. If you are an average person who has to work hard at everything, then It is easier to relate to Zhi Xi's character more than Yan Dan's, who on the other hand, has always been cheerful and carefree. Someone for whom things always come easily. It was sad to see the how Zhi Xi's allowed others perception of her doubt not only herself but Yan Dan as well. She was so easily convinced that Yan Dan was against her that she played a huge role in Yan Dan's misery. Later, the story tried hard to convince the viewers that she did her best to make up to Yan Dan, but her redemption arc just didn't seem sincere. I just rewatched Ep 12 and I realized that I had put on rose-colored glasses, hoping that Zhi Xi didn't go out of her way to lie to Yan Dan & create all that misery, but she did. She was first to take the reward for saving Yingyuan, which she didn't, & last to bear all the costs of it, she later came up with excuses to pacify Yan Dan's hurt feelings & continued to lie to her. When Yan Dan jumped off the bridge, we could all see the guilt on Zhi Xi's face but there was no real devastation. It could be because of the actress, maybe she wasn't able to convey her feelings through her expressions. Despite that she was an interesting character, a weak willed woman who tried to save her ass and framed her own sister who wanted nothing but the best for her. She truly was the weaker sister. Even by the end of it, she put majority of the blame on Yingdeng when she was the one who destroyed her own sister.

Yan Dan | Bai Piao Liang: The younger sister, twin to Zhi Xi. Okay, before watching this drama, I didn't realize that the actress portraying Yan Dan was the same one from "Go Go Squid" and it was a bit surprising to me. I liked Yang Zi looks much in Samsara. Since I had come off binge watching "The Starry Love", I was also pleasantly surprised to hear Yan Dan's voice, it pretty much sounded same as Ye Tan's. There's also something about Yang Zi, she is such a treat to watch. I have seen her performance in "Ashes of Love" as well, she makes the screen light up with her presence. I wish there were more interesting historical romances with her as a lead. Coming back to Yan Dan as a character, she is a carefree light hearted sprite, who wants to take care of her sister and her friends and write for a living, someone who doesn't really have a lofty ambition but someone who's actually warmhearted. It gives me pleasure to watch such characters thrive and makes me doubly sad to see them suffer. She suffered a lot, framed by her sister, abandoned by her love, punished for crimes she didn't commit. The sad part, through her redemption arc, Zhi Xi was never selfless enough to clear Yan Dan's name. Yan Dan was too giving and forgiving of people who did her wrong.

Emperor Yin Yuan/Tang Zhou: Cheng Yi is wow! Him portraying Emperor Yin Yuan is his best performance I have seen to date. The aura he presents, the stylist did such a wonderful job on his entire look, however that all would have been for naught had it not been for Cheng Yi brining his A game to the picture. He did such a great job portraying the "Couldn't care less about anything" look. The indifference was portrayed so brilliantly, it came as a shock to see him further display a wide range of emotions. Yin Yuan as a character was highly complex . As we seem him put things in motions to save Yan Dan, we also see how Yan Dan didn't measure up to the entire world in his eyes. Even when he was being punished, what he did to Yan Dan was the last reason listed for his punishment. He also let her down so much. She was found guilty of a crime she didn't commit, and instead of clearing her name, the let the criminal get away with it. The criminal lived on and prospered well while Yan Dan had to struggle so hard to forget the betrayal & pain. Granted, he did go through heartbreak, refused to forget her as a punishment to himself, but he never had to question Yan Dan's love for him. Yan Dan on the other hand knew that he abandoned her after she gave so much of her to him. After all that Yan Dan was put through, it wasn't much to ask for her to find someone else in the mortal world or to feel something for YuMo, but not enough time had passed for her to enjoy her life that Tan Zhou showed up.

YuMo: It was really hard to consider him as a SML in the beginning, he just seemed like silly comic relief and his story didn't really speak to my heart. I could only see him as a guy Yan Dan could be interested in once he came to the mortal world. He was such a sweet guy that I wanted Yan Dan to give him a chance. Even though he clearly had feelings for Yan Dan and did everything for her, he never tried to sabotage her happiness. This is such a stark contrast to YingDeng's love for Yin Yuan, who thought she was doing her best to protect Yin Yuan but was mostly trying to ensure that he didn't end up with Yan Dan. So, YuMo was a greenest flag in this story.

After watching Immortal Samsara, I have become a huge fan of Yang Zi and Cheng Yi. I wish to see them together in more dramas as main leads. I tried watching "Noble Aspirations" but they don't have enough screentime together to enjoy it fully. They are not even a couple a couple in that.

Advice to anyone who wants to watch it:
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Go ahead! It will make you sob at times but its a beautiful disaster that you won't regret watching.

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Worth the time spent watching this masterfully written and depicted story!

To begin with, I read some reviews and didn't want to see Luo Yun Xi portray an antagonist character, however, it's a good thing that I changed my mind. He did a wonderful job in that character, a character that you like in the beginning. But as time goes by, you see how it changes and not for the better. He is one of the few characters that I didn't mind having a redemption arc.

Jin Mi/ The Frost Flower/ The Water Immortal:
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Jin Mi was also one of the best character Yang Zi has portrayed, another was her Yan Dan in Immortal Samsara. When I saw her in Go Go Squid, I didn't think much of her acting skills, but these historical romances changed my mind. She has shown such range of emotions, reminding me of Korean actress Gong Hyo-jin. Coming to her character, we have to consider her handicap, the unfeeling pill, the elixir that stunted her development and ability to discern things. Everyone in the floral realm appeared very weak, beginning from the ladies who raised her. They relied blindly on the pill, not preparing Jim Mi for what was coming in the future. For a 4000 year old, she had barely the understanding of teenager. And the Yun Elixir (the unfeeling pill) plotline left some loose ends. I mean did the elixir only cut of romantic love and not familial love? Because she loved her newfound father and auntie so much that she wanted revenge, those are some strong feelings. Phoenix was the first to fall in love with her, but it wasn't until later, a few months before entering the mortal realm that Jin Mi started reciprocating the feelings. Even in the mortal realm she hid things from him, she could have told him that she was poisoned and going to die, especially since she accepted his feelings. Her character was written beautifully, this was a coming of age story that made you hate her at times and love her at others. I'm glad she had to face the consequences of killing the phoenix, even once she was reincarnated. It was fair because she didn't love him as much as he loved her. She was so easily tricked into believing that he killed her parents, had little faith in him. Even once she found out that he didn't do it, the first thing she thought of was that she killed him mistakenly. Not how she could make up for it or bring him back. She wanted to bring him back to be with him, not only to atone for her sins. So, I wasn't really surprised with the way he treated her when he came back to life.

Xu Feng / Phoenix / Fire Deity
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This drama introduced me to Deng Lun, he and Yang Zi were well-matched in their acting prowess. Xu Feng was one of the greenest flags in Cdramas you'll ever get to see, much similar to Sifeng from Love & Redemption. Even when he tried to hate the FL for what she had done, he found it unpalatable. But he did hate her, you have to when the person you are trying to protect stabs you in the back. The worst part of it was not that she stabbed him, it was heartbreaking for sure, but she stabbed him in the back. Even when she did that, all he did was ask her if she ever loved him. She denied it and that was the last thing he ever heard. Even when he came back from the dead, he didn't for a moment think about getting revenge against her. He only wanted to live his life and not bother with others. Apart from Run Yu, he was the one who suffered the most throughout the series, at the hands of the Jin Mi, his parents, and let's not forget Su Hi. The worst character Tai Wei, the heavenly emperor, who raped the woman he claimed to love and just wanted people to forgive and forget. What's worse, he still claimed to love her. Him along with his crazy wife were the reason Xu Feng suffered so much. Had they left it alone and minded their actual responsibilities, they wouldn't have meddled in their son's life so much, causing him untold grief. Let's not forget Su Hi, this trio went out of its way to make others miserable. The one flaw that Xu Feng had was he overlooked his parents crimes and tried to get them pardoned at every opportunity when he should have been disgusted by them. Even when he thought that his mother could have killed Jin Mi's father, he wanted to find a way to save her. His mother did kill Run Yu's mother, for that, he could only apologize, which was fine and reasonable, but what wasn't was not calling his mother out on it. He enabled her in that way. He also knew how his mother treated Run Yu and while he called her out on it, they were still living same toxic cycle where she continuously put Run Yu down.

Just a phenomenal groups of actors that worked together on a well-written story.

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Good for the first 10-15 episodes.

I didn't read the reviews for this one before going into it, should have. I just wanted to see Garvey Jin in another romantic drama but it was for the naught. His story only got interesting in the last couple of episodes that was the only good part about those episodes.

The story is so bad halfway through. Why can't these people talk things out? What's with keeping the baby from the father? Its not like he is going to be crappy father, the ML was a green flag and honestly would have been a much better father than the mother. As a role model for the child, she should have at least considered how her decisions would affect the baby but no. Once you find out you are pregnant, reach out to the fellow. Stop making decision for the guy, if he said he didn't want to be a father once he found out, then that's another story. But that was not this guy at all.

Just felt like wasted 9 hours watching this. Had to skip most of the scenes since they were not very impactful.

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Never thought I would be tempted into watching a drama like this

It was more focused on the Female leads struggles as she tries to leave her despicable cheating husband. The struggles were so beautifully and her relationship with the mistress was also an eyeopener.

The actors did a great job, making each moment worth the watch.

As much as I like it, I am not a fan of the direction the story took. Despite her trying handle things calmly, her trash of a husband tried to gaslight her and make it seem like it was all her fault. He even kidnapped their daughter who he rarely makes time for.

I wanted this to be more empowering for her but it lacked in that way.

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Actors did a wonderful job portraying their characters

The best part about this drama are the actors. I added this to my watchlist because of Ryu Soo Young and I don't regret watching this. He was great in this and so were the other actors.

I hesitated to watch the drama because when it come to twins stories always portray them as being polar opposites, with the doormat twin being the lead. That was exactly what's wrong with this drama. (Let's not even talk about the story, it went as you would expect.)

Although I rooted for the leads to get together, I wanted Sun Hee to do better! She is such a mess. In front of her daughter she lets people treat her like shit, she always apologizes for things she hasn't done wrong. I felt so damn bad for the daughter who had to grow up with such parents. I felt bad for her as well, I just wanted her to stop making such poor decisions.

Do Hee is a piece of shit and that's what her character was meant to be. Since she was just a prop anyways, should have let her stay in that bed and not recover. She didnt' deserve her mother or sister, Tae Ri was more suited for her.

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Because even in unrequited love, I loved myself - Hye Ri

I added this to my list because of Shin Hye Sun, I know not a lot of people enjoyed her in Welcome to Samdalri but that was my second Shin Hye Sun drama and I liked it. So far this one is even better. I have always enjoyed dramas, movies, and books that tackle dissociative identity disorder, so this was bonus for me.

With the way their relationship unfolded I wouldn't have been surprised if they hadn't ended up together. What I wanted to see was the moment the other personality (Hye Ri) came into existence.

Eun Ho & Hyeon O's relationship was such a tangled mess, both stuck in that love-hate relationship since they can't get over each other. Poor Kang Ju Yeon, I like him better because he has been much kinder to Eun Ho (Hye Ri), but at the same time Hyeon O is kinda fun to watch. I like watching Kang Ju Yeon & Hye Ri together, they are so adorable but with the intense feelings between Hyeon O and Eun Ho, he might loose and it is going to be sad. I am okay with her ending up any one of these two as long as they decide to communicate well in the future.

When it comes to Shin Hye Sun's characters here, I do prefer Eun Ho to Hye Ri. But all of them are interesting.

The one thing that I can't get over is Hyeon O being unnecessarily mean to Eun Ho.

Is it absolutely necessary to humiliate her like that when she is already down?

If you have broken up, then move on and stop dragging her down. If her work is not up to the mark then whatever critic he has, he can do it officially instead of going mean girl outside office hours.

At times, I want to dissect Jung Hyeon O's brain so bad, we get that you are trying to help her in your own way but my boy it doesn't hurt to say nice words. It is so easy to say all those mean things why not just put in some effort and say something nice to her.

Eun Ho and Hyeon O are such a hot mess. They have such a strange and toxic dependance going on, on the plus side, at least he was there for her after the breakdown she had while anchoring. What he said wasn't wrong, since they both wanted different things in life, it made sense to break up. But they were together for 8 years, none of them thought to sit and talk about where there life was headed? He was harsh when breaking up but that seems to be his personality trait.

I might have liked Hyeon O a bit better if the creators had showed her more of his side after the breakup, we barely got a glimpse. I wanted to see how his life went on after their break up, the raw emotions and not the mask he puts on. But we can't deny that whenever she was with Hyeon O she seemed more like Hye Ri than Eun Ho.

I would have rated it 10 if not for the sloppy hair on Hye Ri, it bothers me so much I feel as if it were on my own face. Also, I just feel that they should have discussed all the hurtful words he threw at her, it just seemed like that was glossed over.

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Loved the visuals of the leads and the chemistry.

Reminded me of The Greatest Love featuring Cha Seung Won because the actors gruff nature and voice seemed pretty similar to me. I loved the pairing and enjoyed watching their romance no matter how illogical things were when it came to the story. Honestly, this is the first medical drama where more patients have died than being saved. The story was far too confusing and not at all interesting.

For some reason, the female characters were not very well thought out. The female lead character in particular wasn't fully fleshed out, even the male's lead's ex fiancé was properly written. The shift in characters were quite abrupt as if we were doing hyde and jekyl instead of character growth.

Regardless, I enjoyed at least the romance part of the drama, for me these two were cute together and I wanted to see more.

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Ha Joon's character was the glue that held it all together.

Had it not been for Ha Joon's character Kang Tae Ho, this would have been such a waste of time. The only person worth watching was him, he was a green flag but by the end I hoped that he also cared about himself a little more. Didnt like him in the beginning, there wasn't much to like but once he stopped being an ass that was quite early on he was golden.

As much as I feel for Lee Hyo Sim, she didn't have to abandon Tae Ho. They could have talked it out, it would have been a decent thing to do for him, especially after the way he had treasured her.

Boy was she messed up, she gives a liver to a father who abandons her but abandons a man who cherishes her?

Her family was kinda shitty, I was hoping that she would just be done with them. The worst of them were the wannabe lawyer brother and her mom, both so much like each other, expecting her to pay for them and then treating her like crap.

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Pretty Darn Good!

Worth the time spent watching it. The story was nuanced, the only arc that seemed a bit weird was the Park Jung Woo trying to be the bad guy, but he wasn't all that bad. Despite that, I loved all of the characters, well, except for the initial Ji Hong Ah, at least she changed a bit later on becoming more palatable.

The romance between the main leads was lovely. I didn't much like that she dropped the ball by not picking up the call but I understand her hesitation over the long-distance relationship. The breakup seemed reasonable as well, they had been together for a while and he refused to open up. Yes he had his reasons but like she said just watching their performance made me lonely for her.

I saw some negative reviews and lot of people upvoting them, I'm surprised by this, because I like this one very much.

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Serving a toxic romance on steroids.

Gu Yi was Liang Dai Wen's personal little yoyo, when he was done playing with it, it would lie discarded in a pile of mess.

I kept hoping that Gu Yi would at least get to experience some ounce of healthy relationship with Xu Guan Rui, who was way better companion for her, but alas writers never fully explored that. Instead they chose to stick with the absurd game of push and pull between Gu Yi.

Gu Yi was in dire need of some therapy here, she kept continuously going back for more trouble.

Liang Dai Wen was a better man when he felt no emotions compared to the one who treated like Gu Yi like shit when he had his emotions, kissing her one day, and brutally rejecting her next day. (Young Adult romance books are full of these stories and I wish they would read better more healing romances)

It started out well and I expected it to be more nuanced focused on treatment rather than the push and pull. There were so many different ways to make it a decent story. I am hoping angels falls sometime is better, if it isn't I am done with all of Lin Yi's dramas because despite him being a decent actor, the scripts he picks are not up to my tastes.

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I expected something like "One Spring Night" but alas.

I thought this would have some family drama and that the age-gap between the couple would be the major, but it was just a year so not that big of an issue. The first episode is a bit boring and thing only get interesting at the end of it, which kept me watching.

I came here for Won Jin A and Ro Woon, but I am not a fan of their story. Their respective characters Yun Song A and Chae Hyeon Seung didn't endear me as a couple, because Chae Hyeon Seung put way too much effort for someone who bailed on him even when he was willing to give it a shot. She put herself first so many times, thinking of Chae Hyeon Seung as an afterthought. I am glad for him that they were able to make it work but I think he could have done better.

The real star couple of this story were Chae Ji Seung and Lee Jae Un, however brief their screentime, these two were good to each other.

Speaking of the story, the writers need to stop with the breakup in the final 2 episodes, it is getting old and just makes your characters and story look bad. It doesn't delved into any character development, in fact it takes away from whatever growth they have had so far.

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It was about to go on my rewatch list but then the breakup happened.

The drama was so close to being one of those warm and inviting ones, but they messed it up with the breakup.

Wei Zhi and Shan Chong could have easily worked it out together. We don't really need these kind of incentives to keep watching. I as a viewer don't enjoy dramas that add breakup in the last arc of a drama. I especially don't like it when the person who initiates the break up isn't the one to take the first step towards patch up.

Shan Shan and Dai Duo were such a great couple. I enjoyed their relationship because it was so damn heartwarming, the care and love for each other was easy to see and not once did they waver. I wonder what Dai Duo's family is like, I hope they welcome Shan Shan with open arms.

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Good characters failed by a story that only picks up in the last arc.

I watched sword and fairy 4 before this and was actually more interested in the SF6 because of the cast. Both of them lacked when it came to the story. Despite looking forward to watching this one, it was hard to get past episodes. Had to use fast forward far too much for the liking. The story lacked depth and just couldn't ensnare me.

They had decent characters but the story was all kinds of messed up. The supposedly good sect was okay sacrificing a thousand to save the rest of the world's population because one member of their sect came back from the future and told them so. So many important characters lacked the backstory that could have fleshed them out. I finally got into the drama around the final 10 episodes and most of them were sad.

I am few of those who believe that Bian Luo Huan wasn't really wiped out of existence, his sacrifice was not in vain. Part of him will always live on in Yue Jin Zhao. Sacrifices should be rewarded and not forgotten.

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Only Cheng Yi can pull off a carefree character like Li Lian Hua.

I mostly stick to romantic dramas, a little bit of romance is like a salt in food for me. However, I watched this drama solely because of Cheng Yi & it was worth it. This drama also helped to rediscovered Joseph Zheng. Last year, I had watched his Hi Venus and thought he was dashing but Fang Duo Bing was such a good character for him. Wish that we had more of Di Fei Sheng working along with them, however his screen time was very short.

Some of the cases were interesting while others were not, I mostly skipped some scenes and focused on those where the main trio were interacting. The main story was kinda weird with the bugs, bugs just remind me of starship troopers. Having seen Chen Duling in Till the End of the Moon, it was hard for me to think of her as the good guy, her character was so insecure and devious in it, especially since I had rewatched the drama a week ago. There wasn't much for her to do in this drama, she had but a small role to play and she did it well. Her fiancé was an immature idiot in this drama.

But anyways it was fun watching the main trio go on adventures together. At one point in time, I wondered how 4 horses managed to drag that big ass lotus tower all over the place. But then again, architecture is a marvel. It sure was so good to look at and would be such a great place to live in.

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