A solid product but not quite yet perfect.
Story: I will not spoil the story here given that the drama stops at a certain arc in the novel and there's still quite a lot of mileage to cover. Perhaps there will be a second and third season? Who knows? But even if this is the only live-action we get from this franchise, that's okay with me. I had read so many wuxia-xianxia-donghua-type novels and am a fan of minimal to no romance shounen type stories. Admittedly, "A Record of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality" is not in my top 5 of favourites. Story-wise, my favourite from this sort of genre is "The Desolate Era" but the live-action was very disappointing and a far-cry from the novel. In a nutshell, the story is pretty formulaic and although there's very little romance in it (keep in mind that this type of genre is aimed mostly for male readers), there will be many female interests towards the ML (shadowing of the typical harem concept). If this drama's aim is to gauge interests from drama lovers to go and read the novel or watch the animation, it has done enough to achieve this aim. A word of warning though - that the novel does get very lengthy and repetitive after a while. You'll need good endurance and stamina to get through it. My personal beef with this novel though is centered a lot on how I personally don't quite appreciate the ML's character and how the author wrote him to be. Tells a lot about the writer's worldview and philosophy on life - which I disagree. But that's just my personal preference.
Acting/Cast: By casting Yang Yang, this drama already achieved the visual credit it needed. You can't go wrong with Yang Yang as the actor - he is a mature actor. But maturity in acting does not necessarily translate to excellent acting because a mature actor can be quite set in his/her acting style and lack flexibility and new interpretation of his/her acting. I had seen Yang Yang in so many dramas of this similar genre - costume, special effects, wuxia/xianxia etc - and he has been pretty consistent in his acting. He has definitely carved out a reputation as an idol actor but not necessarily as a serious actor. Basically, he's a " safe choice". As for Gina, she has also played it safe in this drama. Generally, everyone delivered. There are no major flaws in acting. Acting was acceptable; just lacking that special or additional umph to push it to the exceptional realm. The biggest flaw of this drama is not the acting, but the editing. Understandably that this is a long story and they wanted to cover a certain number of story arcs in just 30 eps, it's a challenge to edit the drama without missing key scenes or plots. However, there are instances in the drama where the editing was pretty glaring - like it's done by a student who's still learning how to edit dramas. One wonders if they had budgeted on the editing team in order to pay for a big shot actor Yang Yang to star in this drama.
Music: The OSTs are suitable and definitely reflect the fact that this story is male-centric.
Rewatch value: Because I am not a fan of the story, I am not that enamored to the drama, hence the slightly lower rewatch value I gave it.
Overall: I gave it 8/10. It is a solid product worth your time watching but I won't be gushing about it because it's still lacking from being an excellent product.
Acting/Cast: By casting Yang Yang, this drama already achieved the visual credit it needed. You can't go wrong with Yang Yang as the actor - he is a mature actor. But maturity in acting does not necessarily translate to excellent acting because a mature actor can be quite set in his/her acting style and lack flexibility and new interpretation of his/her acting. I had seen Yang Yang in so many dramas of this similar genre - costume, special effects, wuxia/xianxia etc - and he has been pretty consistent in his acting. He has definitely carved out a reputation as an idol actor but not necessarily as a serious actor. Basically, he's a " safe choice". As for Gina, she has also played it safe in this drama. Generally, everyone delivered. There are no major flaws in acting. Acting was acceptable; just lacking that special or additional umph to push it to the exceptional realm. The biggest flaw of this drama is not the acting, but the editing. Understandably that this is a long story and they wanted to cover a certain number of story arcs in just 30 eps, it's a challenge to edit the drama without missing key scenes or plots. However, there are instances in the drama where the editing was pretty glaring - like it's done by a student who's still learning how to edit dramas. One wonders if they had budgeted on the editing team in order to pay for a big shot actor Yang Yang to star in this drama.
Music: The OSTs are suitable and definitely reflect the fact that this story is male-centric.
Rewatch value: Because I am not a fan of the story, I am not that enamored to the drama, hence the slightly lower rewatch value I gave it.
Overall: I gave it 8/10. It is a solid product worth your time watching but I won't be gushing about it because it's still lacking from being an excellent product.
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