This review may contain spoilers
Had so much potential.
I didn't hate it, but I'll never re-watch it. It's just like every other "past life/present life lovers" C-drama you've ever seen. There were at least three "mystery" plotlines that held my interest. The last one with General Wen made my jaw drop. I did NOT see that coming.
The characters were distinct, but only Bai Shi Qi had an arc. The rest were the same person at the end of the drama that they were in the beginning. I knew the main leads were going to end up together, it was just a matter of which episode it would happen. The two characters Li Qin played were world's apart in personality and I found that very enjoyable and well-written. Lu Yan's brooding, over-protective, almost stalker-ish personality got boring fast. Emote, damn you! Even after he felt love for DengDeng, he stayed stoic and standoffish. He also kept his hands in his pocket so much I was starting to wonder if he had topical drugs in there.
Did anyone else notice that these two characters never kissed? Can you believe that? The MAIN LEADS never had a kissing scene. How'd that happen?
The villain was your basic bad guy, that's all. He was good-looking, though; he had an awesome costume, and the actor did a great job portraying him.
There were two characters that I wished had more substance than just "man-servants": Peng Da Hai and Xin. I would have loved to see those two in a quirky, but adorable romantic plotline. Da Hai maybe falling in love with a "spirit" person and giving up the mountain homestead he loves to be with her. Xin could have fallen in love with a human that LuYan didn't approve of, causing conflict between them. Still, these were good support characters and the actors gave 100% to their respective roles.
The last episode was a big letdown after DengDeng defeated the female villain. I don't understand why storytellers keep writing characters that don't work together to defeat obstacles and enemies. Instead they make the main leads lie to their partners about their true intentions, then have them go off and do their own thing, where they die. That's not true love, that's stupidity. And what was that scene at the end where DengDeng and Da Hai interrupt a business to re-state motivations and story beats? Talk about wasting screen time that could have been put to better use, you know...like FINDING YOUR TRUE LOVE! What a dumb and boring ending to a show that was already one-step above mediocre.
For me, this drama was a 6/10. It had the potential to be a 9, but it was just too close to average.
The characters were distinct, but only Bai Shi Qi had an arc. The rest were the same person at the end of the drama that they were in the beginning. I knew the main leads were going to end up together, it was just a matter of which episode it would happen. The two characters Li Qin played were world's apart in personality and I found that very enjoyable and well-written. Lu Yan's brooding, over-protective, almost stalker-ish personality got boring fast. Emote, damn you! Even after he felt love for DengDeng, he stayed stoic and standoffish. He also kept his hands in his pocket so much I was starting to wonder if he had topical drugs in there.
Did anyone else notice that these two characters never kissed? Can you believe that? The MAIN LEADS never had a kissing scene. How'd that happen?
The villain was your basic bad guy, that's all. He was good-looking, though; he had an awesome costume, and the actor did a great job portraying him.
There were two characters that I wished had more substance than just "man-servants": Peng Da Hai and Xin. I would have loved to see those two in a quirky, but adorable romantic plotline. Da Hai maybe falling in love with a "spirit" person and giving up the mountain homestead he loves to be with her. Xin could have fallen in love with a human that LuYan didn't approve of, causing conflict between them. Still, these were good support characters and the actors gave 100% to their respective roles.
The last episode was a big letdown after DengDeng defeated the female villain. I don't understand why storytellers keep writing characters that don't work together to defeat obstacles and enemies. Instead they make the main leads lie to their partners about their true intentions, then have them go off and do their own thing, where they die. That's not true love, that's stupidity. And what was that scene at the end where DengDeng and Da Hai interrupt a business to re-state motivations and story beats? Talk about wasting screen time that could have been put to better use, you know...like FINDING YOUR TRUE LOVE! What a dumb and boring ending to a show that was already one-step above mediocre.
For me, this drama was a 6/10. It had the potential to be a 9, but it was just too close to average.
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