This review may contain spoilers
Fiasco in Styles
Prior to watching “Veil of Shadows”, I admit that I have a lot on my plates right now, with “Love beyond the Grave” still ongoing and other stuffs catching behind. I wouldn’t have been tempted to have a peek on “Veil of Shadows” if it hadn’t been for my pretty boys (Tian Jiarui, Yan An, Chang Huasen, and more on the deck) casted in this drama. To be honest, I try to remind myself to be as realistic as possible to the painfully obvious fact that we’re dealing with the one of the most notoriously controversial directors, Guo Jingming. Back in 2024, I had an unpleasant experience of binging “Love Game in Eastern Fantasy” and “Fangs of Fortune” simultaneously – and ended up giving the latter a 9.0 due to my gullibility. But this time, it’s going to be another way round because I won’t be deceived for the second time anymore. I’m also fully aware that this may be an unpopular opinion, yet I still have the urge to pour out my inner words in this review, because I can’t bear to see a lot of people wasting their time on this type of drama. There will lots of yapping below (I can even yap about Youku as the laughingstock of all C-drama's platforms, or even Ju Jingyi's controversy about tax issue with Siba Media and yeah, I know that company is always up to no good), so please bear with me.
Edit: You can simply skip the first paragraph as I've changed my mind quite a lot from my earlier perspective.
“Veil of Shadows” is an original script written by Guo Jingming himself and is loosely based on one of his previous movies, Painted Skin: The Guo Jingming Edition. The story itself features four leads who are divided into two couples – the first couple comprises of a vengeful flood dragon demon Wu Shiguang and a cunning nine-tailed fox demon Wu Wangyan; the second an innocent-looking demon hunter who turns out to be a Dragon Deity himself, Ji Ling and an equally sly nine-tailed fox demon Lu Wuyi. Through interwoven fate, they meet in a chance encounter, when Xiaowei (a traitor of Formless Moon Sect) devours humans’ hearts and wreaks havoc in the human world, thus reluctantly join hands to catch Xiaowei. However, fate hasn’t stopped fooling with them yet, as they are faced with numerous life-and-death trials involving the blooming love of hundreds of years prior to this era.
Edit: The storyline improves gradually as the drama proceeds, even I begin to find my pleasure in watching "Veil of Shadows".
All the paragraphs below will be dedicated for my yapping session as I find numerous issues in this drama. Beware of spoiler alert too.
Firstly, the overly loud BGMs and the painfully inaudible voice-over. Honestly, I grow frustrated over times because of adjusting the volume of my buds and sometimes the BGMs are ear-splitting too. However, I still have to praise Guo Jingming for his bold move on using EDM-based BGMs with strong bass and beats in historical dramas, which is rarely seen in other historical counterparts. The more I listen to them, the more I'm getting possessed by those instrumentals.
Edit: I'm no longer yapping over the BGMs, rather I'm waiting for the production crew to release them globally. More people need to appraise those beautiful instrumentals.
Secondly, Guo Jingming still sticks to the so-called label of “all styles no substances”. Why do I say so? If you pore over the drama properly and strip it off from the xianxia trope, you’ll see that the main core of the plot is of murder mystery VR game-esque (if you have watched “Love Between Lines”, you can try to compare them), with the leads sitting and discussing what they should do to catch the murderer (Xiaowei) while trying to do something productive at the time being. Furthermore, the drama is plagued by tons of shallow empty talk which leads to nowhere and ends up becoming a humdrum to me, even ChatGPT can write a better script than him. Those dialogues aren’t even meaningful too, just an obvious attempt to force the plot to move from one scene to another. And who in their right mind would still flirt when murders are happening left and right (pointing out to Ji Ling and Lu Wuyi)? The only setback may be the main couple's interactions and the void conversation they have (sometimes I fast forward the second couple's scenes due to similar reason too).
Edit: EP 12 and 13 show remarkable improvement and no longer stick to the VR game's scripts, beginning to venture into a more intense game of manipulation amidst the hunt of the Star Stone. Another thing is that I'm completely invested in Li Jie and Yuan Wuhuo's backstory and I badly want to see how their arc will evolve (six-eyed butterfly demon is a nice choice, though. I always love butterfly demons). Also, EP 21 will become my latest favorite as my baby Tongguang finally shows up with his own love story (I mean Chang Huasen). In addition to that, we get a proper revelation of Li Jie and Yuan Wuhuo's flashbacks and how they are created. EP 24 showcases a lot of emotional impact regarding Ji Ling's flashbacks, why he volunteered to become a fake dragon deity, and his gradual transition from a simple-minded little fox to a mature and emotionless god.
Thirdly, Guo Jingming’s tendency to include sismance (and perhaps GL) stuffs as the girls always have intimate touch with each other. This also occurred in “Fangs of Fortune”, but it can be categorized as a minor issue to me.
Fourthly, Guo Jingming also loves over-the-top theatrical flair, which can be tedious over time. I know that he means to create huge emotional impact for the watchers, but I don’t feel anything at all – just staring blankly with a meh on my face. I’m not someone who can be affected by emotion, so maybe I’m an exception here, but who knows?
If you read this yapping session and perhaps, you’re a hardcore fan of Guo Jingming, you may see that everything is dedicated to castigating Guo Jingming. Well, I can’t blame the actors because they’re given those materials and have to make do with them. The boys are fine so far (but I don’t fast-forward Tian Jiarui and Yan An’s scenes only). For Joseph Zeng, I’m sorry that I’m no longer your fan, so let me fast forward a bit. The girls are more troublesome, and I literally fast forward all of their alluring tempting small talks – Chen Duling and Ju Jingyi have both worked hard to embody the vibe of nine-tailed vixens, but I still can’t help it and have least sympathy when skimping through their parts.
There are 20 OSTs in this drama, which is a shocking number for a moderate drama like “Veil of Shadows”, but my favorite will be Zhou Shen’s title song and Tian Jiarui's about the innocent fox. Other than that, I also like Yan An's song for Li Jie's theme. It hooks me up since I play the OST preview in loop.
I also want to commend the production team for creating grandeur background settings, beautiful costumes, and dozens of magic trinkets and artifacts. After a back-and-forth consideration, I decide to go all out with a 9.0. Honestly speaking, I should've made the score lower, but I can't bear to do it myself as I'm rooted deeply for "Veil of Shadows". Who cares about substances anymore?
All in all, I take back most of what I yap before, and perhaps I may rewatch the part where the over-the-top EDM tracks are played. One more thing I need to remind you is that don't get dizzy after going through the whole yapping. Good luck and happy watching!!!
Edit: You can simply skip the first paragraph as I've changed my mind quite a lot from my earlier perspective.
“Veil of Shadows” is an original script written by Guo Jingming himself and is loosely based on one of his previous movies, Painted Skin: The Guo Jingming Edition. The story itself features four leads who are divided into two couples – the first couple comprises of a vengeful flood dragon demon Wu Shiguang and a cunning nine-tailed fox demon Wu Wangyan; the second an innocent-looking demon hunter who turns out to be a Dragon Deity himself, Ji Ling and an equally sly nine-tailed fox demon Lu Wuyi. Through interwoven fate, they meet in a chance encounter, when Xiaowei (a traitor of Formless Moon Sect) devours humans’ hearts and wreaks havoc in the human world, thus reluctantly join hands to catch Xiaowei. However, fate hasn’t stopped fooling with them yet, as they are faced with numerous life-and-death trials involving the blooming love of hundreds of years prior to this era.
Edit: The storyline improves gradually as the drama proceeds, even I begin to find my pleasure in watching "Veil of Shadows".
All the paragraphs below will be dedicated for my yapping session as I find numerous issues in this drama. Beware of spoiler alert too.
Firstly, the overly loud BGMs and the painfully inaudible voice-over. Honestly, I grow frustrated over times because of adjusting the volume of my buds and sometimes the BGMs are ear-splitting too. However, I still have to praise Guo Jingming for his bold move on using EDM-based BGMs with strong bass and beats in historical dramas, which is rarely seen in other historical counterparts. The more I listen to them, the more I'm getting possessed by those instrumentals.
Edit: I'm no longer yapping over the BGMs, rather I'm waiting for the production crew to release them globally. More people need to appraise those beautiful instrumentals.
Secondly, Guo Jingming still sticks to the so-called label of “all styles no substances”. Why do I say so? If you pore over the drama properly and strip it off from the xianxia trope, you’ll see that the main core of the plot is of murder mystery VR game-esque (if you have watched “Love Between Lines”, you can try to compare them), with the leads sitting and discussing what they should do to catch the murderer (Xiaowei) while trying to do something productive at the time being. Furthermore, the drama is plagued by tons of shallow empty talk which leads to nowhere and ends up becoming a humdrum to me, even ChatGPT can write a better script than him. Those dialogues aren’t even meaningful too, just an obvious attempt to force the plot to move from one scene to another. And who in their right mind would still flirt when murders are happening left and right (pointing out to Ji Ling and Lu Wuyi)? The only setback may be the main couple's interactions and the void conversation they have (sometimes I fast forward the second couple's scenes due to similar reason too).
Edit: EP 12 and 13 show remarkable improvement and no longer stick to the VR game's scripts, beginning to venture into a more intense game of manipulation amidst the hunt of the Star Stone. Another thing is that I'm completely invested in Li Jie and Yuan Wuhuo's backstory and I badly want to see how their arc will evolve (six-eyed butterfly demon is a nice choice, though. I always love butterfly demons). Also, EP 21 will become my latest favorite as my baby Tongguang finally shows up with his own love story (I mean Chang Huasen). In addition to that, we get a proper revelation of Li Jie and Yuan Wuhuo's flashbacks and how they are created. EP 24 showcases a lot of emotional impact regarding Ji Ling's flashbacks, why he volunteered to become a fake dragon deity, and his gradual transition from a simple-minded little fox to a mature and emotionless god.
Thirdly, Guo Jingming’s tendency to include sismance (and perhaps GL) stuffs as the girls always have intimate touch with each other. This also occurred in “Fangs of Fortune”, but it can be categorized as a minor issue to me.
Fourthly, Guo Jingming also loves over-the-top theatrical flair, which can be tedious over time. I know that he means to create huge emotional impact for the watchers, but I don’t feel anything at all – just staring blankly with a meh on my face. I’m not someone who can be affected by emotion, so maybe I’m an exception here, but who knows?
If you read this yapping session and perhaps, you’re a hardcore fan of Guo Jingming, you may see that everything is dedicated to castigating Guo Jingming. Well, I can’t blame the actors because they’re given those materials and have to make do with them. The boys are fine so far (but I don’t fast-forward Tian Jiarui and Yan An’s scenes only). For Joseph Zeng, I’m sorry that I’m no longer your fan, so let me fast forward a bit. The girls are more troublesome, and I literally fast forward all of their alluring tempting small talks – Chen Duling and Ju Jingyi have both worked hard to embody the vibe of nine-tailed vixens, but I still can’t help it and have least sympathy when skimping through their parts.
There are 20 OSTs in this drama, which is a shocking number for a moderate drama like “Veil of Shadows”, but my favorite will be Zhou Shen’s title song and Tian Jiarui's about the innocent fox. Other than that, I also like Yan An's song for Li Jie's theme. It hooks me up since I play the OST preview in loop.
I also want to commend the production team for creating grandeur background settings, beautiful costumes, and dozens of magic trinkets and artifacts. After a back-and-forth consideration, I decide to go all out with a 9.0. Honestly speaking, I should've made the score lower, but I can't bear to do it myself as I'm rooted deeply for "Veil of Shadows". Who cares about substances anymore?
All in all, I take back most of what I yap before, and perhaps I may rewatch the part where the over-the-top EDM tracks are played. One more thing I need to remind you is that don't get dizzy after going through the whole yapping. Good luck and happy watching!!!
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