Lost its way
June 2025
Epic fantasy story of survival, revenge, love, hate, abuse, and eveything in-between, plus travelling in time, and dream worlds.
A sumptuous watch, with very good CGI, costumes, makeup and sets. A beautiful cast too and plenty of characters.
It started well and got straight into things, laying the plot's foundations. It is quite bloody at times; I don't think I've ever seen characters cough up blood (something cultivators do when their energy, or qi, is damaged, or they over-exert themselves) as much, in one drama, in my life!
Unfortunately, it started to stall for me. The flip between different incarnations of the main characters when in different lives, was somewhat clumsily handled. This confused me at times, although I did find my attention flagging, so perhaps that's my fault.
Whilst strong, focussed and undeniably beautiful, given her remit, I found the attitude of the FL character (Li Su Su / Ye Xi Wu, played by Bai Lu) to her 'target', character Tantai Jin (Luo Yun Xi), really frustrating.
After travelling back in time, she ends up as his wife; a nasty, malicious character, in a miserable marriage. It has to be assumed they looked the same, as no reference was made to this. She is nothing like that person, and so her behaviour towards him and others is very different. This is blamed on good old memory loss.
On the one hand she's thinking that he could be prevented from turning into a devil, or rather the Demon King, and on the other, it's that she has to kill him. The story see-saws back and forth on this, and that irritated me.
Given Tantai Jin's backstory, it didn't surprise me he lacked emotion and a moral compass, one day becoming the revenge driven Demon King. As his wife has 'changed', however, he very slowly begins to see and respond to her differently, as she treats him better. It gives hope he could be saved if nurtured.
However, instead of building on this, and even though she sees the hell, poor conditions, humiliation, and abuse he's lived with since being a child, she has almost zero empathy. It was startling. I disliked her character immensely at those times.
We then get this same roller-coaster of hate/love/kill/save, throughout the drama. Almost all his evil reactions stem from her poor choices, lack of communication, and deception.
Key nasty characters (and there are more than a few), get listened to and have influence, time and again. It's infuriating. The capacity of some characters to forgive, is both unfulfilling and utterly misplaced. One in particular, regardless of her atrocious crimes, ends up walking about and back in the thick of things, like nothing happened.... in more than one of her guises!
There is a lot of tragedy, but I only got really moved in episodes depicting Tantai Jin's early life; his mistreatment and his numerous betrayals by people he trusted.
That's the main reason Li Su Su / Ye Xi Wu's character didn't add up. She could have changed him, but instead fuelled his mistrust, jealousy (caused by that mistrust) and evil thoughts, by lying to and deceiving him, so many times. She does make a sacrifice, but even then, her poor handling of it all later, ruins it.
We end up kind of back where we started, but earlier in that time. Sadly, past mistakes are not learned from, nothing from tge oast is shared, as Li Su Su stays silent, and we get an ending that I thought predictable. Certainly not satisfying.
I enjoyed a lot of it, but will be perfectly honest in that it was one of my favourite C-drama actors, Luo Yun Xi, that kept me invested. I find him stunning to watch, as he has great screen presence and rarely, if ever, overacts.
At certain times I found the soundtrack too loud, swamping the dialogue. If I didn't watch with subtitles, it would have spoiled my viewing.
This drama could have been brilliant, but sadly fell short due to the poor writing. It is still worth a look though, as it's otherwise wonderfully put together, with a great cast and commanding characters.
Epic fantasy story of survival, revenge, love, hate, abuse, and eveything in-between, plus travelling in time, and dream worlds.
A sumptuous watch, with very good CGI, costumes, makeup and sets. A beautiful cast too and plenty of characters.
It started well and got straight into things, laying the plot's foundations. It is quite bloody at times; I don't think I've ever seen characters cough up blood (something cultivators do when their energy, or qi, is damaged, or they over-exert themselves) as much, in one drama, in my life!
Unfortunately, it started to stall for me. The flip between different incarnations of the main characters when in different lives, was somewhat clumsily handled. This confused me at times, although I did find my attention flagging, so perhaps that's my fault.
Whilst strong, focussed and undeniably beautiful, given her remit, I found the attitude of the FL character (Li Su Su / Ye Xi Wu, played by Bai Lu) to her 'target', character Tantai Jin (Luo Yun Xi), really frustrating.
After travelling back in time, she ends up as his wife; a nasty, malicious character, in a miserable marriage. It has to be assumed they looked the same, as no reference was made to this. She is nothing like that person, and so her behaviour towards him and others is very different. This is blamed on good old memory loss.
On the one hand she's thinking that he could be prevented from turning into a devil, or rather the Demon King, and on the other, it's that she has to kill him. The story see-saws back and forth on this, and that irritated me.
Given Tantai Jin's backstory, it didn't surprise me he lacked emotion and a moral compass, one day becoming the revenge driven Demon King. As his wife has 'changed', however, he very slowly begins to see and respond to her differently, as she treats him better. It gives hope he could be saved if nurtured.
However, instead of building on this, and even though she sees the hell, poor conditions, humiliation, and abuse he's lived with since being a child, she has almost zero empathy. It was startling. I disliked her character immensely at those times.
We then get this same roller-coaster of hate/love/kill/save, throughout the drama. Almost all his evil reactions stem from her poor choices, lack of communication, and deception.
Key nasty characters (and there are more than a few), get listened to and have influence, time and again. It's infuriating. The capacity of some characters to forgive, is both unfulfilling and utterly misplaced. One in particular, regardless of her atrocious crimes, ends up walking about and back in the thick of things, like nothing happened.... in more than one of her guises!
There is a lot of tragedy, but I only got really moved in episodes depicting Tantai Jin's early life; his mistreatment and his numerous betrayals by people he trusted.
That's the main reason Li Su Su / Ye Xi Wu's character didn't add up. She could have changed him, but instead fuelled his mistrust, jealousy (caused by that mistrust) and evil thoughts, by lying to and deceiving him, so many times. She does make a sacrifice, but even then, her poor handling of it all later, ruins it.
We end up kind of back where we started, but earlier in that time. Sadly, past mistakes are not learned from, nothing from tge oast is shared, as Li Su Su stays silent, and we get an ending that I thought predictable. Certainly not satisfying.
I enjoyed a lot of it, but will be perfectly honest in that it was one of my favourite C-drama actors, Luo Yun Xi, that kept me invested. I find him stunning to watch, as he has great screen presence and rarely, if ever, overacts.
At certain times I found the soundtrack too loud, swamping the dialogue. If I didn't watch with subtitles, it would have spoiled my viewing.
This drama could have been brilliant, but sadly fell short due to the poor writing. It is still worth a look though, as it's otherwise wonderfully put together, with a great cast and commanding characters.
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