Minalapinou

Julia Xiang is bubbly and charming, but still convincing as a sect master, and Deng Wei has improved. They are a tad green for their roles and I do think this cool story deserved better actors, but they still make a cute duo of underdogs, taking turn at subduing each other. As usual with recent ambitious xianxia the format forces the writer to cram a lot in their allowed number of episodes, but she still tries to get everything to fit, and it does pay off, even if you have to take in a LOT of information (I don't recommend this as a first dive into xianxia, you're going to get a headache). Once you get past all the magic rules, proper nouns, and a slightly underwhelming introduction, the show becomes super addictive, and every new arc is better than the one before. On the visual and budget side, it's not a huge production but it's beautifully shot by Yin Tao, makes a great use of outdoor scenery, and gave me exactly what I wanted from some disappointing better financed projects with similar premises (The Longest Promise, to name one). The secondary cast is also charming, I had a crush on Deng Kai who makes an adorably tsundere demon lord with his own cute love story to boot (yay for a righthand lady who won't settle for scraps !). Finally the drama takes time to deliver an awesome ending AND conclusion true to its spirit and ambitions, something many xianxia fail to do. If you're a xianxia fan, don't sleep on this one.