This review may contain spoilers
Lazy writing at its best ?
After the huge success of Love In The Clouds, The Unclouded Souls was definitely something I was looking forward to. Can't say I'm fully disappointed cause I could see both Hou Minghao and Tan Songyun did everything they could to save this lacklustre of the plot...but even they had their limits!
Lets talk about the pros.
Well,HMH as the Demon King Hong Ye was absolutely gorgeous. He's a king,who is not someone with arrogance or show off but a leader who has this huge responsibility to protect his people from human...a King with morality,sense of duty,someone you can always rely on.But when he's with Xiao Yao,he's a lover,a protector who has been betrayed in his previous life but still his heart belongs to her and he acknowledges it really well. HMH did real Justice to this role.He had that calm,elegant,gentle sophisticated aura that immediately makes you respect him as a King who is always ready to protect his subjects or a lover who despite being hurt deeply, loves with his everything. I could feel Hong Ye's sadness in his sorrowful eyes before that first time travel and loved how eventually his eyes changed after he finally fell in love with Xiao Yao.
Tan Songyun,even though she was older than HMH,was so lively,beautiful as Xiao Yao who is naughty,cheerful,vibrant,cheeky, always smiling and making everyone smile. She was weak but never solely depending on others. When needed,she delivered powerful performance. As a dragon lord from 10,000 years ago,she was looking majestic.She was one of the reasons for me to finish this drama,loved her as Xiao Yao/Ning'an.
And this pair worked. Not in a "set the screen on fire" way,but in a mature,more understanding, subtle way. Hong Ye who even after everything,his past with Ning'an,his enmity with human,his responsibility as Demon King, still loved his Xiao Yao till his last moment. Xiao Yao even after her heartbreak 10000 years ago due to Hong Ye,after everything she went through,still loved her Hong Ye till she found him again and again. They understood each others sacrifices,their past never became a hindrance to their love.They were destined to be lover,a miserable pair mocked by destiny who just wanted to live with each other in every timeline. HMH and TSY was sweet as a couple, understood their character and delivered well.
Cinematography and cgi was good. OST's were really lovely, I absolutely loved "Afraid It's Only A Dream". Comedy bits were good too,some were really laughable.
Now...cons.
1.Story writing was really lazy...perhaps bad at some points.There were times when I had to skip cause it was so boring.The whole plot with Dreamshard Immortal was so painfully boring...making Hong Ye almost disappear for like 4/5 episodes,making him a prisoner with no power, the trials with those girls,suddenly Dali becoming evil for no reason..... Nothing was appealing at all. Later they again made Hong Ye powerless only to make Xiao Yao have time travel and when she came back,she had to go back again...there has to be some limits of stupid writing! Also Bingzhu-Pianpian plotline was another headache! Bingzhu who always hated Demons suddenly becoming one and Pianpian behind all these calamity that fell upon Demon valley for no apparent reason....nothing makes sense.
2.Since time travel contains a huge plot of the story,some effort should've given to make it somehow logical. Now the " chicken-egg" theory makes everything questionable.Xiao Yao kept going back, sometimes she's clueless,sometimes she remembers,she knows whats gonna happen but still did the same thing...it was painful to watch.Also after the story unfolds,it felt like it was Xiao Yao as Dragon Lord and her obsession with Hong Ye that started everything. Didn’t understand how it was Hong Ye's fault 10000 years ago when it was him and his people who was tortured,killed by demons and he deceived them only to protect his people. Yes,he did deceive Xiao Yao too,but he didn’t deserve to be killed by her for that,that part was illogical. Also,why Hong Ye didn’t go with Xiao Yao in time travels when he also was a main part of whatever happened??
3.Bringing back three big Demons,giving them likable characters only to kill them so easily was another bad turn of the plot. Other small demons and Demon valley also got sidelined since the story started to heavily base on past incidents.
4.The ending could be much much better if they didn’t take the typical sad xianxia route. Hong Ye already got punished and suffered in the past two timelines. Even after becoming a demon, he's been atoning for his sins for 5000 years.....so why make him punished again for eternity??? Why nothing happened to Bingzhu who been killing demons left and right?He suddenly became a demon and out of nowhere Tan'er appeared on Pianpian's body and he stopped fighting???? Why Pianpian not punished who's been behind everything? How can that greedy emperor die so easily and after that suddenly human and demons were on good terms???? Out of all these people who deserved to die,why Hong Ye was the one who had to sacrifice??? Its not like people will forget about Yuli Spring,they will keep finding it and make chaos.Hong Ye's sacrifice was'nt needed.
Overall if we ignore the plotholes and that bizarre nonsense ending, its really enjoyable as a eye pleasing drama with sweet mature likeable leads.The story wasn’t that bad,a better writing could actually give us something really memorable.
Lets talk about the pros.
Well,HMH as the Demon King Hong Ye was absolutely gorgeous. He's a king,who is not someone with arrogance or show off but a leader who has this huge responsibility to protect his people from human...a King with morality,sense of duty,someone you can always rely on.But when he's with Xiao Yao,he's a lover,a protector who has been betrayed in his previous life but still his heart belongs to her and he acknowledges it really well. HMH did real Justice to this role.He had that calm,elegant,gentle sophisticated aura that immediately makes you respect him as a King who is always ready to protect his subjects or a lover who despite being hurt deeply, loves with his everything. I could feel Hong Ye's sadness in his sorrowful eyes before that first time travel and loved how eventually his eyes changed after he finally fell in love with Xiao Yao.
Tan Songyun,even though she was older than HMH,was so lively,beautiful as Xiao Yao who is naughty,cheerful,vibrant,cheeky, always smiling and making everyone smile. She was weak but never solely depending on others. When needed,she delivered powerful performance. As a dragon lord from 10,000 years ago,she was looking majestic.She was one of the reasons for me to finish this drama,loved her as Xiao Yao/Ning'an.
And this pair worked. Not in a "set the screen on fire" way,but in a mature,more understanding, subtle way. Hong Ye who even after everything,his past with Ning'an,his enmity with human,his responsibility as Demon King, still loved his Xiao Yao till his last moment. Xiao Yao even after her heartbreak 10000 years ago due to Hong Ye,after everything she went through,still loved her Hong Ye till she found him again and again. They understood each others sacrifices,their past never became a hindrance to their love.They were destined to be lover,a miserable pair mocked by destiny who just wanted to live with each other in every timeline. HMH and TSY was sweet as a couple, understood their character and delivered well.
Cinematography and cgi was good. OST's were really lovely, I absolutely loved "Afraid It's Only A Dream". Comedy bits were good too,some were really laughable.
Now...cons.
1.Story writing was really lazy...perhaps bad at some points.There were times when I had to skip cause it was so boring.The whole plot with Dreamshard Immortal was so painfully boring...making Hong Ye almost disappear for like 4/5 episodes,making him a prisoner with no power, the trials with those girls,suddenly Dali becoming evil for no reason..... Nothing was appealing at all. Later they again made Hong Ye powerless only to make Xiao Yao have time travel and when she came back,she had to go back again...there has to be some limits of stupid writing! Also Bingzhu-Pianpian plotline was another headache! Bingzhu who always hated Demons suddenly becoming one and Pianpian behind all these calamity that fell upon Demon valley for no apparent reason....nothing makes sense.
2.Since time travel contains a huge plot of the story,some effort should've given to make it somehow logical. Now the " chicken-egg" theory makes everything questionable.Xiao Yao kept going back, sometimes she's clueless,sometimes she remembers,she knows whats gonna happen but still did the same thing...it was painful to watch.Also after the story unfolds,it felt like it was Xiao Yao as Dragon Lord and her obsession with Hong Ye that started everything. Didn’t understand how it was Hong Ye's fault 10000 years ago when it was him and his people who was tortured,killed by demons and he deceived them only to protect his people. Yes,he did deceive Xiao Yao too,but he didn’t deserve to be killed by her for that,that part was illogical. Also,why Hong Ye didn’t go with Xiao Yao in time travels when he also was a main part of whatever happened??
3.Bringing back three big Demons,giving them likable characters only to kill them so easily was another bad turn of the plot. Other small demons and Demon valley also got sidelined since the story started to heavily base on past incidents.
4.The ending could be much much better if they didn’t take the typical sad xianxia route. Hong Ye already got punished and suffered in the past two timelines. Even after becoming a demon, he's been atoning for his sins for 5000 years.....so why make him punished again for eternity??? Why nothing happened to Bingzhu who been killing demons left and right?He suddenly became a demon and out of nowhere Tan'er appeared on Pianpian's body and he stopped fighting???? Why Pianpian not punished who's been behind everything? How can that greedy emperor die so easily and after that suddenly human and demons were on good terms???? Out of all these people who deserved to die,why Hong Ye was the one who had to sacrifice??? Its not like people will forget about Yuli Spring,they will keep finding it and make chaos.Hong Ye's sacrifice was'nt needed.
Overall if we ignore the plotholes and that bizarre nonsense ending, its really enjoyable as a eye pleasing drama with sweet mature likeable leads.The story wasn’t that bad,a better writing could actually give us something really memorable.
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