An incredible story that lets you feel every emotion with its stillness
This drama is a journey that teaches the importance of bonds between people (and demons), while also pondering on the nature of evil and the value of personal choices. While watching this drama, I often pondered about the ways experiences shape us into who we are, and I must say, I had ample time to do so.
I gave the story a rating of 9, because in the end, it was a very strong and emotional story that never tried to lie to the audience about its core. Surely, there are many twists that leave you stunned, but the story knew what it wanted to tell, and it told exactly that. It promised, and it delivered.
When I had to rate the acting in this drama, I hesitated a lot, as I had a lot of mixed feelings. I believe two of the actors in the main cast have carried the drama on their shoulders, making up for the lakings in others. Hou Ming Hao's portrayal of Zhu Yan was incredible, his character captured my attention from the moment he appeared on screen, and he dominated every frame he was in. The other actor who made a major contribution is Lester Lin (Lin Zi Ye), yet I absolutely cannot even begin to describe what impressed me in his work so much here without revealing any spoilers. He had a difficult role to play, and he performed it perfectly.
I was not as impressed with the other members of the main cast. My honorable positive mentions would be Xu Zhen Xuan and Cheng Xiao - their characters were memorable, and their acting was solid. As for the remaining two... I believe this was Chen Du Ling's weakest role out of what I've seen. Compared to TTEOTM and Journey to love, and even Lotus Casebook, she was just not it. I watched FoF before I wached the other three, and I was genuinely impressed by her performance in them, as my first impression of her acting came from FoF.
Tian Jia Rui also deserves a comment from me here. I believe he remembered that he can actually use his facial muscles to portray his character's emotions by episode 10. Or rather, he started using expressions other than blank stare and frown to play his character, which was a welcome change.
The music was a highlight of the drama, with ending song being the perfect balm for your soul after emotionally charged moments that this drama has in abundance. Seeing actors perform their adorable dance while in character outfits was a real joy.
So here we come to the rewatch value. Surely the story is amazing, the music is incredible, and you can disregard Tian Jia Rui's poker face without much effort, but there is one aspect where this drama really loses its rewatch value - framing and pacing.
Throughout the entire show I had a feeling I am watching a comic where every panel is a GIF, so now I actually have to wait for the entire GIF to play before I can move to the next panel. There is a neverending supply of long shots with no action happening in them, other than characters doing one thing. Some thing. Any thing. But one per shot. Every emotion is felt and shown for several seconds while the world stands still and lets the character to feel it and the viewer to absorb it. Action scenes sometimes become a turn-based RPG, where everyone just stands and waits while someone is performing their moves. I believe that if you watch FoF on 2x speed, it becomes an action drama. But as it is right now, it is a comic/manhua that forces you to look at every panel for longer than it deserves.
I gave the story a rating of 9, because in the end, it was a very strong and emotional story that never tried to lie to the audience about its core. Surely, there are many twists that leave you stunned, but the story knew what it wanted to tell, and it told exactly that. It promised, and it delivered.
When I had to rate the acting in this drama, I hesitated a lot, as I had a lot of mixed feelings. I believe two of the actors in the main cast have carried the drama on their shoulders, making up for the lakings in others. Hou Ming Hao's portrayal of Zhu Yan was incredible, his character captured my attention from the moment he appeared on screen, and he dominated every frame he was in. The other actor who made a major contribution is Lester Lin (Lin Zi Ye), yet I absolutely cannot even begin to describe what impressed me in his work so much here without revealing any spoilers. He had a difficult role to play, and he performed it perfectly.
I was not as impressed with the other members of the main cast. My honorable positive mentions would be Xu Zhen Xuan and Cheng Xiao - their characters were memorable, and their acting was solid. As for the remaining two... I believe this was Chen Du Ling's weakest role out of what I've seen. Compared to TTEOTM and Journey to love, and even Lotus Casebook, she was just not it. I watched FoF before I wached the other three, and I was genuinely impressed by her performance in them, as my first impression of her acting came from FoF.
Tian Jia Rui also deserves a comment from me here. I believe he remembered that he can actually use his facial muscles to portray his character's emotions by episode 10. Or rather, he started using expressions other than blank stare and frown to play his character, which was a welcome change.
The music was a highlight of the drama, with ending song being the perfect balm for your soul after emotionally charged moments that this drama has in abundance. Seeing actors perform their adorable dance while in character outfits was a real joy.
So here we come to the rewatch value. Surely the story is amazing, the music is incredible, and you can disregard Tian Jia Rui's poker face without much effort, but there is one aspect where this drama really loses its rewatch value - framing and pacing.
Throughout the entire show I had a feeling I am watching a comic where every panel is a GIF, so now I actually have to wait for the entire GIF to play before I can move to the next panel. There is a neverending supply of long shots with no action happening in them, other than characters doing one thing. Some thing. Any thing. But one per shot. Every emotion is felt and shown for several seconds while the world stands still and lets the character to feel it and the viewer to absorb it. Action scenes sometimes become a turn-based RPG, where everyone just stands and waits while someone is performing their moves. I believe that if you watch FoF on 2x speed, it becomes an action drama. But as it is right now, it is a comic/manhua that forces you to look at every panel for longer than it deserves.
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