This review may contain spoilers
Timeless Love and Leaps of Logic
April has been Veil of Shadows month for me as I was pretty much obsessed with this series until the end. I won't lie, I came for the pretty costumes + music + Ju Jingyi, who has a special place in my heart for her combination of looks, personality, and beautiful singing voice. I stayed for the mystery and mayhem and aesthetic angst.
Guo Jingming delivers his usual brand of extravagantly dark and moody work with handsome faces and guys who have to bare their chest at least once in a story. If you know his directing style, you know exactly what kind of story to expect, but for those not in the know I recommend just checking out these 3 joke GJM Drama Bingo posts for a taste of what's up ahead: https://www.tumblr.com/sillekias/815506909428891648?source=share
Honestly? I loved the characters and stories, which wasn't as convoluted as I feared, and there's even a pretty happy ending at the end! GJM has a way of at least trying to tie up all the loose ends even if they're not all done neatly (or sometimes *too* neatly to be believable). The angst was suitably fragile and epic and bloodstained and tearstained which tickles that drama-loving corner of my heart without wrenching it out completely. It really is the kind of pretty + sad you save to watch on a rainy day. Realistically though, the plot carried the emotions associated with it more than the actors themselves—the acting was accurate and fit the scene but lacked a little bit more of nuance to distinguish different flavors of grief from each other.
Also by the end, everyone in the main cast had shed at least like, 10 single perfect tears each in the middle or end of conversations and while it was neat to watch how well they controlled that tear it also got to a point where I was more numb to the emotions behind it. Like it'll never not be beautiful but it was getting silly by the end!
My biggest beef comes with Episode 28 too because what do you mean ONLY the protagonist and main supporting characters were fighting Jiu Ying and her army of hypnotized foxes at Shilin Sect & the 4 world pillars? Did all of the disciples we saw earlier at the sect just up and vanished? Were they too weak to ever hold up? I mean I think they probably were but it's still kinda funny to not acknowledge that at all and jump straight into the 1v1 across all fights. They even had to rope in You Chi, an outsider demon, to fight one of their battles for them hahahaha it was a little unbelievable. (I know VoS cut one episode's worth of material out since they only got approved for 29/30, I wonder if that last episode could've made a difference?)
Other pet peeves (that are also GJM's signature) is repeating the same info over and over again, and using the same phrases over and over again. Mystery plots are less mysterious when you have to analyze every clue from the start, and in the middle of urgent scenes characters somehow have time to stop and chat before coming to a "realization" about things they already knew all over again. Like in the Han Ba arc when Lu Wuyi stole away with Mu Long they should've KNOWN she was heading for the Firefluff Tree because earlier in the episodes they mentioned it was an important spot, but noooo the protag team had to meet up and discuss it before coming to their senses; Ji Ling sits on the steps moping for half a day after Lu Wuyi steals his ring instead of like, racing to get that thing back or ask for an explanation; somehow during the final confrontation of Jiu Ying vs. Wu Shiguang all of the 2-petal demon hunters can instantaneously reach the locations they need to support the world pillars or facilitated Ji Ling's fast-forward rebirth without any travel time (I'm going to assume they all know teleportation off-screen).
Also You Chi had the worst of it in the original time lines! He saw Xie Lingxi (possessed) kill his Master but then Wu Shiguang reunites with an (incorrupt) Xie Lingxi spirit right afterwards (how jarring is that)!! Then he had to fight off a fox (possessed) in Shilin Sect and killed her successfully with the formations in the sect, only for that to be meaningless because Ji Ling comes back later to un-hypnotize them so NOW 1) he's killed one of Wu Wangyan's dear sisters for no reason and 2) Wu Wangyan has to take that sister's place and sacrifice herself to stabilized the corrupted pillar. Guy just had NO luck in the old timeline and I'm SO glad he got the commander glow-up in the new one cause he deserved a break once in a while!!
I also agree with the other reviewers that Wu Shiguang and Wu Wangyan didn't really have time to shine in their roles compared to the screentime given to Lu Wuyi and Ji Ling. I did LOVE the LuJi storyline/romance (I even made Mii versions of them in my Tomodachi Life LOLOL) but I felt like with more time (and less slow-paced dialogue) both sets of leads could've had amazing moments. WSG was really cool in the finale faceoff scenes and WWY was so intelligent, I wished they utilized them more. Then again, I loved every LuJI scene we got...this is the kind of greed they warned us about in the Bible.
Anyways, all rants aside I DID like this drama a lot and I think the romance was lovely. The demon boys and their tragic fates were all lovely (except Han Ba's was a little contrived, like even Mu Long's actress said 'couldn't he have just written something'), the time loops were a little confusing but ultimately understandable, and I loved loved loooooved Ji Ling's kuudere Dragon Deity persona, he was the perfect mix of cool + powerful + moe + gentle to the ones he love.
For that matter I loved Ji Can too. His makeup was like ridiculously pale but his visual effects? Absolute eye candy and I'd love to see him again. All in all, this was a story about love, loss, and sacrifice: the determination to see your choices through, and the determination to pull your cherished people away from choices that destroy them.
From my personal rating this gets a 8/10 - VERY GOOD with some logic doesn’t make sense, somewhat affecting enjoyment.
The OST is a solid 10/10 and I will be looping Tian Jiarui and Ju Jingyi's version of 不苦 (Not Bitter) for weeks. You know what makes me bitter? They still need to release the music box version (from ep 12 here: https://www.tumblr.com/sillekias/815209721778896896/ok-but-last-but-not-least-i-desperately-need-the?source=share) and duet version of that track ahhhhhh!!!
EDIT: anyways my live reactions are on my tumblr under the #sillysees and #veil of shadows tags: https://www.tumblr.com/sillekias/tagged/veil%20of%20shadows
for reaction posts in order it's #react:vos like so: http://sillekias.tumblr.com/tagged/react%3Avos/chrono
Guo Jingming delivers his usual brand of extravagantly dark and moody work with handsome faces and guys who have to bare their chest at least once in a story. If you know his directing style, you know exactly what kind of story to expect, but for those not in the know I recommend just checking out these 3 joke GJM Drama Bingo posts for a taste of what's up ahead: https://www.tumblr.com/sillekias/815506909428891648?source=share
Honestly? I loved the characters and stories, which wasn't as convoluted as I feared, and there's even a pretty happy ending at the end! GJM has a way of at least trying to tie up all the loose ends even if they're not all done neatly (or sometimes *too* neatly to be believable). The angst was suitably fragile and epic and bloodstained and tearstained which tickles that drama-loving corner of my heart without wrenching it out completely. It really is the kind of pretty + sad you save to watch on a rainy day. Realistically though, the plot carried the emotions associated with it more than the actors themselves—the acting was accurate and fit the scene but lacked a little bit more of nuance to distinguish different flavors of grief from each other.
Also by the end, everyone in the main cast had shed at least like, 10 single perfect tears each in the middle or end of conversations and while it was neat to watch how well they controlled that tear it also got to a point where I was more numb to the emotions behind it. Like it'll never not be beautiful but it was getting silly by the end!
My biggest beef comes with Episode 28 too because what do you mean ONLY the protagonist and main supporting characters were fighting Jiu Ying and her army of hypnotized foxes at Shilin Sect & the 4 world pillars? Did all of the disciples we saw earlier at the sect just up and vanished? Were they too weak to ever hold up? I mean I think they probably were but it's still kinda funny to not acknowledge that at all and jump straight into the 1v1 across all fights. They even had to rope in You Chi, an outsider demon, to fight one of their battles for them hahahaha it was a little unbelievable. (I know VoS cut one episode's worth of material out since they only got approved for 29/30, I wonder if that last episode could've made a difference?)
Other pet peeves (that are also GJM's signature) is repeating the same info over and over again, and using the same phrases over and over again. Mystery plots are less mysterious when you have to analyze every clue from the start, and in the middle of urgent scenes characters somehow have time to stop and chat before coming to a "realization" about things they already knew all over again. Like in the Han Ba arc when Lu Wuyi stole away with Mu Long they should've KNOWN she was heading for the Firefluff Tree because earlier in the episodes they mentioned it was an important spot, but noooo the protag team had to meet up and discuss it before coming to their senses; Ji Ling sits on the steps moping for half a day after Lu Wuyi steals his ring instead of like, racing to get that thing back or ask for an explanation; somehow during the final confrontation of Jiu Ying vs. Wu Shiguang all of the 2-petal demon hunters can instantaneously reach the locations they need to support the world pillars or facilitated Ji Ling's fast-forward rebirth without any travel time (I'm going to assume they all know teleportation off-screen).
Also You Chi had the worst of it in the original time lines! He saw Xie Lingxi (possessed) kill his Master but then Wu Shiguang reunites with an (incorrupt) Xie Lingxi spirit right afterwards (how jarring is that)!! Then he had to fight off a fox (possessed) in Shilin Sect and killed her successfully with the formations in the sect, only for that to be meaningless because Ji Ling comes back later to un-hypnotize them so NOW 1) he's killed one of Wu Wangyan's dear sisters for no reason and 2) Wu Wangyan has to take that sister's place and sacrifice herself to stabilized the corrupted pillar. Guy just had NO luck in the old timeline and I'm SO glad he got the commander glow-up in the new one cause he deserved a break once in a while!!
I also agree with the other reviewers that Wu Shiguang and Wu Wangyan didn't really have time to shine in their roles compared to the screentime given to Lu Wuyi and Ji Ling. I did LOVE the LuJi storyline/romance (I even made Mii versions of them in my Tomodachi Life LOLOL) but I felt like with more time (and less slow-paced dialogue) both sets of leads could've had amazing moments. WSG was really cool in the finale faceoff scenes and WWY was so intelligent, I wished they utilized them more. Then again, I loved every LuJI scene we got...this is the kind of greed they warned us about in the Bible.
Anyways, all rants aside I DID like this drama a lot and I think the romance was lovely. The demon boys and their tragic fates were all lovely (except Han Ba's was a little contrived, like even Mu Long's actress said 'couldn't he have just written something'), the time loops were a little confusing but ultimately understandable, and I loved loved loooooved Ji Ling's kuudere Dragon Deity persona, he was the perfect mix of cool + powerful + moe + gentle to the ones he love.
For that matter I loved Ji Can too. His makeup was like ridiculously pale but his visual effects? Absolute eye candy and I'd love to see him again. All in all, this was a story about love, loss, and sacrifice: the determination to see your choices through, and the determination to pull your cherished people away from choices that destroy them.
From my personal rating this gets a 8/10 - VERY GOOD with some logic doesn’t make sense, somewhat affecting enjoyment.
The OST is a solid 10/10 and I will be looping Tian Jiarui and Ju Jingyi's version of 不苦 (Not Bitter) for weeks. You know what makes me bitter? They still need to release the music box version (from ep 12 here: https://www.tumblr.com/sillekias/815209721778896896/ok-but-last-but-not-least-i-desperately-need-the?source=share) and duet version of that track ahhhhhh!!!
EDIT: anyways my live reactions are on my tumblr under the #sillysees and #veil of shadows tags: https://www.tumblr.com/sillekias/tagged/veil%20of%20shadows
for reaction posts in order it's #react:vos like so: http://sillekias.tumblr.com/tagged/react%3Avos/chrono
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