Sunbath12

Yes , there’s definitely something there in the novel, so we’ll see how it plays out here

You could say enemies or rivals. They are from different kingdoms so they are naturally seeking their own benefits/their country's benefits. But Yin Gezhi spends time in Wang Youshuo's country (like the first half of the novel) and does interact with him civilly while there - but of course more is always underneath the surface with the two of them. Should be neat to watch if the script can capture both of their intellect and multilayered complexities.

I've yet to watch the past couple eps about this capital/cult arc so maybe I'll change my mind after I complete 23 and 24, but these are just some of my rambling thoughts while we are in the capital:

While this is primarily an adventure/cultivation type story and really only a small chunk of a very long story, I feel as though this live action adaptation has perhaps been too faithful to the original work - faithful to a fault. It's going from beat to beat accurately, but if I knew I had only 30-40 episodes to work with, it would probably be better to take a risk and do things a bit differently.

Up until the 20s or so episodes, we have followed Han Li in his cultivation journey and met the other characters, gotten to know a bit of all the good and bad people out there in the cultivation world. But instead of developing the characters further or developing themes more, I feel as though we are just now fighting more baddies that we honestly don't care too much about. Even Ms Mo and Han Li's back and forth and forever goodbye is becoming repetitive - it doesn't progress anywhere that we haven't already seen. And his constant trying to run away from Chen senior sister or give her oblivion pills also begs the question: has Han Li grown in any meaningful way? Does anything impact him on a more emotional level? Perhaps in the original work these get addressed down the road, but here in this drama (if following only the original novel), perhaps not, and that makes for a dull watching experience, no matter how exciting the fights are choreographed/filmed.

I'm still enjoying this - it's a fun world, but I feel there is so much more potential here than has been presented in this live action version. Maybe the last 5 episodes have surprises for us.

Nothing super new. There were some older rumors about airing later this year, but I don’t see anything now.

Yeah, it does remind me of that lol

Nope, just good camaraderie amongst co-workers

There’s an element of detachment in this story, I agree, that some may even call a bit soulless. This is part of a much longer story, and it would be a shame not to adapt it further to really develop the characters and themes more.

It’s all a bit Taoist, which is not surprising given the source material, but I agree with you to a degree that certain parts could be fleshed out better to make the characters more relatable to us mere mortals or make some of the more poignant moments resonant even more.

He's not the brightest dude by far but I find him entertaining to watch, definitely a great performance from the actor so far - he's just enjoying himself in the role.

It did take me about 6 eps to really enter into the story, but this deserves more than a 7.8. It's a decent detective story.

There's a Donghua - can find on youtube (a record of a mortal's journey to immortality).

I had tried to change the summary based on the current one available (in Chinese) on iQiyi, but it was a no go. Will just have to wait maybe until something else gets officially released?

From the little bits I’ve read about the novel and the bits I watched from the donghua, their relationship doesn’t really develop until much later, indeed past where this drama will go up to. So unless they decide to keep adapting the original work into more seasons, I agree we’re not going to see much between them here as far as romance. Although, if you are judging it on its own terms as a drama, it would be terrible writing to just leave it where it is right now. There should at least be some kind of meaningful conversation between them before the end of the drama.

Exactly so, 😩

lol 😆 she certainly hangs out a lot with rocks.

Can tell there are quite a few edits in the past couple eps, setting up for the next arc or so. Was nice to see Ms Mo again. And Nangong Wan's little jealous fit was fun - she's not all ice princess.

Gotcha. I got too many dramas right now lol

Things pick up from ep 3 onwards. I almost dropped it at first, but it all makes sense later.

Whoa, 6 months of filming!

Yeah it would be interesting to see what they do with her character. I feel like it was underused in the novel

I’d be down for more, the world building has been pretty good.