Tempest

Good enough for one-time watch. It was missing colours.

Like Apes63 said in the comment, it is a CliffsNotes version of the original drama, a small bite that serves just right when you don't have the time to re-watch the lengthier kdrama. It is indeed a bit dull compared to the original and lacks its charm.

I love the korean version, have seen it numerous times. Another thing where this one misses its mark is that Yagi Yusei tries too hard to imitate Ji Chang Wook's mannerism instead of making this role his own. Gotta admit, I do see a little bit of wookie in Yagi Yusei at times.

I am here because it is short and since I have already watched it so far, I might as well finish it. But I expected more.

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Hate it for the noble idiocy trope. Love it for the world building, the characters, & the actors.

For the first 15-20 episodes you will actually like the Bai Ju, he was somewhat a decent guy. He ensured that Shang Gu got a second chance at life, treated her like a loved one for first half of that second life. Then he disappears for 10,000 years. Yes, the time just randomly speeds up in this show. He splits into two bodies, the good part of him, Qing Mu wins over Hou Chi, the reincarnation of Shang Gu., treats Hou Chi like a goddess that she is. The part of him that was Bai Ju eventually takes over and then treats Hou Chi and their child like shit. "Worst Father Award"

I wanted to stop watching when Qing Mu was taken over by Bai Ju. The last thing the guy said to Bai Ju was "Be nice to Hou Chi" Guess what Bai Ju did? He was cruel, because he wanted to sacrifice himself.
The episodes from then on were just unbearable to watch and there is none of the Bai Ju loved in the first half left.
He begins by denying that he was ever Qing Mu to Hou Chi, who at the time was pregnant with their child.
He then decides to marry the woman he promised he would never looked at because Hou Chi/Shang Gu was the only one for him. He decides to trust that woman more than he ever trusted Hou Chi.
On the day of his marriage, when she confronts him (since they are still married), he divorces her in front of everyone. Not only that, allows her to get physically hurt, lets her father die in front of her, because it would have spoiled his grand plan of sacrificing himself.
He then neglects his child, while doing god knows what while the woman he claims to sacrifice his life for is in coma and now their child is being raised by the uncle (Tian Qi) who would actually have made a better partner for Shang Gu.
But does he cut off the connection completely? No, he tries to steal undeserved moments with them. Just let them go my dude! It was painful to watch.

The worst part of these sacrifices is the lack of trust, but i usually give it a pass because that's how these stories are structured, what I cannot get over is treating your partner cruelly.

Hou Chi died a sad death, betrayed by Bai Ju in all forms.

Edit: I forgot to mention a few things in the review before.

I was so upset for Hou Chi, that I forgot to talk about the environment they created for that child with the kind of choices they made.
Shang Gu once she woke up from her slumber was a good mother for a minute and then she had to go kneel in front of the deity for 500 years so they could have Bai Ju back. So, another 500 years of neglect for the child.
Sure, we can assume everything was hunky-dory once Bai Ju got back, but let's not lie and say they were both good parents for their child's first years of life.

The best part about this drama was the actors, they did such a good job in keeping my interest even though I wanted to give up. I did like the characters, they were pretty complex and not one-dimensional. I just feel sad for the child, makes me even wary of watching "The Last Immortal" but I need a few days to recover from this heartbreak and watch something light before even thinking of watching that.

I also held on till the ending because I wanted all that pain they suffered to lead somewhere and was glad to see that they did have the happy ending most people wanted.

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Wow! Why aren't people talking about this one more?

Initially when i saw the cast and roles, I thought that the twins would marry twins and that Chen Xing Xu was portraying both the Male leads, but thankfully that wasn't the case. This is the first time I was introduced to Luke Chen and he was amazing in the role of the third prince.

I also had a lot of assumptions before going into the shows, I thought that the ML played by Cheng XIng Xu would be pretty tame however his story arc was quite powerful compared to that of the Void third prince. His pairing with Landy Li was so fun to watch. The drama didn't have much physical intimacy or even kisses but it was plain to see the lead characters feelings for each others.

I do agree with a lot of reviewers and commenters, the drama has great beginning and ending arcs, however it drags a little in the middle with filler episodes. I like the 3 shards story arc, but it could have been better written. Once they fell in love with her, she just stashed them in places and expected them to stay there no matter how much time it would take for her to find and woo the next one.

And one thing that bothered me, the drama focused too much on forgiveness & sacrifice. Too many characters that shouldn't have been forgiven were forgiven, and unnecessary sacrifices were made for those.

Some Notable Characters:

Liguang Ye Tan
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Loved her right from the beginning. I like watching characters that are open about everything and say what they want. So I pretty much enjoyed watching her every time she was on the screen. She adored Qing Kui and it showed despite her trying to be a hardass at times. What I liked about Ye Tan is that even though she was envious of the way Qing Kui was treated, she never blamed Qing Kui for it. She knew the culprit was her father and she laid the blame right at his feet. Despite being treated like a prisoner all her life, having to hear cruel words from her father, she found it in herself to forgive him because he did all that to protect her. (Nope, still don't care for her father. She almost died quite a few times because of his negligence. When he used those harsh words, he gave others in his kingdom permission to treat Ye Tan poorly. She was starved most of the time, left to be eaten by animal once. People dared to do this because they knew that her father didn't care for her. Her relationship with You Qin was beautiful to watch.

Empyrean Xuan Shang / Shao Dian You Qin
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He was so damn adorable. From the get go, we could see how affected he was by Ye Tan. Once he realized that he liked Ye Tan, he never hid his feelings. He was honest about them, even when he turned her into a walnut and sewed her mouth shut. When he found out that Ye Tan was not Qin Kui, he kick up much fuss about it. He accepted her without creating any unnecessary drama that would be out of his character. He was consistently loyal to Ye Tan (Let's not mention that one shard who was promiscuous for his own good). Qing Kui would never have been a good match for him, she would have probably just gone along with everything he wanted and not changed his life much.

Liguang Qing Kui
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In the beginning, I was a little upset with her character, not because she was favored twin, but I always felt like she could have done so much more for Ye Tan. What upset me even more was that she was a bit hypocritical with Chao Feng / Third Prince, telling him that she disliked people who treated their family badly. However, she was fine treating her father (Emperor Liguang) well when he treated Ye Tan abysmally. This highlighted her privilege, since her father so clearly loved her, she could turn a blind eye to how he treated Ye Tan majority of the time. Ye Tan never blamed her, since she was imprisoned by her own family, treated poorly, she was glad to receive what little she received from Qing Kui. There could be more to the story, maybe she helped her sister a lot more than we got to see but it wasn't depicted so clearly. I did grow to like her character, especially after watching, "Immortal Samsara: Part 1" , where we have another set of twin sisters who were borne out of same root. It just made me look at her in a different way. Throughout their interaction Qing Kui had always been kind to Ye Tan. She always thought the best of Ye Tan and her ambitions of becoming the Demon of the Void. All their interactions were genuine. Even when the whole mix-up happened and she ended up in the void realm she could have blamed Ye Tan for trying to create a mess to get her out of her wedding she wasn't really against of. However, she was quite sane and even looked out for Ye Tan in her own way. So maybe Qing Kui was one of the reasons Ye Tan didn't loose her spirit even after spending 18 years in captivity.

Chao Feng / Third Prince
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The great liar, it was fun to watch him come up with crazy but believable stories to hoodwink Qing Kui, who easily fell for it. The crazy idiot, didn't even realize that he was creating a trap for himself and when he did realize he was quite happy to fall head over heels for Qing Kui. While he appeared quite dashing in many scenes, I do wish his character would have been more imposing and not often defeated by You Qin. I wanted to see them as equals.


Shao Dian Xiao Yi [Heavenly Emperor]
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The emperor, You Qin's father, was more of glory hound, who didn't really care about You Qin as his child. He just wanted to be known as the father of the great Empyrean who achieved the perfect celestial body and saved the world. Even the fix is not permanent, only for a few hundred thousand years, after which he might as well pop out another child to sacrifice, when he himself never had the guts to step up to the plate. Qing Kui was such a decent person and he seemed very happy when she died, that was quite disgusting to see. His expression of glee was present when he found out that You Qin made progress in his cultivation, not really caring that his son was going to die. A decent parent would have been worried about his child, he seemed elated. Its a wonder his wife tolerated him for so long. We all understand sacrifices are to be made, but he could have been a supportive and understanding parent to You Qin. What's more, he was the first one to be an obstacle in bringing You Qin back to life. Even when he came back to life, he just was selfish prick to everyone included.

I'm not a fan of open endings like these so I scrolled down to the comment sections and found this link. This helped ease of the anxiety the I felt after that ending. https://x.com/YoukuOfficial/status/1750867181745688650?s=20

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Missed its mark.

It had potential but ultimately didn't reach it. I never thought it would be a drama that would hit it out of the park, but I thought it might have some hidden depths. The drama started out good, they explored some issues in the beginning and I liked how understanding the ML was. He is clearly a green flag. But the story was very subtle and didn't leave much of an impression. The ML's brother and his wife were more interesting to watch as a couple.

Every week I tuned it expecting that something would happen that would break the linear path it was on, but it never got to it. So, I am a bit disappointed. But it did have the power to make me complete it so there is something there.

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Dou Zhao happens to be one of my fav FLs in both book and the drama!

Overall
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The first episode was so otherworldly, not just because of the stunning visuals but also because the story didn't flow well. The setup was too vague. And anytime anyone said anything it was poetry. I felt detached watching it and could only focus on the visuals while the story became the background. The first episode could have been executed better.

The second episode brought the drama back to the ground where I could connect with it. It was so easy to like Jiang Mei Sun [Duke of Ding] from the get go.

I knew going in that I was never going to like Wang Ying Xue, but honestly like all cheating spouses, Dou Shi Ying is the worst person to tolerate in the first 2 episodes. He just couldn't keep it in his pants. Zhao Gu Qiu, Dou Zhao's mother was a catch, such a beautiful and kind woman. Well there's no accounting for taste, to go from Gu Qiu to Ying Xue, what a sad fate, but well-deserved. I had hoped that Dou Zhao's mother could make it out alive but the betrayal was far too much for her. Anyways, their relationship was messed up at least in the second arc of the drama he grew a backbone.

For me, a drama that starts out with a knife at throat but ends with the couple in harmony is always much more enjoyable than a drama where a they start out nice and hurt each other because of love. I am glad the drama stuck to the book with this aspect, them being a sweet couple who cherished each other and considerate of each other was what attracted me to Dou Zhao and Song Mo's pairing.

The elder princess Lu De and her arc with Dou Shi Shu took me by surprise. If only he hadn't been so power-hungry, then he would have some shame and wouldn't have treated Dou Zhao's mother so poorly. I am not a fan of this character.

I wish we had seen Song Mo's sister, it might have changed the dynamics between Zhang Ru and Chen Jia, i started out thinking why and what's gonna happen to Song Mo's sister to being okay I love these two together in the drama.

What I like:
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The casting is so good! I was excited to see Meng Zi Yi and Li Yun Ri bring the lead characters to life. They both did a good a job. They fit the role.
Song Mo's uncle was such a impressive character! Nothing at all like his cowardly "father".
Dou Zhao's mother was such a pretty woman! I'm sure sad that she was only on screen for a first few episodes.
So far I love that they haven't added any unnecessary drama that wasn't there in the book between the leads. What I like about them together is that they are my comfort couple. They are so damn nice to each other! The drama has brought that to light for me.
I like the idea about both of them going back in time, even though Song Mo doesn't remember there is a possibility of him remembering it one day. That's not how it happened in books but that's a welcoming change for me.
Dou Ming is so damn adorable! I was willing to let go of my resentment of her from previous life so I did not see that ending for her.
Zhao Zhang Ru has also been a favorite of mine and she gets a lot of screen time which I am very happy about!
I didn't notice it the first time but Lu Zheng and Lu Ming are twins! I thought there was only one guy named Lu Zheng who popped up everywhere.

What I dislike: (Mostly stuff that has been messed up from the book)
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The Dou family was supposed to have this rich history that's just missing. The currently Dou family was supposed to be so big with a few branches and in-laws. It would have been fun to see Dou Zhao navigate through them on screen, she did it so well in the book! (And she was just a child when she did that! I feel that it is such a missed opportunity)
The entire dynamic between Dou Zhao, her father, Wang Ying Xue, and Dou Ming lacked depth. It is much more satisfying in the books where Dou Zhao is actually the one who has the upper hand throughout their interactions and not once does she suffer because of Wang Ying Xue or Dou Ming's shady tactics. The only time she fails is to save her mother's life.
Since the book is so long with 500+ chapters it is bound to miss a lot of things but because of this I felt that a lot of things were missing in the drama and I had to fill in the gaps with the story that I remembered. I wish there were more episodes, but again a lot of things have to be taken into consideration so can't really blame them.
I'm not a fan of the changes that have been made to the Yuan Tong / Ji Yong character. I did like him better in the book.

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Since it has Zhang Ling He, it is automatically on my watchlist. (Ep 1 to Ep 17)

The good:
The story has just begun and I am hoping that this will be another drama that I can add to my rewatch list. The beginning arc is not so great but I still like some of the characters.
The FL when possessed by that genie has the best visuals so far. Hoping to see her powers more in the future.
Mu Zhan Ting is the best character so far, he adds the much needed fun to the linear drama that lacks depth.

The bad: (I can ignore all of this if the story picks up by the end since it is my fav genre with a talented cast)
Zhang Ling He's character seems washed out for some reason.
The visuals are sadly lacking. They remind me of Ashes of love which came out in 2018. The lack is especially jarring because I am currently watching the Dashing Youth as well which has really good visuals. The genie looks so bad, the Last immortal's water condensing beast looked way better than this hastily put together genie.
What's more, since it Xianxia the visuals were one of the most important part of the drama.
Jing Tian is a gorgeous gorgeous woman and has that otherworldly look that makes it difficult for me to see her as a character. I can never forget that she is an actor. I liked her better in Wonderland of Love.

I don't know why I can't seem to get into this drama, does it really lack the depth? When it suddenly came out, I was so damn excited but now I just seem to skip through the scenes for the sake of it.

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Do I regret taking this one out of the "Not Interested" list?

The two top reviews for this drama pretty much say the same thing, (one is negative and the other is positive) still they both agree that there's a lot of back and forth between the leads. There's also an ex the ML is still obsessed with. So yeah, I put in the "Not Interested" list. But before that I had added to my "Cdramas watchlist" and I just picked it randomly because I was bored.

The comedic happy phase: (Ep 1 to Ep 11)
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I am episode 10 and so far I do not. In fact, the first 4 episodes are so damn hilarious that I wish against my better judgement that they continue with this silly comedic angle throughout the drama. It just made me laugh so much. It is safe to watch the drama for the first 10 episodes. Let me continue watching the remaining to see if it is as bad as they think it is. This is a time when we already know the reason Male Lead wants her house so much. But since feelings aren't involved it is a all fun to watch.

A shift in the tone of the drama: More of heartbreak road with people crying (Ep 12 to Ep 20)
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It is Ep 12, that's where the ML obsession over the ex cannot be contained anymore. (This is right after ML and FL spent a night outside, watching the stars. They stayed outside watching sunrise together as well. They even kissed and it wasn't a comedic one but mutual.) He finds out that she has mortgaged the house, the one that he wants to buy because of his obsession with the ex. So, he gets mad at her and then storms out. Spends a night at the hotel and then finds out that his ex left him because she was sick. He decides to move out because he is still messed up about his ex, without telling the FL.

EP 14 to 16: Gives Chen Fei Er money to give to the FL, but he doesn't want her to know that is from him. It seems less like a helping hand but more like a guilt money. I need FL to get over him already. (Yeah I now understand why the 2 reviewers thought he was wuss. It has so many more episodes to go, will i have the willpower to drop it?) The only time I don't mind the constant back and forth is when they both seem to be into each other a lot. So far, if feels like this is the case of FL fell harder, but the ML is okay with not being in love with her. It was kind of painful to watch, she kept asking him if he liked her to be met with silence and he finally admitted in an emotional outburst. Oh, we have a mysterious new guy, Zhao Yu Cheng show up and he seems to be very interested in the female lead.

Ep 17 to EP 20: After her giving him countless chances, he again responds with, "Don't wait for me any longer. Consider nothing happened between us." Get away from him babe, you are too old to be hung up on him. The writers sure are crazy, she keeps going back to the guy and confessing to him again and again expecting the result to the be different. She keeps putting a positive spin on it saying that she is brave for confessing her feelings and it was barely tolerable the first two times. Now, it is not taking no for an answer.

A short lived relationship: (Ep 21 to Ep 27)
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In ep 22, for the first time ever, the comes to her and confesses his feelings, asking her to be with him. (I kept thinking is this a dream sequence? and then I wonder how long this is going to last) Since then it was back to normal, they finally got together and were spending time together.

Ji Mo choosing Su Xiao every single time: Ep 28 to 37:
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Enters the not-dead Su Xiao, who wants to get back with the guy. In an alternate universe Ruo Nan could have been a love interest whereas Su Xiao and Ji Mo might have been the long separated lovers due to a tragic past. I am sure there are Chinese dramas with this very same perspective. Noble idiocy is very overused trope and a lot unlikable one as well. No one benefits from it. Even after Su Xiao supposedly kept it from him for his own good, the guy still punished himself for all those years. This is where I feel extremely sad for Ji Mo. He is one messed up guy. Okay so most of this arc was Ji Mo hiding that Su Xiao was back from Ruo Nan. And once she found out, he still didn't think she was important enough to explain thing but kept running after Su Xiao. Who would want to root for a guy like that? Ruo nan, at this point, Zhao Yu Cheng with his consistent love would be better choice. So what if he approached her with a different intent, he is more mature when it comes to Ruo Nan. While Ji Mo didn't choose Su Xiao as a romantic partner and even rejected her, he kept giving her priority and fulfilling her emotional needs. It is understandable that he feels that he owes her because he couldn't be there to take care of her in the past but he kept asking Ruo Nan to make him a priority when she had never been his.

Getting back together: Ep 38 to 43:
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Well they got back together easily. Ruo Nan always likes to wait for him, no matter what he does. Meh. All the relationships work out in the end. The dress he made for her was so damn beautiful.

I did enjoy watching the actors together, which is the only reason i completed this drama. It started out so well, alas.

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Dumbest male lead ever! Not a single attractive quality! (Poorly written)

The only thing going on for Chen Yi Du are his looks. He should have been a sculpture or a mannequin, who made this guy human? They could have chosen a better one to transform into human!

There's a reason I'm calling him dumb: All his reasons for believing that female lead did him wrong and treating her like shit are all misunderstandings. He is so prejudiced against her, thinking that she is only out for her career, that he believes anything everyone tell hims about her. But he never trusts her. For him she is someone who can be tossed aside every few days and she just keeps coming back.

I feel worried about any woman who acts like this female lead, why worry about how her own reactions sif she were to regain her memories? Just focus on the present and see how poorly he treats her. There are 2 good things for 8 bad things.

What romance? This is Chen Yi Du's absurd revenge fantasy.

This drama would have been better if Huo Xiao was the male lead.

11 episodes and the entire time, the ML was a living out a revenge fantasy, right now, even with his looks, it is hard to overlook all the things he has done to the FL. The FL is supposed to be ex and shady business rival who has now lost her memory. We see her being a mean boss for 1-2 episodes and so those scenes are easily forgettable, overtaken by ML misunderstandings and prejudice. He abandons her in a remote location and she walks all the way to his home, even in that state she is begging him to listen to her. eck.

You would think as the drama progresses, Yi Du would try to redeem himself in some ways, but he squanders all the chances as if Weiwei owes him worth a lifetime of them.

Let's top calling him Yidu and start calling him POS, so the POS doesn't have the guts to put in any efforts in a relationship because the woman he claims to love is a rival, he wants to force his views upon his subordinates as well. Bravo!

Okay miracles do happens for some reason he had some sensible moments a few times. In the final arc there were some happy times for the two.

Now it was the Female lead's turn to initiate breakups, well atleast she is getting even. I lost all hope in their romance a long time ago. I have come this far might as well watch the whole thing.

What this drama could be known for: Countless breakups, atleast one in majority of episodes. They only spared a few episodes where there were no break up at all. Emotional Immaturity.

The Leads had good chemistry which just went down the drain with this production.

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Nope! I came here for Seo Hyun Jin, but even she couldn't make me love their story.

I was wondering why I hadn't revisited this drama, I remember watching it in the early days when I first came across Kdramas.
And now i know, the reason why.

10 episodes in and I wanted O Hae Yeong, our female lead to grow a backbone already and to stop being so pathetic. But from time to time, I found myself wanting to give her a hug and to tell her to treat herself better.

The people in this story definitely played a role in shaping her character, her inferiority complex, making her feel so insecure that she wanted to fill in the big black hole inside her with scraps thrown by the male lead.

Yes, he looks pretty but for heaven's sake for 9 and half episodes all he ever did was make her cry. He rarely smiled at her. Honestly, 10 episodes, and most lovey-dovey romance was between male lead and his ex in flashbacks and it overshadows their entire relationship to this point. Because they didn't have such happy moment, just the FL's one-sided obsession with him.

The leads finally get together in episode 10 and yeah they are hot together, the chemistry was never to be questioned. But I just feel a little sad about all the mean things he said to her.

They are not even together for half an episode when O Hae Yeong finds out the real reason why her ex went bankrupt and went to jail.

For heaven's sakes, we are on episode 11 and she gives him a chance to show he cares. Yeah, she absolutely out of it to ask him to beg her, but at the moment in his place, I would have begged her to take me back. She didn't even expect him to do it, she just wanted to see if he was willing to do it. Meh, what a low effort man.

Ep 12: He isn't getting any better. I want her to just move on, at this point, anyone would be better especially her ex.

Ep 13: Just a few sentences and she folded so easily. I just wanted her to go see a therapist and heal her mind, not get together with someone who treated her like shit.

Ep 14 to Ep 16: Well well well, look who is back to his old tricks. I have no hopes for this guy. Someone needs to rescue Miss Oh, because she has never been in her right mind!

Ep 17 to Ep 18: It has finally ended. Thank god. I get the comments and reviews now. Even such good looking and talented cast couldn't save it.

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Loved the visuals of the leads and the chemistry.

Reminded me of The Greatest Love featuring Cha Seung Won because the actors gruff nature and voice seemed pretty similar to me. I loved the pairing and enjoyed watching their romance no matter how illogical things were when it came to the story. Honestly, this is the first medical drama where more patients have died than being saved. The story was far too confusing and not at all interesting.

For some reason, the female characters were not very well thought out. The female lead character in particular wasn't fully fleshed out, even the male's lead's ex fiancé was properly written. The shift in characters were quite abrupt as if we were doing hyde and jekyl instead of character growth.

Regardless, I enjoyed at least the romance part of the drama, for me these two were cute together and I wanted to see more.

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Adorable! The kisses are lit!

The actors and the characters are such good fit. They all did such a good job on this one. The costumes are also so beautiful. This is tiny bite that I won't mind rewatching a few times. The lead couple were terrific and adorable. I wonder thought what he was doing down there for 100 years, would have liked seeing some flashback to the time he spent there.

I didn't take her being the demon realm's ruler seriously as there was barely any depth to that aspect of her character. It was supposed to be a light hearted drama and it did so damn well in the genre. The kissing scenes were done just right.

I read a review that this was Xianxia without Angst, and I thought okay I want to watch a adorable short & sweet romance like that. There was just a pinch of Angst that would have had me going for the Yin Mo Ting neck, but all is good since he did not end up consummating his relationship with Lin Qian Yu.

Nangong Xin Lan / Lin Qian Yu reminded me of Georgina sparks, the looks and the entire vibe she has going on for the drama.

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The leads have explosive chemistry

The chemistry between the leads is the saving grace for this movie. Had it been any other actors, i would have dropped it or might not even have considered watching it.

Were they an ordinary couple? Not really. This is an exaggeration of what ordinary couples are. Sure people fight & have on again off again relationship but these two didn't seem to care about each other. The only time they seem to care was when then weren't together. They were at least not ordinary to me. Both were so violent, making it worse for each other. Maybe this is ordinary to someone out there.

I was hoping they would each find someone to calm them down. But they end up repeating the cycle.

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Brilliant Cast! Intriguing Characters! Worth the watch!

The best part about this drama are the leads, their witty & intelligent banter made me like them. In the beginning, I liked the ML more than the FL, because he was actually pretty kind and decent person. In comparison, the Fl was kind of foxy with her schemes. I also liked how ML was open in showing his affection and was very much in love with her. So, I was rooting for them & hoping that we would find out more about the FL as the show progresses so that I can like her. And she grew on me, at the same time I continued to like ML for who he was.

That changed midway, I started liking FL more because she was very consistent with her feelings and made better decisions than ML most of the time, not always, but majority of it. The ML wasn't bad either but his thinking was hampered by his need to choose a life away from the scheming. Their intelligence and strategies weren't to be questioned, but I questioned ML's feelings for her in the latter episodes. The ML feelings constantly wavered, in the beginning, he was quick to blame her and even nicked her neck drawing blood in a fight, this was when he claimed to love her. To be honest, he was the one who used her more to achieve his goals, and she didn't complain. Once his goals were achieved, he just refused to listen to her even knowing that what she said was valid. Even when he had concerns he refused to talk it out with her. The second disappointment was when she was sick and he found out too late. Even then, he didn't make much efforts for her. He always needed to be prodded by his soldiers to make a move on her & even then sometimes didn't. I don't much like MLs like that. The change in his character was so obvious. What was sad about their breakup in episode 29 was that even with how silent it was, it was violent, he treated her as if she had something to gain from asking him to be the crown prince, other than maybe a chance for him to survive longer. She is a warrior who was never really interested in the court & cared more about her soldiers. If it wasn't for him, her father and she would have probably come up with some other strategy to save their army from the likes of that cowardly & honestly silly emperor. Even with all the claims of loving her, his actions fell short.

Thank god for the final 10 episodes, ML was back to his earlier self where he seemed to care a lot about the FL. And I'm glad that it was that version of him that ended up with her. One thing you got to give the guy credit for, even though they fought a lot of time, he never once considered loving anyone else. Even when the emperor gave him a concubine, he was upfront and told her that he would never love her but all he could give her was the title of lady of excellency, Apart from that she couldn't have anything from him.

In contrast to the ups and downs between the leads, the relationship between the Tao Zi & Chang Er was very adorable and they were very consistent about each other throughout the drama. Chang Er was a warrior in his own right and still made sure to treat Tao Zi well. They understood each other.

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Had potential

The name Gen Z is just not well-suited for the drama. I disagreed with a lot of ways the things were handled by the grown ups in the drama. The whole concept of the drama was not for me. But I can say that the master-disciple relationship between the Xing Zheng and Sun Tou Tou had a lot of potential.

I'm not a fan of Tian Zhen and couldn't actually see him in favorable light once he left Sun Tou Tou drunk alone, where she almost drowned. He was too damn irresponsible at all times. Never stepping up when he made any mistakes, always allowing others to take the blame for him. Let's not forget that in order to alleviate his guilt about Meng Meng, he tried to keep her with him so that he could treat even knowing that it was beyond his expertise. I could only like him for the last part of the story because I chose to turn a blind eye to all of these things & because that's what Sun Tou Tou wanted.

I couldn't believe the way things ended for Meng Meng, what she needed was a therapist not Tian Zhen who wasn't capable of taking care of her. Her parents were even worse, trying to lock her up as if she was some monster. They all failed the poor child.

I didn't much care for how Ling Lan treated Sun Tou Tou, telling her to leave even without giving her the chance to prove that she wasn't guilty. Sun Tou Tou was a such a bright light throughout the drama, she was childish at times knowing that she would be kicked out even if she behaved, not really believing the whole thing about her being the descendant.

Zhao Lusi was the one who made the drama worth watching, her performance as an orphan who knew that she could be kicked out if she stepped one foot out of the line was marvelous. She is a joy to watch & it broke my heart every time she was blamed for things that weren't her fault. She got so used to it that she didn't hesitate in taking the blame & being selfless when she thought it would be better for her master's family.

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