darkstar

This is an intriguing article. I noticed myself watching fewer Korean dramas lately. Don't get me wrong there are still some excellent Korean dramas. However, it's true that there's something different.

I still find difficult to find dramas able to match the humor and/or storytelling of Crash Landing on You, Chicago Typewriter, first season of Arthdal Chronicles, My Country, to name a few.
Maybe Korea is getting Hollywood influence, thus making its dramas less interesting than they were before? It's weird to see some writers glorifying "going to the US" in their dramas.

Anyway, I found this article an interesting coincidence of what I have been noticing myself.

Cool short series. Story wasn't original but the screenwriter and the actors managed to make it entertaining in its short duration. It probably had a small budget but the production managed to make the most of it, looking detail oriented and carefully executed. Worth a watch.

By the way, is there a season 2? The end of last episode was open to it.

Interesting and entertaining series. I'm not a big fan of crime/investigation themes but this one was good enough to keep me watching until the end. Very good acting mixed with really bad ones, but most was veey good.
The series started with a copy of Murder in the Orient Express where even the train name was "borrowed". However, later on it went on its own series of crimes and deductions. ML was a mix of Shelock Holmes and Hercule Poirot. His "Watson" was the FL.

Yeah. That was a major plot hole. The screenwriter could have done a better job.
It's not the actress fault. She was a lot better in Reset. Shows she can adapt well to different roles.
Nonethless, it was an entertaining drama.

Another series that could be a lot shorter. The story concept was very good. However, the execution could have been better. Acting was all over the place, with some good ones and other very bad ones.
As others already mentioned, the way the FL interacted with ML2 after they all ce back and things had been cleared crossed the line multiple times, no excuses. Felt like she keeping him as a "plan B".

I'm not into Wuxia but this series was fine, even though it started slow and only got a good pace in the second half.
Some stuff very predictable but the "good guys" behaving like having IQ below 40 and falling over and over for the "bad guys" plots was really annoying. Acting was passable and enough to keep it entertaining.
If there's a second seaaon, I hope that it at least keeps the pace of the show's second half.

Good story and production in general but the direction and acting left to be desired. The FL went overboard playing the "rough and illiterate" character, which would make it annoying sometimes. The two main male actors were just passable in their characters. Could have been much better.

YouTube has been doing big system upgrades in the background and changing how the servers stream the media and ads. That may have likely broken stuff. It always does and may take a bit to fix.

I'll definitely rewatch it. Now I am looking for the two original soundtrack qigun performances that FL and her sister played in that competition.
I found a few songs, which are also very nice. Also found a couple qigun performances on YouTube but they are extracted from the video; therefore, they have the background sounds. Those masterpieces are two big highlights.

Thanks much! You helped a lot. I logged to Germany and managed to access the videos in the link you provided. However, for some reason, YouTube's subtitles were only available in the auto-translate mode to German but not for all videos. The Chinese subtitles were imprinted into the videos. However, I cannot read Chinese. :-(
The series' number of episodes is also different (72 instead of 60 for season 1). Maybe they are shorter?

Thanks! Where are you located? I'm in the US and getting a "video unavailable in your region" message.

Great closing for the story. The story, direction, acting, soundtrack, special effects were great. Very well done.

Thanks for the detailed explanation! I thought that the magic tree and the associated magical stuff around it would be enough to classify it as a Xianxia.
Nevertheless, my main objective is enjoying the drama (story, direction, acting, overall production, soundtrack, etc.). I usually do not pay attention to all the "dramas" behind them (gossips, etc.). I definitely enjoyed this one very much. ;-)

Thanks! I'll watch it. It's funny that the producers want their audience to be sure of the intended ending. It's a first for me.
I also saved the URL. I subscribe to Viki, Netflix, Amazon and a couple channels on YouTube (iQiyi, Youku, etc.) but something could always go through the mesh, like this special episode. :-)

I heard that there's a name for a genre that combines xianxia and wuxia? And then there's the xuanhuan genre that's a subset of xianxia? Too confusing to me. 😂

Good series. Could have been shorter. Direction, acting and story were good, but still felt dragging a bit sometimes. 20, or the typical 16-episodes lenght Koreans typically adopt would have made it better.

The end eludes me. I see it two ways. ML died in that battle and FL imagined him returning. ML survived the battle and really came back.
I saw a few comments about a short post-series episode that hints ML survived.
Where to find it?

This is an excellent series. Story, production, acting, and the soundtrack is superb. It's hard to watch everything balanced just right like in this series.
Despite not a 10 like Nirvana in Fire, it's very close.
Now I am looking for the two ququin musics played in the competition. That was definitely a high point in the series.
I just have one question (below under the spoiler).

Is there a place where we can get the two ququin music played by Fang Fei and Ruo Yao in the competition? I found a couple fan-based interpretations on YouTube but I am looking for the ones in the drama. They are magnific.