When the Demon Meets the Demon Slayer
Wu Zhen is a county princess, sister to the empress, with a notorious reputation for being unruly and wild by frequenting a particular pleasure parlor, the Ruyi Pavilion, which is an unconventional practice for a respectable lady of noble birth. Little that people know, the boss of Ruyi Pavilion, Lady Huzhu is actually a fox demon and assistant to Wu Zhen, the current Cat Lord of the Demon City. A heavenly fire afflicting Chang’an 18years ago had changed her fate into a demi-demon as she is now, living her life as a human by day and demon by night. Because she needed to manage Demon City, she had to get out of the house at night with the pretense of frequenting the pleasure house, and this is how she scored the reputation of a notorious noblewoman chasing men one after another.
One day during her pleasure outings in the city, a particular Mei Zhuyu of the Mystic Department caught her eyes. Although just an unremarkable cousin of the notable renowned Mei family of Chang’an, Mei Zhuyu displayed an uncanny talent at solving mystical cases, thanks to his secret identity as Changxi Palace’s demon slayer. As demonic unrests began to unfold across Chang’an with the help of a sinister hidden hand that was also involved in the heavenly fire 18years prior, Cat Lord and Changxi Palace demon slayer raced to solve these cases, one focussed on retrieving the demons back to Demon City for punishment, while the other adamant on vanquishing them altogether, making them go head to head in the darkness but a loving couple in the lights.
The story started off really good and fast paced, the push and pull between the main leads as they dabble their secret identities throughout their relationship is pretty much interesting and not quite as cringy as i thought it would be. The action choreograph is rather good even with those supernatural powers being played on. I totally love the diversity of Serpent Lord’s character when she turned into her fiance Mei Si when he accidently swapped bodies with her. The actress played gender swap really well especially when she walk with the dress train. The actor who played Mei Si was really good during the gender swap too. The roundabout change of character and body posture of both actors is on point.
I especially liked how they managed to make the death of support character to be memorable and heartwrenching, mainly due to how the characters grew towards the end. The plot twist is very unpredictable, i had to commend on that.
However I found Xu Kai rather stiff here, not sure why, it didnt look like he had much chemistry with Tian Xiwei. It’s weird cuz I have seen many of Xu Kai’s work and although only three of Tian’s, they are obviously good actors. Unfortunately, somehow I felt the spark between their characters had been lacking. I had to admit this is definitely one of Xu Kai’s finest works that I have seen, it’s unfortunate that the chemistry didnt come through for me, else the rating wouldve been higher.
Not sure how it is in the novel, but I think the magnificient Cat Lord is a little too fragile as the story progressed throughout the show. She keeps getting injured one after another and frequently needing saving, and this definitely didnt bode well with me who prefer strong female characters. The beginning was awesome and the Cat Lord looks formidable and powerful, but this wanes gradually under the pretense of the mortal body weakening due to latent illness. I don’t mind a lead character that keeps getting injured and weak, my only pet peeve is when it’s a female character they just love to turn her into a damsel in distress so that male character would shine, despite her background being formidable and uncontested in the demon world. 🙄 Same goes to Serpent Lord, they managed to weaken this character so much that she could be rendered helpless with just a simple powder. So weak and yet they both were supposed to be co-leaders of the demon world 😌.
But I can say I enjoyed the show despite my above grievance. Everyone acted well and the plot is good enough to keep me glued to the screen.
One day during her pleasure outings in the city, a particular Mei Zhuyu of the Mystic Department caught her eyes. Although just an unremarkable cousin of the notable renowned Mei family of Chang’an, Mei Zhuyu displayed an uncanny talent at solving mystical cases, thanks to his secret identity as Changxi Palace’s demon slayer. As demonic unrests began to unfold across Chang’an with the help of a sinister hidden hand that was also involved in the heavenly fire 18years prior, Cat Lord and Changxi Palace demon slayer raced to solve these cases, one focussed on retrieving the demons back to Demon City for punishment, while the other adamant on vanquishing them altogether, making them go head to head in the darkness but a loving couple in the lights.
The story started off really good and fast paced, the push and pull between the main leads as they dabble their secret identities throughout their relationship is pretty much interesting and not quite as cringy as i thought it would be. The action choreograph is rather good even with those supernatural powers being played on. I totally love the diversity of Serpent Lord’s character when she turned into her fiance Mei Si when he accidently swapped bodies with her. The actress played gender swap really well especially when she walk with the dress train. The actor who played Mei Si was really good during the gender swap too. The roundabout change of character and body posture of both actors is on point.
I especially liked how they managed to make the death of support character to be memorable and heartwrenching, mainly due to how the characters grew towards the end. The plot twist is very unpredictable, i had to commend on that.
However I found Xu Kai rather stiff here, not sure why, it didnt look like he had much chemistry with Tian Xiwei. It’s weird cuz I have seen many of Xu Kai’s work and although only three of Tian’s, they are obviously good actors. Unfortunately, somehow I felt the spark between their characters had been lacking. I had to admit this is definitely one of Xu Kai’s finest works that I have seen, it’s unfortunate that the chemistry didnt come through for me, else the rating wouldve been higher.
Not sure how it is in the novel, but I think the magnificient Cat Lord is a little too fragile as the story progressed throughout the show. She keeps getting injured one after another and frequently needing saving, and this definitely didnt bode well with me who prefer strong female characters. The beginning was awesome and the Cat Lord looks formidable and powerful, but this wanes gradually under the pretense of the mortal body weakening due to latent illness. I don’t mind a lead character that keeps getting injured and weak, my only pet peeve is when it’s a female character they just love to turn her into a damsel in distress so that male character would shine, despite her background being formidable and uncontested in the demon world. 🙄 Same goes to Serpent Lord, they managed to weaken this character so much that she could be rendered helpless with just a simple powder. So weak and yet they both were supposed to be co-leaders of the demon world 😌.
But I can say I enjoyed the show despite my above grievance. Everyone acted well and the plot is good enough to keep me glued to the screen.
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