Jess4163

No, I can't handle poor storytelling even if the leads have good chemistry. That alone can't save a narrative-focused drama for me.

Sounds like the director/production just didn't do a good job at telling the story. The book is well-loved, so the problem's not the plot itself, but the way it was told by the drama production. If the storytelling was as good as NIF, TMPB or Someday or One Day, this drama would have shot up into the top 10 of mydramalist for sure.

This site has recency bias and pretty much any new romance drama that's decently shot/scripted (halfway at least) that stars well-known/hot leads with chemistry will be highly rated at first (until fervor cools and, more often than not, the ratings will go down).
This drama had a guaranteed fanbase built from an existing beloved sister drama and had everything going for it to climb up the mydramalist ranks fast. The fact that this didn't happen is really telling and in my opinion, probably shows how much production messed up in the storytelling department.

Wow, thanks for explaining. Sounds like I'm not missing much by choosing to skip this drama. Storytelling, simple or complex, is what matters to me the most in any narrative-focused medium. My favorite dramas of all time were all successful at delivering their narrative and creating/sticking to their ground rules: "Nirvana in Fire," "Ten Miles," and "Someday or One day."

The stuff you just described about this drama would irk me to no end.

This and Eternal Love will not get a high score on Douban solely because they're adaptations of two novels who's author is accused of plagiarism. There's a taint that will forever be attributed to any work that's associated with plagiarism, even if it's not direct.

It'll be popular regardless of quality because of the main lead's fame from Ten Miles as secondary leads. Anticipation for this drama was very high...

The cast is incredible, but the story is completely tragic. Nobody gets a happy ending...

Good, this drama absolutely deserves it as it's the rare "lightning in the bottle" work: One where everything from the production, script, and casting/acting were exceptional. Heck, a truly good script (esp. for a romance) is practically nonexistent in today's CGI/special effects world. So, it's nice to see credit given to where it's due. Maybe this will encourage more romantic dramas with good scripts to be produced...

Not since "Nirvana in Fire" and "Ten Miles" have I seen such an amazingly written, acted (two leads made me feel their love was real and I LOVED their chemistry and facial expressions), and produced series. There's so much crap today that nothing's been catching my interest until I caught avenuex's youtube review of this. Boy, she sure wasn't kidding when she labelled it the best contemporary drama she's seen since starting her channel.

Also, the ending totally justified the means and resolved the narrative in the best way possible. It's both an incredible love story and a story about self-worth and the drama achieved both without seeming forced or preachy. Wow, can't believe how seamlessly the writers were able to intertwine both the love/self-worth stories seamlessly without sacrificing either. Both heavily overlapped with the other, so it was impossible to become invested in one and not the other -I loved this as I hate too many plot threads that go absolutely nowhere.
Almost every plot thread in this drama was resolved in a satisfying manner, without leaving you feeling cheated. There was only one forced/conveniently written plot thread and even then, it made way for a good twist and didn't influence the most important aspects of the drama, so I was easily able to overlook it by the end. Overall, not only did this drama have my dream time travel plot , but also wrote it masterfully and had the best actors bringing it to life. Masterpiece through and through and will go down as one of my favorite dramas of all time along with "Nirvana in Fire" and "Ten Miles". Boy did this one steal my heart!!!

Just finished and am bawling!!! I loved the past time period with our leads the most because their dynamics were the most exciting! The male lead was polite, but distant and had absolutely no interest in the original owner of the body the female lead ended up transmigrating into. It was so enticing to watch the difference in treatment: Whenever it's the main girl, he gets all flustered and hot for her, but as soon as it's the other, he becomes rather uncomfortable, confused, and ultimately distant. There's just no hint of the passion and yearning whenever it's not the main girl. The story explored this aspect so well and the acting completely sold it! I knew every time it's not the main girl in the body because the actress was so phenomenal with her subtle facial expressions. Likewise, our male lead's expressions and body language completely exhibited his different reactions to the two girls's souls sharing one body, proving that his affections is only for one and never for the other. The clear distinction is what made me love this story even more and I wish more romance stories have this level of intricacy. I want and need MORE....

OMG, I've watched 7 episodes so far and the hype is for real!!! Not since NIF, Ten Miles, and Healer have I seen such an amazingly written, acted (two leads made me feel their love was real and I LOVED their chemistry and facial expressions), and produced series. There's so much crap today that nothing's been catching my interest until I caught avenuex's youtube review of this. Boy, she sure wasn't kidding when she labelled it the best contemporary drama she's seen since starting her channel.

Finally, a romance with the most intriguing time travel mystery plot that's intricately written and doesn't fall apart. This is the time travel story I've always wanted to read or watch: Main girl time travels into the body of another girl and gets that girl's crush (male lead) to fall hard for her (he didn't like the original inhabitant). I've always wanted to read about a romance plot like that because it'll be such fun to watch the male lead fall for someone he's never liked, but now is drawn towards only due to the main girl's soul inhabiting the body. Sooo romantic!!! And the drama does such a good job at showcasing the male lead's "falling" process layer by layer and doesn't rush it. So delicious and swoonworthy!!!

No episodes feel like filler and such care is placed into the narrative and character development. This feels like a breath of fresh air! So many dramas these days waste screen time with bloat or scenes that add absolutely nothing to the narrative that I can hardly believe a drama like this can exist. Thank you Taiwan!!! This drama is on another level and I can't wait to finish it!!! Love the love story and overall plot!!!

One of the best and most powerful opening songs I've ever heard in a Chinese drama and I've watched many! And I usually prefer the ending songs more, but this opening just SLAYED me -what a song!!!

Only reason it's not popular is because it's old. If mydramalist existed back then, this would have been in the top ten for sure since the whole country went crazy over it back then.

Nirvana in Fire doesn't have much romance at all unlike the Untamed. But in terms of overall drama production quality, it's much better than the Untamed. Due to censoring, the Untamed drama really didn't get the production and screenplay it deserved to do justice to the web novel, which was a masterpiece. There were a lot of inadequate editing and amateurish camera work. I still gave it an 8/10 because of how much I loved the Yi city arc and the character dynamics.

But Nirvana in Fire, which was also originally a web novel, pretty much got the best directors and production company to turn it into a masterpiece drama. I wish the Untamed got the Nirvana in Fire or Ten Miles Peach Blossom's production companies to make this drama. Even then, the censoring will still hold it back. Sigh...

IMO, pretty much the best male lead groveling drama I've ever seen! Episode 33 is an emotional masterpiece and the best payoff ever! The female lead is also really strong and has lots of backbone...

That's only because people were in love with the main leads' hot chemistry and good looks. People vote more for how a drama made them feel and less for script/writing quality. Plus, this drama's more recent and the top spots are almost always taken up by the newer/trendier dramas. Kdramas in the romance genre are really going downhill in terms of writing as newer ones rely more on chemistry btw good-looking leads and pretty camera work rather than plot/writing. I've completely lost interest...

This drama ultimately didn't know what it wanted to be: Crime, romance, or horror? In trying to tackle all three genres, it succeeds in none of them and the plot ended up being a trainwreck. Even though the leads had lots of chemistry and cute moments, they still couldn't save the plot. I wish the drama made their romance the central focus instead of the other bloat.

Youtube has much better subtitles too as they use the ones from Dramafever. Netflix's translations are not up to par and you lose much of the wit from dialogues...

Same here! NIF and TMPB are my top two dramas because I feel both are masterpieces within their own respective sub-genres: One for historical fiction/political intrigue and the other for fantasy romance.

OMG, I just watched 2/3rds of this Pakistani drama on netflix called Khaani because it's got a very compelling "villain obsessed with heroine" plot. Only the villain is actually the male lead, so he's the hero as well. But I saw him as the villain because he's pretty much the main antagonist of the series and never gets the h's love.

Basically, the premise is the h's twin brother gets into a altercation with the villain (rich spoiled son of a politician) and ends up dead. It's disturbing how the villain feels no remorse after killing a person over a petty argument. This is because he grew up in a family that never taught him right from wrong and gave him whatever his heart desired. Anyways, the h's family is devastated and initially pressed charges, resulting in the villain's arrest. But his family is powerful and they, alongside the villain, managed to coerce the h's family into signing "apology papers," indicating that they had forgiven the villain's deeds, thus dropping all charges.

Only during this whole process, the h was the only one with a backbone and refused to cower before the villain/his family's power. Initially sticking to her guns and refusing to sign the apology papers, she stood up to the villain a few times before he went over to their house to force them into signing. Their unpleasant encounters (the villain at one point even held a gun up to her forehead and she still wouldn't relent) eventually caused the villain to become curious/intrigued with the h, esp. after she told him that he may be free from the charges, but will be forever cursed by her, sister of the person he murdered. Her words really rang true as she herself became both the source of the villain's torment as well as his salvation.

I was only interested in the first 21 episodes (31 in total) as that was all about how he came to be obsessed (wasn't right away and it was awesome watching the "falling" process) and stalked/chased after the h like an unyielding, bulldozing tank. Seriously, once the villain realizes his feelings, he's batsh*t crazy obsessed and nothing can deter him from trying to make the h his. He does many crazy things: Stalks her everyday, whacking himself with a glass bottle so he'd have a legit reason to be near her at the hospital where she works, threatened to kill himself when he found out his disapproving parents tried to kill the h (would have gone through with it if the h died for real), and forcing her to get engaged with him.

Seriously, the villain's one of the most obsessed I've ever seen and it doesn't hurt that he's absolutely gorgeous and shares explosive chemistry with the h. All their scenes together are gold and I just couldn't get enough of the way he looks at her like he wants to devour her. The villain's actor is very skilled and I loved all of his facial expressions (his eyes really exude emotion), esp. when he's around the h. He seriously can't bear to be away from the h once he falls for her. It's been a long time since I've felt this way about a pairing.

Sadly, this drama is a tragedy and the villain ends up serving a life sentence due to him murdering the h's brother. The h also married someone else (didn't bother me because she never loved the villain and it'll be impossible for her to be with her brother's killer). I also didn't watch the last 10 episodes or so, because they strayed away from the romance and focused on the villain's redemption/seeking forgiveness for his past indiscretions. But the first 21 episodes is a must watch for anyone in the mood for a highly compelling "villain obsessively in love" storyline with hot hot chemistry btw the leads.
The drama's also got an amazing soundtrack.

Here are two mvs: One featuring the twisted romance and the other is the official ost mv:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kk2xXIJvlQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1Erx5Vbh5U

Now I want something else similar to the plot in the first 21 episodes as I'm suffering from withdrawal symptoms...

Forgot to add one more:

Proong Nee Gor Ruk Ter -Older thai drama with a powerful male lead who's absolutely insane for the female lead. Their love story's really intense/emotional and there are lots of un-pc scenes. But, they have explosive chemistry and I was glued to the screen.

Towards the end, the ML doesn't lose steam in his obsessiveness, but the heroine refuses to be with him because she thinks he got the OW pregnant (fake) and wants him to take responsibility by marrying her . He didn't want to and even begged the FL on his knees (wants to marry her and no one else), but she was unrelenting. So, he was sort of going to go through with the marriage only because the FL asked him to. Though I hate story events like this, the whole sequence was towards the end and went by quickly (the ceremony was interrupted of course). Luckily, there wasn't enough time for the OW to gloat about this whole thing or I would have pulled my hair out, lol.