justjacky

Beautiful cinematography & mystical love story

This drama is about the female lead who suffers from amnesia and cannot remember anything before the last three years. She draws a painting of a mystical tree in the hopes of discovering more about her past self. Before her wedding night, a man (the male lead) finds her, claiming she has stolen a twinned branch from the tree she has drawn.

POSITIVE:
- Beautiful cinematography that captures the beauty of soft romance and the cruelty of the dark world. The stunning cinematography here elevates each scene 10x more.
- Likeable and mature main leads that have great chemistry.
- Mix of angsty and soft romance.
- Simple and easy to understand plot with some unexpected twists.
- Lovely OST.

NEGATIVE:
- Some parts of the drama have ridiculous moments which not everyone will like. But I suppose as long as it's not taken to heart and seen as entertaining it's alright.
- The story couldn’t fully hold my attention and sometimes I’ll get sleepy while watching.
- The ending… that’s all I’ll say without spoiling.

OVERALL:
If you want a mystical love story with beautiful cinematography AND you don’t have a faint heart, watch this short drama.

FUN FACT:
I’m mesmerised by the cinematography!!! The director is the same that also did the short dramas A Familiar Stranger, Provoke and Butterflied Lover (you should check them out). He has an upcoming full length drama Blossom with Li Yun Rui which I’m sure will again be a visual feast.

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Theatrical, addictive & dramatic revenge play

The drama is about the female lead who almost dies from being buried alive by her husband. She is saved by a girl (the daughter of a powerful official) who ends up dying shortly after. Set on a path of double revenge, the female lead takes the identity of the dead girl, and vows to avenge her husband and everyone who has wronged her and the dead girl. Alongside her path joins her the Duke (the male lead) who has his own secret schemes set in motion.

This drama felt to me like a dramatic theatrical play. The plot is nothing new and yet the characters, the over the top moments and well-written dialogue made it a very entertaining watch.

THE ACTORS/CHARACTERS:
- Wu Jin Yan (female lead) - it was my first time seeing her and she hands down impressed me with her impeccable emotional acting. Sometimes, I'd get so immersed into the story that I'd truly forget she was in fact playing a role. I never for a second doubted her raw emotions. Her character is truly one of the best written female leads. Cunning, smart, independent but also emotional and soft. A truly female centric drama, she definitely didn’t wait for a man in shining armour to save her.

- Wang Xing Yue (male lead) - I pretty much started this drama for him and he did not disappoint me. In fact I’m absolutely addicted and in love with his character!!! The actor totally slayed the role, his charisma, smouldering gaze, deep voice and stunning looks were truly marvellous to watch. He was a total scene stealing, his performance and micro-expressions top-notch. If there is an actor that I have to say was born to play for a role, it would be him. In fact, you should scroll at the end of this review and read how he was written in the novel.

THE POSITIVE:
- Smart and cunning male and female lead.
- Hot male lead with the most badass entrances and a marvellous fan that’s a character on its own.
- Morally grey characters with well-written motivations, dialogue and interactions.
- Villains that are truly villainous. The writers really created many villains that you love to hate.
- Political intrigue plot with a dash of slow burn romance.
- Tons of flirting and sexual tension between the leads.
- Truly revenge focused with tons of manipulations and deceptions.
- Vivid cinematography. The director knows well how to use the environment to set up the mood of each scene and enhance it.
- Great portrayal of human psychology and the effects of PTSD and trauma.
- Rain scenes. Truly beautiful.
- Wonderful OST.
- Brilliant acting, especially the main leads.
- Shirtless scenes with the male lead and in general male eye candy visuals.
- Engaging plot and dialogue.
- A mix of mature tone with some light-hearted moments.
- Extra special episode that gives a very satisfying ending.

THE NEGATIVE:
- Very dark scenes (violence, torture, sexual, physical and psychological abuse shown).
- Not enough screen time for the male lead. Just like in Scent of Time, I absolutely loved the main lead and his character but a lot of episodes he had around 5 minutes of screen time. Yes, the drama is female centric and apparently he only shows up later in the novel so the drama did give him an additional story but still… I wanted more because I truly love that guy.
- Little romance and 1-3 kiss scenes. Yes this is a revenge drama and I don’t mind slow burn romance BUT the sexual tension of the leads was so good I honestly wanted to see them two tearing each other’s clothes (or a PG13 version of it at least). Or just a bit more romantic scenes with them! Their wedding kiss scene was 5 seconds long but the actors said they filmed for 3 hours and their lips were swollen by the end!!! I have real beef now with the director for cutting so much. Anyway I still love the scenes we got, so I’m not too pissed off about it.
- Comedy cringe. Sometimes the characters felt cartoonish during the comedy scenes and were over the top and ridiclours. Sometimes I laughed big time, other times the scenes were not funny at all. A hit and miss but it didn’t bother me too much.
- Bad camera face close ups: they were a bit too much and not really flattering.
- Illogical bits. This drama is high on soap opera vibes and definitely sacrifices logic for entertainment. Only about 2 times it truly bothered me (I’m looking at episode 28). But as long as you see it as entertaining and funny soap opera moments, it’s fine.
- Fight scenes. Could have been better. I expected a bit more from the male lead but what I saw was still nice.

THE VILLAINS:
I usually don’t mention the villains in my reviews but these characters need a separate paragraph. I absolutely loved all the disgusting villains. I believe a great story (especially revenge) requires equally great villains and this drama knows how to deliver on this front. From the scumbag Ex-husband, to the unhinged Princess and jealous Step-mother, plus many corrupted and totally horrible powerful men, the characters were truly entertaining to watch. The actors did a brilliant job, making me hate all of them and even pity some of them for a hot second.

THE REVENGE:
Since this a revenge drama the big question is, was it a satisfying one? I’d say yes, for the most part. The only revenge I did not like was the step-mother's ending. It felt a bit ridiculous and underwhelming so I wish it was written a bit differently. In general, the revenge was built up well with tons of suspense, manipulation and cunningness from the female lead. All the villains had great motivations and their backstories were woven well without taking too much screen time. The main revenge that was concluded in the final episodes was truly spectacular and kept me at the edge of my seat. The main villains Ex-Husband and the Princess enhanced the plot and delivered the satisfying revenge feel. Throughout the drama there were also what I’d say side quests (small revenges) that were also great to watch.

OVERALL:
Theatrical, addictive & dramatic revenge play "The Double" stands out with its extremely hot male lead, dark cinematography, cringe comedy, sexual tension between the leads and disgustingly good villains. This drama became one of Youku’s 2024 biggest hits. Yes, it has its flaws and illogical bits but it's highly addictive, emotional and entertaining. I highly recommend it.

MALE LEAD IN THE NOVEL:
I love the male lead so much so here is Duke’s introduction in the novel that I feel Wang Xing Yue truly embodies:
“Duke Su was like an enchanting demon spirit walking in the quiet night in his red brocade clothes, seducing the soul within the blink of an eye. He had a gaze with a smile yet not a smile, causing the slight smile hung at the corner of his lips to look somewhat wicked. His walking posture was languid yet graceful, as if he was admiring the full moon in a courtyard. Even if he was a beauty, he was a moody and toxic beauty and it’s better to provoke him less.”

FAVOURITE QUOTES:
“The innocent are suffering while the wicked go unpunished” by the female lead.
“If you want to enjoy the show, you must first support the actors” by the male lead.
“She is my investment asset pawn” by the male lead.

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Silly, chaotic, transmigration, fluffy romance

This drama is about the female lead who is a modern girl that enters a comic book as a Mary Sue heroine but messes up the system and bonds with the villain (male lead).

Note, to pass the censorship, the last 2 scenes in the finale episode are most likely switched.

POSITIVE:
- Villain male lead (but in a cute way).
- Cute, fluffy romance.
- Kiss scenes every episode (not even exaggerating). Some are good kisses, others are dead fish kisses.
- Making fun of Mary Sue & NPC characters.
- Silly & chaotic plot.
- Transmigration into comic/game style.
- A nice turn-off-your-brain-while-watching drama.
- Happy vibes.

NEGATIVE:
- Nonsense plot. If you care about logic and get easily irritated about the lack of it, don’t watch this.
- Ordinary plot. If you watch transmigration stories, you’ve seen it all before.

OVERALL:
Turn-off-your-brain-while-watching mini transmigration drama with silly plot and cute/fluffy romance.

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Murder crimes with slow burn romance. Modern girl falls for the villain of her story.

This drama is about a modern day girl who travels to her novel but has to change the ending of her original story where the villain wins (and in the process totally falls in love with him). At first glance this drama to me looked like a typical light-hearted transmigration novel with not much substance. But I was pleasantly surprised. The main plot of the drama is solving complex murder cases which are all related to the main characters. These cases and the mystery around them truly elevated the plot and kept me engaged until the end. The fact that the female lead was changing her novel story from the inside provided great character development, especially for the male lead. I truly feel like if the drama had a more famous cast, it would have become a hit. Regardless of that, all the actors did a good job.

However, I do have mixed feelings about this drama or rather the ending of it. I loved the plot, characters and how everything was executed until the final episode. I didn’t have any expectations about the ending and yet somehow I felt dissatisfied. In my head I kept thinking “Is that it…?”. The ending made sense which is important but at the same time I wasn’t happy with how the story wrapped up for the characters and couples. I just needed something more and the fact that it kind of has a happy ending but it’s not really happy, doesn't sit well with me.

POSITIVE:
- Male lead is an actual villain. His personality doesn’t drastically change from a bad guy to a total sweetheart. He stays true to his villain personality however his perspective changes. I truly appreciated how he was written and his character development was perfect.
- Engaging crime investigation cases that directly connect to the characters and don’t feel like side stories/fillers.
- Great mix of comedy, romance with mystery and suspense.
- Slow burn romance.
- No love triangles. Despite the male and second male lead both liking the female lead, there was no stupid drama about it.
- Awesome plot twists. The story takes unexpected turns and always surprises you.
- Side couple (Princess and Medicine guy) became my favourite. Their story could seriously be a separate mini drama because it’s THAT good.
- Real villain is well written. Most villains in cdramas are kind of meh but this one here was an actual threat which I appreciated.
- Supporting cast and the side couples are fun to watch.
- Revenge plot done well.
- Awesome OST (I never skipped the opening and closing credits).

NEGATIVE:
- Annoying mother character that made my blood boil like crazy. I had to fast forward through all of her scenes because I literally couldn’t stand her squeaky voice and ridiculous mannerisms. Thankfully she is gone about halfway through the drama so I didn’t have to suffer till the end.
- Unsatisfying ending. As mentioned above, I didn’t like the final episode and how the story wrapped up for the characters and couples.
- Side couple (the original male and female lead in the novel story) was not executed well. Instead of focusing his story on falling in love with his girl, he was turned into a second male lead that liked the female lead. Their relationship felt quite one-sided all the time.

OVERALL:
If you are looking for a transmigration drama with murder crimes as a main plot and romance on the side, where the male lead is a very cool and sexy villain, watch this drama.

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Fire chemistry with plenty of romantic tension between the leads

This drama is about the fake dating trope. The female lead takes her twin sister's place as an actress after she goes missing. The twin sister has a contractual relationship with the male lead and has to pretend to be his girlfriend/fiancee in the public eye. The two twin sisters are very different. The female lead is strong-willed and independent whereas her sister is told to be sensitive and timid. The male lead has no romantic feelings for her twin sister and only falls in love with the female lead.

POSITIVE:
- The chemistry between the main leads is what makes the drama worth the watch. There is plenty of romantic tension and I-like-you-but-I-pretend-I-don't vibes which I absolutely love.
- Story is mainly about the main leads and their fake dating.
- Comedy is top-notch. 10/10
- Male lead is a sexy, protective CEO and the female lead is a badass, independent geologist (pretending to be an actress). They not only connect physically but share a common interest in geology which creates a more mature dynamic. Both are kind of workaholics and don't have much experience in terms of love.
- I don't usually pay significant attention to the wardrobe but the female lead has one of the most stunning outfits I've ever seen in a drama.
- Not many business/work scenes which is good because let's be real, we only care about the romance.

NEGATIVE:
- Second couple is a bit underwhelming. Second male lead is mature and lovely but the second female lead is childish and immature.
- Last few episodes were a bit dull because they focused on more emotional and mature themes which didn't fit with the lighthearted and fun vibes from the beginning. I believe the story should have stuck with the comedy aspect until the end which would have made it a 10 for me.
- Subtitles are pretty bad at the beginning but you get used to it. The only hard thing to follow were the business explanations but there weren't that many and didn't make a huge impact on the story.

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Great cast & characters but weak plot

The drama is about the love story between the Floral Deity (male lead) and the camellia pixie (female lead). Although slow paced, the drama started off really well and I quickly fell in love with the characters and romance. But my excitement died down too quickly and the drama ended up disappointing me with its weak plot.

It’s worth mentioning that the first thing that pleasantly surprised me was the amazing AI face-swap. I literally couldn’t tell the new actress had re-shot all her scenes on a green screen. To me, she did an amazing job, knowing how tough it is to replace the previous actress. Having said that, I feel like the whole allure of this drama was that it was meant to be the reunion of Liu Xue Yi and Yuan Bing Yan. The initial vibe I got was totally that this is an alternative timeline of Love and Redemption where the second male lead actually gets the girl. As I mentioned, Hu Yi Xuan was amazing but at the same time, I always felt off, maybe because I knew she wasn’t there for all the scenes, or maybe because I watched the original trailer and I loved YBY’s scenes so much more. But when you think about it, the shooting, the clothes, hair, makeup were all designed for YBY so of course HYX was at a huge disadvantage. Anyway that’s just my observation, I don't want to get into any sort of fan wars about it.

PLOT BREAKDOWN:

Ep 1-11 / Immortal realm: 1st life
Very slow paced but the blossoming romance between the leads was cute.

Ep 12-22 / Mortal realm: 2nd life
Cultivation academy setting. Male lead is the master and the female lead is his disciple, pretending to be a man. Except for the female lead and second male lead, everyone else remembers the 1st life.

Ep 23-29 / Mortal realm: 3rd life
Palace setting + demon hunting. Male lead is a general and the female lead is a demon hunter. Only the female lead and second female lead remember the previous lives.

Ep 30-40 / Immortal realm
At this point I had lost interest in the drama and skipped lots just to finish it.

POSITIVE:
- Bromance. Liu Xue Yi and Ao Rui Peng’s characters and their relationship was the highlights for me. LXY’s character started off as grumpy and unapproachable but gradually softened up. He was strict and duty bound but still stood up for what he believed in and wanted. ARP’s character started off as an air-head and total clown (in a good way) but became mature and endearing at the end. I love that despite their opposite personalities, they always supported and loved each other.
- Sweet romance (for the most part). The main couple was the emotional type while the second couple leaned on the comedy.
- Masculine and authority male lead. Let’s face it, most of us watched the drama for him. I truly loved him in this role.
- Nice CGI and visual settings. Even though the style is very “old school" (since it was filmed in 2021), visually it still looked good and I can tell a lot of effort was put into the production.
- Second couple surprised me with their fun banter and good relationship development throughout the drama. The second female lead appeared to want the male lead at first but really, she just wanted to be an Empress. She definitely wasn’t the most likable character but knowing the second male lead liked her, I wanted them to work out for his sake.

NEGATIVE:
- Weak plot. My main issue with this drama is the boring plot. 40 episodes and almost NOTHING happens. Yes, the characters do things but it has very little impact on the story. The drama focuses on the love story between the leads which consists of constant back-and-forth. After ep 11 there was almost zero development of their romance. In fact I’m pretty sure if you skip to ep 30, you won’t miss a thing. Their 2 mortal lives (ep 12-29) felt like fillers, for the most part. A few significant things would happen to drive the plot forward but the rest was just blah blah blah. These lives could have literally been condensed to 3-4 episodes and would have had the same effect. Things like the male lead’s origin or female lead’’s cultivation were brushed over which is a shame as I think these would have at least added SOMETHING. The plot just felt bare-bones.
- Obsessively “in love” villain that was whiny the whole time. He was so pathetic and one dimensional that I HAD to skip his scenes.

OVERALL:
The romance started off great but after ep 11, had almost zero development. The plot was a bunch of nothingness, most of the time things were happening but nothing significant really happened. The leads had good chemistry but something felt off, maybe it was the bad plot or the fact that I knew the female lead was face-swapped/re-shot. In conclusion, I’d say this drama is boring, filled with the typical xianxia tropes and not really worth the watch.

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Unpopular opinion. I didn’t like anything except the visuals and Neo

Sadly, I was not bestowed the fortune to like this drama, even though I really wanted to. Warning: this is one of my rare non-positive review so if you love the drama maybe it’s best to skip this read. While this drama wasn’t my cup of tea, I mean no disrespect to those that loved it.

POSITIVE:
- Stunning visuals: the cinematography, costumes and overall aesthetics was a true living piece of art.
- Male lead: I loved his demon look, and the way his character was portrayed. Neo nailed the emotional scenes and his comedic timing was great.
- Cast chemistry: even though I wasn’t emotionally invested in the story, the chemistry between the actors was great, especially the two male leads.
- End credits: the most random and adorable dance scenes.

NEGATIVE:
- Vibes of “Tacky christmas aesthetics”: too loud and too much going on in every single scene. Everyone was crying all the time and I felt nothing. It looked to me like the director was hyper-focused on creating the most stunning music video, that he forgot he was supposed to be making a drama.

- Messy storytelling: heavy reliance on flashbacks after flashbacks, dream sequence after dream sequence, weird inserts of “beautiful visuals” in-between scenes that broke the flow of the story. Instead of adding depth, the storytelling actually felt cluttered and disjointed. The conversations were the biggest issue for me as they often abruptly shifted between serious tones, to sudden humours, to sudden emotional outbursts - all this in one scene! This made me feel like I was watching a parody.

- Non-stop OST: music was constantly playing in the background which pissed me off big time. At times, it seemed like the director didn’t trust the actors to land their jokes, so he relied on comedic background music to tell the audience when they were supposed to laugh.

- Meh characters: except Neo’s character, nobody else left an impression on me. The female lead was useless. The second male lead was too stoic (I prefer his badass MJTY character). The second female lead’s action scenes were cool and I enjoyed the sub-plot with her brother but overall her character felt flat. The cook was cute but that’s all. The kiddo annoyed me af. I would have liked him more if he were written as a mature young genius instead of a teen acting like a 5-year-old. His possessed scenes were cool, though.

OVERALL:
This drama had everything I usually enjoy, an intriguing fantasy setting, demons and a great cast but the execution just didn’t work for me. Except for Neo, none of the characters left any impact on me. In fact, I should have probably skipped this one because now it has become one of my worst watches.

Visuals: 10/10
Story: 2/10
Characters: 2/10
Enjoyment: 0/10

FYI, my thoughts are mostly based on ep 1-24 as after this I lost all patience and skipped tons in order to finish it. I did watch the final episode and special episode.

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Jewellery business politics + subplot romance

This drama is about the female lead's story of being a pearl diver slave to becoming a successful jewellery merchant. Alongside her journey, we also follow the male lead, a ruthless businessman out for revenge after the tragic death of his family.

POSITIVE:
- Strong-willed, badass and street-smart female lead.
- Morally grey male lead.
- Business politics focused, with romance as a subplot.
- Fantastic storytelling: this truly felt like “her” story, as we follow her journey from a slave with nothing to a powerful merchant.
- Feminism vibes. Women supporting women and showing they can be powerful leaders.
- Beautiful kiss scenes.
- Lovely OST.
- Nice fight scenes. Not a lot but what we do see is really good.
- Beautiful jewellery and costumes, especially Zhao Lusi’s styling was top notch.
- Emotional and baby angst vibes. It has that realism feel to it, with a mix of revenge and scheming around the business side.
- Zhao Lusi: phenomenal acting performance. From her raw underwater scenes, to her angsty slave scenes, to her transformative portrayal of a powerful business woman. This role feels like her best yet, and she truly brought the character to life.

NEGATIVE:
- The second half felt repetitive at times: the antagonists constantly tried to sabotage the female lead’s business. Different scenarios, yes but it was the same thing over and over, which made parts of the drama feel draggy.
- Basic plot: honestly the plot was not that deep, just straightforward business politics with basic villains. Having said that, the drama was still very enjoyable.
- Annoying second female lead: I literally couldn’t stand the character even though the actress was so beautiful. I hated everything she did and everything she said and I was not satisfied at all with how her ending was written.
- Ending: I was not fully satisfied as the writers decided to do a powerful scene off screen, which made it less emotionally impactful.

OVERALL:
This drama isn’t about romance, although there is romance. It’s not about angst, betrayal with dazzling action scenes, even though those elements are there. This drama promised a story about a pearl diver slave, who faces many hardships and rises to become a powerful jewellery merchant - and it absolutely delivered exactly that. For me, this is Zhao Lusi’s best role to date. If you want to see a drama with the strong message “Women can conquer the world,” watch this one.

FAVOURITE QUOTE:
“One tear of a mermaid, so rare and bright, is brought with the blood of countless divers."

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An Entertaining Chaos: Skinship, Messy Plot, Illogical, Reverse Harem

A promising start but became a hot mess in the second half. This drama is about the female lead that gets involved with the three most influential men in the desert. To avenge her parent’s death, the female lead switches identities and marries the Lord of the Desert (third male lead). Upon her journey, she falls in love with the male lead who has secret identities. She also gets vigorously chased by the most notorious bandit (second male lead) who claims she is the most beautiful woman in the desert.

POSITIVE:
- Sexy aesthetics, beautiful styling, good looking cast.
- Skinship and lots of spicy scenes (pretty much the best part of the drama).
- Strong-willed female lead.
- Green flag male lead (except that he lies at the start).
- Nice desert settings (actual shots from the desert).
- Hidden identities.
- Mostly angsty.
- Reverse-harem vibes. The female lead only loves the male lead however she does have a lot of screen time with the other two men. Her se*ual tension and chemistry with the Lord (third male lead) is very noticeable, and she is always chased by the bandit who she always rejects (second male lead).
- Contrasting couples. The two couples are pretty much opposites and they share equal screen time. You would either find the main couple romantic or boring, the second couple exciting or barbaric. There won’t be a middle ground. For me, I enjoyed the main couple’s story more.
- Nice OST.
- Good acting from the main cast (considering the script they were given). The most noticeable for me was Alen Fang, every time he was heavily injured/hurt (which happened a lot), I could feel the pain because his acting was that good.

NEGATIVE:
- A hot mess plot. There was not one defined plot but a merge of sub-plots that made the drama very messy. We had switched princesses (that pretty much served only for the romance), powerful desert scrolls (that seemed like the biggest key in defeating the enemy but ended up being totally useless), male lead’s secret identities (that were not fleshed out or explored), power struggle between tribes (probably the only sane thing in this drama), harem competition (the female lead vs the other concubine), female lead’s revenge arc, the desert’s bandits (second male lead’s story arc + second couple’s story), forbidden love between the main leads. So basically, there were too many things happening, the plot was all over the place and nothing was properly fleshed out or explored.

- Illogical. I’m not someone who cares about logic but this drama has a ridiculous amount of illogical parts. The biggest thing that annoyed me is how the male lead was able to walk around freely in the palace which was supposedly the most secure place in the desert. Another thing that absolutely baffled me was the female lead saying to the second male lead "you have pure love" considering he had repeatedly tried to r*pe her.

- R*pe scenes. The second male lead tried to r*pe the female lead at least 3 times. In the end, all the bandits were glorified and almost made to seem like heroes. There are also attempts to r*pe the second female lead.

- Male lead as a side accessory. Unfortunately this drama gave me horrible flashbacks of The Princess Royal where the male lead gets sidelined and his only purpose is to be a love interest for the female lead. The fact that his character had two secret identities and none of the two were explored or fleshed out was disappointing. At the first half, the two males shared equal screen time but in the second half, all the important/key scenes were given to the second male lead (who is listed as support character, not even main). I truly feel injustice was done to Alen Fang.

- Barbaric second couple. Honestly, if you ignore the fact that the second male lead was going to r*pe her, this couple started off as the cool bickering, comedy-relief type. But after a few episodes, the second female lead kept being degraded/humiliated by him as she kept chasing him with zero self-respect. On top of that, he continuously chased the female lead and tried to r*pe her until the very end of the drama. At one point, the second couple killed people and decided to have s*x right next to their corpses. I honestly don’t know what the writers were smoking while writing that part. In the end, this couple was totally chaotic, non-romantic and didn’t really make sense to me. However I know people who totally enjoyed them compared to the leads, so it's all personal preference.

- Insta-love main couple. Although I liked the main couple, their romance felt physical first and emotional later. Within the first few episodes the couple was already infatuated and kissed. Then they separated and had a forbidden/secret relationship while she was married to the Lord. While I did enjoy their love story, I think it would have been more impactful if it was more of a slow burn.

- Dumbed down characters. The female lead started off as intelligent but in the second half became dumb for the purpose of extra angst. The second female lead started off as an independent and skilful fighter but after a few episodes became a mad woman whose sole purpose was to be with the second male lead + a damsel in distress at times. The Lord of the Desert (third male lead and villain) had a lot of potential but at the important scenes was simply dumbed down for convenience.

- Low-budget fight scenes. I think the production tried and some shots were good but most were bad and uneventful.

OVERALL:
I have mixed feelings about this drama. On one hand, it’s very entertaining with great romance, skinship and some strong characters. But on the other hand, the messy plot, many illogical parts and toxic/disturbing scenes make it frustrating to watch. I guess, if you can look past the chaos and are here for the entertainment and beautiful visuals, it’s a decent watch. For me it’s one of those “it’s so bad, it’s actually good” dramas.

TRIGGER WARNING:
Multiple attempts of r*pe (female lead and second female lead).

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The perfect winter romance with billiards as sub-plot

This is the perfect winter romance to watch on a cold night, wrapped up in a blanket and drinking hot cocoa. It’s one of those rare green flag dramas that can easily warm your heart with love while watching. The drama is about how two sports players meet on a snowstorm night in Finland and fall in love. Every episode is filled with fluffy, sugary romance and beautiful snow landscapes. The episodes are slow paced, we follow the daily lives of the main leads and how they fall in love with each other which means the audience spends extra time watching them cuddle, eat and walk around the city. The chemistry between the leads is so hot that you always feel like you are peeing into their most intimate and private moments in the best way possible.

The first half of the drama is focused on the relationship build up and mostly takes place in Finland. I preferred this half more as it had the perfect sugary romance.The second half of the drama is focused more on the plot as it revolves around the sports competitions in the field of billiards (snooker and nine-ball). This half is more serious with some sadder moments and mostly takes place in China.

POSITIVE:
- Natural and hot chemistry between the leads. Their eye contact, hair touching, hand caressing is EVERYTHING. I always feel I’m peeping into their most intimate moments as if I'm watching a real life couple.
- Hot kisses. Yes this needs a separate point because the way male lead is pulling her for a kiss is FIRE.
- Romance that makes you swoon, squeal and blush like crazy.
- No stupid love triangles.
- No annoying break-ups.
- No annoying characters.
- Beautiful snow/winter cinematography.
- Support cast shines as much as the main leads.
- Top-notch winter romance that’s perfect to watch on a cold night with hot cocoa in hand.
- One small misunderstanding that was resolved quickly.
- Heartwarming vibes all the way.
- Main leads that have small normal flaws instead of being unrealistically perfect. They still make mistakes like all humans and learn from them.

NEGATIVE: (4 small things that bugged me but they didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the drama)
- Plot in the second half of the drama (revolving around sports competitions) wasn’t the most exciting to watch.
- 2 sad/depressing episodes. I didn’t care about that particular plot line and I felt it had too much screen time. I would have preferred if the drama had only happy moments without sad parts like one of my favourites dramas (I won’t name it here).
- No second couple. Before the drama started I read that the actor WXY will have a love interest so I was excited to see that. But he didn’t have much screen time and his love story wasn’t explored. In fact it ended up being unfinished.
- I feel too single after finishing this drama (this is more of a joke but you get me right).

OVERALL:
The drama is perfect if you are a hopeless romantic who wants a slow paced romance that will feel you with heartwarming vibes, butterflies in your stomach and wants a male lead whose gaze is so hot it can literally melt Antarctica.

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Angsty & forbidden love with sexy male lead

This mini drama is about the female lead who has to honour the dying wish of her sister and marry her sister’s husband (the Emperor). Five years later, a rebellion breaks out and the general who is the Emperor’s younger brother (the male lead) comes to their aid. This is a story of the main lead’s forbidden love and their loyalty to the crown.

POSITIVE:
- Very, very angsty (not for the faint hearted).
- Sexy/bad boy male lead (leaning on red flag).
- Passionate kiss scenes and se*ual tension.
- Forbidden love, jealousy and betrayal vibes.
- No love triangles.
- Lovely costumes (especially the female lead)
- Nice chemistry between the leads (it’s their second collaboration).
- Great acting from the three main leads.
- Unique way to end the drama (referring to the final two episodes).

NEGATIVE:
- Long dialogue that would sometimes take a whole episode (10 minutes). The dialogue was done well and felt angsty however it did make an impression on me that it was very long. I think the issue might have been the static camera work.
- The ending (it makes sense with the story and it was done well but a part of me wishes it was slightly different).

OVERALL:
If you are looking for an angsty drama with forbidden love and a very sexy/bad boy male lead, watch this drama.
Side note: If you love the main lead, I highly recommend you also watch “The Deliberations of Love”.

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Great drama but went downhill in the last 9 episodes (the final conflict)

The drama tells the love story of a General and Lady Lieutenant who, despite being part of different armies, fall in love. Both of them have hidden identities, him being the Emperor’s grandson and her being the daughter of the commander. Though walking on different paths, their goal of restoring peace in the court is the same.

The love story (which for me is the best part of the drama) is the main focus and the war is a subplot. The romance is Mr. & Mrs. Smith merged with Romeo & Juliette vibes.

WHAT WENT WRONG FOR ME:
I enjoyed the drama very much until the last 9 episodes. Episode 30 is the most intense and impressive episode in the whole drama (and generally in cdramas) so I feel it should have been the final conflict in order to make the drama more impactful for me. The writers could have put 1-2 episodes afterwards to wrap up the story like they did in episode 40. However instead of that the plot was dragged with unnecessary and pointless drama that added absolutely nothing to the story. Boring villains that nobody cared about were introduced and the actual final fight scene was extremely underwhelming (like watching a child’s play in comparison to episode 30 fight scene). I never felt like the stakes were high in the final conflict thus had no emotional reaction when the bad guys were defeated.

POSITIVE:
- Hot chemistry between the main leads!!! Their chemistry felt natural and organic, like the actors were indeed a couple in real life.
- Xu Kai (male lead) is brilliant. Seriously, even just for him it’s worth watching this.
- Feels like a high budget production. Cinematography is movie-like with beautiful visuals.
- Fantastic cast. I loved all the actors and their performances, especially the main leads.
- Realistic war/fight scenes that were done really well.
- Smart and cunning female lead.
- The whole final episode is seeing the main leads happy together which was super satisfying to watch especially as it’s rare in cdramas these days who love their open endings or 2 second reunions.

NEGATIVE:
- Annoying second male lead and second female lead with the cliche and extremely overused unrequited, obsessive love plotline that needs to be banned in cdramas for real. It added nothing to the story.
- A lot of back and forth and repetition in terms of plot. The female lead was always getting kidnapped, someone was always getting poisoned or there was always an ambush.
- Filler episodes. Throughout the drama, there would always be 1-2 episodes that literally felt like fillers in between great episodes.
- As mentioned above, the last 9 episodes (final conflict) were extremely pointless and underwhelming to watch.

OVERALL:
Watch this if you love a couple who tries to kill each other one moment but the next are passionately kissing.

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The most stunning fairytale-like visuals with slow burn romance.

The longest promise tells the story of the main lead's promises to each other. What both of their promises are, you will find out when you watch the drama. The male lead fakes his death to escape injustice and spends his years cultivating in a mountain as a Priest. Years later, the woman (female lead) who is prophesied to kill him becomes his disciple.

First of all, the drama has the most stunning fairytale-like visuals, with beautiful scenery, fight scenes and CGI I've ever watched. The story's logic always makes sense, has great pacing, not too slow or too fast, there are no stupidly, annoying characters, no fillers. Most of the screen time is given to the male lead, female lead and second male lead. I honestly did not find it boring even for a moment.

The male lead is one of the most powerful cultivators, he becomes a Priest to hide his identity as the Crown Prince that was wrongly accused. He is mature, aloof and wise. Female lead starts off as being quite immature, reckless and foolish. But she is also street smart and very brave. The main leads have many cute and funny moments together however this is a slow burn romance. As the male lead is a Priest and also her Master, their romance is forbidden so don't expect to see them in a proper relationship. Their love is very subtle and unspoken, they care and protect each other no matter what. Male lead spends a lot of time teaching her not only powerful magic techniques but how to be more mature and responsible. I found their romance very refreshing as it was built on trust and care rather than insta-love.

A big part of the drama is the second male lead who has his own story that connects with the main leads. I very much emphasised his character and loved all of his scenes. He is not your typical second male lead that's obsessed with the female lead. He cares for her but also wants her to be happy with whoever she ends up with. Despite his tragic love story, he still has much love for his people and I admired everything he did in the drama.

The only thing I did not like about the drama was the final villain that appeared in the last two episodes as it kind of came out of nowhere. There wasn't enough build up to find out who he was, where he came from and how much of a threat he was. But regardless of that, I very much enjoyed how it all played out even if it was heartbreaking to see it.

If you've read this far, don't waste time anymore and just watch this wonderful drama.

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Quite disappointing. A sweet story to pass the time but nothing more.

This will be the shortest review I've ever written. I won't even write positive or negative points like I usually do. Maybe I had high expectations but I was quite disappointed by this drama especially as I loved the other two similar mini-dramas "A Familiar Stranger" and "Provoke". The drama starts with a banging first episode. Intense and eye-catching fight scenes, suspense and beautiful romantic feel of the main leads. But it's all a lie as the majority of the episodes are about watching the daily lives of the main leads - sleeping, eating, cooking, going to the market etc.

I really enjoyed the first half of the drama as we got to see how the main leads fell in love. However the second half of the drama felt very underwhelming as virtually nothing big happened. I was really struggling not to fall asleep. The plot didn't intrigue me even one bit and the fact that the biggest conflict in the whole drama was resolved in the final episodes in two seconds by a random side character.

Overall I still may recommend this drama as everyone has different tastes and what I didn't like someone else might enjoy. But personally for me this was a huge disappointment plot wise which is a shame since the cinematography and cast were great.

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Great at comedy. Bad at emotional impact.

The drama started off really well and up until episode 17 it had this great light-hearted, adventure type feel that I hadn't seen in a xianxia before. It was super enjoyable to watch but then the script suddenly shifted and episodes 18-29 were a hit and miss (hit when it's comedy, miss when it's a sad scene), followed up with a mediocre ending.

THE PROBLEM:
What I very much liked is that the comedic scenes were very strong and I was seriously laughing out loud the whole time. However, what I strongly disliked was that the emotional scenes felt very forced. I feel like the writers wanted to create these super emotional impactful scenes but totally failed. The plot was done in such a convenient way to create more of a relationship dynamic between the main leads that it ended up looking artificial to me. One of the main issues I found is that there would be this super traumatic emotional scene and two seconds later it would be followed up with a very comedic scene which immediately lost the emotional impact and realness of the situation. The lack of emotions is what really bothered me because the characters were experiencing traumatic things but their reactions to them were not properly conveyed, hence they didn't feel real to me. Because of all this I sadly couldn't emotionally connect with the romance.

CHARACTERS:
FL really shined for me in every scene. She is perfect for the comedy scenes and if the script was better I could definitely see how her emotional scenes would have really impacted me (especially because I've seen her role in "Word of Honour" where she was a total badass). ML is very handsome and total eye-candy but too stoic. I haven't seen him in other dramas yet so I can't determine if it's the character or actor that was the issue. There are surprisingly lots of side couples and short romances in this drama. The second couple was my favourite and done really well, however the third couple (that received equal screen time with the second couple) was very boring, the characters very one dimensional and unfortunately useless screen time. The villains were non-threatening and flat looking. I believe a good story requires good heroes as much as good villains and this drama didn't deliver the villain part at all.

OVERALL:
I feel like this drama had great potential but didn't execute it well. I did enjoy the funny and silly comedy scenes so if you are looking for something with low angst and low emotional impact, I feel like you would enjoy this drama. Even though it has some small misunderstandings, the main couple mainly has a healthy relationship and communicates well with each other which is rare for a xianxia drama to see.

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