mauvecages

"Can you come to me, and hug me? So, I can hug you too. So, we can stay warm like this forever."

This show is exactly like the warm cup of coffee that Eun Seop keeps on making throughout the show. It may have heartbreaking and sad moments, but the ray of hope never disappeared. Maybe it's that ray of hope that made this weather fine.
Although yes, a warning, this show is a slow burn melodrama. The themes are very relaxed and laid back. That is not to say that the themes aren't serious or important. In fact, it totally the other way round. But if you need something to just binge, that'll have unrealistic twists and turns, and k-drama cliches, and rom-com fluffy moments. This isn't the one for you. This keeps it very real.

"Trust is like a glass. Once broken, even if you fix it, the cracks will forever remain."
"It can't even have a single crack? Even the table you're sitting on, even if it has a crack, you can still use it to serve food. It's only natural for things to get wear and tear with time. There's no such thing as a perfect relationship. What's wrong with a little crack? And, what's wrong with hurting each other's feelings a little? No one is perfect. That's why we do things we have to apologize for, say sorry, and then, mend things. That's how life goes."

I loved this quote, because I've heard and lived by the first quote. But the answer to it was quite unexpected and made me really think. What's wrong with a little crack?

The show is about imperfect humans and them making mistakes that they'd have to apologize for and then mending things. (Though I still think that Myeong Yeo made no mistake. That was no crime to me.) But that is what life is!

The only critique I have is that the second half of the drama dragged a little and the same revelation was done too many time that had me thinking, "yeah we already know this, can we move on?" Apart from that, I loved everything about it.

I hope you give this drama a chance, and enjoy it as much as I did.

With this, everyone, I wish you Goodnight! :)

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We Were Rooting For You, WE WERE ALL ROOTING FOR YOU!

Almost two years and 100+ reviews later, I doubt that I have anything new to add to the conversion but let me speak out my thoughts regardless.

You can tell it was written by the same author as Cang Lan Jue; in fact it is so similar you can call it a re-imagination of that story, now with tribulations! Let me point out some of the similarities I could catch, off the top of my head.

1. A tribe is shunned by the heavenly realm on the accusation of being demonic — only to later be revealed that it was the heavenly emperor who’s the actual “villain”.
2. Charles Lin’s character awaits the "demonic" tribe’s leader's return.
3. FL is assumed to be a young, naive, weak fairy only to be revealed that she’s actually one of the strongest immortals to live, who has forgotten her real self.
4. ML sacrifices himself at the end to save the FL and the six realms, only to reunite with her in the very last scene of the drama.

So, I think we can safely say the plot is nothing original. Even so, the initial conflict of the prophecy announcing the return of Cang Hai, forcing the ML and FL to go through love tribulations in order to restore his primordial soul DID catch my attention — i binged 12 episodes of this drama in one sitting for crying out loud.

However, the “catch” of the seven lives/tribulations that created the curiousity and novelty for the plot is exactly what broke it in the last ten or so episodes.

The protagonists start off as most WuXia/XianXia leads do, sworning to never love each other. Even with that obvious set up, it was very entertaining to watch them live seven different versions/lives/characters — my favourite still remains Cat Demon Chu Kong, what an aura! But, the tribulation in which they travel back to 30,000 years ago is when it all went down the drain. Insta-love? In the big year of 2023? Yes, I understand the bond through a future perspective where you have lived and died through vairous lives together, but why are you two promising each other infinity when you have known each other for like FIVE DAYS MAX?!

Everything since that subplot started happening with a logic of “because the script says so”. Demon King Chu Kong is to lose his memory of her but he wouldn’t, because the script said so! He would imprison her so she doesn’t get taken away by the emperor, but she would ofcourse easily break the magic because? the script said so! He would enter the void to get her power back, but the “power” would warn him if he does so his soul would be destroyed; he comes back fully fine with little to no injuries because? YOU GUESSED IT! SCRIPT SAID SO! I could go on and on, but it’d be pointless to put in so much effort into the logical reasoning, if the makers didn’t.

I obviously watched this drama for Ding Yuxi — he is easily my favourite actor when it comes to chinese costume dramas. Unfortunately, the praise can not be extended to the rest of the cast. They were mediocre at best, cringey at worst.

One takeaway from this drama though would be the opening title track, you understood my love, instant addition to my spotify!

Most likely would not be rewatching, but *would be* streaming Cat Demon Chu Kong’s edits; send them my way!

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