This is just the same slop that has plagued American/European drama scene for a long time. Its a well known phenomenon now. And yes they categorize it maliciously under female empowerment and feminism.
All these shows are pushing the agenda that women should work just like men do and remain single. They must prefer their career over relationship and family or god forbid have kids together. Marriage is maligned and labeled archaic. Being a single parent is promoted if you want one.
Similarly the egalitarian culture. they are pushing, where genders are equal and must be given equal rights and equal boundaries. Both genders suffer under it while crime attuned people thrive. If ever genders are going to be equal, its going to take centuries of targeted sustained evolution, it will not happen in one measly generation.
This all essentially is most beneficial to the corporate sector hiring you. They get a large supply, can reduce wages, exclude all women specific long leaves and have an optimized law structure which is same for both. It has been a very successful drive in the developed world. Especially now with AI revolution, only specific fields need humans to work in, driving demand and thus, higher salaries.
This is actually a level of sophistication and optimization developed countries achieve after being in that status for a long time. Later recent developed countries simply buy this experience, case in point of South Korea, which is only now getting this agenda pushed on them harder especially through Netflix, and now their own streaming platforms.
Unfortunately many Korean women have taken it up wholeheartedly - as was the case in the west. It does appropriately pieces itself in the current virtue signalling culture very well so one can't blame young people to get trapped.
How is this prevalence achieved, you might ask? Through laws and organizations that provide heavy investments with such agendas. They have "compliance" criteria, ratings and even rewards. European Union is famous to have such in an official capacity. This all is very organized, mature and systematic.
Damn how did the rating of this drama get so low? It was 8.3 in 2018 when I first watched it.
People hated that the son lost his girl crush to his father who is same age as him. They forget that the woman is an adult and his father was her choice.
This drama managed to get listed under S+ (super popular drama) with its tight budget. Its advertisement was mouth…
What are you even saying, Chinese dramas don't have such expansive freedoms to even explore such intimacy or even explore layers of intimacy and passion through that. In mature story telling so much can be conveyed through such. To expect it from Chinese limited artistic expanse is outright dumb.
I was literally flabbergasted when I saw one in the Legend of Shen Li. But then again I didn't understand its placement either, when you are not going to show the passion, it was so awkward.
Chinese dramas will remain in their current domain not that they aren't enough for an immersive romantic experience, but their is a limitation to that emotion and immersion nonetheless.
The thing about Chen Yi is that he was a victim from the very start and lived his entire life on survival modeHis…
Wall of text reduced to legible points through AI:
## 🌑 Chen Yi’s Early Life: A Childhood Built on Survival - Victim from the very start, living entirely in **survival mode**. - Father tortured him, believing he was a “bastard child” born from an affair. - Father never sought the truth—he needed someone powerless to unleash his anger on. - If the child were proven to be his biological son, he’d have to face his own cruelty—something he was too cowardly to do. - Abuse intensified after Chen Yi’s mother died; she had been the only good thing in his life. - A new family arrived, forcing him to share what little he had with people who meant nothing to him.
## 🔥 The Spark of Ambition and Its Destruction - Despite everything, Chen Yi developed **resentment toward his father** and a belief he could be better. - Worked dirty jobs to survive, planning to enter the **police academy**. - His father sabotaged this dream, unwilling to lose his “torture device.” - After losing his chance, Chen Yi concluded that **good things don’t happen to him** and misery is his fate.
## 🏚️ The Apartment, the Scam, and the Fight to Survive - After his father’s death, he discovered a scam that forced him to work endlessly to keep his mother’s apartment. - The apartment—his only connection to her—became endangered. - He chose to fight for survival once again.
## 🌱 Miao Jing Enters: From Parasite to Partner - Initially a burden, Miao Jing became his friend and eventually his companion. - Both were at rock bottom, offering each other a **broken shoulder to lean on**. - Chen Yi used his strength; Miao Jing used her intelligence. - Together, they chased the same goal: survival with dignity.
## ⚖️ Zhang Bing, Debt, and Double Lives - Chen Yi believed he owed Zhang Bing for saving his life. - He worked tirelessly to secure Miao Jing’s future while navigating the criminal world. - Tried to help the police as a double agent without compromising himself or Miao Jing. - Just when he believed he could finally build a family, the fire happened. - He pushed Miao Jing away to protect her, believing her happiness would give meaning to his suffering. - From that moment, he erased “Chen Yi” and lived only as a **cause for Miao Jing’s better life**.
## 🩸 Three Years of Hell: Trafficking and Dehumanization - Shortly after, he was trafficked and endured three horrific years. - Returned believing he was no longer human—just a shadow among people.
## 💔 Miao Jing’s Return and Chen Yi’s Resistance - When she came back, he fought against her presence, unable to believe she’d return to him or that place. - But he loved her deeply—enough to try to rebuild himself for her sake. - He wanted to give her a decent life, even if it meant sacrificing himself.
## 🌼 Miao Jing’s Story: A Life of Being Unwanted - She had a painful childhood, constantly passed around to people who didn’t want her. - Abandonment was a lifelong pattern. - Chen Yi was the first person to give her a **real home**. - When he destroyed that home and left, he broke her profoundly. - She knew he did it to save her, and lived with anger, guilt, and heartbreak.
## 🌟 Her Return: Six Years of Healing and Determination - Once she rebuilt her life, she went back for him. - Took time to understand his trauma and never forced him. - Worked patiently and intelligently to show him a way out of darkness. - She taught him he deserved love and humanity. - Used every situation to guide him toward a better future. - She knew when to push, when to step back, when to support, and when to call him out.
## 🏠 The Core of Their Story: Two Broken Souls Healing Each Other - He got her out; she went back for him. - They always knew they were each other’s home. - The beauty of the drama lies in how two shattered people rebuilt one another. - The storytelling simply elevated an already powerful emotional journey.
The problem is you trying to find realism in fiction.
That's because of rapid modernization and westernization, say individualism. The current generation in Japan and SK, is hyper individualistic, while the elders are hyper communal. That's why you see the trends of leaving elders in old homes and the extreme suicide rates in their age groups. The elders still want their children to marry and have kids as they did, while the children prioritize themselves more.
SK also has the problem of extreme corruption. The IMF crisis in the past made a few families hyper rich, which carried the country to what it is now with minimal accountability. Thus, such success, shaped the whole nation into extreme materialism, beauty obsession, scoring those few rich chaebols (SK version of rich/elite/oligarch), and that overly apparent obsession towards money in Korean entertainment industry.
But this trend is more vibrant in SK females, thus, SK men have instead started to marry foreign women from Vietnam, China, Japan etc, in increasing numbers. They want to marry, and have kids. There has been an increase in both marriages and births from these foreign couplings. They can't marry their own, when they want multi million dollar homes.
There is also the problem of SK having Seoul as the city having over 52% of their whole population which breaks down the usual life cycle, introduces extreme competition, MH issues and suicides. Similarly the rest of the country is neglected and seen as second class.
Japan has the issue of shame and honor. Its ingrained in their minds to not be extraordinary and be same as everybody else. That's why they do these odd things to hide away so they don't have to protest and be the odd one out as then the whole society turns against you. Its a country where you can't have blonde hair or a disability, and you need a permit from the government, always on you, to prove to society that it is how you are, to save yourself.
Current westernized individualistic generations only consider settling down, if they think, it will not affect their current life and compromise so called freedoms, which is impossible. That's why we have the whole western world slowly dying out. But political correctness forces them to not admit their faults and strive towards change.
All this was fermented by western business interests, and they are the biggest beneficiary to all this individualism, they got to enjoy 50% extra workforce and also used the added supply to suppress the existing salary bases. So much so that it has been so long that western countries have experienced a good salary jump, instead, middle class keeps shrinking.
Look at China, its middle class is increasing by 17 million a year, you can understand that they have their business interests in control. But its also suffering from rising individualism, its clear, its a part of the western system and ideologies combined with capitalism. Something fundamental is wrong and nobody is trying to fix it or identify it, even after so many countries are suffering from demographic crisis.
The problem is you trying to find realism in fiction.
We want to get married, in fact my whole society wants to. All of my people are married, with multiple kids. My younger brother married last year and he had his first kid, this year.
It doesn't matter whether its expensive emotionally and financially. Its a cost we are willing to pay, to sacrifice for it. Our spouse and kids, drive us to work harder, its a source of endless ambition for us.
Koreans and Japanese as well as most of the developed world has strayed into individualism so much, that they can't make sense of it anymore, but it doesn't mean the rest of the world walks or has to walk the same path.
Finally, no, I don't think a drama has to show MH realistically as then it becomes a documentary, and i want it to entertain me, not cling to reality and show me what I already see in my life.
Documentaries have their own charm and entertainment value, but that is not what we are meant nor we want to derive from dramas.
That not how I look at the ending at all, yes it might be "HE" in a sense they are together.But they aren't…
I am telling you what I think, hahaha. I have no desire to seek justification or some statistics about prevalence of similar feelings in the general population.
That not how I look at the ending at all, yes it might be "HE" in a sense they are together.But they aren't…
It surely is one way to do it, but nonetheless many dramas have used the direct approach without censorship so no, they made it meaningless after all that struggle. Who cares if a new JY and LWY have a normal romance story, I don't.
They could have just left both of them in the time crack, someday eventually Ji Ling would find a way to restore her memories or make her fall in love with him again. But with this conclusion, its a total shutdown.
So no, its an unsatisfactory and uncomfortable end, no two ways about it. I will be sure to cut it off and store the drama without this cancer.
It was a delight to watch, though at the end, i didn't like the way they made the HE with the first couple, I was expecting them to continue from the time/space fracture. The second couple got a HE in the same setting and situation, why be so extra vague with the first couple is beyond me.
Aside from that tidbit, everything about the drama screams epic. The music was spot on, and never grew stale for me, especially the boss music I actually looked forward to listening to. The poses, the action, its Xianxia done right. The gorgeous actors and the extraordinary romance. Its really a package deal.
The cinematography is the best I have seen in a Chinese drama and this is the only drama I think really needs a properly rendered 60FPS version. Currently the CG fight scenes are really choppy and hard to watch. It seems as if the 60FPS was achieved post master through some really bad interpolation.
The kisses were not fish kisses but were heavily censored and cut out 😭
If it was censoring, then it was obviously by the production to achieve a lower rating so it is on the creators, not some external factor. Chinese dramas do have good kisses.
Most commenters have said already what I have in mind, the drama just goes back and forth to a frustrating degree, and once I was so frustrated I did just stop watching for a few days. Some tropes getting forced into the plot line, did not help.
The chemistry is very high but many kisses were either fish kisses or the lips actually didn't even touch so a lot of immersion breaking romance scenes... I mean there was no need to make the actors kiss when they are so bad at it. The height was that even the last kiss was a fish kiss...
K-Drama 
All these shows are pushing the agenda that women should work just like men do and remain single. They must prefer their career over relationship and family or god forbid have kids together. Marriage is maligned and labeled archaic. Being a single parent is promoted if you want one.
Similarly the egalitarian culture. they are pushing, where genders are equal and must be given equal rights and equal boundaries. Both genders suffer under it while crime attuned people thrive. If ever genders are going to be equal, its going to take centuries of targeted sustained evolution, it will not happen in one measly generation.
This all essentially is most beneficial to the corporate sector hiring you. They get a large supply, can reduce wages, exclude all women specific long leaves and have an optimized law structure which is same for both. It has been a very successful drive in the developed world. Especially now with AI revolution, only specific fields need humans to work in, driving demand and thus, higher salaries.
This is actually a level of sophistication and optimization developed countries achieve after being in that status for a long time. Later recent developed countries simply buy this experience, case in point of South Korea, which is only now getting this agenda pushed on them harder especially through Netflix, and now their own streaming platforms.
Unfortunately many Korean women have taken it up wholeheartedly - as was the case in the west. It does appropriately pieces itself in the current virtue signalling culture very well so one can't blame young people to get trapped.
How is this prevalence achieved, you might ask? Through laws and organizations that provide heavy investments with such agendas. They have "compliance" criteria, ratings and even rewards. European Union is famous to have such in an official capacity. This all is very organized, mature and systematic.
I was literally flabbergasted when I saw one in the Legend of Shen Li. But then again I didn't understand its placement either, when you are not going to show the passion, it was so awkward.
Chinese dramas will remain in their current domain not that they aren't enough for an immersive romantic experience, but their is a limitation to that emotion and immersion nonetheless.
## 🌑 Chen Yi’s Early Life: A Childhood Built on Survival
- Victim from the very start, living entirely in **survival mode**.
- Father tortured him, believing he was a “bastard child” born from an affair.
- Father never sought the truth—he needed someone powerless to unleash his anger on.
- If the child were proven to be his biological son, he’d have to face his own cruelty—something he was too cowardly to do.
- Abuse intensified after Chen Yi’s mother died; she had been the only good thing in his life.
- A new family arrived, forcing him to share what little he had with people who meant nothing to him.
## 🔥 The Spark of Ambition and Its Destruction
- Despite everything, Chen Yi developed **resentment toward his father** and a belief he could be better.
- Worked dirty jobs to survive, planning to enter the **police academy**.
- His father sabotaged this dream, unwilling to lose his “torture device.”
- After losing his chance, Chen Yi concluded that **good things don’t happen to him** and misery is his fate.
## 🏚️ The Apartment, the Scam, and the Fight to Survive
- After his father’s death, he discovered a scam that forced him to work endlessly to keep his mother’s apartment.
- The apartment—his only connection to her—became endangered.
- He chose to fight for survival once again.
## 🌱 Miao Jing Enters: From Parasite to Partner
- Initially a burden, Miao Jing became his friend and eventually his companion.
- Both were at rock bottom, offering each other a **broken shoulder to lean on**.
- Chen Yi used his strength; Miao Jing used her intelligence.
- Together, they chased the same goal: survival with dignity.
## ⚖️ Zhang Bing, Debt, and Double Lives
- Chen Yi believed he owed Zhang Bing for saving his life.
- He worked tirelessly to secure Miao Jing’s future while navigating the criminal world.
- Tried to help the police as a double agent without compromising himself or Miao Jing.
- Just when he believed he could finally build a family, the fire happened.
- He pushed Miao Jing away to protect her, believing her happiness would give meaning to his suffering.
- From that moment, he erased “Chen Yi” and lived only as a **cause for Miao Jing’s better life**.
## 🩸 Three Years of Hell: Trafficking and Dehumanization
- Shortly after, he was trafficked and endured three horrific years.
- Returned believing he was no longer human—just a shadow among people.
## 💔 Miao Jing’s Return and Chen Yi’s Resistance
- When she came back, he fought against her presence, unable to believe she’d return to him or that place.
- But he loved her deeply—enough to try to rebuild himself for her sake.
- He wanted to give her a decent life, even if it meant sacrificing himself.
## 🌼 Miao Jing’s Story: A Life of Being Unwanted
- She had a painful childhood, constantly passed around to people who didn’t want her.
- Abandonment was a lifelong pattern.
- Chen Yi was the first person to give her a **real home**.
- When he destroyed that home and left, he broke her profoundly.
- She knew he did it to save her, and lived with anger, guilt, and heartbreak.
## 🌟 Her Return: Six Years of Healing and Determination
- Once she rebuilt her life, she went back for him.
- Took time to understand his trauma and never forced him.
- Worked patiently and intelligently to show him a way out of darkness.
- She taught him he deserved love and humanity.
- Used every situation to guide him toward a better future.
- She knew when to push, when to step back, when to support, and when to call him out.
## 🏠 The Core of Their Story: Two Broken Souls Healing Each Other
- He got her out; she went back for him.
- They always knew they were each other’s home.
- The beauty of the drama lies in how two shattered people rebuilt one another.
- The storytelling simply elevated an already powerful emotional journey.
SK also has the problem of extreme corruption. The IMF crisis in the past made a few families hyper rich, which carried the country to what it is now with minimal accountability. Thus, such success, shaped the whole nation into extreme materialism, beauty obsession, scoring those few rich chaebols (SK version of rich/elite/oligarch), and that overly apparent obsession towards money in Korean entertainment industry.
But this trend is more vibrant in SK females, thus, SK men have instead started to marry foreign women from Vietnam, China, Japan etc, in increasing numbers. They want to marry, and have kids. There has been an increase in both marriages and births from these foreign couplings. They can't marry their own, when they want multi million dollar homes.
There is also the problem of SK having Seoul as the city having over 52% of their whole population which breaks down the usual life cycle, introduces extreme competition, MH issues and suicides. Similarly the rest of the country is neglected and seen as second class.
Japan has the issue of shame and honor. Its ingrained in their minds to not be extraordinary and be same as everybody else. That's why they do these odd things to hide away so they don't have to protest and be the odd one out as then the whole society turns against you. Its a country where you can't have blonde hair or a disability, and you need a permit from the government, always on you, to prove to society that it is how you are, to save yourself.
Current westernized individualistic generations only consider settling down, if they think, it will not affect their current life and compromise so called freedoms, which is impossible. That's why we have the whole western world slowly dying out. But political correctness forces them to not admit their faults and strive towards change.
All this was fermented by western business interests, and they are the biggest beneficiary to all this individualism, they got to enjoy 50% extra workforce and also used the added supply to suppress the existing salary bases. So much so that it has been so long that western countries have experienced a good salary jump, instead, middle class keeps shrinking.
Look at China, its middle class is increasing by 17 million a year, you can understand that they have their business interests in control. But its also suffering from rising individualism, its clear, its a part of the western system and ideologies combined with capitalism. Something fundamental is wrong and nobody is trying to fix it or identify it, even after so many countries are suffering from demographic crisis.
It doesn't matter whether its expensive emotionally and financially. Its a cost we are willing to pay, to sacrifice for it. Our spouse and kids, drive us to work harder, its a source of endless ambition for us.
Koreans and Japanese as well as most of the developed world has strayed into individualism so much, that they can't make sense of it anymore, but it doesn't mean the rest of the world walks or has to walk the same path.
Finally, no, I don't think a drama has to show MH realistically as then it becomes a documentary, and i want it to entertain me, not cling to reality and show me what I already see in my life.
Documentaries have their own charm and entertainment value, but that is not what we are meant nor we want to derive from dramas.
I have no desire to seek justification or some statistics about prevalence of similar feelings in the general population.
I wouldn't have watched it if I had known.
They could have just left both of them in the time crack, someday eventually Ji Ling would find a way to restore her memories or make her fall in love with him again. But with this conclusion, its a total shutdown.
So no, its an unsatisfactory and uncomfortable end, no two ways about it. I will be sure to cut it off and store the drama without this cancer.
Aside from that tidbit, everything about the drama screams epic. The music was spot on, and never grew stale for me, especially the boss music I actually looked forward to listening to. The poses, the action, its Xianxia done right. The gorgeous actors and the extraordinary romance. Its really a package deal.
Some people are taking it too seriously its a comedic plant, take it as it is supposed to be viewed.
The chemistry is very high but many kisses were either fish kisses or the lips actually didn't even touch so a lot of immersion breaking romance scenes... I mean there was no need to make the actors kiss when they are so bad at it. The height was that even the last kiss was a fish kiss...
8/10