AH

Agreed. It would be nice to see a better quality adaptation of Once Promised with continuity between it and LYF. But I’m not sure a faithful adaptation could be made in the current censorship environment. What I really want is a full translation of Once Promised.

iirc, Xuan Yang = Xuan Yuan / Xiyan, Xuan Mu = Sheng Nong / Chenrong, and Ling Yun = Gao Xing / Haoling.

Good to know ^^

"Lost You Forever" the drama is based on the novel "Lost You Forever" (that's the English title, which is different from the Mandarin title) by Tong Hua, which is a sequel to her novel "Once Promised". The drama "A Lifetime of Love" is based on Once Promised. However, A Lifetime of Love was created by a different production team and a completely different set of actors. It’s not just that the names for the same places and the same characters are different between the two productions. Because the two dramas are not affiliated, there is no attempt in Lost You Forever (the drama) to create continuity with plot points in A Lifetime of Love.

For example, in A Lifetime of Love, Mu Qing Mo / Xuanyang Chuo (who is based on Princess Xuan Yuan Ba / Ah Heng in the novels) is very clearly the biological daughter of King Xuanyang (the Yellow Emperor of Xuan Yuan in the novels). That is consistent with the novels. However, in Lost You Forever the drama, the production team changed certain details from the novels to make it seem like Ah Heng is not the King of Xiyan’s biological daughter (so that Xiao Yao and Cang Xuan would not be cousins by blood).

Didn’t YZ mention something a long time ago about S2 hopefully airing after the winter holidays? The national public holiday for lunar new year will run from February 10 to February 17 this year.

I found some aspects of the romance to be very good (I tend to like this type of ride-or-die ML and in many scenes the leads have great chemistry), but IMO many of the moments between the leads that should have been the most romantic and intimate (e.g., kiss scenes, proposals, etc.) were disappointing and negatively impacted their chemistry.

The ending is happy, but a bit boring compared to some of the more intense parts of the drama.

I can understand why some viewers were super turned off by QL's behaviour in episode 7 when he finally came to believe that the JXY with him at that point really wasn't his JXY. Under normal circumstances, if a man chokes a woman, manhandles and threatens her, or forces her into a car against her will, the woman should prosecute the man, file a restraining order against him, hopefully never see him again, and definitely not ever let him become someone who could be her romantic partner in the future. The same would also be true if the roles were reversed.

If I were in JXY's position, I'm not sure that I would be able to forgive QL. But given the full context of both the circumstances in that episode and their relationship as a whole, I can understand why JXY was able to eventually forgive him and to even fall in love with him again later on.

In that episode, QL didn't think that the JXY in front of him was his JXY. He thought this person was something horrific. A parasitic soul that had stolen his JXY's body from his JXY. He thought she was someone who threatened his JXY's very existence, which made this person enemy #1 to him. On top of that, he was dealing with the perception that he had lost his JXY all over again, and he probably felt extremely guilty for treating this JXY so well up to this point and for not realizing the "truth" sooner (especially since JXY had already outright told him that she wasn't his JXY). He wanted to protect and do right by his JXY, and he channeled those feelings into physically and verbally threatening this other person that he believed had taken over his JXY's body (and for the record, JXY also believed that she was a different person from another world who had taken over his JXY's body). And that situation seems, to me, to be very different from any kind of real-life domestic abuse situation I can think of.

On top of all that, through the flashbacks in episode 19 and 20, we find out that the ML used intimidation and physical violence to protect his JXY from others who tried to harm her for years. In fact, that was the original foundation of their relationship and the reason JXY approached him in the first place.

Does the context make QL's behaviour okay? Objectively, it does not. In the eyes of the law he could absolutely still be prosecuted for his actions and even if he could reveal the context it wouldn't serve as an acceptable defense for what he did. But subjectively? While the context doesn't exactly make his behaviour "okay", I can see how it could potentially make his behaviour forgivable... and I can see how it could allow JXY to eventually forgive QL for the way he treated her in that episode.

I view QL's behaviour in the first few episodes in a similar light. The way he kept tabs on JXY and followed her around even after she told him to stop? That's stalking, which is a crime and objectively not okay behaviour. However, as the viewers and JXY later find out, QL is completely devoted to his role as JXY's protector. He needs to know that she's okay, and if she isn't okay then he has to do something about it to make sure that she is okay. Although that context doesn't make stalking okay (and it made me almost as uncomfortable as his behviour in episode 7), I can understand why JXY didn't end up holding it against QL later, given the circumstances.

Thanks for adding it! ^^

Please use the spoiler tag to hide this spoiler.

There were a few aspects I liked (Machida Keita as teen Koenma was a pleasant surprise, even though I missed his younger form) but the best thing I can say about this adaptation is that it reminded me to go a do another re-watch of the anime, which will forever be one of the greatest of all time.

I agree with everyone who has mentioned how the pacing deeply affected the heart of this series and took away from the emotional investment and build up that made the original anime so great.

IMO, having more episodes (which could each have shorter run time) to cover Yusuke's death and resurrection, Genkai's tournament (and a recap of Yusuke's six months of training with her), and the saint beasts arc would have been perfect for a first season. The emotional pay off at the end of the saint beasts arc was so good. Then they'd have all the Toguro Brothers and Dark Tournament content available to cover properly in a second season.

Overall, could've been worse. But it also could've been a lot better.

Hearing Smile Bomb on the truck radio in the first episode was a shot of pure nostalgia!

I imagine tw*t is meant to be the censored version of "twat" rather than "twit", which fits. She is obnoxious.

Chapter 18:

The zither was playing, poems were recited, and even magic tricks were being performed for entertainment.

Xiao Yao observed and laughed “That Xing Yue sure knows how to throw a party.”

The music stopped and the platter floated to where Xiao Yao and Fang Feng Bei were standing.

Xiao Yao shrank behind Fang Feng Bei and whispered “Other than making poisons I don’t know how to do anything else.”

Fang Feng Bei smiled, picked up the wine and downed it, then lazily bowed to everyone “I’ll do some magic!”

Fang Feng Bei pointed to Xiao Yao “Go stand over there.”

With everyone’s eyes on her, Xiao Yao stiffly walked over.

Fang Feng Bei picked a white flower and waved the flower dew on Xiao Yao who made an annoyed face at him and whispered, “If you dare toy with me, I’ll get you back for this!”

The moment she said that, the white flower dew spread like a dye on her robe and turned it from a yellow robe into a white one.

A girl laughed. “Another color?”

Fang Feng Bei asked, “What color?”

The girl picked a purple flower and sent it to Fang Feng Bei who ripped the petals and tossed the dew on Xiao Yao’s robe. The purple flower dew turned into a dye and gradually spread over the robe, turning it into a purple color.

Everyone was amused, especially the girls who loved to be pretty, so by now Xing Yue, Zhuan Xu, Feng Long, Jing, Hou, and Yi Yang were all standing by the river and clapping along.

Fang Feng Bei used a green flower to transform Xiao Yao’s robe into a green one. He could see Xiao Yao’s hand was clenched into a fist with her impatience so he turned to the audience with a smile. “That’s it for today.”

Feng Long tossed a red flower over to Bei. “Make one more, a red one!” All the outfits were beautiful on Xiao Yao but perhaps his first time seeing her was so impactful as she wore the red ceremonial dress but she didn’t seem to like red and never wore that color again after the ceremony.

Fang Feng Bei smiled. “The birthday boy’s request” and made one more outfit as he splashed the red flower dew on Xiao Yao and her robe gradually changed into red.
Xiao Yao’s patience was at its end and she didn’t have any hint of a smile but forced herself to take a bow so she opened her arms and twirled once in a circle before curtsying to Feng Long, indicating the game was ended. She turned to leave.

A sharp loud scream cut through the air and a young girl had her hands clapped over her mouth as she stared with her face stark white at Xiao Yao. A young man sitting under the tree slowly stood up and glared balefully at Xiao Yao.

Back then, they were both so small, but that nightmare scenario they would never forget. That devil who destroyed their entire tribe also wore a red robe, and he also had eyes that didn’t seem to care about anything or anyone. Faced with the pleading of their fathers and brothers, he only coldly looked towards the distance.

Xiao Yao glanced at the girl who screamed and the girl lowered her head to avoid Xiao Yao’s stare but her body was shaking uncontrollably but it wasn’t visible since she was behind a flower stalk.

Xiao Yao and Fang Feng Bei returned to the guest rest chambers and Feng Long and Zhuan Xu walked in behind them.

Xing Yue and Yi Yang sidled up to Fang Feng Bei and Yi Yang wheedled, “Dear second brother, teach us your trick!”

Fang Feng Bei laughed and pointed to Xiao Yao. “It’s temporary so of no use to learn.”

Xiao Yao’s red robe was gradually fading in color to reveal the original yellow robe. Xing Yue and Yi Yang sighed, it really was useless to learn this trick.

In chapter 18 of the novel, FFB performs magic tricks where he changes the colour of XY's robes to entertain the guests at Feng Long's birthday party. It seems like he is the only person who knows how to perform that trick (i.e., it's not something that every deity or demon can do). I'll post the excerpt under a spoiler cover.

The long lifespans of deities and demons (compared to mortal humans) and the loneliness that can bring is a pretty important plot point. The Yellow Emperor (the King of Xiyan) is well over 3,000 years old. Xiang Liu is over 600 years old. Cang Xuan, Xiao Yao and Tushan Jing are all well over 300 years old by the end of the first episode.

The main characters having the magical ability to transform (including fully changing one's body to be the opposite gender) is also a pretty key plot point. Particularly Xiao Yao's ability to use the face forming flower to transform into the form of a man so seamlessly that not even the most powerful deity or demon could see through the transformation.

Xiang Liu having nine heads (in his true demon form) and nine lives is also pretty key to the plot.

Plus the deity / demon context allows for other fun plot points like winged rides (e.g., Xiang Liu's winged ride, Chubby) and certain characters being able to breathe under water.

It would be a very different (and IMO a much less interesting) story if everyone was a mortal human and there were no demons or deities.

I enjoyed MJTY. I hope you do too!

You're welcome!

You're welcome!

For a bit of additional context, this is a reverse harem drama. Tushan Jing, Xiang Liu and Cang Xuan all fall for Xiao Yao, and there are other interested parties.

Cang Xuan is listed second in the cast list because the author considers him to be the second main character of the story after Xiao Yao. Since Xiao Yao spends most of the story with Cang Xuan (including the parts of episode 1 that cover her childhood) the narrative covers more of his story than the other male characters' stories. In the novel, he is Xiao Yao's cousin and closest person. There are certain details that make it seem like he's still her cousin in the drama, and certain details that make it seem like the drama writers made a change so that they are not related by blood. So in a sense you can decide how you want to interpret that one.

I have watched LLTG, TTEOTM, SOKP and LYF. If you loved LLTG, TTEOTM and SOKP, one thing you should probably be aware of if you don't mind spoilers (major, major spoilers ahead so definitely stop reading now if you don't want to be spoiled for the end of season 2 of LYF...) is that in LYF, the male character that the female lead ends up with in the end is not the legendary ruthless general character (Xiang Liu) or the man with ambitions to rule the world (Cang Xuan). Instead, she ends up with kind Ye Shi Qi / Tushan Jing, who constantly forgives and never turns cold-hearted, no matter what he is put through. Sometimes his soft-heartedness causes the female lead to suffer too. So if you liked LLTG, TTEOTM and SOKP because you like dramas where the female lead ends up with male leads who are decisive, who have a bit of ruthlessness in them, and who have a bit of a dark and twisty side, you might not like this drama.

That said, all three male leads bring something interesting to the table, and Xiang Liu and Cang Xuan's parts of the story are well worth watching, even though they aren't endgame for the female lead.

Wen Xiao Liu knows who she is. Although she doesn't want to return to her former identity, she never forgets that she was formerly Xiao Yao / Princess Haoling Jiu Yao.

Her face is a different matter. When Xiao Yao was a baby, her mother (Xiling Heng / the General Princess / the former Queen of Haoling) and her father (Shao Hao / the King of Haoling) secretly implanted the Face Forming Flower in her body and used it to conceal her true features (particularly her eyes) which give away the fact that Chi Chen is her real biological father. Xiao Yao did not know that the Face Forming Flower was implanted in her body, or that the face she had as a child was not her true face.

Before Xiao Yao's mother left for the final battle, she gave Xiao Yao two precious texts (the Jiu Li Poison Manual and Chenrong Herb Manual) which were kept in a jade necklace. On Jade Mountain, the Royal Mother knew those texts were precious and dangerous. She forced Xiao Yao to memorize them and then to destroy them. The Jiu Li Poison Manual gave Xiao Yao a world-class knowledge of poisons, setting her up to become a poison master.

Xiao Yao spent 70 years on Jade Mountain before she ran away. She trained under the Royal Mother, so the strong spiritual power she had before arriving on Jade Mountain would have only increased. The food and drinks that Xiao Yao consumed on Jade Mountain (e.g., eating Jade Mountain peaches and drinking bone essence) had special properties. Over the course of 70 years, they gave Xiao Yao's body special properties. This is at least part of the reason why Xiao Yao's blood can help heal Xiang Liu's wounds.

When Xiao Yao ran away from Jade Mountain, word got out that eating her and consuming her spiritual energy would allow a demon to greatly increase their powers. In order to escape the demons that wanted to find her and eat her, Xiao Yao transformed her features. As a young deity with limited transformation experience, any powerful demon or deity should have been able to see through Xiao Yao's transformation. But Xiao Yao didn't realize she was using the power of the Face Forming Flower inside her body to transform, which made her transformation seamless. Not even the most powerful deity or demon could see through it.

However, after using the Face Forming Flower to transform for an extended period of time, Xiao Yao eventually forgot what her previous face (the one her mother and father created with the Face Forming Flower, which she didn't know was fake) looked like and wasn't able to return to it. She was treated like a monster and fled to live alone in the mountains for 20 years. That was where she met the snake demon whose egg she stole.

Later in the mountains, Xiao Yao met a nine-tailed fox who only had eight remaining tails. He taught Xiao Yao to use his magical mirror to record her faces so she could remember what they looked like and return to them (which helped him gain her trust), but she still couldn't remember what her previous face looked like. Then the fox captured Xiao Yao and threw her in a cage. Xiao Yao found out that the fox was once best friends with her ninth uncle, and the fox hated Xiao Yao's mother for killing her ninth uncle (Xiao Yao's mother had a good reason for doing so). The fox also hated Xiao Yao's mother's "friend" (Xiao Yao's biological father, Chi Chen), because he was the person who cut off the fox's ninth tail, which greatly depleted the fox's power. Since Xiao Yao's mother and Chi Chen are both believed to have died in battle, the nine-tailed fox with eight remaining tails couldn't take revenge on them directly. So he planned to eat Xiao Yao as revenge, and also as a means of restoring his spiritual power.

For 30 years, the fox fed Xiao Yao horrible concoctions that caused her spiritual power to seep into her blood (which would make it easier for the fox to absorb all of Xiao Yao's spiritual power when he ate her). This is the reason that Xiao Yao / Wen Xiao Liu has low spiritual powers. After 30 years in that cage, Xiao Yao was eventually able to use her poison skills to incapacitate the fox. She cut off each of his remaining eight tails before killing him, and then stole his mirror. She used the Face Forming Flower to take on the form of a man and travelled the world for ~160 years before settling in QS town and opening a fertility clinic using the name Wen Xiao Liu.

When Wen Xiao Liu faced off against Xuan (when he came with Ah Nian to get the antidote from Wen Xiao Liu), Wen Xiao Liu planned to have Ye Shi Qi defend against Xuan's attack, so she could see what kind of powers Xuan had (if you are interested to know, Cang Xuan has wood-based powers). Wen Xiao Liu would then use that information to decide what kind of poison to use against him. She didn't realize Ye Shi Qi had abandoned her and wouldn't defend against Xuan's attack until it was too late.

So the TL;DR answers to your questions: Wen Xiao Liu knows who she is, and she will eventually regain her true face. She really does have low spiritual powers, but she is not helpless. She is already a world-class poison master, and her skills will only increase with practice and time, and she has the will and the ability to gain other skills along the way.

After finishing episode 7: I wonder if it would be best to stop here and consider that the ending?

10 seconds into episode 8: Oh. Well, then. I'm glad I didn't stop there! ^^