Eternal Love (2017)

First of all, I'm a sucker for supernatural plots. So the 3 Lives, 3 Worlds plot already sucked me in.

TMOPB, is a slow paced drama. Granted that the source material wasn't long to begin with. But the story-telling and how they developed the characters was great.

Pros:
1. The acting is superb. I know a lot does not think that long-haired Mark Chao is appealing or gorgeous enough like Vin Zhang or Vengo Gao but believe me when I say that his amazing portrayal of Ye Hua is so sincere and charismatic, it's impossible not to love him by the end of the drama.
2. Yang Mi. Not just a pretty face but a badass lead as well.
3. You'll love Ali you'd wish there was more of him.
4. Deities and costumes and the setting. Brilliant!
5. Music-wise, it was on point enough to make you feels things on cue.

Cons:
1. Mo Yuan (Not really a con, per se, but I was torn and you get the point)
2. All the side ships. PS. Don't get too attached or invested.
3. The ending. (They did have a happy ending but after all that epic tribulation they went through, I wanted more than seeing them gazing through the horizon.)
4. I still cannot forgive that last costume from Ye Hua. I mean he was so on point all through out the series! What is with that god-awful ensemble in the end?
5. Amnesia-plots really irk me. I dont know why.

Overall, there isn't much to dislike on the series. It was a great experience for me.

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This will always be in my top 10 favorites

I’ve watched hundreds of dramas including Chinese, Japanese, Taiwanese, and Korean dramas. Despite watching so many Asian dramas this is still in my top ten favorites. It’s an amazing show well worth watching.

This is a melodrama with a little bit of everything. There’s an epic romance, great comedy, political intrigue, warring gods, and excellent fighting scenes. The cinematography is really good. And I like that the female lead is a badass that can hold her own. It’s refreshing to see a female lead that’s not only strong and confident but super clever too. She single handedly defeats a very powerful god that few others could fight. And the male lead is one of my all time favorite male leads. He’s handsome, powerful, unselfish, and extremely loyal. This drama has a fair amount of angst but the sweetness of the romance, the depth of the story, the phenomenal acting, and the beautiful ending that ties up all the loose ends make it all worth it.

The love story of the main leads is what really drives this drama. I love that the male lead never waivers in his feelings for the female lead and will do anything for her. He never, even for a minute, gives up on her and is very open with his affection. I love how he tossed her over his shoulder and took her to their room when his strength and virility is questioned. And the numerous kisses are swoon worthy. There’s lots of skinship and sweet romantic moments too. Theirs is one of my all time favorite romances.

Another strength of this drama is the really great side characters. From the sweet little boy named Ali who just wants to find his mom, to the mischievous nine tailed fox Feng Jiu who valiantly pursues true love , to the powerful god Mo Yuan and his unrequited love, the side characters have so much depth and growth.

I normally don’t watch really long dramas but this one is so worth it. And I don’t rewatch dramas but I’ve rewatched this one several times. All of the side characters are interesting and there are cute side couples. This drama never has a dull moment. If I had to complain, it would be about the male leads adopted sister and her crazy obsession with him. But honestly, she should win an award for her acting. She really pulls you into her crazy head and does a great job of making you hate her.

Overall I’d say don’t pass this one up. Yes it’s long and yes it’s angsty and melodramatic which is not usually my cup of tea. I don’t like dramas that make me cry or get really upset. I usually prefer light sweet funny romcoms. But this drama is just too good to pass up. I’ll go back and get angry and cry because the romance is so touching and the side characters are so endearing that it’s worth it.

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Interesting and enjoyable

The bad sides:
As a person who does not like killing people or torturing them no matter what they have done and is against the death sentence - because I believe people are not born evil they are mostly raised in an environment to become one, and we can always at least try to help them if possible and even if we were not able to we are not gods to order a death sentence ( well the irony is that they were gods, haha), I really didn't like the parts having this concept and I would be much more satisfied if they removed especially the first half of episode 55, that was such a pain to watch. And god, the way good and evil are portrayed in such stories, there is no one like that on earth or heaven :D
CGI was not that bad but there were some obvious errors that it was hard not to notice.
One of the strange things in the story was that sometimes they could save someone very easily and sometimes they couldn't. And who on earth would sleep with their hairpins still on? maybe in heaven? :D

The good sides:
I liked the drama overall if the parts I mentioned above are ignored but to be honest I was more invested in the side love stories and not the main couple. Their love, I couldn't feel it for the most part and they were so mean sometimes I could not bear it. I loved Lian Song and Cheng Yu relationship they were so interesting to watch and I wish they had more screen time.

the acting was satisfying. I think Bambi Zhu is a really good actor as I could feel her pain and misery.
At first, I wanted to drop it but I gave it a second chance and it turned out that the second half was much better. There was not much boredom with this drama in my opinion and it was a good watch.
I don't really rewatch any dramas but there are some scenes with Dong Hua and Feng Jiu that I rewatched a few times that were very emotional.

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the best drama i have ever seen

Of all the things this drama is very good and perfect, I did not find a single fault or flaw, if possible maybe the flaw is just a small number of episodes. 58 episodes for me was not enough because I still miss Bai Qian and Ye Hua. Oh my God they really are great. The best plays for historical themes.
I hope YangMi and Mark Chao have another drama, for all the cast I like it. Their acting is very good.

Bai Qian when she became Su Su could be a woman who really needs Ye Hua but when she became the Fox Queen she turned into a strong woman and was not afraid of anything

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I came from Ashes of Love just to watch another magical and beautiful love story. Ten Miles of Peach Blossom or Eternal Love is really worth that watch. All the actors were able to portray their characters pretty well and each of them doesn't disappoint.

If i have to compare the cinematography of this one vs Ashes of Love, i would prefer the latter. But considering AOL was release 2018 and TMOPB was 2017, it's understanble. Some of the scenes really made it obvious that they are using green screen. Every xianxia use heavy effects anyway but here it was just not that polish. But setting that aside, the story telling of each scenery is perfect.

I never really watched any Yang Mi or Mark Chao dramas so I can't really tell if she excel here or she is better in her other roles, but all I can say is, she is very good portraying Siyi/Susu/BaiQian here. She gave each character their own personality. She is effective to me although it didn't give much effect how Yang Zi did it for AOL. Mark Chao's poker and minimal facial expressions threw me off at first but i grew out of it later on the drama. That is just his character anyway. I read other reviews and they said YangMi is always paired to just and average guy but Mark Chao has his own charisma and his chemistry with YangMi here is good.

Aside from this two, Dilraba Dilmurat and Vengo Gao are one of the couples you need to look out for. Their love story is so tragic, you would want to have their own. Which gladly Pillow Book will be release soon and it's all about their story. I won't give mucb spoilers, but this couple is like a diamond in the mud. They will surprise you.

Music scoring of this drama is also rrally beautiful. I have it always on repeat on spotify cause i just cant get over it. Zhang Bichen did one of the ost and if you've watched Love O2O you will be familiar with her.

If i have to choose between AOL or TMOPB, they are both beautiful and have a really good story line. Both have different flavors. Each episodes TMOPB has a connection. Each of it you don't want to miss because there is a reason for everything. AOL also had a very happy ending and all is well in the end.

Dilraba and Vengo's love stort is so tragic you really need to look forward for Pillow Book. I just find this funny cause it looks like this drama is filled of Yang Mi or Jaywalk Studio actors.

Otherwise, this xianxia is worth it. 10/10

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THE POTLINE IS SPECIAL AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I REWATCH LIKE SO MANY TIMES IT WAS KINDA SAD AND GOOD AT THE SAME TIME WATCHING IT IF U RECOMMEND SOMETHING TO WATCH IT WOULD BE THIS ONE OR YOUR FIRST TIME WATCHING CHINESE DRAMA THIS ONE IS THE ONE AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
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favorite xianxia

There was a time where I was so obsessed with this drama, I read the whole novel (finding the translated version was like finding a needle in a haystack but I still managed to find it after searching for days haha) and in addition to that I read manyyyy fan fictions.

Did I also watch the sequel just to see if the main leads had a mini role in it?

Probably.

But yeah, let's not talk about this awkward phase I was going trough. I need to start with the review. And if I'm going to be able to explain the whole story (more or less), then I'm gonna raise a toast to myself. Let's try. But this drama is kinda complicated because it's a xianxia.

So many things happened. But to make it short, I'll only refer to the lives of the main leads. Yeah "lives" because they had more then one. To be exact, they had three. And all of them played a very important role in the drama. Starting with the first life, our main male lead wasn't even born yet. Just for you to know, there is a 90.000 year difference between the female and the male lead. But nobody really cares about it so we just pretend there isn't this big age gap. Funny how the male lead was still the dominant and more responsible figure in the relationship, but more to that later. So the female lead became a disciple of a guy called Mo Yuan, who's also the twin of our male lead, but the male lead was in a lotus flower the whole time. (I know, xianxia dramas are kinda weird.) Because only males were allowed to be one of this disciples, she disguised herself as one. But MY knew this. And he did not kick her out. Till today I'm pretty sure he had feelings for her, I don't care what everyone else says. For me, that wasn't a master-student relationship.

But let me tell you something, the first episodes I really thought MY was the male lead and was really confused, then the second male lead showed up and because of that I thought he was the main lead and was even more confused. They didn't even bother to show us who the main lead was till episode 11 if I don't remember wrong.

Our female lead is actually a deity who then fought with a monster (I don't remember what it exactly was but that's not important.) and because of this fight she 'fell down' to earth and lost all her powers and memories. This is where the second life (my favorite one hehe) starts. BQ (female lead) started to live as a human without a name or anything. The male lead was finally born as the crown prince of the heavenly realm and of course had this cold attitude literally every male lead has. One day, he went to earth and then got injured, that's why he had to stay in his snake form, so he could recover. BQ loved to treat animals and then saw the little snake. And because she's such a kind-hearted and lovely person, she just took that snake to her house, without knowing it it's even poisonous. Yeah, we love our female leads.

While she was starting to treat him, he started to fell in love with her. When he fully recovered, he didn't return but changed into his human form at night so he could sleep next to the female lead. Don't get me wrong, I know that sounds creepy, but he really didn't do anything but just lay down to watch her sleeping. Okay, that sounds even more creepy. Even I can't defend him anymore... I'm really sorry, but he's still one of my favorite male leads haha.

Let's keep going, he then wanted to know her as a 'human' and disguised himself as an injured warrior, who apparently needed her help. Long story short, they fell in love, she got pregnant and our male lead suddenly remembered who he actually was. Leaving her alone for a very long time, he went to the heavenly realm. But he couldn't bare to let her on earth forever, that's why he just took her with him. A human woman. Pregnant with his child. He's the crown prince and there's another woman who tries everything to win his heart. So we all know what happens next, second female lead is just an evil being who tries everything to get rid of BQ. And she actually really get rid of her by making it look like BQ was the reason she lost her eyes. YH (male lead) believed the second female lead and took the eyes from the female lead, so she got blind. Feeling betrayed she first gave birth and then jumped from where the second female lead lost her eyes. Everyone in the heavenly realm thought she was a human, so they assumed that she was dead. But she wasn't of course, as a deity you can't die from there. BQ woke up in her true form and remembered everything, including the betrayal of the male lead. She wanted to forget everything and drank an elixir erasing all her memories. And here's where the third life starts. I'm not gonna summarize this life because it would take me way too long. And it's also my least favorite life from all of them. There's also a second couple who had a lot of scenes, but they even got an own drama, so I'm just focusing on the main leads.

Talking about the characters, they were sometimes really annoying. Especially the female lead in the third life. But one thing got really on my nerves: the mother-son bond.

Oh wait, there wasn't even one.

I'm sorry but I never saw such an awful mother in any drama. These writers really just make it seem like everything was based on romance. THEY HAD A FREAKIN CHILD. Argh, it annoyed me so much. Poor AL, never got the love of his mother which he actually deserved. I'm glad YH was a good father, or I would probably really go crazy.

And then people still be asking why I only liked the second life. First one didn't even show the main lead but made it look like it was a MY-BQ-LJ (second lead) love triangle and last one completely failed for me after making the female lead such an irresponsible person. At least her character was okay, some people would even say she was a 'badass'. Not gonna lie, I loved how she took revenge after regaining her memory.

But like I said before, this drama is one of my favorites. With its flaws. As the most watched drama in China with over 50 billion views, it really is something special. I rewatched it (especially the second life) so many times and never got bored, even when the female lead was such an annoying mother. And don't forget, there's so much more happening in the drama, I only talked about the romantic relationship about the leads and this review is my longest one now.

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Well this is the first Chinese drama I've watched in a while. The last Asian dramas I watched were the TVB series in the late 90's and some Chinese ones in the early 2000s to this series. About a 17 year gap in total. After the crap ending of Game of Thrones, I decided to research and give some Chinese dramas a try. My expectations were raised after I saw that this series had 58 billion viewers and a rating of 9.8/10. So I gave it a try and was blown away from episode 1. The movie like feel of the drama, the colors, the costumes, the scenery, the special effects, and the music. All this had me going 'WOW'. So the series didn't disappoint me and lived up to hype, which is rare. I have watched many other Chinese dramas since thanks to the positive experience from watching Ten Miles of Peach Blossom. The ending song by Zhang Bichen and some guy is something to behold. It's become a regular song on my playlist. Now to the cast. The last time I saw Zhang Mi, the main female lead, was when she played Guo Xiang in the Return of the Condor Heroes. In this series she's grown as an actress. I loved her as Si Yin the most where she did come across as fox like. Then naive and vulnerable as Su Su. Yang Mi also transitioned well to the high powered high goddess of Bai Qian . Mark Chao was perfect as Mo Yuan and Ye Hua. He has a heroic and noble feel about him. I think he's played Detective Dee in the movies. I liked Mark as Mo Yuan more though and I did feel for the character of Mo Yuan at the end. Poor dude without giving away any spoilers... I was rooting for you. As for the character of Yue Hua, I didn't really like him much. I thought he was a bit too aggressive with Bai Qian, but that's just me. I also hated the character of Yue Hua during the period where Bai Qian was Su Su and they were at the Celestial Tribe. But maybe its because I was rooting for Mo Yuan that I didn't like Yue Hau much, even though they look the same... I also enjoyed the bromance between Bai Zhen and Zhe Yan. Two people who did nothing but good during the series. The Star Lord, Si Meng, the kid Ah Li, and the Lian Song also deserves special mention. I loved their characters. There were head scratching moments in the series though. Like how no one could work out that Su Su was Ba Qian going through a mortal trial. Even her niece!! Especially as immortals go through trials in the human realm. Anyway, gripe over. I heard the sequel is solely based on the romance between the characters of Dong Hua Di Jin and Bai Feng Jiu... Oh god forbid, LOL. I just found Bai Feng Jiu to be too clingy and annoying... I'm also not found of young girls chasing grandpa like figures either. So I found them to be rather uninteresting and had to put up with them for a large part of the 58 episodes. Their own story is 56 episodes alone. Count me out of watching that sequel!!! But as for Ten Miles of Peach Blossom its a must watch. 10/10 period!

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My first Chinese drama series that I watched and I love it （╹◡╹）

Eternal Love is a story that opened my eyes to a whole different world of Chinese drama series that I have never experienced before. Now, I just look forward to discover more stories and enjoy watching and reading them.

Eternal Love music is lovely, the acting of the cast is amazing, and the story is astonishing.

Three lives, Three Worlds and Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms perfect name for the story.

The story is intriguing, it would keep you on your toes, and would make you experience a lot of emotions.

I do like that the story has a balance of the lead actors characters. It shows different aspects of their personalities, and in whichever environment they are put in, they seem to master the role very well.

The cast from the main role to the support role actors did an outstanding job. Of course, Yang Mi, Mark Chao are one of my favourite couples in the story as Bai Qian and Ye Hua, I also liked Si Yin with Li Jin as a couple. Moreover, I did like Lord Dong Hua and Bai Feng Jiu Love story as well. The two most scheming characters were Su Sin and Xuan Nu, they played their role well. I liked Bai Zhen the fourth brother of Bai Qian, he cared a lot about his sister and was friends with Zhe Yan (the healer). Si Ming character was interesting where he liked to tell stories, and works for Lord Dong Hua. Zi Lan and Yang Zi were interesting characters and their story felt it could have had a different path. Die Feng the second princess loved his role as the senior disciple of Mo Yuan. As for Mo Yuan, I felt bad that things did not work out for him the way he wished for.

The music was well balanced with effect that it would give you while watching the story. The most critical moments in the story gave a gut-wrenching feeling because the music was in alignment with that moment in the story.

The re-watch value for me is on-going and I am enjoying it,

Overall, this drama series is outstanding with an outstanding cast performance. The director and screenwriter did a wonderful job.

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