Fox in the Screen (2016)

To put it straight, Fox in the Screen was not very good. The story started out pretty interesting and I thought it could actually go somewhere with the unique plot but unfortunately, that didn't happen. Very soon, the typical historical drama cliches occurred, and it all happened really fast so sometimes the plot didn't make sense and there wasn't much development. The plot really went everywhere, especially since they included the royal family and political affairs, which I think was unnecessary. But on the other hand, the plot didn't drag since everything happened really fast, which could be a good or bad thing depending on how you view it. Not to mention the ending was very disappointing and inconclusive.

And the actors....to put it straight, they were not good at acting. Now I'm not talking about the main fox guy (he was very good), I'm talking about everyone else, and literally everyone else, except for the evil characters (crown prince was awesome!). It was so cringe-worthy watching everyone else act that I really couldn't get myself into the drama, especially with the dubbed voices on top of that.

The only reason I ended up completing this drama was that it was so short at 22 episodes and 20min long each and because historical dramas are my favorite dramas. However, I loved the production of this drama; the scenery and cinematography was exceptional, and watching this drama was very pleasing to the eye because of the excellent HD quality! The music wasn't that bad either; I liked the intro and ending songs that played at every episode and occasionally other songs would come out throughout the drama.

Overall, watch this drama because it's so short if you have a lot of free time on your hands, just want to see what it's about, or just don't have anything else to watch since this drama isn't really worth it so don't go into it with expectations like I did!

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In the beginning, I loved the concept and saw a lot of potential for the romance.

The main female character wasn’t my favorite but she wasn’t annoying. Honestly, I kept watching because of the extremely good looking male lead and since my mans Jun Jie (who was in “Big Boss” had a role in this.

I’m glad that it didn’t take so long for the romance to start which tends to happen in some dramas, but I felt like the chemistry was a bit lacking.
The fact that there was a “past love” concept was brought out pretty well in this, and made me learn myself that love isn’t exactly eternal and can fade away for reasons after time, and moving on is hard but not impossible.

Overall I binged this for about 4 days and I’m a bit disappointed but not completely. The end wasn’t too bad although despite how not-great this series was I still yearn for a second season...
Recommend to those who like watching dramas partly for the eye-candy and romance! (But don’t have high expectations)

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Short and interesting enough

I actually like this and am not sure why some people gave given such bad reviews. It’s not a big production with quality writing but it tries to offer something different from all the other rom coms with love scenes repeated to death and I think it succeeds in that the whole thing is not just about couples getting together. The 2 males leads were well acted out and I found the demon aspects of the storyline quite interesting. I even found the kings character believable if a bit silly at times. Worth a watch if you are looking for a breath of fresh air, you wont fall madly in love with it but it was a pleasant watch.

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Even through all of the "what the hell just happened?" moments, I think Fox In The Screen will always have a special place in my heart. The story itself was really great even with all the holes. I mean, closer to the end, a lot does get explained but there is just so much that you're left scratching your head about.
I think the one that gets me the most was the "3rd brother" talk.... If there was 3, where was the middle child (or youngest?)?
But then I wonder if they say that because of what you find out later in the show but it leaves me to question more because even they didn't know that. Soooo why? Ya know.

I want to know Xiao Hei's backstory SO FREAKING BAD!!! He was so sweet and adorable. HE WAS BABY!!! okay. so why was he in the screen? They said they were trapped there because of things they had done... We know Yu Yan and Bai Sheng's story but I really want to know what Xiao Hei did. Lol

I liked but hated Zheng Xue's character. I liked she was independent for the most part but completely hated how she just trusted everything Qiong Hua said. She trusted her when she really should have ripped every hair off her head. Bitch not only stole her man, pretended to be pregnant --- but also tried to kill Zheng Xue. But when she lost it all and was like "oops I'm sorry Zheng, we're sisters right?" Zheng Xue ate that shit with a spoon. I would have told her "don't let the door hit your ass on the way out." -_- She was way to forgiving.

I think another issue I had was when they kept trying to bring in her ex at random times. It was like he was a filler subject because they couldn't figure out what to do next. Lol

I know I'm complaining a lot about this show, but I really did like it. I love her relations with the 3 foxs. I loved her relations with her (good) brother. I just kinda wish they had went into more detail about everything.

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Please use the actors voice

First and foremost..Shame on these Chinese drama producers who don't use the actors real voices. If I want to see a particular actor, I want to hear their real voice and emotions, not some fake voice actor dub over. Why is this even a thing? If you're going to hire an actor then accept them as they are. How insulting to those actors to not use their real voices and emotional expression. I feel bad for them. Not to mention it looks tacky because it's quite obviously not their voice. Shame! Who really thinks this is a good idea and somehow makes it better? I can assure you that it does not.
As for the drama itself , the story sounds like it was written by a five year old. Very cliche , even more so than most dramas. The only good thing about this drama is Luo Yunxi . I will say of you are a fan of him, the drama is worth watching solely for him even though they don't use his real voice, which is a huge disappointment. His character is really cute and I found him very interesting... it's just too bad the storyline didn't do much to support him. As for the rest of the drama, acting is not great from anyone else but in their defense there's only so much an actor can do with such a poor, tacky script. The lead girls acting is absolutely terrible though. Very cringey. Her emotional scenes are very fake and difficult to watch. In my opinion she doesn't level up with Luo Yunxi in any way . He deserved better than this mess.

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Watch this for Leo Luo and Huang Jun Jie...if you have nothing better to do

Whew, I finished Fox in the Screen. It was no easy feat. First, I couldn’t get all the episodes on YouTube, then FINALLY Amazon Prime picked it up. Why oh why did I search diligently and wait patiently to watch the end of this mediocre show? Because of Leo Luo of course. After Ashes of Love, well, he can do no wrong. I just love him. If you don’t believe me, read one of several articles that I’ve written about him (link to his page below) for MDL. He’s the cat’s meow.

https://mydramalist.com/people/11095-luo-yunxi

STORY:
Fox in the Screen is the story of Xue Jing the orphan artist and her struggle to survive during this Xania (I think?) piece of fluff. In the first episode she paints a screen with a magical pen and frees three magical foxes played by Leo Luo (sigh), Huang Jun Jie (Yowza he was good), and Xiao Hei (meh – not bad). Cue the evil old/young sorceress, jealous son of the emperor, and strange goddess of the flowers and you’ve got twenty something episodes filled with magic, a little palace intrigue, and a poor woman with an unfortunate aging complex (don’t we all have one?).

CHARACTERS:
Liu Xin Qi plays Xue Jing very well. She had the right amount of spirit as well as a burning desire to beat up the bad guys all on her own. Her character was loyal, loving, and bound and determined to save those within her care…..sometimes females can be portrayed as two dimensional….this one was not.

The foxes were just plain fun. At first Yu Yan (Leo Luo….sigh) was kind of a bad guy but not really. Either way, I found him quite fun whether he was mean, jealous, or just a plain old super hero. I don’t think its possible for him to do a bad job with any of his characters. I realize that I may be biased.

Xiao Hei played Little Blackie the fox missing his feet for a good chunk of the show. He was loyal and sweet but a little annoying after a while. There is only so much of the sweet stupid little guy that I can take in any series.

Huang Jun Jie played Bai Sheng by far the best and most mysterious character in the show….and might I say that the end of his storyline tugged the heart strings and also made me question his relationship with the emperor’s son. Truth be told, I liked him best. He was just the right amount of sweet and enigmatic that kept me wanting more. If you’re going to watch this, keep going to the end just for him. He played one of the most delightful characters in Eternal Love of Dream as well, so I hope to see more of him going forward.

The token bad guy is played by Long Ni. Yun Tao is sufficiently evil that completely degenerates into miserable when we see why she is the way she is. I love it when there’s an interesting female lead but I don’t necessarily love it when her motivations are barely skin deep (pun intended). I prefer they either make the woman a psychopath or suffering from a traumatic experience like their dog was killed in front of them, not for superficial reasons (just my opinion).

MUSIC:
The music was so-so. I did recognize Leo Luo’s voice singing one of the songs. It looks like he sings the theme song….yeah Leo! But still……..nothing special worth mentioning.

REWATCH VALUE:
I have no plans whatsoever to watch this again. It wasn’t hideous….sort of mildly entertaining. The episodes are short, so it goes fast. Watching it once isn’t a complete waste of time, but twice or more……even for Leo Luo that would be a resounding snooze fest.

OVERALL:
I liked Fox in the Screen for Leo, I loved Huang Jun Jie’s characterization of the shadowy Bai Sheng and almost (not quite) want to watch it again to see if I can see a little more subtext. Everything else was just okay…..a decent way to spend an evening to calm down from the latest gut-wrenching k-drama (ie. Tales of a Gumhio) I’ve been binging. So give it a try, if you need something light and frivolous….BUT if you are looking for the next Untamed or Eternal Love….this certainly AIN’T it.

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Nothing much to say

Impressed by Luo Yunxi's acting in the Ashes of Love, I watched this drama. Unfortunately, other than him, there are no other good reasons for watching this series. If it is not because Luo was the lead actor, I would have rated it worse. He was very good. Other than him, acting and production were amateurish.

I am spoiled by the epic series Ten Mile Peach Blossom, Fu Yao and Ashes of Love which have set very high standards; this drama paled in comparison. There were some interesting twists in the stories but were rather poorly developed. A lot happened in a short series which is only about one-sixth of the earlier mentioned epics. It was very fast moving and did not drag like the longer series but resulting in a story that was very shallow with too much happening. The story was also very cliche and in some parts, things just conveniently happened in favour of the heroine of the story. For example, the third prince suddenly returned from the war in time to save her from being locked up by the emperor, and an ambassador from a distance country just arrived at the right time to request for a special painting.

The lyrics at the beginning of the opening theme song made me cringed. In general, the music pieces were not that great. This could be one of the reasons that many of the romantic scenes just did not work out. Additionally, there seemed to be no chemistry between the main actor and actress. So the romantic scenes turned out completely tasteless. The romantic scenes Luo did in the Ashes of Love were a lot more touching even though it was a one-sided romance. In spite of a few 'gut wrenching' scenes, I did not even shred a tear.

The make-up artist had done a rather poor job on the main actress. She looked rather plain. Some earrings and hairpins could have improved that.

I do hope to see Luo Yunxi more often in future drama series of higher standards. He left a very positive impression in Ashes of Love.

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ótima história, péssima realização.

Pra ser sincera, quando eu comecei a assistir Fox in the screen eu não coloquei fé nenhuma, eu apenas assisti por gostar da atuação do Luo Yunxi.
No início eu me surpreendi porque a série realmente me prendeu muito, porém quando começaram a aparecer os plots eu percebi que a série deveria ter muito mais do que apenas 22 episódios.
Os plots são ótimos (principalmente o que envolvia a Yun Tao), porém eles aconteciam MUITO rápido.
Quando a protagonista ficou presa na tela mágica após salvar as três raposas eles nem deram tempo do público sentir a angústia da cena, por que simplesmente do nada o pai dela aparece como um Deus e tudo é resolvido em um piscar de olhos.
Outra coisa que me deixou irritada foi que eles não se aprofundaram na história de Xiao Hei, a gente soube da história do Bai Sheng, soubemos da história do Yu Yan, mas o enredo simplesmente excluiu o Xiao Hei, se era para ele não ter uma história por que colocar ele como personagem? Xiao Hei não teve desenvolvimento, não mostraram o passado dele e a única cena onde ele foi sério foi quando ele estava protegendo o Imperador. Dava te ter dado uma história ótima para ele, mas por algum motivo ele só aparecia para ser engraçado.
Outra coisa que me irritou foi terem dado a entender que a Qiong Hua faria par romântico com o Bai Sheng e não ter evolução nenhuma.
O final apesar dos protagonistas não ficarem juntos foi satisfatório, Yu Yan não tinha superado a Tao ainda, e achei certo ele não ficar com a protagonista ainda tendo sentimentos confusos pela garota que estava com ele no passado.
É uma história que acabou se tornando confusa, cheia se furos e também aberta, porém tem plots realmente bons e que valem a pena serem vistos.

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Missed opportunity for camp

At least it was short.
Writing this review four years after the fact just because....
I enjoy low budget dramas and watched this one only for Luo Yunxi (as one does). The worst part about it was that it could have been so much fun, but the plot was just kinda lame - it's a xianxia, it was super short. There was no need for a mortal palace political intrigue plot arc. At the end when we encounter the nightmare demon guy - omg that's when I realized we could have had so much more. He was like a xianxia Dr. Frankenfurter. Imagine if we had him through the whole thing! And also imagine if the FL could act! cough cough.
Not a difficult watch, but worth it only for LYX oeuvre completists. This is the gig that got him noticed by Heavy Sweetness Ash Like Frost author, which got him an audition for Ashes of Love, so I can't hate it.

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I wanted to say that the story was ok. The episodes were short, so the story line moved along quite fast. There were no "wow" factors in the plot,however. I could pretty much guess what was going to happen. At first I was really liking the drama. Even though the female lead could not act. It was enough to keep me interested and not skipping episodes. The adorable foxes. The love scenes were laughable. There was no chemistry between the main leads. And the second couple, I don't know if they were trying to make them a couple or not. There was no chemistry with them either however. Giving, at the end she was taking care of the fox in the wilderness. But that is not a couple. Lol. I read the reviews and comments before I even started it. But I thought I would give it a try. At the end, when Yu Yan is leaving her and she was giving the spill about how she would wait for him, I was laughing so hard. It looked so fake. And dang, hes leaving her, can't he give her a hug or something. That was shabby. And the ending. Well I knew it was coming from reading other comments but why was I still surprised? Like really? How can you interpret that he has came back from a bunch of flowers. He went there to work fields for a decade, not die. Why did they have it end like that. Well sad to say I won't get yesterday back out of my life. Lol. Hopefully, that girl will never be in a drama again that played the main female lead. She was terrible.

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