All style, no substance.
I began this due to the costumes and CGI, which seemed much more creative than usual. And yes, they did go all out because this one of the most beautifully made xianxias I've watched in CDramaland.I've never watched the donghua or heard about the source material. Moreover, the cast, even the supporting characters are well known for their own works.
The summary is exactly as the MDL page. I'm not exactly the best person to talk to about scriptwriting and directing, but for once, I could actually see that something was just missing with the whole plot.
My major issue, and the reason why I'm dropping this, is because I do not actually care about the leading characters, particularly Dongfang Yue Chu and Tushan Hong Hong.
Heck, even the villains are two dimensional to me. (At one point, it seemed as if someone was forcing me to accept their indestructibility and fear them, but I did not care about their scenes or strategy.)
It's an endless cycle of rinse and repeat upto EP19.
I didn't care much about the Spirit Kingdom arc because it was pretty much ‘served’ on a plate because the plot required it. I didn't connect to Bu Tai's and Shi Kuan's love story.
This drama could easily wrap up in a minimum 24 episodes if someone wrote a shorter, yet stronger script. FSM drives the viewer around in circles with the same conversations and fights on repeat.
It does get better after Spirit Kingdom and the initial enemy, but I lost all connection to the characters and nothing manages to capture my attention, save for a few conversations between the Tushan sisters and maybe A’ Lai.
About A’ Lai. He was introduced out of nowhere and still has mysteries shrouding him, which is why I'm curious about his character. His romance is pleasant to watch, too – Tushan Ya Ya is the opposite of his calm and composed personality and I love their banter, even though it's not earth-shattering or as tumultous as the supposed love story of Hong Hong and Yue Chu, which I frankly don't care about.
If it wasn't for them, I would've easily dropped this.
About acting… Someone mentioned how Yang Mi had one expression at the beginning, but now? Either the directing or script was very poor because there is not a single scene of hers I find particularly memorable save for a very few close up shots of her eyes. I understand that she is the Chief, but I've seen colder characters depicted better than this.
Dongfang Yue Chu… I'm sure that Gong Jun gave his best shot with what was given to him, but to be honest, I don't find him much memorable.
I didn't care about their romantic progress, either.
The fight scenes… the leading characters’ fight scenes are boring. The one scene I do remember is that one in EP15 or EP16, that too, because of the song 回还 by UNEKO being played as the BGM.
But, the scene itself (which should be a heart stopping moment) was offscreen that I had to rewind to see if I've missed something. Plenty of dramas don't shy away from bloodshed and pain, even if not directly portrayed.
A drama from last year had a very similar scene and it got trashed for being ‘too’ fake, but at least the actor performing the scene had expressions which conveyed the intensity of the moment perfectly.
The OST does have beautiful songs, but the background score as a whole is forgettable and unimpressive. Even poorly written dramas can be hits if the music manages to enchant us.
These two reasons might be why I'm impatient with the pacing.
6.5 - 7/10 -- I prioritize characters and a lot, and this one falls far off the mark. For a drama that has two other stories lined up and a hypeworthy cast, this just wasn't it for me.
Once again, the story and the editing does get a lot better. [It shifts to the human realm by EP19, but I found myself bunny hopping through scenes instead of watching it as a whole.]
But, they raised the stakes far too late for me to be interested. As far as I had watched, it was aesthetically pleasing, but tragically snooze worthy.
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A Tale Of Love
"Fox Spirit Matchmaker: Red-Moon Pact" tells the story of Tushan Hong Hong, the chief of Tushan who cares about Tushan more than she does herself. Years ago, she saved Donfang Yue Chu because of his bloodline and raised him. After years, when Dongfang Yue Chu became an adult, his relationship with Tushan Hong Hong became closer. These two developed feelings for each other despite their age gap. Tushan Hong Hong is a fox spirit who has lived for hundreds of years, probably even thousands of years, while Dongfang Yue Chu is only a young man in his 20s. The gap is quite clear, but they still fall in love, I love this about them. "A love that transcends age difference," that's what their love exhibits.What do I love about this drama? What I love about this drama is the chemistry of the leads, while some might say that their romance fall flat, that wasn't the case for me. Loved the chemistry of this two couples.
I've been reading comments saying the FL acting is off in this drama and that she doesn't make audience feel anything. But in my opinion, Yang Mi's acting here is top tier. Her role as Tushan Hong Hong is a cold character, a very cold one to be precise. She's the chief of Tushan, she's duty bound, she carries the weight of thousands on her shoulders, plus the fact that she has to protect her clan against the evil villain, so her cold facial expression is very justifiable if you're to ask me. Yang Mi, Gong Jun, the other leads, and supporting characters performed well in their respective roles.
The reason I'm not giving this a rating above 8.5 is because I'm not satisfied with the ending, no more, no less. As for the other aspects, I loved "Fox Spirit Matchmaker: Red-Moon Pact" thoroughly. Is this a drama I'd recommend? Of course. Is this worthwhile? The answer is "Yes".
In short, "Fox Spirit Matchmaker: Red-Moon Pact" is a drama I'd recommend for watchers who love Xianxia, it's a worthwhile drama. Ignore the negative comments, reviews, and low ratings, watch this with an open mind, you just might love it!
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BEST XIANXIA DRAMA
I don't understand why everyone is critics this drama. Eventually this drama is mice to watch. All the actors is perform well.Yang Mi her expression very good and made me hook to see her. Gong Jun actually he is good actor. His acting is vey good in this drama cute and lovely boy. If people like it will like it. Don't because the rating or comments ruin this good drama.
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not what I expected
I've always loved Yangmi. Watched almost all her dramas.Started feeling a bit bored with the drama since (?) can't remember which episodes lol.
To be honest, I dont feel for any characters in the drama, including Yangmi's one expression.
She would always tilt her head slightly down with her eyes looking up looking stoic or serious.
Wanted to drop few eps back but I persisted.......Until their kissing scene lol....I just can't. hehe.
She practically took him in as a kid (8 years old?), and watch him grew up.
Did I miss out any kind of emotion development?
Gosh...I just can't. This is not even a noona kind of relationship.
It's aunty/ahjumma with young boy relationship, despite him growing into a man (although childish acting), it's still quite difficult to convince my mind. Maybe if the drama started differently, it would have been easy to accept this.
So finally..I have to say goodbye to Yangmi.
This drama is not for me.
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Keep prejuices aside & give it a try.
I've read many negative comments about this drama and I was about to drop it, but thankfully I didn't. Yes this drama is not all that great but it's better than most of the dramas out their.Many people complain that FL blamed ML for everything , but that wasn't the case. Whenever she blamed him or pushed him away their was always a reason for it. In fact they always trusted each other and that was the thing I like most about this drama (not like other dramas with stupid misunderstandings).
And people complain that character of Honghong is too stiff, but according to me it's just perfect. You can't possibly expet chief of a big clan to cry her eyes out on her elders death. She is their leader and she has to be strong, if she breaks who'll take care of her people that too with such a big problem coming on them. Plus sadness doesn't always need to be shown with tears , at times its being indifferent to pain and that how most of the people with responsiblities do it, & that justifies Honghong 's reaction to most of the things.
The only thing that I questioned in this series was reaction of spirits during incidents to Yuechu, like no one cared about his feelings. No one thought about explaining things to him. They just expect him to make right decisions that too without kowing anything.
Overall I liked this drama a lot , It had no boring eps & Is worth a try.
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it's definitely for the one's with high attention span.
I'm a kind of person who observes a lot and never involves myself with anything, but certain POV of the shows in different social media internationally made me write my first ever review. here's my take.I was sick of the usual maiden falls for devil, they kill each other, become victims of misunderstandings etc... stuff. finally I saw something different, their is no gods and demons...but instead it's spirits and humans, and the prejudice within themselves and between spirits and humans...a dominant female lead who knows she is powerful, and has nothing hidden to discover about herself...very refreshing.
I get that many were extremely hyped up for this show and expected something you already knew to happen but in a more extravagant, more cluttered way, but this is not your ideal xian xia, it is adaptation of a existing animation.
this show completely depicts a new side of xian xia, their is spirits, and their is humans, and they resolve their conflicts, while falling in love along the way. it's that simple.
acting wise, excellent. production wise, immaculate. story wise, very depressive, and every episode has one or the other angasty situation, which is right up my alley, personally I love tragedy in dramas. and I love to torture myself with it. among many such works you can definitely add this your list.
for those who want plot after plot, fight after fight, and want that constant rush of things happening in drama, it might not be your cup of tea.
I find this drama very precise with it's storyline and at the end all the objectives it began with was met.
coming to romance, it's heart breaking like it rips your heart slowly...
*SPOILERS....their romance begins slowly and gradually they fall deep in it. but due to Hong hong's huge responsibility she comes to a point where she has to forget her years of love. you might be thinking it's a same plot as other xian xia, but here in this drama she NEVER remembers them again...and why she chose to forget was NEVER known to yuechu...till the end he thought she gave more priority to tushan and he was insignificant to her. she NEVER said she likes him... but at last she chose to ask grief tree to bind them, and then they realise just how deep their love was...because for them both, humanity comes first than love, at the end it was their TRUE love that helped them to fight against evil.
*I'm moved by my writing again...lol.
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Boring
First of all I'm so excited for it, but it's so disappointing,Plot is poorly writting and editing was awful.
Production team must pay more attention to plot.
Acting was lower than my expectations, most of the cast are well known for good acting but here must of them are terrible here. They didn't choose good voice actors for actors it didn't suit them.
Only good part of the drama is in episode when Ti xia and wei sheng enter, I'm more excited about their love than the main role. They have a great chemistry than main roles.
I hope s2 and s3 be better than this....
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I don’t know where to start.
I truthfully don’t know where to start and not in a good way. I have had this drama in my “to watch” list for many years and I was extremely excited when iQIYI announced the airing date. I waited for it and started watching as soon as it aired. To say the least it was a big let down and disappointment. I feel like there was such a solid cast, and yet this drama turned out to be mediocre at best. I struggled to get past episode 15 and for a long time I abandoned it, I only continued to watch it later on because I hate dropping dramas, plus I really wanted to watch Zhang Linghe. I will say the story kind of picked up for me somewhere around episode 24 or so, but there was so many plot holes and bad scriptwriting, that no matter what miracle the CGI, or cinematography team, or the cast did the drama suffered a lot. I probably would have rated this lower if not for the last few episodes, honestly don’t know whether or not I recommend watching it.Was this review helpful to you?
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Excellent DRAMA!!
This drama is excellent. It has a strong cast such as Yang Mi and Gong Jun, with Wei Zhe Ming and Zhang Linghe appearing later on. The costumes and props are also very beautiful. The storyline is also easy to follow and some scenes are so sweet omg! I also love the comedy, especially the part when Tushan Yaya roasted Aolai Sanshao so badly, not knowing that he was the one she idolised all the while. Can’t wait for new episodes to be available on iQIYI Singapore!Was this review helpful to you?
Love the casts
Love the drama❤️my favorite actors and actress. The story pretty good , ML and FL chemistry very good and love the happy ending .❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️?❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️Was this review helpful to you?
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Why Did I Watch This Show
I waited so long to watch this drama, but was sorely disappointed!This show was by far the biggest disappointment of 2024. Having watched the trailer last year, “Fox Spirit Matchmaker: Red-Moon Pact” was one of my most anticipated dramas this year. A beautiful cast paired with some stunning CGI and a commendable story line, this show was expected to be a win-win situation. Unfortunately, it was anything but that. Spurned by repetitive cliche plots, subpar love stories and no chemistry between the main couple, the drama became boring with each episode that went by. The only reason to trudge through this horrible experience was to write this review. There were moments when I wanted to disconnect, scenes where I fast forwarded the track to get done with the entire fiscal situation and scenarios where I wanted to drop the show entirely. There isn’t much to talk about, so let’s get done with this review in a few words!
Read the complete article here-
https://kcdramamusings.wordpress.com/2024/06/13/fox-spirit-matchmaker-red-moon-pact-series-review/#more-925
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