rosyflower
This review may contain spoilers
Qyestionable pacing but is still deeply enjoyable and touching
My expectations of this drama was a drama with good chemistry between the leads (it's Zhang Linghe and Jing Tian after all), with an interesting plot. Other than that, I didn't really know what to expect regarding this drama, and I was pleasantly surprised.
First of all, don't let the synopsis of the drama mislead you. Nan Yan was born into a world of immortals, she never 'entered' one, and I didn't sense any kind of dislike between Nan Yan or Ji Yang throughout the whole drama, light hearted annoyance at most. If I were to write a synopsis for the drama, it would be this:
Nan Yan is a practical, optimistic and down-to-earth poisoner who's working to find a cure for her mother's heart disease. She saves the life of Shao Cang, the former monarch turned fugitive of a righteous sect. Shao Cang is aloof, powerful and clever. They quickly establish a strong connection. Together, with the company of the naïve and humorous Young Dragon Lord Mu Zhanting and the pitiful yet witty fox spirit Yin Ya, they uncover conspiracies of the four seas about events that happened 100 years ago.
The positive aspects of this drama.
The acting is beautiful, especially the acting of Zhang Linghe, Jing Tian, Darren Chen and Chang Long. They're amazing actors and completely immersed me in the story. They really carried this drama in terms of pure hard work and skill.
The characters are all so real. They all had their own goals, fears and dreams. Nan Yan and Ji Yang are masterful characters. Their complexities were so well-written and portrayed. There was not a single character in this drama that I think was handled badly. They made me sympathise with them so much.
The OST. As a carat, I'm strangely proud to hear Xu Minghao's (The8's) OST for this drama. It always made me emotional and engaged.
The tone of the drama. I don't really know what to call this section. I basically mean the light-heartedness/intensity of the drama. The first half of the drama was pleasantly more light-hearted than I was expecting, I was laughing aloud in almost every scene. Then, the second half of the drama was more intense and darker, handling more complex and dark themes. However, the light-heartedness/intensity were mixed in with each other. The first half still had intense and sad scenes, and they were mixed in with the light-hearted scenes but were still impactful and taken seriously. The second half also still had light-hearted scenes, which was a nice breath of fresh air from the newfound intensity of the plot and characters. The tonal shift also made sense, unlike other dramas, where the shift comes out of nowhere. In this drama, it was extremely clear cut and had a justifiable reason for the shift. Considering the plot, the shift was barely jarring. Overall, the tone of this drama is one of the best I have ever watched. It has so much character, so much colour, so much tangible emotion and so much detail. It was genuinely a pleasure to watch.
Costuming. The costuming in this drama was super beautiful. I've watched four dramas featuring Zhang Linghe so far (Fox Spirit Matchmaker Red Moon Pact, The Princess Royal, Story of Kunning Palace) and I can confidently say that he had the best styling in this drama. All of the clothes are lavish and so much attention and detail were put into them.
The plot of the drama. Personally, I found the plot of the drama super interesting and enthralling, with lots of twists and turns and different aspects being introduced. Most things made sense and it wasn't just random events happening in sequence with no relation to each other. That being said, the plot was still messy and confusing at times.
The negative aspects of this drama.
The pacing. Well, the title of this review says it all. Honestly, the pacing of the drama is not all bad. For some people, the pacing of the first half was too draggy and too little was happening, but I thought that it was perfect pacing for the light-heartedness of that part of the drama. The second half was when the pacing really picked up, packing a lot more into the episodes. This pacing was also good for the more intense theme of the second half of the drama. My big problem with pacing is nearing the end, I would say about 8 episodes from the finale. This was when the drama realised that it had a lot more of the story to tell and not enough time to tell it all. So they started packing in scenes one after the other with barely any time to breathe and process in between before a plot twist is revealed or there's a new series of events. Instead of untangling the web which was already established, i.e. Nan Rao's heart disease, Shao Cang being framed for murdering the Great Path sect and the Evil Path sect trying to resurrect Sen Luo, they just added more and more convoluted conspiracies on top, leaving only two episodes to solve everything in reality.
Overall, this is a drama that I enjoyed a lot. It had amazing acting, characters and tone, but the pacing towards the end dragged it down. The characters and their struggles and emotions spoke to me. This is a nice, entertaining watch.
First of all, don't let the synopsis of the drama mislead you. Nan Yan was born into a world of immortals, she never 'entered' one, and I didn't sense any kind of dislike between Nan Yan or Ji Yang throughout the whole drama, light hearted annoyance at most. If I were to write a synopsis for the drama, it would be this:
Nan Yan is a practical, optimistic and down-to-earth poisoner who's working to find a cure for her mother's heart disease. She saves the life of Shao Cang, the former monarch turned fugitive of a righteous sect. Shao Cang is aloof, powerful and clever. They quickly establish a strong connection. Together, with the company of the naïve and humorous Young Dragon Lord Mu Zhanting and the pitiful yet witty fox spirit Yin Ya, they uncover conspiracies of the four seas about events that happened 100 years ago.
The positive aspects of this drama.
The acting is beautiful, especially the acting of Zhang Linghe, Jing Tian, Darren Chen and Chang Long. They're amazing actors and completely immersed me in the story. They really carried this drama in terms of pure hard work and skill.
The characters are all so real. They all had their own goals, fears and dreams. Nan Yan and Ji Yang are masterful characters. Their complexities were so well-written and portrayed. There was not a single character in this drama that I think was handled badly. They made me sympathise with them so much.
The OST. As a carat, I'm strangely proud to hear Xu Minghao's (The8's) OST for this drama. It always made me emotional and engaged.
The tone of the drama. I don't really know what to call this section. I basically mean the light-heartedness/intensity of the drama. The first half of the drama was pleasantly more light-hearted than I was expecting, I was laughing aloud in almost every scene. Then, the second half of the drama was more intense and darker, handling more complex and dark themes. However, the light-heartedness/intensity were mixed in with each other. The first half still had intense and sad scenes, and they were mixed in with the light-hearted scenes but were still impactful and taken seriously. The second half also still had light-hearted scenes, which was a nice breath of fresh air from the newfound intensity of the plot and characters. The tonal shift also made sense, unlike other dramas, where the shift comes out of nowhere. In this drama, it was extremely clear cut and had a justifiable reason for the shift. Considering the plot, the shift was barely jarring. Overall, the tone of this drama is one of the best I have ever watched. It has so much character, so much colour, so much tangible emotion and so much detail. It was genuinely a pleasure to watch.
Costuming. The costuming in this drama was super beautiful. I've watched four dramas featuring Zhang Linghe so far (Fox Spirit Matchmaker Red Moon Pact, The Princess Royal, Story of Kunning Palace) and I can confidently say that he had the best styling in this drama. All of the clothes are lavish and so much attention and detail were put into them.
The plot of the drama. Personally, I found the plot of the drama super interesting and enthralling, with lots of twists and turns and different aspects being introduced. Most things made sense and it wasn't just random events happening in sequence with no relation to each other. That being said, the plot was still messy and confusing at times.
The negative aspects of this drama.
The pacing. Well, the title of this review says it all. Honestly, the pacing of the drama is not all bad. For some people, the pacing of the first half was too draggy and too little was happening, but I thought that it was perfect pacing for the light-heartedness of that part of the drama. The second half was when the pacing really picked up, packing a lot more into the episodes. This pacing was also good for the more intense theme of the second half of the drama. My big problem with pacing is nearing the end, I would say about 8 episodes from the finale. This was when the drama realised that it had a lot more of the story to tell and not enough time to tell it all. So they started packing in scenes one after the other with barely any time to breathe and process in between before a plot twist is revealed or there's a new series of events. Instead of untangling the web which was already established, i.e. Nan Rao's heart disease, Shao Cang being framed for murdering the Great Path sect and the Evil Path sect trying to resurrect Sen Luo, they just added more and more convoluted conspiracies on top, leaving only two episodes to solve everything in reality.
Overall, this is a drama that I enjoyed a lot. It had amazing acting, characters and tone, but the pacing towards the end dragged it down. The characters and their struggles and emotions spoke to me. This is a nice, entertaining watch.
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