I was watching the show, Unrequited Love-7. The leading couple is teased by being compared to The Legend of White Snake. That made it an easy choice as to what to watch next. Let me make it easy for you: Don't bother. It isn't worth your time given the many better shows out there.

I love Chinese fantasy. It may be the best in the world. So, I went into TLOWS expecting to love it, which carried me through half the show. I ignored irritation after boring irritation until I finally realized that TLOWS is really, really bad. (Still finished it - waste of time). TLOWS is a 2019 release that is rated a too generous 7.6 on MDL. It is 1 season consisting of 36 45-minute episodes. It’s plot slithers and meanders around without going in a clear linear direction. It's frequently pleasant and the characters are likable, but it's boring at the same time. It stays in the dust and never lifts to greater heights. I never once actually liked TLOWS, despite all the wanting to. I suppose we could say that it goes into snake-like Brumation. The primary couple is simply goodness in silk robes, but they're dull.

The logic is insulting at times. Xu's older sister is often a veritable moron in the way she looks at things. She doesn't seem to understand that Bai and Xu are married ~ Ruyi is not part of their relationship. Xu’s amnesia doesn't change that. Another example is when Bai believes her own presence is the problem. Qing points out that Ruyi is a schemer. Bai shouldn't let Xu stay around her. Bai lamely replies that Ruyi truly loves Xu and would never hurt him. On the contrary! Ruyi's actions not only caused the current mess, but she has done /nothing but/ endanger and HURT others! There's betrayals with too little justification - it all happens too easily and is often the opposite of what was previously established. At one point Xu is focused on Bai and what he thinks is a wrong strategy to deal with a demon oppressing the family. He calls in the monk to help… with BAI, but NOT the demon doing the oppressing? Ridiculous. It doesn't recover from that, slipping from average to below average. There's plenty more examples; they pile up. I started to actively hate it north of ep30, and by ep34 my fangs came out.

Lots of viewers enjoyed it, however. Maybe they hadn't seen Handsome Siblings-8.7 or Ancient Love Poetry-8.6 yet. Now /those/ are good fantasy shows. This show has groundwork for something spectacular but it never leaves the pit. The following is from the notes that I took when it still ‘had’ me.

Per Wiki, “The Legend of the White Snake is a Chinese legend centered around a romance between a man named Xu Xian and a female snake spirit named Bai Suzhen. It is counted as one of China's Four Great Folktales…”

Tim Pei (Miss Truth) is Fa Hai, a fighting monk. His Shifu has foreseen a bad omen: There's a dangerous thousand-year-old evil spirit in Lin'an. He gives Hai two magic weapons: A bowl to catch the demon and an elaborate pixie cane to identify sinister forces. Hai is strictly forbidden to act on anything without a sign from the cane. He wants to eliminate Qing, but the cane loves her. This monk is adorable. Don't get your hopes up. The monk has the potential to be the best romantic lead of the show, but monks are celibate.

Ju Jing Yi (In a Class of Her Own) plays snake spirit “Bai” Su Zhen. She's just cultivated into her human form after a millennia of effort. She is kind. She wouldn't dream of hurting people; she wants to be a Buddhist. Request denied: She must live as a human first. Humans have emotions, and Bai must learn how to overcome emotions. Off to earth she goes, where she gets to experience the most wonderful thing on earth. Love? NO! FOOD!

Early on she meets physician Xu. She knew the doctor's previous incarnation but finds the current version lacking. He notices her, she's beautiful afterall, but she's not impressed. She leaves, unimpressed. Yu Meng Long (Eternal Love-8.3) plays Dr. “Xu” Xuan (he's often called Hanwen). Bai encounters a darling young boy whose mother is very ill and offers to help. Guess who's already treating the woman? She clashes with the good doctor once again at the patient's house. Each thinks the other is a scammer. As attraction builds, though, he ain't gotta chance. One day when she doesn't want him to leave, she conjures a rainstorm. Still, a more willing victim may not be found. In the end, the romance is cold blooded and nearly emotionless, sadly.

In the meantime, Ruyi is also out to entrap Dr. Xu - into marriage. Yu Lang (The Sword and the Brocade-8.6) plays shyster Jin ‘Ruyi’. Selfish Ruyi is the source of most of the conflict in the show. Li Lin (In a Class of Her Own) plays Xu's brother i/l and the police constable. He's one of my favorite characters. Prince Mu looks alittle like Chachi (Scott Baio) from Happy Days.

We haven't even gotten to our 4th lead yet. Xiao Yan (Love Is Sweet) is Xiao ‘Qing’, a naughty snake deity. Qing's exactly what the good monk is looking for ~ to kill. She, by far, is the best thing about the show. The actress is adorable. Asian culture interchangeably translates the words deity and demon, but it's not exactly the Western/Christian concept of demons. In Chinese fantasy, demons can be good, and many are. In TLOWS and many other stories, cultivating power and growing strong is excessively difficult and painstaking. For demons, the same result can be achieved by devouring humans, and who doesn't love a shortcut? Many succumb to the temptation. Demons get a bad name from that. Early on, Qing has clashes with Bai, but that only sparks Qing's interest. Abandoned by her mother long ago, she's lonely. She was cultivating into a man, and so far, she's managed to become 80% woman. When the quest starts (she opts to follow Bai) her cultivation stops, so they are two Sassy-lassies traveling together. Wait. Cultivating into a man is more difficult, and takes more time, than cultivating into a woman? The opposite should be what's true. Given their reproductive organs, women's bodies seem more complicated than men's anatomy. Even the creation story shows man as a warm-up and woman as the final prototype. Jusss sayin…

Most of our protags also clash with a fox demon, Lady Nexin, early in the show. She soon has our 4 protags plotting against eachother. The centipede demon - the really bad monster - is also on the prowl. While the leads are, intermittently, looking squint and wide-eyed at eachother, things are increasingly dangerous. Children have already started disappearing from Lin'an. Soon demons and other bad guys are impersonating our protags casting greater confusion.

“Predjudices are not formed in a day.” “We differentiate between demons and humans with our hearts.” The primary theme is racism. Though genetically human, Ruyi is the actual demon in TLoWS. The monk is the one who struggles with the issue and must ultimately fight the monster within himself before it takes control and changes /him/ into a demon. When Qing helps Monk Hai fight the centipede, Hai is forced to re-examine his presuppositions. “Common people seek benefit, but wise people seek the core…” once Bai passes on her essence to Xu to heal him, she's no longer fully a demon, and he's no longer completely human. As a literal thinker, this is a conundrum for Hai, and he spends a good deal of the show working it out. That's one of the funniest (and most tragic) things about racism. The very word is a lie. What is race? There is only the human race, with its many ethnicities. Ethnic groups are just large, very old families. We all hail from the area that is now the Middle East and Ethiopia. Scientists and theologians agree - we came from one woman. Race and racism are just pride-based lies that we have all decided to believe. It is hard enough to find a decent human being. Limiting yourself to one shade of skin makes the challenge all the more difficult. We also see a person who is indwelt by a demon accuse another person of being a demon. The message is unmistakable: We are all blind to our own stuff, and we are often what we hate the most.

They do have fun clashing up Qing and the monk. Once he realizes he can't kill her, he thinks it's a good idea that she sit and copy scriptures. She's totally flummoxed that anyone would think copying scriptures is a good way to spend one's time. “All the joy in the world comes from one's desire to help others. All the misery in the world comes from one's selfishness. Sadness and happiness are nothing but thoughts,” he reminds her. She reminds him that he has no idea what fun is! What would have been fun is if those two paired up. Monks are celibate, though. Sigh.

There's beautiful shots and lovely action, despite somewhat clunky and antiquated special effects. At the lantern festival they look into eachother’s eyes and everything stops. Next, the background blurs by, while they stay frozen. They have fun showing the deities’ true forms as translucent overlays, particularly in fight scenes. The opening looks like a Maxfield Parrish / Thomas Kinkade collaboration. Costume and design are usually beautiful in a Chinese fantasy piece, and such is the case here. I love the girls’ hairdos, and the wedding headdress is especially nice. Shazamed: A song, by Ju JingYi.

I'll finish with a transcription tip and other fun facts: GRUE. The Chinese, historically, don't differentiate between green and blue. So you might see Qing's snake form referred to as green. The thought of not differentiating between basic green and blue takes me straight to Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep) in The Devil Wears Prada - “But what you don't know. is that that {Qing} is not just blue. {She's} not turquoise, {She's} not lapis. {She's} actually cerulean.” ;)) Bai returns to Mt. Emei to bolster her power. Mt. Emei is a real place. Located close to the country's center, it's the highest of the Four Sacred Buddhist Mountains of China. Finally, you might notice swastikas floating around the screen. The Nazis co-opted this symbol from ancient times. Per goog “In Chinese, the swastika is called “wan” which is a homonym for the Chinese words "ten thousand" and "infinity". The character is also a symbol of immortality and longevity, and is used to represent the universe, God's manifestation, and creativity.” It's also fascinating to see the traditional Greek scrolling on blankets and architecture. These are small evidences that we came from a common origin. We're one race.


QUOTE?

A moment of beauty may lead to a lifetime of love.

〰? IMHO

RATINGS
Directing 5
Writing 4
Acting 7
Romance 4
Flutters 2
Art 7
Sound & music 7.4
Ending 6

LEVELS
Warmth 4
Action/ Excitement 4
Laughs 1
Tears 4.5
Fright 4
Tension/Anxiety 6.5
Gore 2
Thought provocation 3.5
Snores 6.5

?5 ?4 ?7 ?4 ?2 ?7 ?/?7.4 ?6 ▪ ?4 ⚡4 ?1 ?4.5 ?4 ?6.5 ?2 ?3.5 ?6.5

Age 12+
Language G0d@mn

Rated TV-PG-13: Parents Cautioned

Re-?? Not a chance, and with the benefit of foreknowledge, I wouldn't watch it for the first time.


In order of ~lite & trite~ to ~heavy & serious~ you may also like:

Romance -
Find Yourself-8.9;
A Little Thing Called First Love-8.5;
The Romance of Tiger and Rose-9.8;
The Sleepless Princess-9.1


Historical/Period -
Overlord-8.4,
Legend of the two sisters in chaos-7.7
Under the Power-8.6,
The Rebel Princess-9.1,
The rise of phoenixes-9,
K??:
My Only Love Song-8.7 excellent comedy;
Mr. Queen-8.5;
My Sassy Girl / Yeopgijeogin Geunyeo-8.5;
The Kings's Affection-8.3;
Mr. Sunshine-9


Fantasy -
Love Between Fairy & Devil-8.9;
Once upon a time in Linglian Mountain-7.5;
Douluo Continent-9.4;
Love and Redemption-10

Action -
Heavenly Sword-9 (Kung-fu!)