A Very Wholesome Series

This is not a so typical Xian Xia. The drama told a simple and straightforward story, full of common tropes but with some delightful twists on them. Here we have the main pairing of a cold, aloof ML with a bubbly FL. However, one of them has social anxiety and the other is brave and smart. This drama also has a good-girl-with-bad-boy type of relationship as the second main pairing, but one of them is not as weak as she seems and he is actually protective and loving to those whom he cares.

Side male character who fell for the FL? Yes, but he gave up pretty early in the drama, became a good friend of the FL and found his true love.

Main character having amnesia? Of course, what else can you expect in a Xian Xia drama nowadays? But this got resolved in like 2 episodes.

Misunderstandings? Yes, but all of them got resolved very quickly thanks to the trust and love our main characters have in each other.

Toxic parents? Yes, but this drama also has some of the most supportive parents I’ve seen in recent C-dramas.

Main characters having siblings of same gender? Yes! And they are very supportive for each other.

The healthy relationships, the pace things or misunderstandings got resolved and the COMEDY in the drama are what set this drama apart from other Xian Xia dramas for me.

The plot and script set a good foundation for this drama and the acting and chemistry of the casts brought it to a higher level. Chen Xing Xu’s acting is so good that one could tell the difference in the “shards” he portrayed just by the style of talking or gestures, yet one can also see the “shadow” of each “shard” in Shao Dian You Qin. Li Lan Di was great with her role as well. Ye Tan could be easily overdone and presented as an annoying FL, but she presented it just nice. In contrast to Ye Tan, Qing Kui could be easily underdone and presented as wooden. Of course, He Xuan Lin did a great job in portraying this lovely character without being wooden. Chen Mu Chi, as the least experienced actor among the leads, did an exceptionally good job in portraying Chao Feng, especially in comedic scenes. He isn’t as good as any of the leads mentioned, but he is good enough to not letting me noticing that he is new to acting. The supporting actors, all of them did great job in playing their roles. Honourable mentions to Cao Bo, who played Hai Chao in this drama, he is just soooo good for comedy. One of my most favourite characters in this drama.

The music and songs are on point for this drama as well. My favourites are the opening by Liu Yu Ning and the ending by Mao Bu Yi, but really, all of them are good and memorable.

It’s been long since I last enjoyed a Xian Xia drama. The last one being Chinese Paladin 3, which was aired back in 2009. That being said, this is the best Xian Xia drama in the recent years, for me at least. Definitely worth a rewatch.

Some of the things which I would like to complain about is that the director likes to shine a bright lamp from the background to the actors during kissing scenes. And that he liked to shoot from some funny angles. Quite a few cute scenes which they filmed were cut from the drama as well. And they had quite a rushed ending. However, all these were just minor problems for me and didn’t degrade my experience in enjoying this drama. So, if you are still hesitating on starting this or not, JUST GO FOR IT! It’s almost 30 hours of fun, so why not? Thank you for reading this review ?

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An Odd but Fun One

Initially, I gave it a 9.5 instead of 10. But after thinking for awhile and got the conclusion that there might not be another C-drama of similar type in the near future (a year or two), I gave it a 10. That being said, this drama is not flawless for me, but definitely worth a watch if you are up for some stories featuring adventures, mysteries and horror (slight, not a lot). It's best if you get into the drama blind (i.e. without knowing any spoilers), spoilers would really kill the fun watching this!

To put it simply, watching this is like watching Great Escape, the tv show, but in drama format. Or it's like another similar drama, 19th Floor (p.s. but way better ?). Or if you didn't know about both mentioned shows, it's like watching a group of people playing multiple levels of escape rooms, but in this drama, they are escaping worlds (or what they called Doors in the drama) instead of rooms.

I really like how the characters were written in this, especially Ruan Lan Zhu. Easily one of my most favourite MLs of all time.

Castings were very well done too! I didn't know about Xia Zhi Guang before watching this, but he portrayed Ruan Lan Zhu perfectly. Lu Meng Lin as well, perfectly fits her role as Tan Zao Zao. And many other side characters, be it the players (Liu Xiao Bei as Li Dong Yuan) or the NPCs (Jia Xiao Han as Lu Zuo Zi, Jessie Yan as the nurse, Chen Xu as Lady in the Rain) just to name a few, they are all very memorable to me. The only minor complaint I have is that I wished Huang Jun Jie's acting was better. He wasn't too bad, but could be a little better.

Music and OSTs in this drama are good too, especially "I Know", the theme song that they play in almost every sad scenes. And the song in Zuo Zi's story.

I would definitely rewatch this again, but I think rewatching won't bring me as much surprises as when I first watched it. Hence, its score being the lowest among the 4 categories.

Thank you for reading this review. And lastly, if you haven't watch this, what are you waiting for? ?

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