The Most Beautiful Realistic Love Story!

Hidden Love is a beautiful drama that you don't want to miss!
Hidden love is a romance/ youth drama full of love and hope.
The story has no angst, there is no jealous ex gfs, love triangles (Duan Jiaxu has a stalker that is a girl, but she is taken care of maturely and is not a hindrance for their relationship.) There is no breakup after getting together and a super happy ending.

STORY:
Sang Zhi falls in love with her big brother's friend, Duan Jiaxu. Duan Jiaxu is kindhearted and hardworking guy who gladly helps Sang Zhi. Duan Jiaxu moves back to his hometown Yihe after he graduates from Nanwu's university. Sangzhi and Jiaxu lose touch for 2 years before meeting again in Yihe, as Sang Zhi had gone to University in Yihe. Sang Zhi realizes that she still has a crush on Jiaxu, meanwhile Jiaxu falls for her. "She fell first, but he fell harder"

SPOILER PART OF THE STROY, MY OPINION:
Duan Jiaxu unfortunately has to carry a heavy weight on his shoulders as his father had done a hit-and-run and now Duan Jiaxu alone is trying to make up to the victim's family. The victim's daughter, Jiang Ying, is stalking Duan Jiaxu obsessively, but when face to face with Sang Zhi, Sang Zhi isn't afraid of her and stands up for Duan Jiaxu. The matter with Jiang Ying is taken care of very maturely by Duan Jiaxu giving her a restraining order. It was refreshing to see the main lead not getting too sad, anxious or scared for herself, but actually more worried about her boyfriend and his safety. It was also refreshing that Duan Jiaxu gave her a restraining order instead of letting her act the way she wants or getting guilt-tripped to think that he doesn't deserve Sang Zhi.
There were no breakups or misunderstandings, and I loved it. It was a beautiful drama of a childhood crush becoming a real, passionate love. Furthermore, it was a beautifully made drama and one of the best modern dramas I have seen.


ACTING:

Zhao Lusi as Sang Zhi,
She was THE MUST-HAVE in this drama. Her acting was just so cute, natural and realistic. She did well, acting as a small teenager in love that grew up to be a kindhearted adult. Beautiful acting.

Chen Zheyuan as Duan Jiaxu,
Cute, Mischievous and mature, he can act it all. It was really a great pick to have him act as Duan Jiaxu.

Victor Ma as Sang Yan (San Zhi's older brother).
He acted well as Sang Zhi's brother. Made me sometimes think that Zhao Lusi and Victor Ma might as well be real siblings after this, since their acting was so believable.

I'm giving this a 10. Truly worth my time. I will rewatch this definitely sometime.

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When The Snowy Rosa blooms, a beautiful love story is born.

The Longest Promise is a great drama full of love, devotion and bitterness of fate.
I suggest this drama for those who are truly fans of xianxia and are used to the bitterness of angst. Xiao Zhan as the main lead is something to look forward to if you are a fan of xianxia. A beautiful love story of a master and a disciple.

STORY:

Kongsang's young Crown Prince Shiying meets the young Princess of The Crimson Clan, Zhu Yan. Zhu Yan is a strong-willed girl who wishes to learn magic techniques and goes to ask the Crown Prince for permission to learn. Unfortunately, after meeting the prince, She falls down from the roof of the palace, right in front of the Emperor's beloved consort. The Consort wants to punish her and her clan for it, but Crown Prince Shiying stands up for her. Later on, Shiying gets framed for killing the Consort, even though she killed herself. The Empress decides to fake Shiying's death and asks for help from The High Priest of Jiu Yi Mountain. Emperor declares that Shiying is a criminal that shall not be mourned.
Princess Zhu Yan decides to go against the law and in secrecy pays her respects to Shiying which triggers a fate between them. Zhu Yan is now Shiying's cursed lady, who is predestined to kill him. Later on, Shiying and Zhu Yan meet in Jiu Yi mountain and the kind-hearted Shiying doesn't kill her, even though he knows that she is predestined to kill him. They soon become Master and Disciple. Meanwhile, Merfolk has been waiting for their Sea Emperor to return, as Kongsang people and Merfolk go to war, Zhu Yan and Shi Ying have to not only fight against their destiny when giving into affection, but also the whole kongsang's and merfolk's destiny too.




SPOILER PART OF THE STORY SHORTLY

First, I'm going to give warnings to those who want to watch this.
ENDING? - It's an "open" ending but also a happy ending. I'm going to talk about the ending later on this review.
LOVE RIVALS? - There aren't real love rivals that are actually romantically interested in Shiying or Zhu Yan. Princess Bai Xuelu tries to come between the main couple a couple of times, only for the title of the empress. Zhu Yan's clan's keeper, Zhi Yuan, was in love with Zhu Yan's ancestor and for a little while mistakens her to be Yao Yi's reincarnation.
ANGST? - Yes, very much. Shiying's and Zhu Yan's love is forbidden, and they dare not to express their feelings openly to each other easily, which creates misunderstandings between them.
DEATH? - Yes, as a matter of fact, Shiying dies but gets resurrected 2 times.



SPOILER PART OF THE STORY, MY OPINION:
The Longest Promise is great. It reminded me a little of the drama "Immortal Samsara". The CGI is good, the scenery is beautiful, and the story and the characters go well together.
Zhu Yan's personality can be a little overused in xianxia, the disciple who is clingy to their cold faced, yet kindhearted Master. I was happy that in The Longest Promise, Zhu Yan as a girl didn't always need Shiying to save her, instead she too saved him multiple times. Their love is equal, and I applaud this drama for it. Bai Xuelu, the illegitimate princess of the White King, had one of the best character developments for me. It was understandable where her ambition was coming from, as the only thing she wished for was justice for her mother. She wanted to become the empress and got used a lot because of that, but you could see her progressively feeling bad for what she has done and in the end she redeemed herself beautifully, I was expecting to hate her in the end, so I was very pleased. High Priest of Jiu Yi Mountain tried to redeem himself in the end, but he can't wash away the sins of trying to pressure Shiying to leave priesthood to become the next emperor, only because he wanted to avenge his loved one, Shiying's mother.

The angst between Shiying and Zhuyan was just as painful for me as it was when I was watching "Immortal Samsara".
Shiying and Zhuyan meet in Jiu Yi Mountain as Zhu yan wishes to learn the spell to bring back a person from the dead. Se wishes to bring back the Crown Prince. Even when knowing that she is the cursed lady, Shiying holds her dear as he is grateful to her for being the only one who mourned his fake death and remembering the crown prince. Zhu Yan and Shiying were never meant to be disciple and master, but due to his own growing affection and to protect her, accepts her as his disciple. They eventually become a very close Master-Disciple pair. Shiying slowly but surely falls for Zhuyan, but to protect her, after 3 years, she is sent back to home from the mountain. She is sad and misses Shiying. Zhu Yan's parents want her to get married, and eventually she is forced to marry into Huotu tribe, but she plans to escape. Shiying has been investigating a matter that concerns Huotu tribe and comes to witness her wedding and her escape. Huotu Tribe had been involved with the Ice Clan, a banished clan, and were planning on making Zhu yan into a puppet.

Merfolk and Kongsang people have been at odds for a long time, and the Sea Emperor's return is a bad omen. The Sea Emperor turns out to be a little boy, Sumo. Sumo met Zhuyan at the Huotu tribe, as Sumo's father is the Huotu tribe's deceased chief. She saves Sumo and his mother. Eventually, Zhu Yan's keeper, Zhi Yuan, finds the sea emperor and tells a lie to Shiying and Zhuyan that he is the sea emperor. This creates a rift between Shiying and Zhuyan, as Zhuyan eventually stops Shiying from killing Zhi Yuan by claiming to love him. Zhi Yuan stops the war between merfolk and Kongsang people and willingly fights again with Shiying, losing is life. Zhu yan is devastated and points a sword at Shiying and tells him that she hates him. Shiying takes hold of her blade and stabs himself with it, because he feels guilty of killing Zhuyan's loved one and to protect her from a curse that High Priest had planted on her. As Shiying dies, she tries to tell him that the one she truly loves is him, but it's too late. High Priest helps Zhuyan to bring back Shiying. She performs a spell to exchange half of her life for him. She succeeds and as Shiying fully recovers and realizes that Zhuyan loves him, he leaves the priesthood and goes through the tribulations of hell. As they finally think they could be together for good, Crimson Clan is accused of treason as they kept Zhi Yuan in their residence for 200 years, as Zhu yan and Shiying try to find evidence of Crimson Clan being innocent, they find out Zhi Yuan is still alive. He gets possessed by the god of destruction, who is the culprit behind everything. He kidnaps Zhuyan and after she gets rescued, Shiying and Zhuyan get married. Eventually Shiying and Zhuyan fight against the god of destruction and Zhi Yuan dies and god of destruction possesses Zhuyan. Shiying decides to let god of destruction to possess him instead and asks Zhu Yan to kill him. She kills him and mourns him for a year until when the snowy rosa blooms, and he is resurrected.

Now, that was a lot. And this was all simplified as possible. For me, the angst was a bit too much, but it was saved by the sweet moments and due to the amazing acting of Xiao Zhan. The fact that Shiying dies 2 times and gets resurrected was for sure too much for my heart. The ending is similar to "The Starry Love" and "Immortal Samsara". At least, we get to actually see him come back to life. I was hoping for a really happy ending, but this wasn't the worst. The drama was overall a good one, and I highly suggest this for xianxia lovers.

ACTING:

Xiao Zhan as Shiying,
Amazing. Maybe I'm a little biased, because I happen to be a fan of him, but I honestly think his acting is great. I love the way he acts, especially the "being in love" acting. He manages to make me believe that he is truly in love and is committed. Also, he for sure is one of the best cdrama actors when it comes to showing the feelings of pain, sadness and misery. He makes me cry when he looks so realistically sad. My favorite scenes were in the end when "he is possessed." It was great acting from him. Just the perfect casting for this role.

Ren Min as Zhu Yan,
Beautiful and courageous. I don't get why some people commented on her looks. I think she looked very beautiful. Her acting was great, especially when she was acting sad. I could really empathize with her. A great pick for this role.

Alen Fang as Zhi Yuan,
Just right. He was just the perfect choice for this role. When "being possessed", his acting really shined.


Overall a 8,5.

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Light and fun romance drama!

Catch Up Your Prince is a lighthearted, fun and fluffy romance drama!

Catch up your prince had an interesting plot that exceeded my expectations. This drama is a little more on the "low budget" side, but it doesn't bother me at all. The story is like an "Otome" game inspired, where the main girl gets stuck in a virtual world and has to choose a route, which of these men is she gonna try to woo.

STORY
Lu Ran Ran is a intern doctor who befriends a patient of hers, Yun Zhu. Lu Ran Ran has heard of this new game that lets the players actually experience the game. In the game you are physically able to feel pain, eat food and overall just be there, it's no different from reality. The game is a historical game, where there are 4 possible routes of romance. You can pursue any of the 4 princes. Lu Ran Ran and Yun Zhu agree to see each other in the game. When Lu Ran Ran logs in, she wanders around and notices two men fighting. She gets caught up in the middle, during their fight she gets thrown inside a building and the building caughts on fire. She tries to log out but realizes that she can't. She is saved by the 4th Prince, Zhao Chen Yi.
When she wakes up, a figure appears, he is the games guide, Qin Shou. He tells her that she is the only player stuck in the game and that she can't log out,so best bet is to complete the game. She takes on a name "Lu Ren Jia"

SPOILER PART OF THE STORY:
If Lu Ren Jia dies in the game, she actually dies, So Lu Ren Jia tries to go for the 4th prince and falls in love with him. But while she gains favorability points with the other princes, 4th prince stays at 0. She still persists on going after his route. As she plays more, she gets missions and help from the game. She saves crown prince and thus she gets to be a female physician. She gets close to all the princes just by being herself and 11th, 2nd and 4th prince fall in love with her. 4th prince shows her love, but this confuses her because of the favorability score. He proposes to her. She thinks that he is pretending to love her and decides to leave him. When she faces trouble and gets thrown into jail, she gets to decide the final ending route. She decides to marry the crown prince, since she only loves 4th prince and besides crown prince is in love with the crown princess, who is pregnant with the help of Lu Ren Jia. Unfortunately on their wedding day, crown prince, crown princess and the unborn child die. Lu Ren Jia can go home, but instead decides to reload the game back to the moment she was in jail. She has to choose again which of the four she is going to marry.. She decides that the only option left is the 2nd prince, since she sees 11th prince as a brother. With the help of 2nd prince, her name is cleared and she is given a marriage with the 2nd prince, as a concubine. She and 2nd prince's princess consort get married to him on the same day. Lu Ren Jia can finally go home, so she goes to see 4th prince one last time, after hearing from the consort that the 4th prince saved her and that he did really love her. When confessing to each other, soon appears angry 2nd prince. He tries to hurt the 4th prince, but Lu Ren Jia pushes him out of the way and gets stabbed instead. She falls into a pond and she leaves the game.

But while she leaves, only the 4th prince seems to remember her. He searches for a girl "Lu Ren Jia" but no one seems to know her. Sometimes some people have recollections of a "junior physician" and "a maid who taught them how to cook malatang" but no one knows what she looks like or what her name is. Only the 4th prince remembers.

Lu Ren Jia comes back to real world to see that her friend Yun Zhu is gone from the hospital and goes to search for her. There she meets Xu You Zheng, the games villain. He explains to her that he trapped his friend Wang Chen Yi and his sister Wang Yun Zhu in the game, because he loves Yun Zhu and wants her to be able to see. Yun Zhu was in the hospital because of her eyes. Wang Chen Yi is the 4th prince, Zhao Chen Yi. He realizes that he needs to honor Yun Zhu's opinion and decides to get Yun Zhu and Wang Chen Yi back to the real life. He goes back into the game with Lu Ren Jia. Her mission is to find 4th prince and he will go find Yun Zhu. Lu Ren Jia is now Princess Lu Jia Ren. Soon she has to get engaged to the drastically changed 11th prince. While trying to search clues of how to end the game and where to find the missing 4th prince, she doesn't realize that the 4th prince is actually her bodyguard, who is undercover. When 4th prince tries to stop 11th prince from getting married to Lu Jia Ren, he helps her escape and tell her that he can't watch his loved one get married to another. He tells her that he knows her and she then recognizes that he is the 4th prince. When on the run, they face many obstacles.


My Opinion:
The story felt a little generic in the beginning but i learned to like it a lot. Lu Ren Jia naturally has obstacles in her life there, especially now that she has the attention of the 4th Prince. I feel like the only thing that really bothered me was the villain of the story Xu You Zheng. In the game he even killed Lu Ren Jia once. Xu You Zheng was also a real villain in the game, so i'm a little confused as to why Xu You Zheng didn't help Lu Ren Jia leave the game but instead tried to get rid of her. In the later episodes he says things like that he hopes Lu Ren Jia to finish the game quickly, because she doesn't belong there. What especially bothered me was how easily he was convinced by Lu Ran Ran to bring back Yun Zhu and Wang Chen Yi to reality.
I was hoping for a better villain, but i get it. Ending could have been more clearer. Did they get engaged in the game or in real life, since he proposed in the game? guess we'll never find out.


CAST:
Xu Ruohan as Lu Ren Jia/Luo Ran Ran/ Lu Jia Ren,
She was not my cup of tea in the beginning but i started to enjoy her acting a lot more. She wasn't being overly naive and overall was a good pick for this.

Liu Yichang as Zhao Chen Yi, the 4th prince/Wang Chen Yi, A great pick for the 4th prince! He was flirty and funny! I think his facial expressions lacked a little bit but overall he was a really nice and enjoyable!


I highly recommend if you want something light and fluffy!

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It's not the worst i've seen but there are better options available.

As the headline says, It's not the worst i've seen..

The story is the most basic rich CEO falls in love with the assistant who is determined to stay in the company no matter what.
If you want to watch this type of cliche, i'd still suggest to just search for a better one.
If you are looking for an actual romance drama, this is really not it. They had.. i think only 1-2 kisses in the whole drama!


WHAT I DISLIKED IN THIS DRAMA SUMMED UP
- The main female lead Zhou Tian's personality. Stubborn and frustrating.
- The Second couple. Zhang Hao and Ji Nian started to have feelings for each other, confessed in the airport, But Ji Nian still went back to school abroad. In the last 5 minutes of the drama we see Zhang Hao going to go train abroad, in the same city as Ji Nian. We don't see their reunion.
- The cat.. You let your cat go out in the city to a stranger's home?
- I swear- 15 episodes is spent on "Male lead desperately tries to chase the female lead who refuses to listen to anything he has to say"
- A CAT WEDDING INSTEAD OF AN ACTUAL WEDDING BETWEEN THE COUPLE? Just for them to show up in front of civil affairs bureau..
- Poor Kevin, the real victim of work abuse. The real assistant of Ji Chen who was running around like a headless chicken trying to just do his work.
-The FL's mother calling to ask about the cat.. To have babies. I guess also our female lead forgot that she said to our male lead that she is SPAYED.


WHAT I LIKED IN THIS DRAMA SUMMED UP
- The male lead's actor. He did a good job. He was very cute and funny when jealous.
- There was no "mean ex gf" or "mean childhood best friend" or "the girl who also has a crush on the ML"
No toxic male or females.
- The in laws were funny! Especially the dad.




A LITTLE LONGER RANT

What i disliked in this drama is the overused main female lead personality. The Main lead is Zhou Tian, an ex athlete who for some reason wants desperately to be apart of sports department in Xing Yi company. When not getting that exact job, she applies to be an assistant for literature department's best selling novelist Qiao Yi. (who for some reason was treated and acted like he was an idol or actor..) Zhou Tian becomes also the assistant for Ji Chen this way, since Ji Chen is Qiao Yi's agent.

She became the generic " No matter what my boss does and how much work i have to do- i'll stay here and get that transfer to the sports department. from now on, my boss is my enemy". At first she was a clumsy worker who made many mistakes and often misunderstood Ji Chen, because even when told to stay out of business that doesn't concern her.. She was a justice seeker that had to stick her nose in every problem. Thankfully she managed to be of help somehow sometimes..

She became friends with a random stranger, because her cat got out of her house and went to his, so they decided to let the cat stay where she wanted. They for some reason decided to not tell each other their real names and started using aliases.
Ji Chen finds out first that Zhou Tian is the cat's real owner aka Sunday. He realizes that he has feelings for her and decides to keep his true identity as a secret. When Zhou Tian finds out the truth, she is angry and doesn't let Ji Chen explain that he wasn't keeping her in the dark to bully her. He wanted to confess his love, but no matter what she wouldn't listen. I hated this the most.. We got like 15 episodes of Ji Chen trying to explain to her and to talk to her so he can confess.. He tried everything but she wouldn't listen. He apologized, helped her and still she was being cold.

After a LOOONG time in ep 20-21, they finally get together.

Ji Chen was just an ok character for me. He wasn't anything special as the ceo. There isn't really much to say about him, since he wasn't annoying me as much as the female lead and was overall basic. There are some things i have to say i felt were refreshing. When Zhang Hao (Zhou Tian's childhood friend who is like a brother to her) and Ji Chen both clearly liked her, there were some cute jealous scenes between them but they never were toxic towards each other. When Ji Chen heard that Zhang Hao is going to confess to Zhou Tian, he at first tried to give her extra work, but turned out that there was no work to be done- he gave up as he felt that he had no right to try to get between them after all their history. It was nice for a change to see second male lead get a chance to confess their love properly, even though he was going to get rejected. What i liked more was that Ji Chen let him do it without trying to sabotage the matter more. He and his sister, Ji Nian, who has a crush on Zhang Hao were both respectful of their history.


Ji Nian and Zhang Hao never really got together "officially". We saw their confession scene at the airport, but Ji Nian still went back to school abroad, Which i think was kind of nice for her to continue her school but at the same time it was bittersweet. I was hoping her to stay in China, change schools to be with Zhang Hao.. But instead in the last 5 minutes we see Zhang Hao leave to go train abroad, to the same city as Ji Nian. To be with her. But it was sad to not see their reunion.


6,5 from me. I Think that there are better dramas out there.

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Really wanted to love Gank Your Heart

How to start this review? Now- that is the real question.
I really wanted to love this drama. I've seen other gaming/esports dramas recently. They are newer but due to them, i did have some sort of standard. ( for example "Kings Avatar" and "Falling Into Your Smile") I also really enjoy and love Wang Yibo and his acting so i really really tried to enjoy and love this drama.
Unfortunately this drama was all over the place..

THE STORY:
Pretty standard youth story. Main characters face difficulties and grow from them. Ex gf comes back and wrecks havoc but all is well in the end. But the things i really disliked in this drama was the ex gf and how the manager of Team Legends got away with hurting Qiu Ying. Who knows what he would have done to her if Ji Xiang Kong wouldn't have followed his car. He was already sexually harrassing Qiu Ying. Yet all it took was a couple of punches and the problem got solved?! WHO WOULD NOT CALL THE COPS ON A GUY WHO JUST TRIED TO SEXUALLY ASSAULT YOUR CRUSH?! i did like the esports in this but was really disappointed how we didn't get to see the actual game play much- but i guess if they didn't have the budget for it.. I will be focusing on the romance part in this review since there really isn't much to say about the story itself.

THE MAIN LEAD, QIU YING:
At first i disliked her character since in the first episodes she already commited like three crimes. 1. Sneaking into backstage by stealing a pass. 2. She faked an injury by "getting hit by a car". and 3. Illegally filming in a bar that was supposed to be a "top bar".
I mean i'm used to these dramas having these types of crimes and usually it's fine but i mean all of these right from the start was just a little tiring to me, You know? "Please stop- dont embarrass yourself more..!" i found myself saying outloud..

After some time she grew and started to have dreams of her own and i was really liking her character more, she was acting more mature. Especially when Ji Xiang Kong's ex girlfriend Miya came back and she really put her foot down and said that it's between the two of them and that's their problem and to leave her out of it.

JI XIANG KONG
Now- I love Wang Yibo. It was really painful to see him act this character.
Ji Xiang Kong was a great friend, but the worst boyfriend. At first Qiu Ying and Ji Xiang Kong really hated each other and that part lasted a little bit too long for me, but fine- its a 35 episodes long drama. Then they slowly became friends and then i got excited to see how their relationship would grow from this- It didnt.. Yeah you could guess "oh- i guess its about time they start to have feelings for each other" but did it seem like they actually felt anything more than friendship toward each other? No. In the whole drama there were 2 kiss scenes. Other skinship? Yeah no- aside from like keeping his hand on Qiu Ying's shoulder.

Miya, his ex gf from 5 years ago comes back and the moment she came back, she texted Ji Xiang Kong to come meet her- ok i get it that she was important to him once and that at one point in the drama it was pretty clear he was still into Miya, buying her cds and telling Qiu Ying to stop imitating Miya (When all she literally did was do a dance cover to one of her songs). But at that point it seemed like Ji Xiang Kong already had feelings for Qiu Ying, yet he went to see her and didn't push her away when she hugged him.

When Miya came back , he hadn't yet confessed to Qiu Ying, yet when Miya started to pull her mean girl stunts, Ji Xiang Kong goes to say in front of them that he and Qiu Ying are dating. And this was the part i was proud of Qiu Ying for putting her foot down.
Miya was already acting like the typical ex gf.. arrogant. God i hated her character the most.
Then the moment u think she is being a decent human being and leaving them alone- She gets injured and all of a sudden it's Ji Xiang Kong's responsibility to take care of her. He bought her flowers (something he never did for Qiu Ying who at the same time literally was helping him form a team.) He let Miya hug him and was with her all night long.. And that broke Qiu Ying's heart. He really took his sweet time solving all the problems with Miya and Qiu Ying. Only when Luo Tian, Qiu Yin's "Teacher" who has a crush on Qiu Ying too, literally yelled at him for hurting Qiu Ying with the thing with Miya, was the moment we as audience could have more confirmation that he is going to fix things soon.

The last episode was the cherry on top of the cake. All of a sudden in the last 10 minutes of the drama, Miya comes clean to Ji Xiang Kong about her eye injury and turns out he knew.. She then tells him that she is sorry and that she sees now that Qiu Ying really does know him better. Qiu Ying sees them hugging AGAIN- But hey- it's too late to solve the misunderstanding now since Ji Xiang Kong needs to go play the last game so they can win.

How did the drama end then?
They won and Ji Xiang Kong called Qiu Ying to be on stage with them. All of a sudden without ANY conversation they are back together just like that.

That was my rant. If you read it this far, thank you. If you feel like my review is all over the place.. you can only guess how all over the place the drama is.

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Destined to be a great drama about Love, Family and Responsibility.

Destined is a historical drama about the importance of responsibility, family and love. The plot is full of twists and overall is a worth to watch to those who enjoy historical dramas that have politics and still a heartfelt romance in it.

STORY:
Liu Yuru has been mistreated most of her life due to her father having a concubine who dislikes her and her mother. Liu Yuru has been trying her best to get an engagement with Ye family and just when she was about to get engaged to Ye Shi an, She happened to offend Gu Jiusi, the son of the wealthiest family in Yangzhou. Gu Jiusi has a bad reputation. He is known to slack in his studies and for using his time having fun and playing around.
Gu Jiusi plans a small revenge on her and loudly informs in front of many people that she is the one he wants to marry. When Gu Jiusi's parents hear about this, they immediately arrange an engagement between Gu Jiusi and Liu Yuru. Liu Yuru and Gu Jiusi get married against their wishes and soon after marriage Liu Yuru starts to learn business from her mother-in-law while taming her new husband, helping him to study and make Gu family proud.
Gu Jiusi and Liu Yuru get closer day by day, but at the same time they must take new responsibilities as they need to keep their family safe.


SPOILER PART OF THE STORY, MY OPINION:
The plot is complicated as there were many things happening in a short period of time.
Liu Yuru is forced to marry a rich man who is a free-spirited idler, who believes he can live his life without working hard, relying on his family's wealth.
After they get married, Gu Jiusi informs Liu Yuru that when he or she finds someone they truly love, they will divorce. Gu Jiusi is still kindhearted and tries his best to comfort the sad Liu Yuru. Liu Yuru was lucky to have a great mother-in-law, as she understood her and decided to help her learn business and to let her take over the Gu Family business. She also trusted her to be able to tame Gu Jiusi. Gu Jiusi was a free-spirited boy who soon began to take responsibility and was inspired to learn and grow up thanks to Liu Yuru. This couple was so inspiring and truly helped each other grow. When the commissioner of Yangzhou wanted to kill every rich family in Yangzhou, Liu Yuru and Gu Jiusi helped many of their family members to escape ahead of them to Youzhou. Gu Jiusi and Liu Yuru saves each other many times during the long and dangerous journey to Youzhou. When they finally arrive, they need to start over with new problems arriving as war rages on. The plot gets even more complicated when they move to the capital and Gu Jiusi becomes a minister.

The drama had a lot of things happening and in my opinion, my only problems with this drama only come from the lack of logic. After settling down in Youzhou, I understand wanting to contribute and help to protect the new hometown. Everything after that seemed very weird to me. Even though Gu Jiusi had done well protecting Youzhou, i don't understand why he would want to become a minister in the capital. It's understandable for him to be kind and fair, but the closer you are to the emperor, the more enemies you will have. I just couldn't see why Gu Jiusi would want to risk his or his family's life again and again for "the world". You would think that someone would not be willing to cause problems to their family after going through hardships and losing their father. Gu Jiusi, despite being warned of danger, continues to investigate logs and try to find out who has embezzled money. In the end, the emperor faked Liu Yuru's death, and they were apart for 3 years. In those 3 years, he thought his beloved wife was dead. But so did Liu Yuru's mother-in-law and mother, and many close friends of hers. He didn't even get to spend the 3 years with his mother and Liu Yuru's mother, but he was in another town building a dam.. And when Liu Yuru and Gu Jiusi meet again, they still decide to risk their lives to save the country...

Destined was entertaining and had its sweet moments and had a slow burner of a romance. We get to see Gu Jiusi and Liu Yuru slowly trust and fall for each other. The villain was great in the beginning, but in the end he left me a little confused as to why he was so obsessed with becoming the emperor. The only things i was actually disappointed were the lack of kiss scenes and the fate of some side characters. But the ending is a very happy ending for our main leads!

ACTING:

Song Yi as Liu Yuru,
She was great. I think her acting was pleasant, as she was supposed to be someone who has elegance and was taught well by her mother. Song Yi managed to act weak, determined yet strong Liu Yuru very well.

Bai Jing Ting as Gu Jiusi,
His acting didn't leave me cold. Truly fit for the role of a playful boy who grows up to a passionate man who wants to protect the ones he loves but also the world. Great acting from him!


Overall i would say that the drama is an 8.

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Beautiful Xianxia Love Story of A Dragon King and a Taoist Girl!

Back from the brink is light and fast-paced romance, xianxia!
It's a beautiful xianxia story of a dragon king, who got hurt by love but still learned to love again and found his true love in a kind-hearted Taoist girl.
If you were a fan of Love Between Fairy and Devil, I highly suggest watching this drama as the original stories are made by the same author, Jiu Lu Fei Xiang (九鹭非香)

STORY:

Dragon King Tianyao gets betrayed on his wedding day by the woman he was going to marry, a Taoist called Suying from Guanghan Sect. She dismembered him and tried to steal his heart protecting scale and inner core, which are the main sources of his powers. He combines them and tosses the heart protecting scale away.
The heart protecting scale went inside a little baby girl, who was abandoned because of her weak heart. Yanhui got to live thanks to the heart protecting scale and was picked by Master Lingxiao of Chengxing Sect.
Yanhui gets expelled from the sect and soon is kidnapped by Tianyao. Tianyao had noticed that Yanhui had the heart protecting scale inside of her. Tianyao wants to find his body parts and needs the help of Yanhui, and they start their journey of finding his body parts.
Yanhui and Tianyao slowly fall in love with each other in the midst of the chaos.

SPOILER PART OF THE STORY & MY OPINION:

Tianyao and Yanhui had a couple of misunderstandings in the drama, which were understandable. I feel like Back from the brink was a great drama, but in my opinion it was lacking just a certain spice. I feel like Yanhui and Tianyao fell in love a little bit too early, and I was a little disappointed how both of their weddings weren't because of their mutual feelings. The wedding in Qingqiu was beautiful but for me, it was a little ruined due to Yanhui's attitude, it was understandable but at the same time disappointing, knowing that she was very much in love with Tianyao but hurt by him at the same time and thus wasn't excited at all that she was going to marry Tianyao. The drama was filmed beautifully, and the outfits were cute. It was fun and light for a xianxia. Yanhui wasn't annoying or naive, and Tianyao wasn't the typical "VERY cold and stern main lead".

ACTING:

Neo Hou as Tianyao,
His acting was great! There's just something in the way he looks so naive and kind yet strong at the same time. A great pick for this role.

Zhou Ye as Yanhui
She was great as Yanhui. Her crying scenes were the best in this drama! She was very believable.

Riley Wang as Bai Xiao Sheng,
The black horse who surprised me time and time again. His acting just stood out the most to me due to his mischievous and mysterious presence. I wished for his happiness the most, since Bai Xiao Sheng had suffered the most ever since his childhood.

Overall a 8!

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"Who cares about the crowded broad street, I'll walk on my single plank bridge till it's dark."

The Untamed is an enchanting drama.

As someone who hadn't read the novel or even heard much about Untamed before watching the drama, i fell in love with this story in the first 5 minutes of watching it.. U might think that there isn't romance in the drama, but if you just look at it carefully, you can see the sparks flying between Lan Zhan and Wei Wuxian.


Story: If you have read the novel, u won't be disappointed, drama stays faitful to the novel in so many ways. The romance part is made into bromance. But don't be fooled. Yes, there will not be kissing or confessing their love, but there will be many moments that will make u giggle because of their sparks. What they couldn't express in words, they expressed them in the way they look at each other and the way they subtly touch.

To those who don't have any knowledge of untamed, it tells a story about Wei Wuxian. Wei Wuxian is playful and mischievous, while his counterpart Lan Zhan is uptight and virtous.
All Wei Wuxian ever wanted was justice. "I, Wei Wuxian, wish that i can always stand with justice and live with no regrets."
So when faced with injustice, he can't just stay put and because of this he faces many obstacles and this ruins his reputation. He is faced with disdain due to his decisions and deemed as someone who walks on a dark path. He becomes an outcast, a threat that must be exterminated only because Wei Wuxian can't watch the sects do injustice to innocent people.
Lan Zhan, who is from Cloud Recess, a very conservative sect. He feels the same way as Wei Wuxian, but tries to stop Wei Wuxian from being reckless, because he knows other sects will try to hurt him. Lan Zhan still always helps and protects Wei Wuxian, even though he doesn't follow him on his "single plank bridge". Only after losing Wei Wuxian, he understands that all he wants is to stand next to Wei Wuxian, no matter what happens. "Who is right? Who is wrong? What is black? What is white?"

Cast: PERFECTION. XIAO ZHAN IS THE PERFECT WEI WUXIAN AND WANG YIBO IS THE PERFECT LAN ZHAN.
The whole cast was amazing, but naturally these two stood out the most.
Xiao Zhan plays the playful Wei Wuxian like he is Wei Wuxian himself. His smile lights up the room and i noticed myself smiling whenever he smiled. He also portayed his pain so realistically that i cried so much. I really have no words to describe how amazing his performance was. Xiao Zhan portayed Wei Wuxian with his smile and face, while Wang Yibo portayed Lan Zhan with his eyes and subtle moves.

To Xiao Zhan's counterpart, the very talented Wang Yibo was the perfect choice. He played the stern and emotionless Lan Zhan so well. Both men are absolutely gorgeous yet handsome. The way Wang Yibo conveyed Lan Zhan's feelings with just his eyes and subtle touches really made an impact on me. His acting was top notch. He didn't say anything yet his eyes were telling the whole story to me. The confusion, worry, pain and love, you could just see it and feel it yourself. I just cannot imagine anyone else as Lan Wangji. I mean i was already very familiar with these men but now i'm even more obsessed.

Jiang Cheng was played by Wang Zhuo Cheng and i feel like he was a perfect pick too. He played Jiang Cheng, Wei Wuxian's "brother". Jiang Cheng's father took Wei Wuxian in when he was a small child, so Wei Wuxian grew up with Jiang Cheng and his sister Jiang Yanli. Jiang Cheng doesn't often say how fond of Wei Wuxian he is and is always getting angry and scolding Wei Wuxian. Deep down he loves him like a brother and cares for him deeply and is put into a hard situation when Wei Wuxian decides to stand by Lan Zhan and justice. He feels like Wei Wuxian is betraying the Yunmeng sect and often begs Wei Wuxian to stop and to just come home to Lotus Pier with Yanli and him. Wang Zhuo Cheng portayed Jiang Cheng's conflict very well. "When you’re standing on their side, you’re the bizarre genius, the miraculous hero, the force of the rebellion, the flower that blooms alone. But the second your voice differs from theirs, you’ve lost your mind, you’ve ignored morality, you’ve walked the crooked path"


Other cast was amazing too but aside from these actors the ones that stood out to me the best were Qi Pei Xin as Jin Ling and Meng Zi Yi as Wen Qing.


Music: 10/10. I Love the fact that Xiao Zhan and Wang Yibo sing the theme song. I'm listening to the soundtrack album on a loop.

Rewatch Value: Immediately after watching Untamed, i wanted to start from episode 1 again. It's been a couple days since i watched it and i'm already wanting to go back.



I HIGHLY SUGGEST THIS DRAMA TO EVERYONE.
This drama became my favorite drama in just a couple of minutes and now i can't get over it. This drama will permanently stay with me for the rest of my life. The powerful message this drama sends to you is unreal. Watch it, You won't regret it.
"If the face says nothing, listen to the heartbeat”- Hanguang Jun / Lan Zhan

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A beautiful xianxia about love and sisterhood!

Starry Love is a beautiful xianxia drama about sister bonds and love.
This drama is fun, heartwarming and in my opinion easy to watch for a xianxia.
Starry Love exceeded my expectations. Definitely worth to watch if you are a fan of xianxia.
The story is pretty slow paced in the beginning, but does pick up. Starry love doesn't have too much angst.


STORY:

There are 4 realms in this world. The Immortal Realm, Void Realm, Beast Realm and Mortal Realm.
Twin daughters were born in the Mortal Realm for the Emperor and Empress. When the younger, Yetan was born, the Empress died from childbirth and in the stars there was an ominous sign that Yetan would bring chaos to the mortal realm. The Mortal realm wanted Yetan dead, but instead the Emperor decided to bethrone her to the Void Realm, as he had also promised the oldest, Qingkui to be bethroned to the Immortal Realm.
Qingkui was treated well, and she grew up to be kind, gentle and refined. Yetan was an outcast, she was hated, she wasn't allowed to learn and people tried to assassinate her and leave her without food. The Emperor often threw her to the dungeons. She grew up to be unruly and rebellious to protect herself. Even with the differences in their quality of life, Yetan and Qingkui were always close, So when the time for their soon-to-be husbands to come and collect them was nearing, Yetan wanted to be able to protect her sister by stopping her from having to marry to the Immortal Realm.


SPOILER PART OF THE STORY:

Yetan runs into Empyrean XuanShang (Shaodian Youqin) the night before the collect day of the two princesses and acts as Qingkui. She tries to stop the wedding, but her efforts are in vain. They witness an assassination attempt of the First Void prince, Wudai and therefore fight with the culprit, Third Void prince Chaofeng.
The next day, Yetan makes a plan with her friends, The Beast prince Di Lan Jue, and ManMan to kidnap Qingkui, so she can live a carefree life. Di Lan Jue decides that he wants to kidnap Yetan too.
When Di Lan Jue is creating a distraction, Man Man goes inside Yetan's bridal carriage but suddenly Yetan and Qingkui are switched by Chaofeng, in the fear that if Yetan was to go to The Void Realm, she would destroy his plans, yet he cannot kill her either. Yetan's plan fails and Qingkui heads to The Void Realm, and she heads to The Heavenly Realm.
Chaofeng explains to Qingkui why they were switched, but blames it on his second brother, Dingyun, making him the one who tried to kill Wudai and the one who switched the carriages. Chaofeng tells Qingkui that if Yetan comes to the Void Realm, she will be killed. Yetan and Qingkui agree to pretend to be each other. Soon after, Shaodian Youqin has to go to fix Guixu. Guixu is an ancient force, if unsealed, will bring chaos to the world. When Shaodian Youqin is in Guixu, Void Realm takes advantage of the situation and tries to invade Immortal Realm. Shaodian Youqin returns from Guixu, badly wounded, and protects Immortal realm with his last powers and dies. Shaodian Youqin's last three soul shards fell into the mortal realm. These three were his discarded emotions, so Heavenly Emperor is against the idea of reviving Shaodian Youqin with his emotions that he discarded.

Yetan, Di Lanjue, ManMan and Shaodian Youqins siblings, Qingheng and Xiwu escape the Immortal Realm to go look for the shards to revive Shaodian Youqin. Yetan must get all three shards to fall in love with her.
At the same time, in the Void Realm, Chaofeng and Qingkui fell for each other. The Void Tyrant has given his sons a new order, the one who kills Shaodian Youqin will be the next crown prince of the Void. Chaofeng hears about the Empyrean Consort Yetan being in the Mortal realm and that there seems to be a "Fire Demon" that looks like Shaodian Youqin. Qingkui soon hears about Chaofeng's plan and goes to meet up with Yetan.
Yetan manages to get the first shard La Mu, who is kind and innocent, to fall in love with her and Qingkui manages to stop Chaofeng from killing him. Soon after, Yetan finds the second shard, Mei You Qing, who is cold and greedy. He only has eyes for money. After pestering Mei You Qing enough, he falls for her too and even agrees to lose all his money in order to save Yetan's life. The last shard is Wenren, an elegant playboy who seduces women. Yetan manages to catch his attention, and he falls for her too. When the shards know about the reality of the situation, they are sad and angry. Yetan sends them all a letter telling them that she is actually Yetan, a princess who met Shaodian Youqin by mistake but fell for him. She tells them that she is letting them decide their own fates and that she is leaving with her sister and others and if they want to come with them, they promise to keep them safe from everyone. When Yetan, Chaofeng and his mother and Qingkui are under an attack by the second prince Dingyun, the shards come together to protect Yetan and combine themselfs to revive Shaodian Youqin. He kills Dingyun and goes back to Immortal Realm with Yetan. In the end, Heavenly Emperor finds out about Yetan's identity too and Shaodian Youqin leaves the Immortal realm with Yetan and they reunite with Chaofeng and Qingkui.

The sisters are under an attack, Man Man died protecting Yetan and Husui, Yetans servant/friend saves them by awakening their true powers. Yetan can absorb Impurity and Qingkui purity. Yetan and Qingkui are actually twin flowers from the Ganoderma Vein, a sacred tree that belonged to the Dongqiu tribe. Dongqiu tribe was wrongly accused of wanting to bring chaos to the world with the help of the sacred tree and therefore was wiped. The legend says that the twin flowers can open the seal of Guixu together and bring chaos to the world.
The Immortal Realm and Void Realm hear about the true identity of the girls, and they gather the four realms together to make a plan to kill the girls. Emperor of the Mortal realm is opposed to the idea of killing the girls, but as they are weak, they are unable to do anything. The Beast realm agree to help but due to Di Lan Jue and Yetan's friendship, The Beast King and Queen turn a blind eye and they let the sisters leave beast realm.
The Heavenly Emperor tries to blackmail the sisters to surrender by threatening to hurt the mortal realm. They go to Immortal realm to strike a deal with Void Tyrant and Heavenly Emperor. The Heavenly Emperor agrees, because The Heavenly Empress is on their side. Heavenly Emperor and Void Tyrant deceived them and captured Shaodian Youqin and Chaofeng and were ready to kill the sisters, when Qingkui pleaded them to let Yetan live. Qingkui explains that the Guixu can only be opened if they are together, and that the powers they possess will disappear when one of the sisters dies.
Qingkui takes her own life and Shaodian Youqin sends Yetan to the mortal realm and he and Chaofeng are captured by their fathers. Heavenly Emperor inflicts Shaodian Youqin with oblivion stake and he forgets Yetan. Chaofeng is thrown into the dungeons. Yetan grieves the loss of her sister and, with the help of Husui, revives a flower spirit of Qingkui. Yetan decides to get revenge after getting her powers back, and she heads to the Void realm. She saves Chaofeng and kills The Void Tyrant, becoming the new ruler. Yetan gives Qingkuis flower spirit to Chaofeng. After hearing about Yetan, the Heavenly Emperor tells Shaodian Youqin to go kill the "demoness". He is unable to kill her and after getting back to Immortal Realm, he remembers her. Yetan comes to Immortal Realm and rejoins with Shaodian Youqin. She lets Heavenly Emperor to keep his life, but destroys his cultivation. Husui isn't happy about not getting revenge for her tribe members and for her parents, and steals the flower spirit of Qingkui from Chaofeng and lures Yetan to Dongqiu, near the seal of Guixu. She hurts Yetan and they go inside Guixu. Yetan sees the truth about the twin flowers and sacrifices herself, explaining to Shaodian Youqin that the only way to neutralize Guixu is with the powers of the twin flowers. They were never going to bring chaos, they were supposed to end it. The drama ends with Qingheng becoming the new Heavenly Emperor and Wudai becoming the new Void Tyrant and Youqin and Chaofeng living in Dongqiu, waiting for their wives to be revived from the soil of Dongqiu.

MY OPINION:

The story itself is interesting with familiar Xianxia troupes. In my opinion the search for the shards was fun but in a way really rushed. They used a lot of time to show the story of the first shard but the last shards story and pursuit of him was quickly over.
The sisterly bond of Qingkui and Yetan was heartwarming, as it was refresing to see sisters that had a real relationship and no misunderstandings or betrayals between them. Yetan never blamed, envied or hated Qingkui for being the loved princess. They had mutual feeling of wanting to protect one another. As a big sister myself, it was touching and the only time i cried during this drama was the moment when Qingkui took her life to save Yetan's. The only problems i had with this drama was the fathers. I could not really forgive the Mortal Realm's Emperor for what he did to Yetan and i dont really agree with how fast Yetan forgave her father for the years of abuse. But what i cannot accept at all is the fact that Heavenly Emperor wasn't thrown into at least jail, even after being maybe even the worst father of the drama. Even Void Tyrant didn't seem as heartless. The fact that Yetan killed Void Tyrant who is her sister's husband's father, but got soft when it came to the Heavenly Emperor only because of her husband and his family.

ACTING:

Landy Li as Yetan,
Amazing performance from her. The perfect casting. She acted as the mischievous yet kindhearted Yetan so well. My favorite acting moment was when she went to the Void and was cold as ice in front of everyone but when she had killed Void Tyrant, she cried and grieved for her sister.

He Xuan Lin as Qingkui,
Perfect. She was so sweet and kindhearted and gentle. Her acting was great in her crying scenes.

Chen Xing Xu as Shaodian Youqin,
He acted about 5 different roles in this drama. The cold Empyrean XuanShang, The sweet innocent and simple La Mu, the greedy and mean Mei You Qing, The lustful womanizer Wenren and the combination of them all, Shaodian Youqin. So many well acted personalities. His crying scenes in the end were so believable.

Luke Chen as Chaofeng,
A cold hearted void prince that falls for the most gentle one. He was a great pick for this role.

a good 8, is what i will rate this drama!

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Cute but nothing special.

Warm on a cold night is a cute and fun historical fantasy drama, that unfortunately leaves me feeling lukewarm. It has a happy ending and is perfect for someone who wants to watch something that doesn't have angst or misunderstandings and is light. It's also perfect for those who want to watch a drama that fully revolves around the main leads, without the drama having millions of side characters.
The drama is an investigation drama that has romance mainly in the 5 last episodes.

STORY:
The story is about two neighbouring kingdoms, Qian and Qi. Qi is a northern kingdom, where people are very different from Qian people. Qi people are shapeshifters that have powers and can live up to 200 years or so. Qi people have "super" hearing, are extremely strong, have a really good sense of smell and can be super fast. Qian is a kingdom where no one has these kind of "magical" powers. Qi and Qian have a peace treaty between them but they need to officially sign it. Qi kingdom needs it, because after getting their "Holy Fire/Ember" stolen, the snow and the cold has started to make their lives hard.

The story revolves around Su Jiuer, a Qian investigator of the investigation bureau. She is righteous and smart, following her father's footsteps. When investigating a murder case in the Qian capital, she interrogates an arrogant Qi man, Han Zheng. She soon realizes that Han Zheng is not a suspect, he is after the murderer too. The murderer is suspected to be a man with three scars on his cheek, Mu Yan, Han Zheng's childhood friend who stole the Ember. When touching Han Zheng's hand, Su Jiuer finds his touch strangely revitalising, almost as curing her strange disease that makes her dizzy and pass out. She wants to stay close to him due to this and quickly suggests that they investigate together. They become partners and they go from case to case, solving murders, meeting new friends and looking for Mu Yan. They slowly fall in love.


SPOILER PART OF THE STORY, MY OPINION:

The plot started of great. This had the ingredients to be a really good fantasy investigation drama, but i think it kinda fell through. In my opinion Su Jiuer wasn't an interesting character and to me it was no surprise that in the investigation bureau she was the ONLY one with intelligence and the only female in the whole bureau. The fact that her only competition in intelligence was our male lead, Han Zheng, didn't come to me as a surprise. Han Zheng is a prince of the Qi kingdom and is expected to become their next king.
While investigating a murder case, they meet the 2nd prince of Qian kingdom, Wen Jun. He was very lacking as a 2nd male lead to me. He had been looking for Su Jiuer for a while, because they met when they were kids and she was the only one kind to him when his mother was dying. He wasn't really all that smart but wanted to tag along to every investigation. He was a great help but mainly because of his influence in the capital. He was an okay character but he was nothing special to me, just a 2nd prince whose only hobbies were writing plays, paintings and running after Jiuer and Han Zheng.

Han Zheng was also a very typical male lead, cold and arrogant at first who warms up to the people around him and falls in love with Su Jiuer. Now, im not saying there's anything bad about being the typical male lead, but i think he was just missing a little bit of spice. The Qi people are shapeshifters, yet we only see a little bit of the shapeshifting. In Warm on a cold night's poster, behind Han Zheng is a wolf. Qi people also howl to each other. Yet we didnt see any wolves or shapeshifting into one. I get it, it must be because this is a low budget drama..

Warm on a cold night started off strong, introducing these characters and the mystery of Mu Yan and the ember. The plot flattened very fast. It was a case after case and i didn't see much development in the plot or in any of the characters. After watching the drama i was really confused how they managed to spent 36 episodes on this plot. From the very start the villain is suspected to be Mu Yan. It was indeed a plot twist to find out that the Crown Prince was Mu Yan. It left me baffled. He had a skin like mask on his face and i never would have guessed he was Mu Yan. It felt like they just decided towards the end that Mu Yan is the crown prince because they didnt have time to properly tie the knots. His reasoning for doing all of this didn't make sense to me at all and he didn't seem like a real villain. Also his fate was left unresolved. Han Zheng and Chi Lan ( their childhood friend, (who clearly has feelings towards Mu Yan as he does towards her) a Qi general, who in the end becomes the new King of the Qi) fight with Mu Yan, when he is trying to kill Su Jiuer because she has the Ember inside of her. Han Zheng nor Chi Lan have the guts or the will to kill Mu Yan, Chi Lan gives him a dangerously fatal blow but he leaves the scene alive. No one knows his fate. So he was left unpunished.

Su Jiuer has the ember inside of her and in the last episode suddenly without telling Han Zheng, she takes the Ember out of her body (with the help of her mother), so they can cure the Qi people affected by a poison that Mu Yan spread. Now.. This felt rushed too. How did she know how to get it out and stuff? There wasn't much time to search about the matter either..
She dies and Han Zheng gives her a lot of his Qi vital energy core. A blue jem on every Qi persons chest that helps them control their powers and keep them alive. When a Qian person ingests it, they see the Qi person in their dreams and can have some Qi powers too. Suddenly we get a time skip to their wedding and in the middle of the ceremony Su Jiuer hears someone calling for help, so they rush to help. Su Jiuer now has the super speed and hearing but Han Zheng doesn't. And that's how the drama ends.
It wasn't a bad drama, but not the best ones i've seen. I'm giving it a solid 7-7,5. It would've been a 8, if the ending was not so rushed and left me with so many questions and plot holes.


ACTING:

Li Yi Tong as Su Jiuer,
I love her. She is so beautiful, has a pleasant voice and is a really nice actress. Her acting never annoys me. She bring out this childish yet mature vibe in all her characters and think she was a really pleasant female lead!

Bi Wen Jun as Han Zheng,
A great choice for the male lead. He brings out a cute and mature vibe as well. A solid male lead.

Honorable mentions for Hei Ru Xian as Chi Lan, who seemed cold but was a warm person deep down. A great pick for this role. and Wang Mao Lei as Godfather of Su Jiuer, Hu Badao. He was the amazing comic relief in this drama and was the scene stealer!

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Lighthearted drama with a happy ending!

Wulin Heroes is a lighthearted and easy to watch romantic drama. Having only 22 episodes and a low budget, it naturally has its flaws, (like female lead's white wig, you can see VERY clearly her dark hair underneath) but is compensated with the lack of angst. Very fastpaced, has a reverse harem and the story itself is not complicted. If you are looking for something very easy to watch, i suggest this drama.

STORY:
The story follows Ye Xi, a ginseng fairy who meets a handsome and cold yet lonely doctor Bai Yue. Bai Yue is a "miracle doctor" and the lord of Fenghua Valley. Devoting his whole life for medicine, he is lonely, having only a few to talk to and not allowed to fall in love. Until one day he gets saved by a mysterious girl in red. This girl is Ye Xi.
Wanting to repay Ye Xi, he treats her and saves her when she is getting fooled by men.
Ye Xi is kindhearted and trusting and gets betrayed by men many times,even getting the nickname "Wicked witch" due to fabricated rumors.

SPOILER PART OF THE STORY, MY OPINION:
In my opinion Wulin Heroes is a good drama that has its "trashy" moments. The plot itself is nice, Ye Xi (and the viewers) are getting the lesson "Love yourself the most. Do not blindly trust men as they can betray you, but there will be good men that will treat you well." The drama has a good lesson to be learned as Ye Xi goes through what many of us do in real life. She doesn't fall in love with any of the men that betrayed her. She only felt friendship/like towards these men, but was ready to believe in them and maybe marry them. She just wanted desperately to be with someone whom she can talk to and grow old with. She didn't know what love was until it hit her and she met Bai Yue.
Bai Yue was sharp tongued but always ready to help her without expecting anything in return. The drama had a very quick start, which was a little confusing but i got used to it quickly. In the end there were only 2 men that truly loved her. Bai Yue and Cang Qi. Cang Qi had a tragic and sad backstory and i felt bad for him as he tried too hard to force Ye Xi to be with him. He had fallen in love with the only one who gave him warmth and blaming himself for her "1st death" (She died but because she is a ginseng flower, it was like a flower going through hibernation) he became obsessed with her. I was hoping he would get his happy ending too, as he never wanted to be an emperor, he only wanted to be able to protect her. The drama was a little bit all over the place sometimes, but for 22 episodes, it was expected. Ye Xi's personality wasn't my cup of tea as she was too kind and trusting and even though Bai Yue told her not to trust Tang Huan, she still did and in the end ended up killing him. There were some plot holes that left me wondering. For example: When Bai Yue dies from heart failure due to a curse that had been passed down for generations, Ye Xi lies down in the coffin with him and closes it and suddenly the coffin disappears and they are thrown into the mountains near the Fenghua Valley. Bai Yue didn't seem to be alive when Ye Xi woke up but later on he wakes up and realizes that the way to break the curse was to lie down with the one you love in the coffin. It left me baffled.

Wulin Heroes had clearly a low budget and i understand that, but Ye Xi's white wig was awful. I saw her real hair in almost every shot clearly from underneath. The only other flaw i would say was that the makeup artist went a little too far in some of the scenes (for example Bai Yue having a really dark and refined dark red lipstick after getting a wound on his shoulder.) The drama is only 22 episodes long which in cdrama terms is short, so i won't be too hard on the plot, costumes or on the set. The plot is unusually charming to me. I would have said its 7.5 but due to the actors being so good ( Li Hongyi, Zhu Zanjin and Qi Peixin) i'm personally going to give it a 8.

ACTING:

Huang Ri Ying as Ye Xi,
I was glad to see a female who had strong martial arts and could protect the people she wanted to protect. She didn't need much protecting from men but naturally was saved by Bai Yue a couple of times. Huang Ri Ying was a good pick for this role. She was nothing too special in my eyes but most importantly, she wasn't whiny or too childish.

Li Hongyi as Bai Yue,
Cold, sharp tongued yet caring. His role reminded me a little bit of Lan Zhan (Wang Yibo) in Untamed and i was happy to see another actor being able to say so many words with just one look. His eyes never lied when his mouth did. The feeling of love and affection was in his eyes. Li Hong Yi is elegant and was the greatest pick for this role. His acting was very nice.

Zhu Zanjin as Cang Qi,
Cang Qi had a tragic backstory, not wanting to live or having anything to live for. He gets saved by Ye Xi many times and for the first time in his life, he feels warmth and care. Naturally he is thankful and regretful and eventually becomes obsessed with Ye Xi. Wanting to protect her, treat her well and to be with her. Zhu Zanjin was able to convey the feelings so believably and a part of me wanted him to get Ye Xi just because how desperate and lost he seemed. Personally felt like Zhu Zanjin was the greatest pick for the drama.

Qi Peixin as Tang Huan,
A baby face who turns out to be evil? Very nice! It was truly a great role to see Qi Peixin in. A mean, cruel and scheming Tang Huan who was obsessed with power. Qi Peixin was a very nice pick for this role.

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A love coach gets dumped and the way to get over your ex is to fall in love again

Oh.. Bo Ra! Deborah! I wished you would have been a better coach, especially to yourself.

Bora! Deborah is an ok romance drama that had its moments, but still unfortunately managed to disappoint me.
The drama managed to be uplifting and comforting sometimes and as a person who has pretty recently broken up from a 3-year-old relationship, it made me think about my own experiences.
It had the potential to be a really good breakup/romance drama, but having many bad couples and bad advices (Let's not even get started on how insensitive it was to bring up the holocaust) it was quite the miss.


STORY:
Bora is a love coach, "Deborah". She gives out love advices while waiting for her proposal desperately. She is not really being herself, she is only doing stuff to please her boyfriend. Bora is a radio host who gives out love advice, so her co-host Yuri asks advice for from Bora about her relationship, she soon decides to break up with her boyfriend. This boyfriend happens to be Lee Suhyeok from a publishing company, whom Bora had met while looking and dreaming about an engagement ring of her own. Lee Suhyeok bought a ring and was about to propose when Yuri breaks up with him. Bora on the other hand soon gets cheated on by her boyfriend and this is witnessed by Lee Suhyeok. These two starts as mutually disliking each other to comforting each other.
Bora causes huge scenes by drinking too much alcohol. On an event, she gets drunk and ends up ruining her career as a love coach by insulting men and love and by falling down and accidentally flashing her underwear. She also pees on the street and goes crying on his ex's doorstep.
Time goes by, and she comes back as a breakup icon and starts falling for Lee Suhyeok.

MY OPINION, SPOILERS OF THE STORY:
The relationship of Lee Suhyeok and Bora is lackluster. They kiss and call it a mistake, work together and sloooowly fall in love and get together at the very last episode in the last 15 minutes or so.
When Bora gets cheated on, and she proceeds to make a fool out of herself by drinking too much, I cringe. Sometimes I had to even pause the scene to collect myself. Every breakup is different, and every emotion is allowed, but when you are making trouble for other people, that's when u should stop and really think about it. I totally get the feelings of sadness, desperation and depression after a breakup, but I would never go out to drink with someone whom I barely know and give this person trouble and on top of that.. peeing on a street. I really wish this drama would have let some of her breakup moments out, since I think we shouldn't encourage anyone to drink till you are THAT drunk with a person you don't trust or know enough.

Then we have Bora's best friend and her marriage.. Lee Yujeong and Yang Jinwoo. I really wanted them to break up, since Jinwoo had gotten used to Yujeong. He felt like she was overbearing and needy and wanted time for himself to the point he made a secret man cave in the basement without telling Yujeong. Yujeong time and time again tried to bring back the spice in their relationship. When Yujeong asks Jiwoo "Why don't we do IT anymore?", Jinwoo answers "Maybe because we can do it anytime?" And when caught, Jinwoo tell Yujeong that he wanted time for himself and Yujeong answers him, "What about us? Do we ever spend time together? In the morning, we are in a rush and busy all day at work. In the evening, after dinner and cleaning up, we just pass out. But you complain you don't have alone time for yourself.. You are not bothered about having no time with me?" And in the end he never changed, but they still decided to be together.

There were other unimportant couples, but I really couldn't stand Bomi, Bora's little sister. At the end of the drama, she gets pregnant. Her boyfriend, who sleeps on a couch in Jinwoo's and Yujeong's house, promises to marry her. Naturally Bora is concerned about her sister, even a little angry, since Bomi and Jinho both don't have enough money, haven't been together for long and are still so young. Bomi lashes out on Bora and says, "Why are you acting like I did something wrong?" I WAS SPEECHLESS. Bomi has always had a bad attitude, and she is used to getting money from her sister, and now she is pregnant in those conditions and her sister naturally is worried about her and her future. Bora reminds Bomi that she doesn't have to marry Jinho even though she is pregnant and to think about it carefully, and she just lashes out, "What's there to think about? We were going to get married anyway, We can just go ahead with it"

After all, I'm giving this drama a 6,5, which is a little higher only because sometimes it did have its moments and I felt comforted by certain scenes.

ACTING:

Yoo Inna as Bora,
She was an ok pick, I love Yoo Inna, but I just disliked her character her so.. She is beautiful as always and isn't afraid to look "ugly" in her crying scenes.

Yoon Hyunmin as Lee Suhyeok,
Honestly, pretty forgettable role for a main lead. His acting was good, but the personality of the character, as a color, would be gray.

Hwang Chansung as Noh Juhwan,
He acts pretty often these types of roles that I'm pretty used to it, but ey, he does it well!

Ju-Ne as Yang Jinho,
His acting debut! I want to give him slack, but this character wasn't for him at all. I love June, but his acting in this seemed so unnatural.

Other actors and roles were just fine. Nothing too special or bad.

6,5 stars!

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Lan Sizhui and Wen Ning from The Untamed!!!

The Untamed Spinoff : The Living Dead is a great spinoff for continuing the story for Wen Ning and Lan Sizhui!
Definitely worth to watch movie for anyone who has watched The Untamed, but especially to those who just love Wenning or Lan Sizhui.

THE STORY:
Wen Ning arrives to FuFeng, a town where people do not light candles at night as there is a ghost killing people with a light on. Wenning plans to capture the ghost, when in the middle of the fight, he meets with Lan Sizhui, (Wen Yuan, his cousin's son, who is now adopted into the Lan Clan). Together they decide to investigate the matter on hand.

MY OPINION:
I am maybe biased for liking this movie to the point i will give it a 9,5. The characters Sizhui and Wenning are one of my favorites, and the cameo of Wei Wuxian makes it even more emotional for me. As someone whose favorite drama of all time is The Untamed, naturally I am happy to see continuation of their stories. The GCI wasn't that bad, but naturally it's on the low budget side. I personally loved the investigation of these two, seeing how much Wen Ning has matured and how he has gotten more independent. It shows how Wenning is still struggling with his identity of being a puppet and Wei Wuxian reminding him that he is more than that.

ACTING:
Yu Bin as Wenning and Zheng Fanxing as Lan Sizhui, as always they bring out the best of these two characters, and I was so happy to see them for a longer time in this movie.
Gao Han as Xiao Yi, a new character in this universe, acting as a demonic cultivator who killed the Xiao household. Amazing performance from him as a bad guy of the story!

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The Nie brothers of the Untamed!

The Untamed spinoff: Fatal Journey is worth to watch for anyone who loves The Untamed and especially the Nie brothers.
When starting the movie, you got to give it some slack since the movie is only under 1h 30 mins long. The budget is on the low side, but if you really like the story of The Untamed, it helps you understand Nie Huaisang better. I suggest watching The Untamed fully to be able to understand anything in this movie.

STORY:
This movie tells about the relationship of the Nie brothers, Nie Mingjue and Nie Huaisang.
The story is about Nie Mingjue, Nie Huaisang and Nie clan's disciplines going to their Sword Sacrificial hall, the Nie clan's ancestral hall for their clan's sabers. The brothers need to seal their clan's sword spirit, as it is creating trouble.

MY OPINION:
The story itself is okay, I liked seeing Jin Guangyao, Nie Huaisang and Nie Mingjue again. We get some more background info on Nie Huaisang's and Nie Mingjue's relationship. We get to understand how important Nie Mingjue really is to Nie Huaisang and how intelligent he really is. I was a little disappointed on how Nie Huaisang found out about Jin Guangyao being the bad guy. The movie felt a little boring to me, as I felt like there was not much going on. Everything was dealt quickly except for the fight scenes. I wish there was more interaction between the brothers and Jin Guangyao instead of them running from danger in their sword sacrificial hall. The CGI was not great, and I wasn't a fan of the CGI on the instruments when they were playing.

I would give it a solid 7.

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a beautiful romance drama with medical and military/police theme!

You are my hero is a perfect blend of romance, medical and military police.
It is a must watch for those who dislike misunderstandings, love rivals and mean families. In You are my hero, there is none of that going on. You are my hero is a refreshingly mature drama, as main leads actually are understanding, caring and loyal.

THE STORY:
You are my hero revolves around Mi Ka. Mi Ka is a doctor who studies neurology and wants to become a good neurosurgeon. Mi Ka goes to buy a present for her parent's wedding anniversary, when suddenly there is a robbery in the jewelry store. There is a medical emergency and she bravely takes care of it even in the middle of the robbery. When SWAT team arrives, one of the robbers put a hand grenade on her hand, and she then meets SWAT Tiger assault team's Captain Xing Kelei. Xing Kelei saves her and takes the grenade from her hand in a safe place.

2 years later, Mi Ka's hospital wants their doctors to take an emergency course from SWAT team. Mi Ka leaves without permission because a very gifted doctor, Dr.Shao is in town, and she has a friend/patient that she wants to save. Mi Ka wants to ask Dr. Shao's opinion on things. When looking for a way to get to the hospital, Xing Kelei drives by and offers her a ride, and almost immediately recognizes Mi Ka. When she comes back to the base, Xing Kelei gives her a punishment to clean the toilets. Xing Kelei starts to have a crush on her almost immediately. Even though he is a hard instructor, he is a caring person.

Soon they are friends and show their mutual interest in each other. As a special policeman and doctor, they both are busy people yet have a lot of understanding towards each other. Xing Kelei as a special policeman has to drop everything in case of an emergency. As a doctor, Mi Ka is often helping with the emergency, when medical attention is needed.


SPOILER PART OF THE STORY, MY OPINION:
Mi Ka's and Xing Kelei's relationship is very mature as they understand each other. Mi Ka spends a lot of time in the hospital and in private she watches videos about surgeries. Xing Kelei can be days without contact due to the nature of his work as a special policeman on top of having to stay at the base for training. Mi Ka moves into his apartment (Mi Ka rented it without knowing it is Xing Kelei's apartment.) And as Xing Kelei's sister, Xing Keyao lives in the apartment opposite, Xing Kelei lives with his sister when he is not staying in the base, until eventually moving in with Mi Ka.
In my opinion, their relationship is very cute and mature, but it does get a bit boring in the middle. I think this drama was a little too long and could have been 10 episodes shorter. In this drama, there isn't really much going on. There are no real love rivals (there is one girl who is Xing Kelei's ex captain's daughter, but she only needs him for her medical fees. And even she gets taken care of very quickly, and she doesn't get the chance to create a misunderstanding between them.) There are a couple of times when Xing Kelei gets hurt and gets treatment from Mi Ka and her colleagues.

You are my hero spent too much time on side characters in my opinion. Mi Ka's best friend, Ruan Qing Xia ("Xia") develops a crush on Xing Kelei's team member, Shu Wenbo and starts to chase him. There is a quick love triangle between Shu Wenbo, Xia and Shu Wenbo's and Xing Kelei's friend, Lu Feng.
Other side couples are Dr. Shao and Xing Kelei's sister Xing Keyao and there is some time spent on two of Mi Ka's colleagues too.
It was a shame that in the end we saw Xia and Shu Wenbo getting married and 2 years later it's hinted that Xia is even pregnant, but our main couple is left with the "we are engaged, getting married.. soon." Xing Kelei and Mi Ka got engaged, but then Mi Ka got a chance to study abroad for 2 years and she went. Then we get a time skip 2 years later and Xing Kelei proposes to her again in the end. I felt like this was so unnecessary. In the end also Dr. Shao and Xing Keyao are engaged and are going to go to civil affairs bureau the next day to get their marriage certificates.. The ending just seemed very rushed, which seemed absurd because I think the drama was way too long, and many scenes were unnecessary and too long.

I suggest this drama to those who like medical/military/police theme and dislike love rivals and misunderstandings and want to watch something light and easy.
All in all, i'll give this drama a 9.

ACTING:

Ma Sichun as Mi Ka,
She was a good pick for this role but seemed to lack presence. Her acting got overshadowed by other actors, and she seemed tired and lacked energy. She did act well in her crying scenes and showed realistically the feeling of being scared.

Bai Jing Ting as Xing Kelei,
He was a great pick for this role. His acting naturally stood out the most from the cast, as a lot of time was spent on his missions. When Xing Kelei is sick and needs a surgery, Bai Jing Ting acted out the feelings of panic and frustration very well.

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