3 Major Reason to Watch This Drama

To be fair the drama is very good. It was magnificent where it did well. It’s a pity that it will sit below some of the most epic drama till date just because this drama need to meet current airing regulations. It’s very unfair to compare a 70+ ep drama (or a 2 seasons drama) with one that was only allowed to broadcast 40 ep max. The editing team could have done a better job editing the drama but they might also be running on a tight schedule to fix the episode count before broadcast date.

There are many places where the drama shined.
Story/backdrop: The story was intriguing, complex, and unique. From the get go, it showed us the end of the world is not just a vague idea, it’s very real. We as the audience witnessed it and the FL whose shoulders we’re watching the tale unfold witnessed it: the end of the world in a xianxia universe. She lost her home and all her love ones in an instant. And from that point on the audience should be aware of what the FL is working against, the fate of the world and fate of ML where she was the only fighter. I remember reading about some people comments in which they questions her actions and decision. An example was her decision to save Xiao Lin. For me, her actions were consistent with her character. She have seen her elder disciple brother Gongye Jiwu dying in front of her. She probably didn’t want to see that happen again. BUT I did wonder why she didn’t try to talk to ML first. When it comes to Xiao Lin, people question why she never considered the political implications and what her action means. For me, I noticed very early on that FL never tried to understand ML’s political position as hostage prince. I was slightly frustrated with her cluelessness about that aspect of the story until it hit me again: she’s an immortal, the only descendant of a god. Of course she couldn’t understand worldly conflict of interest, political interest. For her nothing is more important than preventing the end of the world and saving the love ones she had lost.

Gender dynamics/ relationship: Another unique aspect of the tale is the gender dynamics were flipped. The girls are almost always coming to the rescue and the boys were kinda the damsel in distress… lol it’s cool and funny. Actually rather than saying gender roles were reverse, it also seems like a learning experience for FL and ML to learn to establish a relationship of love, trust, and consideration. In the beginning, the FL dominated their relationship. In the middle, the ML dominated their relationship. By the end, they seem to learn none of that mattered. What mattered is that they loved each other.

Art style: At first I found the style gaudy and exaggerated. As I watch, I realize that it’s because the setting is different from other xianxia. I watched a lot of Daoist style xianxia (that has a 天帝, but this one is more Buddhist/Indian style xianxia. I notice the halos, the clothing style called dunhuang, the architecture style of Shangqing God realm. I loved it. It gives the drama a different feel and imbues the drama with a different kind of mystical qualities.

All in all my verdict is that it’s still an awesome drama to watch. The ending was not perfect and it was even slightly disappointing. But the ending doesn’t ruin the overall story. You will definitely enjoy it.

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I am really amazed how good this is. A lot of remakes of gulong or jinyong’s works are either unimpressive, boring, predictable, or out right horrible ( especially the endings). I wasn’t going to watch this version because I didn’t like the 2005 version (which includes a bit of court politics and had a horribly contrived ending), but I caught my mom watching it and something about Xiao yuer drew me in. He’s incredibly enjoyable to watch, like able, light hearted, bright, funny, and kind. His character pretty much drives the whole plot and the mood of the story. Before I disliked the handsome siblings story not knowing the 2005 version deviates a lot from the original story. I found out this version is actually true to the original novel and it changes my opinion of gu long’s works. The story would have been pretty original if I didn’t know of it before. Maybe I should be glad that I watched the 2005 version because it made watching this version 10x more enjoyable and unpredictable.

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3 Reasons to Watch

Warm on a Cold Night:The summary sound cringey too me and I was afraid it’ll have too much fluffy romance. I’m on ep 24 now and I have to say the romance when it does happen isn’t cringey at all. As if to avoid cliche scenes, the production team/scriptwriter seem to reinterpretation all cliche romantic scenes with a ton of sarcastic humor (anime/comic kind of humor). The humor seem to strength the ml and fl’s chemistry rather than being overly fluffy/cringey type of romance. The story from what I can see focus on the story/crime of this made up universe. It’s actually refreshing and interesting. It’s also nice that the fl and ml are both evenly clever, compatibly clever 😊.

Acting: Li yitong’s acting is amazing period. She completely made me believe that she’s a young lady again as supposed being 30+ years old. I haven’t watch her in any drama for awhile. Watching her again made me remember why I love her acting so much. I also suspect that with her excellent acting she must have help her costars to get in character when they were acting. The ML I’ve never seen him before but his acting is pretty good too. I feel like he was pretty on point with a lot subtle expressions. He definitely has room to improve. But not once I thought his acting wasn’t good enough or that he was out of character. Enjoy his character a lot. My sister kept sayin he isn’t good looking. But I think he looks fine. I love his interpretation of his character and that’s what most important for me.

Clothing and hair: I have to say. I can tell this isn’t a highly budgeted drama because the fabric of their costume looks a little thin and cheap. But whoever designed the costumes made them look so cute and amazing (colors of each garment complimented really well with each other that make the costume stand out).. FL costumes are plentiful, colorful, and cute. I love the embedded colorful stones on the qi people’s clothing. General/sister’s red and white costume is my favorite (white over and red under creating an inside out look) and her hats are cute.

Camera/fight scenes: very awesome. I don’t know how to describe it wonderful interesting angling/swinging of the camera capturing unique moments of fight scenes. I want to point out the filming is amazing. Beautiful and interesting. Helped gave more excitement to fight scenes that might have been seen as normal/bland to certain audience.

I’ll probably rate it when I complete it. From where I am at ep24 this drama definitely deserve a SOLID 8.5 rating. (I actually finished the drama but realized I forgot to save this in reviews)

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The title and poster of 3 women hugging each other give away what this drama is about. The last character “她” stands out as it is exactly this character that informs the us that this is a narrative about woman. I usually avoid anything with the slightest feminist content because I’m afraid what it will make me to believe and afraid what it will show me. The first episode put me in tears. Thank god after the first episode there is less I can relate to if not I wouldn’t be able to continue watching this drama. The drama is unexpectedly good, but people who couldn’t understand the main character’s internal turmoil might not like the drama. The problem is that the most logical solution after she save the girl is to call the police. The evidence in the apartment and on the girl’s body can put her parents in jail and the main character could legally adopt her as her own child (I don’t know if that’s how it works in China, but I think that’s how it usually works but I might be wrong). The story would just end right there. But it’s exactly because she is the person she is and she made the choices she did so complications arise and the story unfolds.
I really love a line that the main character said (if I didn’t misunderstood her, my mandarin isn’t perfect). She said, “people say parents love towards their children is unconditional but they are wrong. A child’s love to their parents is what is truly unconditional.” I have never came across anything anywhere that voiced the opposite of the generalization that a parents love is unconditional. There’s some sort of relief when the main character made that confession. But it’s exactly a child’s love towards their parents translates into a parent’s love toward their children. (of course that’s not always the case but it’s beautiful to watch when it is)

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If you like shounen manga like Naruto and jujutsu kaisen you’ll like this show

The drama is really good but I think it’s really good at what it set out to do. I don’t think it’s a traditional Chinese drama in a way. At least for me from the start it felt like I was watching a live action of a shounen manga/anime. From episode 1 the way the setting was established and characters were introduced it had a anime/manga quality about it. So from the get go I had to re-adjust my watching standards and enjoy it the way it was intended . I’m not watching a drama but a live action shounen anime like Naruto. It kinda brings be back to when I was a kid and I enjoyed the shounen genre of anime. I liked it and enjoyed it a lot. I think the music really matches the drama. Loved the opening and the ending. I played the ending song on repeat when I get out of work. It’s fun and it really brings me back to when I was a kid when I had a lot energy and childlike optimism (esp towards friendship). It’s definitely really good but for those who didn’t grew up watching anime they might have a hard time accepting this type of genre. It might seem like there’s a lot of instances of childishness, stupidity, goofiness and it’s not for them. I think people should give it a try. I really liked the gang Chen shi, wang qi, and alibaba. lol 😂 I laughed so hard when alibaba said his name was alibaba. I wasn’t expecting it at all. For those who reads reviews before they watch they’re going to miss out on that part of the comedy. I enjoyed it a lot and I hope others do too. It’s my first time watching ding yuxi. From the moment I laid eyes on his expressive big eyes I feel like he’s a different league of actors. He’s got a lot of potential. I can tell from the way he portrays his characters he’s a serious actor and he loves acting. There’s something really contagious about his performance. Sometimes I think he might be a little exaggerated but most times his expressions are so good and on point. I used to see him as a neo hou-look-a-like. I knew about him because he acted with a lot of other rising stars who I watched before, but I never watched anything that has him in it. So I used to see him as another idol actor, but no I was so wrong he’s got a lot of potential. Performance is embedded in this guys dna. He’s going to be really good when he finally gets a role that establishes him as real actor. For me, he’s like zhang ruo yun, who loves acting/performance and it’s embedded in these type of people’s dna. They type of people who has a lot of raw talent in acting. He should get better roles that hones this guys performance like serious dramas and not idol dramas. I never get bored watching his performance. He’s so interesting to watch. He doesn’t use bland, common, and predictable expressions. He has his own acting style if that makes sense.

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How this drama set itself apart from other xianxia for me

This is a great watch. This is like other xianxia drama that I’ve watched but also feels slightly different. The kind of slight difference that sets it apart from other xianxia. (Funny how a lot of people comment on how it’s different from other xianxia.) It shares all the major similarities with the xianxia genre but for me what set this drama apart is how they added a comical pacing to the drama which breaks up the traditionally serious and extremely “fairy”-like presentation of xianxia. And this comical element isn’t over done, it’s weaved in thru the main leads portrayal, interaction, and character development. And it works (it’s acceptable) without being overly cheesy exactly because it’s portrayed to us from the getgo that the fairy is extremely young for fairy standards, the lowest ranked fairies, and that she’s weak and powerless because of her damaged roots that hinders her cultivation. And on the other hand is the ml who’s much older, the cruel ruthless moon supreme, one of the most powerful beings on their universe, but devoid of any emotion or conscience (literally was plucked out of him.)

The plot is interesting without being too complicated or too simple. There are no backstabbing or dumb misunderstanding that would make this drama unbearable to watch and cliched. Character development is written very well for many characters besides the main leads (Chang heng, Dan yin, and Jie li). Even though the plot is rather straightforward, it’s probably one of the harder dramas for them to act in. Many characters need to act more than one role ( a complete opposite from their original role.) For the ml, major inherent changes in his character literally made him a new person (he’s more himself than he ever was).

The music and soundtrack is awesome. It sounds original and unique, scary, beautiful , and made the scenes more engaging. For example the folk song that was sang by the villagers of the moon tribe when they stood vigil for their lost ones. That made the scene much more sad and beautiful.

And lastly Dylan wang fit his role very well. From his looks to his acting. And I’m not talking about his good looks. I’m talking about how his mean cold angular features fit the face of the evil and cruel moon supreme. Most xianxia has feminine male paired with beautiful goddess which is how xianxia are. But this drama is different and the ml is drastically different. Here we have the ml bring to our eyes a scary and crazy moon supreme, whose piercing cold eyes convey nothing but fury, hatred, and the desire to slaughter.

Not to mention by casting an a class actor like li yi tong it seem to deepen the complexity of the universe the story takes place. Like we know si Ming is there for a very good reason and we will be expecting something from her.

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Applaud to the Structure of the drama and how it ties into its Core message

I finished the last 3 episodes yesterday and I admit I cried a little and a lot of wows and surprises. There were something’s that were a little rushed (ex. Retrying the ending fight scene with the demon queen) but it’s not bad at all. It’s still fine the way it was executed and the message they are trying to convey to us. I think they wanted to focus on using one full episode to explain how the whole drama happened, the backstory that ties everything together. The techniques they used to tell the story is interesting and creative (even if it’s not new). They applied a frame story narrative structure on top of using metatheatre. I don’t know about you but that’s some sick techniques to use. It’s paying homage to literary writing (one of the oldest forms of narrative/literary techniques) and it’s intertwine very nicely to the core message of the story: who said things that happened in a story are illusions/fake. Reality mirrors tales and vise versa. It tells a tale of a person’s journey of learning to love himself first before he knows how to love someone else. Even if the journey might be questionable to you the audience it was real on every level to them. Who said stories are fake? (The literary part of me is screaming at how amazing this drama tied up. I screamed and wowed at everything else of course). Don’t get me wrong the message and techniques they used in the story isn’t new but because I made so many guesses in my head what they had in store was not what I expecting. That’s why this worked. It’s definitely a story better watching for yourself without spoilers (man I tried so hard dodging spoilers). My sister didn’t watch it and I would summarize the drama to her all the time. I was disappointed when she said it was cliched. Honestly you need to watch this drama without spoilers 🙂‍↕️The way the events unfold and the watching experience is what made this one special.

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