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Ashes of Love chinese drama review
Completed
Ashes of Love
4 people found this review helpful
by sinnyyy
Dec 22, 2020
63 of 63 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 7.5
Story 7.5
Acting/Cast 8.0
Music 8.5
Rewatch Value 6.5
This review may contain spoilers

Visually Beautiful with Decent Storyline

I really can't say this enters into any of my top drama lists, but was it enjoyable to watch? Most definitely. For cdramas, and well, often with dramas of a certain length, it takes a while for it to pick up but I was hooked from the start. The humour, acting, and premise of the show had me equal parts genuinely laughing out loud and cringing from second-hand embarrassment.

However, after the first half of the show (I would say maybe after they left the mortal realm), things kind of fell flat for me and the storyline kind of lost direction. It lost most of its humour, which was one of the aspects of the show I enjoyed the most. Jin Mi, though weak, I had found charming before, but throughout the second half, I was frustrated with her helplessness and character. I think I lost amount of times I rolled my eyes when she kept yelling "stop fighting!" into the void during the last few episodes with her wide-eyed, helpless flailing.

Run Yu was the one that truly stole the show for me, and also was the character that I felt was the most fleshed out. I felt his happiness and his pain, and truly dreaded when he made those bad decisions because I sympathized and pitied his character (also, major kudos to the actor that plays him). Despite his tragic past and upbringing, he still never achieved happiness - he was the one I rooted for throughout the whole show (though through his obsession with Jin Mi, he definitely made a lot of very dubious, shady choices), and while I guess I'm glad he managed to survive, his ending was disappointing.

The reveal of who killed the Water Deity and the reveal of Sui He's true character was one of the things that just felt anticlimactic for me - I felt Jin Mi would have had a stronger say in reaction to what happened to Sui He, considering how she literally killed the only remaining member of her family, and made her mistakenly kill Xu Feng. The ending of the war also felt anticlimactic and a bit of a copout to me, and just felt like a very typical sacrificial drama trope to solve all problems.

One of the things that truly kept my watching was the aesthetics and visual effects of the show. Definitely one of the best I've seen!
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