Love and Destiny (2019)

A flawed drama but still a 10 for me

It is a struggle for me to give this a rating..... This drama does not have the perfect execution, the plot is full of angst and tragedies too, but in the areas that it is strong in, it is so strong that these inadequacies become negatable.


Its weaknesses
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- Plot is quite old-fashion, and full of tragedies. In Chinese, I would describe it as 老掉牙的剧情。 Especially when FL was a mortal, it felt like I was watching a ‘90s Taiwanese soap opera.
- Inconsistent plot development and pacing. This drama has 3 acts, acts 1 and 2 are well-connected but act 3 felt out of place. Plot development and pacing slowed down a lot in act 3, making the finale felt rushed and left out a lot of details. Giving it a somewhat incomplete (but happy) ending.
- Time and Logic. Unlike AOL and TMOPB, where it was explained 1 year in mortal realm is 1 day in immortal world, there was no such explanation in this drama. Time pass in a very illogical way when FL and ML were in mortal realm. Eg: while everything is progressing in mortal and heavens, when Jing Xiu left FL to go to the wounded princess, he seems to take a very long time to reach her. As an immortal, he could have tele-transported or flew there? And getting the pill to recover the princess' health, shouldn't have taken him such a long time?
- Overdose of background music. Sometimes the background music got too much, that it overpowered the dialogues.
- Hairstyle designs for the men. Hairstylist gave the best bald design and hairstyle for the male villain (Jing Xiu), while ML and the supporting male characters have really boring hairstyles. Hairstyles for female characters are average. Only in act 3 that the FL got a more interesting hairstyle and beautiful costumes.


Its strengths
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- The sets and CGI. It really invested in building the sets for the key places, and director made full use of them in the shoots. In most cdramas we do not get a full view of the houses, but here the wide angle shots and characters movement give you a clear perspective of both interior and exterior of the sets. It makes the houses feel real as you can actually count how many rooms are there on each level. The CGI is also much better than the average Xianxia drama.
- The dialogues. If you understand Chinese, you would appreciate the scriptwriters’ efforts in the writing. Especially Qing Yao’s lines. She has some of the most philosophical lines in this drama. There are a few scenes of Qing Yao’s that I re-watch a few times because the words are so wonderfully written. Unfortunately, subbing is a challenge here. Its English translation can only capture the meaning, the beauty of the Chinese words are lost. The dialogues for comedy effect are very original and exaggerated too!
- The acting. ML and FL gave phenomenal portrayals of their characters. Chang Chen’s God of War is the best that I have seen. He played the silent, stoic God of War very well, and the tender and sweet moments after he fell in love. Ni Ni….. she’s got a very good role with a wide array of emotions, and gave it a best actress level performance. Ethan Li’s Jing Xiu is captivating to watch-- he conveyed his character’s hopelessness, tenderness and sinister-ness just with his eyes. The remaining supporting cast did good work in their roles too, especially FL’s 2 fathers.
- Attention to details. I love-love the little scenes with extra mundane details, of FL doing everyday tasks (cooking, washing clothes, sweeping). In most Xianxia dramas, they only talk about winemaking, here we witness FL preparing the peaches for wine cultivation. These scenes add to the realism of the characters.
- The OST. This is a 60 episodes drama, yet I seldom skip the opening and ending songs. Both songs are wonderfully melodic and express the drama’s theme well (they are written for the drama). A cdrama reviewer has even done a cover of the opening song on Qin https://youtu.be/DgHz88f6z6o


In conclusion, this drama is not the most perfect, but the acting, dialogues, etc are so good that you are left longing for more (wish there are more episodes).

Lire davantage

Great Story and Acting with Solid Background score

The story can great till the FL is sent to Mortal World. It slowed down a lot over there. It picked up only during last 2-3 episodes for me. However I enjoyed watching those slow parts as well. I am not sure what others would feel about those areas.

I don't understand Chinese but I liked the song which was being played in the background. So that was a Huge Plus for me. It is one of those drama where the actors didn't have awkward kisses so that was a plus as well.

The one thing I really enjoyed this drama is that the leads didn't have any major misunderstanding. They were resolute on their stand and showed affection for each other very openly.

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What can I say? I watched this drama because I miss Eternal Love. But I can say this is better than I expected. The whole story was so smooth and not overdramatized. The drama has 60 episodes, but I watched it unknowingly as if it was a 2-hour movie. The story is reasonable and enjoyable. It melts and breaks my heart at the same. The chemistry of both main leads are incredible, plus their acting skill is superb. Main Leads' interaction was so adorable that i wish they were couple in real life. I feel their emotions in their faces. Even CGI looks so real and very beautiful you can imagine it is a real places. The peach forest is so much better than one in Eternal love. I

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I have to say that I really loved the casting for this drama.

I was especially happy to see NiNi as FL since I'd first watched her in Rise of Phoenixes, which was also excellent.

I loved all the actors in this drama, I can't think of one actor or actress that didn't embody their character.

That being said, the storyline was also excellent until maybe the last 10 episodes.

This review has spoilers so don't continue if you don't want to know the ending! Also, for those who are unable to watch tragic movies or shows... this one does have a happy ending.

All in all, I liked how the ending was cutesy....but it felt a bit like being given candy when I'm craving a meal...The ending leaves soooo many questions unanswered!!!!!

At the end, I was not feeling very satisfied, but at least wasn't crying my eyes out depressed because of a tragic ending like in Goodbye My Princess. All in all, the writing was pretty good up until the last ten episodes of this drama like I said-- here are the things I had the most issues with.......................

WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW!

1. I felt like it was a little unfair for the advisor, but they did a good job portraying how characters/people can slowly descend into a darkness they would never have considered in the beginning such as with the female general. Apparently the lesson here is that self-righteousness can lead to complete darkness if it is tainted by selfish motives.

2. I felt that Lin Xi should have been more verbal about her anger at the God of War--I mean he did after all MURDER HER TWICE!

3. It was a little annoying how everyone in the show kept saying that the Spirit-Binding Abyss was IMPOSSIBLE to escape-- and yet a grand total of SIX people (that I recall in this moment) escaped from that place --some of which escaped TWICE.

4. HOW did Lin Xi escape the abyss????? Anyone?

5. How did Jui Chen escape from the bowels of Hell....Literally... and then also AGAIN escape from the Spirit-Binding Abyss??? Thoughts on this would be appreciated since the writers didn't feel that their avid audience had a need to know.

Conclusion:

Good enough to watch, though you might end up bemused by plot points at the end that made no sense....

NOT better than 10MoPB/ Eternal Love

BUT..... Good enough to rewatch if you've already watched Eternal Love a trillion times while angsting for 3L3W Pillow Book to some day make an appearance.

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Wow! Comparable in standard to Ten Mile Peach Blossom but livelier

The ideas of a peach garden, God of War, fighting the demon king, six realms are all ideas from the Ten Mile Blossom. But this drama has its own story line entirely different from the former. It has all the ingredients for a great drama - story, acting, costume, music, computer graphics, directing. And in spite of the intense emotional settings, there are some humorous moments which make me laugh real hard.

I can understand why more mature actors and actresses are chosen for certain dramas - few young ones could pull off the intense expressions of emotions and chemistry that Ni Ni and Zhang Zhen could. There are not that many Xiao Zhan and Wang Yibo - even these two took a while to warm up to their roles in the Untamed.

I knew Ni Ni from the Rise of Phoenixes but I knew nothing about Zhang Zhen. Before I started watching the drama, I did for a moment wonder whether he could measure up to some of the popular drama actors like Hu Ge or Wallace Huo and he did. He acted the character of JiuChen very well - a powerful, responsible, canny, very stern, yet tender and loving God of War who protected the world and capable of harsh action when required. He is equally capable of showing extreme tenderness as well as giving hard, angry, stern looks.

As I started checking up on Zhang Zhen, I realised he was the handsome bandit lover in Crouching Tiger and Sun Quan in Red Cliff. I remember the 2 characters but unfortunately his name was not given much prominence in these movies. But I am sure his talents was recognised as he had a lot of lead roles, and was nominated for and won several awards in movies.

Ni Ni is an excellent actress who can demonstrate different facets of a character. In this drama, she started off as an innocent mischievous playful girl infatuated with the God of War into a mature sophisticated lady, both capable of winning his heart. The lead characters had this amazing chemistry. It was heart warming to see how they relate to each other, and how NingXi coyly seduced JiuChen, and how JiuChen fell hard for her. Their flirting moments were entertaining. Her expression of emotions was just as good as the lead actor.

If we are to nitpick, we will always be able to find some small flaws even with the best dramas, and I can pick one out here. Much as I love most of the costumes, I must say the designer for JiuChen did not do him justice - he is the God of War not a peasant or scholar. And this black cap he wore was terrible.

Finally, I re-watched this drama and love it even more.

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When 'Love and Destiny' run our lives... Gods become human too...

Add this one in alongside another classic Wuxian Drama: Eternal Love/Ten Thousand Miles of Peach Blossoms. These stories are both so mesmerizing, and the Gods and Goddesses so human. They can be just as principled or as petty as the people below them in the mortal world. Happily, in Love and Destiny, we get to see both. The love story works well because the length of this series allows us to see the ups and downs and watch as the small flame that kindles between two opposites fans into a blaze of enduring, passionate love. There are others who fall for each other too...and many who try to keep them apart, but it's wonderful to watch how the 'lazy Fairy' and the disciplined God of War, work out their differences.

PROS: Amazing costumes , hair design and outstanding acting talent (how could the bragging, full-of-himself God of Thunder make me smile so much whenever he tried to out-do Jiuchen?😂). Ni Ni who plays our Fairy, is such a beautiful woman and she manages to wring her face into impish smiles & haughty pouts without being clichéd. Excellent actress. As for our God of War, I haven't seen him before, but Chang Chen didn't quite have fun with his part until the last third, when he'd learned to smile and savour life & love...all for Ling Xi.
Also liked the world the writer created. There were rules in the heavens which made it easier to understand the characters' motivations when they followed them...or how serious it was when they broke them.

CONS: Just one. I really did appreciate the subtitlers on the streaming site who offered us some backstory about customs or objects we might not understand. For example 'the 'Shwuanxi Double Happiness Lamp' for engagements. However, I did have a problem throughout the series with the non-immortal language that kept popping up. Here we are in the Heavenly Realms where the Gods have self-cultivated to a 'higher order of being' and then suddenly, their words are translated into our own no-so-high modern american speech. The subbers gave us : "done deal", "Little brat", "A pain in the ass", "long time no see", "Do your thing" and.... coming from the mouth of a Princess: "Is that bitch here?" Even The Immortal and very ladylike Doctor Quinhao tells her brother to "Shut up!". Totally out of character. For me, this breaks a wall somewhere between the viewer and the characters. I am immersed, enjoying and believing the story of our Gods and Goddesses, where time is in thousands of years, and then, when I hear modern-day slang, my brain trips a bit and takes me outside the story , reminding me that this moment isn't real. It breaks the trust we have in the storyteller and the tone of the drama suddenly drops. We are not in the high heavens anymore but on the lower-east side of New York.
A small point maybe...but this show in particular would have been much better without the intrusion. But all in all I absolutely LOVED this series. Brava!

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stereotypical story done right

Love and destiny, disregarding the horrid English title, is truly wonderful drama with engaging plot, fantastic acting, nice visuals (even though I noticed that some complain about their, especially male, hairstyles) and music and surprising lack of traditional plotholes and horrendous editing. Even though the ending was a bit rushed it still retained the coherence of the story. Love and destiny is genuinely worth your time.

The story is not original, of course. On one hand, there is the mythology, on the other hand, as far as I know, Love and destiny was the director´s third (?) attempt on the three-lives-same-love narrative. Not to mention is a love story in Chinese fantasy realm, there is only so much originality you can put in it. All its genres have their set of narratives, stock characters, subplots, motivations etc. Love and destiny, however, does a great job in delivering them. The drama plays around and subverts nicely various tropes and clichés connected with this type of story (and generally fantasy-romance drama), making them seem a bit fresh and more realistic (nice example is of course main couple falling into the overused category of older powerful male & young naive girl; but also Shi San-Si Ming story etc.).
So you don’t have to turn your suspension of disbelief on maximum, accepting the fact that "the plot-said-so" is a valuable narrative device and instead you can enjoy the logical and wholesome journey and interactions of well-rounded characters (not only the main leads but also side ones ).
Most of the characters have an inherent flaw, or at least dominant trait that determines their behaviour (being it rigidness, pride, low self-esteem, inability to let go of the past or laziness) and moves the plot. The value of character, so to speak, is then based on their ability to understand this flaw and, at least try to, overcome it (apart from the ML, of course; I do like him but he is quite set in his ways… well, he is the ML and not the youngest of gods). If they try to, overcome it or at least accept it, they are the "good" guys (not only main cast, but also side ones such as Lin Mo sister). If they remain blind - you have tragic ones (such as the Queen of Shang Ling or her daughter) or the bad ones (even though it can be argued that even those are mostly tragic). Again - quite normal narrative device but in the dramaland not so common, unfortunately.
There is quite a number of “bad guys”, however, not one of them is truly evil – even the villainess is portrayed with enough empathy to accept her actions (what I enjoyed is the fact that her obsession with ML is not her only motivation. I would be happier if they omitted it completely or played down even more but still, she has her aspirations and dreams (and traumas) that are independent of ML. And she is rather bitter when they turn into naught. She is… a career woman, so to speak. And yes, we could complain about the fact that the only truly ambitious woman is the bad one, but I think it is better to just note it as a representation of the culture.). Not to mention the God of Thunder – finally an arc where having different opinion (than the main couple) does not mean to be evil. And I must admit, as the story progressed, I came to like him quite a lot, especially his unintentional comedy.

The story itself is engaging – it consists of nice and quite balanced mixture of comedy, tragedy, love, fantasy, action, and a bit of mystery. It is essentially a bildungsroman – the story of a girl growing up into adulthood, responsibility etc., but also of an old man overcoming his occupational burn-out mixed with depression and PTSD. Apart from their individual journeys and common rom-com, there is the arc of demon tribe and great wars, side love stories and all the little bits from everyday heaven realm life which are truly endearing and help to evoke the stagnant time of the Heaven, where the life span is measured in ten of thousands of years. On a side note; the timeline, generally, is wonky and I had quite of lot of trouble to determine whether it was hours, days or years that passed between certain events. Can be annoying but in hindsight, maybe intentional.

The only real problem I had with the story is the ending. The last arc, in contrast to the first two was unbalanced, relied quite a lot on telling and even though you could understand why it happened the way it did, it still felt a bit rushed (in comparison to other drama in similar situation still a very good job). I guess this was due to technical issues and various… bureaucratic reasons and not because of laziness or fatigue of the authors.

As for the acting… it was just fantastic. No awkwardly standing actors with absurd dialogues acted out in a manner of four-year-old. Even the "cute" (i.e. kitschy) ones were bearable, the speech and expression human - so refreshing!
Love and destiny is quite often more about showing than telling, as it is supposed to be with visual media. (Chang Chen was in this regard a treat, of course - to convey so much with so little - truly wonderful!) The only sad thing is that I find it so strange, even though it should be the standard for acting profession, should it not?
As for the chemistry, I enjoyed it quite a lot, whether they were silly, flirting, serious or in love. Especially their interaction in ep 50 and 51. Big applaud to the actors and the director & screenwriter for embodying the whole thing without much description (that came latter from other characters, unfortunately... but still) or even dialogue.
On the side note – I was surprised to note that so many viewers were unhappy about ML appearance, or age. I think, as many others do, he was perfect for this role, which is the most important. As for his looks, I personally enjoyed that he doesn’t look like a 15-yo lead singer from a boy band but still - I think his (or anybody else´s) youth, beauty or attractiveness should not have such an impact on rating a show.

Overall, it is a worthy addition to the world of Chinese fantasy drama that should set standards for acting and character development; if nothing else.

Lire davantage

While it was entertaining and beautiful drama and it did execute well, I personally am disappointed with the last few episodes. I felt it rushed too fast and sometimes slow paced. Some plots don't make sense to me. I think the age is a little ridiculous, and yes I know it doesn’t matter as long as they love each other. Despite these ones, it had a good storyline that didn't have melodrama. This drama has great cinematography and settings, which are strong points. I praise their acting as they did well with their emotions and facial expression. Ni Ni’s acting is a champ. I like how their love is powerful and beautiful and able to break the barrier. The production values are indeed top match since the design of costume is appealing. The OST is amazing. Overall, I enjoyed watching it, and it had good potential. I don’t like the ending because it was very flat and we don’t know how he gets out. I am very disappointed the second strongest person barely has action scenes. I recommend this drama if you like beautiful love stories.

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Tedious

Chang Chen was too old for this role and it had nothing to do with his looks but with the story that they were trying to sell us, particularly when the FL's acting looks so amateurish when juxtaposed with Chen's many years of experience. That more than anything pulled me out of the drama and despite attempting to watch it several times, I couldn't bring myself to care about any of them.

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看了精简剧情视频解说后只能说太狗血了。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。

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