Zhu Yan (2023)

Started not that bad to finish as a big disappointment?

For someone who is new to xianxia genre...i can definitely recommend this drama but for someone like me who is at his 10th or 15th cdrama of this genre i don't know.
I can't say it's not worth the watch. The lead actors did a good job with their roles. And i found it pleasent to get like a mortal perspective....usually it's all about the heaven realm, the gods of this or that, fairies, demons etcc. Here we see immortals and humans together. The production was also good and high quality.
BUT!!!!! I am soooooo f***ing TIRRRRRREEEDDD of this kind of ending in Xianxia genre dramas. Tired of seeing the ML die to protect his beloved or the world. First can't the woman also be the one dying and the guy is the one staying behind all sad? Can't they just find a way to defeat the evil master and be happy together? Can't the both of them die? Or CAN'T THEY JUST LET THE GUY DIE AND LEAVE US CRY IN PEACE?? What's the thing with an image or spirit or the resurrection of the ML and then BOUM end of the episode.
Seriously i'm now tired of xianxia...I love the genre but if it's to get this kind of ending AGAIN I feel reluctant to start another one.

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cliches abound

i've been looking forward to this drama since it was first announced. xz in a xianxia drama again? sign me tf up!

or so i thought.

the drama had its moments, which makes it a lot more difficult to review. if it were boring from start to end, it would be easy to write off. however, there are pockets of good acting and writing, but these are few and far between that my interest in the drama was like a coma patient that wasn't allowed to die.

the female lead is awful. i wonder how on earth the directors and producers thought that she would be able to carry this role. i place the blame on them, not her. the character comes off as shallow, that is largely the fault of the writers who gave her the internal voice of a toddler (during her teenage years) and then a simpleton (when she grows older). however, the actress bears responsibility for her acting choices. for example, in the scene where she's supposedly angry at her friend being mistreated, the way she portrays anger is to clench her fists and glance around with a slight frown. there's no depth to any of the emotions she's portraying.

another problem is the way the character faces lots of problems, but bounces back or is consoled so quickly, often within the same episode. the end result is that none of her hardships ever seem to have an effect on her, so it's hard for the viewers to care either because she'll be fine again soon enough.

but the female lead is not the worst part of the drama. i don't know what happened to xiao zhan in between oath of love and this drama, but my god i cannot believe i am watching the same actor. why is he so stiff? his expressions are so weird all of the time. he has a lovely tall and slim body, but the costuming department has buried him in shapeless gauze unlike other costume dramas.

when the two leads are on screen together, it's vomit-inducing. shi ying is supposed to be younger than 18 in the first few episodes, but he looks and feels like a 30 year old man meanwhile ren min looks 15 and behaves like she's 8.

i managed to tolerate the drama up to episode 26, but this is the end of the line for me. barely anything happens. sure, there's a bit of palace intrigue about the queen and bai xuelu, but it takes up perhaps 5% of the runtime? perhaps it's because i cannot buy the romance between the ml and fl, so the constant push and pull of him trying to get rid of her, her saving him or helping him, him deciding to keep her around because he owes her etc - how many times does it have to play out? and honestly, shi ying's attraction to her zhu yan really disgusted me given that her mental age is frozen at 8.

to be fair to the drama, some things worked really well. bai xuelu and bai xueying's dynamic was really interesting. i enjoyed their interactions with each other, shi yu and qing gang. mermaid guy was handsome and a good actor too, in fact the way he was styled made him look more like the lead than any other character. i thought chong ming would be an irritating character, but it was nice to see how he could be playful without coming across as developmentally challenged (unlike the fl).

dropping this.

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Average plot . Good cinematography . Cute romance with little angst.

This drama left me feeling conflicted at the end 🤧 Took me 6 days to finish this one. Not bad. My actual rating: 8.3/10.

◇The plot: 7.5/10

The plot was just okay and leave much to be desired. I FF many scenes of boring characters that I could care less about ( : Bai sisters & their other halves) .They turned my fav character, Zhi Yuan into this corrupt evil person in the last 2 episodes . Whyyyy him... He was such a green flag walking around so selfless ,kind and understanding for the whole 35 episodes, made him died and wake him up only to make him into this evil -obsessive being that kinda erased all the kindness he did before , I am sad ... :( Also the ending was lacking. That last scene provide more questions than giving us a clear conclusion. I hate it when they ask us to find our own answers with the ending given. Why xianxia's endings are always like this......*sigh*

◇The angst: 7/10

I enjoyed it when my dramas give me lot of heartaches-yes I'm a masochist- it help me feel alive but this one didn't hurt me enough. But I enjoyed the angst present in the last 5 episodes.

◇The acting: 8.5/10

The best acting imo : Xiao Zhan =Alen Fang > Ren Min > Marcus Li. This drama made me a fan of Xiao Zhan & Alen Fang. I will follow their work after this.

◇The romance : 8/10

The romance was cute and.....cute. Considering Ren Min is young I could understand why we only get cute love here like I understand why Wu Lei only hugged Dilreba in TLB. But I need more romance scene between SY & ZY. What we already seen was not enough for me . I need more.. I don't mind the slow burn romance here because they need time to progress from master-disciple relationship to a romantic one but I still think this pair is the slowest leads turned to couple in all romance drama I've seen lol.

◇OST: 8/10

It was not the kind that made me fall in love when I first time hear it . Took me half of the drama to start to enjoy the music. My favourites: Jade Bone Ballad by Hu Xia, Lifetime by Maobuyi & Tell My Inner Emotion -Liu Xijun.

◇Cinematography: 8/10

It was good enough. You need to watch xianxia drama with high resolution video (1080p and above) otherwise all the CGI effect shown will not looking impressive as intended and just look cheap lol. I watched this on VIP -WeTV but I'm not satisfied with the 1080p video quality there. Look more like 720p than 1080p to me.

◇Costumes : 7/10

Just average. Not the best I've seen. I only liked few costumes of Shi Ying and the rest were bland looking. I liked his black attires in the last few episodes the most. I could not remember any Zhu Yan's costume that I like. But I liked Zhi Yuan's costume better. His costumes + hairstyle here made him more good looking. With that expressive eyes too I can hardly take my eyes off him whenever he appeared on screen.

In conclusion, I enjoyed this drama even not to the fullest but it introduced me to the actors that I did not know before. So thats all I wanna say . Just need to record it here before I have amnesia.

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It was like Torture!

If there was one character that truly needed a voice dubbing , it was this female lead character. The whining and childish prattle got on my nerves real quick. Normally I will try to look past it, but I just couldn't this time and just decided to fast forward over it.

I have nothing against the actress personally, but she was just not the right actress to play this part and there was just no chemistry between her and the ML to even make me want to root for them to get together. The actress in the 2nd lead to me is much more suited for this type of role.

I watched the first 3 episodes without skipping but the show was so slow, I started skipping at episode 4 and completed the rest of the episodes in about two hours. I skipped through most of the series only to reach an ending that was ridiculous. I am so glad that I did not invest emotionally in this drama. I mostly watched it for the male lead, because I loved him from the untamed series. This series although beautifully filmed, was poorly written and not worthy of the acting talent brought together for this series. For the amount of talent that this filmed pulled, I expected a better product, but even great actors cannot overcome poor writing.

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Great story

I watched episode 1 through 6 and the story is excellent. The CGI is excellent and the the performances are top notch. The CGI and cinematography is great. Top notch as well. I just read a review in NEWHANFU and they called it the most watchable fantasy drama in 2023. I agree! I started the first episode and couldn't stop watching it till it was finished. Xiao Zhan's latest The Youth Memories hit a record of 30,000 on Weibo and now this one is already at 21,000. During the premiere, it held up to the audience's expectations and it certainly lived up to my expectations so far. Looking forward to more of the series.

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Very Bingeworthy! Watched most episodes in a fast marathon as they came out.

The Longest Promise was a series I waited for a while. So, when it dropped I was quite eager to discover what it was about. I binged the first six episodes like a whirlwind, and wanted to discover more immediately, so that was a good sign for me. After that, I suffered the wait for every episode. When they dropped the last episodes like a gift I was super excited. WeTV dished them out and I was there to eat until 3a.m. in the morning. What's work at 7am?? Let's just binge. ( ^_^) So, on binge-watching, the series hit the mark for me.

On the story, The Longest Promise delivers a very strong character named Shi Ying. I was 100% invested in discovering what would happen to him. Shi Ying carried the weight of the story. This feels like it is his journey, from closed off to outgoing, from indifferent to caring. Zhu Yan comes in to disrupt his carefully crafted world, and break into the shell he has built around his heart. She succeeds and boy was it cute watching him try to explain his feelings to Zhu Yan.
I loved how the director handled Shi Ying and Zhu Yan's relationship. Their relationship was not fast or easy. It was clumsy but full of growth. There was no sense of jumping into a relationship, but felt like two people learning how to connect with each other despite the many missteps and misunderstandings they endure.

Fave Characters:
- Shi Ying - I just love this character. He felt like the most thought out character in this story. His inclusive nature embraces every character and neutralizes some bad actors. He is soft where he needs to be, and hard and ruthless in situations that require it. I thought that was well done.
- Zhu Yan - I love her independent nature. She is a strong female character who does not allow herself to conform to the standard. Although, her righteousness did push my limits at some points. She had some near misses with some of her decisions that annoyed me, she has such a willful nature. But, she comes through and makes the right call where it matters. The book and the series are obviously two different things but, I have grievances. I wish they would have chosen to keep the original story line for Zhu Yan and Shi Ying.
- Chong Ming Daren - I love, love, love this majestic bird. I love his character so much, I just think it was perfect. He's the best friend everyone needs. That's whats up!
- Qing Gang - So, his loyalty to his love is amazing, rare and amazing. I love that his loyalty rewards him and he finds happiness.
- Visuals and CGI - The final fight had me glued to the screen with my sleepy bleary eyes, hardly able to look away. I loved it that much. The Longest Promise does deliver on the visuals. The only struggle of note was the water world when Zhu Yan would enter it with her merman. (that was hard.)

Struggles:
- Director-nim, I am sure there is someone in director school that keeps teaching to make an ending that is poetic or something. I am not into poetic ends. I love and support satisfying, smiling-inducing ends, especially after all the angst.
Shi Ying already stamped and signed the poetry, I'm all good with poetry. So, Director-nim should have given a clear ending. A clear smile-inducing ending. This one was good, just, there is nothing wrong with cooking up episode 41 showing how Shi Ying is ruling Kongsang into peace with Zhu Yan ruling him (hahaha) so she has all the power anyway.

In Conclusion
The Longest Promise delivers on an epic glance into Kongsang, a fantasy world, and the amazing characters who fight to protect it. The biggest guardian of this world is Shi Ying, who has suffered multiple grievances. Zhu Yan comes out as the character who loves this lonely character and gives him the strength to stand up against a diabolical villain. I loved their journey together, and hope you will too.

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avoid this drama

Caught this drama on Netflix a couple of months ago. Noticed all of the 10/10 ratings people were giving this drama so had to set the record straight. I am guessing it was a bunch of AI chatbots hired by the studio that are giving this drama high ratings.

I actually watched up to episode 18 of this drama but it was so boring and the story so bad that I started fast forwarding and skipping episodes just to get through this awful drivel. It looked like the producers spent some money on this drama since the CGI and costumes were of excellent quality, but wow was the plot bad. As others have pointed out, the female lead was so whiny and constantly pining for her master that she was annoying to watch. Even Xiao Zhan who I have enjoyed in other dramas, was annoying to watch in this one.

Gave this drama a 2/10 solely for the production quality and CGI which were good, everything else about this drama was bad though. Even noticed this drama showed up on some "worst dramas of 2023" lists on Youtube which I tend to agree with. Avoid this drama, there is much better stuff out there to watch.

Lire davantage

Great Watch, you went be disappointed.

If you like fairy tale drama your will love this.
The chemistry between the main lead was great, It pulled me in like a sucker, earning for more, the fight scene was good too, I lt was refreshing to see actual fight scene without the use of too much magic, I can't take the smoke and mirrors style fighting!!! so I was happy to see some kick ass fight scene in this.
I particularly liked when the main lead tried to hide his affection for the female lead knowing he is falling for her! Then when another line interests came into play, he started getting jealous, typicall men in real life lol.
I wont write too much, but give this drama a watch, you won't be disappointed. 😉

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Too long a promise

March 2024
A cursed yet fated love, scheming and treachery within Royal families, clans, strategic alliances and marriages, a higher realm, cultivation, tragedy, Merfolk, and Gods, kind of wraps this up in a nutshell.

The title is very apt. This drama went on for way too long, being really drawn out at times.

However, the sets were gorgeous, as were the costumes and the main cast. I loved the idea of the story, but goodness me it was chaotic at times.

Xiao Zhan's (aka Sean Xiao) character as male lead, Shi Ying, reminded me a little of his co-star's role in The Untamed, at times. In honesty, he was what got me through this drama. A tragic and wronged childhood, leading to a monastic life cultivating his spiritual power.

The female lead (Ren Min as Zhu Yan) character, whilst exuberant, stubborn and spoilt, but kind hearted, I unfortunately found REALLY irritating. She was also too immature, clueless, had the usual childish voice and always thought she knew better. Many of her antics were devoid of any thought process at all and, frankly, eye rolling. I wasn't keen on the actress either, finding her kind of amateur at times (her dancing was beautiful though). Zero chemistry with Xiao Zhan.

The supporting cast and characters were rich and varied. Besides XZ , I had some favourites... Fang Yilun (Alen Fang) as Zhi Yuan. He was captivating and portrayed his part really well, I thought. Marcus Li as Chong Ming was amusing and lent the drama a fair bit of light heartedness. Wang Zi Qi as Qing Gang, had the patience of a saint and was a really steadfast and humble character that I liked.

The more mature females were strong characters, but as fitted with the times, the younger ones were powerless pawns really; only 1 stood out to me and it wasn't the headstrong lead.

There were lengthy and contrived build-ups to quite a few of the storylines within the plot, almost all of which culminated in rushed conclusions, that I found disappointing and unsatisfying.

There were also a number of occasions when continuity was lacking and the plot was poorly adapted to move the story forward. The FL's character was all over the place.

It's a real shame, because this could have been excellent; it had all the right ingredients to be.

The ending was unexpected. I wasn't entirely happy with it either, but that's a personal taste thing.

I found the music didn't always match and the C-drama habit of dubbing the actors for accent purposes, was very 'breathy' in this.

If you can overlook these things and enjoy a quite sumptuous, melodramatic romance Xianxia, then you may well love it.

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