Once Upon a Time (2017)

for fans of the drama, please don't overlook the movie because of the poor reviews. i honestly think it's a good watch. i think that people giving it poor reviews are just salty because it really wasn't that bad. however i do recommend watching the drama before the movie.

firstly, the cgi is amazing. everything looks so much better here, it really looks like what i imagined it to be in the novel. the costumes were very eh, some of them looked okay while some of them were very over the top. i think the acting was good, although liu yifei portray bai qian as more of a drunk here, i think that it actually suits her character more haha. yang yang did a good job (but i may be saying that as i am biased)

the music is very fitting with the show, matches the mood. the only two things i really hated was
1. the ending
2. the transition between scenes.

the ending was a mess. that is all.

the editing between scenes was choppy, not smooth at all.

Lire davantage

Condensed Version of TLTWTMOPB

The one thing I found jarring about this film version of TLTWTMOPB, or Eternal Love, is that the story begins sort of in the middle, much like the novel, and fills in the blanks in flashbacks. It wasn't too bad in the sense that there was less characters and subplots to worry about, but it remains a little on the superficial side because it doesn't delve too deeply into that sweeping love story and exemplary acting in the drama version.

If you want a short version of this story then this is the one to watch. Gone are the extra storylines and secondary love characters that made the drama version so long, but with it the sweeping romance that kept us glued to our seats and the spark that made us root for them as well.

Yang Yang is very easy on the eyes and captures the magnetism of Ye Hua, but he is not directed in such a way as to bring out those inner emotions that drove Ye Hua to the great lengths he went for Bai Qian. He is almost, but not quite.

Chrystal Liu is beautiful, but again, I don' think the stakes are high enough in the performances to really make us care for this couple as we should. I feel that Li Chun's part as the evil Su Jin, is depthless and lacks the layers you see in the drama version, which was spectacularly played by Maggie Huang.

The CGI is great and the battle scenes are epic. The costumes were ugly as sin, particularly the wedding dress.

It's difficult to review this film without comparing it to the TV version, which is outstanding, Although you get the gist of the story, it suffers greatly in lack of detail. The ending felt rushed, but I did like the melding of both Ye Hua and Mo Yuan as one character rather than two. After all, the whole plot is about living more than one life to love your soulmate, so it makes sense that the two are one. This is the only thing I didn't feel was handled properly in the drama version.

This movie version was alright, but will only make sense to those that have already seen the drama to fill in the blanks.

Lire davantage

Sooo... yes I did compare it to the drama. How could I not? I’ve already finished the show so there is no way I could not compare them.

The story was definitely rushed as a lot of things are explained later or in a weird flashback that lasts for around 4 minutes. When watching it, I found it amazing how they condensed 4 episodes into 10 minutes for the movie. I originally thought that they would cut some information (such as Mo Yuan and everything before that) but nooo. They just had to cram everything into the movie. And I mean everything (except for a couple small things).
I saw this from another review and I completely agree-- if a person had not watched the show before, it would be complicated and confusing to understand. For someone like me, who has completed the show, it would be easier. When I was watching the movie I always wondered where I was, I'd figure it out and then things would make sense. I suppose this is why I'm rating it higher than it should probably be.

The acting was fine, it was more of the casting that was my problem. I wasn’t a huge fan of actors portrayal of Bai Qian and Ye Hua. If anything I believe it was their looks that was the problem. They looked too young, considering they are supposed to be thousands of years old (Ik it works differently but still) you’d think that they would look a bit older. I’d especially highlight Bai Qian, 1. She’s older. 2. Her personality at the time the film takes place in was this strong woman who likes drinking, a lot. She also as this attitude of not taking crap from anyone. I could not see Crystal Liu as this woman. I fully believe this is due to the fact that she looks perfect for a role as a high school student in a romance drama. Not her fault ofc, I just would've preferred a different casting decision.

Not to mean that I wasn’t entertained. It was actually an interesting movie to watch. Would I recommend it? No. Rewatch it? No. But I didn’t think it was bad. That's why I gave it a 7 (a 7 for a movie is average in my books).

Lire davantage

Tidak sesuai dengan yang diharapkan

nonton ini setelah selesai nonton drama Ten miles of peach blossom. Untuk acting pemainnya for me still OK, tapi ga sebagus yang dibayangkan untuk portrait the character.

saya termasuk penggemar liu yi fei dan yangyang dan sudah menonotn acting mereka di project lain. dan jujur di movie ini terasa kurang dan saya tidak menangkap chemistry mereka.

untuk story di movie dibuka dengan susu yang sedang lari seperti novel yang dibuka dengan scene awal tokoh susu yang sudah berada di langit.
dari segi jalan cerita untuk penonton yang belum membaca novel dan menonton dramanya jujur akan terasa membinggungkan karena banyaknya scene yang langsung lompat dan terasa terburu-buru. ya mungkin wajar karena durasi film yang hanya 1 jam lebih saja. menurut saya better tidak usah dibuatkan film daripada hasilnya seperti ini. untuk efek CGI cukup bagus tapi saya tidak suka kenapa Migu tidak dibuat ke bentuk manusia nya? karena baik di novel dan drama Migu itu sudah berbentuk manusia.. ah! dan juga Zhe yan kenapa mereka membuat kostum mereka seperti itu? karakternya jadi tidak terlihat berwibawa sama sekali. membahas kostum selain kostum zhe yan jujur saya juga tidak suka dengan kostum pernikahan Bai Qian . di ending film pun terasa aneh dimana setelah melawan raja iblis dan Yehua mati scene langsung memperlihatkan Yehua muncul di taman peach blossom..

Lire davantage

Watch it because i'm falling in love with the drama version & because it staring yang yang as ye hua (YH). But never i've regret to watch more than this movie.

Thank GOD i watch the drama version first if not i will completely confuse with the story and everything in the movie. Yeah of course 60 ep drama compress to just 2 hour movie make sense for the story flaws... But still at least make it a little bit understandable or something....

Too much fantasy in my opinion when they describe the heaven and the place where bai qian (BQ) live.

Story: just skip this movie and watch the drama instead

Acting/cast: nothing too special, but yeah liu yi fei as BQ is more beautiful than yang mi in drama version. But for YH, I think mark chao still more suitable than yang yang

Song: not too love it.

Lire davantage

Uhmmmm..... what?

Basically, if you have never watched the series Eternal Love, you might enjoy this movie abit more. As for me, I watched the Eternal Love series first, then read the book and few years later only hunted down this movie. I would say that this movie is not good at all. It is like they are trying to put bits and bits of puzzles of the series together to make a movie starting from after the death of the mortal Su Su. The puzzles they are piecing together are quite choppy and, in certain areas, nonsensical.

I was actually quite amazed with the cuteness of the movie at the beginning, especially with all the woodland creatures etc in Qing Qiu. That was indeed a nice way of portraying it. However, as the movie continues on, I literally skipped on many scenes to fast forward the movie. The ending is also........MEH...

All in all, I would recommend a first watch of this movie if you have not read the book or even watched the series Eternal Love. At least the disappointment ain't that great and your opinion of it would probably differ from me or anyone else that has watched the others first.

Did not really hear all the music for this movie. I only have one song that was a duet by Yang Yang and a lady (sorry, forgotten her name) which I like.

Lire davantage

This is a good movie for those that have not seen the58 episodes drama Eternal Love (Chinese adaptation from the novel "Three Lives Three Worlds, Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms" by Tang Qi Gong Zi). The movie is fast paced and there’s not enough time to give the story prior to the movie’s plot about the last part of the love story between Bai Qian, the youngest daughter of the Fox King, a nine-tailed fox, and Mo Yuan, the God of War. The actors did a good job delivering their characters but, given the fact that since it is a movie and their past interactions were not presented in full, everything was hurriedly compressed and the essence of their love and tribulations to finally be together was a loss for the movie and the actors. Still, great CGI’s and costumes! As mentioned before, this movie will be more enjoyable to those that have not seen the drama. Enjoy it!

Lire davantage

How to make a horrible movie from a beautiful drama

How to turn a 58 episodes drama to 1 hr. 40 min movie?
I was curious that's why I watched it, and the answer I found is: "Let's skip 29 episodes and start from ep30 and make all what happend before as hasty flashbacks that give you no emotion, then let's ruin the most satisfiying scene of FL's revenge, and we can just leave the guy she've been trying to revive for 70.000 years frozen there who cares, let's turn a phoenix god to a peacock, and make everything goes so fast, who cares about new viewers understanding of the story? people who watched the drama will understand what scenes we are referring to. The ending? Do we actually have to give it a clear ending? All what matter is bringing a beautiful FL and handsome ML and let's make sure that they look gorgeous in evey scene that will be enough."

Lire davantage

Qualitatively terrible, but I don't regret it

Movie is qualitatively one of the worst ones I have watched, but I don't hate it. Also, surprisingly, I don't regret watching it. I went in knowing absolutely nothing about the story.

First of all, horrible, horrible writing and editing. The way the story is told is very choppy and jumpy, and it feels like you need to know about the story before watching it. Even if I knew about the story though, the way the scenes are put together and the way they end so abruptly...terrible. The first half was difficult to get through, and I took a pause.

I think the second half is more watchable because there is more action. The movie gets better after that fight with the monster. Also, as the backstory is revealed (albeit still in very choppy ways), the leads develop chemistry-ish. I think I was able to convince myself through sheer willpower and the pretty.

CG is okay since I've seen worse. Everything is very bright colored and fairy tale-esque. I may have seen some of the worst costumes and makeup ever in a production in this movie though lol

Oh, but wtf was the ending? Was there supposed to be a second movie? Also, what was up with the frozen master guy?

Overall, consider watching if you are fan of the leads (not a must) and may be curious about the drama.

Is it worth watching for Yang Yang? I think it was for me.
Does he cry very prettily? Yes.
Has he improved since Love O2O? I think he has a bit in here. He goes from robot to robot that cries pretty.
Bonus: great kiss scenes (rewatch just for those)

If anything, this movie has got me interested in trying out the drama. (Looks wise I prefer Yang Yang, but the drama version definitely has the better actors. Also, this story is more suited for longer format production - drama or multiple movies.)

Lire davantage

I watched this one with a friend who had seen the original drama, while I had not. She had to keep explaining parts of it to me, and even she ended up just skipping through the later part of the film. I marked this as dropped since I didn't watch it all the way through and have no plans to go back and remedy that.

Positive:
The visuals were admittedly nice, particularly the scenery and CGI. The music was fine.

Negative:
I had trouble understanding what was going on even before the skipping, and the film felt like it was trying too hard to condense a complicated story into an oversimplified movie-sized one. What I could get of the story (even based on my friend's description of the drama) seemed like a really cliche marysue love story.

The actors were not good at all - I don't like Crystal Liu to begin with and her acting seemed particularly one-note here, and she had no chemistry with the awkward male lead. They also weren't helped by the bad writing, as the change of heart seemed really abrupt.


If you really love the drama, I suspect there's at least some chance you'll like the film if just for additional content for an IP you enjoy (no judgment, I do that all the time), but there's also some chance it'll disappoint you. My friend wasn't very impressed and told me the drama was much better. If you haven't seen the drama but you like cheesy romance stories that will make you get out the tissues, you might like this one and at least it's nice to look at. But if you're like me and have no connection to the original AND dislike cheesy romances, there's not much there that will be worth your time.

Lire davantage

The CGI and the plot is amazing. What sets this film back to a lower rating tho is the messy start, lousy editing and scripting and the rushed feel it had. The actors did well. They did great making their own roles from the original materials and looked cool in their fighting scenes.

I love the plot so I am considering trying the book novel itself. People might get confusion when they watch it and it is understandable. It will actually take you more or less half the movie duration to actually get the plot... When I realized what the plot really is, I have liked it. I particularly find it interesting and rich in potential. Too bad the reception and overall film creation did not give justice on the beauty of it.

Lire davantage