Moonlight mystique as the name suggests the drama is asthetic and elegant themed ...only if they could direct it correctly and a proper production team with good camara-editing skills had done it, it could have been one of the best Xianxia ever !
Also, characters have good backgrounds to make them complex but somehow they ended up being one dimensional !
A clever yet arrogant female lead
A self made demon lord who suddenly became fool in love...
A immortal 2nd male lead who is annoying as hell
A demon 2nd fl who is evil but somehow survives everytime someone tries to kill her(I call this kind of character as cockroach character in donghua lol 😂)...
Problems ---
1)**Male lead**: I don't understand his character....not because he's complex but you can't describe if he's red flag , green flag or white flag ....
When fl's city destroyed, her father was dying he gave her ghost grass that can cause slaughter in the city . He wanted to see if fl becomes evil and consume ghost flower in exchange for human lives . He didn't seemed a kind character he wanted to kill her , didn't help her other than bring her to her father to gather the emotion . Then he suddenly fall in love with her? Why ? As a bossy demon lord who lives his life for revenge and power suddenly fall in love with a human girl ...like "you are the first girl treat me this way " trop ...then suddenly it reveals he was always a kind demon who tries to save others !
ARP is really good in portrayal of bubbly characters are but for serious character he doesn't gives the aura of a bossy character well...
2) **the female lead** : I absolutely love bold and clever female characters but not arrogant ones . I am a Fan of Bai Lu and her acting is spectacular. but Character Bai Shuo has Zero survival instincts . Leave her in Squid game or Alice in borderland kind of worlds she will be the first one to die . She is bold but she doesn't think before she acts . If Fan Yue was not kind imagine how her situation may have become! She orders and shows her feelings directly. Yes I love character growth but Bai Shuo's character doesn't give justice to her complex background....
3) **camara works ** -- camara works is worst here . I don't know the budget but it feels too flashy like short cdramas that only focused in looks ....the set looking cheap too ....the demon lords only have 1 or 2 employees and immortal realm looking like begger sect !
4) **story** -- story wise it's not bad . But the direction already spoiled us on what gonna happen next ! They could have add good amount of suspense and cliff hangers ...but sadly it doesn't makes you eager to know what happens next !
It's neither gives the seriousness of Till the end of moon nor gives the comedic relief like love you seven times or love between fairy and devil ....
They tried to mix both and caused confusion..
I don't understand why they have to explain us what the characters are like ... telling us directly Fan Yue is a kind demon , 2nd lead is immortal yet has demonic obsession...
There are things that I liked as well --
1) different approach to show a demon male lead --a down to earth demon male lead who trusts his subordinates and cares for his girl...
2) dynamic between 2nd ml and 2nd fl is interesting.
3) Of course bailu acting and visuals of ARP is really good and the angsty ost is good as well..
It's not the worst xianxia ..it just didn't meet my expectations !...