Beautiful xianxia drama that may have its flaws but overall is still worth the watch

Before I get into this, I would like to say that negative reviews have had no effect on me and I think Zhou Dong Yu looks the part.

This story follows Shang Gu as she lives up to her role as the leader of the four immortals and takes responsibility for the realms.

The story starts out somewhat stereotypical: Shang Gu needs to get stronger so she trains under Bai Jue. However, the character development was nicely done in this: Shang Gu grows from a mischievous, useless goddess to a powerful, self-sacrificing leader. Bai Jue also begins to open up, and the chemistry between the two is adorable. Shang Gu is like a puppy dog of happiness whenever she's around Bai Jue! The plot also begins to pick up around 4 episodes too, and the story becomes very interesting.

The second life is also neat, but one of my only criticisms of the show comes here: Shang Gu(or Houchi in this life) becomes a bit wooden. Zhou Dong Yu still acts out Houchi like she was the strong female ruler she was, but after 30 episodes it starts to get a little stale and unbelievable. In Xianxia dramas (or any drama, really) I wish to see a lot of character development and growth. Shang Gu experienced emotional and physical growth, but I'm not sensing a lot of emotional growth from Houchi where it feels like there should be some. She still faces problems and reacts to things in exactly the same way for 20 episodes straight. I find it hard to believe that her personality will change drastically when she becomes Shang Gu again too. Despite this, I still enjoyed the second arc.

The third phase (starting from the return of Bai Jue) was both the best and the worst phase. It was the worst because in some places, there were some cheesy and unbelievable scenes, such as (no major spoilers) when everyone stood in a circle around Bai Jue and Jing Zhao and watched everything unfold without reacting. There were some pretty shocking things happening, so the vast majority just standing there like statues kind of took the emotional impact out of that moment for me. Another thing is Shang Gu interacting with Bai Jue during the period when they weren't on the best terms. They basically said the same things for three encounters. Xu Kai's acting saved the day because he has the best despairing gaze, but I feel like they needed to switch up their interactions a bit.

Now for the best parts (and these override the bad parts by miles ). I said above that I may not like Zhou Dong Yu's acting in the third arc, but I was pleasantly surprised. Her acting, like in the first arc, feels lively, spirited, and quick-witted. The second great thing is actually the villain's development. I want to give props to Jenny Zhang for portraying Wu Huan's character with such depth. Her desperation and resignation of fate led her to her actions, and I can even relate with her a bit. Her story was well written and her ending was justified. And that leads me to the third thing. Ancient Love Poetry has one of the best endings that I've seen. All the characters were written off nicely, everyone got what they deserved, and the ending was beautiful. Nothing felt rushed or unsatisfactory. The ending sealed the deal for this drama being a great drama overall.

About the main characters: I sometimes felt Zhou Dong Yu could've acted some parts with more emotion. She's awesome at the cheerful/intellectual/imposing scenes, but her sad scenes aren't totally there yet. Xu Kai is great; he goes from an emotionless True God to a hot-blooded immortal, and he's great at subtly showing his emotions in his third form. Like Zhou Dong Yu, his acting is also a bit wooden at times, but his emotional scenes hit me where it hurts. He's got some great acting abilities. Despite their individual acting, their chemistry was adorable. I also liked the fact that their relationship was not a stereotypical guy-is-the-best-at-everything relationship.

The side characters are a joy to watch in this show. I love them all, from the friends to the villains. They are multifaceted and compelling, and I'm as invested in their stories as I am in the main couples'. Wu Huan is a dislikeable but understandable villain, Yue Mi and Feng Ran are friends with interesting backstories, the other immortals are all people with flaws struggling to do their best, and the Demon Tribe is just another group with its own troubles and stories. Tian Qi is actually one of my favorite characters. They are part of what makes this show charming.

For the animation: the trailer was beyond beautiful, but making every little part look amazing is going to cost a lot of money, and this drama is already CGI heavy. However, this show is the best-edited among long-length xianxia dramas up to and during its air. It really is dazzling and gorgeous.

Overall, Ancient Love Poetry is definitely a drama worth watching, and despite my criticisms, the number of great scenes vastly outnumber them. Also, once you get deep into the story, you want to know what happens next!

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Morally opinionated and emotional story with huge pacing issues

When it comes to the effects of terminal illnesses on patients and modern-day medical research, I haven't seen a lot of C-dramas exploring them in depth. Love is Panacea is a drama that attempts to bring attention to these niche topics by framing them around our main character's story. It tells us the importance of persistence and ethics in medical research and gives hope for the future with a realistic the process of "curing the incurable".

To give an introduction for Huntington's disease, it is a real-life rare neurodegenerative disease with no cure worldwide. People with HD develop uncontrollable "dancelike" body movements and may form problems with behavior, emotion, thinking, and personality. As of 2023, there are multiple promising research efforts into CRISPER, a technique to target disrupted genes, to develop a cure.

At the beginning of the drama, Su Wei An was an aspiring doctor when she found out she had Huntington's. She lost purpose in her life, started to live recklessly with low regard for her wellbeing, and developed a penchant for running away from her problems. We see how meeting Gu Yu Zheng slowly changes her: from persuading her to be in a relationship with him, to encouraging her to become a medial research assistant, to bravely facing the future side-by-side while developing a cure for Huntington's.

Su Wei An's feeling of hopelessness is extremely understandable: she lives with daily disappointment . That's why Gu Yun Zheng is even more impactful: he is persistent, sometimes even overly so, in pursuing what he wants. He was insistent on finding Su Wei An and asking about the reason for her disappearance. His willingness to give up academic prestige and change the direction from glioma, a well-funded and supported topic, to Huntington's, a little-known and difficult topic, is not something anyone is willing to do. His character relays an important message: no matter what struggles we face, never give up hope.

This extends into the way he approaches medical research, which is systematic and thorough, a direct contrast to people such as Du Yun Cheng, Wen Ran, or He Xiao Guang, who are willing to take shortcuts. We see them taking credit for other people's work and conducting careless medical trials leading to issues further down the road, such as table deaths.

Our main character, on the other hand, approaches problems without being underhanded. Both he and Su Wei An are extremely ethical scientists who stress the importance of following a process for research and development and ensuring public safety when treading unknown waters. I personally thought a strong characteristic of this drama, besides its expressive cast, was its portrayal of scientific development and the researchers' roles in progressing it forward. It provides a realistic depiction of the amount of time, effort, and dedication required to prove a small amount of progress (for example, Su Wei An proving that HDQ39 was not suitable for patients with hypertension). The cure developed by our two leads took more than 6 years of research and experimentation. These are seemingly small results in the sense that they yield very little return for the researchers.

Despite strong thematical messages and a compelling performance by most of the characters (Luo Yun Xi especially), this drama has its fair share of problems. The first few episodes in Lacaya were difficult to take seriously because of the poorly-done overdubbing and the ridiculous medical cases, to the point that I considered dropping the drama. Later, some of the villains were a bit too over-the-top and the portrayal of medical parts (surgical operations, medical equipment) were unrealistic and glossed over. Despite these issues, things progressed a lot smoother when they returned to China. There was more candy than sour grapes and I became more invested in the characters, so it became a more addictive watch.

The side characters, especially Su Wei An's mother (played by Cui Yi) and the second lead couple had great backstories, each providing a unique perspective on their lives without overshadowing the main couple or the main discussion topic. They provided the facets of people with their own concerns: medical assistant with a fear of surgical operations due to a table death, a girl who doesn't have a goal in life, and a mom who always smiles to provide stability for her family. These small stories touched my heart, especially the mom's.

The ending was exactly what we'd dreaded but ended on a realistic note with the hope that the researchers' long years of work could finally bear fruit and treat thousands of people in the future. As such, I am happy to give this an 8.5. Despite the issues, the actors' performances and the drama's high-level ideas struck a chord, and the drama itself brings attention to the researchers around the world working hard to develop cures against all odds. If someone told that "love is panacea" within the context of this story, I would believe it.

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Must Watch Lighthearted Esports Drama!

This drama balances issues within the Esports industry with comedy, so the entire show ends up being very lighthearted while showcasing real issues in pro gaming. This is not the first gaming drama to have come out, but it is the first to cover Esports, and what was also unique was how detailed it got when portraying actual scenarios within a game. Even if this isn't League of Legends, the little things in this drama make me think "ah yea, that happens in League too!" If you're into watching people learn and grow within their respective industry, I'd give this one a shot.

The story is relatively predictable in the way that sports dramas are predictable. It follows the story of Tong Yao, the imaginary first girl Esports player, as she rises with her team ZGDX towards the world championship.

I've played League for 7 years, I compete in TFT tournaments, and League of Legends is very much a part of my life now. I do League for fun, but I'll play a few games every day with my friends. In my games, there are different circumstances leading to different consequences, and Falling Into Your Smile captures these in a lighthearted way. These can be small or big things, but I appreciate the inclusiveness. For example, not sleeping until late due to tilt from a bad game is one small thing, and the possibility of being banned from pro gaming due to toxic behavior is a big one. The plot remains fresh because a lot of scenes don't really happen outside of pro-gaming, and even if it does, the drama uses humor to keep the audience hooked. The humor plays a huge part in this show. Tong Yao's interactions with everyone are adorable/understandable, and I have yet to find a scene in the story to skip. The show is not all bubbles and flowers; it puts some weight of certain plot points, such as when Tong Yao was defeated in a practice match and she lost her confidence momentarily. Even though it had no real impact because it was a practice match, the loss of faith that resulted could have been devastating, and as a competitive player, it is very relatable. I heard how this show got a lot of negativity when it first came out from pro players because they thought it was inaccurate, but my response to that is: this drama is meant to be light hearted. It's an inspirational growth drama.

The other big plot point are the games themselves. For those who don't game, the game plots are, to some extent, factually accurate. This includes last hitting creep minions, getting camped by the enemy jungler, being too aggressive, being not aggressive enough, etc. A lot of scenes are tinted with comedy and become relatively low impact, but they are accurate at their baselines. One thing I did find amusing was the gaming cinematography where they suddenly zoom in on a few characters in the game. The cinematography is animated pretty well and I'm entertained, even though I have no idea what's going on, having not played this game.

There is a romance subplot for those looking for that, and while it's moving along slowly, Tong Yao and Lu Si Cheng's interactions are so cute. I could watch Lu Si Cheng tease Tong Yao with his poker face all day long! I'm actually glad that the romance subplot isn't too fast, because as the show stated, she's there to compete, not get a boyfriend. However, you can really see the main characters start to care and fall for each other. The side characters are also quirky and fun to watch, and ZGDX as a team has stolen my heart. The drama shows other teams, not just ZGDX, and the characters from those teams are loveable in their own way too.

Overall, if you're looking for a cute rom-com that takes place within the Esports community, give this one a shot! It is definitely the best gaming drama I've seen, and it takes a nice dive into the Esports world. Add that to the fact that the characters are super cute, and you've got yourself a show!

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Very emotional, but falls off a cliff

This drama starts out impactful, and I immediately fell for Shao Zhen Rong. He and Du Xiao Su were so cute together and they have one of the strongest chemistries I've ever seen. They really do justify the words that love doesn't develop based on the amount of time couples spend with each other. Their perfect romance is the reason why it becomes all the more devastating when Zhen Rong dies. Shawn Dou and Li Qin do a spectacular job acting out their characters' grief, especially Li Qin. The scenes that she got emotional in made me cry, and I felt like a mess right alongside her. During this time, she and Lei Yu Zheng start interacting more, and watching them heal together from their loss of a loved one is very beautiful. Life still moves on, and they both help each other move towards the future.

Now, what was bad?

In the first 10 or so episodes, the story was mostly between the 3 main actors, and all three of them had outstanding chemistry. However, after Zhen Rong died and Du Xiao Su and Lei Yu Zheng dealt with most of the aftermath, the drama turned into a stereotypical business-politics with terrible side characters. I wasn't really invested in any of the side characters, the show just focused on them more and more, and Shawn Dou and Li Qin got less and less screen time together. Quite honestly, this show is held up by the two main characters at this point, and they're the reason why I watch this show.

I will update this review when the drama finishes, so if they do happen to give the main characters more screen time again, I will be sure to state that. This being said, the story is still quite good in the first 10 episodes, and they have high rewatch value too. It was a huge disappointment that the later episodes didn't match the emotion of the first few, but what was done well was done really well.

Overall, if you're looking for a sad melodrama with a few modern vibes I'd still give this one a shot. Just feel free to drop it around the halfway mark. :)

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