Starry Love is a beautiful xianxia drama about sister bonds and love.
This drama is fun, heartwarming and in my opinion easy to watch for a xianxia.
Starry Love exceeded my expectations. Definitely worth to watch if you are a fan of xianxia.
The story is pretty slow paced in the beginning, but does pick up. Starry love doesn't have too much angst.


STORY:

There are 4 realms in this world. The Immortal Realm, Void Realm, Beast Realm and Mortal Realm.
Twin daughters were born in the Mortal Realm for the Emperor and Empress. When the younger, Yetan was born, the Empress died from childbirth and in the stars there was an ominous sign that Yetan would bring chaos to the mortal realm. The Mortal realm wanted Yetan dead, but instead the Emperor decided to bethrone her to the Void Realm, as he had also promised the oldest, Qingkui to be bethroned to the Immortal Realm.
Qingkui was treated well, and she grew up to be kind, gentle and refined. Yetan was an outcast, she was hated, she wasn't allowed to learn and people tried to assassinate her and leave her without food. The Emperor often threw her to the dungeons. She grew up to be unruly and rebellious to protect herself. Even with the differences in their quality of life, Yetan and Qingkui were always close, So when the time for their soon-to-be husbands to come and collect them was nearing, Yetan wanted to be able to protect her sister by stopping her from having to marry to the Immortal Realm.


SPOILER PART OF THE STORY:

Yetan runs into Empyrean XuanShang (Shaodian Youqin) the night before the collect day of the two princesses and acts as Qingkui. She tries to stop the wedding, but her efforts are in vain. They witness an assassination attempt of the First Void prince, Wudai and therefore fight with the culprit, Third Void prince Chaofeng.
The next day, Yetan makes a plan with her friends, The Beast prince Di Lan Jue, and ManMan to kidnap Qingkui, so she can live a carefree life. Di Lan Jue decides that he wants to kidnap Yetan too.
When Di Lan Jue is creating a distraction, Man Man goes inside Yetan's bridal carriage but suddenly Yetan and Qingkui are switched by Chaofeng, in the fear that if Yetan was to go to The Void Realm, she would destroy his plans, yet he cannot kill her either. Yetan's plan fails and Qingkui heads to The Void Realm, and she heads to The Heavenly Realm.
Chaofeng explains to Qingkui why they were switched, but blames it on his second brother, Dingyun, making him the one who tried to kill Wudai and the one who switched the carriages. Chaofeng tells Qingkui that if Yetan comes to the Void Realm, she will be killed. Yetan and Qingkui agree to pretend to be each other. Soon after, Shaodian Youqin has to go to fix Guixu. Guixu is an ancient force, if unsealed, will bring chaos to the world. When Shaodian Youqin is in Guixu, Void Realm takes advantage of the situation and tries to invade Immortal Realm. Shaodian Youqin returns from Guixu, badly wounded, and protects Immortal realm with his last powers and dies. Shaodian Youqin's last three soul shards fell into the mortal realm. These three were his discarded emotions, so Heavenly Emperor is against the idea of reviving Shaodian Youqin with his emotions that he discarded.

Yetan, Di Lanjue, ManMan and Shaodian Youqins siblings, Qingheng and Xiwu escape the Immortal Realm to go look for the shards to revive Shaodian Youqin. Yetan must get all three shards to fall in love with her.
At the same time, in the Void Realm, Chaofeng and Qingkui fell for each other. The Void Tyrant has given his sons a new order, the one who kills Shaodian Youqin will be the next crown prince of the Void. Chaofeng hears about the Empyrean Consort Yetan being in the Mortal realm and that there seems to be a "Fire Demon" that looks like Shaodian Youqin. Qingkui soon hears about Chaofeng's plan and goes to meet up with Yetan.
Yetan manages to get the first shard La Mu, who is kind and innocent, to fall in love with her and Qingkui manages to stop Chaofeng from killing him. Soon after, Yetan finds the second shard, Mei You Qing, who is cold and greedy. He only has eyes for money. After pestering Mei You Qing enough, he falls for her too and even agrees to lose all his money in order to save Yetan's life. The last shard is Wenren, an elegant playboy who seduces women. Yetan manages to catch his attention, and he falls for her too. When the shards know about the reality of the situation, they are sad and angry. Yetan sends them all a letter telling them that she is actually Yetan, a princess who met Shaodian Youqin by mistake but fell for him. She tells them that she is letting them decide their own fates and that she is leaving with her sister and others and if they want to come with them, they promise to keep them safe from everyone. When Yetan, Chaofeng and his mother and Qingkui are under an attack by the second prince Dingyun, the shards come together to protect Yetan and combine themselfs to revive Shaodian Youqin. He kills Dingyun and goes back to Immortal Realm with Yetan. In the end, Heavenly Emperor finds out about Yetan's identity too and Shaodian Youqin leaves the Immortal realm with Yetan and they reunite with Chaofeng and Qingkui.

The sisters are under an attack, Man Man died protecting Yetan and Husui, Yetans servant/friend saves them by awakening their true powers. Yetan can absorb Impurity and Qingkui purity. Yetan and Qingkui are actually twin flowers from the Ganoderma Vein, a sacred tree that belonged to the Dongqiu tribe. Dongqiu tribe was wrongly accused of wanting to bring chaos to the world with the help of the sacred tree and therefore was wiped. The legend says that the twin flowers can open the seal of Guixu together and bring chaos to the world.
The Immortal Realm and Void Realm hear about the true identity of the girls, and they gather the four realms together to make a plan to kill the girls. Emperor of the Mortal realm is opposed to the idea of killing the girls, but as they are weak, they are unable to do anything. The Beast realm agree to help but due to Di Lan Jue and Yetan's friendship, The Beast King and Queen turn a blind eye and they let the sisters leave beast realm.
The Heavenly Emperor tries to blackmail the sisters to surrender by threatening to hurt the mortal realm. They go to Immortal realm to strike a deal with Void Tyrant and Heavenly Emperor. The Heavenly Emperor agrees, because The Heavenly Empress is on their side. Heavenly Emperor and Void Tyrant deceived them and captured Shaodian Youqin and Chaofeng and were ready to kill the sisters, when Qingkui pleaded them to let Yetan live. Qingkui explains that the Guixu can only be opened if they are together, and that the powers they possess will disappear when one of the sisters dies.
Qingkui takes her own life and Shaodian Youqin sends Yetan to the mortal realm and he and Chaofeng are captured by their fathers. Heavenly Emperor inflicts Shaodian Youqin with oblivion stake and he forgets Yetan. Chaofeng is thrown into the dungeons. Yetan grieves the loss of her sister and, with the help of Husui, revives a flower spirit of Qingkui. Yetan decides to get revenge after getting her powers back, and she heads to the Void realm. She saves Chaofeng and kills The Void Tyrant, becoming the new ruler. Yetan gives Qingkuis flower spirit to Chaofeng. After hearing about Yetan, the Heavenly Emperor tells Shaodian Youqin to go kill the "demoness". He is unable to kill her and after getting back to Immortal Realm, he remembers her. Yetan comes to Immortal Realm and rejoins with Shaodian Youqin. She lets Heavenly Emperor to keep his life, but destroys his cultivation. Husui isn't happy about not getting revenge for her tribe members and for her parents, and steals the flower spirit of Qingkui from Chaofeng and lures Yetan to Dongqiu, near the seal of Guixu. She hurts Yetan and they go inside Guixu. Yetan sees the truth about the twin flowers and sacrifices herself, explaining to Shaodian Youqin that the only way to neutralize Guixu is with the powers of the twin flowers. They were never going to bring chaos, they were supposed to end it. The drama ends with Qingheng becoming the new Heavenly Emperor and Wudai becoming the new Void Tyrant and Youqin and Chaofeng living in Dongqiu, waiting for their wives to be revived from the soil of Dongqiu.

MY OPINION:

The story itself is interesting with familiar Xianxia troupes. In my opinion the search for the shards was fun but in a way really rushed. They used a lot of time to show the story of the first shard but the last shards story and pursuit of him was quickly over.
The sisterly bond of Qingkui and Yetan was heartwarming, as it was refresing to see sisters that had a real relationship and no misunderstandings or betrayals between them. Yetan never blamed, envied or hated Qingkui for being the loved princess. They had mutual feeling of wanting to protect one another. As a big sister myself, it was touching and the only time i cried during this drama was the moment when Qingkui took her life to save Yetan's. The only problems i had with this drama was the fathers. I could not really forgive the Mortal Realm's Emperor for what he did to Yetan and i dont really agree with how fast Yetan forgave her father for the years of abuse. But what i cannot accept at all is the fact that Heavenly Emperor wasn't thrown into at least jail, even after being maybe even the worst father of the drama. Even Void Tyrant didn't seem as heartless. The fact that Yetan killed Void Tyrant who is her sister's husband's father, but got soft when it came to the Heavenly Emperor only because of her husband and his family.

ACTING:

Landy Li as Yetan,
Amazing performance from her. The perfect casting. She acted as the mischievous yet kindhearted Yetan so well. My favorite acting moment was when she went to the Void and was cold as ice in front of everyone but when she had killed Void Tyrant, she cried and grieved for her sister.

He Xuan Lin as Qingkui,
Perfect. She was so sweet and kindhearted and gentle. Her acting was great in her crying scenes.

Chen Xing Xu as Shaodian Youqin,
He acted about 5 different roles in this drama. The cold Empyrean XuanShang, The sweet innocent and simple La Mu, the greedy and mean Mei You Qing, The lustful womanizer Wenren and the combination of them all, Shaodian Youqin. So many well acted personalities. His crying scenes in the end were so believable.

Luke Chen as Chaofeng,
A cold hearted void prince that falls for the most gentle one. He was a great pick for this role.

a good 8, is what i will rate this drama!