Great story, funny, romantic, emotional, definitely entertaining

fuhtogruhfer

Not quite sure how I found out about this Chinese fantasy drama but thankfully, I did. I'm a bit late to the game and not all that familiar with the background but from what I understand now, it was a book or web based story that was turned into an anime series. It's now been recreated live for the screen.

At first, it's a lot to take in. I'm not familiar with Chinese shows so wasn't quite sure what to expect. There's a lot of information in the first few episodes and they're more on the silly/fun side. I was worried the whole show was going to be like that but it's not at all. It really builds who the characters are and the relationship foundations. I think it was around the mid teen eps where it started to become more serious and at some point along the way, I became so hooked. This is a binge worthy show which sucked because there are 50 episodes. I did not want to stop watching at all!

The special effects can be quite funny at times however the acrobatics are cool, fun, interesting and overall, you forget how low budget some of it seems. The costuming is absolutely gorgeous. It's almost like they put the biggest part of the budget towards costuming rather than CGI. So worth it.

The dynamic between the main character, Wei Wuxian and his significant counterpart, Lan Wangji, is beautifully developed and told as well as his familial bonds. The story creates these breathtakingly heartbreaking, emotional scenes that balance well with the lighter humourous scenes in between. I was impressed by the main actors range and with the limited facial expressions of Lan Zhan, that actor really did a great job in expressing so much by doing so little. Excellent!

There's a lot to the story and a lot of characters which I had a hard time keeping up with. I'm now watching it again to catch what I missed and the show is just as good, if not better, the second time around. This is an intriguing, entertaining, addictive show that you will stay with you even after it's over. I highly recommend giving it a go.

score 10/10

fuhtogruhfer 2 March 2020

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw5522075/