XIAO DUO & BU YINLOU IS THE BEST PART OF THIS DRAMA

Okay first thing first I’m the type to give review on mdl just for dramas I found really entertaining to watch from ep1- to ending. Now that the show had ended, I will give my review for this surprising very engaging drama to me. I watched this drama because of the dark trailer vibe and angst I thought gonna happened 90% of the time due to the eunuch-concubine love story but nope, this drama surprised me with romcom moments and I love it so much. Watch for super non-toxic and hot-cute couple. It’s serious yet not so serious drama I must say. And I love it!

This is my first time watching both main leads on a full drama, before this I did know them from drama clips on YT etc so it’s not that I’m entirely new to both of them but this is their first drama I watched in full until the end. And I love Yukee Chen (Bu Yinlou) and Dylan Wang ( Xiao Duo) so much on this drama. Sure, I can’t say their acting are perfect from beginning to the end but the definitely improved so much throughout the show. Yukee Chen is good with emotional scenes and she can cry naturally & easily imo. Her best scenes that are so memorable to me from this drama were confrontation scenes with the Emperor and emotional scenes with ML Xiao Duo and her father. BYL is very strong, smart, cunning and calculative. She’s not good at martial art like XD but she’s definitely strong willed and not the type to be bullied as well. In fact, the bullies are the ones who need to be scared with her comeback. If people hit her, she will definitely hit them back on the spot. I love this kind of FL in cdramas. I will drop dramas I’m watching if I feel like FL is too stupid, I only like smart people. And BYL is exactly the character I like to watch in dramas. I’m so satisfied to get this kind of FL who’s actually useful to the plot and helping the whole scenes along with ML.
Dylan Wang as Xiao Duo is a good match! He indeed looks suave while doing martial art scenes. He just nailed it with his posture and movements. Dylan is still young but I can see great potential in him. His memorable scenes in this drama are of course his fighting scenes whoa I repeated few times before I moved on to next scene, and his lovey dovey scenes with FL. He also has mature looks, so he can look older than his age with correct expressions. I think he did so well as XD. ML is a very smart, cunning and calculative person as well. XD and BYL actually have so much similarities in character imo, so their synergy are really good and they can simply understand each other’s plan when they’re scheming something. These two are too smart that they can’t even fool each other. Yet despite how cunning and calculative they’re, I like that they’re not toxic to each other. At first they did used each other for support but that’s before they fall in love. I love how these two didn’t have stupid misunderstanding because they just know each other very well. I’m satisfied with the romance despite the cuts (yes there’s many cuts due to censorship) but even without those cuts, the romance is still there. Despite all this ‘forbidden love’ thingy, don’t worry, these two especially XD didn’t even try to hide their relationship? He only tried to deny BYL’s feeling once but after that, he’s on full flirting mode with her till the end. He’s so hotly ‘dark’ looking on the first few episodes but once he started to have feeling for her, oh my this cold-hot-ML trouple turning into hot soft-husband to his wife will always make me melt. He didn’t even care if anyone in the Imperial City knows about them. Their romance is the best thing in this drama imo, I stick to them till the end because they totally worth my time. I think their chemistry is really convincing, no one can convince me otherwise. They’re cute and hot together. XIAO DUO AND BU YINLOU IS THE BEST PART OF THIS DRAMA!

okay plot wise, I’m majorly attracted to this forbidden love between eunuch-concubine because I had watched Serenade of Peaceful Joy and damn the angst between the Princess and her eunuch there was heart wrenching but I love that this drama made some plot twist. They made it lighter romcom, yes there are very serious moments here and there, you will get scared and creeped out by the Emperor because damn he’s SO CREEPY! Too obsessed with FL. Peter Ho did amazing job here because I cursed him so much throughout the show. Like seriously, he’s good!
But everytime there’s serious scenes, this show will manage to lighten the mood with comedy after it, so you don’t get traumatized. It’s light not light, serious not serious to me. I like it that way.

About the cuts, at first I was mad but after knowing how they only passed the censorship after 3rd time, I’m just thankful that they managed to release this. You can check out the discussion section here, the cuts to fill in your imagination will be there. That’s some high quality cuts YOU MUST WATCH (lot of kissing?) or else you will miss out the good stuffs, this is important!

I will assure you that you will be fine with the ending. Some plot holes here & there which is expected to me but as long as my CP is okay I don’t really care about anything else, as simple as that. To me this show is a MUST WATCH for news stans of Dylan Wang and Yukee Chen. Good performances from both of them and shout out to Peter Ho for being effective psycho.

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Special for ‘She Fell First He Fell Harder Trope’ sucker like me?

I simply love it!

For those who are sucker for she fell first, he fell harder trope, this is perfect for you.

Acting:
I personally think both leads have very good acting. They acted so well together with good syneryg. I’m a fan of ML, Miles Wei and I can confidently choose FL here Huang Riying as his best leading lady in term of acting and chemistry. He’s quite a king of chemistry but it’s on another level here imo.
I had watched 2 works of Huang Riying before this, both were more to comedy that she’s good at but in this drama I can also see her nailing emotional scenes very well. She’s very expressive actress imo. I look forward to watch her more. I’m glad to see her list of upcoming works and she’s getting better projects in S+ level drama.
Miles Wei & Huang Riying nailed Tang Yu & Tang Xin perfectly since I also read the original book.
Good acting, good chemistry and a big bonus…. they’re so visually pleasing to looks at when they’re together. Gorgeous couple imo. My eyes have been blessed watching them towards the end of the year 2023 lol

Plot:
As you can read from the synopsis, the plot is simple and you don’t have to expect extravagant plot twist whatsoever. Just enjoy the romance, occasional comedy and most important…expect to watch push and pull before they get together. FL is someone insecure and in disbelieve that the ML that had rejected her suddenly courting her back. Some viewers get annoyed by her stubborness but I understand her POV so I just enjoyed the ride.
Yes this is cliche romance but some people watch romance for the clicle anyway. I personally think this drama is cliche done right.

OST:
One of plus points for this drama!
The OSTs they used, I love it all. I sometimes purposedly listened to the opening and ending credit songs while watching because they’re nice listening to. The choice of bgm music was good, they fit the scenes most of the time.

Rewatch Value:
I will definitely watch it back just for Tang Yu & Tang Xing especially their sweet moments when they’re finally together.

Recommended drama from me, I also promote it to my friends and they like it.

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Solid acting from the casts

I started this drama because of the trailer I had watched maybe around 2 years ago. They hype made me watched it and I’m satisfied with the drama. I’m not a big stan of any of the leads in this drama, just casual watcher.

The start of this drama may be quite slow to some people but I would say stick until episode 8 above. The initial built up was just to make it makes sense in later episodes. I was hooked around ep8 when the CGI, action and romance with love bridge scene finally kicked in.

Acting:
-Xiao Zhan did so well as his character Shi Ying. A very reserved priest who lived in seclusion due to unfair slander that affected his life. He nailed micro-expressions. I watched his interview and I agreed with him about not giving expressionless expressions to SY character. He’s in control of his potrayal as SY. I also love that I can see changes in his expressions from being a shifu to FL and after he actually accepted his feelings for her. You can totally see how unrestrained his gazes for her once he decided to love her freely. His in love expressions were spotted on, whenever she’s around his eyes lit up. He had his times when he had to behave like 12years old and a possesed villain, he nailed it all. I think he mastered all the looks in his eyes. Great decision for him to take this character. The character was well written for him.
- Ren Min’s character as Zhu Yan was quite lacking in earlier episodes, I personally think her character was poorly written even in the novel. I heard the novel received criticisms and they changed a lot from the novel while still maintaining some essense from it because they can’t totally change it or else it will interrupt the whole plot. You may see he character as childish, annoying etc which I can understand because I notice a lot of cdramas xianxia, wuxia love to use this kind of behavior to show ‘character development’. I have seen worse FL characters than her, and she’s much better from the original novel ‘Zhu Yan’ tbh the novel was a letdown, title as ‘Zhu Yan’ but writing such a miserable FL.
But Ren Min potrayed Zhu Yan well imo she’s supposed to be that way. It kinda irks me that her life goal were to resurrect prince SY, and later to accompany her shifu for the rest of his life. But I need to remind myself, the writer clearly wrote her that way. It’s poorly written at the first place. If you wanted to see some development, I will say ep35 above towards the ending.
Ren Min’s acting skyrocketed on last 8episodes, this girl cried so naturally and effortlessly. The amount of water works she did with Xiao Zhan whoa they have good acting synergy.
Personal opinion, Zhu Yan looked much better without her bangs around ep28. The stylist was lacking with her styling on earlier episodes. Like put some efforts on your FL duh.
-Special mention Allen Fan Yilun as Zhi Yuan. I like that he’s not super jealous scheming SML who wanted FL to be with him all the time while destroying ML. He nailed his good guy role into possessed villain role. The last moment when he finally died to stop God of destruction from harming ZY-SY, I know SY understood that the one Yuan actually loves wasn’t Yao Yi anymore, it’s Zhu Yan. I don’t think ZY realized that. But dude is a good actor. The first time I saw him was on The Long Ballad.

Chemistry:
- idc what others said but I think this slowburn romance of SY-ZY was chemistrying well. At first they’re just acquintaces who always disagreed with each other, almost friends, developed into shifu-disciple and finally lovers. I like how ZY totally looked like SY’s disciple. He’s a good shifu to her, while teaching and being strict to her, we can still see his fondness of her. Those little smiles they gave each other. SY taught her to be better and ZY was someone who really wanted to be better and learn, with her still being mischevious here and there because of her young age. I think it’s a very sweet and cute relationship of them. Whenever they’re on screen together I just can’t help but smile. Cute chemistry, really.
-After done being cute, the two leads have very impressive emotional scenes chemistry. Their acting truly shine on emotional scenes. The way these two just cried so naturally and effortlessly.
-Couple fighting scenes were another things I wanted to praise, I love it when they fought together, especially after ZY became stronger and she can match him.

CGI: The best CGI to me were the dragon and sand demon scenes. The made it looked so believable, not obvious fake. The fighting scenes were all done well as well with magic effects with the sound effects, they mesh it very well together. I’m more to wuxia fan so I like the scenes.
Wishing tree CGI was breathaking!
-Cinematography was really good as well especially the desert scenes. I know they travelled far for it and it looked so good.

Rewatch? yes I will definitely rewatch for Shi Ying-Zhu Yan’s scenes. All the moments together were all worth watching.

Overall, I still think TLP worth the hype. I watched 2 eps everyday religiously before they came out with express 8eps. I binge-watched the whole 8eps in 1 night and coincidently I was on annual leave the next day so it’s all well. I don’t have to show my ugly after-crying the whole night face to everyone lol

RECOMMENDED?

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I'm not afraid & I don't regret-Tong Yao

just finished watching everything and overall, I think this drama is really well done. Not perfect but for someone who didn't really play game like me, I enjoyed watching the e-sport theme(my first e-sport drama) and it didn't give me any bad light at all about e-sport. I appreciated the players' dream more now. The CGI was well done, they took 8 months to finish it.
I LOVE the chemistry of Xu Kai and Cheng Xiao! I definitely want to see them acting together again, maybe a wuxia drama since they both really have good physique imo or another modern drama would be great. I even think they look alike at times, if Tong Yao had black hair in the drama, they will look even more alike imo I think that's why I love the chemistry, their visuals really compliment each other very well, the perfect height difference too. I found their sweet scenes quite natural most of the times and damn all those kisses, one of the most satisfying skinship I had ever watched on screen?
Overall, very worth watching and congratulations to people who discovered this drama after it finished airing, you guys don't have to wait for new episodes like us, we suffered enough?
Shout out to whole ZGDX team, YQCB, CK, FNC etc I will miss you guys, my eye candies...blessing to my eyes. It will take some time to move on, I'm at the phase of watching YT videos of TY/LSC moments, withdrawal syndrom at its best.

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‘Common stuffs become unattainable goals’ resonated within me?

It’s stressed me out everytime Yi Jae had to die in different bodies but I always look forward to his next ‘role’. I felt bad for Yi Jae tbh because I felt bad bad, he didn’t deserve this pain. But I guess this drama was about the people he left behind when he chose to die. Plus there’s something else hidden along with his death. I think he wronged someone else.

So far I’m really attached to these characters:
- School student’s reincarnation, Kang Hoon nailed it of course. I can’t forget the innocent face he made when he’s confronted by the senior iljin? sneaky Yi Jae with his smart solution using high school style. The scene when he was murdered was so tragic tho, I was shocked.
- The dramatic gangster in love Jung Seung-Joo’s character, his scenes were like action movie for real with the impressive camera works for the bike chasing and action scenes. It was so cool imo but too bad he’s killed by the woman he fell in love with, poor dude. Kudos to sneaky Yi Jae for his sneaky plan to hide the money tho.
- The aspiring MMA fighter Kim Jae Wook! This is my fav reincarnation so far because he nailed the emotional acting and action scenes so well. KJW’s acting was really good here even for short appearances, he really delivered his role. I like how he taunted the fake psycho who killed his school’s student reincarnation. Dude should rot in the jail and go crazy. This reincarnation also had good plot twist about how he died. I didn’t expect the father of the hit & run victim to come and stab him. But he ended up dying in the hands of his so called prison bestie instead. Very well done reincarnation so far imo.
- The model Lee Dohyun’s character where he finally met his ex-gf and his mother. LDH nailed his emotional acting like LJW. These two had the heaviest emotional reincarnation. The last part when Ji-Su died…it was too cruel to Yi Jae.
- The baby was cute but it’s too cruel even tho they tried to make it lighter with Yi Jae’s voice over.

Seo Inguk was good, but I think he’s kinda overshadowed by his reincarnations, especially by Kim Jae Wook & Lee Dohyun. But I think he gonna have more scenes for part2, his emotional outbursts during the ending of ep4 was good, I want to see him to lash out to the Death. I can’t say much yet about Park So Dam since her scenes were so limited here, didn’t challenge her acting yet, probably she will have more parts on part2.
I think he has entanglement with Death tho. He probably wronged her somewhere. My guess was he accidentally killed her when he killed himself. I can’t wait for part 2!

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Arthit is as warm as Morning and Evening's Sun to His Wanfahmai

How should I start this? um I just signed up to this account just to leave a review for this drama. That's how good and worth-watching it is!
I will remember Paeng and Arthit for a long long time. I'm having a hard withdrawal sympthom now. It had been such a long time since I have this kind of feeling. I would like to thank Kao & Mark for reviving my interest to really be in love with a lakorn. I'm more into kdrama/cdrama, this is my first lakorn after quite some time and I didn't regret it at all. Thank to these two I felt excited again to watch a drama.
First 5 episodes might be hard to watch for some people or hard to like FL Paeng because she's so pushy but you will understand where she's coming from once you watched further, she was just 15 at that. You need to watch until ep6 to see her character development and she will become very likeable. She's very misunderstood as a rebelling teenager. At first I was annoyed to see her so clingy to her mom but people who had watched till the end will know her mom was a bitch. She's not a brat and clingy without no reason. Her parents' death were too hard to endure for 15y/o tbh, it was indeed traumatizing. But what she did to Arthit can't be brush off at all, she was so selfish but I'm glad she admitted to Arthit's father that she framed him. Sending her back to Bangkok alone was a great decision for her growth but Arthit's father was still there for her, to guide her which was so responsible of him.
Arthit's hatred for her was kinda justified, I understand his hatred and it's legit logical unlike other cliche hate-love dramas where the leads sometime hate each other for no reason lol But I won't justify what he did to her as revenge, he's overboard sometimes. But I like their banter with each other because Paeng is not someone who can be easily bullied as well. I really like that trait of hers, she won't back down when she's treated unfairly. She tone down from how she was as rebellious teenager but the fighter Paeng is still there, just more mature and soft. I really love Paeng's character development. However, it was Arthit who turned for the worst. He held grudges for her because his original dream to become a rugby player went shattered because of his injuries after the accident. I'm glad he admitted that it was his fault to drive under influence tho after he realized his mistake, even tho he was controlled by his emotion because of Paeng's accusation but it was his own fault he did DUI. His character became so much better after he realized he loved her. Arthit was indeed as warm as the morning & evening's sun to his Wanfahmai (sky aka Paeng). They should have maintained As Long As They Sky Has The Sun as the drama title.
I love all their moments together, their chemistry was really strong. The way they looked at each other?
Kao and Mark really did such a good job for their characters, they're really P'Arthit and
Paeng. I read some parts of the novels and they really matched their characters from the
novel itself.
The cinematography of this drama is amazing! I love all the nature, green, flowers, farm, waterfall and those gorgeous farm mansion, Paeng's mansion in Bangkok, the white worker cottage etc. I felt like I was travelling there while watching, which really helped to boost my mood during this pandemic.
Finally, the wedding scene! that was so beautiful, the HQ pics of it were so beautiful. Kao & Mark looked like they're married for real lol what a beautiful couple. The visuals of the leads, the friends, sceneries were all top notch imo.
This is getting longer but hey I signed up to express how I love this lakorn. I'm bias but this lakorn is my top favourite now indeed. I wish Kao and Mark will work together again in another lakorn because their chemistry is really strong, their baby-face visuals look compatible as well. It's hard to let go of My Forever Sunshine. I'm not gonna move on to another drama for some time for sure.
Watch this drama! Worth my sleepless night trying to binge-watch it all. Props to the actors, director, scripwriters, production staffs etc to complete the shooting in a rush but still nailed it very well. Last 30min of the drama, I was left giggling the whole time while kicking my blanket over how cute and precious it was. What an unforgettable drama. Okay, Adios.

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