Eternal Love of Dream (2020)

Great Overall But…

Generally, I don’t have much to complain about Eternal Love Of Dream. It is a highly watchable production. The CGI is better than many xianxia dramas and the interaction between Dong Hua and the fox feels real. All the characters look good in their beautiful costumes and it is obvious that this is a big budget project. The most important factor is, of course, the chemistry between Vengo Gao and Dilraba Dilmurat. I dare say that without that chemistry, The Pillow Book might indeed make us all fall asleep as we follow their story.

Acting
After watching Vengo Gao as Dong Hua in Eternal Love Ten Miles Of Peach Blossoms and again in Eternal Love Of Dream, I think viewers would not be able to picture any other actor in this role. He completely nailed it to give the character the required aloofness and an aura of seniority and reverence. Dong Hua is not an excitable immortal but calm and rational. He doesn’t make a lot of movements when he talks but Vengo Gao’s expressive eyes and micro facial expressions make Dong Hua a pleasure to watch. He looks so different here compared to his role in Legend Of Fuyao.

On the other hand, Feng Jiu is a complete opposite. She is young and innocent. She dares to love and is full of life. Dilraba Dilmurat’s portrayal is spot on to give the character a level of innocence and that suits her age and lovestruck demeanor. Hence, when the 2 opposite characters interact, the chemistry is palpable due to their great portrayal of their roles.

Plot
Unlike Ten Miles Of Peach Blossoms and Love And Destiny, The Pillow Book’s story is more abstract. For some dramas, you will know what is going on even if you don’t understand Mandarin. But for Eternal Love Of Dream, you will need to listen or read the subtitles carefully to follow the story. It can get confusing especially during the Aranya’s Dream part.

Overall, the plot outline is nothing new. It is not as unique as another popular xianxia drama, The Untamed. Basically, it is about the hero using all his cultivation powers to defeat a Demon Ruler while falling in love with the heroine and trying to protect her in his own way.

Perhaps the first part is refreshing when they start off their relationship as master and pet fox. But once we get through that, the romance is kind of predictable with unrequited love in the beginning. What saves it is, as mentioned, the chemistry and unique dynamics of the couple. Many dramas are saved from being mediocre or even unwatchable this way such as Under The Power and Love Of Thousand Years.

My Verdict
Eternal Love Of Dream is a great drama and you should watch it. But certain parts can be a bore. I think one of the problems is the beginning of the romance and the couple’s time in the mortal realm mirror the story in Ten Miles Of Peach Blossoms. The difference is they have lengthen their interactions and change a bit of the story here and there in Eternal Love Of Dream. But the gist of it remains the same. So, if you have watched Ye Hua and Bai Qian’s story, you will know what Feng Jiu will eventually do to Dong Hua in the mortal realm. That is why some people would suggest we start watching from Episode 21 which is the tail end of their time in the mortal world.

Personally, I also find the story in Eternal Love Of Dream to be less compelling compared to Ten Miles Of Peach Blossoms. It doesn’t move me as much emotionally. In Ye Hua and Bai Qian’s story, there is much more angst and pain. Hence, you would feel more for the couple. The story is also more straightforward and flows better. In Dong Hua and Feng Jiu’s story, there is a vague feeling of being sidetracked at times especially during their time in the dream world.

Having said that, I would still recommend a watch for this Eternal Love Of Dream review. In fact, some people would prefer this to Ten Miles Of Peach Blossoms. The bottom line is the relationship dynamics of both couples are different. If you like a more serious tone to your romance, then Ten Miles Of Peach Blossoms should be the preferred choice. But if you like a sweeter and cuter couple, then Eternal Love Of Dream would beat the earlier drama hands down.

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Good, but incredibly slow.

It's been like three years since I've watched Eternal Love 1. It was my first, or second cdrama too. Having seen Dream now I'm thinking that perhaps I've been looking at the original drama with rose tinted glasses. The reason being that Dream is incredibly SLOW and thinking back perhaps EL1 is just as bad in this regard.
The original novel is titled "Three Lives Three Worlds, The Pillow Book". I have not read it, but I'm guessing that all the reincarnated, or semi reincarnated lives witnessed in this drama originate from the novel and oh boy the author did not fail to exhaust this plot device. This is the single worst thing about the drama. Spending 10 episodes in the mortal realm & 10 in another realm living different, or semi different lives is not my definition of a fun story. Had this been a normal 24 episode drama I would have been okay with that, but it's 56 episodes. That's not even all, the show has many makjang-ish moments, it's way beyond what I would consider a frustration free viewing experience.


On a more positive note, there are a lot of amazing things in this drama as well.
In my opinion this is how a cultivation novel should be brought to screen. Sure the CG is pretty low fidelity, however all the daoist powers, formations, creatures and realms were portrayed pretty closely to how I imagined they would be after reading about them for many years. Even an ascension pool is featured!

Of course ultimately this is a romance drama & the OTP had great chemistry and - whenever the characters were aware of each other's identities- their romance was really entertaining to watch, with lots of comedy included.

The supporting cast is absolutely amazing.

The love triangles may be weak, but the secondary love interests caused a decent amount of angst and many misunderstandings. So the overall score is not that great, triangle-wise.

The audiovisuals were excellent, bad CG notwithstanding.

Overall I would say that I greatly enjoyed about half the drama, most of the other half was on the boring side of frustrating, however considering how memorable this drama is for me I think rating it at 8/10 is more than fair.

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This drama is fairly truthful to the novel. But I like how they started with the Mortal arc first to give viewers a bit more context. It was a bit slow at the start but it becomes really great once the leads start to interact. I particularly loved the Heaven arc, as there are so many Hilarious scenes. Vengo is absolutely perfect for Dijun - so majestic and graceful, no wonder all the other fairies hit on him. Bai Feng Jiu really develops into a mature Goddess after coming back from the Mortal realm which actually attracts the attention of Dijun. She tries so hard to avoid him, but fate has brought them together. This story has so many ups and downs, will bound to get you hooked.

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I knew I was going to love this drama because after TMOPB, I literally binged watched all of Dilireba's costume dramas! So I was immediately excited when they announced they were doing a sequel with our favorite leads. Just to preface, I have never read the novels for this story. But overall, I enjoyed this drama. I enjoyed the song that Dilireba sang too!

There are three arcs for our leads. BFJ as a fox lingering in Early Dawn palace following around DH. BFJ and DH goes to the mortal realm (I thought that part was SOOO long), and lastly BFJ and DH end up in a A'lanrou's dream. Each one tests their relationships and you watch as their relationship blossoms. In TMOPB you only see parts of the first two arcs, but this one dives more into details and shows more (of course). I did think that the last two episodes were VERY rushed, as it was their wedding date and of course DH had to go save the world. FJ misunderstands and leaves and goes lives in the mortal realm with their kid for three years. She comes back to Nine Heavens because Ye Qingti is about to be revived and magically they make up. Although, I was feeling MEH ending, I did love the acting and chemistry between Dilireba and Vengo. I'm sure because they were part of Jaywalk studios they have acted with each other before, their chemistry was sizzling. I was so excited with DJ finally falls for FJ, and he just loves on her. Apparently, there's rumors that they're even dating.

A lot of people have mentioned that Angel Liu (Ji Heng) bought the rights to this drama, and wanted to be FJ but faced backlash so they kind of re-wrote the drama for her as Ji Heng and gave her more screen time (we didn't ask for that). Her character was annoying, but she wasn't the psycho lover like Su Jin. It seemed like they wanted to make her villainous, but kind of watered it down or got bored w/ it. This drama actually lacks a Su Jin if it makes you feel better. No one really plotted heavily against our FJ, or took her eyes.

They did mix up our cast a little. We got one Yang Mi cameo (it was meh!). Zhe Yan and our 4th Uncle have transformed into beautiful young male leads - although it was different, I liked it! I liked that they brought back some of the original characters such as 3rd Prince Song Lian, Si Ming and the Bai Family. I wish they showed more of the other realms, as in TMOBP they showed other realms like the Eastern Sea family and more gods and goddesses. Another thing was was funny was Wayne Liu's character, as he did have a role in TMOPB. He was re-casted as a demon lord, Yan Chiwu. Yan Chiwu was probably one of my favorite side characters, and makes references to his "twin" brother who was Mo Yuan's 16th disciple. It would have been funny if he bumped into his twin XD --- But did anyone remember that in TMOPB the demon princess's name was also YAN Zhi, so they share the same surname. Anyways.....

Overall, this drama was good. It wasn't as good in terms of drama and seeing the love build up as TMOPB. The trials that DJ and FJ went through didn't really hit me as hard as TMOPB. I just thought that BQ and YH went through way more compared to DJ and FJ. And maybe it falls on FJ's personality, she was always naive and kiddy-like. I felt even when she had her kid, she didn't truly mature. And maybe if they didn't white-wash the roles, it would have been more "drama." I mean, they could have done more with Zhi He's character (did they forget she was evil b*tch in Ashes of Love)? But, I understand they did re-write this script to give more screen time to Angel Liu. Maybe there's an original script out there, that could have done 100% better and give us angsty/heartbreak drama that we all wanted.

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I'm happy that the Writers and Directors created this sequel from the Eternal Love Chinese Drama. I wished they would've started from the last performance of this couple, Bai Feng Jiu and Dong Hua Di Jun from the first Season of Eternal Love. Oh well, talk about performance... The best performance is from Zhang Ming Can who is playing the character of Bai Qian and Ye Hua's son. It amazes me that these young actors are really good. She did a beautiful job playing a male part. I love her finésse and personality! To remember the words she had to read and memorize for this character at her young age of 7 is beyond amazing. I miss the first actor, Hummer Zhang, who played Ah-Li he was a bright child as well, wondering why the producer didn't recast him in this part? I noticed a few actors from the disciples were back but playing different parts. I loved seeing the brothers of Bai Qian that were not in Eternal Love.

I probably will have to rewatch because the story was boring for me in the first few episodes but it picked up when Dong Hua went to the mortal world which makes up for the first few episodes. The visual fantasy was amazing. It seemed real to me. More action in this one than the first season. The ending was terrific! I could write more about this but I won't. This is a great watch.

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Thoroughly enjoyed this...

This drama is not a continuation to Ten Mile Peach Blossom although many of the key characters in the former series are either mentioned or re-featured. You can watch this series on its own without watching the former. It is more of a romantic comedy and more light-hearted compared to the Ten Mile Peach Blossom. There are more romantic and comical scenes while Ten Mile has more intense battle and gut-wrenching scenes. The witty verbal exchanges are hilarious. And the scenes when DiJun is teasing and flirting with FengJiu are amusing. However, you probably need to have a good command of Mandarin to appreciate it - from the English subtitles, I suspect much is lost.

It has its own moment of suspense, making you wonder what is going to happen next and it did keep me glued to YouTube and myasiantv.io especially towards the second half. If you are a romantic, you will enjoy this. Dil and Gao had 'come out of age' to convincingly play the lead roles in this drama with only a short awkward appearance by Yang Mi and none by Mark Chao.

The initial 10 scenes are a little slow but comical, and almost look like a repeat of Ten Mile Peach Blossom with FengJiu's attempt to make it to DiJun's palace to serve him and the rivalry between FengJiu and ZhiHe was boring. It would be better if the duration of an episode or two were trimmed from the initial 10 episodes - they feel like time fillers. However, the story deviates. Once you get past these, you will start to enjoy it.

Like most dramas, it has its weaknesses in the story - a lot of the plot was based on FengJiu's distrust of DiJun - almost to the extend she looked like a self-pitying fool. For a plucky and mischievous girl, she suddenly became a fool when it came to matters of the heart. A lot of the gut-wrenching scenes become unconvincing and comical as they are more of self-pitying based on some imagination she was unloved and that DiJun loved someone else.

Dil is ravishingly beautiful as FengJiu and Gao is dashingly handsome as DiJun with the white hair and purple/white robes. Good looking leads are often key success factors for a drama or movie.

We all like a happy ending - I certainly do - I watch drama to enjoy it not sadden by it and I avoid tragedies. I always check that before I start any drama these days after suffering a few sad days with some other tragedies.

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Migraine-Inducing

OVERALL
This drama can be enjoyable if you're good at suspending your disbelief...and your values. Watch it if 1) you like the fantasy genre, 2) you like stories that take you on a journey, going through a gazillion plot changes, 3) you'll be happy with a few sweet love scenes. If 1) immature female leads make your skin crawl, 2) you get confused easily, and 3) you can't stand rushed endings, then skip.

THE STORY
I need to start by saying two things: 1) I know this drama is linked to another one, but I didn't see it, so I'm the new, fresh viewer (not the fan of Eternal Love), and 2) I don't usually watch xanxia, it's not my go-to genre. For anyone not like me, then the following review may not be very useful, but if you identify, read on!

I decided to try the drama out because I saw some clips on YouTube that looked fun and cute. From episode 1, I could tell it'd be a rough ride. Let me start with the good stuff. First, there really are fun and cute scenes between the leads. Not too many, not the ULTIMATE best (see Love Designer for that!), but still good enough to keep you going until the very end. Secondly, not going to give much away, but a part of the drama takes place in the mortal world. That part was definitely the best of the drama. It's more realistic, the characters are more down-to-earth, the plot is more coherent, and it makes you really emotional. And...that's it.

Now for the bad. The absolute worst of this drama is the FL. She acts like a five year old 95% of the time (the 5% she doesn't is when she's in the mortal world). I have a lot of difficulty understanding how she's supposed to be attractive to the ML...which leads me to ML, who's too expressionless for my taste. That makes everything worse because he's like a statue and the FL is like...a prepubescent child. It just felt so weird to root for them. And then there's the issue of the FL being dehumanized a few times in the drama, which really brings that weirdness to a whole new level because not only is she demoted to an immature child, but also to an animal and an object. And then there's the fact that the plot jumps from one problem/world to the next and they don't seem to be connected at all, which is confusing. And then there's the fantasy elements that aren't explained well. And then there's the rushed ending. And then there's the flashy surreal visual effects... There's just too many issues that were hard to digest, I couldn't fully enjoy it.

THE ACTING
Despite hating her character, I still liked Dilraba's acting the best, just because she makes it seem so natural. I was not too impressed by Vengo, though it could also be the role. He definitely seemed better in the mortal world part. I need to see him in something else to confirm. I can't say much about their chemistry because, like I said, the romance made me feel kind of awkward at times, given how they depicted the FL. I don't have much to say about second leads either. They weren't particularly endearing, except maybe the demon lord.

THE MUSIC
...yeah...

REWATCH VALUE
Low. I can just watch YouTube clips to jump straight to the worthwhile scenes.

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Because of this drama i started watching fantasy dramas

First I watched Eternal love but drop it, but wanted to know more about Dong hua and Bai Feng Jiu.
Let me tell you it was good decision.
If you watched eternal love you have to forget about their story there.
What I liked?
- Chemistry between Ml and Fl (Fireee!), even tho he is an old man and age gap is pretty big. Love their scenes together
- FL was cute and stupid but we can see her development, also she is not weak, she has powers and she is good at fighting
- I love dong hua and his face expressions (not only because my weakness are men in their 40s)
- cinematography
- Ruler of the Green Demon Clan, his relationship with FL
What I didn't like?
- I can't remember all because I watched it a while ago,
- I think that this Big Woman demon with which ML was fighitng etc. was not evil enough if you know what I mean
Anyway i highly recomend this dramas and I think it will become one of my favorite chinese dramas

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Maybe if I read the book or watch the Eternal Love series first everything will be different. This series was recommended by my friend. She really love the novel and non-stop talking about Dong Hua and Feng Jiu as her best OTP ever. At first, I thought that... ah, I'm going to read the book first before sesrching for it's adaptation series. But then, I found this when I was searching for Historical Drama with happy ending.

I've watched this series until the end, actually ㅡforce myself to watch this series until the end.

Good job for Feng Jiu for not giving up even though Dong Hua seems like he doesn't really give a fuck about you. You're the definition of loyalty and I'm so proud of you. I like a cold male lead that only warm to his love interest, but this Dong Hua... idk I just dislike his attitude so much to the point that I want to smack his face.

Cheng Yu, I feel you and you're right, at least for me. Let's smack his face a couple of times, idk I just want revenge I think.

I like the visual of it, it is a good drama but I'm the picky one here. I hope I didn't offend anyone.

The song is really good too, I actually adored the CGI and the magical effects ♡♡

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Beautiful actors and amazing story.

This drama is so beautiful and but actors is so beautiful, this is the second story. The first one was as beautiful and heart wreaking but don’t worry both have happy ending.
I love both actors, the scene is beautiful and sweet and best action and best fantasy and best hardcore scene and best love story and best. Because it’s just too beautiful to not said it beautiful.

I’m looking forward to more drama from both of them and I’m currently watching miss S and I’m obsessed watching it! Waiting for it to update everyday.
I wish the male lead have many more drama. It’s so rare to see mix asian being the main actors but I think the girl is became popular in China now. Can’t wait for more!

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I Can't Move On!

Never have I been so obsessed with a drama couple that brought me to a point of searching and looking for video clips about them. Story wise, this drama's plot is okay for me. If it had different actors and actress to portray the characters of this drama, I don't think it would have been as fascinating. They did a good job in choosing the artists, specially the leads. The ML and FL gave justice to the characters they portrayed. I tried watching TMOPB before but dropped it early because it never really aroused my interest, this one even took me too long to watch given the fact that it is a historical fantasy, and these genres are not my cup of tea. But watching their clips on my facebook video feed caught my attention. As I was finishing the whole series, it broke my heart that its about to end. The couple got me so obsessed I pray they will be together for real. I don't intend to spoil, but I really acknowledge the fact that they made me feel the emotions this drama would like to invoke from the viewers, the heartaches of one sided love, being loved and the sacrifices you have to endure for that someone you love. That it did not matter whichever time or world they are in, their love will be eternal.

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