Eternal Love of Dream (2020)

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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Observations about the drama:

A) Xiao Yan is THE GOODEST OF BOIS! He is made of starlight and all that is good in the world. I love him.

B) Pretty much the emotional arcs can be divided into 4 which makes for great character development
1. Fengjiu falls in love and we see it mature from adolescent hero worship, to real enduring love (to the point that she was prepared to not have him as long as he is happy and fulfilled
2. Dong Hua falls in love and we see it mature from curiosity to deep (Possessive - but then again he is a known conqueror, what do we really expect?) love. We see the consequence of him loosing her (Chen Ye anyone?) and despite threats to the contrary he never kills anyone out of jealousy in the end so I count that as real growth.
3. They test the boundaries and roles of their relationship. He treats her like a kid (despite the handy 'weak fate' excuse, he does!) and she runs away from her problems (guys it's really not about Jiheng)
4. They find an equilibrium. He starts treating her like a partner, she faces the problem head on. And they live happily ever after.

C) I like that the drama went linear with the timeline. Judging by Viki comments, people were confused enough as is!

D) Speaking of Aranya's dream. I actually like that she knew the Xize was Donghua early on. Neatly avoided the whole 'icky consent' thing from the book. I personally didn't like that part.

E) Kudos to Vengo Gao, his acting is amazing. I honestly found it difficult to reconcile Donghua and Chen Ye together. I found it super hard to even look at Chen Ye. He constantly felt like he was in the very edge of madness. He literally exuded crazy and it was painful to even look him in the eyes.

F) The Biyinao queen (in the dream) is cruel but she was shaped by her experiences. She had a large capacity to love but an even larger capacity to hate. The king is an asshole. He wanted the kingdom and the queen so he rebelled committed fratricide and took what he wanted. Neither of them would win any Parenting trophies.

G) Probably obvious, but only occurred to me on the 2nd watch that Aranya is a child borne from rape. And this is why the queen hated her so much that she threw her in a snake pit and why the king, after her reinstatement keeps 'indulging' her (Highness Qing etc)

H) The queen loved her 1st husband and this transferred to Ju'nuo, the only child they had together. She hated the fact that Donghua's version of Xize is suddenly close to Fenjiu/Aranya because she knew that Xize had enough power and influence to challenge her claimant to the throne. No matter how inappropriate her other daughters were with Xize she turned a blind eye because it suited her. She probably hated the fact that the king even got Xize and Aranya together (I suspect the king gave Aranya to a powerful but disinterested husband so she has the backing and the freedom to do what she wants; his warped way of caring for her)

I) Su Moye loves Aranya, but he is NOT in love with her, I'm convinced. He loves her like a father/teacher/brother but not as a man. He found her love misplaced with Chen Ye, felt sorry for her and I think he went away from her all those years to sort out his feelings, to see if he can give her that romantic love that was missing. In the book he cultivated a reputation of being a charmer, probably testing the waters, and by the time he had convinced himself he could love her romantically it was too late. After all that effort, of course he would be obsessed with what happened.

J) All you Furries out there probably liked the baby fox part early on, but I literally could not stand the juxtaposition of overwrought romantic music and scenes with Donghua and babyfox!Fengjiu. That part was a bit cringe to me.

K) In fact if I had to rate the 'arcs'
1. Biyiniao/training/competition arc
2. Aranya's Dream
3. Pre-wedding arc
4. Human Trial Arc
6. Bai Qian's wedding arc
5. Maid/Baby fox arc

L) I really like eternal wingman Liansong. I loved him in TMoPB and I love him here. His interactions with Donghua is hilarious.

M) People kept comparing the actor for Ah-Li, but come on, this Ah-Li is super adorable, people just have to get used to it.

N) I love Fengjiu's character a lot more here than in TMoPB. Here she's whimsical but mature, feisty but soft, clever and capable (not as much as Donghua but who is in this world) beautiful and brave and I literally had no issues with this pairing despite the age-gap. She is what he needs, and he is what she needs. They balance each other out.

O) Donghua is too good looking. He is unbelievably easy on the eyes. Rewatching is easy just for him alone.

P)I laughed so hard every single time someone fell into the hole trap. The comedy in this drama is ON POINT. In fact kudos to all who worked on this; the cinematography and editing, costume, sets, choreography. Amazingly well done. This is a beautifully made drama.

Q) People complaining about the ending, this it LITERALLY HOW IT ENDS IN THE BOOK! That's what fanfiction is for!

This got a bit long, but I really just wrote it for myself because it's the end and I am still obsessed ?❤️?❤️?

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So much better than Eternal Love

I quit Eternal Love in the middle because I found it extremely depressing and there were too many obstacles/misunderstandings. I felt like the main characters barely spent any time together, but I had enjoyed these two as the second leads so I decided to give this a try. I was immediately sucked in to this love story and hooked for the first time since The Untamed. Finding out these two are engaged in real life explains so much because the chemistry is palpable. fWatching Feng Jiu mature into herself and the depth of Dong Hua's emotional growth was a huge payoff. I did not get annoyed by any obstacles and just saw them each growing independently into a person (immortal god?) that was capable of giving themselves to each other without losing who they are. Feng Jiu is a great heroine who loves Dong Hua selflessly and without expectations of reciprocation, and I enjoyed that in the end it's Dong Hua who has to try to prove he deserves her rather than her begging for his love. They are adorable and I will definitely be rewatching this. If you, like me, did not understand the hype around Eternal Love, I suggest you give this a try. It's really quite a beautiful love story.

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DISCLAIMER BEFORE YOU START: Forget everything you know about Dong Hua and Fengjiu’s story in Eternal Love/TMOPB since that was entirely made up due to lack of copyrights. This drama actually depicted what happened in the novel Pillow Book!!!

I loved TMOPB so much so I was very excited to watch this sequel! And boy, I can say that it really delivered! A 1000000000 out of 10 in my book :).

- FIRST AND FOREMOST, Dilraba Dilmurat and Vengo Gao’s chemistry, starting as a red nine-tailed fox & the almighty Dijun to being the true power couple at the end, was palpable and heart-fluttering! Their chemistry alone, with expressive eyes, facial expressions and subtle movements, made this drama a win for me. We got a Fengjiu who courageously follows her heart through many realms, non-hesitantly sacrifices herself for that one and only love and bravely proves her worth to not only be the head of Qing Qiu but also as his Imperial Lord’s partner. Then we got a Dong Hua who unexpectedly falls hard in love, surprisingly becomes a puppy sick in love and boldly shields her from any trouble that comes her way. Together, they made the perfect OTP: they fought, misunderstood, hurt, made up, trusted and loved each other ever so strongly in this “nonexistent” fate. After all, age is just a number (hopefully this is also true for their off-screen relationship as well - praying hard for this ship to sail and dock) and fate is truly what people make of it.

- The cast itself is nothing short of amazing (huge props to the production company for keeping original FJ)! I definitely think Reba and Vengo have personally grown as actor/actress since their TMOPB performance and truly perfected their characters (most of the time, you won’t even feel that they were acting at all and you’ll see A LOT of real life, intimate ear rubs, hand caresses, waist hugging 🤗). And believe me when I say the chemistry try is sizzling here - being a diehard fan for each individual actor for so long , I haven’t seen Reba and Vengo have ever come close to having this kind of “chemistry” with other leads in their long experiences of acting haha. All the supporting actors, esp Xiao Yan and the Third Highness Lian Song, were a bunch of hilarious love-stricken idiots that provided much needed comedy relief during sad times. The villains were still formidable in both annoyance and tenacity levels (*cough cough* I’m looking at you Ji Heng 🙄). All together, each character had time and playground to develop their own stories and each was perfectly orchestrated into the storyline. Plus, it doesn’t hurt that most of them were pretty nice eye candies (even the evil ones lol).

- The plot itself is definitely a lot more well-paced and well-developed compared to their story in TMOPB. It had fun, suspenseful, heart-wrenching as well as heart-warming moments packed with a lot of actions! I really liked how the whole story mainly revolved around FJ and DH without feeling too overbearing - you’ll learn about DH’s background, his perseverance (and his thick-skin) to be the respected person he is today, FJ’s growth and maturity which often excludes jealousy but includes self-acceptance of who she is as a person and how these two polar opposite characters crossed paths in different realms.

- Amazing cinematography with excellent OSTs (one of our main OST was sung by Reba herself!). Film sets looked more polished in this drama and outfits were nicely put together that matched with the setting and the scenes!

- Excellent adaptation from the book! This is one of those scenarios where the drama adaptation stayed pretty true to the book and explained some of the details sooooo much better and more concise. The drama weaved a lot of the plot holes together and made the story so much more flowing!

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this sequel (even better than TMOPB *gasp at myself for saying this* even tho TMOPB was my top fav for a longgg time) probably because I can now ship the OTP in real life lol. All jokes aside, I felt the plot was more focused, leads have an AMAZINGLY REAL CHEMISTRY, it had a lot more funny moments that I didn’t expect, enlightened the book to another level of excellence and the angst was, if not more, painful (however rewarding) compared to TMOPB. I went into watching this as a filler for my TMOPB withdrawal and ended up binge watching it for the 10 million time today so I highly recommend this series for everyone!

COMPARISON TO SIMILAR FANTASY ROMANCE CHARACTERS: It’s actually really hard for main leads, one being thousand years old and stoic/indifferent vs the other one being extremely young and innocent/sheltered, to pull off toe-tingling, believable chemistry on screen (Watch Love & Destiny with similar aforementioned characters for comparison since leads there didn’t quite accomplish what our Vengo & Reba did). That’s why ELOD still stands FAR apart from other xianxia dramas! So let me forever be trapped in this Dream of Eternal Love ❤️

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Actually I wasn't a big fan of Fengjiu-Donghua couple in Ten Miles Peach Blossom. But I have interest in this drama because it's a spin-off from that blockbuster series.

Story: Even though lots of review said that this drama's story is so good because it's stick to the novel, I didn't find it extraordinary. Just like another common romance wuxia drama, and some middle episodes I found them so boring which I fast-forward lot of time.

Acting: As I expected from TMPB, Dilraba and Vengo Gao are professional actors, their acting are very touchy and I love their chemistry despite the character's age gap. Although Vengo Gao is not a very handsome actor,but he truly can deliver Dong Hua Di Jun aura as a supreme god who is invincible. And I always like Dilraba, she is a very expressive actor so every character she played always have remarkable impressions.

Music: Same as TMPB, this drama's OST are very amazing that I will save them in my playlist

Rewatch value: Perhaps I will only watch the scene of Donghua and Fengjiu, they are so sweet together.

Oervall: I love all the production of this drama except for the story that I found a little bit boring and cheesy. Worth to watch in your spare time if you like TMPB, but not for someone who prefer deeper story and twisted plot

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A Fantastic Adaptation

I fell in love with this novel after seeing Etenal Love and then reading the Hamster translation of Eternal Love. In my opinion, this novel is better because it is more rich and developed. That said, this is a different story from eternal love with some similar themes. But the biggest difference is what keeps these two people apart. In eternal love it was outside forces. In this show, it is literally fate influencing everything around them. The directors did a good job emphasizing the coincidences that conspire to keep these people apart. And the consequences of fighting it....

Now the show...

I was always curious about how they would adapt this given the simple fact that the author 1)tells her stories via flashbacks and 2) a chunk of time is spent as a fox. But the advancements in visual effects and creativity led to a good decision: a lot of FJ’s fox form was her visually but like a spirit form. It is what they did in Eternal Love when Ye Hua was the flower on Kunlan.

I did not expect them to spend so much time in the mortal world because a lot of it well most of it did not happen in the book. However it helps provide depth and character development because so much of the novel is based in character development they had to engineer a lot of conflict (like the prime antagonists) to keep an audience engaged because a lot of the novel is FJ struggling in her own mind how to deal with her feelings.. Good job directors.

For those of you who haven’t read the book and are reading my review, I recommend it, the drama is Very Very good. Anyone who has ever felt or struggled in one sided love will find that this drama resonates very well with the barriers and uncertainties you might face in pursuing that love, doubting your decisions, and facing the interference of your loved ones who don’t understand why you just can’t stop. If you’ve ever liked someone and asked yourself ‘why can’t I stop it would be so much easier if I did’ then you will feel a strong connection I suspect with this story. I also liked how the script incorporates very well different types of love, obsessive love, and even addresses how unhealthy it can be, but in the end, it’s your choice, whether the outcome is good or bad. Because this is a fairy tail it has a happy ending.

Acting was great. The Chemistry between these two actors is so good everyone wanted them to star in it. I hope they do more dramas together. I think liking this show boils down to what you like. It executes story and plot well, but if you don’t like one sided love don’t watch. If you don’t like the ditzy kind of female lead don’t watch. If you are eaten up inside with anger watching a female lead suffer for love because it disagrees with your values don’t watch! You don’t have to like it but be fair. They did a good job. Not an easy book to adapt.

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I'm Biased but Oh-Kay

I might be biased but this is the first historical drama that I watched that get me hooked to the historical theme.

I love DD from Mr Pride & Ms Prejudice movie and finally I able to see her again.
I heard that this character is her famous ever played - she even re-enact it during P101.

Back to the drama.

I watched this first before the Parent's story - Eternal Love of Dream/Ten Miles Peach Blossom.
So this review going to contain mainly spoiler and review on this drama solely.
I saw some review that said this drama follow 100% the novel - this make me wanted to read it and I'm not much a reader this days.

NOTE: If you are not into old-young relationship, you have to drop this.
But still, Gao is totally daddy material.

Anyway, I give 9/10 for the story plot mainly because it got draggy on the last few episodes probably just to reach it goal. 10/10 for the acting because all casts are really eye catching and they carry their characters well.

Some stupid decision made by the FL that caused chaos to the ML but that's the whole main point. It funny how when he finally knew love, he kind of get obsessed and addicted to it, I guess that's what happened when you suppressed it for too long (cough). This is a very cute drama to watch. All those plot twists somehow matured up our little Feng Jiu - but it made Dong Hua getting older (facepalm). And I love all the side couples that turned out from this drama. My second favorite character besides the lead and Si Ming is definitely my handsome Chi Wu.

But still, this is definitely worth the watch and rewatch.

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Drama start with the introduction of the lead how they get meet with each other ,till they came from the mortal realm that part of the story is similar which we watched in the drama eternal love , I am not getting how he got attracted with her after coming from the mortal realm some situation should be there where both come across alone and they get fall for eachother but the first glance of her make him fall for her ,he started showing interest in her every activites ,he is a god who forgot love how he suddenly fall for her , I thought that after coming from mortal realm he started seeing night mare and he think about the girl so may this connect both of them but he seen dream only once ,my point is that they should show some scenes which make them connected .secondly why Zhong Lin didnot able to recall her that she was fairy maid whom he save two to three time because that fairy maid didn't have the birth mark in her forhead but dengan jiu had this is the reason that he didn't not recall her. Thirdly where the story gone when he told that fox got pregnant in the devil clan where he stuck and fox got hurt.
Then I think they should add one more episode where he met with his child and every character of the drama met with the child then she again get pregnant because she dream about two fox cub and the drama get over with the Lian song marry.
One thing also make me confused that they didn't get marry then how she asked about divorce at last part.
She was so upset from him then to she went to him why ? then why she didn't not trust him when he told her that she matter more than anybody .

I felt like some parts in a drama has not been well synchronised,there is some flaws in the drama ,there is some missing elements.
As a whole I like love story ,their romance and each and every actors acting ,too good ,I like yan chi the most ,cute character.

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Great actors, too many story twists

I started watching this show, and I was amazed by the actors, costumes, and interior, design, everything. And then the mess begins... First, she loves him deeply just because he saved her, and falls for him like crazy...
Then we have her for several episodes being a fox,
then she goes to save him in a mortal world,
then he goes after her and they end up in Aranya's dream
then they finally get together, but that does not last long, and he stood her up for a day wedding because someone blackmailed him...

In the end, they almost die, but they are together and have a son, happy ending, but half of the episodes are not watchable.
FL and ML did an amazing job. So did the rest of the actors. Would love to see more of the second couple.

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