The Legends (2019)

Sassy demon girl saves the future love of her life

I knew from the very beginning that I would love The Legends. The female lead Lu Zhaoyao was right up my alley of sassy, strong and independent women. Her outfits were literally so stunning I posted pictures of her on Instagram saying how much I adored them. By the end of the series she had gone through some changes to her character but never lost that spark that made her so unique and sympathetic. Mo Qing was an amazing male lead which was mostly thanks to Xu Kai whose performance was outstanding. His role was definitely a complex one as Li Chenlan was the demon king's son and had difficulty handling that other side inside of him at times. What ultimately broke my heart was the way he "died" but then came back years later. The ending is the only thing I would criticize because it didn't sit right with me. I was also really confused when the same two faces appeared at the end and they turned out to be their Children???? The side characters consisting of Zhi Yan, Jiang Wu, Qin Qian Xian, Gu Han Guang, Qian Jin and Sima Rong (plus a dozen other ones) gave this drama the right amount of humor, spice and tragedy. I'm gonna be honest, the story of our grumpy doctor and his beloved Qian Jin was very poignant and brought me to tears. In conclusion: the side plots were engaging and did not feel forced at all. What stood above all else was the ending song "Lu Zhiyao" by Sa Ding Ding. I never, I repeat, NEVER skipped this glorious song once and immediately downloaded it on my phone afterwards.

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Amazingly good. If you are reading this review to decide whether to watch it and are into fantasy dramas, I say I highly recommend it. Story was intense and held you in suspense, and was overall well-paced. 56 episodes is a good length to cover sufficient development and yet not get draggy. The plot was unpredictable as there were a lot of twists and turns in the story.

And of course, those of you who had watched Xu Kai in Yanxi Palace and liked him would enjoy watching him again in this drama. I must say there are a lot of excellent acting talents in China and good-looking as well. Every Chinese drama I watched, which was rated above 8 on mydramalist did well on this point. This is no exception.

Music was not highly impressive. A theme song was consistently muted in the drama whenever it was played - I could only suspect that it was awful or had copyright issues.

The ending was a little sad as of all the couples in love in the story, only 1 couple eventually live happy ever after. But it could hardly be rated as a tragedy and I should not say the reason so as not to be a spoiler alert.

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This drama follows the relationship between Lu Zhao Yao and Mo Qing as they go through ups and downs with a series of plot twists.

Story - I loved how the story started with a few plot twists up till it's mid point where it's obvious how the drama would end. I also loved how each and everyone in Wan Lu Men has a different and very interesting personality which suits the clan well. However, the storyline could be better if Zhao Yao could still be the old her after getting together with Mo Qing, instead of being a passive and abiding woman, she should just be like the old savage maniac she was last time as she ruled the entire pugilist world.

Acting/Cast - I love Bai Lu's take on Zhao Yao! Her acting was great but I felt her on screen chemistry with Xu Kai could be better. The supporting casts were also super amazing as they perfectly portrayed the weird and strange attitudes and personalities of the different sub-leaders in Wan Lu Men. Bai Lu and Shane did a great job back and forth as each other, really alike. *PS I love Seventeen as she is just so cute and innocent.

Music - Good OST that suits the drama - Not much fault or praise

Rewatch Value - I would watch it only for Zhao Yao's epic kickass moments.

Overall - This drama could have been a much better one with the help of a better team. The ending was somewhat rushed and obvious as you can clearly see what the ending is like mid-way through the drama (expected ending). The plot was meh, CGI wasn't great and the character development and the transition between scenes were average. Overall a decent drama to watch if you have spare time.

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If I were to rate the love story and storyline of only Lu Zhaoyao and Mo Qing it would be 9 stars. However if I’m rating the entire show it’s more of a 6.5 stars.

To begin with there were a lot of unnecessary parts, like Luo Mingxuan dying and coming back alive, like it just the same plot over and over and it gets boring. Like there’s was probably 3 big fits that we saw, they were trying to kill Luo mingxuan. It’s useless and we don’t need it in the show.

The show was way too long, it really should have been like 30 episodes, especially if we cut out the entire Luo mingxuan dying and coming back alive. It’s really unreasonable.

The love story is also pretty good, I like the entire plot of lu Zhaoyao dying and coming back to life, but looking like Qin Zhiyan, I think it’s funny and adorable. The costuming is pretty good and same with ost.

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The C- drama that dragged its story

I chosed this drama because wanted to see another Xu Kai's act after watching ancient love poetry but honestly speaking, the legends' plot story was not my cup of tea perfectly.
I m used to watch long episodes of C drama, but I dont like dragging ones. While in beginning of the episodes and the theme of the story was promising, but latter episodes were like extending unnecessarily. I rarely fast forward, but I did it several times in this C drama.
The ending was kind of confusing as well, and somehow not executed as good as expected for the final.
I expected more actions since it's wuxia genre from both female lead and main lead, as the title is the legends, but not to satisfactory level.
The casts are great, many of them frequent ones in the genre, but the execution of the story wasn't really well. Well that's my POV to put into your consideration , thanks for reading

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Promising Start w/a Chaotically Edited Plot; Xu Kai is Pretty & Dai Xu & Bai Lu Shine Thru The Mess

The Good:

*Xu Kai is gorgeous and I love his visuals in this drama. His wardrobe palette had beautiful nightsky/space themes that complimented his dark blue-black hair and caramel-honey eyes wonderfully. He looked great both with and without his "dragon scars". I thought his scene at Zhao Yao's grave when she was lying on the ground unconscious and he had to submit to Jiang Wu in order to get his help was so powerful and so raw. I re-watched his kneeling scene several times and how he held and cried over Zhao Yao and admitted how afraid he was; the despondency and fear on his face made his otherwise powerful figure seem small and child-like, and I thought it was very wonderfully done. He has moments of weakness in the series as well, but I'd honestly put more blame on the writing and editing over his skills as an actor. It seemed like he tried his best but his character did seem to lack a more dynamic bandwidth of emotions.

*Bai Lu as Lu Zhao Yao. WHAT. A. QUEEN. I loved her. She's powerful, arrogant, sarcastic, cunning, and an absolute delight to watch on screen. She did a wonderful job showing the growth of her character from the sweet and naive mountain guardian, to a powerful and ruthless sect leader, to a vengeful and cunning ghost, to a woman in love. I do think her strength evolved as she grew in character and for those who enjoyed her physical scenes as a "badass rule breaker", they may be a little irked by who she becomes in the later episodes as she spends most of her strength trying to protect and love Li Chenlan.

*Dai Xu as Jiang Wu. Absolute scene-stealer. I looked him up on MyDramaList the minute I saw him on screen. He's like the CDRAMA wuxia Loki. He's chaotic, he's funny, he's handsome, he's cunning, and he's got a giant heart that he veils beneath his ridiculous bravado and sarcasm. I looked forward to all of his scenes and laughed out loud from his antics while he shared leadership with Zhao Yao and Li Chenlan. I was devastated when he died and audibly whooped at the screen when he "showed up" again to give his sword to Zhao Yao (what a powerful scene!). Can't wait for more of his dramas.

*OST is not necessarily memorable, but it was pretty enough.

The Bad:

*The editing is horrendous. Some scenes end abruptly, while others are thrown in that obviously belonged elsewhere and with no rational explanation. How many times am I going to watch the same dragon-nightmare montage that Li Chenlan sees in his head? I swear, it must have been shown like 10 times in 1 episode alone whenever he struggled with his inner demon. I felt like the editors got especially lazy near the end of the series; it was clear this drama should not have been made into 56 episodes. It would have been perfect for 20-25. As is, we have to deal with a lot of filler episodes and a lot of plots getting dragged out and thrown into stereotypical tropes in an effort to carry the plot along.

*The plot drags and drags. As mentioned earlier, it was obvious to me that this show was meant to be much shorter in length and it was seemingly dragged for longer and longer segments. It would have been perfectly paced with 20-25 episodes.

*The CGI - Good. Lawd. It was bad.

*Standard CDRAMA wuxia tropes. 1st FL falls in love with the antagonist in sheep's clothing. He turns out bad and breaks her heart. 1st ML falls in love with FL before FL realizes her feelings for him. 2nd FL is close to 1st ML and is possessive and jealous of 1st FL and so she dangerously concocts ploys to put 1st ML in harms way in order to "save the day" and become his hero, thus making her the apple of his eye but it backfires and makes things worse (wow a surprise!) and she gets more and more careless and violent in her attempts to woo him. - why is this *such a trope* for c-dramas. I literally just watched this same plot in Ashes of Love and Eternal Love.

*Voice dubbing seemed really off with some of the characters and it hindered my ability to appreciate their performance pretty significantly. I'm talking specifically about Xu Kai's performance as Li Chenlan. Visually, I thought he was believable and I empathized with his emotions but I literally had to mute some of his more angsty scenes because the voice actor did a very poor job of sounding convincing. If I muted it and just watched, I could feel his pain. If I allowed the audio to play through, it literally made an otherwise convincing scene seem very elementary in skill. Specifically when he's crying over Zhao Yao in the cave, and later during any moment when he's experiencing pain (which happens more frequently in the later episodes as he fights with his inner demon).


OVERALL- Worth a watch? Yeah, there are aspects I really liked about the drama. It's the plot type that I normally totally eat up (handsome dark-soul male lead who struggles against his inner demons and evil side for his love; funny bromance, fantasy elements, backstabbing, steamy kisses, etc). Worth a rewatch? Nah. Way too much real estate for a drama that should have been 1/3rd in length. I would say, if anything, to skip through for Jiang Wu. He's really not to be missed.

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A somewhat ok drama

Well...i gave this a try because i heard so much about it from other people here and there and well, unfortunately it didn't meet my expectations but it was ok.

the story 6/10:

The story is interesting to begin with and you will immediately get attracted to it. You probably saw its description so you can tell how it is. A naive girl who wants to know about the outside world is the base of the plot. A demon son who is locked in the mountain and will later set free and The Fate which bring them together somehow.
First of all the story looked great at first but it has some major plot hols that you can see from the beginning and these plot holes are some huge minus for the plot like the story of the fml falling in love in the first place. They should have shown us some more past scenes where zhao yao is caring more deeply for mo qing and not skipped the parts where he found himself falling for her slowly. The first 2 3 episodes were good but it started to gi downhill so fast.
Zhao yao turns evil because of a betrayal of someone she loved for the first time. She strongly believed that what she is doing is ok but well i think her beliefs shouldn't have come from that luo ming xuan in the first place. This is where i think the plot lacked severely. Her beliefs should have came from her family or something. Not just because he said that"you should be a good person and be good to good people" or something along those lines. She should have had her own beliefs in the first place. Remember she was a naive child of some kind so she should have learned stuff from her own grandfather. Story goes by and she kills the golden god(was it?) And sealed him off. Now we have mo qing as a simple bodygaurd who loves her and stays like that for a long time. Her character changes to an evil bitch so fast and i didn't like it that much. He character crosses some lines and does some stupid things that i think it was not ok. Anyway she wanted a sword but it was the demon sword and it responded to mo qing only so he gets it and she supposedly dies. The betrayal she felt here wasn't justified thoroughly, she thought he was using her to get to the sword...on what ground base? Screen time was short here and they should have shown more scenes of why and what happened so that she felt betrayed by him and resented him like that. The story goes on...she is alive and in merged with another soul and human called zhi yan. Her character had some major developments at the end but we didn't get to see them. 20 wasteful episodes goes by and mo qing recognize her in the other human form and protects her bluh bluh. 10 more episodes and she finally see that he loved her and didn't betray her and so then she was confused and after some time that she sees how he is willing to throw his life away for her she also starts falling for him greatly. From ep 34 to 43-44 the story becomes great. She regains herself and now they have to fight the villains of the story together but the last 15 16 episodes lacked the hype that i wanted to see and the ending is supposedly a happy ending while he redeemed himself from his inner demon and hopefully goes back to her. Many people die like qin qian xian. He was my favorite character in the entire show and he killed himself to bring peace to the souls who were killed during a long running battle at the end.
Ep 1-2-3 and 34-43/44 were my favorite ones and the rest of the show could have been better in so many aspects such as screen writing.


Acting 8.5/10:

Acting was great. Xu kai and bai lu did an amazing job as individuals but unlike many the couple chemistry was off for me. Bai lu has a mature looking face and personality but xu kai has a handsome teenage face and they looked like siblings to me more than a couple. If you omit the kisses and couple like stuff then you can see what i mean(well maybe not who knows.).
Even though i love them both, i didn't feel the couple chemistry and that bugged me the entire show.(simply said:he is too cute for her and i felt like he was a younger brother of hers whom she takes care off).
Other actors and actresses did an amazing job too and i loved their acting as well.

MY PERSONAL OPINION: they could have chosen a well suited male lead for Bai Lu, she looks so better with more mature looking man.
I know they played in two different settings and even in their other drama i had the same opinion.

Music 7/10:

I liked the music, specially the opening. I listen to the OSTs from time to time.

Rewatch value 5/10:

If you're a fan of the actors or actresses then it has the rewatch value but if not then no. personally i won't be rewatching this even though i like xu kai.

Overall 7/10:
I had a good time watching this drama. It's worth a one time try at least.


And at the end...the plot developments were not like how i expected but it wasn't that bad either. Even though i didn't see the couple chemistry between the leads, they both acted amazing and i liked many of the side chatacters as well

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I was absolutely mesmerized by Xu Kai's performance in this drama. His innocent Mo Qing. Then his powerful and stoic Li Chenlan. And then, Chenlan's slow descent into madness because of his sword... I was truly in awe. He's simply great in funny roles - he has comedic timing down to a pat - but honestly? His forte are all-powerful, God-like beings. You believe that he could easily mow down armies. Wow.

Unfortunately, this drama had some real issues with pacing - the last few episodes especially. I don't know if it was because they didn't get all the material they needed or if they maybe lost some footage or who knows what, but the lack of several key moments at the very end (like Chenlan entering/leaving his seclusion) was badly felt, thus the outcome lacked the much needed... oomph. If you get me. Oh well.

The drama was up my alley because of several things but what really got me was the switch in gender roles. The gentle, considering man vs. the ruthless, cruel woman. I love it when gender stereotypes are turned upside down!

Two things that I loved, besides the main couple, that is? Qin Zhiyan and her character development (from an annoying, cowardly chicken to a graceful, respected sect leader) and then Qin Qianxian's death (it was the saddest moment of the whole drama for me exactly because it was not sad, he wasn't killed he gave up his life willingly and he did achieve what he wanted, he helped all those murdered souls and found peace).

Overall, it's a great series with much awesome whump, especially on Li Chenlan's part, and a great OST. I can highly recommend it. But because of the editing issues at the end I can't give it more stars.

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The Last 15 to 20 Episodes destroyed the entire drama. Its was a Complete Mess, absolutely boring, and extremely painful to watch. The actors did a great Job, however the director Lost his track and plunged what would have been a beautiful drama into the gutter and trashed it with repetitive clichés. The Last 20 or so episodes felt like someone else was directing it!!!!!! and its just outrageous. It would have been a great drama. Kudos to Bai Lu for doing justice to her character, the only reason to watch this Drama!!!!!!!. What started out to be a solid one just turned into an outrageously boring and painful to watch drama. I should have stopped watching after the first 25 Episodes. What a Waste of Time.

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Xu kai-Bai lu

Hi, everyone...i'm from overseas. Sorry if i have a bad english. I'm a newbie about xu kai and bai lu. Recently i watched arsenal military academy and fell 'in love' with xu kai and bai lu.
So i continue with this costume drama because of them.Usually i dont (not interested) to watch costume drama, but after watched AMA i really like xu kai and bai lu. I become more and more in love with this cp. They have best chemistry. Honestly, before watched AMA i'm not xu kai or bai lu fans but now i 'in love' with them. I really wish they'll work together again in modern or costume drama as a couple.

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The Scenery was Beautiful!

I rewatch and the ending was not very ending! I don't know if Sect Leader Li and Zhao Yao did come together at the end. When they were walking around and she said something about sealing the Wajun sword... I thought... yeah they are together. But not sure. The storyline throughout this whole drama series was great. Bai Lu has acting skills for sure. Her portrayal of Zhao Yao was very good, I mean really good. Xu Kal also took his character with his personality in making the character his own and very convincing. I applaud the two.

I loved the visual arts, cinematography, storyline, romance, and drama, and want to thank the main leads and supporting cast, the Directors, and the rest of the team of "The Legends" for this piece. The Chemistry between Xu Kai and Bai Lu was a match. I want to see more of these two in other movies or drama series.

Did see most of the behind scenes and you can see that Xu Kai is serious about the projects he is working on. Although, I'm glad to see him be playful at times.

NOTE: The rumors about Xu Kai are just rumors... I'm not going to believe the nonsense.

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