Love Between Fairy and Devil (2022)

Epic Love Story with a Healthy Dose of Angst and Humor

When starting this series I thought, it would be mostly cliches and contrived plot lines. Though there was a little bit of that, you can’t have a romance drama without cliches, but the story worked so well that these instances were barely noticeable.

The series spent a lot of time focused on building the connection between Dongfang and Orchid, which set up a great foundation for their relationship evolving into love later in the series. Though Dongfang was brooding and morose, and on a mission of great importance, he couldn’t help but to become captivated by Orchid’s kind and cheerful energy.

The “mundane” of the everyday with he and Orchid of just chatting over a drink/meal to conflicts over everything from the history of the battle between Shuiyuntian and Canyan Sea, to eating breakfast, to the laziness that is sleeping in, made it fun to experience their world. Most especially when they were living at Arbiter Hall.

Moreover, Dongfang’s immersion in his hate for the fairies, which was fueling his most powerful magic (the hell fire), yet desire to feel, to love, to be with Orchid who was everything he should hate, was compelling to watch. As was Orchid’s metamorphosis from fun, yet immature girl, to a mature (yet still cheerful and light) and strong woman was also interesting. When Dongfang finally let go, allowing himself to embrace his love for her, he loved with intensity and a depth that was swoon worthy, and Orchid, despite her lightheartedness, matched that love with her own deep devotion and intensity.

The love story in this was epic because these two were are all in with their love for each other, even before they realized they were in love. And being all in meant they did some pretty extraordinary things for each other. Dongfang’s strength was incredible to watch. He went through it, constantly sacrificing, constantly enduring physical and mental angst, but always remained mentally strong.

The B and C stories, had good writing and tied in well with the main plot. I could not stand Lord Hao. His brand of love was the other extreme, which was obsession, an obsession that could have destroyed all three realms, but despite this I understood what drove his actions. Though the fairies were supposed to be the good guys, their community seemed to mostly be filled with bullies, hypocrites and intolerant a******. Orchid and Lord Changheng seemed to be the only truly good people in the community.

The series was well-written, but there were a couple of plot holes, sometimes the Xiyan curse only worked when convenient. Why did Lady Chidi end up in the mortal world after she sacrificed herself to save the fairies? Was that because she violated the rules a fate by saving Lord Hao from death? Did the thousands of years of warring between the Moon Tribe and the Fairies really start over someone getting dumped? Basically someone from the Moon Tribe getting dumped by a fairy? Crazy. SMH.

Really enjoyed all the relationships in this. They all had some complexity and thus were interesting and developed in a direction which was unexpected. I would’ve liked to have seen more of the Moon Tribe and it’s culture. Some intriguing things were revealed but not much time was spent on those things due to the story having to move forward.

The CGI in this was excellent as was the acting. Dylan Wang as Dongfang was the stand out though. The complexity of this character could’ve been lost on a lesser actor, but I think he handled it like a pro. Yu Shuxin was good as well, but she struggled, just a little, with some of the big emotional moments.

I thought the last 3-4 episodes dragged, I was not feeling Orchid pretending to have no memory of her previously life. Moreover there was too much time spent on Danyi’s family drama and Lord Hao living in a fantasy with Lady Chidi. It was painful to watch him living in a lie with her while she gradually became a soulless monster. I know that wasn’t the story but I would’ve liked to have seen Dongfang and Orchid deciding together to work to destroy Tai Sui, instead of secretly doing their own thing. I also really would’ve liked to have seen more of their reunion at the end. Perhaps them finally getting married or a fast forward to hundreds of years in the future with them living happily, but oh well.

Despite some of my qualms, I enjoyed this series immensely. It’s definitely worth the time to watch. It will be one I will rewatch often in the future.

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Good, but expected more

I finally finished this after a month! Overall, this was good, but I expected a little more. Some parts felt long and draggy because I didn’t care too much about certain characters after a while.

The acting of the leads was amazing though. I loved their chemistry a lot, and understand why everyone went crazy over them🤭🥹. I wasn’t a big fan of our Black Dragon because 1) he was kind of bad at his job, 2) kind of dumb and 3) we never saw him as a dragon except for, like, two times. That’s so annoying. I also didn’t like Jie Li to be honest. Her character was really annoying.

The cinematography and CGI were amazing though. Such a feast for my eyes, I really loved it. The OST is also so beautiful and catchy!!

Now, where can I get a Dongfang Qing Cang for myself?

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Dylan Wang Hedi is destined to be Dongfang Qingcang, the Moon Supreme

my first officially completed watching drama of Dylan Wang Hedi. I subscribe the iQiyi vip to watch the drama, I glad it’s not a waste. Dongfang Qingcang and Xiao Lanhua (Orchid). I love him ever since this drama. Dongfang Qingcang is truly destined to be his character. All the customized costume for Dongfang Qingcang is great. my #1 is black-gold, when he’s at the Arbiter Hall. my #2 is the costume when he takes the punishment lightning. #2(ii), the first outfit after he finally switched back his soul after he resurrected at Haotian Tower, he looks mega powerful with his full costume at that time. the drama is Chinese Xianxia. the mood overall is rollercoaster. I bawled my eyes when Xiao Lanhua choose to free Dongfang Qingcang from the Heart Curse and later, Dongfang Qingcang also choose to change Xiao Lanhua’s destiny. after 500 years, they reunited. love the OSTs. love them <3

//side note – hoping for season 2, but the storyline might not be the same anymore. glad they gave special short episodes, 36 ep. + special.

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one of the best CGI in a xianxia drama

I did not plan to write a review for this drama because many people have written excellent and comprehensive reviews already, but I decided to add in my thoughts just for my record in point form while trying not to write spoilers.

1. Female lead’s voice sounded really childlike, but by the third episode, I was used to it. Her voice reminded me of those dubbed female lead in Japanese anime. The cute, high-pitched ones.

2. I did not find the female lead’s acting convincing enough at first, but she improved as the episodes went by especially when Xiao Lan Hua became Xi Yun Goddess. I thought she acted well with her changed voice and expressions.

3. It took me months to finish this drama. Just one sentence: not engaging enough. The beginning episodes were draggy, the mortal realm was boring (I was stuck there for weeks) , but after the mortal realm, the story got a little better and I finished it in a matter of days.

4. To be honest, all in all, I was not touched by the love between the main leads. They were not the kind of main leads whom I really hoped they became together and nothing tore them apart. Nothing was wrong with their acting, I guess it was just the chemistry between Wang He Di and Yu Shu Xin. And the kissing scenes, especially those which were supposed to be passionate like the ending ones, were just well...lips touching. However, I do have to mention that I was moved to tears at the bridge when Dongfang Qing Cang confessed his never-changing love for Xiao Lan Hua (Xi Yun Goddess) and Xiao Lan Hua left the bridge with tears flowing secretly. I think the surrounding circumstances made his confession very heartrending.

5. Extremely gorgeous CGI. I think this has been mentioned umpteen times by many reviewers, but it is true. For example, in all the xianxia dramas I have watched, the heavenly main hall in this drama was the most beautiful and heavenly-like I have ever seen, no exaggeration here, I’m serious. What with its numerous dreamlike waterfalls and pamukkale (Turkey)-looking water steps. Watch it for yourself and you’ll know what I mean.

6. The last few episodes and ending felt like the director was rushing to tie the loose ends. Some side characters' stories were not properly shown, explained or developed, at least to me. For example, I would have liked to see more of the story development between Shang Que (Dongfang Qing Cang's subordinate) and Jie Li (Xiao Lan Hua's best friend).

Overall, I may have more negative things to rant about this drama than positive comments looking at the above, but I would still recommend this drama to anyone who wants to watch a Chinese historical drama and even more so a xianxia drama because of its CGI. Yes, because it is a xianxia drama and CGI is one of the most important things in a xianxia drama.

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Beautiful love story

I have to say, the drama I watched was great, but I have some points to make. The first few episodes were slow and unnecessary, and the plastic armor and crowns were truly distracting and ridiculous. The makeup was not up to the mark, and the inconsistencies were noticeable. Furthermore, the Heavenly Lord deserved a lesson, which was upsetting. The happy ending was good, but the lack of an explanation for how it happened fell short.

However, the music was great and the special effects were well-made. Although the FL could be annoying at times, it was part of her naive and innocent character, while the ML was perfect overall. All the actors were well-cast and played their parts well, enough to make me teary-eyed.

In my opinion, this show is mostly for young adults, and it's a beautiful love story. I would put it on my rewatch list, but these cons need to be addressed.

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OK if you're bored

I like this series because of Dylan Wang who did a great job as Dongfang Qing Cang. The chemistry between him and Orchid is there. I like their lovey-dovey scene and rewatch a couple on youtube. There is character development for both main characters - Dongfang Qing Cang: learn how to love, Orchid: learn how to be strong.

The story line is mediocre and very typical (i.e. you can find this plot in any movie). There is no surprise and not much dramatic - to me, it's a good thing since I only want some light hearted rom-com. Orchid is a bit annoying and overly cutesy but she's strong in her own way. The 2nd ML is rather boring. The 2nd couple should have more screen time as they're adorable.

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Un des meilleurs Xianxia côté réalisation

Paru dans Sens Critique https://www.senscritique.com/serie/love_between_fairy_and_devil/critique/275616277

Les chinois ont un trésor national, ou plutôt deux, le Xianxia et le Wuxia. Rapidement, le Wuxia, c'est genre guerriers qui volent, avec ou non de la magie, des méchants et des gentils style Word of Honor. Le Xianxia, peut englober du Wuxia, à la différence, que pour être classé Xianxia, (tout cela est codifié et donne lui à d'interminables palabres), le scénario doit obligatoirement avoir des dieux : dieu de la Guerre, du Tonnerre et j'en passe mais aussi des démons, roi démon, prince démon, grand démon!

Le danger du décor

Un univers souvent onirique, enchanteur qui fait rêver et s'évader. Sauf que, c'est très difficile de créer une sorte de paradis ou d'enfer pour ces immortels. Le piège étant les décors d'un goût douteux (florilège de pêchers artificiels, rochers couleur mastic, nuages genre gâteau viennois, affreux palais de carton pâte) qui vous font rire et immanquablement décrocher.

Même les Xianxia les plus plébiscités comme Ashe of Love ou Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms, qui ont fait des billions de vues, ont leurs (grosses) imperfections côté décor. Je conseille d'ailleurs dans le genre Love and Destiny, drama moins connu mais une très belle saga Xianxia.

Love Between Fairy and Devil sort incontestablement du lot, de gros moyens ont été mis, les décors ont été soignés, réfléchis.

C'est une féerie, c'est d'ailleurs la rencontre d'une fée avec un puissant et très odieux démon. Une très belle histoire d'amour et de souffrance basée sur la rédemption et la compassion. On accroche dès le premier épisode, on suit bien le fil et les rebondissements sans que ce soit trop alambiqué. Wang He Di (Dylan Wang) , très convaincant en Dongfang Qing Cang , tourmenté, odieux, un poil psychopathe et qui fonds doucement pour une petite fée insignifiante, un peu bécasse, même très bécasse, parfois trop bécasse à mon goût. Bref, j'ai été moins emballée par le jeu de Yu Shu Xin, la fée orchidée Xiao Lan Hua , trop gnangnan et geignarde, bête et gentille à pleurer. Mais ça passe. Dylan Wang, un régal pour les yeux surtout torse nu! Les autres acteurs sont dans une bonne moyenne. Je conseille ce CDrama qui marque un tournant dans le Xianxia, la qualité côté décor est...presque là, et le challenge est très difficile à accomplir.

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Surprised with this show

Best surprise here is Dylan Wang. I didn't expect that he will be able to nail the character. Also he looks good all in all.

Esther was okay too. Some don't like her voice but for me, it was tolerable. I do get annoyed sometimes by her and tend to fast forward but I stop getting annoyed when she was in mortal realm onwards. She got more intelligent.

The effects were so good. I love it. Costume was nice too. They deviate from the ones similar to TMOPB. Kinda getting tired of them.

The story was good too. I love the body switching idea. I love dongfang orchid too. Wish for more scenes like this.

It was a nice xianxia all in all. Not too tropey

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Perhaps I'm Not the Target Audience Here

I don't love romance stories. I've really enjoyed them in the past, for example: Crash Landing on You and The Imperial Coroner. Romance or not I'll watch anything if the premise seems interesting enough. That was the case here. The polar opposite characters, the vast room for growth that was possible, and, if I'm being honest, the humorous potential when they swapped bodies. China has a way of taking a story I'd otherwise care little for and making it pleasant.

I'm going to drop this one though. Let me explain why:

Firstly, I don't think Esther Yu has the range to be more than the silly orchid fairy. I enjoy the sweet innocence of her starting point, an almost dumb person with a fairy tale understanding of the world who gets forcibly launched into enormously complex situations. However, her cartoon character depiction (and writing) had her refusing any and all development along the way. She was like this bubble bouncing along the plot with no actual interaction with it. As dumb as she was, her persistent stupidity could only be explained by "we need tension here, so she needs to not figure this out" which I hate. I understood her being like that for a while in the beginning, but no matter how the plot developed, she remained like this. Don't get me wrong, she could absolutely maintain her sweetness and her innocence, but that's not what was happening here. Every time I thought she'd take one step forward, her refusal to budge was effectively taking a step back. In terms of character development, it felt like the demon lord had to do all the moving. As if, it seemed, her oblivious, idiotic, self-absorbed beginning state was somehow an ideal perfection she had no need to adjust. I didn't understand how someone so obsessed with her own problems could ever think enough to help with the various situations in which her contribution was crucial. And yet, like a rubber band, after she'd display the maturity needed for these situations, she'd immediately bounce back to being a self-absorbed airhead. And airhead who wasn't particularly unlikable, but still. I wasn't sure if this was bad writing or Esther Yu's acting, or some combination, but it was damaging the story in a big way.

Moreover, and here's where I'm not the target audience, one of my biggest pet peeves is the love triangle. I loathe them. Nothing ruins a story for me faster. Not to mention, here at least, the idea that the two most powerful bachelors in all the realms were somehow in love with her strained credulity strictly in terms of probability. But the way this shoved itself into the story and wrenched it into its own shape was unforgivable. Once the love triangle became more prominent I couldn't tolerate it any more. When I watched the Rebel Princess I was pleasantly surprised by the mature and realistic way in which the writers handled what attempted to be an intolerable love triangle. The main female character had evolved and matured, her husband allowed her the space to make her own choice, accepting that it might not be him (and aware that he had other, larger things to deal with anyway), and the other man was depicted as appropriately childish and petty and selfish. It's hard to view actual love triangles any other way. I lose respect for respectable characters who maintain their pursuit of people who are already with someone else. That isn't romantic to me, it's petty. Maybe it would go away eventually, and maybe I could have powered through had the rest not been so lacking, but as it was it seemed to take over the story.

Additionally, the thing that really bothered me about that was that every choice made by Cheng Heng (the other man, here) was because he was randomly and uncontrollably in love with the orchid fairy. Does he want his brother to stop publicly torturing someone? Yes he does. Is it because public torture of an obviously innocent person is extremely cruel? Nope. It's because he's in love with her. Does he want to risk his life to save someone? Must be because he's a good prince who wants to stop his enemy from kidnapping one of his own subjects. No, actually, it's because he's in love with her. His entire character was cheapened by this. How much more interesting would he have been if he was actually just trying to do the right thing considering the situation and his status. Instead all of his actions, which could have been noble and impressive, were instead petty and childish.

Dylan Wang's acting was excellent. His depiction of the demon lord was at once over the top and completely believable. His development was subtle and well-paced and ultimately more profound than the fairy's. When he was acting as the fairy in the demon lord's body, it was perfectly done. Much, much better than Esther Yu's terrible wooden attempts at severity and seriousness when she was depicting the demon lord in the fairy's body.

Ultimately, I stopped watching once it seemed clear to me that this was another one of those romance dramas where the woman is perfect and the man has to bend to her. There are fewer and fewer romance stories these days in which the writers dare to depict the female as lacking or flawed in any way. What's worse is when she is lacking or flawed but this is depicted as not a problem. And the man has to do all the heavy lifting to make himself worthy of her, to change to suit her, to completely accept her, to renounce himself in order to be satisfactory to her. I'm sick of it. It's terrible storytelling. It's nauseating and embarrassing to watch.

I don't understand why this drama is so popular. But there's my two cents.

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Too Beautiful To End

*SPOILERS*
I often binge and finish a series I really like irrespective of the number of episodes. To see the happy ending and breathe a sigh of relief for my beloved characters. LBFAD was a masterpiece. Right from the storyline, casting, acting, chemistry, direction, OSTs till the major character development of of the leads, it was absolutely stunning and the kind of love we yearn for in our lives. It was nothing less than a rollercoaster with the amount of angst and heartbreaks we had for both the Moon Supreme and Orchid.
It became absolutely devastating with Orchid stabbing herself with the sword. This was the page turner for me. In normal situations, I would have rushed and reached the ending to see the leads happy and get over the heartbreak. But here, I just couldn't move past QingCang's anguished face. I have kept it on hold for about 6 months now and I just cannot get myself to continue it further. NOT because I am not liking it anymore. But because I love it way too much to see it end and bid a farewell to these characters. I have been watching the first 10 episodes on repeat (good fluffy starts you know?) It definitely is emotionally draining to leave it on loose ends with no closure to it, but you know how you cannot let go of things you love? This story has been that for me. I know the ending is happy, but that also means it's an end to their story. I would rather grieve the longing than put a shutter on this art.

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Really Good!

Nothing new about this storyline, but I love that they did not let it drag out. Things move pretty quickly and it shows the growth and development of the characters. I love anti-hero stories and this is one of those. The visuals are fantastic and the CGI's better than I have seen elsewhere. You might want to brace yourself for the first few episodes because the female lead needs some getting used to, but by episode 28 she is just fantastic. Many sweet and tender moments. I was really waiting for Immortal Samsara this year but in comparison, it pales to this drama completely.

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