The Legend of Shen Li (2024)

An Enchanting Xianxia after a while.

watching TLoSL was nothing but a whole fine ass experience. they don't really offer you a very exclusive tale but its —
• the beautifully crafted characters
• the insane chemistry
• soulful OST
• enchanting CGI
• demon serpent
• the emotional build-up
• impressive acting by leads

~ all that this drama brings in, has my heart. Grabbing our attention instantly from the first episode and taking us on a journey of a forbidden love story amongst a tropey xianxia, I was hooked. And this review is gonna be long haha.

Almost like any other Xianxias, its saving the world story with glorified God vs Chimei (evil spirit) fights and all that eternal thousands of years of saving the three realms stuff... but with gorgeously talented actors like Zhao Liying, Lin Gengxin, Zeng Li, Jackie Li, Xuan Lu and Xu Haiqiao, TLoSL builds up a great watching experience.

Shen Li. She is fierce. She is kind. She is practical. She is the coolest. Holding her spear firmly in one hand and Xingzhi on the other, she protects everyone. The amount of patience, courage and discipline this woman owns... no wonder almost everyone worships her.

She is not perfect, but a character you can look up to. unrestricted to any feminine stereotypes, you'll see her taking charge often... there was something very delicate about Zhao Liying playing this role that she never came off as arrogant or overrated, not even for once... only a versatile goddess can slay such a character.

On the other hand, Xingzhi, the aloof lonesome God who can tell you a joke while spitting blood and got that cooking rizz which she couldn't resist. Xingzhi's dilemma with the responsibilities he beared versus the love he felt was literally brought to life by Lin Gengxin. I loved how in the starting all his expressions were limited but his face had more movements and energy when their relationship developed further. Their flirty banters always left me smiling ear to ear.

When Shen Li was "yang", xingzhi was the "yin" balancing them. Its "him protecting her when she is busy protecting the world story"... the untouchable god who was meant to stay unbothered starts caring for her once and cannot let go now, woah! I just got deeper and deeper into their fluff. The sequential emotional build up was that amazing!

At some point, I also let go of all the complaints I had that we aren't getting anything special as a "story"... Cuz their bonding over the silly conversations and the angst of how they should not be together while trying to defeat the villains was in itself a story. It all grew on me as the drama progressed... Tbh I haven't sobbed like this in a while like I did in those last few episodes. Even supporting aids like Furong, Mofang, Youlan also got their potential growths as a character which increased my rating... I can't forget to mention the sassy demon serpent, she deserves her own drama!

Idk how much they spend to get such mesmerizing CGI cuz some scenes like all the cluck cluck scenes, sitting on top of a tree with moonlight, a demon action sequence using paintings as weapon, came out very cool and clean... For OSTs we get tracks from Zhang Bichen, Liu Yuning, Curley Gao etc. Those are basically living in my mind rent free by now.


Overall, definitely recommending "The legend of Shen Li" to all the Xianxia lovers out there. Meanwhile I'll be off to check out Princess Agents now ;)♡

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