I personally found this movie to not be as bad as everyone claims it to be. Most of those who dislike this adaptation is due to comparing it to the drama. That aspect in itself doesn’t even make sense. It’s like you comparing a short story version to a novel, a 58 episode drama to a movie that’s about 1h and 45 min.

The story itself is really complicated so its really hard to have every detail in the movie. I felt they did ok with the story telling as I myself was able to understand the story expect perhaps the ending (also why they all look so tan in some of the scenes lol). If you want details I would recommend to just go watch the drama or read the novel then.

The story telling wise as I have said was ok and the big idea was still understandable. Side note (Small spoiler) there’s a part where it feature yang yangs awkward noodle making/ cooking lol. There was a lot of sweet moments though. Also Crystal’s fighting are as amazing as always (in china she’s well know for her Wuxia acting). Basically the movie is a highlight of the main plots of the story. It’s told in a way that when theres a portion that needs explaining it goes to a cut scene of what happen that lead up to scene and since the story talks about there 3 life/ reincarnation they give you pieces of each portion. You can then piece them together. For example, warning there will be a spoiler, theres a part where we see FL talking to a men frozen in ice then her master was almost thrown of the cliff then there was a cut scene showing why her master was frozen in the ice (showing he was frozen in the ice because his soul was shattered when sealing with the sword).

This movie gave me a Disney production vibe and the underwater scenes reminded me of Barbie in a Mermaid Tale. This movie was so aesthetically pleasing, from the visual to the ML and FL actor (both Yang Yang and Crystal Liu are some of the top best looking actors and they have very positive image in acting in historical shows as they particularly excel in this genre in china so this casting was really well done), to the voiceover, to every characters costumes and so much more. Each character’s design where made with thorough thoughts. (But Susu’s wedding outfit was not it lol, light spoiler that bright pink head piece ;-;)

There is some lacking in the acting but there something in them that makes you believe in the character they act. The little green guy is also kinda cute and through out the show he quite humorous (most of the joke are hard to understand for non Chinese speakers though). Each character made me see there emotions, I laughed and cried.

In conclusion I think you can give the movie a try don’t be affected by the over the top negative reviews. Don’t go into it with such strict expectations or else you will always be disappoint and as I said its a unfair comparison. If you are a hardcore fan of the drama then you can ignore what I said. We watch shows for entertainment nothing is perfect no?

I think the movie is a great preview of the this beautiful love story and if you’re intrigued you can then go on to watch the 58 episode drama.

Anyways everyone have there own preferences, I still believe this movie wasn’t bad at all. I would watch it again, and if you’re interested here’s a link to watch it with English subtitles: https://www.xiaoheimi.net/index.php/vod/play/id/20266/sid/1/nid/1.html