Completed - 8/22/2022

If you are not a fan of any of the actors, this might not be worth your time. For me it takes Xu Kai’s handsome face to get me through the first half of the drama, and then add on Wang Yang’s charisma to finish it.

I was quite excited about this drama in the first 1-2 episodes. I was pleasantly surprised that there were some decent fight scenes and creative fight choreography. I’ve already heard that the CGI and green scenes were horrible, and yes, they were indeed not good (running on rooftop and flying around with statues). The production value of this drama is quite low. Even so, a handsome Xu Kai + charismatic Wang Yang + Cool fight scenes = What I like. Unfortunately, my interest and excitement died in the next 10 episodes. All they did was talk talk talk about that stupid bone, with no action. No wonder so many people dropped the drama after the initial episodes. But if you are able to tolerate such boredom and poor plot with the help of Xu Kai’s handsomeness, the plot did get better in the second half of the drama with more action. But such a positive trajectory did not last until the very end. The last episode was rushed and we also have a poor redemption plot that was quite abrupt. The ending was a mystery. What the heck happened? Did we lose a full episode and jump right to the last 2 minutes? Is this due to censorship? (very likely).

Let’s talk about romance since it’s my favorite topic. The short review is: BLAND. Our leads started off as good friends and they are supposed to slowly develop feelings for each other. Well, I didn’t quite see this development. What I see is our FL suddenly really wants to marry ML not because of the bone, but because she is in love with him. I then see our ML never really showed much romantic interest in our FL, and then all of a sudden he is in love. If the friends-to-lovers trope is not done right in the beginning, then the latter part of the romance will become friends-to-lovers-with-no-chemistry. In the second half of the drama, the romance has gotten better once they are together. There’s enough decent skinship and I’ve always loved Xu Kai’s expressive beautiful eyes. But overall, the romance is lacking.

Our male lead, Ding Yun Qi, is a genius. He’s never wrong and is always steps ahead of others. He may not be the warmest person initially, but he’s not a cold tsundere either. He’s smart, loyal, caring, has the best martial arts skills, is a doctor, and also knows everything that the Heaven Official should know even though he left home for 6 years and really didn’t have a lot of time to learn. Well, basically he is perfect. Our female lead, Wu Shuang, is the opposite. She’s outgoing and friendly, curious and likes to fight. Luckily, she’s not dumb and can be quite smart in her own ways. Many dislike Wu Shuang, but I am ok with her. She is usually on the sidelines until the latter part of the drama.

The acting is decent and I don’t see anyone especially bad or cringey.. As much as I love Xu Kai (I bet by now you know I really like him), this is not his best acting. I think the acting all around is OK by the younger cast. The better acting is done by our veterans, Wang Yang as Luo Yun Song, and Morni Chang as Zhou Qiu Hai. These two never disappoint, no matter how bad the script is, you can trust their acting abilities. I also like that they use their own voices. I think I can recognize Wang Yang’s voice by now as he always dubs his own voice. Props to him! There are a couple interesting supporting characters that I quite enjoy - Meng A Sai as Sun San Xuan and Bao Bei Er as Luo Jiu Tian.

I don’t think I can wholeheartedly recommend this drama, UNLESS you just want to look at Xu Kai’s handsome face and Xu Kai looking dashing in a variety of nice suits. There are too many other good dramas out there.