Completed: 1/2/2021 - 8.75 rounding up to 9.0

"Rainless Love in Godless Land" is written by the same person who wrote the popular "Someday or One Day" and the less popular "Attention, Love'. The intricate and complicated storylines are reminiscent of "Someday or One Day", especially the last few episodes of both dramas. I find that you really need to stay focused throughout the whole episode. Otherwise, you will miss a detail and then be very confused. The drama was told through stories of the Taiwanese Aborigines, Ami Tribe, passed down by generations through stories told.

What I like:
1. The Amis' animated story - At the start of each episode, the audience is treated to the animated story of the Ami tribe. We learned of their gods, people, and traditions. It also leads into what the actual episode is about. I am not sure how accurate these stories are, but I really enjoy learning and watching the animation. This is an interesting way to give us some insight into the upcoming episode and learning more about the culture.

2. OST - I usually don't rate OST as the second item I mentioned, but I really like all the songs. The lyrics of all the songs complemented the mood and the story. I especially like the ending theme song "雨不停。流" sung by 孫盛希, the opening theme "最後一秒鐘" by九澤CP and the acapella version of "讓我聽見你" sung in Amis when FL was quietly praying for the appearance of Orad. If I remember correctly, "Someday or One Day" has a great soundtrack as well.

3. Acting - The overall acting of the cast is great. Our main leads have to portray many different emotions throughout the dramas. I have to say that both Joanne Tseng (FL) and Fu Meng Bo (ML) were best during emotional scenes. I also enjoy Samantha Ko as FL's grand mother, Alice Ko's gray character as the Cloud God, Joe Cheng as Wind God and the funny Yan Yu Lin as Wisdom God. A special shout out to the child/young actresses in this drama. Oh another shout out to the gods needing to learn a different language. They all sound so believable.

4. General plot - Doomsday + Gods + Human + Special Power + Inter-species Romance + Pollution! That is a lot to unpack in this drama. The drama does a good job in slowly revealing the stories of all characters and how they intertwined with each other. It also reminds us that we have not been taking care of Mother Earth. Even the gods give up on us and leave us to our demise.

5. Guest Roles - This is just a personal preference of mine. I just finished watching "Attention, Love" not too long ago and I really enjoy seeing so many actors/actresses appearing in both dramas (roughly counted 6). This is very likely due to the same team producing both dramas.

What I Don't like as much:
1. Romance - The majority of the romance is shown through flashbacks of when Orad was protecting TianTi before she lost her memory. I would say this is a slow-burn romance. However, I feel that it's lacking intensity (even if it's quiet intensity) to have this romance to be so central to the main plot. I would like to see more about the couple right now, and not through flashbacks. The flashbacks also feel repetitive and not enough variety.

2. Revealing the Lie - As much as I enjoy how intricate the storylines are, and how everything is slowly revealed, I find the last 2 episodes a little confusing. The main reveal was done by the Wind God in the last couple episodes, and he just blurted everything out. I have to really pay attention to what he said, and then think back to all that happened to understand what was the "lie" he was talking about. He kept on using the word "lie" but it wasn't explicit enough for me to understand right away. Of course, it could also be my comprehension problem.

Other Observations:
1. I want to see more powerless adorable Orad. He's so adorable when he becomes human and has to learn about sweating, eating and making choices.
2. Did they just call FL the Steph Curry of the tour company? LOL
3. Fu Meng Bo (ML) doesn't look attractive to me in the beginning. But he grows on me esp. in the last episode.