BLISS RATING: ★★★★+
“The sea of suffering is endless. As long as you return to the shore in time, there will still be a brilliant sunset waiting for you.” – Quote from Fangs of Fortune
Epic. Clear and simple, this is in a class all by itself. Granted, it might not be for everyone, and I certainly had a hard time following the complexities of the story itself. Being a lover of period pieces, I was enthralled with this fantasy series. Is it a BL? Nope. Is it romantic. Yes, and no. Certainly, it has impassionate connections between characters but to say they were romantic is a matter of interpretation. As a Westerner, I know next to nothing about Chinese culture, customs, religious practices, or history. So, I became intrigued by this story. It is difficult for me to separate fact from fiction here in a sense that these characters seem so relatable with human strengths and foibles, yet their circumstances were beyond my reference points of understanding. In addition, I find the Chinese language almost hypnotic and sounding like imagery poetry. I adored this series and felt a deeper connection to these characters, ironically. This is a long, long series and you invest a significant amount of time watching and therefore you become weirdly attached to them. Perhaps some more than others but all in general. Why? Because they all remind us of ourselves – be they mortals or demons. Watching this series becomes an experience. To some degree, it is representative of our own world.
The saga is way too complicated to try and decipher in summary form. All one can say is that it is a treasure of adventures between 5 mortals and demons and occasionally a combination of both. While they strive to right some wrongs, in the process we find that ALL of them have the same attributes. Each share good qualities and bad ones. In other words, they are saints and sinners in the same clothing.
When the Bai Ze goddess is killed by a demon during the Zhenyuan era, a motley set of individuals organize to begin the process to right the wrongs that this has caused both in the mortal and demon worlds. While 5 volunteers help the Demon Hunting Bureau to find those responsible and return order and balance to both worlds, their journeys are fraught with dangers and also self-discoveries. They also deepen their love for one another and in essence become a family unto their own, filled with their own shortcomings and strengths along with highly individualized personalities.
Wen Xiao (Chin Du Ling) becomes the new Bai Ze goddess. While a goddess, she is still a mortal and must straddle both the world of the Wilderness where the demons live as well as the world of the Mortals. Zhao Yuan Zhou (Neo Hou) is a powerful demon, known as the Great Demon, who is a complex character and longs for relief from his long-suffering life of hellish evilness by malevolent forces. Yet, he can and does possess a softer, gentler side to himself. He is virtually eternally living but one person does have the power to kill him. In a sense, he falls in ‘love’ with Wen Xiao. Zhou Yi Chin (Tian Jia Rui) is a detective and an expert swordsman with a magical and mythical sword capable of killing demons, including the Great Demon himself. Zhao Yuan Zhou. Pei Si Jing (Cheng Xiao) is an expert archer and a zealous tracker of demons. Bai Jiu (Lester Lin) is a 13-year-old doctor prodigy. While boyish by nature, he is way more complex in substance than is suspected. A fascinating character and inscrutable.
Who really S.T.O.L.E. this series? This is an exceptionally well-crafted and well-acted series. Three stood out for me for this distinction, who I would consider minor characters with major contributions. All were deeply gripping and brought a level of depthness to their characterizations that is rare for roles that are not major. Ying Lei (Xu Zhen Xuan) is a Mountain God who develops an affinity for Bai Jiu. While providing comedic relief, he nonetheless still is an integral part of the story and rises to the occasion to save the group. Li Lun (Yan An), a demon and former friend of Yuan Zhou, has the ability to take other forms. While appearing to be evil and is largely so, he too has a side, in the end, that is reflective of his own inner struggles to do and be good. And finally, there is the brother of Si Jing, Pei Si Heng (Lai Wei Meng) who is murdered by Si Jing for being a demon but comes back to life as her protector. He plays the part with such astonishing commitment, yet always with a forlorn and pensive expression. These three remarkable actors took these roles and made them into something unique and gave such a boast to the storyline by their exemplary interpretations of their parts. You can sense and feel the passion in their roles.
Along the way, there are a goodly number of characters that enter their lives and adventures, not all of whom are supportive of their quests.
It is obvious that they spared no expense for the cinematography for this series. It is beautifully filmed and executed. The costumes and sets are simply magnificent and are epicurean. The saga gets deep into the mysticism, magic, and sorcery of Chinese culture. The story itself gets mired in complexities and details and working of mysticism and magic that became hard to follow, especially for Westerners. It is quite extensive and at times gets a bit too detailed. The script is also exceptional but again not being familiar with Chinese history and its ancient culture, frequently the story gets confusing and esoteric.
What detracts a bit from this extensive narrative is the lack of emotive feelings. Unquestionably well-acted, for me, it falls a bit short in its ability to reach a soul core of emotions that one would expect of a series like this. Of course, there are individual scenes, where there are intensities between characters, such as between Si Jing and her brother. Perhaps this could be partly attributed to the way the performers were directed to be so stilted in their approaches to a lot of the scenes. They seemed to be so monochromatic in their deliveries and the way it was choreographed. I was expecting to be much more ‘moved’ by the series, but I found myself more passively enjoying the series rather than emotionally enjoying the series. In other words, it did not deeply affect me as much as I thought it would.
There is a special episode at the end that is well worth watching as it ties into the story a bit more deeply. Here we find Zhou Yi Chin is going to seek the Great Demon since not all of his soul was destroyed. That helped me make this saga feel a bit more relatable as a bromance between the two of them. While it was suggested there was a strong bond between them, it never got deep on any emotional level. In fact, the bond between Li Lun and Zhao Yuan Zhou felt stronger but still something felt disconnected and disjointed even with that relationship. It teased a significant friendship but somehow, it never felt like it was anything more than an intense friendship.
This is a deeply impactful series, nonetheless. Its musical score, which honestly, I hardly notice in most series, is emphatic in this one and enhances the series quite a lot. I am certainly glad I took the time to watch this epic series. Admittedly, they also have some of the utmost staggeringly handsome and majestic men and most beguiling women on earth in this series, making the time to watch this series goes by seemingly that much faster. You should do the same, if you have not done so.
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