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dreamingsushi · 8 months

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Eternal Love - Overall Review

It took a few years in the making, but there we are and finally I finished my recaps of this series. It was somewhat challenging since I knew all of the major events to happen, yet I had to make sure not to include them in any of my recaps before it actually happened. My fingers might have slipped here and there, but I truly did my best.

Plot

It’s quite the feat to manage summarizing the story of this drama in a few lines without revealing everything. Let’s just say that this about a love story between two immortals, spanning on three different lives. There is a lot of trials, a lot of pain, but also a lot of magic, in any kind of way you can give to this word. Since elaborating on the plot line itself would risk giving away spoilers, which is not the point of this review, I will focus on the characters and their relationship.

We can all agree that Bai Qian/Si Yin/Susu is the main character of this story. She's there from the beginning to the end. I would like to mention the complexity of this character. At times she's quirky, at others she's an elder that no one would dare confront. What I liked about her is that she's very consistent in her character. She's a proud lady and she won't take being insulted, although she's actually a softy deep down inside and can't really hold a grudge for real, it's only to keep face. She's also extremely loyal. I loved that we got to have a strong lady as a main lead. A strong lady that hates to depend even on her partner, even though she relied maybe a little too much on her master, but that's a different story. She made sense, from A to Z. She wasn't perfect, no she had plenty of flaws, but that's what made her even more relatable and actually admirable. Her relationship with Yehua sometimes evolved weirdly, it felt maybe like we could have used a little more development, but at the same time... it wasn't illogical at all.

And I can't talk about Bai Qian without mentioning Yehua, right? Seriously, that character is everything. I loved how we portrayed his struggles, why he strives so much to please everyone and do the right thing, all the time. It was painful, yet blissful to see his growth, seeing him discover love and happiness along the hardships. The guy was obviously a little too powerful, but I liked the openness he had about his feelings towards Bai Qian, how he was set on one thing and wouldn't change his mind. He needs still to learn about communication, because that would have solved many issues and saved a lot of tears on my part, but he's still young. 70 000 something years old, that ain't that old right?

The one part of the storyline that I really didn't like is the one between Donghua and Fengjiu. My problem isn't that their love isn't fated to be fulfilled, but rather that it's pathetic. To me, Fengjiu liking Donghua doesn't make sense. It feels more like a fan who is mistaken between feelings of love and feelings of admiration. I'm also not a fan of people hanging on to others, even though it's not meant to be, it's just annoying. She kept clinging onto him and I just don't appreciate seeing women portrayed that way.

But let's talk about one my favourite pair of characters: Zhe Yan and Bai Zhen. Those two. Seriously. Who wouldn't like them? It's obvious that they are a little bit more than friends, even though it is never openly said in the drama. But they just fight like an old married couple all the time. I think one of my favourite moment is when Zheyan makes a new arm for Yehua, arguing that it would look bad on his wedding day with Bai Qian if he only had one, and that just totally made sense as an explanation to Bai Zhen, who also agrees. It's just lovely how they always think of each other, in every circumstances. Plus, even though most of the time they are rather carefree, they both are really powerful characters and I think without their help, our main characters would never have found each other.

Li Jing is also a character that has shown a lot of growth during the drama. Perhaps under the influence of Bai Qian. He really broke my heart, because he did try his best, even though that wasn't enough.

Now let's mention the two ladies antagonizing Bai Qian: Xuan Nü and Sujin. Whereas Xuan Nü is pitiful, Sujin is despicable. Both ladies got to grow up next to people who were important, but the first one was always remembered of her low status, while the other one felt entitled to everything. They both tried to take away the men from Bai Qian and both failed. And I must say, I really liked Xuan Nü's character. To be more correct I guess, I must say that I liked disliking her. She's ready to do anything to get whatever she wants and gets delusional in the end. Basically, she created her own hell herself, crafted it one piece at a time. Her downfall was slow, painful and led her to lose her mind. That was actually fabulous in way. On the other hand, Sujin character's didn't impress me as much. She's just a spoiled lying brat who's used to get what she wants, on the pretext that her family died for the celestial group. She has always coveted what doesn't belong to her so yeah. They just made her into an ugly character that didn't have much depth. I don't like female characters like that, because I think it puts woman in a bad light.

Over all, the plot was pretty decent. I remember though when I tried to explain it to my sisters, they thought I was crazy for watching something like this haha. I mean, stuff happens in Chinese dramas sometimes, it's okay. It wasn't perfect and some stuff were very frustrating, but it's an overall 8/10 for me.

Acting

Here, I would say I'm biased. I'm a huge Yang Mi's fan. She's just great. So to me, she did an awesome job, with all the little habits the character has. She keeps pushing them forward and it looks natural. I loved the subtle differences between Susu and Bai Qian, coming from her memory loss. Loved also when she was acting as Xuan Nü stealing Bai Qian's face. You can see that she's talented and polyvalent. There's not a time I didn't believe that what happened. was real.

And I can't say one thing wrong about Zhao Youting's acting either. He was beyond expectations, as Moyuan and Yehua. How much his gaze would mean a lot, you could know what he felt just through his eyes. Both Yehua and Moyuan weren't very expressive characters, mostly cold to anyone but Bai Qian (as they should), but it didn't feel like the usual "I'm trying to look like I'm cold so I'm just not acting". There were nuances all along, making it alive instead of zombie like. You could feel all the warmth those two characters had to offer once they started liking someone. Especially as Yehua, who was a character that grew up with so much pressure on him.

I'm not going to spend too much time on the other characters, because otherwise this review is going to be overly long. However, I still have a few actors to praise. Both Sujin and Xuan Nü did an amazing job, especially Xuan Nü towards the end, when she was on her downfall and getting crazier by the day. Those two ladies, albeit having a not so nice personna did a very good job. They made me feel exactly how I should towards them. Pity, hatred, resentment... All of that. The actor for Siming was also hilarious, while very good at the more serious occasions. Loved loved Alan Yu as Bai Zhen, but this guy is just so precious, I always want to pinch his cheeks in general, but even more so in this character. Do I have to mention baby Ali? That child is soooo adorable. Obviously, they were pretty young back then so it wasn't perfect, but it felt so naive and real, I loved it. Even though I am not a fan of Fengjiu, Dilraba Dilmurat did an awesome job. She's a master at pouting while still looking adorable. We could feel all the melancholy of her character from her unfulfilled romance. She did great also looking all feisty for her aunt when she felt she was being bullied.

The only character I wasn't so fond of his acting was... Gao Weiguang as Donghua. Whereas Zhao Youting portrays beautifully a cold character, it didn't make the cut for me in Donghua's case. It felt very awkward for me. Not to say he didn't do a good job, it's just that compared to Zhao Youting, it didn't stand a chance.

Overall, this drama gets a lot of point for the acting. I didn't even mention all of the wonderful characters, because there are just too many to talk about each of them. However I would say a majority did a stellar job. So this gets a 9/10, losing points for some of the side characters that were a little less enticing.

Soundtrack

I think it is no secret that I just looooove Eternal Love's soundtrack. Both the opening and the ending of the drama are on my playlist, I almost never skip it when it comes along and they both figure on my KTV must sing list. It's just beautiful, it pairs well with the drama and the story. What else can I say?

But it's not all about the opening and the ending. Whenever there was music in this drama, I couldn't help but be delighted. It always was most fitting to the actual action right at that moment. It was perfection. Whenever I heard the notes starting to play, I was right into the feels, it set the tone for whatever was happening. They did an awesome job in my opinion.

Overall, this is a 10/10, it was just perfect. I couldn't ask for anything better than that.

Aesthetic and costumes

So this being an older drama, it's going to lose a little bit of points here. Not because it's bad, it's just... old. If I did my review right when it first aired, the score might have been different, but how well.

Let's first talk about costumes. I would say I loved most of them? It wasn't all perfect, but the costumes really fitted each of the characters personality, and very well at that. I especially enjoyed Yehua's costume and his head pieces. Lexu and Sujin were also beautifully dressed all the time. I think they had the most intricate costumes of the drama. Perhaps alongside with Xuan Nü as she was queen of Yi. I wasn't such a fan of Bai Qian's clothes half of the time. I liked her monocolour clothing more than the multicolour ones. Sometimes the colours kind of didn't fit together and it bothered my eyes. I also couldn't help but think that her headpieces must have been very uncomfortable. But one thing I really liked was the consistency of the hairstyles for the Fox tribe people. Their hair were pulled back in a similar manner for all of them, except Fengjiu and Bai Zhen, for some mysterious reason. I also liked the general simplicity of the costumes for most characters. As much as I like beautiful clothing, I enjoyed that instead of focusing on what they were wearing, I would focus more on their facial expressions and their body language.

About the visuals... There were beautiful scenes (especially in Kunlunxu, Qingqiu and the Peach Blossom forest), but the unfortunate thing was that most of it were painting or pictures and we could see quite clearly the cut around the actors. It wasn't very seamless and kind of ruined part of the thing for me. Also, the beasts and creatures looked really cheap. Probably because they weren't as advanced in that field. But if I look back, it wasn't that much better in Till the End of the Moon which is much more recent. So overall, they really didn't do too bad, right?

So overall, this would be a 7/10, but mostly because it didn't age that well. It's pretty impressive for back then and this is actually a pretty good rating in my opinion.

Should you watch this drama?

I 100% recommend to watch Eternal Love. I think it belongs to the classics in terms of drama, even though it's not that old. It has everything a good story needs. The character development is super interesting. The acting is superior. The story is enticing and of course, there are some toxicity as to be expected of something a little older, but it's not overly present compared to other dramas. Actually, toxic traits during the relationship was something to work on. Seriously, this is a solid 9/10, I watched it twice and if I ever have some more time, I would rewatch without hesitation.

List of full recaps

All / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12 / 13 / 14 / 15 / 16 / 17 / 18 / 19 / 20 / 21 / 22 / 23 / 24 / 25 / 26 / 27 / 28 / 29 / 30 / 31 / 32 / 33 / 34 / 35 / 36 / 37 / 38 / 39 / 40 / 41 / 42 / 43 / 44 / 45 / 46 / 47 / 48 / 49 / 50 / 51 / 52 / 53 / 54 / 55 / 56 / 57 / 58

#eternal love #yang mi #zhao youting #dilraba dilmurat #gao weiguang #xuanhuan #xuanhuan drama #costume drama #cdrama #c-drama #chinese drama #drama review #drama recommentation

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