My Disappointment with "Till The End Of The Moon"

So, I am writing this deep analysis of Till The End Of The Moon or popularly known as TTEOM by fans... I have taken consideration of 9 key points which tells if the drama is good or not and my answers will tell the reason for it point wise and, in the end, I will share why still this drama has a key place in my heart...  also PLEASE BE CIVIL and MAINTAIN RESPECT. 

•  Engaging Plot

I personally think TTEOM had a good premise. A goddess from the present travels in the past to kill a devil god the stop a catastrophe in the future. But the show couldn't portray this properly... There is a ton of backstory that can easily be edited in a way that all of it could be complied into less than episode... If you are saying that, if the shows reveal all of the backstory in one go then the plot won't have any suspense...  Yes, I agree to that, but they could had divided into various episodes as epilogues and key important ones could have been given screen time...

•  Cast Value

This show boasts one of the best casts that c-drama fans could ask for: Luo Yun Xi and Bai Lu, who had already won the hearts of Chinese and international audiences in the hit drama Love Is Sweet. It was no surprise that fans were eagerly anticipating their on-screen reunion in this new show and let me tell you - they did not disappoint!

The chemistry between Luo Yun Xi and Bai Lu was simply wonderful to watch. Their performances were spot-on,

• Strong Writing

Unfortunately, I found the story writing to be a mess in this show. The male lead character, played by Luo Yun Xi, had a lot of flaws. While he had a compelling reason for becoming a devil god, the show didn't provide a clear path for how he got there. Additionally, his relationship with the female lead character, played by Bai Lu, was complex and often confusing.

Personally, I was quite frustrated to see how the male lead always trusted the female lead, despite knowing that she was a walking red flag. It made me question his judgment and made their relationship feel unbalanced and unrealistic at times. 

• Pacing 

The pacing of this show was a major issue for me. It was very troublesome and often irritating to watch. At times, I felt that the pacing was too slow, particularly during certain dream sequences. Conversely, there were moments where the pacing was too fast and left me feeling confused and disoriented. And the pacing of the show made it difficult for casual viewers to fully engage with the story and connect with the characters.

• cinematography 

The cinematography in this show left a lot to be desired. I found myself giggling and feeling worried about the quality of the shots at times. The camera angles were average and occasionally shaky, which made it difficult to fully immerse myself in the story.

One issue I had was with the way the camera often focused directly on a character's face, which felt jarring and unnatural. However, there were some positive aspects to the cinematography, particularly during the well-chorographed fight scenes. While some fights were decent but forgettable, others were truly memorable and showcased the show's potential for stunning visuals.

• Music and Sound Design.

While I don't have much expertise in this area, I have to say that I didn't feel particularly attached to this section. It didn't quite capture my attention or make me feel particularly enthusiastic about it.

• Production Value

According to the rumours this was the most expensive show produced by Youku, but this was not fully utilized... The CGI was not that great... Like the Lion and first battle... The colours were over saturated and made me feel like I was watching a light show... The makeup was overdone for ML... But the set pieces were amazing. 

•  Distribution 

 I must say that the distribution was a mess for me and most of us. Youku, the platform that aired it, is blocked in my country, so the only ways I could watch it were either through YouTube or by pirating it. Unfortunately, Youku's YouTube channel was way behind schedule, so I had to rely on pirated episodes to stay up to date. Just recently, Netflix bought the rights to the show, but by the time it comes out on Netflix, the drama might have already aired and been spoiled for me.

• Marketing

I have to say that the marketing was a complete mess. I found myself checking MDL every day for any rumours or leaks. However, just four days before the release, they finally dropped a trailer. Unfortunately, the trailer contained so much information that it practically revealed the entire story. It was a major let down and took away the excitement of watching the show unfold.

And the reason why it holds a special place in my heart is that this show made me understand more about film making and how to make one... Thanks for reading ❤️ 

I have watched 150+ shows on MDL. in that 40% are cdramas  and rest are kdramas and jdramas. 

I've studied film and media production for 3 years, so I can safely say agree and disagree with some of your pointers. Agree to disagree, I'll be civil about it.

1. The Plot

The plot is very engaging. Too engaging, that it's my cup of tea. The writing formula they're using is not your usual standard industry sell for Xianxia. Which is naive FL and Evil, cunning ML love story transformation arc.

Dream Arc is slow because it's a dream sequence. It's reintroducing a new world, new set of characters, new storyline on top of the current one. So it will be slow. But honestly not as slow as I thought it would be, cos it can go even slower if it wants to which I'm glad they didn't.

What they could've cut out for more screentime for other key scenes would be the flashbacks. There were too many flashbacks. But since there are total of 3 Arcs excluding the Intro Arc, so the flashbacks are necessary but they can cut out most of them.

2. Casting

Perfection, no questions asked. From the Main Leads to the supporting lead, Background characters like Chun Tao and Extras. All well casted.

Chemistry don't need to say, I didn't saw BL and LYX as themselves. I genuinely saw them as their characters, that's how good their acting is. 

3. THE WRITING

Honestly the writing for this series, is my cup of tea. In fact, you will never see writing as good as this for any other C-Drama or any series ever again. 

Periodt. I'll explain why:

This series have plot twists after plot twist so casual watchers will find it very overwhelming. In fact, it constantly kept me on my toes, cos I like to predict where the storyline will head towards.

In fact you watch, Episode 34 it explains LYX and the Devil's God character arc very well in fact. IN FULL CIRCLE. To the point that I'll say, the ending of Ep 34 is the ultimate Uno Reverse of the entire series.

What makes this series good, is the depth of character and the change in each character's arc. I'm not just talking about TTJ and YXW + LSS. I'm also talking about XL and YBC+TH+MN character arcs

Each of their character is so complex that you can easily read their complex nuances if you like to read people/ characters and people watch.

If a character arc and their transformation arc is simple. Their character personality and depth will be Basic AND Boring 😭 which I hate but this series does the exact opposite and I love it. It also breaks the usual Xianxia writing formula. I LOVE IT'S COMPLEXITY.

If your character is not complex or interesting enough, your story will be boring. Periodt. It's not the story that'll keep audiences staying but the characters. The story will also not sell either.

The writing for each character is very well-written, from their weaknesses to fears, especially their inner turmoil and expressing that which I find the hardest to write.

I cannot emphasize how very VERY important the Dream Arc: It has a lot of foreshadowing, it needs to fulfill the prophecy, it will bring a lot of change to each character after the Dream Arc. It's also for each character to take away a valuable lesson for them to all learn before the 2nd Arc begins which most of them failed, except for LSS because she ultimately completed her mission at a very high cost.

It's messy, because each character live 3 life times. The Dream Arc being them reliving another person's past life. 

But if you look at it in the perspective of 5 Act Story Structure, the story has a linear and also a non-linear progression. In the linear progression, we are almost reaching the end of the final arc where CJM will ultimately turn into Devil God but this time for a good reason. Previously, what TTJ went through was ultimately beyond his control. But after experiencing his tribulations, that ultimately finally gave him a choice that he couldn't have at the start at the Intro Arc + 1st Arc. So the series is actually wrapping up with a nice finish tho I'm still very unsure what the ending is that I can't predict because the novel had 2 ENDINGS.

In terms of non-linear progression, each story structure for each story arc was nicely written that when YXW finally changed TTJ end in the 2nd. Giving it a nice butterfly effect in the 3rd Arc, with all the flashbacks put into place. Even in non-linear progression, the story still has very good flow.

The flaw you mentioned for LYX character, I felt was in terms of the director's direction. The directing for the show can be 10x better, so I was really glad that LYX took in the reigns in digressing and expressing his ideas on acting out all his characters. 

I find that most of the flaws in this show is not the writing in fact very, VERY far from it. 

It's the directing, editing, CGI, graphics, Cinematography. Basically the film techniques on this series is decent but if you want me to be extremely nitpicky. I say it's trash, because Can Lan Jue has a simple storyline and their CGI is decently great. Not the best but good. TTEOTM CGI almost turned me off from watching. I ultimately stayed for the characters, the character arc and the writing.

4. Pacing

The pacing is actually very well done. Cos honestly after watching a few of other fantasy and Xianxia Wuxia shows. It could've gone even slower and/ or even faster, a 2nd part for the series was also originally planned but it got wiped out because production cost and also censorship ratings 

They can even drag the dream sequence to be even longer, they can drag the flashbacks, they can speed up every fight scene and intense dialogue. They can remove certain monologues as well.

Honestly pacing for this show is not a big issue because 3 different story arc. 3 different story pacing. When they come in as a whole piece, it's just nice.

I'd say the film techniques is the big problem. Especially when YouKu said this is their most expensive production piece for the year.

5. Cinematography

Honestly, Cinematography wise I have the most complaints as most should. Given the high budget they were distributed with. 

From CGI to the edits cut, dubbing, ADR edits to lighting, art direction, camera movements and shot framing. AND THE MOST BASIC OF ALL ERRORS SHUTTER SPEED got me flipped at one scene, I literally saw the stairs fluttering black and white. *Literal facepalm* 

I'm okay with seeing black heads but please bare minimum is don't flutter your stairs. That's literally the bare minimum.

Out of all the shows I've seen, J-dramas have THE BEST Cinematography wise and most especially CAMERA MOVEMENTS. J-dramas are very well-known for their extremely good camera movements, watch Code Blue and you'll understand why. 

I've seen better cinematography with bad storytelling. This series is the opposite, best storytelling with bad cinematography. It was so bad that I almost got turned off in the 1st 5 minutes watching into the series.

As someone who have done found-footage style of storytelling before. I can safely 100% say that it's not the low res quality or lack of technique that delivers most of your story. It's the writing that always delivers.

You can produce a 480p short film found footage about aliens, if your story is good, people will watch your story. But it will not cater highly to today's current market, because technology is too advanced that we're spoiled into watching film in 4K which I'm honestly not complaining. 

But if you produce a 4K docufilm about crime scenes and you flop in the storyline, you flop overall despite your high quality film techniques and equipment.

Film techniques and equipment go very much hand in hand with High Quality storytelling. This is series is the pure embodiment of it but with low quality film techniques and directing. Cos you can tell the director have very high ideals in his work with his expression in directing that it really cost him his production value. Because he placed his ideals slightly above the quality, which I can't blame him but it seriously can be better.

6. Music and Sound Design

I give it 5 gold bloody stars. Their edits with the music is very smart play with the characters dialogue and the scene and context they were in.

I love all the BGM and OST tracks. Look into their lyrics, each of their song have very deep meaning into the lyrics that links up and depicts the story of this series very well.

Sound Design for every day actions can honestly be better. From swords to their divine powers but it's decently good. 

Honestly speaking, their Music, Audio & Sound Design is 10x better than their Cinematography. So what carried this series is really the BGM, OST, the writing and the casts expression in their acting craft.

7. Production Value

I agree with this one, they had very high good budget. Normally you really don't see what happens behind the tables, the production can sometimes play a bit dirty on this but it really depends on the department and which production house you are under basically.

The colours weren't saturated, they were desaturated actually. Their colour grading they up the mid-tones and highlights you barely see much shadows in the shots. There's no depth in lighting for most of their shots, which is a bit annoying but their colour palette is literally pastel Xianxia so 🙂

8. Distribution

Honestly I call cap for YouKu only having it on their platform, you have to go third party website or streamsites to watch them. 

But I'm glad it's coming out on Netflix so I'll definitely rewatch the series 2 to 3 times. 1st 2 times for feels, after that will be pure studying.

9. Marketing

Honestly, their marketing team is very very VERY SMART. If you follow closely with their YouKu tiktok app, they promote their show and merch constantly with the latest tiktok trends. You really have to give it up for their marketing team.

Though they do give very early spoilers on their tiktok, which I'm not complaining. Normally I don't like to have spoilers before watching anything cos I want to anticipate and feel what I watch. I hate getting spoiled before I watch a movie, so that also explains a lot.

But this story is very different, cos the series was written in a way where there are too many plot twists that you really cannot predict what will happen next. If the original novel have 2 ENDINGS, how can you predict the ending for this show? You can't.

Also I know absolutely nothing about C-dramas or this show prior to its release. The last time I watched one was BBJX and also since the 2000s. 

So recently I only watched Can Lan Jue (Love between Fairy and the Devil) and that drama is my Fantasy RomCom drama standard, if no show tops that I will not watch it.

So when the trailer dropped, I followed every BTS and whatever video they had closely before the 1st ep of the series dropped. After that I followed every episode trailer before the next episode was released. To try and predict what will happen next.

The trailer was what kept me watching the show, if I didn't watch the trailer. I wouldn't have been able to watch the show and enjoy it. The 1st 5 mins of Ep 1 CGI was so bad that it turned me off but, because of watching the trailer. Knowing that this series will have good characters, good character arc transformation AND good storytelling. I stayed, and boy I was bloody right.

How the trailer got edited is like your typical Hollywood blockbuster industry standard trailer, just watch the trailer of even Disney films. The literally spoil half of the show in the trailer. It's because of how our current market audience work, because if you don't hook your audience in the first 20s of your trailer. You lose your audience immediately almost instantaneously.

So by industry standard of trailer release, they actually didn't give out a lot of spoilers in fact they jumble the scenes and dialogue in the trailer to confuse the audience of the original storyline timeline. So technically they didn't spoil the series, they gave you the summary of the series. I tell you if they added the scene where YXW had to kill TTJ in the festival ritual. THAT IS WHAT I CALL A HUGE SPOIL. 

Because that scene touches on a lot of things, from foreshadowing to their current emotions and relationship, as well as each of their inner turmoil. That scene in ep 23. And it happens mid series, if they show that scene, trust me a lot of people will rage at the spoil in the trailers. Cos I will rage too.

Thus, in conclusion, the series if not for their bad film techniques it will be ultimately Legendary Masterpiece.

It is by itself already a masterpiece.

Just very idealistic direction for directing, which is impt but too much can ruin your techniques.

But if you gave this series to a perfect production team to produce, you will not get this superbly beautifully written drama. It's written in a way that challenges not only the actors but also the production team, production house and the entire market. 

Give this to a perfect team, sure it'll be very highly quality in production value but it might get poorly written.

This show you can really see the heart & soul. Not only the cast's heart and soul, but also the production's team too.

The screenwriters are the true MVP of this series followed by the cast.

TTEOTM is full of heart and soul.

Overall in terms of ratings:

Cinematography - 2.5/5

Writing - 5/5

Cast - 5/5

Production - 3.8/5

Post-Pro (Film) - 2/5

Post-Pro (Audio) - 3.8/5

Music & Sound Design - 5/5

Distribution - 2.5/5

Marketing - 4.5/5

Overall for general rating if I'm being like strict, 9.6/10. I honestly do not want to give any lower than 9.5 cos despite the lack in film techniques. This series storytelling, casting and art direction wise was way better than I expected. Honestly, I was expecting way worse. I don't even want to give it an 8 cos this is not a 8/10 series.

But personally, I'll give it a 9.8/10. That's honestly very high for me. I gave Can Lan Jue a 9/10, everything is good but the Mortal Realm Arc was too slow and the written story is your standard Xianxia formula. You cant expect more and you also can't expect any less. CLJ CGI is whole lot better than TTEOTM but storytelling wise TTEOTM won by a bloody landslide.

I read lots of lots of comments about the confusing plot. I have to say I don’t find the plot confusing at all aside from what didn’t put on screen(with the exception of Meng Yao eps due to choppy editing). I noticed people who complained about the confusing plot were the people who rarely/never watch xianxia or not cdrama avid viewers. 

I honestly don't get the title of your discussion cuz from what i see in your review, you said your gonna say the good and bad both then why does your title say-MY DISSPOINMENT WITH TTEOTM. If you wanted to write the DISSPOINMENT you should have just written that.

This is one of the worst stories I've ever seen. The writing is inconsistent, choppy, and full of holes. Some characters are shallow and have no development - Susu. Jin is forced into an arbitrary role of a villain when he didn't do anything wrong. Susu is portrayed as a hero when in fact she is shallow, callous, and selfish. The drama is supposedly about star crossed lovers when all they do in mistrust and undermine each other, mostly Susu. It seriously should serve as an example on how NOT to write romance.