This my first ever review and I felt compelled to write this after watching the drama and then reading the novel. Prior to this drama I had no knowledge of the novel or any of its content at all. This was a no skip drama, and like the other reviewers have commented, it left me feeling empty and wanting more, which led me to read the novel too.

First off I will do a review on the drama before I read the novel, theres a review for the novel comparison afterward, that may contain some spoilers.

Initial Rating: 8-9
Final Rating: 9
*Story*
The story speaks about how Lin Qiu Shi finds him self stuck in this virtual world where he has to pass these "Doors" in order to escape the game and the overall story very compelling with each arc representing each door getting more interesting than the other. Each of the arc is a standalone story and kept me on my toes. I do not usually watch horror, but the mystery and the story telling of the this drama kept me engaged. From how the main character slowly piece together the puzzles within the door and how the level of difficulty each door gets, To how Lin Qiu Shi's character building up his skills to pass through each door, as well as his interactions with Ruan Nan Zhu. The characters itself also made it more likable to watch and the interactions between each character really brought this drama to life. Knowing this is based on a BL novel versus not knowing makes no difference. The interaction between the main leads, mostly comes off as more friendship or like someone of great importance which makes alot of sense, since they are basically entrusting each other with their life for every door they go into.

Acting:
Majority of the acting cast of this drama are new actors or relatively young actors with minimal experience. However each of these actors managed to bring each of these characters to life and embodied the characters themselves. I will mostly speak of the main characters as this drama has a pretty large cast, but I will have to say that almost all the minor characters got me relating to them in some way. Some that made me cry or laugh because of their interactions.

First of all Xia Zhi Guang, for those you who may not know him, I've known this guy existed like almost 6-7 years ago, because I watched X-Fire and then I also watched Produce 101 season 2 china version. I will have you know that if you watched him in any of these none of you will think of him as Ruan Nan Zhu. There was even a post about it on weibo that was questioning "How on earth did the directors and producers managed to see a Ruan Nan Zhu in Xia Zhi Guang? Cause I sure as hell didn't" and the proceeds to pulls up his past clips. I have seen him in these shows and his existence was practically invisible, guy has strong skills in dancing, but he didn't really stand out to me much. His acting here was amazing, from the occasionally drama queen to coolness and coldness of Ruan Nan Zhu. Of course, he is still a new actor and his acting isn't perfection, but I felt he really embodied Ruan Nan Zhu.

Huang Jun Jie should be consider as relatively experience actor, I have seen him in other works and can say that he act well in certain roles and sometimes his acting is not good. In here, while I wouldn't say this acting is phenomenal, I say he brought out the character Lin Qiu Shi, showed his growth and coldness as person, once he started adapting to the world of doors where you don't have time to worry about other people life or death when you have to manage to survive yourself.

Music:
Definitely not the best, tbh for a low budget drama, they did a pretty good job. I felt the team that worked on the music and background noises did a pretty good job of putting sounds at the appropriate timing to bring in the mood. Such as when something eerie was gonna happen or when Lin Qiu Shi/Ruan Nan Zhu felt something was off. I think the importance of the music/sound used in this drama really added to the element of it and made it easier for me to get more absorbed into the storyline and naturally feel scared. I almost didn't dare to even watch this at night time. However, there were 2 songs that stand out, the song for Lu Zuo Zi, which is still stuck in my head and did it creep me out the almost every time I heard it and I Know – 高佳依.

Rewatch Value:
I will definitely rewatch, the attention to detail in this drama is pretty insane and while I watched almost every episode without skipping anything. I feel like I missed some clues and I definitely will rewatch it, just because every arc and story is so engaging, I don't feel like watching it once is enough.

SPOILERS
Now below is where my review comes after the novel. It will contain a bit of spoiler towards the novel and the drama so read at your own risk. It is also comparison between 2 and how it affected my final rating. I will try to avoid major spoilers, but no guarantees.

First off compared to the drama, where it is based on a virtual world, the novel is more mystery based. The whole concept of the doors are actually different between the 2 and if you were watching the drama, im pretty sure there are a few plot holes that didn't make sense at all. Once you read the novel and the setting it will fall in to place. In the drama, Lin Qiu Shi is stuck in a virtual world where supposedly his "old friend" mailed him a game and unless he plans on stopping to play game entirely he can't avoid it. This concept actually doesn't really sound realistic and the only reason this reasoning works is because Lin Qiu Shi works with game designs (If I remember correctly). However infact, this concept of compelling people to play unless this person doesn't plan to play a video game at all doesn't work for all people. In the novel, the condition for doors to appear for a person is if they are approaching death whether it is an accident, murder, suicide or a terminal illness and the only way to prolong their life is through doors. So now the players don't really have a choice but to go through the doors, cause regardless they'll die and this also gives reason for people to cheat and play dirty. Also, the level of each persons door is heavily dependent on players performance, on their first door which is their test. So what determines the condition of their first door is how close they are approaching death, the closer they are to death, the higher the level.

The drama downplayed alot of the story and pretty much revamped alot of the concepts of the story, however it is still phenomenal on its own, though the novel is definitely the better one. In the drama, where Lin Qiu Shi was connecting with the NPCs and helping them resolve their stories, this did not happen in the novel at all. The novel was more gruesome, horrifying and gore. The door gods had feelings, but they didn't all have back stories, they simply just wanted to kill the players. It is definitely not for people who are scared of horrors or easily able to have nightmares. Reading this novel, I got a bit scared opening and closing doors, turning off the lights or even looking at myself in mirrors. For people afraid of gore, I don't think you'll be able to eat for awhile. Also, the novel had more arcs than the drama, but I believe due to budget problems, they couldn't cover it or possibility of censorship that they took them out. The drama did alter some of the arcs most likely due to the gruesome nature of the original story and to be honest great choice, cause if they kept it, this would have been classified as full on horror. They honestly did so good with the altering in stories, that I thought it was the original story until I read the novel. I won't speak into some specific details, because some are just way too gruesome. Also, there are certain drama plot holes that were explained in the novel, i'm not sure if they filmed and it was cut, or they just simply forgot about such small details.

Also, compared to the novel, the drama actually brought more interaction between the characters. In the novel, they were more like a few lines about each characters interactions with the main leads, while the drama really brought more of these interactions to life. Compared to the novel, I related more with all the characters in the drama since it was told from a more third person point of view, while I think the novel made it point that is from Lin Qiu Shi's POV, he really shouldn't get that close to people when there's a chance he might not see them again. Also, they changed a bit of the interactions between Ruan Nan Zhu and Lin Qiu Shi, which I'm sure everyone expects this due to the censorship. The writers tried their best to keep the lines, but took away some of Ruan Nan Zhu characteristics, which is he especially shameless to Lin Qiu Shi and loves teasing him alot, which doesn't show in the drama.

Overall, after reading the novel, I got to give this drama a solid 9, the novel in every arc there was new characters and zero repeats, but i'm pretty sure considering how low budget this drama was, there was no way they could hire that huge amount of people, especially when they got so much other small details and different sets they have to afford. The creation of this mysteries organization really saved this problem and explained why we would see some repeat characters. After reading the novel, I realized how many choices the director/producer/writers made to ensure this would be able to air and though this drama was only able to go online for 30 mins to an hour which is really sad. It really showed how much effort was put into this show. They really tried to reflect the drama each and every arc sets as realistic to the novel as possible and it was almost to perfection. When I was reading the novel, I had a clear image of how their surrounds would actually look like.

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A Relationship with Flaws

I picked this up because I like the actor Chen Xing Xu. He’s a very versatile actor and I have seen him act in different roles. After watching it, I regret not watching this sooner and it is also what led me to write this review.

Chen Xing Xu acts as Qian Zheng a cold and strict person to himself and those around him. He has a very strict outlook on life and his own personal ideals. Which led him to success as a lawyer, as he is able to handle any case with a calm and steady mindset with only his clients claims in mind. On the other hand, our female lead Cheng Yao, a rookie lawyer, got into his law firm through some back door and perceives life in a more gentle and naive sense, which led to much conflict. Throughout the story, we see both of them grow their careers and how they both influence each other. They mostly handle family disputes (divorces, inheritances, etc.) so you will rarely see them in court, since cases like these are settled out of court.

I love the story a lot, it is very realistic and there’s no sugarcoating when the FL makes mistakes. While she does get few chances, she learns from it and improves. We see her shape as a lawyer and as an independent woman and it is amazing to see.

Though watching her get many chances and knight in shining armor brings you back to the fact that this is a drama. It infuriates some people who knows if they commit any of the mistakes she was committing, they would have been fired instantly and pushed to face the blame, so that no harm will come to the law firm. I like the fact that it was mentioned as an option, and common practice to do this. So watching the first half of the show was a bit frustrating watching her so naive. While she does get saved by the ML, we see her standing up for herself towards the end. The last couple of episodes was her showcasing her growth, while she has studied under ML, she took what she learned applied her own ideas into the way she handle cases. She didn’t let go of her gentleness, but used what she learned from her mistakes to prevent any mishaps in happening and she aims for clients interests. Not just what client specified which is the ML way to go, but consideration for the overall outcome and with both sides interests in mind.

Overall I will rewatch this, when I run out of stuff to watch. It’s a sweet drama and watch ML treat FL throughout the series was SO SWEET. The best part are the supports, they got me cackling at their jokes and FL co workers way in treating each other was just so heartwarming. Both ML and FL are flawed, they have problems, but are willing to listen to each other and learn. We see them grow as persons and by the end of the story, we see ML learning from FL. Showing how much FL as grown from being told off on what she should do to backing up her input with solid evidence.

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