Up there with Ten Miles of Peach Blossom and Ashes of Love

I made an account just to write a review to capture my thoughts on this drama. I casually picked this one up without any expectations and mostly only watched because of the main actors. Unlike many drama-only watchers, I have watched almost all of Zhou Dongyu's movies and had high expectations of her acting, though didn't know what to expect from her in this xianxia genre that she's never dabbled in before. I understand some netizens critique of her acting in the early episodes, though I think part of it is because the dubbing brought her overall delivery down a notch. Also, Zhou Dongyu's strength (imo) has always been melodrama - I don't think any actress can cry as convincingly as her - so the early episodes of a carefree female lead weren't her forte. I also don't feel like she has has the face for a wise, serious, all-powerful goddess so sometimes when she was acting fierce, I wasn't fully convinced. But the parts of the drama that really get you are the emotional and despairing moments of sacrifice and Zhou Dongyu really delivered where it counts. When you contrast those moments with how her character was in the start of the drama, you can really feel how the character has been changed by all that she had to endure.

As for Xu Kai, I've dabbled a bit in some of his other dramas, though never finished any aside from Yanxi Palace and my impression of him from that was that he has a nice face, but doesn't have too much range in his acting. I think I agree with netizens' initial critique of him as well in the early episodes, though after finishing I think part of it is because the character itself was supposed to be stoic in the beginning. As the story progressed, Xu Kai also opened up his acting range to match it. You could feel a difference in the way he presented himself as Qingmu vs Bai Jue. I still feel like he falls short compared to Zhou Dongyu on crying and melodrama scenes, but he does best when he has to portray helplessness and worry for the female lead (that gaze!!). As for other characters, my overall feeling is that all the actors really fell into their roles in the 2nd and 3rd parts of the drama. Overall, while I've seen better acting in the xianxia genre from leads, they delivered overall and the supporting actors also did a great job.

The storyline itself has all the usual tropes for xianxia, but the overarching story was unique and grandiose in its own way. Sacrifice is a big part of the story and the main angle with which the romance is displayed. I expected but was pleasantly surprised to find that the trope of revenge and misunderstandings not being a big part of the thing that kept our main leads separate. Our couple remained steadfast in their dedication to taking care of and loving each other since the moment they fell in love. I also loved that our main female lead was the strongest goddess, rather than being someone less important compared to the male lead in the politics of the gods. Although some reviews say they liked the complex character of Wu Huan, I felt like the villain was too single-minded in her determination. She explained her decisions/motivations via her (very cheesy) monologue/dialogues with her servant but it all felt too straight forward. There were so many reasons she could have felt conflicted or regretful of her actions, given her family and all the people who cared about her but it seemed like she was hell bent on being evil and self-justified no matter what.

Along the lines of the cheesiness of some of Wu Huan's dialogues, I didn't like the delivery of some parts of the plot which felt low effort. Like dialogues where one character (who should have already known the plan) asks another character why they did something in order for the character to explain their plan and thoughts to the audience. There are also some sad moments between the couple that lost their dramatic appeal because the same confrontation and walk away of disappointment repeats itself like three times. And then finally, as with all 40+ episode xianxia dramas there are a lot of extra small quests/plots/side character stories that take up time which you don't really need to watch to get the main story. I admittedly skipped around a lot of those, but that's just what I always do with these types of dramas (such as Ashes of Love).

In my opinion with the xianxia genre, what makes a show great is less so the details of the plot and delivery, but more so whether it made me feel a sense of having been transported to another dimension and time, having heard about some epic mythology of the past. The music, CGI quality, and overall production of the drama makes a big difference in whether you can really get into the xianxia world and then the acting and storyline carries through the rest. With Ancient Love Poetry, I truly feel an emptiness at the end about wrapping up this epic tale of the most powerful gods of the realms. I'm still listening to the OST and it instantly transports me back to the epic love that our lead characters have for each other. The only other xianxia that has made me feel this way have been Ten Miles of Peach Blossom and Ashes of Love. For this reason, I put this drama up there with the greatest in its genre. However, in actual production I think Ashes of Love was better and in plot delivery and actor chemistry Ten Miles of Peach Blossom was better. But the story of Ancient Love Poetry belongs up there as an epic tale comparable with the other great stories of this genre.

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