Ashes of Love (2018)

Honestly, this drama exceeded my expectations. It's beautifully written. No words can express how much I loved this drama. It really catches the audience to know more. At first when I saw that it was 60 episodes I didn't wanna waste my time watching this long but it caught me and I couldn't let go, I ended up watching THE WHOLE THING NONSTOP because it was that beautiful. If you watch it with no judgement or comparisons to other dramas I'm sure you'll love this one. The acting was on spot that you can't even see the actors/actresses but THE CHARACTER. I like dramas with a build up to the story and character development. The character development of the main lead JINMI from a naive innocent girl to a mature wise woman was AMAZING...heck ALL the characters had an amazing character development. One thing I regret was spoiling myself so do not spoil yourself if you're gonna watch this. Normally before I watch a drama I always spoil myself for the ending and when I watch it i end up having feelings i never knew existed in me hahahaha LOL. But when I spoilt myself for this drama and watched it...for the first time I felt like a rock and I couldn't even cry at the moments the viewer was suppose to cry because I knew the ending outcome... which was very stupid of me so pls if you do end up watching this STAY AWAY FROM SPOILERS. But anyway, this drama was beautifully written and I still enjoyed it. Every character was beautiful made, the story really fleshed out as it went on, the acting was superb, the music is written majestically wonderful, and overall the drama was AWESOME. You can tell the director, scriptwriters, and other staff, really really put all their heart into this drama and was not even 1% lazy which brought out a PERFECT DRAMA. This is drama is one of the hidden gems that I'm looking for therefore I really liked it and you'll regret NOT watching this.
Pls watch it...its amazing.

Leia Mais

THIS DRAMA OMG, it has super cute scenes that make your heart flutter and ones that makes your heart ache and cry with the characters.

Actors:
Deng Lun's amazingly nature acting just draws you into the story, his cute goofy smile and masculine and pensive voice is a big plus. I rarely find actors with such depth in acting. How Deng Lun portrayed a powerful war god cluelessly in love is PERFECT. WAN MEI!
YangZi's naive character was cute (usually I despite brainless leads) but it made sense in her case and her character development through the story was great.
Leo Luo also did a great job with his emotionally intense storyline.
The Demond princess, Puchi Jun, Red Strings Uncle, and even the Evil Queen were all great and lovely actors/actresses.

Technicals:
Stunning visuals, the sets and CGIs together is a whole piece of art.
Dung Lun, Yang Zi and Leo Leo use their own voices (super rare in Cdramas, makes the character more realistic)
Beautiful music, Sa Ding ding's voice is powerful and it goes with the epic storyline. Deng Lun and YangZi also sang for the OST, they actually sang pretty well. Beautiful OST.

Slight Misses:
*Maybe I was just too eager to find out what happens to the main two so I skipped a lot of irrelevant scenes. LOL.
Parts that I fast forwarded:
-Run Yue's mother subplot
-The Demon world power fights
- Demon princess' love storyline

Leia Mais

I wasn't sure where to begin with this review because multiple times I wanted to drop the show. Another reviewer told me it gets better, so I took a chance, and am glad I did. Around episode 35-40 this show takes off. If you asked me to compare it to another drama, I would really have trouble with that. It heavily borrows some plot points from other successful shows, but then every show does. I would place it in the realm of Eternal Love because of how it covers gods, but it is not as subtle as Eternal Love because the female lead is not written as a subtle character. The male leads lack the maturity of Ye Hua. However it does have a very big cast like Eternal Love. And the supporting roles are well-written. And because it is a melodrama, there are a few transitional arcs where a lot of people seem to die. So here is my full review:

1)The plot of the story sounds great on paper--but in the first 1/3 of the show, it is held prisoner by the main plot--the fact that the female lead ate a pill--hence it is frustrating because of her foolish choices--she can appear dumb and utterly unaware of how her actions impact others. To make it more frustrating, once she seems to be ready to break free of the pills hold, some jerk decides to repair it.

2)The show really pulled me in following the falling out--an understatement--of Phoenix and Jinmi. After that the show takes a noticably dark turn. Leading up to it are a number of events that are dark in themselves but did not change the tone of the show. Even the mortal arc, which pulled at my heart a little, failed to really capture my interest the way the latter arc did. After that it is very fast paced, and Jinmi grows a great deal--and I will call it survives--sucker punch after sucker punch. She isn't a victim herself and tries so very hard to escape her circumstances and address issues, but she lacks the power to do as she wishes. At one point in the show she wonders what she can do because she is neither smart like a strategist nor is she a warrior.

3)A key plot point that makes the show stand out from other show is a shift in how they treat revenge and punishment regarding villains and something that REALLY stood out to me was the scene in which the male and female lead actually have on screen relations--normally the lights go out but they actually show enough that in the West it would be like a pg-13 movie i.e. naked parts hidden only by a thin screen. It really is a great example of the inconsistent ratings in China.

4)I cried a lot. I don't want to spoil anything because I think it would ruin the impact the show had, but I trudged through about 40 episodes and don't regret it. If you have the patience for that, then I think it will pay off.

5)A lot of people were rooting for one guy over the other and taking sides like Twilight. I think that the two leads, phoenix and Jinmi, had such great on screen chemistry, and the person who played Night God did such a good job as a person who cared for her but it was clear why he could not be with her--and it really boils down to the difference in personalities between the two men and what they each prioritize. I never found the love triangle annoying because it really wasn't a triangle. It was always apparent. There were no annoying moments where she seems to like someone more. If anything tose moments are related to who she likes less. Which doesn't make a lot of sense.

I think this isn't a great review but I don't want to give away spoilers. I think the music was very good, sets were not so great, nor were the costumes but the CGI looked very good and they use a lot of it for magic. The fight scenes in the mortal world with Phoenix were great. Ultimately though you won't know until you watch it. I understand its a commitment but I was quite surprised by the turnaround. And I tend to really only like what I like and I still don't know how to really place this one. For the record, I did not like the King's Woman too much (love the actors) and I disliked Princess Agents, I did not like Fu Yao but finished it. I liked Journey of Flower and Eternal Love, the Flame's Daughter was descent. I liked Prince of Lan Ling. I keep trying to get into Ice Fantasy but never can finish it.

I took a point off in my rating because the 1/3 wasn't that great and 2/3 was getting better but not mind blowing, but the final 1/3 WOW.

Leia Mais

My Top #1 Drama

I have absolutely no idea what I'm supposed to do with my life now. I stumbled upon this show and before I new it I'm 3 episodes in and completely hooked! This series is based on a xianxia novel, it falls under fantasy and romance. The book is written by Dian Xian called Heavy Sweetness, ash like frost. I have not read the novel because they don't have an English version yet, but I do hear that there are some slight differences from the novel but all in all the TV series was even better than the book. I came across the series and fell in love! It is in mandarin, but it has English subtitles so that was how I watched and interpreted it. And I couldn't have loved it more! It's Everything! Jinmi is so wonderfully naive and innocent, she is the embodiment of happiness. She flits around unknowingly causing chaos and stealing hearts! I loved her so much! There were so many laugh-out-loud moments, this storyline is absolutely epic! It's so intriguing and you just get swept away in the story trying to find out the past and what the future will hold. I loved Xufeng, He was handsome and captivating. He is arrogant and softhearted, you fall head over heels for him and the way he treats his little demon/grape fairy jinmi. I shipped them from the get go but I was not ready for the everything they were about to put me through! Man, they are absolutely brutal on the heart! Their love is unlike anything I have ever read or seen yet! It's oh so worth it! I loved the Matchmaker and Mr. Hu, they were absolutely ridiculous and perfect in every way! Puchi/YanYou was another favorite of mine! He was so charming and mischievous, such a trouble maker with a heart of gold! And last but not least Fish Fairy/Runyu, he broke me. I love him and want to string him up! He made my heart hurt and exhausted me! This man made me so torn. There were so many moments where I was just like "ugh, him, pick him". I think out of all the Characters RunYu was the one who changed the most. And I was just so broken for him. This series seriously put me through the wringer! These characters steal a piece of your heart! They each are going through their trials and fighting for what they love and believe and it's so addictive! All I did for 4 day was binge this show! And it was Fantastic! I'm left so overwhelmed and full of so many emotions. I'm buying this series, the book and show(amazon) because I just need to always have this readily available to rebinge. If your thinking about watching it, do it! You will not be disappointed! I now have it extremely bad for these characters and left glaring at my husband asking him just what lengths he go through for me! SIGHHHHHHHHHH! Deng Lun & Leo Yunxi are my Current Crushes!

Leia Mais

It's a great drama if you actually watch it

This is more of a response to all of the other reviews talking about how AOL has such a bad plot or like it's "illogical." The entirety of this drama was based around Jinmi's love pill which prevented her from being able to feel and express romantic feelings like that of "normal people". That's why in the first half of the drama, you don't get the normal love chemistry that you typically see in other films. It was many of the little things and events that the main leads experienced together that developed their relationship. And apparently there are people saying how Xufeng was a "manipulator" for Jinmi's feelings like wtf are you talking about? Yes, he wasn't aware of the pill that Jinmi had but she made it clear during her time with Xufeng in the moral realm that she truly loved him. So xufeng wasn't wrong about that when he. tried to explain to everyone that Jinmi did love her. Runyu actually found out about the pill that Jinmi had later and went as far as to "fixing" it when she was sleeping to prevent her from developing feelings since it was already breaking apart. "Fixing" that love pill basically set Jinmi back to square 1 and so in a sense she "lost her feelings for xufeng." That's why she married runyu and had trouble affirming her feelings for xufeng. After Jinmi spit out her love pill, she realized that Xufeng was the person she loved all along and whom she innocently killed. All of that guilt washed over her and shaped her into the character she was in the second part of the drama. Like, if you were to put yourself in Jinmi's shoes there, you would've likely acted the same too. There was even a person who went as far as to saying that Xufeng couldn't see past all of the cruel things his parents have done and how he has stood by what they've done because of the swiftful life he lived. Like, to understand this, you just need to be human. Nothing else. Xufeng was very much aware of the atrocious things that her mother was committing, but at the end of the day she was still his mother. HE confronted her about it but his mother never listened. If your mother committed a crime, you obviously may not agree with what she did. However, you're not just gonna say that she deserves to die. Same logic applies here in the drama. Almost everything you see in the drama either has an explanation for it if you actually watched it and paid attention to the little details or just requires you to have the basic ability of empathizing with the characters. At the end of the day, humans are emotional creatures that are driven by emotions. When we are overwhelmed with feelings of anger, jealousy, happiness, or whatever it is, we don't always act in the most rational way ever and that was very nicely conveyed in this drama. Xufeng was never really able to empathize with how runyu felt (his tough past and parents being killed) because of how blinded he was from his love for jinmi. Yet, runyu wasn't any better. He let his feelings of hate and jealousy to take ahold of him. IN a sense, he justified his entitlement to Jinmi because of his tough childhood past, parents' death, and the buildup of resentment he had towards xufeng since when they were young. Runyu couldn't let go of JInmi and was being extremely delusional about it. Jinmi for the most part was falling victim to Runyu and Xufeng fighting for her and most of the poor decisions she made was still ultimately driven by the love pill.

IF you prefer the very logical dramas where everything that the characters do "make sense" then I'm afraid that fanatical romance dramas are not right for you and perhaps you're better off with dramas that are based in real life. Love isn't based on rational and logical decisions, ITS DRIVEN BY EMOTIONS. That's why I love this film so much because it's driven by the chemistry of the characters and not the rationality of their decisions (jinmi still falling for xufeng despite the love pill). Everyone prefers different kinds of romances so if this ain't the type for you, then I respect that. But please don't make irresponsible and misguided reviews of the film if you never truly watched it fully or understood the plot well enough to begin with.

Leia Mais

One of C-Drama masterpieces

If you hesitate watching this drama, don't anymore!
This drama is based on Heavy Sweetness, Ash-like Frost by Dian Xian. The storyline is well written, starting with a sense of lightness and some suspens to start plot. Deng Lun makes you fall in love with Xufeng, while Andy Yang makes you laugh and cry with Jinmi. All characters are complex enough but well defined to give the story more texture, such as relations between the 2 brothers who respected & loved each other, but grew to take different paths. You can't wait to know what will happen in next episode. Decors are magnificent and CGI will not disappoint you either. Be ready to smile, jump in your seat, cry (a lot), be angry, fall in love .... Ashes of Love will make you dive into its xianxia universe!
I have watched the drama 3 times already on Netflix and can't get over it. The chemistry between the 2 main characters melts your heart, and the second lead roles have nothing to envy to main roles.
It is a must watch ! You will not regret it. It is sublime !

Leia Mais

Overall, it was a very good series. I watched it with interest. But there were many mistakes, many lies and mistakes. There were so many contrasts with each other that the fantasy series was made as if everything was okay. A lot of lies and wrong things were included, some things were made as if they were forgotten, and when they were repeated, we asked why this was repeated. Imbalances between the powers were great. The gods remained lower than some immortals. They became their pawns. They lost to them and everything. Then why did you say God? I mean that the given features are not suitable. In one place, you see a person who knows everything, and in another, he is unaware. He doesn't know anything. His wisdom has been reset. Or he becomes weak while being strong. You wonder what to do while watching. However, I evaluated it as a whole. If I looked at these I would give 5-6 points. Since I didn't watch it, it became a 9-10 series for me. I felt the emotion. I felt the love thing. I felt revenge. I felt the lie. I felt the subterfuge. I felt the plot, the trap, the disloyalty, the unscrupulousness, the helplessness, the loneliness, the powerful, the powerless. I liked the actors very much. Yang Zi in particular was very successful. I love him very much. I like your game. I'm watching your series. I haven't come across any bad TV series. He has a talent, acting, light and aura that takes it all by itself. I hope to watch the next series as well. Deng Lun, Yuo Lun Xi, Chen Yu Ki were my favorites. The matches were good. I didn't like the Liu Ying and Mu Ci pairing. I found Chen Yu Qi to be very successful, but he had no matches with Zou Ting Wei. The female actor was more dominant and more successful. The actor was arrested. Either they did not agree on the game, or it was played as if the female player had the upper hand and said "follow me" or something. That woman was very, very good. I like it a lot. The other actors are also beautifully reflected in their characters, if I were to write them down, it would take up a lot of space. Like Dan Zhu, King GuCheng, Lao Hu, Lord pu chi. The examples are given very well. I like. I liked them all. I sampled. I liked how the story was thought out. As I said, there are many mistakes in the script while filming. Or things that were not taken into account, but I felt like I was in it while watching it. I got carried away. That's how I watched. I like. I would recommend it to everyone.

Leia Mais

Eternal Love, Perfect Casting, Great Chemistry

This is the First Chinese Historical Drama I have watched. But the best Chinese Historical Drama for me is "The Blooms at Ruyi Pavilion". Anyway, Yang Zi and Deng Lun have great chemistry. I hope they will have another drama in the future whether it is a historical drama or modern drama as long as they are the main lead couple. Prepare more tissue if you plan to watch this drama. What I don't like about this is, they didn't give Yang Zi and Deng Lun more sweet scenes. Although it was an happy ending, I was looking for more romantic scenes specially they really have a great chemistry. But still, I re-watched it for how many times already because of Yang zi and Deng Lun. I love seeing them together. Every time I re-watched it, I still cry on the sad scenes.
Xu Feng my Phoenix ❤️

Leia Mais

I have to admit that Ashes of Love was a bit slow in the beginning of the drama but as the drama progressed, I fell in love with this drama! The FL and ML had intense chemistry (so much that I am convinced that the love between them is real in real life)! As the ML fell in love with the FL, I fell in love with their love story. There were many heartwarming parts that makes your heart flutter and there were many heartbreaking scenes that made me bawl. This drama had a lot of amazing scenes that I will never forget and don't mind replaying over and over. All the actors and actresses worked very hard and they did a brilliant job portraying their characters! The songs in this drama were also amazing!

Leia Mais

NOT A WASTE OF TIME

I INITIALLY DONT WANT TO WATCH THIS DRAMA!!!

First, I am not really a fan of historical/costume dramas, be it k/j/cdrama. Specially cdramas because it's TOO LONG. Imagine watching a 50ep drama vs 16ep drama. I can watch 3dramas with that already.
Second, I'm still hung up with GOGO SQUID. I don't want to betray my TongYan/HanShangyan cp. I can't imagine them with other actors.

ALAS, quarantine x boredom hits hard and I need a drama to watch. It has been one of the recommendations. At first I wanted to watch the start middle and end part to see if it's really that good. But as I was watching the first eps I got really hooked. Why????
1. It's too humorous. There's so many funny parts. Slapsticks sometimes irk me but in this drama I really enjoyed it.
2. The acting! My YangZi, as one of my fave, of course nails the acting part. It's my first time to watch DengLun tho I remember him in Skate Into Love, he's so skinny there. But I also give him a big thumbs up. All in all 10/10 for acting
3. The story. Well obvs that a lot of the plot is recycled. I still remember the part where DengLun stab himself. Kinda reminds me of Naruto(because he said he'll bear all of the grievances of the past) lmao

I put 7 on the rewatch value cause of its length. I just can't imagine myself finishing it without skipping an episode but I DID🤯. I thought that it was a 65ep so when watching ep63 I was like, why does it looks like its ending now.
I'm so proud of myself tho for finishing it.

Leia Mais

A love story having ups and downs

I haven't watched many chinese dramas..but I have my fill of famous chinese dramas..and Ashes is one of them.

1. Story:
If I want to talk about the story then I would like to say it is one of the most beautiful story for any drama lover and nobody will regret watching it. Ofcourse it has a love triangle, 2 evil witches, side characters love story, playful side characters and what not to give you a wholesome package, where ML falls in love with FL and another lead started playing all sorts of games to make her his own but in the end First lead gets the girl.
BUT a major twist in this story is if you can connect to the characters in this story then you will feel that Second Lead deserves audience compassion, STILL he doesn't deserve the girl so NO there is no second lead syndrome in this series.
My heart went to Ran You (second lead) because he always suffered from the hatred of an evil bitch, he was manipulated into hating his own mother still he was looked down everytime beyond his good intentions. So if he started his own manipulative games we couldn't blame him. In his own hatred he started loving female lead but in his obsession of revenge he started using FL which was wrong on his part so he doesn't deserve FL which was good as shown in the part.
First ML though he had kissed FL after she was confirmed to be the fiancee of second lead but I do not think it was wrong because at that point of time both ML and FL started loving each other and both wanted to marry each other not the other way round.
Yeah he notiched FL after she dressed up but she already made her place in his heart due to her cute antics previously so love already started blooming earlier, so we cannot say that his love was bullshit.

Some scenes were dragging on my part but you cannot have a drama if somethings can't be draggy.

I am just disappointed from the ending part of the story.
It would have been way better if fox fairy, snake immortal would have made appearance in the end and moreover a little hug between the main characters or hand holding would have been nice. It was like ML is playing with his son and he forgot that he has a wife which was rubbish from my POV.

Overall it was worth watching, having an absolute rewatch value.

2. Cast:
Each and every person justified their character including villains.

3. Music:
Though only 3 songs were used repetitively but these songs were so good and fit the situation perfectly.

Overall it was worth watching..I have watched it 2 times already.

Leia Mais