Fox Spirit Matchmaker: Yue Hong (2024)

Not The Best

I guess the disappointment is equal to the hype..

I usually love Yang Mi, I find her face and expressions interesting but not in this drama. In this drama there are only visuals and better side stories. For the people who say she was limited by the character she was portraying which is meant to be stoic and solemn, I think in addition she was limited by her skills/commitment to the character, and most of all limited by the overambitious and overpopulated story. I’m going to focus my ire on Yang Mi’s acting choices, the editing and the storytelling. Actually some of the greatest acting opportunities come out of still/silent/handicapped/emotionless or apathetic roles, the actor is given the challenge to connect to her audience through unconventional use of skill which has sometimes birthed brilliant performances but perhaps Yang Mi was disinterested or uninspired in this particular role because it was giving stolid and impassive throughout. Perhaps the directing also has something to do with this. The backbone of every stoic main character is the storytelling, for every nonplussed reaction of the actor the audience must draw empathy from believing the backstory or inner angst of the character! Flat acting will not lead to this. Overexplaining and underexplaining plot points will not lead to this.

Lucid storytelling that is balanced plus nuanced acting work hand in hand to deliver dramas worthy of applause or plausible enjoyment.

The visuals are beautiful, Yang Mi took my breath away in the promotional artworks every. single. time.
However when I would go to watch, the same YM wasn’t believable enough to draw me into the story, causing the expectation generally to be left cold. The writing is not worthy of the investment, it is just there I guess they needed a script, and a shaman. The editing is also choppy, disorienting and perhaps doesn’t showcase the acting or story to its full merits.

As for the coupling of YM GJ: Yang Mi does her best with her stoic ‘I’m sitting on an iceberg with fire burning inside me’ routines, while GJ is always more lively and expressive but somehow never feels sincere. I’m vaguely curious of the behind the scenes whether any genuine connection or chemistry was captured? Does Yang Mi like Gong Jun? These are my petty questions but I can’t care enough to search.

Is Gong Jun a good leading man in any romance drama with a strong woman lead? I’m doubting this more and more with each drama. Last time I saw chemistry from GJ was WoH (which I dropped because I found the story unoriginal) and Advance Bravely (which I enjoyed him in). He seems to naturally play a naughty boyish character that is the same in every drama I’ve seen him in, but more subtle in Begin Again which I wandered away from by episode 15 and just started watching other things. I think the twinkling boyish vibe in him can mainly suit comedic dramas with bright and breezy storylines and witty heroines which may cover for any lag with chemistry. As for this Fox Spirit drama… not a good pairing IMO. Cheeky characters have always been paired with phlegmatic beings to create magic from contrast, in this case it just seemed bizarre, and that’s coming from someone who enjoys noona, shifu and age gap dramas. I even found GJ’s bickering relationship with Tushan RongRong more interesting to look at in the first few episodes, than his potential passion for the love of his life.

This drama exhausted my tolerance for mismatched couples. I could not wait for Zhang Linghe and Chen Duling to come up, I ended up watching their story on iQIYI YouTube, it just got uploaded and I enjoyed all 26 minutes of it.

Leia Mais

A very beautiful ancient costume drama

I already finish all the updated episodes and I'll give my review for the first part of the drama. To be honest, I really like Gong Jun so I may biased him sometimes. But I'll try to make the review as most objective as possible.
The first thing I want to say about this drama is it's very very beautiful. Their VFX, makeup and costumes are on another level. They can really create a dreamy fantasy world and make you immerse in it. One small note, to maximize your experience, you should open the 4K resolution on a big screen. I swear it looks just like a blockbuster movie.
And about the actors, they're all pretty and have good acting. Yang Mi is much more beautiful in the drama than in some captured photos. Her acting is acceptable to me though sometimes she gives out a dull and tired feeling, maybe because it's the nature of the character. But her eyes are so beautiful and attractive. Gong Jun is as handsome as ever. I must say that his acting has been improved much in this drama. He portrays a very young and lively and youthful character in a very natural way. I really like Dong Fang Yue Chu, he's so cute. His cheerful character is a bright spot that keeps the atmosphere up until now. Many people mentioned they could not feel the chemistry between them but I start to feel their cp sense in the latest episodes. Their chemistry is slowly developing and it's quite cute.
The story plot is simple and fast. You can easy follow and understand since everything is putting on the surface so it's quite boring to some people and this is the weakness of the play. 10 episodes have passed but they still can't create any remarkable climax scenes. But the rhythm really got better and better since episode 6. I really hope you can watch until this episode before making a judge.
And the biggest problem of this play may lie at the editing. Like many people already said here, the play is not bad but still feel missing something. That's really on point. The way they cut the scene is so incoherently and abruptly. When the emotion is about to rise, they cut it and change to another scene. It's hard for the audiences to resonate with the characters and immerse in the story. Also, they don't use their OST much in the play so some emotional or thrilling scenes feel kinda meh. They have such a strong lineup for OST, such a shame they didn't make a good use of them.
And the combat scenes are quite boring. I know this is a xianxia and the combat is more about magic and inner strength, not the real martial art moves but they should at least make some moves. In most of the combat scenes, the characters just stand there and raise their hands and then input some special effects. And... it's done. I mean it's really beautiful to watch but feel very unsatisfactory. I expect to see more real combat with a thrilling BGM, it would be much better. The best combat scene until now is where the male lead fights and kills the 2 bad guys to avenge his parents. It's really nice and powerful.
Okay, so this is my first thoughts about the drama. Despite many not good things above, I think this drama is still good to watch, not as bad as some people say. I feel that there're so many unreasonable attacks on this drama since it started broadcasting and it makes people reluctant to start watching it. But you should really watch and judge by yourself
For me, I'll keep following the drama. The unfolding story behind seems very interesting. I hope the edit is better in the later part.

Leia Mais

aspettavo da tempo un telefilm avvincente, che mi facesse emozionare e appassionare al mondo raccontato in esso.
per fortuna questo è uno di quelli. i personaggi sono ben delineati, tutti gli attori recitano molto bene. la storia è interessante.
effetti digitali spettacolari e ambientazione ben progettata.
Il lato romantico non manca, mi fa un po' ridere perchè si capisce appena li vedi comparire il "chi si innamorerà di chi"
ma resta comunque piacevole.
Cattivi super cazzuti, tante storie si intrecciano..

Ho appena visto l'episodio 9 e.. sono veramente curiosa di scoprire cosa ci riservano i prossimi episodi!!

Leia Mais

Fighting for Win-Win situation

I am not a fan of fantasy drama. Some fantasy dramas make me nauseous due to the exaggerated effects. I like how Fox Spirit Matchmaker Red-Moon Pact has done so well that the effects are appropriately balanced. It is quite magical at times, reminding viewers they are living in fairyland.

I love how the relationship between the male and female leads are woven into the building of the world between humans and the Fox Spirits. Most of the time we are constrained by having a set mindset of “either or”. However, this drama will demonstrate how to achieve a goal that benefits both humans and Fox Spirits.

Leia Mais

Story in overall series

Fox Spirit Matchmaker Yuehong

Story, because I've seen the animated version. The storyline is not much different, but in the drama it is smoother and neater, apart from that there are still humorous scenes.

The romance is already starting to emerge, wait for the middle eps for sure...

Acting, there's no need to doubt it. Here, overall, all the players are famous, Gongjun also appears here.

Visual effects..... GG can say the words... Sophisticated, spectacular, and really pleasing to the eye. It's amazing... because it uses new CGI technology.

Production 👍👍👍👍 thank you for meeting expectations.

Leia Mais

Just So Boring!!

Dropping this was not an easy decision to make for this drama had been one I was really looking forward to. I just found the story to be so boring and nothing interesting happening. Also I don't think Yang Mi and Gong Jun have any chemistry what so ever. I usually really like Yang Mi but she did not blow me away in this she just seems to have the same expression on her face no matter what happens through the episodes I did watch. If you can make it through the story Gong Jun is definitely worth watching. The one thing I did like in this was the costumes for the cast the were beautiful but that was about it.

Leia Mais

A passable fox romance.

- starting quarter: good interesting
-middle quarter: meh and meh only visuals and rendom fluff.
- later middle quarter : built some what of a momentum the twisted ark begins
- final quarter : peaked with the twist but fell short for an impactful ending.

the main plot of giving a tangible value or place holders to feelings felt really cringing at times
what do you mean the love seed?? what the heck it grows with what tears??? like what, they could have at least come up with analogies for those feelings.

besicly large tree powered by love balancing the relmns. And human × spirit war stuff = bad!
All of the CPs are mirrors of the main leads story just with lil tweaks.

the cgi was one of the hopes of this drama and it kinda was inconsistent through out the run
they keep switching from high to low.

the cast? Are almost all leading actors and actresses they. their characters were bland and fixed to box little growth was seen and that did happen felt rushed.

Leia Mais

Did not disappoint

First time leaving a review here. Maybe I had really low expectations since everyone was bashing it but I actually enjoyed watching this drama.
There was always something happening, in an unpredictable way that keeps you wanting to watch some more. It’s a slow burn. It’s not addictive like you have to binge watch it in 3 days (compared to eternal love for eg.) but it did keep me interested until the very end.
Some parts I got a bit lost/confused but it wasn’t as bad as I thought.

Pros; stunning casts, especially Yang Mi. She’s still pretty as ever.
Dongfang yue chu is also very cute and good looking. Upbeat personality.
Their dialogues/interactions are so sweet to watch.
The minimal intimacy/love scenes were appropriate.
It’s definitely more interesting than Legend of Shen Li (I’m a big fan of princess agents and wanting to see the main OTP tgt so bad so I watched LOSL but it’s just not the same)
I liked that there’s so many different characters hence keeps the story interesting.

Cons: there were some confusing parts maybe I wasn’t paying attention.
Dramas these days aren’t the same as what it use to be. Even in Eternal Love there’s actual fighting scenes. It’s still in the setting of the magical realm.
The fighting scenes here are all CGI. Lucky there’s even fighting scenes. Some dramas don’t even show fighting scenes anymore. I watched one with Dilraba and all the fighting scenes were in cartoon…

Should definitely give this a try if you’re on the fence!

Leia Mais

Could have been better

So I watched this drama solely for Gong Jun. I also like Yang Mi. This drama has spectacular visuals no doubt, beautiful costumes and really good CGI effects. However it all comes down to the story and the plotline which could have been better. The story according to my point of view was haphazard. Everything is happening and none of the matters are getting sorted out even though Honghong keeps on sacrificing her love seed and what not. After a point of time it got really tiresome as the villain was not dying. The villain plot got so annoying that I started to wonder if there was any point in sacrificing so much to stop Shi Ji from doing anything. The love stories were good but I didn't understand what happened at the end. Were all of them alive or not. I especially liked the story of bull spirit and constable Lyu. The plot twists a lot of them were so stupid and at the end I felt that things were kinda rushed. However I am rating this 7 cause of the actors and their acting. They were really nice.

Leia Mais

where was the good drama I anticipated all this time?

this was one was the worst good dramas I've ever seen. the good part goes to the actors and all the work the team put into making this drama and the worst part goes to the really weak story line and the almost none existence romance between the mains. I was not searching for hot blooded passionate love but come on at least a few deep emotional scenes would do but to my outer most disappointment all the romantic scenes between the mains was so lurk warm. For whatever reason in the sacrificial scene in the last episode the emotions the female lead pulled were so weak I just could not watch till the end and just skipped that part. All in all a failure of good actors, huge budget and well gathered team.

Leia Mais