Love and Redemption shouldn't have worked with me. It had many flaws. Some were laughably bad. Like, could someone in the production team get better props for dismembered limbs, for example? And the War God's armour was atrocious; Crystal Yuan looked as if she wore something far too big for her. They made a really good one for Rahu Ketu — so I know they were capable of making nice-looking armour, so I'm not sure what went wrong there.

The camerawork could also have been better. The colours appear washed out at times.

And while the ending was wonderfully happy, it was also rushed and done in such a slip-shod way that you can't help but go, "Wait, that's it?"

Most of the villains were also one-dimensional, existing to only make lives difficult for our couple.

The acting of the cast ranged from really good (Cheng Yi and Liu Xueyi) to really bad (Si Feng's dad — he was cringeworthy). I found Crystal Yuan okay and not as bad as some people make her out to be, and she was rather good as the War God, but she wasn't as good as I'd like her to be.

And then there's the clumsy way information is conveyed at times. For example, I call Yihuan the "info dump man" because he's either there to explain to other characters what really happened, or to voice the frustration of the audience.

Okay, now that all the bad stuff is out of the way, I can declare that despite the flaws, I still really love the show because it managed to make me feel all the feels. I bought this world, and I bought Si Feng and Xuanji's love.

One of the criticisms lobbed at Si Feng is that he's too much of a martyr. I think this is because we are not given enough background on Si Feng's motivation or his origin with Xuanji.

Another factor that elevated this drama for me is Si Feng and Xuanji's friends: Ling Long, Mingyan, Teng She and Wu Zhi all add color to the plot. They never felt like unnecessary additions but vital parts of the plot. I love how they take care of each other, especially toward the end when Si Feng really needed it. And their stories were quite interesting too — I was invested enough to care what happens to each of them.

So, is Love and Redemption worth your time?

I guess it depends. This is a polarising drama. Some loved it. Some wondered what people who liked it were smoking.

For me, it is a combination of factors: Cheng Yi's good acting and charisma, the fun side characters, the theme of brotherhood and loyalty, and most of all, forgiveness and letting go of grudges: redemption.

I was able to ignore the flaws and simply enjoy the story.

You may not be able to, and that's fine.

I'd say go in with an open mind; let yourself be swept away by the story. You could be surprised where you end up.

Final rating: 8.5

PS: I kept a watch log where I recorded my thoughts on the episodes. You can read it here: https://shorturl.at/bjqG1
I record my thoughts on Kdramas and CDramas at the blog: https://dramatea88.wordpress.com/