Ashes of Love (2018)

Should you even watch this drama...?? If Yess then Whyyy??

Usually I don't like to write reviews becoz it takes a lott of time... This time I'm willing to write just to explain ppl this drama is just SATISFACTORY...
I'll come to point and Explain why to watch and why u shouldn't watch it...
ML- male lead
FL- female lead

Let's start with WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS DRAMS..!!

Drama is too long with some unnecessary plots... It sometimes feel that they are just dragging the story...
After watching 4 to 5 EPs you'll lose interest...But don't feel sad keep watching as time passes it will get better....But it's just FVCKING TOOOO LONG... Literally it takes 30+ EPs to show FL is in love with ML...Like really...!!?(it's becoz our FL takes unfeeling pill... Read the description by MDL above)
BASICALLY IT'S A CRAZY LOVE STORY
All the characters in the drama have there own story... Starting 40 EPs are just about Everyone and ofc main leads the real plot doesn't even start here.... Every characters story is explained till here....
I'll recommend u to watch only if u like love triangles.... This drama has CRAZY LOVE TRIANGLES with each character having there own love story nd love triangles....SOMETIMES IT JUST CREATES LOTT OF CONFUSION AND IRRITATES THE VIEWER
Becoz this drama is all about love... it's just all about love... nothing less nothing more...
Many times I felt that there are some SCENES MISSING....Did they directly jumped on any other scene? I felt it sometimes
Nxt is SFX...it is not soo good... It can be better... Still I'll say it is satisfactory...

Now WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH THIS DRAMA...IS IT WORTH TO SPEND YOUR TIME ON THIS DRAMA...!!

Like I said Drama is too long... But trust me after 40 EPs you'll be craving to watch it non stop... what I said I mean it!! The actual plot starts after 40 or 43 Ep maybe...Ik It's long but if u seriously want to see something like CRAZY LOVE STORY you hav to bear it's length....
Beauty of the drama is MANY TYPES OF LOVE IS PORTRAYED IN THE DRAMA... ML is in true love...FL is in love but she doesn't know what love is... 2nd FL is doing stupid nd evil things in love just to get ML... then there is a beautiful couple who didn't end up together.... Queen nd King both of them left someone they loved just for power..... And 2nd ML is obsessed with love...... I have to say 2nd ML is the reason why I continued the drama... He's acting is gem....
ALL THE MAIN ACTORS ARE REALLY GOOD... But if u hav to see real acting 2nd ML will give u all... Again All Actors are Good...But...I...
I'm Sryy... 2nd ML >> Male Lead
Most of Supporting actors were Good...
Everyone in the drama is in love with some other person who doesn't love him/her back... This is interesting...to see how the person is trying to make the opposite person their own... Someone is letting go his/her love... someone is forcing the person to love him/her... Someone getting cheated in love... Someone is purely obsessed with the person he loves... Someone is willing to die in love... Someone wants to get revenge on the person who messed with his/her love life... great right!!
Even their acting is Great showing these all kinds of love... Maybe while watching you'll find love story similar to urs... Mine is similar to KuangLu... KuangLu is Daughter of immortal TaiSi and KuangLu serves as Right hand to our 2nd ML Run Yu/Little fish immortal... Wanna find what's her Story...??
Story is beautiful sometimes maybe confusing but still very beautiful...BUT AGAIN STARTING EPs ARE NOT SOO GOOD AND JUST ANNOYING... STORY GETS A BETTER GRIP ONLY AFTER RUN YU'S PLOT THAT IS AFTER 40TH EP..... As it's love story... It includes all emotional elements like Jealously, Obsession, Craziness, Ready to die for u attitude, Care nd Support, and definitely Hate... Coz this is LOVE-HATE-LOVE story nd also explains HOW LOVE DESTROY'S ONES LIFE..... However Hate was created just becoz of misunderstandings... So both the leads forgive eachother for Hating in the End...
Nxt comes is OST... Female Lead JinMi has sang the OST... music is really pleasing... I already hav the title track in my playlist

I'm Sorry for making such a long ass review... I hope someone find it useful enough

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THANKS TO RUNYU.

To cut the chase:
This was likened to Romeo and Juliet and although I hold no expertise in literature, I'd say it was overstated. If anything, the affection between Jinmi and Xufeng was a depiction of 'crush' gone full-throttle. They were tied by feeble faith but strong attachment. In the absence of constant affirmation (mainly on Xufeng's part), it will fall apart and so their relationship is fragile and rather volatile in a sense. These two also appeared to be devoid of sense of reality - it was understandable considering Jinmi's situation, however as for Xufeng; who have gone to wars (and a General/Commander on top of it) and supposedly had real social interactions to boot, he was imprudent and sometimes struck as holier-than-thou character. Which was a máfan since he's allegedly male protagonist with sound mind.

Overall, the seemingly 'green' sentiment, their lack of depths and bearings made it a lot difficult to sympathize and eventually to root for. I found greater enjoyment indulging in Runyu's character arc, Moon Immortal and Immortal Yuan's banter and Liuying and Muci's love story. 8/10 because Jinmi and Xufeng are lucky to have great condiments to spice up their trifles.

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Reason(s) to watch:
1/ Runyu, the second male lead. Fated to be alone, predestined to suffer and serve as scapegoat for literally everything that happens in the realms, he is no doubt, the most tragic character I've ever encountered in drama-land and is the most befitting/entitled to -fighting against the odds- term among the main roles. Luo Yunxi's portrayal of deeply-layered Runyu was engrossing and compensated most flaws and disengagement I felt towards the story to the extent, he was the sole reason of me continuing this drama. Even in his most subtlety, he managed to capture the essence of Runyu, evoked empathy and carried his character arc spectacularly.
2/ Tu Yao, the Heavenly Empress. Tu Yao was downright despicable and the embodiment of evil. The sight of her red lips and eye squints made my stomach lurches. In nutshell, Kathy Chow is the bomb.
3/ Needless to say the OST.

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Minha maior paixão de todos os tempos

Ashes of Love é cativante. Não é atoa que assisti esse dorama mais de 20 vezes, e em todas as vezes me emociono como se fosse a primeira, me acabando por chorar. Em principal, o casal Xu Fen e Jin Mi são os meus amores e o amor mais intenso e puro que já vi em doramas. O esforço para ficarem juntos, em qual quer que seja a vida, é capaz de deixar até o mais duro dos corações amolecido. Xu Feng...que protagonista. Lindo, másculo, maravilhoso e disposto a fazer tudo para ter sua amada em seus braços. Para que ela seja sua esposa em todas as vidas que se encontrarem. Espetacular. Não consigo colocar em palavras o quão a atuação deles me deixou encantada, tanto que quando assisti esse dorama pela primeira vez, no ano de lançamento, fiquei totalmente obcecada por Deng Lu e Yang Zi. Passei a acompaha-lós em outros projetos, e espero que em breve tenham outro dorama de fantansia juntos, como casal principal. Ashes of Love não decepciona, mas é capaz de te empurrar para o abismo com tanta tristeza dilacerando seu coração. Para SEMPRE, meu dorama favorito.

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MUST WATCH!

When ever we think about Fairy and magic we got a typical image like love, prince charming come to rescue etc. same as when we think about heavan and demon we got a typical image like it's Peaceful and painfull respectively
This story tell us that everyone and every realm has it's Good and bad sides,
Heaven is not totally Good
And Demons are not TOTALY bad
This story has a different story and plot twists than the typical fairy tale
If you love romance and magic then this story is definitely for you!
It's worth watching
I'm not gonna say more because rather than reading my review you should watch it by your self, I'm pretty sure if you don't like the story still you'll love the Magic!
Happy watching everyone ✌

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This may hopefully help the psychology geeks like myself to digest the show

This is not going to be a typical review and I might get boring by focusing on the psychological processes of the characters since this is the only thing that keeps me busy in the love dramas like this one (and I am not by far a love story person, tbh, but rather a xianxia lover and you can hardly split those two categories apart).

Ok, so what I understood the legend is:
A young mother to be, as a result of all the mess she went through and her being completely lonely and no one to share with (which is strange since she’s got her great teacher, a Lord Dou Mu), and needing to protect her loved ones makes a totally wrong decision about her daughter by blocking some of her essential abilities. And that is how she creates the future events she wanted to prevent from. Hadn’t she given her the pill, nothing of the crazy mess would have happened, her daughter would be raised with her perfect gender awareness. She would probably fall in love with our brilliant Xu Feng like all the rest of the girls of the 6 realms and by this sole fact she would be “just another girl” for him.

Xu Feng is a guy who had been loved and spoiled by giving him everything he wanted and much more than that. As a son of a pushy and controlling mother (in her own ways), he had been obviously overwhelmed by female attention and perceived all the love signals of women as another way to control him (hello, mother). Jin Mi seems to be the first and the only one (Liu Ying doesn’t count since she is busy with her own romance) who shows no interest in him as a man and this is exactly what allowed him to include her into his close circle, as his servant in the first place. She was the only woman he felt safe with, the only one who doesn’t need anything from him, doesn’t push him, doesn’t make him feel suffocated. Since she is not aware of her gender and wasn’t trained the eternal love routine of flirting and getting a guy’s attention, she admits touches and words that don’t look really appropriate but still excite our heavily counterdependant Xu Feng and he later interprets it as “her innocence” (not the case). And guess what! Of course he falls in love with her. And now he’s inverted roles with his “inner mother” (always the case) and starts been pushy and controlling towards Jin Mi up until the 40ish episodes where the story culminates in its heaviest twists (you can see (and be freaked out by) some of that in the intro and it looks so messy when you just start the show and believe this is an innocent comedy). This whole process is poorly portrayed and Xu Feng is predictably interpreted by scrupulous viewers as an obsessed underdeveloped character. This contrasts to his beautifully elaborated older brother, The Night Immortal, who’s been given a lot of screen time to unfold his life story and his processes, who is just as much obsessed with Jin Mi but it looks OK because we know the nature of his obsession. No wonder I (and a good half if not the majority of viewers) stayed emotionally connected to and supportive of this guy even in his worst shadow times. The role of Night Immortal is a blessing for every actor to get and Leo Luo used it to the max capacity and showed his great acting skills.

I didn’t see any particular chemistry between the main couple. Even Xu Feng and Sui He looked much better together in those few episodes when they had a nice romantic interaction.

I don’t like the Pill thing as a major plot device since it looks artificial, thus reducing the value of the show for me. The creators catch up with almost everything else though, making the show still exciting to watch and throwing in some precious gems like amazing pieces of dialogues with beautiful (if not sacred) formulae and good comic vignettes.

The music is poor. I’ll leave the three tracks to the matter of individual tastes but having just three of them for such a bright and epic show is a pity. Mu Ci and Liu Ying deserved their own love theme, to say the least. I don’t want to name other similar shows with superb collection of OST but the obvious comparison comes to mind.

I did rewatch a number of scenes to unfold the taste and get a better sense of the details. The show is quite complex and you might need that.

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Its SUPER good like the characters are bomb asf and my baby deng lun thooooooo. He was looking hella fine but the drama was really good in the beginning but it kinda got a bit boring in the middle because of the second lead. The end hella tied everything together and it was SOOOOOOOOOO relieving when everything was revealed. WARNING: YOU WILL CRY ( A LOT). I love the uncle with a passion he was soooo adorable like he was funny too and the snake too. Basically to me everyone was bomb except for the queen (beginning-middle), the bird princess (the whole thing), and the first prince (the end).

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Worth the time spent watching this masterfully written and depicted story!

To begin with, I read some reviews and didn't want to see Luo Yun Xi portray an antagonist character, however, it's a good thing that I changed my mind. He did a wonderful job in that character, a character that you like in the beginning. But as time goes by, you see how it changes and not for the better. He is one of the few characters that I didn't mind having a redemption arc.

Jin Mi/ The Frost Flower/ The Water Immortal:
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Jin Mi was also one of the best character Yang Zi has portrayed, another was her Yan Dan in Immortal Samsara. When I saw her in Go Go Squid, I didn't think much of her acting skills, but these historical romances changed my mind. She has shown such range of emotions, reminding me of Korean actress Gong Hyo-jin. Coming to her character, we have to consider her handicap, the unfeeling pill, the elixir that stunted her development and ability to discern things. Everyone in the floral realm appeared very weak, beginning from the ladies who raised her. They relied blindly on the pill, not preparing Jim Mi for what was coming in the future. For a 4000 year old, she had barely the understanding of teenager. And the Yun Elixir (the unfeeling pill) plotline left some loose ends. I mean did the elixir only cut of romantic love and not familial love? Because she loved her newfound father and auntie so much that she wanted revenge, those are some strong feelings. Phoenix was the first to fall in love with her, but it wasn't until later, a few months before entering the mortal realm that Jin Mi started reciprocating the feelings. Even in the mortal realm she hid things from him, she could have told him that she was poisoned and going to die, especially since she accepted his feelings. Her character was written beautifully, this was a coming of age story that made you hate her at times and love her at others. I'm glad she had to face the consequences of killing the phoenix, even once she was reincarnated. It was fair because she didn't love him as much as he loved her. She was so easily tricked into believing that he killed her parents, had little faith in him. Even once she found out that he didn't do it, the first thing she thought of was that she killed him mistakenly. Not how she could make up for it or bring him back. She wanted to bring him back to be with him, not only to atone for her sins. So, I wasn't really surprised with the way he treated her when he came back to life.

Xu Feng / Phoenix / Fire Deity
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This drama introduced me to Deng Lun, he and Yang Zi were well-matched in their acting prowess. Xu Feng was one of the greenest flags in Cdramas you'll ever get to see, much similar to Sifeng from Love & Redemption. Even when he tried to hate the FL for what she had done, he found it unpalatable. But he did hate her, you have to when the person you are trying to protect stabs you in the back. The worst part of it was not that she stabbed him, it was heartbreaking for sure, but she stabbed him in the back. Even when she did that, all he did was ask her if she ever loved him. She denied it and that was the last thing he ever heard. Even when he came back from the dead, he didn't for a moment think about getting revenge against her. He only wanted to live his life and not bother with others. Apart from Run Yu, he was the one who suffered the most throughout the series, at the hands of the Jin Mi, his parents, and let's not forget Su Hi. The worst character Tai Wei, the heavenly emperor, who raped the woman he claimed to love and just wanted people to forgive and forget. What's worse, he still claimed to love her. Him along with his crazy wife were the reason Xu Feng suffered so much. Had they left it alone and minded their actual responsibilities, they wouldn't have meddled in their son's life so much, causing him untold grief. Let's not forget Su Hi, this trio went out of its way to make others miserable. The one flaw that Xu Feng had was he overlooked his parents crimes and tried to get them pardoned at every opportunity when he should have been disgusted by them. Even when he thought that his mother could have killed Jin Mi's father, he wanted to find a way to save her. His mother did kill Run Yu's mother, for that, he could only apologize, which was fine and reasonable, but what wasn't was not calling his mother out on it. He enabled her in that way. He also knew how his mother treated Run Yu and while he called her out on it, they were still living same toxic cycle where she continuously put Run Yu down.

Just a phenomenal groups of actors that worked together on a well-written story.

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The night god will steal your heart

If you like the Ten Mile Peach Blossom, you may like this. Two good looking lead actors (and good looking actresses for the guys) certainly help. Mesmerizing theme songs, excellent acting, nice special effects, lovely costumes and interesting story plots makes it overall an outstanding production. I would have given it a perfect rating of 10 if some tightening of the plots had happened.

There are however a lot of apologizing, voicing of regrets, negative talks and lecturing. This may be a cultural thing as I noticed a lot of it in Chinese dramas. However, viewers from English speaking countries may find a little unappealing as it appears like this is a bunch of self-pitying or self-righteous characters. A little less of it may help or convert it to thoughts rather than speech may help.

In the later part of the drama, it starts to get a little draggy due to side stories of secondary characters and slow moving scenes. The script writer could have trimmed off 5 episodes and tightened the plot - that would have been better. Alternatively split it into 2 series with a sequel could have helped too - there was opportunity to do this at episode 46 when the Runyu successfully seized the throne.

Although this is fiction, some realism may make it more convincing. For a girl who enjoys the attention of a young handsome emperor totally devoted to her, it is highly unlikely she would not fall in love with him and switched affection. Especially at moments when the rival was behaving like a jerk, it would have so easily to fall into the new young emperor's arms. If I were a young woman in that situation I certainly would. I guess most Chinese directors and script writers are too conservative to make the heroine looks unfaithful. Both the heroines in this story are unrealistically faithful to their first love.

Also, stabbing a love one with a knife is a nasty thing, much worse if it has killed him. Even with lots of apologies and good reasons, it is unlikely a relationship could be mended. Something more is needed to explain why Xufeng would still love and forgive her - some twist in the story is required.

For these reasons, I took away only 0.5 in the rating as I still like the series a lot.

I am much more attracted to the Runyu's character than Xufeng as Runyu earned sympathy and Luo Yun Xi acted it well. Hope to see more of him in future lead roles.

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