Dongbo Xueying Land (2023)

Smart Demons + Stupid Humans = Extraordinary Mess

Watched this to see Xu Kai act but just like in a previous series of his; his and everyone else's acting was great but the story itself was a hot mess. Wish he or whomever chooses for him, chose better. The only reason this even got a 6.5 and not lower was because of the literally only 3 pros. Otherwise, it was like the mighty morphin power rangers and mortal kombat took LSD and spit this out.

Pros: Leads chemistry, the actors hard work which included great fight scenes, and costumes (except for the Halloween store costume lion for Uncle Tang), and good OSTs. No other pros.

Cons: Now don't get me wrong, I'm all for smart antagonists but not when the protagonists are so ridiculously idiotic. Just about everyone was led by the nose by the demons the ENTIRE show. Even when our ML told them otherwise, the Elders still chose to believe evil people. The amount of times the good guys failed to understand something very simple made you want to run your face into the wall. The entire series made a ton of no sense because the bad guys were running the show while the good guys were just walking around like zombies and talking in circles.

Did just about everyone really deserve to die; KYY's death in the last episode was pointless and meaningless. Some really did die as heroes but what made much of it senseless is that if they put two and two together sooner and made it 4 instead of 7, they could have made things happen sooner and survived. It made me feel like whoever the writer was, had no clue how to write a novel or one that's understandable or cohesive. Ji Rong staying alive and even her death at the hands of probably the show’s stupidest character, made me feel like I lost brain cells. DXY warned his brother and the two elders something was fishy about her from nearly the beginning and yet both uncles died because of her.

The sets and CGI looked very cheap. The words chucked up on the screen each time a new magic trick was used was eye roll worthy. Welcome to the 90s and not in a good way! Situ Hong's ruthlessness was completely ignored and his death and that of the weird random cultivator that at first clung to XY was completely pathetic. Both were sucked dry for big bad demon God that most of the time sounded like an alien cat that sucked in a helium balloon. We were all expecting a fight between him and XY but yeah, why bother?

Demon Ao Lan turned himself into a psychedelic Venus flytrap to try and kill XY in the last episode and it had me laughing. Little Shop of Horrors that was filmed in the 1970s had better CGI than this mess. I shed a tear for Shifu sacrificing himself at the end as out of all the guardians, he was the only one that infiltrated the demon clan and didn't do too poorly. Yes, happy ending for leads and the maybe 3 other living people but what did I watch for 40 episodes?

Would I recommend? No way. Even if you are a fan of the leads or anyone else, please find something else. Leads chemistry is not enough to hold this thing together.

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A fresh and thrilling tale against demons.

To start with, the music (both modern and traditional, just like the drama itself), the costumes, the special effects and the fights, the landscapes and settings (the snowy territories especially, what a pleasure), the demons, I loved it. It was very similar to an anime but as a drama.

Speaking of the special effects, I was expecting anything but this, especially in view of the criticisms of this aspect? It looks even better than in the trailer. It's quality and I've clearly seen worse, forced criticism as usual... The fights were also superbly filmed and choreographed. Obviously, this isn't a drama with huge production value either, but I was fascinated most of the time. Xu Kai is way too cool and his mastery of the spear is impeccable, I can't even imagine how much he had to train.

The story isn't original, yet it's pure pleasure (and I've never seen that in a drama, so it's even cooler), it's always dynamic and I've never been bored. It's typically the kind of story I used to enjoy when I was younger, and frankly, it's refreshing. Some people thought it was cringe-worthy while it's just epic, too bad for them lol.

The drama delicately alternates between sweet moments, drama, action... The story developped very well and was very captivating to my taste. As you can imagine, the theme of evil demons versus good humans and the hero becoming all-powerful is far from complex. Nevertheless, I'm glad the drama brought a modicum of nuance. In addition, I loved the diversity of the characters.

Side notes:
- Overall it is not a drama high in emotions with amazing relationships and character development. It is pretty simple in every aspect. Indeed, it is far from an intelligent drama for a mature audience. Still a great and fun drama because it did what it was supposed to do perfectly.

To the people who claim the romance is bad: Tension is not the only form of chemistry, romance doesn't have to be intense. Sometimes romance is a sweet and subtle thing that can be built upon. I even found it beautiful.

If everything about Snow Eagle Lord gets you hooked from the first episodes just like me, and not only Xu Kai, you will have a lot of fun and be able to enjoy the ride. Besides, we never really see him less as some people states here, maybe for a few little parts but it wasn't for no reason. He is, however, the character we see the most, and certainly the most important. Yes, there are a lot of characters. Unfortunately those people are forcing themselves to watch it for him and are not into the drama.

Thanks for reading !

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I really wanted this to be great, but.......

Going into this drama I had such high hopes that this would be a great watch, it contained a story that I was familiar with, having previously watched the donghua and it was to feature Xu Kai as the male lead. I 've seen several drama's of his and generally enjoyed them
Unfortunately having trudged my way through 40 episodes of this drama, for me, it was a real mess. Based on the plot it amazes me that the demons actually lost. Throughout much of the drama the demons were clearly more intelligent and made sensible plans. Ironically, any plans that they did make didn't even have to be that good, as their opponents were actually rather stupid.

If this had been a boxing match the referee would have stopped the fight and awarded the victory to the demons. It was not even close.

From the opening episode I was instantly concerned on what was to come based on the appearance of one the casts prosthetic mask. I assume it was a mask and not CGI either way it was just plain bad.

The script gave our main cast very little to work with throughout and the carnage that swept through so many of the cast might have been a relief to some, as at least they could get away from a nonsensical plot.

I don't know if the director purposedly wanted to avoid any similarities to the donghua, if so, they certainly accomplished it. All the things that I enjoyed about the donghua and had me so excited to see the live action version were missing.

There also seemed far to much screen time given to characters other than the leads. In some episodes, if you blinked you would have missed Xu Kai And Gulnezer Bextiya despite them being the leads.

To some, the happy ending that was given to our main leads might have been welcome, to me it felt completely forced and very contrived. After watching it, and getting over the fact the demons actually lost, I came away thinking that was some kind of an attempt at fan service. I was suddenly supposed to forget the previous 39 episodes and be pleased with the ending! Sadly, it didn't work.

The performance of the cast, despite the flaws with in the plot should be admired, they really did try. Despite all the limitations they were presented, the cast did a good job, I did like the chemistry between the leads unfortunately the lack of screen time didn't help them though.

Xu Kai spear skills, which I'm told were real were also excellent and certainly a highlight when we got to see them.

I really did want this drama to be great but even Xu Kai and the efforts of the entire cast couldn't save it.

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Beautiful actors and a waste of potential

By episode 12, the leads are getting romantic and I still don't think I've seen one deep conversation between the two. Do they even know anything about each other? The showrunners just thought they could make two beautiful people stand next to each other for enough scenes and that was enough to lead this cast. The story encompasses so many characters yet fails to fully flesh any of them out in order to make the audience care. Xu Kai looks good as always, but this performance is nothing you haven't seen from him already if you're a fan of his work.

That being said, I'm still gonna finish it

UPDATE - As of episode 24, the show has failed to progress the lead relationship in any sort of mature way. It feels like the characters we were initially introduced to are just dressing for the plot salad the writers are putting forward. This is all at the expense of intelligent characters; people seen as elders make foolish decisions - often costing their own lives - almost every episode, its hilarious. I'm only watching for the pretty actors at this point.

Also they do this really weird low-quality production thing where the actor's hair will be messed up in one shot and in the middle of the sentence they cut back and the character has perfect hair again. Really noticeable and entirely annoying.

SECOND UPDATE - Show feels more compelling plot-wise after episode 30, but I have now accepted that if I haven't cared about the main leads and their relationship so far, its not going to get any better, only more annoying. Definitely not recommending this show to any romance enjoyers, but generic fantasy drama enjoyers can still find this show entertaining at points I'm sure. Xu Kai needs better fantasy roles idk how he gets stuck playing the same character in every costume drama.

*SIGH* FINAL UPDATE - That was the climax we were waiting for? Felt incredibly underwhelming and undeserved. The last chunk of this drama is driven by its plot only, none of these characters feel smart or stupid enough to be making the decisions we see on screen, making them feel entirely hollow, cardboard characters. This show technically has a "happy" ending but I just feel dead inside I can't muster any emotion for these characters. Beautiful actors though, will have to see them in more deserving roles because anyone in this cast should take the drama off their portfolio/resume LOL.

All in all, I can't recommend this drama to anyone unless they love Xu Kai obsessively, love spear action, or love to put something on in the background while they sleep. The story is not worth 1/2 your attention span.

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SPEAR TECHNIQUES MADE MY DAY

As long as you're Xu Kai's Fan then you will definitely like the drama and also my comment. 😜😜😜
Every Drama comes with Pros and Cons. I'm sharing a final review.
-> I liked Xu Kai's performance, especially his Spear Techniques and his transformations to different levels. He is so handsome ❤️❤️❤️. I'll definitely wait for his upcoming work: Wonderland of Love.
-> I also liked Gulnezer Bextiyar. She is also cute. Her pairing with Xu Kai is good to watch. Especially their chemistry ❤️❤️.
-> I liked the friendship of Xue Ying, Yang Bo, Wu Cang & Yu Feng. Though Wu Cang & Yu Feng appear in the later part of the show, their friendship and sacrifice can never be forgotten 🥲

Pros of the Drama:
1. Fighting and Practicing Scenes of Xu Kai, Gulnezer, Bai Shu & Zheng Kai.
2. Chemistry between Xu Kai and Gulnezer
3. Friendship - Xueying, Yangbo, Wu Cang, & Yu Feng
4. Sacrifice of Chi Quibai and Moyang Yu
5. Sacrifices of 6 Elders (except the first priest)

Cons of the Drama:
1. Too much focus on Support Roles.
2. Too much screen time is given to Annoying characters around the Main Leads.
3. Less Screen time for Xu Kai, Gulnezer, and Bai Shu for the 30 episodes. They got more screen time after 30 episodes.
4. CGI is off a bit. Makers should have focused on CGI as well.
5. I understand the story focused more on the demon side. Makers gave more intelligence and screen time to Demons. In my opinion, makers should have given more intelligence to Good Side. The elders were too dumb in the drama. Only, Xue Ying was given more intelligence to decode things ahead.

Overall, I still stand with Xu Kai as it is not his fault for Drama's Disadvantages. His hard work and handsomeness lead me complete all the episodes. I have expected more of Bai Shu and Xu Kai.
I liked the #KaiKai's Master-Student Relationship (Zheng Kai & Xu Kai). Chi Quibai went all out to protect XueYing. The chemistry between Xu Kai and Gulnezer started early, unlike other dramas. I liked their chemistry too.

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Messy plot and characters

The beginning was super boring I never thought that the plot would advance at all. It felt as if the show was made 20 years ago. I had to search up the release date so that I could make sure I wasn't watching some ancient show. After the first couple of episodes it got a bit better. The show actually started to advance and more characters were added into the show. Later when the Dongbo Qing Shi met Ji Rong I felt like DQS got so annoying. He became one of my least favorite people in the show. Unless you are watching the show for Xu Kai it isn't worth it. Later, it was super clear who was part of the demon clan but the elders wouldn't listen at all and they were so stuck up in their own minds it got annoying there too. The show made Dongbo Xue Ying way to talented. There is talented and there is this dude who is literally first in everything. He literally has the genes for the strongest power and a mind that isn't actually stupid and then somehow he is immune to demonic power? The show doesn't even explain how or why then he is able to break through any barrier and he always know when things are a hallucination. Even when he got pierced by the soul needle and the voodoo thing he got out of it both. It is way to predictable and too much like la la land for the main character. On the other side Pu Yang Bo and Kong You Yue had no luck at all. Especially Kong You Yue. That girl watched her family die then she died while Pu Yang Bo holds her but the main character still had his lover? Shouldn't it be the other way around or the support relationship dies? Anyways the person that pisses me off the most is Situ Hong. He annoys me since the start. He decides that his family isn't good enough for him then he decides that his cultivation isn't good enough for him since he wants to be as good as someone who put triple the effort in then he decides his teachers isn't good enough for him and joins the bad side then he decides he doesn't like the bad side but by that time he is dying. Like that dude from the beginning jumps keeps on changing his opinions and shoves everything into his heart then releases is at Dongbo Xue Ying and says that the reason he is like is is because of of him. Only the main people were actually interesting and the other people were super annoying. Anyways this is just me rambling since I want my 30 hours back.

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Boring typical script

Watch it on the side if you really REALLY like Xu Kai else this is too similar to
Fight Break Sphere and The Blood of Youth (2022) but less interesting....

Typical script but too boring:
Hard life for the ML growing up parent-less.
Suppressed unspeakable power waiting to break out.
Jealous "friend" waiting to turn into foe.
Love at first sight but no chemistry.
Few forced comedic moments but not funny.
No strong interesting side characters.
Good vs Evil (with the signature black smoke) on the quest for the ultimate power.

Typical story/script works just fine if the dialogue is interesting along with all the other enjoyable elements of ancient drama land (cinematography, costume design, fight choreography, casting, side characters etc)

Sadly it never got better.

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Great Spear Fights, Otherwise Boring

LIKES:
Wardrobe of FL & ML
Costume of Snake guardians of ML, nice hair accessories for females and males
Buildings and outdoor scenery very familiar, obviously used in other dramas.
The spell casting on par with other magic use dramas
Fitting music
Xu Kai’s spear fighting & fight choreography in general was good
Great cast (I watched this because of Xu Kai)

DISLIKES:
FX:
Terrible CGI, as shown throughout drama, starting from opening sequence with deer.
Terrible/lazy makeup for the demon/zombies
FX for Demon God was dumb, especially the helium balloon voice
WRITING:
Usual tropes of this genre, same old formula which is disappointing for 2023, messy/lazy plot strung out for 40 episodes
Also trying to entice gamers with attack names popping up on the screen like in Mortal Kombat (which in 2023 is very cheesy).
The FL, a goddess who is weaker than the average warrior is way too funny.

Bad Directing in too many ways to bother listing.

Costumes:
Mask of bad guy 2nd in command was terrible, like a cheap dollar store costume mask.
Lion costume was cheesy head, the director didn’t even have the actor doing any cat like behaviours.

MUSIC/SOUNDS:
The Sound effects in Ep. 39 for consuming another person’s essence sounded like someone flushed a toilet and it got stuck in flushing mode! LMAO

OVERALL: Disappointing even with Xu Kai trying his best in this role. I used a lot of fast forward just to get through the whole drama. Pacing issues and so many boring parts that it dragged down the drama.

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What a frustrating drama it is ....All the elders are dumb and for the plot to advance anything works ...If it is difficult to write scripts then just follow the novel version ...While they were writing scripts for this ..I think logic left the chat...What a waste of good start ...Initially the MC was smart...as the series went on he became dumb and dumber...Everytime some one betrays and they find out ...they just ignore the culprit and move along as nothing happened just for plot convenience..Watching this is just a test of patience.................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

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Worth the wait - Amazingly good

Amazing Series so far, ^_^, (some will say the production lacks polish) for me its the story and acting that makes one watch a series rather than anything else, there is no perfect series out there, everything is subjective to opinion.

Story: Fast pace and well thought out story so far from ep 1 to now, amazingly done. Cannot emphasise how good the action scenes are with martial arts to character development.

Acting: ML/FL (Amazingly done) + Side characters played their parts too very well. Love the chemistry so far with both leads.

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Smart main leads

This is a nice drama to watch if you like fantasy genre, action and having strong and smart leads who are on top of things and are always together supporting each other. I like how fl are cold at first but changes after meeting ml and becomes more friendly as she make friends. The sfl is not annoying and has her own love line even though at first she has feeling for ml. It's a watchable drama but can be draggy when drama doesn't focus on the main leads and their friends. Xukai was great as dongbo xueying, his perseverance and strength of conviction is admirable in the face of hardship and his drive to rescue his mother. This has some very good kiss scenes between the leads, xukai and gulli nazha are good kissers.

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