The Story of Mystics (2024)

"Fangs of fortune- A tale of strength, sacrifice and heroic battle"

Why I loved it so much :

1. A perfect mix of genres: The drama delivers on every front—romance, friendship, feel-good moments, thrill, action, comedy, drama, and tragedy. It’s a rare balance that caters to multiple tastes.


2. Depth in storytelling: While the pace is slow, it’s deliberate. Each subplot is crafted to fill gaps and tie loose ends, creating a deeply harmonious narrative.


3. Impressive cinematography: The framing, camera angles, and techniques used are absolutely top-notch, elevating the viewing experience.


4. High-quality VFX: The visual effects are clean, realistic, and immersive. The editing team truly deserves credit for making the fantasy elements believable.


5. Exquisite set design: The attention to detail in the sets is breathtaking. The Demon Hunting Bureau, in particular, stands out as a masterpiece of design.


6. Talented cast: Almost every actor delivered stellar performances. While one or two might not have fit their roles visually, their acting made up for it.


7. Memorable background music: The combat music and other tracks are beautifully composed, reminiscent of the enchanting vibes from Love Between Fairy and Devil.

8. Dancing in the ending soundtrack .. I know I am weird to like a show for this ..but seriously it was quite refreshing to see the cast dancing to their show's soundtrack ... The steps were easy I am dancing you should try it as well ;)



About the cast

Neo hou as Zhao yuanzhou:

Neo Hou is the one who introduced me to the world of C-Dramas, starting with Being Back from the Brink, my very first Chinese drama. He has never let me down. His charm, brilliant acting, mischievous expressions, spot-on comedic timing, and calming smile—everything about his character in this show was a delight to watch.



Zhuo Yichen : a warrior who is strong-willed, righteous, kind, compassionate, funny, and deeply tragic. Tian Jia portrayed this fascinating character with remarkable justice.


Li lun: more of an anti-hero than a villain, carries a strong sense of justice and a deep kindness for his people. This character added significant depth and complexity to the leads' role .. and the actor (yan an) playing it was more beautiful than the FL herself 😂 😀 ❤️❤️ I am in love with him.



Pei Shijing: the Demon Huntress, is a character with a tsundere quality that suits Cheng Xiao’s poker-face expressions perfectly. Watching her evolve as an actress has been impressive. From her flat expressions and character in Falling Into Your Smile to portraying a compassionate, graceful fighter in this drama, Cheng Xiao has truly come a long way.


Bai jiu : a timid, funny and cute kid ..played by lester lin ... This child actor is so damn talented he played two completely contrasting characters ( bai jiu and li lun) so effortless.. very impressive ..it hard to believe he delivered such outstanding performance at the age of just 13 years old


The parts where this show lacked appeal


1) Wen Xiao : I don't like lame/sickly/weak/useless/low IQ FLs at all I mean I can’t think of a single thing that would have changed if she weren’t part of the story. She was utterly useless—couldn’t fight, fall before someone even slapped her.The so-called goddess was the biggest liability—completely useless—while so many others died, one after another, paying the ultimate price to save the world. I hated her character even more after jiu died. Even a child gave his life heroically to save the world, yet she selfishly clung to her life like
it held more value than anyone else’s. While others bore the weight of impossible choices,sacrificed themselves in secret, including the child who quietly fulfilled his duty and died
,she had the audacity to pretend she’d do the same. All for what? So others would stop her, convince her to live, and throw their lives away instead. She wasn’t a goddess; she was a parasite, feeding off the heroism of those who deserved far better.

Not up my alley ...SORRYYYY !!

2) tiresome climax and depressing ending . . If the outcome is going to be as the past (like that of ling long and bingyi's) why would you write a new story in the first place. I kept anticipating they will bring a different outcome but .. well!! I don't know what else to say.

3) actress playing FL is good ..her acting was amazing but in some episode I felt like she is looking too mature for the role for example when they went to kulun episode 15 .. though her demoness was quite seducing and bold I liked her more in that role.


The show is worth every praise and more .. is the reason why I write such a comprehensive review.

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Regular days: lets betray zhou yichen hard days: lets save yichen

This drama is by far the best fantasy drama of 2024. It is for a little mature, humour loving, sarcastic, emo, philosophical and slow burn loving type of people. People who actually don't give a shit about anything are really gonna love this series. It is so deep and gloomy yet so funny and hilarious. The writers used a ancient fantasy world but introduced some gen z type of jokes. Nobody is trying to be serious here. At the same time all of them have such mature thinking that they don't bow down to useless plots and if they are stubborn they are stubborn and they admit that.

Ok here some cons to be fair:
1. Over use of makeup and in alot of scenes we can see eggshell white colored base on face while the skin colored neck so it was annoying.
Also they put too much makeup on yichen character that he almost started to look like a wax doll.
2. The over use of tears like they really be putting 60 gallons of glycerine in their eyes like come on specially yichen and wen xiao crying in every single episode. Come on dude u showed such a tough character who can never be manipulated yet you choose to make him cry in every episode. Shut up.
3. High pitched screaming of the timid kiddo. It really hurt my ears. And also the rap song in ancient drama at fist it looked so cliche but then it weirdly grow on me like wo shi shu aaa.....

All of them just trust each other and they have such mature bond that they understand most of the time.

The best part of the drama lies in slow and deep voice talks that explains 90% of the story but the play of words is very beautifully played here. Alot of mature audience will definitely gonna like this style.

Cinematography is top notch and we don't even need to explain that. The scenery is even tough dark but still beautiful. The theme of black and dark colors have used so beautifully here. The makeup and costumes are super heavy and the play of eyes is so prominent and intriguing.

Director really played with our emotions by always putting every single character through such heavy life taking moments that we were always in a panic that thier is going to be someone die. But at the end when some characters actually die it was totally unexpected and uncalled for.

For me, tian jui ru give us the exceptional performance. Even though everyone performance and visuals were phenomenal but zhou yichen really took 4 out of 9 lives from us. I really started this drama because of him and he served. The villain also served, one of the sexiest villain he really was collecting every character. The little kiddo really showed us 50 shades of emotions by being the most dumb to the most dangerous person like it was a rollercoaster.

The main lead also showed emotions really well. He was a pookie in all the episodes. He also really served bl with yichen and we eat it up. We eat it up.

I suggest u to watch it will be very interesting to see.

People who liked my journey to you or the sleuth of ming dynasty will definitely like this. The wonderland of love also have same vibes where 90% of the plot revolve around talking and scheming.

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too dama slow

the speed of this show is unwatchablw slow. very nice costumes and pretty actors, but the pace of their conversation or plot is ridiculously boring. good luck to whoever can stay awake. please write a recap. i would gladly read it than watch on tv.






sigh. i cant submit a review without 500 words. what i like about the show is the costumes. the main fl outfit is so pretty. her martial arts is basic, yet she is highly regarded in the buraue of demon hunting. the main male lead moves his finger and everything either explode or falls down. the second me lead has a puzzle look on his face all the time, not much emotion from his cheekbone. the sexond female lead looks fierce and awesome, its just she doesnt do anything fierce or awesome. nice combat costume though. the prodigy med kid stole the show with his funny stunts and scene. he would doqell with a show of his own.

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2024 cdramas endings are just....too soul shattering!

"Fangs of Fortune is a captivating fantasy historical drama that follows Zhu Yan, an age old demon as he joins the demon-hunting bureau to help capture the various demons that have escaped into the human realm. This chaos ensues after the disappearance of the Bai Ze Order, which was responsible for maintaining the balance between the human and demon worlds following the tragic death of the Bai Ze goddess. With demons now running rampant, the formation of the demon-hunting squad becomes crucial.

Throughout the story, Zhu Yan meets a diverse group of characters, and together they confront the challenges posed by these escaped demons. The plot is intriguing and exciting, and I appreciate how the narrative weaves multiple storylines without spoiling the overall experience. Each subplot contributes to the main narrative, introducing a wealth of interesting characters along the way. The acting is good; most of the characters have managed to deliver subtle yet impactful performances that enhance the overall storytelling.

The interactions among the characters are fascinating to watch, showcasing their amazing chemistry. I particularly enjoy the random comedy moments sprinkled throughout the show; while they might seem off-putting to some, I find them timely and essential for lightening the mood. The drama itself is visually stunning, with beautiful aesthetics, impressive cinematography, and captivating CGI. The costume designs for the various characters are equally remarkable. All of this is complemented by upbeat soundtracks and soothing background music that enhance the viewing experience."

The ending to me was foreshadowed Ofcourse I didn't expect the writer to go on a killing spree but I sort of saw it coming...that aside...this drama was good.....the plot, the acting the visually appealing cast, the characters and the bonds and chemistry between the characters the visually appealing aethestics...the cgi and more..this drama was a whole package but the ending traumatized me.

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???

One of my many reason why I watched thus drama is because like the actors. Most of my fav actors acted in this drama, like Zhang Miao Yi, Cheng Xiao and Tian Jia Rui. At the start, I felt like it was a comedy show, but later on, the plot started to reveal itself and it had become clear it’s a BE. Not to disappoint, it is a BE😭 starting from ep 8-9. I was CRYING because of how sad the brother and sister relationship and sacrifices. At the end, bai jiu sacrifice himself and so the zhao yuan zho😭 I WAS BAWLING MY EYES OUT BRO. THE ACTING OF CRYING WAS SO TOUCHING😭😭🙏🙏🙏 I would say I would rewatch it if I want to watch it sad show😭. The visual of the case is so good too! MUSIC IS ON TOP! I learned the dance to it!!! BE is better then OE so I’m not complaining but I really wished it to be a HE. The title of this drama also revealed the ending would be a BE. 大梦归离，the Chinese top translating it means “big dreams belong end” explaining that zhao yuan zhous big dream has to come to an end. The lovelyness of being with a huge group of friends felt like a dream. This isn’t a dream but feels like a dream, sadly whatever that has to do with dreams belongs to an end. This is predicting a BE… (HE meaning is Happy ending, BE means Bad ending/Sad ending, OE means opening ending)

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Original and Fresh

I just finished the last episode of Fangs of Fortune and I wanted to write this quickly before everything in my head melted away. This is one of those dramas that will remain in my head for days. I loved almost everything about this drama. I gave a lower score on the story because I think the movie got caught up in relationships and moral messages more than actually completing any real "overall objective". There was purpose to each action, but the story tended to stray a bit into several story lines. I am not complaining. Each story had a relevance of its own. The acting was so flawless. Everyone of the actors, even a few that had outlandish personalities, remained solidly in there character; enough to make it somewhat truthful to the audience. Actors, costumes, sets, sound, CGI.... everything top notch. The music was better than any other C production I have seen, including all genres. It wasn't that I was a fan of the style of music, but that if fit each scene perfectly. It matched the mood of each scene. Whoever wrote most of the songs chose perfect lyrics as well. The only thing I would like to have seen a bit less of were flashbacks. Whever something "emotionally charged" happened on screen, we see flashbacks of poignant times they had with each other. I liked a few, but sometimes they went on for 5 minutes of screentime. I think it was to "wrench our hearts" even more than they were.
I am not sure what the directors were hoping to achieve, but they made a movie that I will remember for a long time. I am sure I will go back and watch it again at some point. It is an emotional, thrilling, dazzling production. I would like to make a note that none of the crew mentioned under "cast and crew" took writing credits. I would love to know who wrote the drama and I will keep my eyes out for other works. I think they deserve credit for their wonderful effort. Please producers: I wouldn't be unhappy if you decided to somehow make a sequel. (he he)

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most well written drama I've seen this year

this the first time I've watched the wuxia genre and this show did not disappoint,

things i liked:
1. world building
because this is the first time watching this genre i was afraid i wouldn't understand anything but even though this show didn't have an opening explaining all the lore the characters explained the world to other characters that didn't know ,which informed us the viewer which i really appreciated which really showed the effort the writers put into the world building of this show and also how much they respected the viewer to let us figure it out and by the end of the show i was really emersed into the world they build over the period the show aired.

2. cohesiveness
everything in this show fit together really well, the costuming fit every character really well and showed their personality without seeming out of place. something that i also liked is that the outfits repeated, in some dramas they would be changing the characters clothes every scene but the repeating of outfits further shows that there is a bit of realism in this unrealistic world. another thing that made the show a masterpiece is the Ost and score these were so well done the show wouldn't feel whole without them, in some dramas the music doesn't fit the emotion or scene but in this show they put so much effort into the score making it the Ost's instrumental and also it fit every important and even the insignificant beats of the story. the ost also brought out all the emotional parts of the story and amplified them making me go back and rewatch some scenes.

3. direction/cinematography
this show is so beautiful to look at i was speechless the scenes in the wilderness where breath taking and the way the show was directed is so well-done the crew did such a good job and it shows through out the entire body of work.( I'm trying to keep this review spoiler free so i wont go into too much details on this).

4. the characters/ the story
every character was well thought out and all the motives of every character were clear and most important thing for me when watching a drama is the character development because i hate it when a character remains stagnant throughout the whole show and then suddenly they change in the last ep, to do it well the growth has to be slow but apparent. i saw this in the second leads the way pei si jing developed throughout the show was so well written. and imo the best written character is zhou yi chen if you watch the show you see how much he changes and develops and a person, moreover the motives of the villains where clear and you as the viewer understand them its not like they were doing evil because the show needed and antagonist we knew the reason why they were doing these evil acts and we could anticipate them too which i liked, also on the topic of villains i liked that not everything was black and white and there where some grey characters like li lun who i understood why he did what he did and his character development throughout the show was so well-done you can see the confliction in him every time he did anything to zhao yuan zhuo. the supporting/background characters were also well written every time they showed a story the writers wrote them so well that you could even cry over them and also under stand their motives too and it the show all connected in the end in a way where every thing showed contributed to the ending so nothing was unimportant to the story.

5. the pacing
even though i saw many people say that the pacing of this story was slow paced, i think that was the right decision because i think that the pacing fit the story, because if it was any faster i think that i would have trouble following it and the pacing made the important beats of the story more impactful.

6. consistency
the biggest problem when watching comedy genres in dramas is that they always are super funny at first but when the climax of the story comes they become super melancholy and lose the shows initial charm but in this show they didn't the comedy remained throughout the show even after the sad parts and i very much liked that. and the found family and the dynamics between the characters were also consistent nothing happed that was out of character for them which i also really liked.

things i didn't like:
1. the female lead's character was a little neglected i could tell in the beginning of the show and i thought i should give the show more time and they did try to flesh her out a little more but i think they could have done a better job with her because in felt that the supporting characters were written better than her which is sad because she is the main lead.

2. the romance was lacking
i know some people would disagree with me but the main leads didn't have enough screen time together i felt the love between them but we didn't have enough time with them. and something else is that every body has so much chemistry with everybody i was getting confused at times like if you watched the show you could see it.

overall this may be the best drama I've seen this year the way it was created felt so well thought out and some people may not have liked the ending but I'm pretty content with it.

Citeste mai mult

One of my guilty pleasure this year

When I first heard of this drama, it had a lot of negative feedback. But I gave it a try because of Neo and Chen Duling, Dudu being I rewatched MLCB. I was blown away by the production and the beauty of the two main leads. However, as the story progressed I got captivated by the whole cast, they are a great actor. I’m ngl, the story is kind of mediocre but they are excellent actors so it got carried. I enjoyed this drama immensely. I laughed, I cried, I got super pissed, I felt so much giddiness between ZhaoYuanZhou and WenXiao, the bitterness because it makes me sad at the end. Some folks are bashing FoF because it only has 34 episodes and that it ended abruptly because of the low rating however the other drama w/c they comparing this with ended at 32 episodes. I am not sure about the rating but I will believe IQIYI, that it is popular and some sites that I will not be naming here, that it did well in China and received lots of love.

With all this long review, I can only say that it was worth it and I rewatched it yesterday. I paid for the early access btw that’s how hooked I was in FoF

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Impressive Drama

I have really loved watching Fangs of Fortune, especially the characters played by Neo, Tian & Yanan. Their presence and chemistry was incredible. The child actor was also excellent and is a true talent. The only slight downside is that I didn’t really warm to the female leads, but that didn’t detract from my overall experience.

I won’t spoil the plot for those who are yet to watch it, but suffice to say this story has a much deeper meaning about choice vs fate and because of that this drama will stay with me for a very long time.

The OST was beautiful, the script was incredible & impeccably executed and I laughed & cried in equal measure. For those who want to catch a deep drama with light and shade, this is for them.

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Worth to watch. The best cinematography and CGs.

I have been waiting for this drama since its trailer is released. The actings are superb especially Neo, ML. He is so different in here as he always acted bubbly characters. So it’s refreshing to see his another side. All actors and actresses have chemistry. No one is left out.
As the story wise, FL is so weak (who doesn’t possess power if she doesn’t have tool) except her goddess identity, I don’t think she deserves FL position. She has her good points tho. She is calm, rational, doesn’t always stay on the side of humans, empathize on some good demons, not blinded by emotions and knows how to handle love and hate. Maybe that’s why she became FL. Love the actress tho. It’s Chen Duling’s acting skill that FL is not hated and too annoying to watch.
The best point is the scenes! This kind of cinematography, using dark tone is rare to see in Chinese dramas. CGs are so amazing.
The story is fast pacing, not boring and fun to watch. But a little hypocrite from the side of humans.
Recommended to watch this.

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