Come For The Aesthetics, Stay For The Found Family Dynamics

After an up-and-down drama year, this was finally it: the drama obsession that I've been waiting for in 2024.

I was completely hooked from the very moment the great demon Zhu Yan entered the Demon Hunting Bureau and asked its greatest hunter, Zhuo Yichen, whose family Zhu Yan massacred 8 years prior, to kill him. In exchange the demon offers his help with solving demon related crimes, and Zhuo Yichen, who has been waiting for years to get his revenge, agrees to these conditions – which is where the tragedy begins.
Because Zhu Yan isn't the cruel and fearsome demon Zhuo Yichen expected him to be at all, and while they travel together and collect a merry little family of misfits around them, the great demon's endless kindness and compassion is slowly chipping away at the demon hunter's resolve and makes him question both his personal feelings towards Zhu Yan and his moral code ...

I've watched several of Guo Jingming's works before, so I already had an idea of what to expect in this one. There was a very clear aesthetic vision for how this drama should look like, and I'm not just talking about the gorgeous costumes, but also the spectacular CGI and the breathtaking sets that make every single shot look like a painting.
The soundtrack is an absolute masterpiece as well and enhances the mood considerably; I swear I can't name a single song from it that I didn't love.

When it comes to the plot, this drama is very much character-driven. If you're looking for complex political intrigue and jianghu conspiracy stories, then this is probably not the drama for you. The plot of FANGS OF FORTUNE is driven by the characters' hopes, desires and grievances and spends at least 80% of the time exploring the complex relationships between the main characters.

And it's those relationships that are this drama's greatest strength.
At the core there are the upright and incorruptable Zhuo Yichen (played brilliantly by Tian Jiarui), his childhood friend, fellow demon huntress and work-in-progress goddess Wen Xiao (played by Chen Duling with much spirit and sass) and Zhu Yan, an old and powerful great demon with a serious death wish (probably Hou Minghao's best performance to date). The plot revolves primarily around those three and their vaguely polyamorous relationship.
They are later joined by the teenage medical genius Bai Jiu, the composed archer and former rival demon huntress Pei Sijing and the foodie godling Ying Lei, as well as Zhu Yan's ex best friend slash boyfriend Li Lun.

And as I've said somewhere in the comment section before, I'll say again here:
I have NEVER seen the whole 'found/chosen family' trope this well executed in a Chinese drama before. This is not just a story about pursuing a common goal only. This is a drama about deep friendship, about overcoming prejudices, finding the good in each other and building trust, about forgiving and making amends. It's about intense emotional and physical closeness between people who are not related by blood, and about love, both platonic and romantic and every single shade in between.
And it has been quite some time since I've felt so much joy following the adventures of such a mixed group of fictional people.

Speaking of the characters:
The quality of the acting of everyone involved was absolutely top-notch. Every single actor/actress delivered a memorable performance, even if they appeared for only 3 episodes at most.
The biggest surprise for me in this was Hou Minghao, though. I've seen several of his dramas by now, but none of his roles have left the same deep impression on me as the world-weary great demon Zhu Yan. I could just FEEL how tired he was, how lonely and sad. Fate has treated him unkindly and my heart was breaking for him more times than I can count.
The same goes for Tian Jiarui's portrayal of Zhuo Yichen, whose inner moral conflict over the course of this drama was mirroring that of Zhu Yan beautifully. Their incredible chemistry was what got me invested in the story in the first place.

But this drama also has a few issues that I just can't ignore.
The drama lost its plot several times along the way because it was focussing too much on the main characters' personal and self-made problems and then took its sweet time to get back to the initial action. I also hated that one specific narration technique that Guo Jingming just loves to use far too often: showing an event/situation from one perspective and then showing it again later, telling us that 'actually, THIS is what happened instead in that scene' by adding small details that were not obvious the first time around. This can lead to some shocking plot twists when used sparingly, but it just feels like lazy writing when it happens too often. The amount of twists caused by this in some episodes almost gave me whiplash.

Other than that I was completely happy to submerge myself in this fascinating world every evening for the past three weeks, though. This drama will stay with me for a long, long time and I can't wait to rewatch it and appreciate its ethereal beauty and the love between its protagonists once again in the coming days.

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