Chen Xiang Ru Xie (2022)

I mean I watched it

The film style and production seemed so similar to Ashes of Love, I actually thought they were made by the same people.
Visually it was beautiful. Part of it felt promising. The first half of the show is better than the second, but if you want to compare it to Ashes of Love, Yan Dan feels like she was meant to be a 'smarter' Jinmi.. but this is largely arguable considering it takes her 800 years to forget a guy who she basically kills herself over, and then literally breaks her body apart again and again for said same guy. The character style and acting is so similar, there's fewer differences and than similarities between these characters and you can't help but compare as the actress is the same, and the filming style between these two shows are so similar. Yan Dan's character development is also similar to Jinmi, as she gets more serious throughout the show, and she cries so much, it's no wonder audiences were upset about the actress having a worn out appearance for much of the show. With so many crying scenes, no wonder.

The main male lead character is so useless in terms of love for much of the show. Punishments and plots, like many Xianxia, either don't make sense or feel poorly explored. I really wasn't rooting for them by the end of the show, and really didn't care that they died. Wish they had cast someone else for the leads and created second lead syndrome because the story could have tugged at my heartstrings for the second lead, but sorely didn't.
I won't watch this again, but I did finish the show.

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It took six months to get through this series

Xianxia is quintessentially a contrast of light and dark, good and bad, gods and demons, and it is stylistically depicted by monochromatic character and color themes with slight differences in plotlines. If I'm being honest, this genre is my least favorite; nevertheless, I've seen a few that are slightly less ridiculous than most with my fave being Love Between Fairy and Devil (LBFAD) and my least fave being this tedious and pretentious Immortal Samasara.

Firstly, Yang Zi, the lead actress, is such a one-trick pony who seems content to play different variations of the same "dim and somewhat smart" character which she played not only in IS (Immortal Samsara) but also in Ashes of Love and Legend of the Dragon Pearl. If someone edits clips of her performances in these dramas, I bet you wouldn't know they were three different series.

And therein lies the problem not only with Yang Zi but also with Xianxia as a genre. It's too stylized with little to no room for maneuvering of plots or themes. There's the demons are bad and heavenly beings (HB) are good trope where the heavenly beings fight endlessly for dominance with a side plot of a HB prince who happens to fall in love with a lower twig or leaf spirit. Like clockwork, the writer never misses giving us the stoic and cold hero and the useless heroine with the baby voice (one of the worst aspects of LBFAD) who later comes into her power after being tossed around and abused by the higher HBs. Add in a love quadrangle, some men in bad wigs, and the most watered-down set props which, given this is all CGI, seems like a wasted opportunity to liven up an otherwise bleary set of white clouds and grayscale.

Did I mention how much I hate the color and style? Sigh.

Anyway, IS is about a HB prince who falls for a flower; sadly, love is forbidden in heaven and they have to go through three different time periods of heartbreaks and forgotten memories whilst fighting some obscure bad guys who did some bad things. That's all.

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Too much story fillers

I've been so excited to watch this drama.... But I got a little disappointed.
I don't know how the story is portrayed in the novel, but the drama feels so dragged, with a lot of side stories that kida deviate from the main storyline.
The first 20 episodes of the drama were good, but the later episodes were draggy and full of unnecessary details and events.
So far I've only watched the 34 episodes from the first part, and I really hope that the second part won't be draggy like the first one.
I'm still curious about the back story of YY's parents, so I will for sure watch the 2nd part, I just hope it won't be disappointing.

I'm dropping this for a while. I'll wait for all the episodes to air and continue watching. Cuz I feel like I'll be doing a lot of skipping while watching the remaining episodes.

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“In the future we stay forever to the end”

Immortal Samsara is a very beautiful drama, the budget in this project must be a lot and it shows. The costumes are all beautiful and the designs with the colors particularly play off the next very well. When two characters are with each other the costumes never overpower the person next to them, so I would say the character design is also done very well.

Whats worth watching for Immortal Samsara is the stunning effects. This drama is so crisp to look at, especially with a 57 inch tv.. This drama is so beautiful, and that alone was the reason that I was intrigued. But is that all compensating for the story and acting? Is the drama overlooking cinematography because it has flashy effects? I would say it doesn't.

What I look for when I review things is if the drama is succeeding at what it's trying to do. Immortal Samsara is a romantic costume drama, and it is definitely above average. I wasn't expecting the story to be as easy to follow as it has been so far. Barely into the mortal realm as of episode 12, I'm excited to see where the story continues. I love the dynamics between the characters and they aren't written badly. In fact, each episode I get through I understand them better and am pretty impressed with how they are developing. Specifically the main pair: YanDan played by Yang Zi, and YingYuan played by Cheng Yi.

Yan Dan is the main character, and from a first glance I thought she was just typical.. the annoying and childlike type that is innocent. But Yandan isn't she has her motivations and her pride, and what really rounds her out is her counterpart sister who is pretty much a foil character to her, ZhiXi played by Meng Zi Yi. Both sisters come from a lotus flower, and one of them is the weak one while the other is the strong one. Zhixi so far is growing to be one of my favorite characters, knowing she is weaker as she was hurt before but she really holds her own. I understand why she is jealous of Yandan but doesn't really put it out there, instead she holds her pride and rejects her sister when she tries to help her succeed. Yandan isn't annoying or boastful when trying to help her sister, she is a bit more carefree and wants her sister to have the opportunities she deserves. Opposed to a character that gets in the way where there naive nature is used for comedy, Yandan grows from that pretty quickly.

From the first shot you see her falling from a cliff in what's assumed to be a self sacrifice. That sets up for the viewer to know that she can make impactful decisions and isn't playful and clumsy all the time. She is a deep thinker, and feigns that for her wish to live carefree most of the time. The drama moves quickly with her character and it is very satisfying.

What's even more satisfying is the development between YanDan and YingYuan, which is very natural. I've seen a lot of other costume dramas just have the female lead be naive with the male lead to be the grounded one for me to wonder why they would even like each other. Yandan and Yingyuan have there moments together that make me understand. Yingyuan is an emperor with a lot of responsibilities, and Yandan shows him how to be happier through her natural attitude. There aren't any coincidences pulled to keep them together, instead the characters themselves just want to be with each other.

Finally, this show wouldn't deliver if the acting wasn't there. Yang Zi is such a good actress, she is amazing. I've never seen a drama with Cheng Yi, but he is also very very good. They both play off each other naturally and unnaturally also when they need to be. The emotional scenes are where they both do there best at, and I'm looking forward to watching more so I can see their full depth of acting range.

The criticisms I have right away is that sometimes the effects are a little too ambitious. With the first long battle, the overlays were obvious and kind of an eyesore. The whole dragon fight was almost hard to watch, I much rather would have hand to hand combat over green screen effects. But I think when the characters get to the mortal realm that there will be more of that. So other than that I just have my concerns. Will the drama hold up? Will it bite off more than it can chew with it's very vast story and world? Will the story run out its time and become boring and cliche? I hope not. As for other peoples complaints, the one I’ve seen a lot is comparing it to Ashes of Love. Immortal Samsara is similar with its opening act, the immortal words and mortal realms. There aren’t two male leads with the same dynamic as in Ashes of Love and Yang Zi’s character although isn’t completely different- her character is much different in terms of writing, Yandan comes to terms with her surroundings a lot quicker and isn’t as aloof. She’s more grounded here.

So far this drama is really good, a solid 8.5-9/10. It is very much so above average in terms of acting, styling, effects, etc. I recommend this as it isn't bland. Give this drama a chance if you like romance with emotions, impressive fight scenes, and flawless visuals.

Finishing up this part I rate this even higher now. This drama truly is beautiful in every way. The story never fell flat and there were always interesting storylines to follow. Even into the mortal realm the dynamic between YanDan and Tengzhou was done very well. The whole tragedy between them is something I’m a sucker for, I love tragic and dramatic things. Yumo is my favorite character. He is selfless and I admire him for all the things he does for Yandan without expecting her love.

There is a lot going on in this drama but it is all interesting, beautiful, epic, and fun to watch. Overall very good and this drama is underrated so I recommend

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Ying Yuan: "Agarwood has turned into dust"
"But there is still the warmth of our love"
"If the agarwood hadn't turned into dust, could we go back to how things were?"
- His eyes were filled with tears, painfully staring at her expressionless eyes. Hopefully asking for the answer that he wanted but she is still cold towards him.

If you are searching for the drama where FM is not only strong but also intelligent and so mature enough to understand ML, then Immortal Samsara is for you. CGI of IS is so breathtaking and touching! IS also teaches us that love isn't everything sometimes, you can't sacrifices everyone's precious life just for your greediness over love.

The story is so beautifully written as Ying Yuan & Tang Zhou's love for Yan Dan is so pure while Yan Dan's love towards both Ying Yuan & Tang Zhou has always been sincere.

Yan Dan may be childish at the beginning but after she experienced the pain from love and everything, her maturity never fails to amaze me. Yan Dan realizes that the true definition of LOVE = Protecting what your beloved ones cherishes!

Ying Yuan loves Yan Dan in his own way, he chose not to recognize to keep her save from the punishment, he still has to protect Three Realm as without the peace of the world, he will lose Yan Dan too. Yan Dan misunderstand him but she later witnesses with her own eyes that what will happen if Ying Yuan chooses her over the responsibilities.

Tang Zhou, who is the real SML, suffers a lot between Ying Yuan & Yan Dan, he didn't do anything wrong, just purely loves Yan Dan but he never got her love back until the end because of his past life. He became the punching bag between them for Ying Yuan and Yan Dan to finally realize that they can protect each other while choosing the responsibilities too.

The real love triangle is between Ying Yuan - Yan Dan - Tang Zhou, three of them are actually innocent. They just fell in love with their beloved one but the fate is so cruel towards them no matter where they are, Heavenly Realm or Mortal Realm.

Huge respect to Yang Zi & Cheng Yi and all actors, actresses. I can totally sense the differences between Ying Yuan & Tang Zhou, all thanks to CY's amazing acting. His eyes speak everything, YY and TZ is the same person but the personalities, expressions and love towards Yan Dan are so different. Thank you Immortal Samsara for keeping me accompany all the time!

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Let's observe a minute bow worth of respect for Cheng Yi's eyes (Watched all 61 EPISODES. )

Well, there are a whole lot of appraisals I have for this very beautifully woven piece of art that consolidates the typical as well as atypical Chinese Wuxia drama and its essence.

Regardless of the fact that I have been an ardent admirer of the acting prowesses of our two leads, Cheng Yi and Yang ZI who gave us a mouthful chunk of brilliance in one of their previous sensational and critically acclaimed independent movies (were the former casted unbelievably beautifully as Si Feng, alongside Yang Binguan, another breathtaking actress in Love and Redemption, and the latter, Jin Mi in Ashes of Love, alongside, De Lung), the chemistry between these two surpassed our expectations and it felt nothing short of real, there were clearly scenes that were too painful and excruciating for me to take in and it hurt for each episode tailed on the suspense flank, it was torture to wait for subsequent episodes and during those very suspense thrilled nights, I would find myself imagining possible plots and giving explanations to the things that hurt and why they did, all in futile efforts of easing my pain. It felt so real. The suspension of disbelief reached its peak and every one of us hurt and empathized with every character.

This drama is the quintessence of a well invested in, choreographed and directed drama, all things were done perfectly. I can reference this fact to the BTS (Behind the scenes ), a very beautiful and unburdening series.

The drama is rich and sopping-wet with themes that are well exemplified through a beautiful interrelated complexity of plots and storylines and the aboveboard chemistry among the casts. The well emphasized themes are love, sacrifice, and responsibility.
The OSTs are perfect and I listen to them every time, particularly, Agarwood sung by Jane Zhang and Jason Zhang.
Listening to the OSTs are no different from watching those scenes that hurt.

This is a drama I will never be weary of watching.
I am rewatching this drama of 61 episodes for the third time and watched and rewatched hundreds of clip-scences.

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Not very good, but still watchable

This review is about part 1 only.

This drama was a typical xianxia drama, with the quiet sacrifices of the main leads, love-you-but-cannot-be-with-you angsts, heartbreaking scenes and lifetimes of love.

I had always liked watching this genre and had watched numerous of them, so tropes and clichés were not surprising to me.

Yang Zi’s and Cheng Yi’s acting definitely brought the drama to a higher level. Yang Zi was as always playing the bubbly role and Cheng Yi was as always spitting lots of blood, but they played their roles well and that to me was enough.

I think this drama had beautiful natural sceneries. I was always in awe of the natural surroundings, so much so that I would sometimes even focused more on their surroundings than the characters themselves and I think the director really knew how to capture the correct angles to portray the most beautiful scenes. As for cinematography, many people commented that it was bad, but I had no negative comments about it, it was ok to me.

What I did not quite like about the drama, a little nitpicking included:

1. I did not shed tears nor feel particularly touched by the love of the leading couple when they were in the immortal realm in the first 20 episodes. I was just too used to the tropes and clichés in this genre that there was nothing surprising, but more importantly than being too used, I felt that their passion for each other was shown too early in the drama, without a strong built-up. Not that I like slow-burn romance, but I would feel more for a couple if they had gone through some life-and-death situations together or done at least something worthy for each other and then circumstances caused them to separate, etc., but in this, they realized they liked each other and then in a short span of time, they were willing to make huge sacrifices for each other to the extent of giving half a heart to the other. It was hundreds of years in the drama, but in reality, it was a mere few episodes that viewers saw the transition which was just too short and nothing of significance that had happened for me to feel for the couple.

2. Many a time, I felt that the immortals in the heavenly realm did not behave like immortals in this drama. They were supposed to be immortals who had lived thousands of years with magical powers, so they should not have to sleep or cook or eat egg fried rice, or use a broom to sweep the ground, at least that was what I imagined. I would think that even a junior immortal like Yan Dan (Yang Zi) would be able to execute a little magic to sweep away the dried leaves or whatever in the yard without actually needing to use a broom. And, the heavenly realm had day and night when immortals had to sleep. It felt a little weird and unconvincing. I recalled in the drama Ten Miles of Peach Blossom, there was no day or night in the heavenly realm and this sounded more 'logical'. I know such things sound rather trivial, but heavenly realm is a place unique in a historical fantasy drama, so I would appreciate some meticulous details to have been thought of when creating such a realm by the scriptwriters.

3. I did not quite enjoy the mortal realm, starting from around episode 22 onwards. The two leads lost their memories and just when they met each other and me hoping that soon they would recall each other slowly, they went around together with Yu Mo (Ray Chang) looking for and collecting the magical artefacts to cure Tang Zhou (Cheng Yi)’s heart issue, but this looking around took such a long time that it started to get boring, new faces kept appearing, new information, new things totally unrelated to the original xianxia angst kept appearing in new episodes and leading to nowhere. All these from about episode 25 to episode 38.

4. This is trivial, but I just have to mention because it was so obvious. She was supposed to be a princess, but the hair decorations worn by her, a princess of the Eastern Sea, Zhao Lan, looked glaringly cheap. They looked like some hair decorations one would find in a marketplace or a thrift store...

I have to mention OST because they are so crucial in a xianxia drama to build up the emotions. Fortunately, 偏星 (Partial Star) sung by 张靓颖 (Jane Zhang) is sweet and romantic for me to keep listening to this song. The rest were simply forgettable.

All in all, I would not say that this part 1 of immortal samsara was very good, I do not see it as 'THE xianxia drama of 2022', but it was still watchable partly because I like watching this genre, enjoy all the angst and heartbreaks of this genre, though I do not think I would re-watch this, like what I have done for some xianxia dramas.

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I LOVE IT

Okay initially I was excited for this but had no high hopes and I was right they rlly did my girl yang zi dirty in order to give the other casts some limelight but one thing that was more annoying is that lamp thats stupid lamp who had more screen time than the support. Anyways if ur a fan of chengyi don't worry he did exceptional here and although this is just the first season i'm gonna say I'm satisfied with the story as I loved the heavenly realm and mortal realm. One disapointment is that the leads don't have much intimate scnes and even if they did IT WAS A DREAM. damn they had like 6 dreams at this point. I'm not rlly looking forward to part 2's focus on Chengyi's other love story which is kinda pistaking since why would u make it the same actor like it just ruins the vibe? If you rlly wanted to show chengyis versatility then u didn't have to create a love story for him coz impov it looks like the hes cheating on yan dan lol. And plz yand dan and ying yuan already has less romance scenes and ur gonna introduce another whole storyline in part 2 forgetting all abt yan dan to show him with another woman. That is messed up although I must admit he is hot. I'm giving it a 10 for my girl yang zi tbh and the ml is hot. I repeat hot. Anyways don't trust my review 100% since I'm biased specifically for this drama.?
Edit: PART 2 IS AMAZING I TAKE BACK EVERYTHING I SAID

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