As someone who adored the original and the source novel(s) … I put off watching this (for obvious reasons) but have been more than pleasantly surprised.
Casting is very good (especially Su Yu - exceptional - and not far off Bai Luo Yin .. making him a bit “weaker” was an interesting choice though!)
The adaptation and deviations, are most definitely on the whole decent, and some neat shifts to move the plot along and improve a bit on the story telling front - in this world but also this clearly has a higher budget than the original and has been filmed with the lessons learned.
The downsides are it’s lost a bit of the “special” that made the original, IMO.
As much as I think Wu Bi character is a good adjustment, the actor cast is good and delivers well - I mean in this universe a fully fledged Gu Hai is not even remotely feasible, I personally feel this is the biggest let down and I can’t work out whether it’s the physicality, the actor or the adjustments to the narrative (or a combination of all 3), that are lacking - for me. There are still glimpses of the intensity but just they’re lacking that certain something!
But this is far better than expected and whether I’d feel the same without Shangyin .. difficult to honestly assess.
Worth the time and effort watching so far, invested to see where it progresses over the next couple of weeks and if the flaws (for me) get lessened