#the way wang haoxuan's first name is one letter away from his character aoxuan

[xiaoshengnu]

immortal samsara part way review ep 1-16

hey hey hey

when you see me write a part-way review, it is very likely that I will give up on the series very soon afterwards, and today, our part-way review is going to be on immortal samsara and oh boi. it’s going to get spicy.

if you are a fan of the drama or the actors (btw, this is a critique on the characters and the drama not the actors) and will get upset by criticism, then pls look away, pls don’t ruin your day over a drama :( 

okay friends- this is a lot longer than my usual part-way posts but,

lets begin.

𝖕𝖑𝖔𝖙 - 4/10 

the angst okay, being the xianxia drama it is, is really good, I can feel it so hard. there was a whole episode which made me sit in bed crying the whole way through (it was really cathartic I won’t lie). however, the plot really is nothing new, I like it better than ashes of love because at least it doesn’t have a really awkward sexual sense of humour while trying to maintain an innocent front, but overall it’s not much better. the demon clan is still evil for no good reason and still dressed in black because hey, we need to judge people by appearances because that has never caused any societal problems ever before! and the heavenly realm is still good and perfect for no good reason. 

however, there was one brilliant thing that the demon lord says to yingyuan before the great battle that I really liked which was along the lines of ‘the heavenly realm is unjust and discriminatory. they bar us from the same privileges, only by starting this war can our people have a way out from oppression’- which is honestly such a valid and beautifully morally grey thing to say! but the scriptwriters didn’t push this forwards and instead shot it down by making yingyuan say ‘yeah right, you’re just giving excuses to satiate your greed’. and of course, since yingyuan is endlessly good, the audience will undoubtedly side with his reasoning which made me kinda sad. 

after all it seems clear to me that the whole universe in this drama is pretty divided and unequal. cultivation is probably like the most important thing in these people’s lives. for example the dragon king who came to visit his son said ‘wow the heavenly realm’s heavenly aura is amazing, great for cultivation’ suggesting the sea realm and other realms are lesser in heavenly aura in comparison. the heavenly realm monopolises the access to their realm, as well as cultivation books (as assumed from the rare and priceless books in yingyuan’s palace that everyones like so ‘omg yandan you got to read those?’ about) for who they like and if cultivation is people’s livelihoods in this drama, this is blatantly unfair and genuinely horrible. those who take human form in the heavenly realm or are of heavenly clans (such as the handan lotus clan) are automatically given a huge head start. 

let’s put this in a modern context; its literally “yo so since you weren’t born white and also maybe because I don’t like you, you can’t go to school, yeah sorry about that lmao- good luck with surviving now, bye-bye!”

I mean with this inequality and this set up, had the scriptwriters brought this narrative forwards, the drama had so much potential to have so many impactful themes, like fighting against unjust rules in an unjust system that could feature both immortals and demons. And even if they didn't want to explore this route, and wanted to stick to love, a storyline exploring how to emotionally vulnerable could have been good!- it could be so many things! it’d also be so much more fun if the heavenly emperor was like a sociopath and yingyuan had to reshuffle his idea of the heavenly realm, departing from the good evil, white black dichotomy.

I mean it doesn’t even have to be as big as that! like anything as simple as changing the gender of the two leads- like ANYTHING that is slightly more original and slightly more fleshed out would have been so. much. more. interesting. and also- patching up some of the logic-ing in this drama would have also been good too? like just maybe y’know? like perhaps MOST NOTABLY IN EPISODE 13?

𝖆𝖈𝖙𝖎𝖓𝖌 - 7/10

the acting of the leads, guys- is top tier. if it wasn’t for yang zi and cheng yi I wouldn’t have been sobbing my eyes out over this drama T-T. I'm so surprised why some c-netz yang zi fans were so upset over the fact that she was paired with cheng yi because my god besties, he can act. if I ever manage to force my way through the drama, I'm looking forwards to seeing cheng yi act as tang zhou who I hear is a more open and smily than yingyuan. aughhhh they both do so wellllll. these two- they rock.

meng ziyi is great too, she acts well as always and the actress (Vicki Xu?) of yingdeng plays her character wonderfully- even though I feel quite sorry for her for getting assigned a character who literally has ‘I am a product of misogynistic writing’ stamped across her face. 

the rest of the cast tho... and the dubbing....? no.

𝖈𝖍𝖆𝖗𝖆𝖈𝖙𝖊𝖗𝖘 - 3/10

I kind of wanted to rate it a 1 out of righteous rage (jkjk) for the writing of yingdeng which honestly makes me want to scream- it’s like everything wrong with the stereotypical perception of women is all condensed into yingdeng alone. she's crazy man chaser, she wants to use her wiles to further her career, she’s catty, she’s scheming, she’s jealous, she lashes out at women- the way that she is so one-dimensional as well- the scriptwriters offer no nuanced explanation to why she is like this besides from being obsessed with a man. its just terrible. it’s just so insulting. there’s better ways to make yandan look better without demonising other women- like- I’m just sayingggg

but anyway, before I slammed in 1/10 out of anger, all was saved by yingyuan’s survivors guilt arc and the scriptwriters attempt to write a dimensional zhixi. I found yingyuan’s survivors guilt arc with yandan really sweet and it actually worked to expose the way yingyuan thought and why he was (supposedly; we were never shown any instances) so rule obsessed (from the beginning he has been breaking rules- even his existence breaks rules- there is no instance where he is seen sincerely enforcing rules. his ‘rule abiding-ness’ is not particularly convincing 👀 and doesn’t make is rule-breaking for yan dan as impactful as it should have been). (But anyway) I thought they really showed what they meant to each other here. 

zhixi’s writing, was better than what was done to yingdeng. sibling jealousy is something quite convoluted and confusing, coupled with zhixi’s meek personality, her actions are understandable and I appreciated the scriptwriters for that. though I have no idea how they plan to redeem her effectively- honestly. however while the scriptwriters offered a valid motivator for zhixi’s actions, she is still not a fleshed out character. besides from being easily manipulated and a force for problems, zhixi has no friends and other influences of her own which makes little sense when you consider that she has been around for thousands of years. it honestly makes her quite a flat character. but a little effort was made I guess.

but besides from these things, I wasn't particularly surprised by any of the other characters or their dynamics.

𝖕𝖗𝖔𝖉𝖚𝖈𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓 - 8/10

the production is absolutely beautiful, I love the colour palette, the styling the jewellery, the lighting, the concept photos... they’re all so gorgeous. my favourite set in the whole drama has to be yanxu palace, yingyuan’s home. I love the raw stone detailing and the deep turquoise colour which looks so good against the chess set with white and amber pieces.

I know some people have complained about the plasticy-feel of some of the props and I sometimes do get that vibe from time to time, however I don’t think that would be the biggest problem ever so I didn't nock it down by much. the cgi is good too.

my favourite costume so far in the drama has to be the dragon princess zhaolan’s. I love her nautical themed styling like her fishtail earrings, her super long jelly-fish buyao and her horned hair. its so cute and it suits the actress so well.

overall average - 5.5/10