Review: Love In The Clouds [China]

THE SHORT VERDICT:

I’d say that this is a xianxia with broad enough appeal that it should be easily enjoyed by non-xianxia-loving drama fans.

Not only is the magic and mythology pretty accessible in this show, it’s written in a manner that puts the primary focus on our characters and relationships.

Hou Ming Hao and Lu Yu Xiao are both excellent as our leads, and share a warm, sparky sort of chemistry that I found very enjoyable.

Show does a solid job of teasing out the burgeoning connection between our OTP, and that really is the centerpiece of this story.

Surprisingly stirring, for a show that I’d imagined would be a fun little bonbon.

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Flash Review: When We Were Young 2018 [China]

Remember when so many of you asked me if I knew of a show that’s similar to A Love So Beautiful? Back then, I felt like nothing really fit the bill, but now, I can finally say that this lil show does feel like it’s a reasonably close relative of A Love So Beautiful.

It’s true that this one’s much more about friendship and family than it is about romantic love, but the world in which these characters live feels like it’s plausibly just a couple of neighborhoods away from A Love So Beautiful’s drama world, in the same nostalgic time period to boot.

Both big plus points for me personally. I’ll admit that these characters didn’t come alive for me right away like the characters in A Love So Beautiful did, but I can honestly say that by series’ end, they’d gotten deep enough under my skin, that I was sincerely reluctant to say goodbye.

Which is why I think that if you loved A Love So Beautiful, then this one’s solidly worth a look.

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