Skip to main content

The Devil Made Me

In China the Xianxia genre of dramas is very popular, and after watching a few episodes from various series I decided to watch one from start to finish. Since I liked Dylan Wang in Meteor Garden (a review of that is in the works) I went with his Love Between Fairy and Devil from 2022.

First, an explanation: Xianxia is the Chinese version of epic fantasy, and usually features otherworldly settings with immortal characters. On the upside the action is a combination of special effects and martial arts, most of which is quite exciting. For me the costumes and settings are the standout elements, as they're really beautiful and super creative.

On the downside, the storylines (which I assume are based on Chinese fiction or mythology) are muddled, over-plotted and/or rather ridiculous. Misogyny runs rampant; the sheer idiocy of some of the characters is annoying, too. Since Tolkkien's middle earth books and movies are the same in my opinion I think epic fantasy will never really work for me, so keep that in mind.

As fantasies go Love Between Fairy and Devil is both high and epic in a visual sense, with fantastic otherwordly settings with characters to match. Everyone has hair down past their waist, they wear gorgeous flowing robes and highly stylized accessories; the design department should get a massive raise for what they did with the head pieces alone. The storyline, while a bit convoluted, wasn't that difficult to follow, and while the dialogue is just as lofty as the settings it made sense. The romance between the fairy and the devil is likewise epic (if unlikely) and there are some interesting subplots including another romance and an ancient conspiracy.

Dylan Wang did a first rate job playing the devil Dongfang Qingcang, a tortured and dark immortal who is accidentally released from an eternal prison by the fairy. Anyone who believes Dylan doesn't have any range of emotion as an actor should watch this series. Yu Shuxin as the fairy Orchid was an excellent choice, as she's completely convincing at every stage of Orchid's journey through the series. The two of them together are perfection, and they command attention whenever they're on stage.

There were some problems with the series, such as a plodding story and a few too many flashbacks. It was nice to watch a Chinese production without too much visible government propaganda, although I picked up on a couple subtler shows of that. The excuses used to keep the fairy and devil apart became more forced and unnatural as the series progressed. Some of the actors went a little overboard with their emotional portrayals of their characters; I don't think gods and goddesses should behave like angry toddlers.

I believe Love Between Fairy and Devil is worth the watch, as long as you don't mind high/epic fantasy and long series. Available on Netflix.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Downsizing

This was my fabric stash once I sorted everything -- 22 full bins. I spent a day taking out and boxing up what I could part with, with the goal of trying to reduce it by half, so I'd have 11 bins. I was very strict with myself, and removed everything that for one reason or another I was sure I wouldn't be able to use. This is what I ended up with -- 12 bins of fabric that I'm keeping. It's not quite half, but close enough. Half of what I took out went to a local quilter friend, a school and Goodwill. These four tightly-packed bins will be going to the local quilting guild once I make arrangements with them for a drop-off place. I am relieved and a little sad and now determined to control my impulses to thrift more fabric. I don't want to do this again, so until I use up six bins, I can't for any reason bring any new fabric into the house.
Post a Comment
Read more

In Progress

I promised myself I would show you the good, bad and ugly of my cleaning this year. This is what it looks like when you dump thirty years' worth of stashed fabric on the floor -- and oy, what a pain in the butt to pick up again! This is what it looks like after it's been sorted, folded and placed in containers, which took me about a week. Now the hard part is to downsize my stash by at least half, I think (that's my goal, anyway.) I've already e-mailed the president of the local quilting guild, a local friend who is a quilter, and a public school art teacher I know to see if I can donate some of the excess to them. The rest will go to Goodwill. Already I've reduced my vintage textiles from two bins to one, and my scraps from three bins to one. It's probably the hardest clean-out I've done, which is why I saved it until last. I know I have too much fabric, more than I can use in my lifetime -- but at the same time, I love it. So I have to
Post a Comment
Read more

Other Stashes

Along with clearing out the spare bedroom and tidying my office and our guest bedroom, I decided to reorganize some of my stashes. This is all the yarn I have on hand, sorted by color. It looks like a lot, but lately I've been using up a minimum of half a bin every month, so this is approximately a year's supply. All of my solid color cotton perle thread. I go through a lot of this every year, too. I need a container in which I can fit all of it together, but I haven't found the right one yet. I won't show you all of my fabric -- I'm still reorganizing this stash -- but I went through everything and donated two bins of fabric I won't need to the local quilter's guild.
Post a Comment
Read more