Love Beyond the Grave tells an epic love story between a mortal warrior general Duan Xu (Chen Feiyu) and the ghostly sovereign of the spirit world He Si Mu (Dilraba Dilmurat) against a historical backdrop of war, scheming conspiracies in both worlds and terrible losses. Si Mu has incredible powers and commands respect from all the other immortals in the other world, while Duan Xu kind of has the same role in our world, and with as many if not more problems.
This is a long 40-episode xuanhuan (general fantasy) story, and in a way it takes that long to play out the epic plot. Every time I thought these two could have some time for each other, fate decided otherwise. Duan Xu is quite noble, and temporarily gives up his senses so Si Mu can experience life as a mortal (she has never been mortal and has no senses of her own.) Meanwhile, Duan Xu is trying through his efforts to reclaim some territories taken over by the enemy to stabilize a very rocky governnment and help friends at court. Si Mu is battling rebels and conspiracies in her world, too, so they're constantly being forced to go to work, so to speak.
Upsides: There wasn't one episode that bored me, which is more than I can say for most Chinese fantasy. The story does sprawl quite a bit, but this is epic fantasy, so it would be weird if it didn't. I got who the real antagonist was early on in the series, and he turns out to be a real piece of work. The sets are excellent, the special effects are stellar, and the costumes are for the most part extremely beautiful and quite inventive, especially the headdresses and headpieces. The ending is both appropriate and logical,and yet did not depress me at all, so there's that.
Problems: A few. The four hundred year old Si Mu wears so much stuff in her hair she should clink when she walks, and her behavior is a real stretch, especially as to how she falls for a mortal. Said mortal is always gorgeous, too, if somewhat blood-spattered in nearly every episode. While Duan Xu is rather young-looking to be in charge you can imagine with his gifts he might get there, but he seems a bit too light hearted for a man who regularly sends thousands to their deaths. Duan Xu calling for Si Mu when he was in trouble and her not showing up (despite her repeated promises to do so) happened more than once, and as such lost its emotional impact. Also, this guy survives an incredible amount of wounds as well as the side effects of trifling with the ghost queen.
Finally, and most noticeably, the spirit world seems a bit two dimensional, and at times Harry Potterish (not one but two disembodied eyeball things invoke Alastor Moody.) Some of the backstory seems muddled and suffers because of the limitations of the world-building, especially regarding the secondary cast. I think the costume department ran a little short on budget for the background characters as well, especially the guy carrying around the rock barbell.
Despite the issues, I think Love Beyond the Grave is definitely worth the watch. I was surprised by how well Chen Feiyu plays a historical character, given that I've only seen him act in modern series. The leads do a wonderful job convincing you that they're in love, I'll give them that. Plus it's interesting to see how the story plays out. Available at Viki.com.
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