So this one really may be the last big C-drama to premiere before year end, I thought after A Journey to Love the platforms would wait for lunar new year to come. Tencent announced today The Last Immortal (Hidden God) with Zhao Lu Si and Wang An Yu will drop next Monday December 11th. This is the first big budget xianxia of the season after a slew of wuxia or court intrigue period dramas with Wonderland of Love, Story of Kunning Place, and of course the currently airing at A Journey of Love. The drama looks very classic xianxia with lots of feathers, flowers, and rainbow assortment of colorful costumes. The new preview shows lots of opposites attract bickering and gradual falling in love of the two leads with a much more youthful bent to the romance than this past spring’s emotionally tortuous xianxia drama Till the End of the Moon.
Preview for The Last Immortal:
I saw the trailer and it’s awful. ZLS stans will justify it but that’s another horrible infantilised FL. Barf.
Because it is comedy, not really serious. But I’m still hoping for the best. Refreshing to see Wang Anyu than the usual MLs in C-Ent.
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I love Lusi and I will definitely check it out. However, she needs to move on at some point. Maybe thus is why she’s considering doing that war drama.
I usually would check Lusi’s drama. But this one looks so childish and boring. Wang An Yu isn’t interesting to me either. His acting was pretty bland in other dramas. After watching several Wuxia this year although haven’t finished any one of them yet (but will finish Wonderland of Love and A Journey to Love), I personally prefer Wuxia to Xianxia unless the latter has a very good script, acting, and everything else. Now I understand why I have had trouble finishing any Xianxia drama except for The Longest Promise (which by default I wouldn’t skip thanks to Xiao Zhan). Xianxia just looks so empty and gimmicky compared to Wuxia in general, let alone unfitting and cringe worthy visuals for most of the Xianxia dramas.
One more thing! Xianxia actions are always so bland, with people just extending their had and do kamehameha lol. In wuxia at least sometimes we get to see a cool action.
Not to mention the worldbuilding of wuxia always makes more sense than in xianxia. Xianxia actually ahs flawed concept of immortality. The original idea of immortality was fused with the idea of western fantasy, it doesn’t make sense how the most powerful immortal just get born but there’s an existence like earth immortal. The power level is also confusing. The worldbuilding doesn’t make sense.
There’s myriads of legends and myths in China and they originated from various backgrounds/cultures. Xianxia is based off of them, that’s why it’s so diverse and complex. There’s no single fixed world, which makes it confusing for those who weren’t exposed to Chinese culture since young.
The beings in Xianxia are often separated into 6 types – 神Shen 仙Xian 人Ren 鬼Gui 妖Yao (sometimes also include 精Jing) 魔Mo. Due to translation issues, Shen and Xian often get mentioned as gods, deities and immortals interchangeably; Yao and Mo also get interchangeably called demons; same for Yao and Jing being interchangeable as spirits. Ren is humans and Gui is ghosts.
Basically Xianxia has various renditions of the relationships between the beings, but the common thing is that the world is filled with good and evil essence.
One of the renditions is that Shen are gods that were born from the natural culmination of good magical essence. Xian are deities who were originally humans/animal/plant/nature spirits and they attained deityhood by cultivating through orthodox methods. cultivation is essentially absorbing essence, so you can think of Shen as a product of nature while Xian as manmade. Yao and Jing are usually animals/plant/nature spirits who cultivated through unorthodox methods. Lastly, Mo is the opposite equivalent of Shen, but they were born from evil essence instead.
Another rendition is that the beings are just various states of power, Shen and Mo are opposing ends of the cultivation power spectrum with Shen as the ultimate attainment level for good while Mo is the ultimate attainment level for evil, and humans are right smacked in the middle with no power. You can move up and down the spectrum depending on the level of your cultivated power and how good or evil the power is. Both renditions can also be combined.
I just finished the transcription of the novel and cannot wait to see LuSi’s take of the story. Also want to see Wang AnYu’s portrayal of Shanggu’s and Baijue’s son. And of course, check out the continuing backstory of my favorite Dong Hua Dijun! Also, Li RuiYin! Eeeeep!
So I already reserved and will clear my schedule to enjoy this epic for Christmas season! Fingers-crossed that the first few episodes will be funny before it all turns xanxia tragic.
I just finished reading the transcript and cannot wait to see LuSi’s take of the plot and Wang Anyu’s portrayal of Shanggu’s and BaiJue’s son. Also, of course, check out the continuing backstory of my favorite, Dong Hua Dijun. And Li Ruiyin! Eeeep. Christmas comes early. I’ll clear all my schedule to watch. Fingers-crossed the first few episodes will be funny before it all turns xanxia tragic.
Looks horrid. This is NOT her genre and DOES NOT fit her style of acting. 🥴
The trailer does look quite bad, but I’ll still give it a watch. I’m trying hard not to pet my dislike of the trailer affect the drama. There are some godawful trailers that turn out to be made from gem dramas, and likewise there are some exciting trailers made from very bland dramas. So, I’ll wait and see.
Lusi hasn’t disappointed me yet, and the only drama I dropped of hers is Hutong. Based on that, it’s a good track record.
I’m usually excited for ZLS’s drama too but this one doesn’t really excite me. I just don’t find the trailer exciting & the male lead doesn’t seem very charismatic but I will still check it out for Lusi & hope the ml can change my mind.
Meanwhile reservations for this drama has reached almost 5 million contrary to what most of the comments here are, a lot of people seem to be looking forward to this drama me included. The trailer does seem a little meh but the story is interesting! Giving it a shot!
Reservations don’t mean anything because they are a platform thing and platforms, all platforms, pad the numbers like crazy.
I kinda understand what you’re saying but at the same time that argument doesn’t make sense because if that’s the case then wouldn’t all dramas have more or less the same numbers then if they do “pad” it?
@Liz
No, projects have priorities so they will pad according to that. Also they put themselves in a bind by constantly increasing these numbers. Every subsequent drama that they think deserves hyping has to go higher than the previous highest drama. The numbers are therefore progressively rising.
So for example this one just broke 7 million reservations according to Tencent which means it is more anticipated than LYF was. Do we really think that’s realistic?
It’s just a platform thing, has nothing to do with the actors. Tbh nobody in China cares because everyone knows they are fake numbers. Some fans will still blow the number but even they are slowly giving up. It has lost all meaning by now.
I had high hopes with this drama initially, but seeing this…I have my reservations.
For one thing, ZLS looks way too immature here (personality-wise.) I’m sure she can pull it off, but it just feels like caricature.
Her ML, Wang Anyu also looks horrible in the drama poster. He looks like stale bread and has no desire to act. Supporting ML has an aura in his poster, but not main ML. Not a good omen already.
I will still catch, but this one seems like it’s doomed for failure.
I think the immaturity is always that first incarnation in every xanxia–they always act and talk like that (think Little Orchid in Fairy and Devil). Then after all the funny stuff, comes the first sacrifice and then you get the Big Bad and then there are all the sad incarnations before the girl becomes a goddess of the highest ranking (think every title you can remember LOL). And after that, don’t forget another bigger sacrifice for a semi-sad ending. Once I understand that this is how almost all xanxia goes, I just sit back and enjoy how it plays out. My excitement here is mainly to watch LuSi and also catch up on the continuing story of Dong Hua (from Ancient Love Poetry to Three Miles to The Pillow Book).
Idk, I consider Orchid’s personality to be naive, not necessarily immature. I guess to me there’s a fine line.
Naive but wise is how I see Orchid. Immature is how I see ZLS’s character here.
This doesn’t look very promising. Can’t put my finger on it but it just looks low budget/tacky? The characters/story seems too immature for my liking. Till the end of the moon looked way better even from just the trailer.
Your comment nailed it on the spot
I’m excited to see this drama. I love Zhao Lusi. Will watch any of her shows. She’s a joy to watch – a breath of fresh air. 🙂
How did ZLS go from LLTG to this? LOL
Damn. Ouch
Lusi needs to stop playing Lusi at some point. It’s the same thing over and over
Isn’t this supposed to be the continuation of Ancient Love Poetry with Bai Jue/Qingmu and Shanggu/Hoichu’s son- Yongqi? I love ALP sooooo much, I have watched it over and over again but from the previews I saw it looks nothing like it or even resemble it. Only the backgrounds resemble ALP. Like the title page looks very similar to the title page of the paintings of Bai Jue and Shanggu. Some of the other backgrounds with the characters looks like the Demon Region/Tianqi, The God Realm/Bai Jue,the Pilgrimage Hall/Shanggu, The Parasol Forest/Fengran and the home of the Emperor and Empress/ Muggang and Wu Huan. Others said this was the second part and if it is,then so far I am not enjoying it but we shall see,it was only a preview I guess. I hope someone can tell me if it is.
It is the son’s story. Dong Hua will be his teacher here who seals Yonqqi’s power of Chaos. Shanggu will show up at the end of the story, according to the transcript I read, if the director follows the plot.
Do I need to finish ALP before starting this drama? Maybe 10 episodes or less to go.