So don’t click MORE on this article if you don’t want to be spoiled on how xianxia C-drama Love Game in Eastern Fantasy ends. The drama concluded its run this past weekend for VIP Tencent viewers and the feedback was mixed. Some liked it and others felt like it was a cop out too generic type ending. In terms of reception, the past week saw Love Game fully pull ahead of same day premiered period drama The Story of Pearl Girl in all major metrics but with Pearl Girl having a longer episode count the end will probably have Pearl Girl see more total views overall. It’s a huge contracts to the Love Game production for this solid hit and a big win for leads Yu Shu Xin and Ding Yu Xi as both have seen their bankability further rise thanks to this drama.
So basically the leads go back to the real world where the male lead is actually the writer of the novel that forms the xianxia world and he reunites with the female lead and they have their real world happy ending and he rewrites the ending of the novel to give the xianxia world a happy ending as well.
This is my humble advice to all future possible chinese drama adaptations for transmigration or time travel or any modern day or whatever fantasy. Don’t interpret it as such. If the government does not allow accurate interpretation why bother. Not one and I mean it. Not one has been able to successfully make a coherent and satisfying ending. This drama was well done but the draw back I feel they fail to understand is that the main couple deserves a better finish off. In my opinion I highly doubt any future drama will make it so. As long as the government bans it there will continuously be such terrible or bland endings. It’s such a let down. And the main couples lack of skinship besides some hugs and a forehead kiss is so unsatisfying when you get an ending so open ended. It’s not the actors fault… honestly I wonder what they be thinking when they end their dramas in such an annoying way. But again it was a great drama. Just these endings.
The ending reminded me of Romance on the Farm… I’ve seen pictures where DYX was actually at the book signing, so I’m not sure why they didn’t just show his face. Am I crazy for holding out hope for a special episode like they did in The Double? I felt like this could’ve used another episode to show them back in the real world. I’m not sure if it’s due to censorship that they have to end it this way? Seems so strange to not put in that final effort.
While I thought they did explain a lot of loose ends from the first half pretty well… The last 5 episodes were also kind of jam packed with events happening, weird/choppy editing, that I got a bit dizzy. I like the final message and I still enjoyed the drama but I definitely think the first 12 or so episodes had much higher quality/potential.
Censorship invalidates so many Chinese drama’s story because the endings are so nonsensical it makes you question your entire journey with the characters and the characters’ story itself. I just invent my own endings these days. Although, overall in entertainment, season and series finales aren’t what they once were… actually good!
I belong to the “Like it” faction. Probably because I didn’t finish reading the original novel? The drama’s ending is not perfect, but it makes sense to me. Throughout the drama, there were several scenes that gave me flashback memories of other C-dramas which I had loved, notably Chinese Paladin and The Untamed. Don’t get me wrong though, I don’t mean plagiarism, but rather because those scenes are executed very well. For example, Wei Wuxian suddenly popped into my head the first time I saw the closeup shots of Mu Sheng in his vulnerable demon state. The ending of both The Untamed and LGIEF also happened to be closeup shots of the lead hearing his/her name called, turned around and saw the other person. All in all, my rating for LGIEF is still a solid drama and it’s been added to my list of C-dramas to recommend to other people.
its the same storyline as previous ding yuxi’s drama very predicted.