Youku Xianxia C-drama The Immortal Ascension with Yang Yang and Jin Chen Ends Successful Run and Opens with High 7.5 Douban Ratings
It’s a sigh of relief for Youku and male lead Yang Yang and their big budget high profile xianxia C-drama The Immortal Ascension ended up a hit. The drama finished its 30-episode run this week with high ratings and solid reviews for the most part, and even better opened with a high for the xianxia genre ratings of 7.5 on Douban. The complaints on female lead Jin Chen simmered down as the drama went on, there was still issues with her visuals looking older and something to do with her crooked mouth but her acting carried the day by portraying the character personality well. To date this is the highest Douban rated big male lead drama of 2025, with Legend of Zang Hai with Xiao Zhan currently sitting at solid 7.1 and Dylan Wang with The Guardians of the Dafeng getting an anemic 5.6. Up next (maybe) is the last and final big male lead IP drama of this year with The Journey of Legend with Cheng Yi.
I’m enjoying The Immortal Ascension for what it is, a video game drama. But in no way does it rate 7.5 on Douban. Congrats Yang Yang fans for managing to jack it up so high.
I am not a Yang Yang fan (I had only seen him previously in a couple of LO2 episodes), but I still think it is a solid xanxia show – though I am only at episode 5.
Be careful of people coming after your comment. There are people here who swear that Douban is oh-so-credible. 🤣
Lmao I wonder how much they paid for that 7.5
Anyway, not a flop and not a success. A pretty flat broadcast for such a big IP.
This is a one-man show, namely Yang Yang taking up most of the screen time. I didn’t watch Fireworks of My Heart. Therefore, I don’t know how “greasy” he was in FoMH. LOL. I truly think YY was charming in Love O2O and very decent in You Are My Glory. He had charisma on screen in those two dramas I enjoyed. Nonetheless, he did appear haughty, seemly pretty much wary of his own handsomeness from time to time in the IA, and that’s when his good looking lost appeal to me. LOL. Just too much self awareness.
The FL isn’t a good fit to the story IMO. But the IA was mainly a YY show, therefore her impact was reduced to a nonfactor.
I dropped the drama midway through and don’t even recall how many eps I watched caused it’s just another Cdrama among many that I tried and dropped eventually.
It’s not that Jin Chen look old, it’s just her face look too modern.this is cultivation drama, so all character should look classic like Liu shi shi.
Well at least Jin Chen has different mimics/micro expressions for different emotions…
Her lips look clearly done by some sort of plastic surgery procedure and that she lost so much weight makes it appear too obvious. It will be something she has to deal with because any more tinkering would do her in.
I think you need to add the number of raters too, 64k+ so far which is low for a top idol actor and big IP. For comparison, Legend of Zang Hai opened with 300k+ raters. FoMH opened with 120k+ raters.
I don’t understand what people mean by YY being aware of his beauty. Or the term being oily? Maybe people just don’t like his acting and it’s fine to say that. Anyway I really enjoy the drama but maybe I like this type of anime and donghua. FL is funny and is fine and I prefer that to Ms Mo who has a depressed face and is always crying 🙁
This makes me so happy. So happy so happy for Yang Yang!
I personally fairly enjoyed it despite some issues, like choppy editing. I think these type of more reserved characters are within YY’s comfort zone, and he does well in them. His dance background is great for
martial arts/wire work. If they make a second season I hope they can improve on casting. I don’t think Jin Chen matches the role, and she doesn’t land the comedic parts well. Also, some of those side villains, like Wang Chan’s aunt was so bad. With the vast amount of people in China, I know they can find better actors for even a minor character like that.
No way, i’ve never seen the actress in anything else before and already i’m planning on looking up her other work. She’s great!
Am watching this. So happy there is 0 romance, very little political intrigue and the special effect are fantastic. I have no issue with the 1st FL. she is supposed to be 300 years old and Han Li is supposed to be very young when he started. I thought 1st FL was so pretty, classy and elegant. I like her. I don’t get the criticism. I just feel Yang Yang himself is weird; he’s wooden mostly, unemotive. Which suits his character but at times i wonder what he’s feeling? I don’t know. Character supposed to be a plain unremarkable looking man. He’s a miscast at that but as a would be immortal he’s handsome and his fighting scenes are great. I really love the CGI animals, puppets and styling. What I feel lacking is FL hardly had any screen time or scenes but I get this is Han Li’s show. I like that. I’m sick of female centric series or about palace or brotherhood. This is just 1 man cultivating. I enjoyed his thought process and gardening. A very rare type of series. Even the villain had comedic moments. I hope there’s a sequel.