Xianxia C-drama When Destiny Brings the Demon with Chen Fei Yu and Wang Ying Lu Gets Low Opening Douban Ratings of 5.5
It’s only midway through the airing of When Destiny Brings the Demon but the opening Douban ratings are already out, indicating a lot of voters which makes sense for it being adapted from a popular novel. It got a low 5.5 which is more par for the course with dramas of this genre, to compare with other recent less than stellar xianxia C-dramas – Feud sits at 6.0, Moonlight Mystique at 5.8, Love Never Fails at 5.3, and Love in Pavilion at 6.3. The ones to do better are The Blossoming Love got 7.0, Love of the Divine Tree with 7.1, A Moment But Forever at 6.9, and The Immortal Ascension with 7.5. I don’t see a lot of buzz about When Destiny Brings the Demon so if anyone is watching and want to share the good/bad and whether it’s recommended to check out please do!
I’m up to ep 13. I’m liking it a lot more than expected. I can see why it got a low opening douban rating (though on par with the genre) and I can see it ending a smidge higher. The first few episodes felt cliche and cartoonish and doing the shallow, cliche Scary ML and Perky FL thing. The leads’ acting and visuals felt awkward at first. I wish we had stronger actors for this, but the leads have developed some great chemistry that may not have happened with another pair of actors.
The drama got better as the story and relationships unfolded. The drama is a lot darker, more compelling, and more poignant than expected. It actually becomes emotionally engaging. Only thing that really feels missing now are interesting supporting characters.
I haven’t read the novel and can understand the score since the novel was popular and the adaptation doesn’t meet expectations.
I actually quite liked it in the beginning. It flew by fast and the plot was consistent. Wang Ying Lu impressed me previously in I Am Nobody, and here she solidified her status as a bona fide actress. I am watching it primarily for her – Chen Fei Yu is also not bad, but his characterization is more restrained, so it’s harder to see transformation. Any issues with the drama is not due to either of their acting but the writing of the plot. Y’know the cliche villain that never dies? Yea, that happened here. Once the leads get together and finished the first dramatic arc, the drama should’ve ended there. There was no reason to drag the plot out just so the leads get the 3 lives scenario which got stale. I am still watching, though, because nothing else seems that interesting.
Drama is fun. I laughed at every modern terms the FL used, but I guess I’m easily amused.
Wished the drama does “more-showing-less-telling” tbh so some scenes are just characters spilling overload of info.
Except for the “honeymoon” period, I feel like the drama is well paced and I’m still invested in terms of what will happen.
I dropped it at maybe ep 16? Its so bland as in wooden acting and trite plot. The male lead can’t go charisma and doesn’t have the solid aged male presence. He is 500 years old. All I can see is her Botox lips. Its not bad as fluff goes however I have better use of my time.
I liked it enough but not to finish til the end.
What’s bad:
Production is sub-par, the director seems a bit sloppy with the project, nearly everyone is a villain, cheap aesthetics, script that could have been elevated but wasn’t
What’s good:
OTP loveline is refreshingly low stress, snake and otter cgi are cuuute, some surprisingly touching side stories
In summary:
This could have been of higher caliber but wasn’t. Watch if you like the leads and their chemistry (ep 5 or 6 onwards), play the villains’ parts on speed (they’re always just scheming)
Zombie boy’s lack of self-awareness during that live stream sure was something.
Is 5.5 really low by China standards? Will wait till drama ends and see what happens
Flop after flop this Summer.
I mean compared to Legend of the Female General this is a fairly faithful adaptation of the novel. They only got off track in the last few episodes (amensia arc) so as a novel fan I’m quite happy with it.
Amensia arc?? I hate amensia storyline…so annoying. I only just started watching this drama, I find 2 leads very lacking but still okay to watch.
Supporting cast are good for me. Except Ying Xiang, Chu Zhao’s maid. She is a extremely beautiful character, but actress chosen is so far from it. I was disappointed at that choice.
Still in early stage of this drama… my expectation is not raised, I am still enjoying it.
Novel reader here and I’m pretty happy with the front half of the drama which follows the novel closely. It’s refreshing to have an atypical FL that’s not just perky and naive, and can reason and evaluate based on what she sees (looking at you here ADWAD). They’ve added more side characters and more drama cliches and the usual villain plotting scenes to please the typical drama audience, but I feel these are the weak spots. Anyway, I feel the leads are well cast in terms of visuals and vibes, and am glad to see WYL again after I Am Nobody. She does comedy well.
Plot-wise, it’s a more interesting adaptation than other adapted xianxia IMO. Nonetheless, I dropped the drama cuz I now only have time for one or two dramas and have been distracted to more interesting Kdramas since. Perhaps, I’ll pick up the series again later on? This is the first drama of the FL that I watched. She can act, at least at a very solid level, nothing awkward. Heroine’s lines are funny too from time to time. Nothing bad standing out from Arthur Chen either. Some ppl are critical of his unflattering visuals in this drama. Welp, that’s subjective. I’m completely fine with his visuals although his styling isn’t impressive either.
The biggest issue I see in this drama is obviously cheap production quality, so obviously that the first few eps are like crappy comics in motion. All the settings and costume remind me of local Taiwanese operas once very popular in my granny’s generation. LOL. The cheesy production quality takes away much gravity from dark themes of the story.
Totally enjoying it. It should rise with the latest episodes the ratings.
Only 5 episodes in but really enjoying it. It was useful to have someone explain to me about “salted fish” and some of the cultural references, that explained the FL character more. Its only the beginning, but showing decent chemistry between the leads.
I’m enjoying it a lot. I like that it focuses more on romance. I’ve never seen a xianxia before with as many skinships as this one has. The FL always relating the xianxia world to her workplace is funny. ML has such a tragic background but is a great lover to the FL. The only dislike I have is that I’m not invested with the supporting characters, in fact, they can get annoying sometimes and the not so good editing of the drama. What’s important to me is the story and chemistry of the leads which this drama delivered.
who care about douban rating?
Chen Fei Yu and Wang Ying Lu won audience heart and they declare as the hottest CP right now
Heat index max on Youku according to MDL reach 9500+
anyway, without the rating, I am enjoy it when watching it
Wang Yinglu is so funny and Chen Feiyu look cool
Enjoying this too. Read the book and feels many scenes are brought to life and the chemistry between the leads are off the charts. Feel that there are alot of negative marketing/fan ward around. The Douban ratings was actually released less than a week after it starts airing on 22 August with only 9000+ reviews. So there are lots of fans who feels that rating is unfair. However the rating is lock for now so only time will tell if the rating will improve
I’ve rarely seen a couple have so much natural chemistry in a Cdrama as these two. Glad that the censorship bureau didn’t cut their intimate skinship scenes as it adds a whole lot more layers and texture to the drama.
Aside from the to die for main lead couple, the drama has a lot of boring scenes with its supporting characters and villains endless plotting, which not surprisingly leads to the low Douban rating. Fortunately I have my fast forward button to help with those. I’m mostly here for the romance and happily watching. And the OST is to die for as well.
The kids on mydramalist would lose their minds seeing the douban scores. They complain about shows getting literally 8+ ratings.
Up to episode 10 so, obviously, liking it enough to stay/continue with it. The snake and the otter are really cute. Also enjoying the frequent use/contrast of modern dialogue/thinking, which, often-times gets junked in these type of timeslip dramas.
Am enjoying the growing relationship between the slacker/otter and the lonely beast, their interactions are moving the relationship along ever so slowly but always look forward to them.
The tini-tiny grouch I have is to do with the main ml seeming omnipotent, can get people to tell him the truth as and when, conjure up all sorts, including life after death, albeit briefly. Just when you think someone has got him beat, voila, he brings out yet another skill/magic trick that you, well I, didn’t know he had to sort it. I guess that won’t continue, that he’ll bigger more challenging challenges in future episodes.