Profile:
Drama: Love Between Fairy and Devil / Cang Lan Jue (苍兰诀)
Country: China
Episodes: 36
Aired: Aug 7, 2022 – Aug 29, 2022
Aired On: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday
Original Network: iQiyi
Duration: 45 min.
Plot:
A fairy from a rival tribe unknowingly sets free the devil lord from the Moon tribe imprisoned for 30,000 years and swaps bodies with him. She ends up putting a curse on him where he can feel every thing she feels emotionally and physically. Devil Lord needs to keep her close and find a way to release the curse, but what happens when they end up falling in love?
Main Cast
Dylan Wang – Dong Fang Qin Cang
Esther Yu – Orchid/Xian Lan Hua/Goddess
Zhang Ling He – Lord Changheng/Xiao Run
Xu Hai Qiao – Lord Rong Hao
Cristy Guo – Chidi Woman
Charles Lin – Shang Que
Hong Xiao – Jie Li
Wang Yue Yi – Fairy Danyin
Zhang Chen Xiao – Xunfeng
Review:
I’ve never watched a xianxia- I always thought they looked fake and I’m not really into immortals and fairies. But I saw that this drama has Didi and Esther as the main leads so I thought I should check this out! And boy, I’m so glad I did! This drama totally surpassed my expectations!! I was just looking for a light cutesy romcom drama but I ended up having so much more.
Gorgeous visuals. How much did they spend for the CGI because every scene was so beautiful! The Arbiter Hall, The Moon Palace, the Memory Loss River, the Immortals Realm, etc. Even that scene where Changheng went inside the painting with Rong Hao was so good.
Beautiful costumes. Orchid was always wearing beautiful flowy dresses and her hair accessories are so pretty. DFCQ’s costumes are also splendid, so are Lord Changheng and Ronghao’s costumes. Their wedding costumes in Lucheng were also so gorgeous. The only cringy items are their acrylic looking or gold looking hairpieces that look cheap.
Grand display of power. I loved it every time DFQC used his blue Hellfire – it didn’t look fake and you really feel that he’s the most powerful being in the realm. Even the glazed fire was so shocking. Also everytime DFQC shows up in the earlier episodes to rescue Orchid was wonderfully done. The Goddess of Xilan, when she finally showed her powers to rescue DFQC in one scene, and to stop the battle between the Immortals and Moon Tribe was awesome.
Romantic Comedy. In the first half, Orchid was cute and adorable while DFQC was the unsmiling jerk. There were several light and funny scenes, like when DFQC had to count flowers, laugh and cry while Orchid was laughing and crying. The body swap scenes where Orchid in DFQC’s body was forcibly trying to kiss DFQC in Orchid’s body to swap bodies.
Eternal Love. By episode 20, Orchid and DFQC are still not together, but not because they don’t like each other, but because of their current situation. DFQC’s mission is to kill everyone in Shuyuantian to avenge the wrong treatment of Orchid and to restore the Moon Tribe like he promised his father and his tribe. Orchid is from Shuyuantian and even though she loves DFQC, she doesn’t want him to start a war and kill her hometown. The angst. Omg! I was crying whenever they had to argue about this. And that scene where DFQC put the bone crushing thing inside his body which causes him pain every midnight until he is able to release the frozen Moon Tribe and Orchid’s helplessness in the situation.
The argument scene when Orchid wants to take the 3 day punishment in DFQC’s place to show the people that she deserves to be the Moon Queen, and DFQC pretending to drink the tea and secretly vomiting it so that he feels the same pain as Orchid. I was bawling like crazy!! I’ve never watched a drama where the main leads were really fighting for each other and willing to sacrifice their lives.
When Orchid learns of her true identity and tries to pretend she doesn’t remember DFQC but makes a mistake of doing the Smile gesture that gave away the truth, and DFQC kissing her like there’s no tomorrow.
Ugh!! I still can’t move on from the final episode where **BIG SPOILERS AHEAD** DFCQ sacrificed himself. Such a significant character growths for both the main leads. Of course, I wasn’t too bothered with the sacrifice. They are immortals, so I thought they can just come back / reincarnate or whatever. DFCQ carefully planting and taking care of Orchid’s seed and Orchid taking care of DFQC’s moon spirit until he comes back (after 500 years but that’s fast considering they’ve lived for more than 30,000 years).
Noble Second Male Lead. Lord Changheng was so nice, I wouldn’t have minded Orchid being with Changheng without DFQC. Changheng also had a sad fate. He is engaged to the goddess that he has never seen, falls in love with Orchid, and hiding his feelings for her because he is engaged to the goddess, not knowing that they are the same person!! When he finally founds out the truth, Orchid has already fallen in love with DFQC. Later when Orchid is the Goddess and wants to pushthrough with their wedding even if Changheng knows she doesn’t love him. Aw poor boy can’t catch a break. And his best friend Rong Hao betrays him and everyone in Shuyuantian.
Wonderful Bromance. DFCQ and the loyal Shang Que. DFQC and the mortal Xiao Run which later became a bond with Lord Changheng. Lord Changheng and Ronghao (tragic but still a good bromance). DFQC and Xunfeng.
Rich Side Stories. There were so many other stories aside from the main leads’ story, which extended the episodes into 36. We have the love story between Shang Que and Jie Li, which I honestly do not approve of. I think Shang Que deserves a better girl than Jie Li, although I also like Jie Li’s dilemma of following Haishi or protecting her friends.
The Lu Cheng episodes where the immortals all went down to the mortal realm were a huge treat. Chidi Woman and Orchid’s friendship. Chidi Woman’s crush on DFQC. I think the poem came true, that Chidi was supposed to meet DFQC that night, get married and was killed by DFQC. She wasn’t meant to be with Changheng like they all think. I think Chidi woman had the saddest story of all the characters (Changheng comes second).
Changheng and Danyin’s friendship. I was hoping they end up together but I guess they are really just friends. Plus Li Yuan’s big reveal about Danyin being a half Moon Tribe (which she never knows) and finding out Danyin and Jieli are sisters (they look so different from each other though – aren’t they supposed to be twins or something).
Evil Bad Guys. Show’s not complete without the villains. For the most part, the villain is Rong Hua/Lord of Haishi City who has been wreaking havoc across the realms to reincarnate his beloved mentor Chidi woman. I liked in the first half because although he is bad, you can sympathize with him and his mission of wanting to bring back his beloved at all costs. But I think what he did in the latter half was too much and the last episode spent a lot of time on him and Chidi woman was unnecessary. We want less Rong Hao, more Orchid/DFQC scenes and he just took most of the time away from the could have been a very happy ending.
I also think Lord Yunzhong is a big annoying immortal who keeps abusing his power and blaming every mistake to Changheng or Orchid.
There’s an even bigger baddie in Tai Sui which serves as the climax of the drama.
Of course, there’s no perfect drama and LBFD also suffered slightly from this. i already mentioned what I didn’t like – Shang Que and Danyin, too much screentime for Rong Hao in the last episode (we didn’t need to know his background story and we don’t really care). The last scene could have been extended for maybe 10 more minutes so we could have seen Orchid and DFQC happy and possibly with kids in the future. We didn’t get the best ending but I’ll just go back to that previous episode when they DFQC was in a dream that he and Orchid were happy and pretend like that’s the real ending.
This is showing in Netflix today so please do not miss this wonderful drama!
Rating: 9/10
KDrama Dreaming 
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