Rants and Weekly Raves (RAWR) #480

Anne: Hello Drama Lovers, it has been quite a few weeks since I've written. And it is all due to work and the craziness that is surrounding my life. Have anyone ever been in a competition with your co-workers at work for a position? It wouldn't be so bad if one of the competitors is someone whom I cannot stand. I'm making contingency plans while also figuring out how to make my application and myself stand out among the others. Sigh... I really am not looking forward to this process when it starts. 

Now, enough of my problems. In the middle of the whirlwind that is my life, I did manage to catch a new drama that I was actually waiting for since last year, when I saw it was "upcoming" in the list.

The Demon Hunter's Romance

 

So... we all know why I clicked on this show... the ML is played by Allen Ren! It has all the elements of my genre. Fantasy with crime solving. 

The story centers around Ban Xia, the daughter of a fairly wealthy family that was "sent away" to be cured because of her "hallucinations". In reality, she has the ability to see the demons who hide among the human population. She carries around some sort of "scent" that helps to prevent her from seeing these demons in their natural forms. 

Around the day that she returns home, Xuan Ye, a demon hunter is eating a lot of bowls of noodles at a food stall. (BTW, every time I see people eating bowls of noodles, I really want one too.) He's there trying to catch a demon who steals people's voices. Following close on his heels is an investigator from his original home town, who thinks that he's the murder who annihilated his entire family and their servants. He has a side kick, a rabbit demon, named Chi Xue, who sometimes causes more trouble than anything else, despite him thinking that he is helping.

During Ban Xia's brother's wedding, she sees a strange shadow of her new sister-in-law, a shadow that showed her with wings. Her unusual reaction, showing obvious fear and avoiding looking at the bride, caught the eye of Xuan Ye, who was perched on the roof, watching the entire procession. In the wedding night, Ban Xia trying to confirm or deny what she saw earlier in the morning, snuck into her brother's courtyard. (Truthfully, I'm not even sure why. She is such a scare little girl, that even if she sees her sister-in-law transform, I'm not so sure what she would do.) While she is keeping an eye on the wedding chamber, so is Xuan Ye, who then shot an arrow into the wedding chamber.

The next day, Xuan Ye sneaks into Ban Xia's room in an ill-advised attempt to get her brother to meet him so he can expose the true nature of his new wife. And we know how well that will go. A strange man who just shot an arrow at your sister-in-law last night, appearing in your room, speaking about demons and such. Of course she ran out screaming that last night's assassin was in her room.

And that is how the story started. 

I wasn't a big fan of Ban Xia's character. Her timidness really rubs me the wrong way. But I gave her character some slack since that is how the character is setup. I am glad to see that she did grow a spine a few episodes later and followed Xuan Ye all the way back to his home town and rented a house right across the street. In both their own ways, they are doubted by everyone around them, but not each other. There is probably also a back story that connects the ML and FL, and how he is her reason to being able to see the demons despite their disguises.

The crime solving part is, so far, a bit lack luster, but it is dealing with the supernatural, so that is a bit interesting. So far, I'm enjoying the show. Ban Xia's character is also getting a bit better so I'm not so annoyed with her all the time. Of course, Xuan Ye is a delight to watch. Crossing my fingers that it gets more interesting as the days go by.

A Moment but Forever

I know this one isn't exactly super new, but I only started to watch this in the last week. All the episodes are released so I can binge this while I'm working on my little tiny block houses. Liu Xue Yi was the ML in one of my favorite drama's in 2024, In Blossom. And he always look really good in costume.

This is fantasy with a bit of a twist. The twist isn't about the plot. It starts with a fairly common plot with the heavenly realm searching for something that has fallen to the mortal realm. The person who was lucky enough to have acquired this heavenly weapon was a young mortal named Yuan Zhong. Because of his contribution in the last battle between the mortals and the demons, he is bestow the title as the High Priest of Youhu, a mortal cultivation clan who apparently is so powerful that other "regular" mortal clans send tributes of women to serve as servants in hopes of...what? Somehow getting accepted in a way that they can learn the cultivation ways? (This was one of the things that I did not understand. Is there no selection to be able to join? And if there isn't, how are the other cultivators get into this clan? Of course, I'm only on episode 3, so maybe this will be explained later.)

In order to retrieve the left hand of god, which incidentally is an actual weapon that was crafted and not the actual "hand", the goddess Wu Shuang pretends to be one of the female tributes. And she arrives in a horse-less carriage, with a strong Steam Punk vibe. Wu Shuang is the maker of the "hand". She knows that she will need to kill Yuan Zhong in order to retrieve the "hand", and she is determined to complete the mission as she has heard the many evil deeds committed by Yuan Zhong. 

It doesn't take long to realize that Yuan Zhong, despite his title in the clan, isn't really treated as expected. In fact, he is more of a prisoner in the clan, than its high priest, and he has a golden lock around his neck that resembles the "restraints" on the female tributes' wrists. As she is taken by Yuan Zhong as his personal servant, she realizes that he lives a very lonely life, with no one else around him.

As Wu Shuang starts to question the cultivators, trying to figure out the many things that don't connect in the clan, she comes to realize that the clan's elders put him in a lock in order to prevent him from one day taking revenge. Yuan Zhong doesn't realize that the clan, in order to find someone who can use the "hand", had caused the death of a lot of kids. When the children's parents demanded them back, the clan's elders murder all their parents, including Yuan Zhong's. 

I really like the discovery of all the secret in the clan, and how things are not always what they seem. I liked the "telephone" calls she makes to the heavenly gods, as her mission is important to "wake up" Taihe. I really like the Steam Punk mix into the fantasy world. I like the mix of the actual crafting/making of tools in the magical realm. 

I've only just started, so I'm looking towards to seeing where this goes.

And this is for this week. 

BTW, has anyone taken a look at Crushology 101? If anyone has seen this, let me know. I took a quick look. Is her 1st boyfriend really that hideous? Yes, I understand he can't stand up to Lee Chae Min or Cho Jun Young, but seems a bit much to call him ugly. Anyway...seems like a romantic comedy, so let's see.

Have a great week, or next two weeks...everyone! Hope we all find something fun to watch in the meantime.