Tell the other male leads to go home because Yu Sifeng is now the most devoted, most dedicated, most sacrificing, bestest male lead ever in all the dramas I have watched ?
Love and Redemption Review (NO SPOILERS)
I hadn’t planned on watching this series at all, but Legend of Fei (2020) was on a break on WeTV, I had already watched all the available episodes, and the newer episodes wouldn’t be dropping for a few days. I was scouring Netflix for something to watch, but I was running out of K-drama, too, when Netflix suddenly asked if I wanted to do Shuffle mode. Yeah, sure, why not.
And Love and Redemption was what Netflix started playing. The first scene was a celestial battle that showed the demons invading heaven. Interesting. In typical C-drama fashion, the battles are not very gory and reminded me a little of Lord of the Rings. Since I had nothing else to watch, I continued on.
Plot Summary:
There are 3 realms – the heavenly realm, the mortal realm, and the demon realm.
1,000 years ago, there was a war between the demon asuras and the gods of heaven. The demons had a great general called Mosha Star, who was defeated by the heaven’s new War God. War God then proceeded to defeat all the remaining demons as ordered. Mosha Star’s soul was sealed in a Stellar Soul Lamp.
Through broken flashbacks, we see the War God, chained and angry at heaven for something heaven did, and vowing vengeance. War God was sentenced to undergo 10 tribulations (10 lifetimes as a mortal) to ease the resentment War God harbored. If the resentment is eased, War God can return to heaven as a deity.
1,000 years later (current time of the series), the stars have aligned, and the leader of the remaining demons wants to revive Mosha Star by unsealing the Stellar Soul Lamp.
Note: the demons depicted here are not how you think of demons/devils as portrayed in Western shows. The demons here are usually just beings who are not human.
Chu Xuanji was born without the 6 senses – she can’t perceive color, taste, smell, melody, temperature, feelings, and is a lazy cultivator of the Shaoyang Sect who has not mastered the skills she is expected to already know at her age (16).
Yu Sifeng is a skilled disciple of the mysterious Lize Palace Sect who is favored to be their next leader.
Xuanji, Sifeng, together with Linglong (Xuanji’s twin sister) and Minyan (Xuanji’s childhood friend who is in love with Linglong) meet at the Flower Festival, where all the sects meet every 4 years to showcase their martial arts skills.
The four of them become friends and defeat monsters together. Things happen to them, they keep meeting more demons, they also make new friends, they are sometimes manipulated by the bad guy for his own selfish reasons. They go through so much, I can’t even!
Finally, the mystery is slowly revealed and they find out what really happened 1,000 years ago. Can love overcome 1,000 years of resentment & anger?
The screenshots I posted are from the first part of the series. A lot more happens, with more battles, but I don’t want to spoil anything 🙂
Review:
Watching the first few episodes, we found ourselves laughing at the “magic” the characters did. The characters were “cultivators” – mortal people who trained themselves to eventually reach godhood. Since they trained themselves, they have abilities – cultivators can fly, send magic email, do spells, and even materialize things from inventory (like in an MMORPG). The first few scenes where they were “flying” were a bit laughable because it looked like they were on hoverboards or something. Just ignore it and continue. Eventually, the effects got better 🙂
However, as the story unfolded, I found myself invested in the characters, especially the male lead, Yu Sifeng. He started out aloof, but falls in love with Chu Xuanji (female lead), but keeps it all inside and keeps all his suffering inside because of differences, and also to protect her, even though she doesn’t love him back, and that’s only the first part!
Of course, there are the usual “misunderstandings”, as well as arrogant leaders, relatives and a meddlesome god that cause our couple to stay apart.
Watching other shows, I was never that affected enough to want to throw things at the TV, but I really hated the kapalmuks (thick face) of the bad god and arrogant, manipulative sect leaders that I really wanted to throw something at them! I didn’t, of course, but I really wanted to! ?
Towards the end, you realize the monumental epic-ness of his sacrifice for Chu Xuanji. The actor who played Yu Sifeng was the backbone of this series. Every time his tears fell, you feel all the heartbreak and pain with him. His acting was excellent! I’ve lost count of how many times he vomited blood because his character always used himself as a shield to protect Chu Xuanji and received all the injuries & suffering.
Once you learn everything, you’ll WANT him to have a happy ending, because you know he has totally earned it it after everything he willingly put himself through.
After watching Love and Redemption, I can’t even bring myself to start another series yet because nothing else can compare. Modern romance dramas seem shallow now in comparison to the lifetimes of devotion in Love and Redemption.
Love and Redemption is 59 episodes long (around 40 minutes per episode), but I never felt that it dragged.
The songs are also memorable. I found myself humming them while cooking without even realizing that I already know the melodies by heart! ? Some of the songs are on Spotify (but not complete. Just search for Love and Redemption OST).
Promise! I’m not a C-drama fan but this series is really something else. Talbog mga favorite K-drama ko in terms of story!
Have you seen Love and Redemption? What did you think about it? 🙂
