Love Between Fairy and Devil (2022)

Love Between Fairy and Devil is Fantasy Chinese Drama starring Yu Shu Xin and Dylan Wang.

It tells the story of a fairy named Xiao Lan Hua, who mistakenly frees Dong Fang Qing Cang, leader of the Moon Tribe, one of the most powerful and feared beings in existence, who had been imprisoned by the Gods of the Immortal Realm for thousands of years.

Because of some unknown magic unleashed during his release, their lives intertwine.

A xianxia (fantasy) in which the “evil” tribe were the protagonists instead of the gods? I was ready, but I was not certain what to expect.

However, it quickly became one of my favourite dramas of the season and, most importantly, the lead couple became the favourite of the year for many (although, for me, the spot is still reserved to Zhao Pan Er and Guan Fan in A Dream of Splendor).

My expectations were low before I started watching, and I debated dropping it during the first few episodes. The stone-faced male lead was putting me off, making me doubt the actor’s abilities. But as the story picked up, and the variety of emotions shown by both lead actors broadened, that’s when I regretted even thinking about giving it up. It did lose steam during the last four episodes, but the peak it reached right before that was fabulous.

Overall, I would rate it 8/10: the story was simple and pretty straightforward, with a small cast of characters, but allowing each character space to evolve.

Maybe I am being too generous, since it lacks the grandeur of other recent xianxia dramas, and the disappointing last few episodes did make me think about rating it lower; but I find that the tighter story (without much filler content) and the fantastic romance more than makes up for it.

Notable mention must be given to the secondary leads (Shang Que and Jie Li) relationship: something that I usually consider superfluous and not interesting, here was very compelling and their little interactions kept me glued to the screen.

Now let’s jump into the spoiler part of the review.

Characters

Xiao Lan Hua: cute and bubbly, she was just lovable. Made friends easily, loved everyone close to her, and majority of characters she interacted with liked her. The drawback of her character? She was the embodiment of damsel in distress. It was understandable, she believed herself weak. But even towards the finale, after discovering her real identity, she did not do much of anything. I was waiting for her to be come into her powers and defeat the villain…alas, it did not happen. Nevertheless, she did do something that became my favourite scene: her sacrificing herself during the battle between Gods and Moon Tribe.
Dong Fang Qing Cang: initially a stone-faced uber powerful leader of the Moon Tribe (which our female lead thought to be the “evil” Realm, in the beginning), he goes from being very controlled in his emotions, to a male protagonist loving his partner fiercely. I really liked him and thought his progression becoming more and more emotional to have been done very well. Personally, I found the actor to really shine in crying scenes.
Chang Heng: the least powerful God of War ever portrayed? From pretending to ignore Xiao Lan Hua while she crushed on him, to crying for her in the sidelines, he is our second male lead, which, for once, I did not prefer to the main male character. I liked him for his feeling towards the female lead, how he had loved her in secret for years, how he could not love her openly because of his duty to the Realm. And I pitied him for not being able to do anything else than watching her feelings for him change: from being her sole focus to being a friend. But I never rooted for him over Dong Fang Qing Cang.
Rong Hao: the apparent villain for majority of story. Presented as a member of the God Realm, best friend to Chang Heng, a darker side of his character is quickly revealed: driven by the desire of resurrecting his Master ( the goddess who sacrificed herself to imprison Dong Fang Qing Cang), he will stop at nothing to accomplish his goal. He was not the most interesting villain, but I enjoyed the reveal that everything he had done, he had done while tricked by the Evil God Tai Sui. If Tai Sui had not whispered in his ear all those years, dangling what Ron Hao wanted the most in front of him, would he still have committed all of his crimes?

The Romance

Chemistry, cuteness, plenty of moments showing their love evolve over time, the relationship between Dong Fang Qing Cang and Xiao Lan Hua ticked all the boxes of an addictive romance. Initially, it was amusing to watch Xiao Lan Hua trying to navigate what she thought were Dong Fang Qing Cang mood swings, from scaring her to seemingly confess his feelings for her (while he was instead vowing to protect her because the magic unleashed during his release from imprisonment had tied their livess together). Later on, when the story became more serious and their love for each other grew, their insurmountable differences (him wanting to destroy the Immortal Realm, where she had been living since she could remember) kept them from losing themselves fully in the relationship, and them struggling with this was very compelling to see.

Overall, I consider Xiao Lan Hua and Dong Fang Qing Cang romance to be what attracted me the most about this drama.

Final Episodes

The final four episodes: what made me lower my rating of Love Between Fairy and Devil, and almost made me regret having had my expectations raised.

Characters acting out of character

The first thing that definitely impacted the quality of these last episodes was characters acting in a way that would not have made sense if not to push the plot in a certain direction. To recap, at this point Xiao Lan Hua had given her life to stop the war between Gods and Moon Tribe, had been nurtured back to life by Dong Fang Qing Cang as a Goddess, and had been lying to Dong Fang Qing Cang, pretending not to remember her life as a fairy (because she wanted to sacrifice herself once again to defeat the Evil God Tai Sui).

Two scenes in particular felt weird to me:

Dong Fang Qing Cang talking aloud to himself, with the female lead standing nearby, explaining his reasonings for his bad behaviour towards her before her death. This felt very forced, the detailed explanation he gave, which would have being useless if the female lead had not been lying about her memories, here served to clear up their misunderstanding.

The second, and worse scene, when Dong Fang Qing Cang is saying his last goodbye to her, and Xiao Lan Hua goes to lift the corner of his mouth into a smile, like she used to (before allegedly losing her memories), thereby revealing her deception, and allowing the plot to steer in the direction of Dong Fang Qing Cang sacrificing himself to defeat Tai Sui, instead of her doing it. Why? Why had she had her moment of weakness now, after all the time she spent pretending? Because we cannot have a female lead beating the bad guy?

Final Battle

Nothing much to say other than how not exciting it was: possessed Dong Fang Qing Cang standing still up in the sky releasing cloudy poison, while all the Gods and fairies just stood around with arms in the same position shooting light beams at him.

And how confusing it got when Xiao Lan Hua reached Dong Fang Qing Cang. I rewatched this scene multiple times but I still could not understand what was going on: she finally uses her powers and she shoots it towards him, next an explosion, next they are kissing (? how did she get there?), next the kiss purified him from the evil (?), then he disappear and in his place a bone orchid (I think? in the shape of a half-moon) appears in his place. What was that.

The Final Scene

Xiao Lan Hua is looking at the bone orchid, turns around, turns around again, Dong Fang Qing Cang all of sudden is there, he says “I’m back” and smirks, kiss… the end.

I have no words.

I did not know what ending I was expecting, but it was not that. Could they not have shown us more? Just a longer scene, her telling him how much she missed him…anything?!

Scenes I loved

What I personally believe to be the peak of this drama: Xiao Lan Hua sacrificing herself to stop the war between Gods and Moon Tribe, Dong Fang Qing Cang anguish as her body fades away. It was beautiful, and I would have been satisfied (but sad) had that been the finale.
Shang Que and Jie Li final scene. Them still being together after all these years, acting like an old bickering married couple, and now looking out for a bunch of orphan kids.
Dong Fang Qing Cang vs Tai Sui. How the Evil God was trying to make the male lead feel a negative emotion, but he replied that Tai Sui was the one being afraid, afraid that people will not remember him; and Dong Fang Qing Cang never wavering until he felt a sliver of fear at the thought that Xiao Lan Hua may forget him, allowing Rai Sui to take control of his body.
Chang Heng realizing that Xiao Lan Hua was only willing to marry him to earn the power necessary to sacrifice herself to defeat the Evil God, ultimately trying to spare Dong Fang Qing Cang suffering from the pain of her dying; and Chang Heng’s reply to her after this realization: pointing out how inconsiderate she was being of his feelings, how could he help her kill herself? This scene made me very emotional, and really made me pity our second male lead.

To conclude, if you are not the person to be bothered by a kind of disappointing finale, and have been waiting to sink your teeth in a cute, at times heart-wrenching and chemistry filled romance, Love Between Fairy and Devil is for you.

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