EPISODE 1 RECAP
Miaomiao (Esther Yu) is a regular city girl who works for a busy company. She’s also a big fan of fantasy books. On a Saturday, she is listening to an audiobook when her boss calls and asks her to summon everyone for a meeting at the company.
But Miaomiao is not easy to bully, mind you. She protests this kind of unreasonable request by showing up but listening to her audiobook still when the meeting is held. This catches her boss’ attention and lands her more work for the weekend.
When she goes home, she continues to work on her project, but the book she was following distracts her and she goes back to it.
Miaomiao listens to the end. I don’t know what’s going on in this novel but when it ends, Miaomiao does something awesome: writing a review blasting the novel as a cheesy romance disguised as a fantasy. Well, don’t we all want to do that with TV shows and books nowadays? If your novel is a romance, just say so, people. Don’t try to sell it as an epic fantasy.
But as she is about to post the rage-review, her computer glitches and she gets sucked into the screen. Oooooh.
Miaomiao is dropped into a wedding night chamber that is obviously not in the modern world. She herself is in period clothing and called “Lady” by a maid.
An AI voice tells Miaomiao that she has entered a game world. She must now complete the in-game missions in order to return to the real world. Does this happen to everyone who leaves a negative review on this book?
After several failed attempts to escape, Miaomiao decides to stay and get it over with.
The groom — Liu Fuyi — comes in and asks to proceed with the wedding night. It turns out: this wedding is a plan to catch a demon; and they need to act like a real couple to lure this demon out.
He’s very polite and soft-spoken, at least on the outside.
A demon in a mirror interrupts them, but he takes care of her in a jiff. Together Fuyi and Miaomiao run to rescue a woman named Mu Yao, who turns out to be perfectly capable of rescuing herself.
Then, they all get dragged into the mirror dimension by the demon. This demon holds Miaomiao hostage and explains why she’s evil: her dad left her mom for another woman, so there you go, she became a demon to punish all men. I mean… being evil for the fun of it is a good character justification too. It doesn’t need to be the exact same “tragic” backstory every time.
Just when Miaomiao is about to be stuck with a bunch of floating needles like Ebony Maw did to Dr. Strange, a fireball shoots down from somewhere in space and slams at them and a man appears. I’m not sure if this is supposed to be a serious or funny moment but I can’t take this guy seriously after that entrance.
There’s only one person who has ever managed to make this nerdy stuff look cool and that’s the Monkey King. Everybody else… just… just don’t, OK?
Anyway, this man defeats the demon and brings them all back to the regular world in the game.
Wait, who’s the male lead here? Don’t tell me it’s Fireball Guy. I prefer Liu Fuyi.
Oh no, it is. Fireball and Miaomiao are destined to marry in this story. It’s also written in the novel that he’s going to abuse her. Girl, go back and marry the Liu guy, there’s still time, and you have the decoration up already.
Later on, Miaomiao runs into Fireball again in the garden. He interrogates her about how she knew Mu Yao was in danger. Mu Yao is his sister, you see.
Fireball starts to get close to Miaomiao and intimidates her.
Erm, why are you letting him do these things to you? Banter is one thing, but this kind of physical contact is… not exactly appealing. Is it supposed to be creepy? I don’t know, just yell for your fake husband or any guard or maid on duty or something? Or just channel your 21st Girl’s energy and try to punch him at least.
The next day, Miaomiao’s father in this story comes to visit her. He almost gets hit by a carriage, which is how her real-life father died. Miaomiao is scared to death then overwhelmed with emotion and runs to meet him. Hmm, very interesting. This relationship is something to look forward to.
COMMENTS
This is not my favorite kind of show. But if you like time-travelling or just a light-hearted plot with a bubbly protagonist and a standard arrogant male lead, you’ll likely have fun with this one.
Esther Yu is not doing anything extraordinary here, but she’s not ruining anything, either. If you like her together with Ding Yuxi, that’s even better because it seems they ARE the lead couple. *Scratches my initial ship in disappointment*. I unfortunately see very little chemistry between them, not because I root for the other male character, but more because of Ding Yuxi’s performance.
In the few things that I have seen him in, Ding Yuxi’s acting is usually not on par with his female co-stars (except for the case of Love You Seven Times, of course, where it’s like a contest to see who could be worse). That seems to also be the case here. His screen presence is not particularly strong and as always, I see a very camera-conscious actor trying hard to smirk and swag and frown, but still does not truly embody the character. Not that there’s much to embody; this character is quite basic and standard in fantasy. The way the story hypes him up is not helping, either. If someone shoots down from the sky, has a strong bond with his sister, and is said to be a reputable demon catcher, you naturally expect a more commanding presence than what you see.
Now, my opinion of Ding Yuxi may be an unpopular one because so far, I haven’t seen that many criticisms towards him for this particular drama yet. Maybe I need to watch more than five episodes to make up my mind? Maybe that’s just how his character is and I’m not supposed to expect anything more impactful? Anyway, I don’t see a ship sailing, a heart-conquering hero, or a compelling mystery yet.