#shadow love

The cdrama Shadow Love/与晋长安 (starring Cheng Lei and Song Yi) is something of a guilty pleasure of mine - it is not by any measure of quality good, but I did find it wildly entertaining (draggy middle aside), and all the enemy-to-lovers identity hijinks hit me right in the id. So when I discovered they also made a mini/vertical drama adaptation I went and checked it out!

Hilariously, this may be the rare case where the mini adaptation is actually significantly less trashy and gonzos than the full length drama adaptation?? The ML in the mini doesn't get punched out of his armor and clothes and into a pool of blood! I don't think he fully loses his shirt even once!! There's also no Empress Dowager/Sorcerer Henchman with the weird BDSMy vibes, no sensually shot blood-drinking scenes, and no ML chaining the FL up in a dungeon!

Otoh, this mini drama is much more faithful to the source novel (it follows the book plot pretty closely), and there are much more and better kisses/makeouts than the full length drama. I'm just very amused that the proper cdrama adaptation with the much bigger budget and more well known lead actors is the one that decided to let their freak flag fly.

I don’t have any 10/10 ratings for him yet.

Legend of the Female General 9.5 Love his commanding presence, my favorite romance of his, great chemistry and love confessions. The annoying villains took down the rating.

The First Jasmine 9.0 How Dare You!? 9.0 I really enjoyed both of these dramas. Well-told stories with some flaws. I was slightly more satisfied with the ending of HDY but I liked CL’s character better in TFJ. Also, I think HDY is the only CL drama without a bath scene. lol

Shadow Love 8.5 This is ridiculous but CL gets to do it all: stoic commander, amnesiac puppy lover boy, sexy vampiric masked superhero with a rock’n’roll theme song and melodramatic shirtless costume changes. 

I got 9 episodes into My Journey to You a few years back. I liked it but it was a little darker and slower than I wanted at the time. I will pick it back up again when I’m in the mood.