The series came under the radar upon finishing Prisoner of Beauty, as the female lead for both series is Song Zu Er. Although not a big fan of Ren Jia Lun (the male lead), we gave this a try and the storyline is indeed quite interesting. In total 36 episodes, the series follow the demon hunter Xuan Ye and the adventures he went through upon meeting with Ban Xia. Ban Xia has “third eyes”, whereby she is able to see demons. Reluctant and under the encouragement from her family, she tries to hide the ability by taking calming incense & pretending she does not see the “demons”. However, upon returning home to attend her cousin’s wedding, she is thrust into a dilemma as she realises the bride is an owl demon in disguise. When she meets Xuan Ye the demon hunter, she is wary but curious to know more about the demons that she has been avoiding all the while.
Synopsis
The young couple commences various adventures as they get to know each other, while investigating on uncanny encounters with human and demons alike:
- When Ban Xia’s cousin insists to marry a puppeteer, she is actually an owl demon who has been killing his victims for their voices. Xuan Ye helps Ban Xia to face the demons voluntarily and accepts her ability to see demon. Although the owl demon is killed, Ban Xia’s cousin refuses still to accept and runs off to clear his mind.
- When Ban Xia’s father dies unexpectedly in a fire, she suspects foul play. Convinced that her father is still alive, she begs for Xuan Ye’s assistance to investigate. Following the lead of a mirror that doesn’t reflect, they are linked with a demon that offers eternal youth through a pear. As more people died unexpectedly and in a mummified state all shrivelled, they found the link to a beautiful dancer at an entertainment house. It does seem that she is the control of the demon, as she craves for youth and continues to rely on the demon to maintain her beauty. To complicate matters, the dancer is in love with a scholar and hoping to run away with him. However, the surface can sometimes be misleading. When the demon finds out, he murders the scholar and tries to convince the dancer of his devotion. However, she is adamant to destroy the demon, only to find fragments of her memories of many lifetimes with the youthful pear demon of which she always betray to be with another human being.
- Subsequent clues lead to the revelation of the existence of a cat demon with 9 lives, which can “die” on behalf of victims. Following the clues of the demon cat, they are drawn to a deserted forest with a rest house managed by an ex-soldier General Feng Tian. The servants in the rest house seem to be strange while Wu Niang, General Feng Tian’s adopted daughter is eager for all guests to stay longer. When Ban Xia finds her cousin also entrapped in the rest house, they face off with the owners. The big surprise is Wu Niang is an entranced demon that obtained awareness from a wooden puppet carved by General Feng Tian during his service at the border.
- With the clues from the 9-life cat, they are drawn towards the Ghost Town whereby they are sucked into a painting in a bookstore. A demon who painted the drawings is eager to make it as real as possible by drawing real human beings into the paintings. The human loses their own memory and experiences the same day over and over again, as both Ban Xia and Xuan Ye encountered. Xuan Ye recovered his memory and tried his best to awaken Ban Xia. The two subsequently reunites with Ban Xia’s parents who have been imprisoned in the painting even longer.
- With her parents’ rescue, they returned to the city only to encounter another case of a snake demon helping a maid to escape her abusive husband. Xuan Ye gives the snake demon a second chance as he understands the intent of the snake demon is good.
- At the same time, a wolf demon seems to be searching for Xuan Ye, exchanging body with him at certain times. As Xuan Ye explores and investigates the wolf demon, he is fearful of finding the truth. When the tattoos on his wrist fades, he finds himself turning into a demon. Investigating his own background, he is actually the 2nd son of the wolf demon king in a parallel world who is accidentally left in the Ghost City from the opening of the portal that connects both worlds (which happens every 12 years). His adoptive father seals the demon soul with the tattoos for him and teaches him all the skills to be a demon hunter. A little ironic. It is also the reason when his adoptive family is wiped out by demons a few years back, he is able to survive as he is not human.
- In a dilemma, he distances himself from Ban Xia whom he has fallen in love with. While he explores with Lord Xin An from the Ghost City, he is totally unaware of the villainous lord who intends to turn himself into a demon by sacrificing more demons.
- Xuan Ye finally unmasks Lord Xin An’s intention and saved both Ghost City and the demon parallel world. During the critical time, he almost loses Ban Xia. In order to keep her alive, he turns on the reversal of time by ensuring Ban Xia’s safety. In their 2nd chance in life, their path did not cross as Ban Xia lives a happy life without the ability to see the demons. However, when they finally cross path, it triggers her memory. The ending shows Xuan Ye returning to the parallel world with Ban Xia looking forlornly from afar.
Life Lessons
The series is actually quite fast-moving, and hardly you will feel a lag as the stories are diverse and keeps you on the toes. Each of the encounter with demons bring forth some life lessons too. One distinct story that I really like relates to the youthful pear demon, Wang Chuan and the dancer, Ji Li. At the beginning & on the surface, it does seem like the demon Wang Chuan is controlling Ji Li’s actions and her need of maintaining her beauty & youth. But as the story unfolds, Wang Chuan is totally devoted to Ji Li, staying on even after her many betrayals. There are so many ways to interpret their convoluted relationship. One perspective is Wang Chuan’s action encourages & assisted Ji Li’s spiralling into her conflicting feelings – the desire to be young & beautiful, the need for an innocent love (how does that work as all her partners are young & good-looking scholars), the guilt of killing others to maintain her youth, her disgust of her own need to take the pear & her love-hate relationship with Wang Chuan. Another perspective is how manipulative Ji Li is to totally wrap Wang Chuan under her fingers to be devoted to her and take all the betrayals over the years – the innocence portrayed to get the sympathy from Wang Chuan. Ji Li gives the excuse that her resentment grows due to Wang Chuan’s enablement, whereby he separates her memories. But precisely because she is unhappy that he tries this way, really emphasising how ungrateful she is.
I also feel that Wang Chuan plays a role in their love-hate relationship, but who is the bigger villain – it really depends on your own interpretation. Personally, I find Wang Chuan a simple demon. A lovesick demon, totally devoted to his lover, trying to protect her in his own way. What turns me off from Ji Li is her selfishness & lack of self awareness. She is greedy as she wants the youth and the love. And frankly, I doubt it makes any difference to her whether the love is from Wang Chuan or any other human. And likelihood is she will never be satisfied or grateful. Another big surprise, Wang Chuan is portrayed by Hong Kong actor Carlos Chan! I actually could not recognise him until I saw the list of actors in the series. I have to say, he is good and obviously manage to get my sympathy in this role.
On a deeper note, the stories herewith does seem a bit cliche and paints a slightly worse view of women. One example as above. Another is the maid who uses the snake demon to escape her violently abusive husband. In my view, it would have been better to provide the different perspectives and leave the judgment to the individual viewers.
Another distinct feature of the series is it brings a touch of old Hong Kong-style TVB. The method the story is told especially in blocks of stories – linked by also quite independent on its own, is actually reminiscence of older 90s classic stories from TVB eg Justice Bao series, Pillow Case of Mystery. Such story-telling is actually interesting & never fails to capture attention of viewers.
There are other characters including Chu You Huang, the constable who became Xuan Ye’s good friend over time and his love interest in his superior Sima Ling Ying.
The series ending left much to be desired. The ending is messy, sad and totally not necessary. As Xuan Ye wants to protect Ban Xia, he reverses time to give them a second chance in life’s choices. In the 2nd lifetime, their path never crosses and Ban Xia lives a happy, independent life with her parents. Many of the original encounters are reversed with some changes along the way. However, when she recalls their previous lifetime, she chooses to let him go (rather in a blurred, confused way). Xuan Ye leaves to stay in his parallel world to be the successor while Ban Xia sees him leave from afar in a forlorn figure. In the past, I am a fan of sad tragic ending. But we age, it really feels so unnecessary. There are so many ways to find a solution. Xuan Ye basically made a unilateral decision to end things for a “better” life for Ban Xia, no communication. Ban Xia, not in her normal determined personality, chooses to let go quietly rather easily.
Conclusion : 7/10
Watch the series for the subplots and storylines. And maybe to contemplate life’s lessons if you are in a reflective mood. The love story is a little over-rated as the chemistry is just lacking. Compared with Prisoner of Beauty (it is hard not to compare as both series came out almost the same timing with the same female lead), this series really lack the oomph for a lovey dovey feel.
Cheng's Musings 