On Netflix I tend to watch dark stories, but when an ad popped up for Love Game in Eastern Fantasy I assumed it would be more of the same. I was pleasantly surprised, there is demon hunting in the show, but it’s a wacky comedy with some romance in it. The show’s intriguing plotline moves along and has many funny moments, making it one of the lighter things I’ve watched in 2024. The main storyline is about Ling Miaomiao, a girl who is an obsessive reader of wuxia demon hunting novels and after she posts a bad review of the latest book from her favourite author, she is sucked into a videogame world based on the novel. To her horror, she discovers she isn’t the main character, but a secondary character who is a villain in the book with a terrible fate. The “system” gives her quests, similar to an RPG game and she must fulfill them or risk losing a chance to return to her real life. One quest is to make another secondary character fall in love with her which takes up a lot of episodes because the male lead/secondary character hates her guts. Before entering the game, Miaomiao is a bit of an otaku, so it’s funny to watch her try to charm a man and fail spectacularly most of the time!
The world-building assumes the audience is familiar with wuxia (ancient Chinese martial arts genre), cultivation and demon hunting. Since Miaomiao is a “modern” person in a game based in ancient China, she asks a lot of questions which helps the viewers understand what is happening. The female lead in the show is played by Esther Yu (Yu Shuxin, 虞书欣), a former girl group member (The9) and she is fantastic with her comedic timing along with dramatic scenes. One great scene has her failing a mission and she is killed over and over again until she figures out the solution. It is really funny because she is the only person who remembers dying while the other characters just “reset” in the video game.
The male lead is Ryan Ding (Ding Yuxi, 丁禹兮) and he is super impressive with his range in acting from nasty smothering stares directed at Miaomiao to becoming an innocent puppy in front of his older sister in a matter of seconds. He does most of the heavy lifting for fight scenes and he is swift and graceful. The Chinese gossip columns said the male lead was supposed to be Arthur Chen Feiyu ( 陈飞宇) but there was a scandal involving him and the President of his fan club so he was dropped from the role. Asian idols aim to have pristine reputations so they can gain sponsorship opportunities. Some companies and fans also demand the celibacy of their idols. Despite the glory and glamour, the entertainment industry is a tough business.
Admittedly the name of the show made me scratch my head. It’s based on a book called The Guide to Capturing a Black Lotus by Bai Yu Zhai Diao Gong so who the heck came up with the title of Love Game in Eastern Fantasy? The original title is better in my opinion because mentioning a “love game” tends to turn off a lot of people who don’t usually watch romance, like myself. Themes involve friendship, not giving up (or remaining in the game forever), recognizing the greyness in people and demons along with the fact that falling in love can be a struggle!
Overall, I have been recommending this drama to friends and waiting for the official Netflix episode releases so I have something to look forward to every week. Each episode is about 37 minutes and Netflix drops happen every few days. The show has very high production quality with lots of scenic settings in forests, mountains and ancient Chinese towns along with beautiful FX during fight scenes. My only criticism is that despite the fact the characters are wanderers carrying tiny satchels, they have an impressive wardrobe of flowing robes and ribbons. I am glad that there are female characters in the show that can fight since Miaomiao, as a modern person is fairly useless at that. The show is a smart fantasy comedy mixed with impressive special effects when the characters are demon-hunting. (Show rating 9.0/10)
Link to English/Chinese lyrics to MV for 凝眸 (Stare Intently), one of the main songs in Love Game in Eastern Fantasy is below:
JF Garrard is an award-winning speculative fiction writer, editor and publisher. She is the President of Dark Helix Press and serves as the Co-President for the Canadian Authors Association’s Toronto Branch. Her portfolio of books and short fiction is listed on jfgarrard.com and you can find her on Twitter @jfgarrard, Facebook and Instagram @jfgarrard.