[C-Drama]:"Love and Destiny" Too Similar To "Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms"?

Jul 20, 2019

Love and Destiny which stars Chang Chen and Ni Ni premiered a couple of days ago. Being a xianxia drama, it had the beautiful costumes, the tragic romance and the premise about gods and goddesses. Audiences typically love this stuff but perhaps there comes a point when it all becomes too much.

Love and Destiny looks and feels like another Three Lives Three Worlds Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms (Eternal Love). The comparison makes sense since it comes from the same producers with director Lam Yuk Fan and costume designer William Chang onboard. As a result, the settings from the pastel hues to the peach blossoms are very familiar.

Even the costumes look like they were ripped out of Eternal Love especially Ni Ni's attire which looked extremely similar to Yang Mi's. The two ladies were also dubbed by the same voice actress, Ji Guanlin, and that would answer why the characters Ling Xi and Bai Qian sound the same. Because they are so similar, it also puts more pressure on the shoulders of Ni Ni since Yang Mi has pulled off being a goddess quite successfully. Some viewers have pointed out that Ni Ni seems more suited for modern dramas.

Another thing that didn't sit too well with viewers was Chang Chen's casting. Despite being a top star, Chang Chen at age 42 seemed too old to be playing a leading role in a xianxia drama. Mark Chao faced similar backlash when he was first casted for the role of Yehua. With Chang Chen, his gruff and manly aura does clash with the dreamy feel of the drama, but at the same time, he is playing the god of war Jiu Chen, an older god so perhaps the age thing is not so out of place.

In hindsight, the show creators were probably hoping to copy the elements that made Eternal Love such a hit. Sadly, this seems to have backfired and made Love and Destiny like a cheap knockoff instead. Although, the story has nothing to do with the Three Live Three Worlds drama adaptations based on Tang Qi Gong Zi's novels, it feels similar in some ways with the god of war and a naive young goddess whose experiences help her come into her own.