Love Better Than Immorality is like eating ice cream for dinner. You know it’s not the best option, you know there is no nutritional value and you’ll probably be hungry again later, you know there are better things in the fridge… but dang it, sometimes you just want sweets. This show is 40 short episodes of decadent high calorie deliciousness that hit all the romance beats required without wasting any time on… you know… a plot. It’s like Love in the Air for the heteros: As in the male lead is aggressive and touchy-feely, shamelessly inappropriate, and will be spending his time getting as close to your lips as humanly possible.

There is a lot of kissing in this show: For a cdrama (important disclaimer). It’s not the good stuff, the open mouth crazy passionate kind, but it’s still really sizzling… probably because it is a cdrama, and for a cdrama those extended closed-mouth kisses feel scandalous.

_{gifs by @thedramaden – link}

The official plot is that in the future everyone has achieved immortality but apparently none of them experience love any longer – so our leading female “gives it up” by going into a simulation. I dunno, whatever, just go with it. This is never referenced in any way again. She does not bring any insights from the future with her (this is not Joy of Life – if you want a useful time traveler, I recommend that absolute gem of a show), she never speaks of the future or references it, she doesn’t seem to miss the ultra-modern sci fi world nor does she have any trouble whatsoever adapting to the world of the past. The “comes from the future” situation is just a contrivance, like the vast majority of the plot points in this show, just a series of events you are briefly shown or told were of great importance but really don’t mean much to the narrative. (further discussion of plot holes, random thoughts, and huge abandoned story threads in spoiler section below)

Cause there is only ONE narrative line – and that is WHICH BOY IN THE LOVE TRIANGLE WILL SHE CHOOSE? Will it be the dashing and handsome knight in shining honor, bound by integrity and duty, with his cute stand-offish nature and surprised blushing? Or will be it be the villain, the slinky demon clan leader who immediately starts putting the moves on our girl before she can catch her breath? It isn’t much of a mystery as she’s making out with one pretty early on in the show… and barely gets a hug from the other. So… you know… the outcome is assured. I don’t consider that a spoiler.

And that’s fine! Obvious choice love triangles are fine. I mean that sincerely. Sometimes you don’t really want to be antagonized by your romance stories. You want it to be pretty clear who the fated dude is and just watch the romance unfold with all the little conflicts and resolutions along the way that will build up their love and trust in each other. And this show delivers that. Tied with a satin ribbon bow (aka a grand gesture to illustrate undying true love), like a box of Godiva chocolates.

The chemistry between the two lovers in this show is unbelievably good. I have seen shows with both of these leading actors before – so I was already a fan.

The leading female, Zhao Lu Si, was also in Love Like the Galaxy (good show), The Long Ballad (actually her romance with the guardian knight dude was my favorite in this), Romance of Tiger & Rose (cheeky and cute but I just wasn’t vibing), Who Rules the World (good – I’m halfway through this currently), and The Last Immortal (I loved this one personally). She’s a tiny cutie who excels at these playful, plucky characters and has a really expressive face. She’s a treasure.

_{He’s like Cheng Yi’s horny cousin}

The leading male, Li Hong Yi, is a handsome man with a slight lurch which serves him well. He always seems to be looking up at you through his eyelashes, like a seductive vampire, even though he’s taller than nearly everyone in these shows.

Bad posture has never looked so good on a man!

He also has an unmistakable light swagger (like he’s walking on air) and this low voice you have to lean in to hear – which again serves him well. He has mastered a neutral facial expression that forces you to pay attention, hoping to see the hint of a smile or the dart of his eyes. You are DRAWN IN. I’m not sure how much of this is just good physicality acting versus this is just how he is as a person. Whatever it is, it’s spellbinding and very sexy.

He’s also a great actor, so when the role demands it he can sell you on whatever emotion he’s going through. I was mesmerized by him Blood of Youth (super fun martial arts drama), which refrained from having any serious romantic plotlines whatsoever, so imagine my surprise when he slid onto the screen and starts putting the moves on his lady within the first episode.

And our boy has MOVES.

_{more gifs by the amazing @thedramaden – link}

I’ve read a bunch of grumblings or whatever over this show for its “incest” plotline. So let me just touch on that briefly in case you are the type to cringe away from such things. Since our girl from the future transplants directly into the body of another girl, with zero memories of the other girl’s existence, she is at a disadvantage… because other characters in the show remember her (or rather, they remember the other girl, follow along with me here). Our leading male takes advantage of her memory loss and quickly tells her that he is her older brother. I know our girl is a gullible thing, but I don’t think she really believed this ploy much, as they were flirting and hugging and kissing and lounging about in her bed all the time.

_{Regular nightly visits to your bedroom to cuddle with your sibling are mandatory in this world.}

The sibling story was rather a lie they both agreed upon that gave them an excuse to canoodle freely, or at least that is how I interpreted it. That it made zero impact once it was revealed he was NOT her brother lends credence to this theory of mine. And the fact that they continued to call each other brother and sister up until the last episode, like a pervy pet name and a joke shared between them, also makes it clear it’s more of a naughty role playing kink than anything else.

So yeah. They had kinks.

_{screensaves from @dangermousie – link}

They were a matched set of flirtatious, naughty souls. I found it charming. But I realize this only one lens, and others can easily view it was creepy or gross too. Fair. Listen, I grew up on Flowers in the Attic and weirdly sexy movies like Close My Eyes, and those were real siblings in those stories. So maybe I am more immune to this plot line and more open to be it being used as a kink (not that I am supporting incest, people, I’m just saying taboos have always been used in story-telling because they hit buttons that engage us in different ways). And exploring how those taboos can be used and are often linked to kinks is just human nature. Haven’t ya’ll read Erotism: Death & Sensuality by Georges Bataille before?

Anyways, without going further into the rabbit hole on this one let me just say if you are looking for a short breezy villain romance with little plot but a whole lotta sexy shenanigans then this is your show.

Overall Rating: 9/10 – A cute, slightly pervy villain romance.

For more musings about this silly little fun show – including the gay side couples, the bizarre lack of ANY plot, and more – follow me into super spoiler land…

So, there is the OTP… our hetero couple…

but this show also gave us an adorable bisexual male duo and 100% lesbian duo. Just spoon fed it to us.

_{Our Lady Lovers & Dearest Homos}

Our girls were besties. But think… the gayest besties you can imagine. Holding hands, catching each other in each other’s arms, pressed arm and arm every time they sit down. They could care LESS about the dudes – even though they talk about their respective male counterparts, they are visibly and vocally annoyed when parted from each other. It doesn’t help that one of the girls refuses to wear women’s clothes for the majority of the show. If you don’t read these girls are GAY LADIES then we are reading different scripts.

The dudes are slightly more ambiguous, but also pretty gay coded too. Our uptight second male lead is only relaxed when he’s around his playboy best friend, who openly adores him and is jealous of his attention. It was more enjoyable to view these side characters as side couples. With each other.

They are all decently developed too, as characters. It could have been better, sure, but I never disliked any of them. Thankfully only the barest minimum of effort was invested in establishing these two duos as heterosexual couples – so I did not feel cheated at all that their romance was largely off screen or somewhat implied.

The biggest issue I had with this show was the plot. Or lack thereof.

When I say the plot is under-developed in this drama – I mean the entire plot.

You have a girl from the FUTURE – far, far future – where everyone has managed to become immortal but given up on relationship, intimacy, and romance. And that is not explored in any way whatsoever. It’s like a weird afterthought. The endless possibilities this could have offered, all wasted! How does our leading female even know what romance is? As she has zero experience with it and hasn’t seen it anywhere, how is she so comfortable with it? What is “normal” behavior and interactions between people in the future vs the far past? All the comedy, all the cuteness, all the interesting perspectives… completely wasted.

There are different martial arts clans who all maintain a teetering stalemate, which is pretty standard in this historical dramas, but don’t expect to find out anything at all about them. They do not bother to really explain much about any of these various groups, other than to mention they exist and some of them dislike each other more than others. The demon sects are the most notable here, as our leading villain seems to have more unique powers and abilities than the other characters… but how or why? Who knows. Please watch your step so you don’t fall into one of the mile deep plot holes.

Mysterious Evil Minion Girl

Our villain male lead has this absolutely stunning female henchwoman, who worships him for… whatever reasons. Apparently he saved her once? I don’t know, it’s all mentioned in passing. She worships the ground he walks on and he’s constantly cold and cruel to her. Apparently he trusts her and is sorta grooming her to take over one day (maybe?). Seemed to me he was too busy threatening to gouge out her eyes when he wasn’t making fun of her clothing. She was in so many scenes and had so many interactions with the male lead, but I still don’t know anything about her. Did she even like that other henchman dude at all? The one who was obsessed with her? She was such a random character and treated so strangely by the narrative. I also found it odd that the female lead never bothered to talk to her AT ALL while she was hanging out in the cave. How can you have someone who looks this cool and is in the story so often and NOT USE THEM in the story in any meaningful way?

Speaking of the female lead… her past life previous existence (the girl whose body she transferred into) was also a giant blank they didn’t bother to fill in. Why had she refused to marry her intended? Why had she run off with the villain character? How did they even meet in the first place? Did she die? There were a few random conversations that alluded to a few of these plot points but I was never sure what was true or what was assumed to be true. Another possibly cool story line completely lost.

Ironically the most solid secondary romance was with a random plotline involving minor characters. I found it interesting they spent more time investing us in this love story between a sickly lady and her love-struck warrior hubby than the actual side couples. Nonetheless… that’s what happened. And I won’t lie, I was pretty emotionally invested in this side-side storyline. It actually dived into the sexism, the irony, and the inherent problems with the martial arts world. That whole double-death scene was amazing! The twists, the dramatic speeches, the lines being drawn and crossed! It was so good! Where did all this depth come from and can we have that in the main story please?

Also of special note is the HORRIBLE BUDGET… also known as the sweaty characters in terrible wigs. Maybe they filmed this is the dead heat of summer or something, but the makeup covering the wig lace line was often extremely visible. Surely this is something that can be touched up post-production but alas… no. You will get these close up shots of characters and the only thing you can pay attention to are the pronounced wig lines. There was also a scene at the end where the leading lady is hugging on the second male lead – and they keep showing the back of his head and all you see is the netting of his wig. In HD. It was painful.

Sets, costumes, extras, the CGI… the whole thing is done on a $15 budget, apparently. This ain’t Ancient Love Poetry with its flawless immersion. This is a bunch of people in minimal sets or walking around random fields cause that was all they could afford.

I mean… look at these mint green monstrosity posters? They couldn’t even afford a decent graphic designer.

_{look at that sickly green pallor of their skin! whyyyyyyy}

The open OST song was surprisingly adorable, though. Goofy, which worked. I don’t know why the end credits and song were soooo long though. Thank goodness we can fast forward or I would have lost my mind.

If I am being reasonable, I know this drama does not deserve the high score I gave it. But like I said, I had a blast watching it. It was just what I was looking for, something light and fluffy… with an aggressively flirtatious male lead and a grinning girl who is enjoying every second of it.

_{gifs by @heymeowmao – link}

You just can’t go into this one expecting anything substantial. Or even standard. Like… a plotline that’s good. Or characters that make sense. Or character arcs. There were vague impressions of these things… but it was like an outline the scriptwriter forgot to color in.

You watch this show to see cute flirting with a sly villain under a blanket. That’s it.

_{gifs by @1soulmates1 – link}