An Ancient Love Song (Short Drama): Spoiler-Free Mini Review
- Jul 16
- 4 min read
Title: | An Ancient Love Song (2023) 古相思曲 |
Platform: | Viki |
Genre: | Period Idol Romance/ Time Travel |
Episode Count: | 14 (each episode is around 25 minutes) |
Parental Guidance Rating: | G: Ignore the G rating, I'd say it's at least PG. But it's still super mild w/ minimal blood and violence. One character does yeet themselves over a balcony so there is that. |
Staring: | Zhang Ya Qin (Flourished Peony) Guo Jia Nan (Les Belles) Zhu Lin Yu (Close to You) Quan Yi Lun (Echoes of the self) |
RBTS Rating: | 3.6/5 Stars  |
Synopsis:
Professor Shen Bu Yan accidentally travels to the ancient era of Acacia, where he becomes obsessed with finding the ancient secret of this era. With the help of the warm girl, Lu Yuan, will he be able to unravel the mystery? @MDL
Stay Tuned: Full Review Still to Come!
Spoiler-Free Mini Review:
An Ancient Love Song is a hybrid short/mini drama about star crossed lovers (modern day ML and ancient FL) who, through a twist of fate, meet in reverse. The orgin of this drama is one for the books. It first found life as a viral fan video by Sanenu in 2019, with clips stitched together from different films and narrated by hired voice actors. It was later bought by the platform Bilibili, which had started dabbling in mini dramas, and adapted it into this series. While severely under promoted, the drama was an instant hit with critics and audiences alike, and was the sleeper success of 2023. Starring overlooked actors and armed with an apple bottom jeans low budget, Zhi Zhu (the Director), made a masterpeice given the reasources she had to work with. After the drama's success, she would go on to direct her first full length drama, Love In the Clouds. I'm excited to see more of her work, as it seems like she's following the same path as Zeng Qin Jie (Director of Pursuit of Jade).
Speaking of reasources, Zhi Zhu's greatest weapon was her Female Lead Actress. So many things in life have failed me, but Zhang Ya Qin (FL Actress) never has. She slays at all times, and in all things, and in all places. I've previously witnessed her greatness in Flourished Peony (2FL) and Love in Between (FL), and I need to see her get more main roles. I trust her more than any actress in the game. Her character was so intelligent and complex, and she brought an emotional stability to the drama, which is an even greater achievement considering the fact that she was acting across a mannequin. All due respect, but Guo Jia Nan (ML Actor) was so wooden he was lumber. He did improve as the show went on, aided by the writing, but he was undoubtedly the weakest link. I think the story would have slapped SO much harder with a different Male Lead. Both Zhang Ya Qin (FL Actress) and her character, Lu Yuan, carried the whole show on their shoulders and defied gravity with their ancient bun. Kudos.
Another triumph of the drama was the themes: The story asks an interesting question of whether choices can change destiny, or if it's destiny that changes choices. What a riddle. The awnser to this was nicely nuanced. The drama emphasized that while some things are "predetermined", or out of our control, our perspective can change the outcome. The message and delivery were exceptionally grounded, and the resolution gave me a lot to think about.
The production quality was something you had to squint to see, which is to be expected with a short drama. An Ancient Love Song truly did not have a dignified budget, but what it did have was spent in the places the mattered: writing and creative direction. And if that means less costume changes, hair accessories, idol actors, or more fake looking sets, I'm down. Why get a Male Lead who can't act for a bunch of money, when you can get one for less money? I joke. Guo Jia Nan emoted more than many popular actors in dramaland these days. There were some narrative inconsistancies and logistical issues, but that's to be expected given the length of the drama. Seriously, go watch a random mini drama and you'll be calling this the Beyonce of the format.
An Ancient Love Song had a truly interesting take on time travel and is one of the best dramas, short or full length, that came out in 2023.
****** Fun Fact below-- I tried to be vague.
Allegedy, you can watch An Ancient Love Song starting not only from episode 1 onwards, but in reverse order. So you start on episode 14, then 13, etc,. If you do this, you will definatley need to skip all the intro's that automatically play at the begining of an episode. A hero on MDL gave clearer instructions here. This is also a youtube video of it in reverse, but I haven't watched it, so I can't verify.
Story=4.5, Acting =2.75 (the ML brings the average DOWN, those 2.75 points belong solely to the FL), Production Quality=1.5 (It's decent for the budget, but still distracting), Rewatch Value=4.75, Ending=4.5. Enjoyability= 4
Trailer:
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