Review it: Once Upon A Time aka Three Lives Three Worlds (CMovie, 2017)

The movie adaptation of Three Lives Three Worlds Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms (三生三世十里桃花) called Once Upon A Time hit theaters in the states on August 11th. It stars the gorgeous visual pair of Yang Yang and Liu Yi Fei.

If you have watched, time to voice your opinions! I ‘ll be tuning in next week!

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Stills:

Gorgeous poster!

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Movie’s Soundtrack:

by Jane Zhang.

Some Questions You Might Want to Ponder About In Your Review:

1. Did the movie spin an acceptable story of their own with the time constraint?
2. What would you like added or removed from the movie?
3. What is your favorite thing about the movie? Naturally, Least favorite thing.
4. Did Yang Yang and Liu Yi Fei bring their respective characters to life? How about the other cast members? Lookwise vs Acting?
5. Would you consider the movie a successful adaptation?

For those interested, here’s the Drama Review Post: Click!

  1. 19 thoughts on “Review it: Once Upon A Time aka Three Lives Three Worlds (CMovie, 2017)

    1. Did the movie spin an acceptable story of their own with the time constraint? I think it’s acceptable. the time line very much like in novel
    2. What would you like added or removed from the movie?
    I want they add the story in ending. The ending too rushed and didn’t explain in the end if yehua is alive or not, but it’s very same like in novel.
    3. What is your favorite thing about the movie? Naturally, Least favorite thing.
    Favorite thing: all Yehua and baiqian scenes, the battle scenes, the cinematography, the OST. Least favorite thing: the marriage costume
    4. Did Yang Yang and Liu Yi Fei bring their respective characters to life? How about the other cast members? Lookwise vs Acting? YangYang and Liu Yifei bring their respective characters to life both lookwise and acting. it same with other cast member, but i think the weakest character is Qing chang because he appeared very short.
    5. Would you consider the movie a successful adaptation? For movie it’s successful adaptation

      • 19 thoughts on “Review it: Once Upon A Time aka Three Lives Three Worlds (CMovie, 2017)

        Thanks July! 🙂

        I almost watched OUAT yesterday but it was only available in 3D, my arch enemy!

  2. 19 thoughts on “Review it: Once Upon A Time aka Three Lives Three Worlds (CMovie, 2017)

    I’ve read the movie did not live up to it’s hype. The OTP had no chemistry and didn’t do well to expectation, which is a shame considering the leads are so beautiful together. But then, looks doesn’t equate to chemistry.

    • 19 thoughts on “Review it: Once Upon A Time aka Three Lives Three Worlds (CMovie, 2017)

      As expected, they should at least made it as a trilogy. How can they supposed to tell 3l3w in just a 2 hours movie? And I doubt poker face YY could handle Ye Hua’s character. But I’ll watch it for the eye candies YY + LYF. Woah.. no chemistry?

  3. 19 thoughts on “Review it: Once Upon A Time aka Three Lives Three Worlds (CMovie, 2017)

    I’m a bit of a harsh grader and movie goer lol so my opinion of the movie isn’t as great. The movie was like a rom-com imo with some cheesy scenes, unnecessary display of the sceneries, flying stuff (plate from armor, the flying sheets had me chuckling), but that’s probably due to the 3D aspect. The movie did not need to be 3D.
    BUT PROPS TO THE HILARIOUS COOKING SCENE LMAO. I couldn’t hold in my laughter because Ye Hua was whirling noodle around Bai Qian. Freaking priceless. And it was all because he wanted to make fish soup LOL.
    Probably the better cgi I’ve seen in a while.
    —–

    1. Did the movie spin an acceptable story of their own with the time constraint?
    Yes, the movie did okay. The pace was fast and I would not recommend this movie for people who did not know the story because the narrative was weak on some scenes, specially the ending.

    2. What would you like added or removed from the movie?
    What should be removed: THAT COOKING SCENE LMAO. I don’t even get why they prolong that scene with Ye Hua going all magical on the fish.

    The one scene where Qing Cang said that Ye Hua found his love. Like hello, why would he have a conversation his enemy? They were in the middle of the fight. It could have been a narration instead of a dialogue.

    What they should add: More scenes to the ending. To clarify further that Mo Yuan and Ye Hua were like the same person or something (I know this was not in the actual novel or drama version but the movie had that plot point going on). The movie was sort of pointing that way but it was rushed at the ending and may leave people confused.

    3. What is your favorite thing about the movie? Naturally, Least favorite thing.

    Favorite thing: Zhe Yan. He is still my fav character LOL. He’s so fab.

    Least favorite thing: Su Jin. She’s more evil and scheming than the drama version. Also that magical beast she got with her was rather unnecessary.

    4. Did Yang Yang and Liu Yi Fei bring their respective characters to life? How about the other cast members? Lookwise vs Acting?

    Sure lookwise both did. Although some of their costumes either look a bit too big, gaudy, or looked low quality to me.

    Acting wise Yang Yang and Liu Yi Fei were okay. I just couldn’t connect with them emotionally wise since the pace went a bit fast or maybe I was not in that angsty mood to begin with lol. I went to watch it in the afternoon so there’s that.
    They made Bai Qian more mopey and weaker. I was waiting for that one scene with the eyes but it turned quite differently than what I would want it to.

    5. Would you consider the movie a successful adaptation?
    To some degree.

  4. 19 thoughts on “Review it: Once Upon A Time aka Three Lives Three Worlds (CMovie, 2017)

    1. Did the movie spin an acceptable story of their own with the time constraint?
    I think that they picked out their favorite parts of the book and mushed them all together to fit the time constraints. They would’ve been better off sacrificing some areas to really build a better story line.

    2. What would you like added or removed from the movie?
    Definitely remove the cooking part. More emphasis on the struggles SuSu went through and why she chose to leave Ye Hua. This was rushed and left viewers with fragments that made no sense.

    3. What is your favorite thing about the movie? Naturally, Least favorite thing.
    I loved that the Bai Qian in the movie version was a better mother than the drama and book version. This helped the audience connect with her more and understood why she left Ali behind. Least favorite thing was that for a budget of this size, they chose to animate characters, rather than put in other key characters.

    4. Did Yang Yang and Liu Yi Fei bring their respective characters to life? How about the other cast members? Lookwise vs Acting?
    YY and LYF did a good job of bringing their characters to life, but it was rushed and fragmented, thus their characters had little depth. This made it hard to connect emotionally to the characters.

    5. Would you consider the movie a successful adaptation?
    No. It was a beautiful movie, but lacked storytelling, focus, character development, and emotional connection. Too rushed to get everything out.

  5. 19 thoughts on “Review it: Once Upon A Time aka Three Lives Three Worlds (CMovie, 2017)

    The movie isn’t showing in my country unfortunately and here I was so excited lol I have heard there was bad reviews, but either way I know I’m watching this just for the pretties if anything. From seeing snippets of previews online I realised they changed alot of the story. Maybe if I didn’t watch the drama or read the book then I might be more impressed with the film. Looking foward to hearing everyone’s opinions!

  6. 19 thoughts on “Review it: Once Upon A Time aka Three Lives Three Worlds (CMovie, 2017)

    Not here to give a review. Just want to comment that YY probably shouldn’t sing. His singing voice is so airy it reminds me of Zhang Han. He doesn’t seem to project his voice at all. On top of that, he has poorer technique as well which makes him sound awful.

  7. 19 thoughts on “Review it: Once Upon A Time aka Three Lives Three Worlds (CMovie, 2017)

    Not a review because I couldn’t finish it…
    It’s weird because I love and rewatch the drama many times but got bored and sleepy 20 minutes in the movie.
    They emphasize and focus too much on the visual and forgot the most important things in movies is 1.make people understand their stories 2. In this case, onnect and able to make people invest emotionally in a love story
    Acting wise, let’s just say I much prefer the drama version. How can a romance movie be successful when the leads have no chemistry?

  8. 19 thoughts on “Review it: Once Upon A Time aka Three Lives Three Worlds (CMovie, 2017)

    1. Did the movie spin an acceptable story of their own with the time constraint?
    I kind of enjoyed that the movie deviated from the novel a bit because I feel like it makes it more unique. For example, the scene where BQ and YH first met.

    2. What would you like added or removed from the movie?
    I would remove BQ’s wedding dress. It did not do LYF any justice.
    I would add…
    – The moment where YH realizes that BQ is Susu. I mean, the scene itself is sooooo touching.
    – More scenes with Yan Kuan (I mean, c’mon, you gotta give this awesome actor some more scenes!)
    – The scene were BQ gets her eyes back. BQ, why you not kick SJ’s ass (like in the drama)?!?! I was sooo disappointed. SJ in the movie was much crueler and nasty. I would’ve done something much worse to her….

    3. What is your favorite thing about the movie? Naturally, Least favorite thing.
    My favorite thing about the movie was the beautiful cast. Their beauty allowed us to look past some of their acting (lol!). I also really liked the action scenes. They were good. I wished there was more of it.
    My least favorite thing was the ending. NOT ABLE TO COMPREHEND IT WHATSOEVER. Everyone in the movie theater that I watched it in would agree, as we all had the same reaction when the movie ended.

    4. Did Yang Yang and Liu Yi Fei bring their respective characters to life? How about the other cast members? Lookwise vs Acting?
    I think they both did a good portrayal of their own BQ and YH. I slightly prefer Yang Mi’s BQ because I’m a diehard Yang Mi fan. But I still like LYF’s BQ, too!!!

    5. Would you consider the movie a successful adaptation?
    It depends… I didn’t really get much heartbreak from the movie than I did when watching the drama. But I still have to admit that I did enjoy some scenes from the movie. So, I guess it’s an okay movie. Lol.

  9. 19 thoughts on “Review it: Once Upon A Time aka Three Lives Three Worlds (CMovie, 2017)

    The film and the stars got skewered, roasted and dismembered by Chinese media and critics. Even LiuYifei hasn’t escaped the wrath, being crowned worst actress. Wonder how much the Hollywood co-director got paid for this?

  10. 19 thoughts on “Review it: Once Upon A Time aka Three Lives Three Worlds (CMovie, 2017)

    Ahhhh it looks good, but then again, I didn’t read the novel, and I’m not big on criticizing movies. I think that as long as the plot flows, pretty actors, and is the story is reasonable, then it’s fine with me. I have searched online, and although searching Regal and Cinetopia will lead to Once Upon a Time pages, they have yet to release information on tickets and showtimes…T_T…so sadly I’m still waiting. I’m kinda excited for it though. I’ll be sure to write down my thoughts here after watching it.
    Thanks for this post Kappy! Or else I definitely forgot this was airing soon 😀
    ~Maknae

  11. 19 thoughts on “Review it: Once Upon A Time aka Three Lives Three Worlds (CMovie, 2017)

    I went into this with low expectations but really hoping i would like it. 3D was the only option for the theater I was at, so I watched it in 3D, which was weird for me because I usually avoid it at all costs.
    Overall review 7/10
    From the beginning I knew I was going to enjoy it. There was a lot of color and the music set the tone in the beginning very well and everything was very pretty. I think if I went into it without knowing the plot I would be confused because they started when she jumped off the cliff.
    I think Yang Yang and LYF did a pretty good job with the time they had with their individual characters. There wasn’t that much chemistry, and I mostly blame LYF (I love LYF, keep rooting for her so I don’t think this is bias). She seemed disconnected with everything but I think that was because she had a hard time playing that aspect of the character. Yang Mi definitely did a better job with showing affection towards Ye Hua and overall playfulness. And personality. And Yang Mi is just leagues above everyone else at generating chemistry so… LYF’s eye were fairly emotionless except for when she was Su Su. I will say at the end when she was crying for Ye Hua I was very touched and she did that really well, and I teared up. I don’t usually tear up. So basically she can’t do emotionless; her eyes go blank and you really think nothing is there.
    This is probably largely in part due to how the character was depicted in the film. She seemed to be far more heavily depressed than Yang Mi’s Mi’s Bai Qian. She was less of the regal queen who did a good job running the leisurely fox kingdom than a despondent drunk who wanted to pine and wait for her master but because so much time had passed (and maybe because she was killing brain cells with all the wine) she couldn’t even remember her master’s face or exactly what had happened 70,000 years ago. I mean Yang Mi had her sad drunk sobbing moments of course, but LYF’s Bai Qian seemed to be like…living that depressed lifestyle most of the time versus Yang Mi who let herself wallow only small parts of her life.
    Yang Yang was better at bringing out their chemistry. Everytime he smiled at her. But LYF had a hard time matching his expressions unless she was smiling. They were both naturally very good at the fighting scenes and I could definitely see LYF as a fighting Bai Qian. He was such a good kisser too. Where did you learn to kiss Yang Yang? Overall YY was just better.
    The kid was terrible, but theyre a kid so that’s all I’ll say.
    Luo Jin was the highlight. He was soooo good. He was able to take all his lines and deliver them so well. Like, you could tell the huge gap in skill between him and everyone else. But he was such a treat. The other characters were just ok. Su Jin was annoying, nothing great there. Yan Kuan had so little screentime. He was wasted.
    CG was great. I wish we could see more of the sea kingdom and the sky kingdom. I like how they depicted the sky kingdom where gravity has no say. Can’t believe Su Su didn’t get dizzy.
    The music was great. Much better than the drama, but they had a movie budget so this was expected.
    I really enjoyed the third act and I left the theater very satisfied. Everything was beautiful and the third act was very emotional despite the lack of buildup. It could have been waaay better but oh well.

    1. Did the movie spin an acceptable story of their own with the time constraint?
    It was ok, the relationship could have been fleshed out more instead of concentrating on unnecessary stupid things. The love story is why this was so popular.

    2. What would you like added or removed from the movie? Added more of the time when they fell in love as Su Su and mortal Ye Hua.
    Less Su Jin. She didn’t need to be there as much. Why is she always taking up so much time?

    3. What is your favorite thing about the movie? Naturally, Least favorite thing.
    The music was my favorite and the fight scenes. Least favorite was their kid. 😡

    4. Did Yang Yang and Liu Yi Fei bring their respective characters to life? How about the other cast members? Lookwise vs Acting?
    See above.

    5. Would you consider the movie a successful adaptation?
    It was good, could have been better.

  12. 19 thoughts on “Review it: Once Upon A Time aka Three Lives Three Worlds (CMovie, 2017)

    1. Did the movie spin an acceptable story of their own with the time constraint?
    Time constraint wise, it was a good attempt although not the best, they try to stick way too much into 1+ hour. The Master and Si Yin storyline is its own entirely different thing, they just pop out with LYF crying and the master dying, that was almost a bit funny when she was crying. Because an intense scene just have to pop up so abruptly through explanation when we didn’t get to feel the climax of that mini story.But, we also do not need the DLRB and Vengo, also ZBB piece for this story, there is no need for 40 episodes for a story like this either. In comparison with the drama, they both have their good and bad. The best part about this version is from middle toward the end. Su su’s torturing life was quite intense because of how weak a mortal she was but YM only watched some clips of herself and remembered everything like it was nothing, so I liked it better how LYF sort of revisited the past and actually feel the pain of being Su su. About the very ending, I don’t think anybody who haven’t read the novel or seen drama version would understand what in the world an ending like that is supposed to mean??? Far worse than Princess Agent’s ending. Also, what in the world was Su Jin (she is identical to YM) punished for when she should have been a long time ago? She cut the eyes, what happen to BQ eyes??? When she was doing that, YH didn’t even look like he cares…

    2. What would you like added or removed from the movie?
    Geez remove those modern princess dress please, the dress is ok but the top should at least be more easternized. And of course remove the wedding dress! What to add, I think they really owe us some more hours in this movie. The beginning was really rushed, and the ending is unexplained. Or, if they can take out even more details away so the story is not so confusing.

    3. What is your favorite thing about the movie? Naturally, Least favorite thing.
    I liked Ali, he’s very cute, and LYF is extremely beautiful. Least favorite thing, same things explained earlier

    4. Did Yang Yang and Liu Yi Fei bring their respective characters to life? How about the other cast members? Lookwise vs Acting?
    LYF did a decent job, I don’t think she or YM portrayed BQ any better than one another. YM got more screen time so things went much more smoothly, but I think she played it a bit too nice/friendly than LYF who is more playful and easily angered. Yang Yang did well too, also as well as Mark. I don’t see the difference between how they both portrayed Ye Hua. But tbh I don’t like this Ye Hua character and still reluctant to forgive him. It’s just because he died from the war, and ALSO dying right after BQ learns the truth about his punishments, that doesn’t make him all that clean at all. He didn’t even tell her nothing in the first place and even made it look like he was the one who mistrusted her first, and also seemingly cheated as well, and then he also just die like that… he’s just owing her even so much more in my sense, I don’t like him. The only thing about Ye Hua is that he seems to have high hormone around BQ and corny.

    5. Would you consider the movie a successful adaptation?
    It was ok, 8.5/10. Beautiful sceneries, costumes (some were bad), voices and music.

  13. 19 thoughts on “Review it: Once Upon A Time aka Three Lives Three Worlds (CMovie, 2017)

    Let’s just say I’m a very critical reviewer. Here’s my thoughts on this movie:

    1. Did the movie spin an acceptable story of their own with the time constraint?
    No, it was a disaster. A mix-mash of every pertinent scene in the novel, but all loosely connected (if you can even call it that.) It was confusing at best, disorienting at most.

    2. What would you like added or removed from the movie?
    A. The male lead – Yang Yang. Instead of appearing morose and hopeful to see LYF, he instead appeared conceited and smug with a half smirk almost all the time. It was distracting and irritating. He definitely did not do justice to Mark Zhao’s interpretation.
    B. The direction. Horrible storyline, densely packed but without meaning and without any genuine connection.
    C. The kid aggravated me in the movie when A Li in 3L3W never did. He came off rude, sudden and somewhat spoiled.

    3. What is your favorite thing about the movie? Naturally, Least favorite thing.
    Favorite Thing: I actually like some of the props. That aside, LYF’s crying and agonizing scenes were done pretty well.
    Lease Favorite Thing: Pretty much everything else.

    4. Did Yang Yang and Liu Yi Fei bring their respective characters to life? How about the other cast members? Lookwise vs Acting?
    Yang Yang is a complete miscast. He looks more like a thug than a royal prince. Dare I say, his smug smirks come off as somewhat sinister to me. It isn’t befitting of a main lead. LYF is okay, the script they gave her is very, very meh. They didn’t even allow her a proper anger scene when she should’ve vented her fury at Shu Jin for stealing her eyes. It was a tepid, “it’s time to return my eyes.” Wut Da Eff is that? But that aside, LYF could’ve been an okay Bai Qian, if developed properly. They never gave her a chance.

    5. Would you consider the movie a successful adaptation? Heck no. It’s a disgrace.

  14. 19 thoughts on “Review it: Once Upon A Time aka Three Lives Three Worlds (CMovie, 2017)

    Utterly disappointing movie from beginning to end. It’s not even worth defending or reasoning. ^ ^ v

  15. 19 thoughts on “Review it: Once Upon A Time aka Three Lives Three Worlds (CMovie, 2017)

    To be honest, I feel graphic wise the film did better than the drama. I find myself thinking, why didn’t the drama use something like this? Sequence wise, like many of you have mentioned, the film is very choppy. Moves on too quick for audience to really understanding what is going on. I also feel that there was too much cutting from scene to scene, next thing I know I’m getting dizzy from it all.

    The cast was beautiful, but I feel due to time constraint, the actors/actresses did not get much time to feel their character’s feelings. Thus leading to very little chemistry between the main leads and main leads towards other characters.

    Then the ending came and I was like 0.o…… So was the guy Mo Yun or Ye Hua? What are we supposed to make from that? Is Ye Hua dead? Or is Mo Yun really Ye Hua? What is going on?

    I know it is suppose to be Three Lives Three Worlds, so I’m guessing Mo Yun is the one that died and let Ye Hua take his body, thus giving him another chance at life. Or something along those lines. I’m referring to their reference of Bai Qian=Su Su and Su Su=Bai Qian, or Bai Qian=Si Yin and Si Yin=Bai Qian. I think one of the lines Ye Hua said to her was how she was given another chance at life to be with him. I don’t really remember. The whole soul-lamp scene thing.

    So my take would be Mo Yun sacrificed his soul to seal the bell, he gets reborn as Ye Hua, Ye Hua sacrificed his soul to seal the bell from destroying the world, but really Mo Yun’s soul was maybe switch with Ye Hua’s. Letting Ye Hua’s soul live in Mo Yun’s body. Making the character at the end saying “Qian Qian come here” being Ye Hua, but in Mo Yun’s body? 0.o………

    Anyways, that’s just me rambling. But we all know that Mo Yun and Ye Hua are twins, born from different mothers. It’s just the film never really mentioned them being twins so we don’t know what the connection between the two is.

    If we watch from the point of view of a person new to the series, we would maybe assume that Mo Yun is really dead and got reborn as Ye Hua. Making Zhe Yen’s line about how Mo Yun is going to wake up soon seem like Ye Hua and Mo Yun switched souls. Allowing Mo Yun to wake up. (I mean this series is fantasy.)

    Overall I give the film a 5/10. The graphic and cinematography of the film was good besides the cutting of the scenes. Yang Yang in historical clothing is a plus plus, and Liu Yifei is pretty. In fact, the whole cast for this film is beautiful. Thanks for reading my rambles.

  16. 19 thoughts on “Review it: Once Upon A Time aka Three Lives Three Worlds (CMovie, 2017)

    Finally got round to watching the movie:
    Did the movie spin an acceptable story of their own with the time constraint?
    The narrative felt very dependent on the audience having already watched the drama or read the novel.

    What is your favorite thing about the movie?
    Luo Jin. He has a lovely voice, doesn’t need to be dubbed in dramas.

    Did Yang Yang and Liu Yi Fei bring their respective characters to life? How about the other cast members? Lookwise vs Acting?
    No chemistry and no life to their acting. Couldn’t connect to them at all. I felt like YY was more in love with his own looks than LYF. The little kid was quite bad too.

    Would you consider the movie a successful adaptation? No. Don’t waste your time watching this.

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