First Impression: What do you think of I’ll Never Let You Go (Legend of Huo Buo) with Ariel Lin and Zhang Bin Bin?

Zhang Bin Bin is back on our screen! With the adorable Ariel Lin no less! But Juli is right in her observation that the whole vibe of this drama is similar to Prince of Lan Ling with her and Feng Shao Feng in 2013.

Hoping that it’s good!

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Stills:

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Airing schedule.

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Trailers:

  1. 23 thoughts on “First Impression: What do you think of I’ll Never Let You Go (Legend of Huo Buo) with Ariel Lin and Zhang Bin Bin?

    ehhhh I honestly have seen like less than 20 min, so I really have no right to critique…

    BUT idk. Ariel’s adorable as always, but I really wanna say that objectively, especially after her iconic Lin You Qing, she tends to overact a tiny bit in this type of role (REALLY, with only LLW as comparison though, so it’s a small sample size). It was fresh in LLW, also because Ariel’s got a certain charisma so even with her playing an unrealistically enthusiastic/happy/energetic young girl, it still kind of works. ESPECIALLY because her character in Lan Ling Wang matured/gained depth very quickly.

    On the other hand, her character surface-level acts basically the same. Except there’s more of a prolonged period of heroine-with-moral-perky-naive-girl stage. The dragged out portion of that just makes the overacting/2D-ness of the character very prominent. Also cuz Zhang BinBin’s character is also kinda tropey and it’s like, his character setup makes it almost like I can predict his next I’m-cool-walk-away-smirk. That’s what it is! Everything feels so staged and scripted. Like yes it’s a fake drama, but like the characters don’t really flow threw naturally. They’re just kind of going through the motions. There’s no spark (whether I mean romantic chemistry or just drama vibe) to carry through the holes in the plot/script.

    Idk. I don’t know if it’s really acting, because I’ve definitely watched dramas just as tropey with greener actors and have enjoyed them vaguely or been entertained. I think it’s more attributed to how staged the character setup is in the production itself than anything Ariel or ZBB can necessarily control, but it feels very plastic.

    • 23 thoughts on “First Impression: What do you think of I’ll Never Let You Go (Legend of Huo Buo) with Ariel Lin and Zhang Bin Bin?

      I almost wanna say I wish Ariel would go back to playing the down-to-earth relatable modern-day boss-lady type, like Lin You Qing, but somehow I also feel like that drama was such a hit exception! I also heard her more recent modern-day drama Old Boy (?) was really a miss. Altho I personally don’t really like Liu Ye so idk if that’s a fair assessment.

    • 23 thoughts on “First Impression: What do you think of I’ll Never Let You Go (Legend of Huo Buo) with Ariel Lin and Zhang Bin Bin?

      It’s just that Ariel has such a mature attitude towards life experience, work, and what she wants that such a charismatic and well-spoken, well-thought person shouldn’t not be able to relay that …vibe to her characters. She can do so much with a more thoughtful character that vibes with her stage of life experience, like age young or not, that it’s so…frustrating that she keeps picking characters that are…idk. You guys know what I’m saying?

    • 23 thoughts on “First Impression: What do you think of I’ll Never Let You Go (Legend of Huo Buo) with Ariel Lin and Zhang Bin Bin?

      I went through the first 6 eps. It’s like “Hasn’t she played a similar character-personality a couple times before?” Of course, this character is like many “clumsy, spunky Candy with a birth-secret” type.

      I was telling a friend about the drama’s location logic fail and “censorship-imposed” logic fail. I think recent rule banning excessive violence and bloodshed means minions hardly ever get killed. Let’s say the good guys don’t wish to kill. Then they should have developed skills that could quickly neutralize or permanently incapacitate their opponents. But nope. Minions hardly get killed so the fighting drags on and same guys keep coming back every other day.

      Seems a couple of the 2nd/3rd lead male characters might be fun. I’m sticking with the drama to see whether they will improve this drama.

  2. 23 thoughts on “First Impression: What do you think of I’ll Never Let You Go (Legend of Huo Buo) with Ariel Lin and Zhang Bin Bin?

    Wanna know what’s so amazing in this drama? There’s a real dog in there, like a “REAL REAL” dog, it’s not one of those cartoons kind.
    Totally agree I know it’s one of those spunky character she’s playing again, her character is as ridiculous as ever so far. But, she still re-affirm her greatness in acting as usual. It really fast pace!

    Terrible terrible storyline, but she is sooo into her character. She made it interesting to watch and funny. Loving both the leads but the sad thing is, really it is the storyline to me that might drag down this drama compare to others.

    • 23 thoughts on “First Impression: What do you think of I’ll Never Let You Go (Legend of Huo Buo) with Ariel Lin and Zhang Bin Bin?

      +1 on real dog with good acting skill. Too bad it didn’t “last”.

      Maybe many cdramas don’t use real animal actors is because “Look! The dog/cat acts better than the lead actor/actress”?

  3. 23 thoughts on “First Impression: What do you think of I’ll Never Let You Go (Legend of Huo Buo) with Ariel Lin and Zhang Bin Bin?

    Loving the colors though!
    Finally some directors and designer understands how a “beggar” shoud look like!

  4. 23 thoughts on “First Impression: What do you think of I’ll Never Let You Go (Legend of Huo Buo) with Ariel Lin and Zhang Bin Bin?

    It’s actually better than I thought. I think of this drama as a light comedy drama. I think the trailer has already showed ot though…

  5. 23 thoughts on “First Impression: What do you think of I’ll Never Let You Go (Legend of Huo Buo) with Ariel Lin and Zhang Bin Bin?

    What’s with Ariel and her roles as Heavenly Maidens – first in Prince of Lan Ling and now here in I’ll never let you go? I’m kind of breezing through this on fast forward. I don’t have high expectations; just killing time.

    • 23 thoughts on “First Impression: What do you think of I’ll Never Let You Go (Legend of Huo Buo) with Ariel Lin and Zhang Bin Bin?

      I’ll take this heavenly maiden any day! She’s all natural, in her 30s and still beautiful as ever. She is a fairy and a goddess. Just don’t give me a plastic fairy I will not accept it unless her acting is half as good as Ariel.

      • 23 thoughts on “First Impression: What do you think of I’ll Never Let You Go (Legend of Huo Buo) with Ariel Lin and Zhang Bin Bin?

        Fair enough, yoyo. No one likes plastic fairy. Good that you like Ariel. I am impartial towards her. She has acted in good dramas and not so good dramas. So, I always reserve my comments towards the dramas and her roles. I am just a bit disappointed that she did not take on different types of roles – be more adventurous with her acting; instead of constantly sticking to similar character molds that does nothing to highlight her good acting skills. It’s a bit like sticking a Lamborghini engine into a Toyota and being told to stick to driving at 30 miles per hour! I am confident she could do more but at this stage, she is sticking to ‘safe’ roles that will bring in the steady income but will do nothing to elevate recognition of her acting to a higher level. Blame her manager or company, maybe?

        • 23 thoughts on “First Impression: What do you think of I’ll Never Let You Go (Legend of Huo Buo) with Ariel Lin and Zhang Bin Bin?

          I’m not angry how repetitive everyting is. Because overall the drama is still very interesting and really watchable.

          The story and personalities are absolutely copy&paste, but realistically, which story and personalities these days are not copy&paste too? All the ideas in the world are taken already…like a really long time ago. What matters is not exactly the perfect storyline, that is important but not always the most serious case. What’s more special is the pace, the interactions, acting, and chemistry. It’s fun to just watch when those things exist, those little moments where things spark. Ariel and Vinn definitely has a handful of those, moving everything forward nicely. It makes me anxious to wait.

          What would make me angry is if she stars in a boring drama, she can act all new and different but if it’s just going to be boring then there’s just no use to me. Ariel had some bad dramas in the past too, like when she first started…Tokyo Juliet and Love Contract I cannot even get past 1 or 2 episodes. But overall, the great ones she’d done had became pretty legendary.

  6. 23 thoughts on “First Impression: What do you think of I’ll Never Let You Go (Legend of Huo Buo) with Ariel Lin and Zhang Bin Bin?

    Ok..ehm..yes…the first 2 episodes felt..”cheap”…I mean..the stoyline is nothing new…but most of all the action scenes, the editing..the way everything was handled had me wondering, if I was watching a drama from over 10 years ago.

    While I loved Ariel in older dramas..I had the impression of rewatching other characters she played before in these first 2 episodes..the same goes for Zhang Bin Bin…how many “cold” prince-characters has he played now…O_O

    I am not impressed at all. Maybe I am spoiled after Bloody Romance, Ever Night and Ming Lan..but I had hoped for more. I had the constant urge to fast-forward. I will put this drama on-hold for now and will decide whether to watch it or not, when all eps have aired.

    The really cute dog was the only highlight for me.

    • 23 thoughts on “First Impression: What do you think of I’ll Never Let You Go (Legend of Huo Buo) with Ariel Lin and Zhang Bin Bin?

      Really depend on your taste…
      Like for Bloody Romance, I made it quite far in the middleof the story already and still do not even know why the hell in the world do they need to train some people sooo hard just to torture and kill them at the end. I swear the master minds act so powerful like they can take action on their own…but they wont and they would go on everyday training slaves. I couldn’t stick around and gave up. I just have no interest in how much more they still want to explain how their so call special organization and schemes work. That doesn’t need to take 10+ episodes. The pace was straightly slow. I was just having the impression those master minds are just people who are too bored and have no life so they’re creating a useless organization. I know the writer/director must be trying overly too hard to create something unique but thousands of flaws. The fighting was at least more decent but still slow motioned, the colors, cinemagraphic and computer graphics were so beautiful…and people find the main leads pretty to watch but that was about it. On the outside it looks like a serious drama but on the inside it is very wasteful.

      Ming Lan too, is another slow pace drama with good colors and graphics, but the story is simple and doesn’t need so many episodes to carry out just one simple message. I doubt anybody would watch it if it didn’t starred ZLY or ZYL. I made it in Ming Lan up to eps 20 something, every eps I watched I skipped about 90% and only stop when it gets to Ming Lan… but to my dismay as well, her character only seems to yell at the people beneath her that she “can” yell at while she bows her head completely to those she cannot even show a bit of talent. They don’t even focus on her and her motives…she’s just not inspiring and rootable for. And because her mother taught her things when she super young she is talented at things without practicing them. Life would be so great if we all can just be taught something and be good at it, no need to practice… just need to be taught…Ming Lan looks like a serious drama and because it’s Daylight airing it so gets the good status, but in reality it’s wasteful like Bloody Romance too.

    • 23 thoughts on “First Impression: What do you think of I’ll Never Let You Go (Legend of Huo Buo) with Ariel Lin and Zhang Bin Bin?

      Totally same. Not particularly impressed by this for mostly the same reasons. It’s not that this is any worse than similar dramas of the same type, but it’s such a well-worn mold that I’m kind of tired of it. Yes, Ariel and Zhang BinBin have a lot more natural acting than a lot of rookies chosen for similar roles. But the characters themselves are so 2-dimensional and caricatured, that even Ariel and ZBB act like they’re just going through the motions of yet another character they’ve played before…there’s almost literally nothing about their characters that make them unique. They may have slightly diff backstories, but those subtle diff haven’t made the characters themselves, their personalities, morals, reactions to things, any diff than the handfuls of other similar characters that…it just feels so cut-and-paste.

    • 23 thoughts on “First Impression: What do you think of I’ll Never Let You Go (Legend of Huo Buo) with Ariel Lin and Zhang Bin Bin?

      Strangely, I get no cold prince vibe from the character so far. And for Ariel, the character is similar, but again, I get different vibe from her. Maybe it’s just me lol.

      And yep this drama definitely doesn’t seem like it has high budget lol.

  7. 23 thoughts on “First Impression: What do you think of I’ll Never Let You Go (Legend of Huo Buo) with Ariel Lin and Zhang Bin Bin?

    totally loving it so far!

    i watched the first 6 episodes on viki… not fast forward or skipping but watching. i love ariel lin and zbb is a cutie so this is a great pairing, despite their age differences. i’m also not watching any other dramas. i started dramas here and there but hardly finish them. i still need to get back to ever night… stopped at episode 12.

    anyway, i am totally enjoying it. i’ve laughed out loud a lot. ariel is such a cutie and i was so looking forward to any historical drama from here that i couldn’t care less what the storyline is, to be honest. she delivers though and love her spunkiness

    i didn’t finish TKW but love zbb nonetheless and he’s cute in here too… not too broody like in TKW which is nice.

    the scene of zbb recusing ariel in the forest reminds me of jet li and christy chung’s mall scene from The Bodyguard from Beijing so a I was enjoying it. And Ariel is so tiny that it’s believeable.

    i love their interactions and will follow this for now, hopefully making it to the very end. last drama i finished was love lost in time so i lose interest fast.

    • 23 thoughts on “First Impression: What do you think of I’ll Never Let You Go (Legend of Huo Buo) with Ariel Lin and Zhang Bin Bin?

      also wanted to say, go in with the mindset that this is just a light and oh so FLUFFY drama and it’s enjoyable, especially for ariel and zbb. lol

  8. 23 thoughts on “First Impression: What do you think of I’ll Never Let You Go (Legend of Huo Buo) with Ariel Lin and Zhang Bin Bin?

    also wanted to say, go in with the mindset that this is just a light and oh so FLUFFY drama and it’s enjoyable, especially for ariel and zbb. lol

  9. 23 thoughts on “First Impression: What do you think of I’ll Never Let You Go (Legend of Huo Buo) with Ariel Lin and Zhang Bin Bin?

    Enjoyed it more than Ming Lan

  10. 23 thoughts on “First Impression: What do you think of I’ll Never Let You Go (Legend of Huo Buo) with Ariel Lin and Zhang Bin Bin?

    i wanna know ariel’s secret for staying so youthful and pretty!!!

    i love ariel and i like zbb very much too, so will give this drama a try…

    need something to watch since minglan is too slow (great drama, but 2 eps a day is too slow for the story lol)

  11. 23 thoughts on “First Impression: What do you think of I’ll Never Let You Go (Legend of Huo Buo) with Ariel Lin and Zhang Bin Bin?

    I just donā€™t understand why people are so demanding on story plots personally I go for good hero and heroine chemistry, enjoy with their acting, beautiful scenery captivating theme songs. I will not go for Korean dramas cos the actors/actresses always open their mouth while acting! Though Iā€™m Englsh educated I see only China made dramas engsub. They have handsome actors and very attractive actresses!

  12. 23 thoughts on “First Impression: What do you think of I’ll Never Let You Go (Legend of Huo Buo) with Ariel Lin and Zhang Bin Bin?

    following this series, very entertaining so far!
    ariel and zbb are great! their acting and chemistry are wonderful and they look really good too!
    the only complaint is that the episodes don’t come out fast enough! have to wait so long for the next part!
    loving this series and enjoying it very much! one of the most entertaining series i’ve seen this year!

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