Review: Lost in The Kunlun Mountains ( Xu Kai, Elaine Zhong)

I just made a decision out of nowhere and watched Lost in Kunlun the Mountains without checking the reviews. It’s synopsis was interesting and I also remembered Xu Kai’s performance in Arsenal Miltary Academy so yes, that influenced my decision. Lost in the Kunlun Mountains stars Xu Kai and Elaine Zhong

First impressions.

Always we’re on the five episodes circle. The first episode was boring for me, I even dozed off twice trying to finish the episode. Despite dozing off couple of times, I pushed myself to finish the whole episode and moved to the next episodes. At first, the drama just circling around long dialogues that weren’t tight, they just pushed lots of characters on the screen.

They talk about different sects which we still haven’t seen. In my mind I expected the whole drama to be republican but then you see people jumping over houses like it’s a video game and I’m like “woah! Too much action for a republican drama.” Beside the confusing story of the sects, I was impressed by the storyline. Yunqi (Xu Kai) is just trying to find his missing father but there are some strong figures giving him a hard time.

Yunqi came out as a strong and confident character. Then there’s Wu Shuang (Elaine Zhong), who is Yunqi’s childhood friend. She finally met Yunqi after a long time and gets involved in his business. There’s still a mysterious guy who’s always protecting Yunqi in secret but who is he? There’s a lot of mysteries to uncover in this drama, I’ll see you on the next section.

Storyline.

I’m I impressed? Definitely not. The foundation of the story fine with Luo Yinsong seeking revenge on Yunqi’s father, talks of Kunlun mountains, Cui Yanzhi( Zhang Xin Yu), Luo Jiotian ( Bao Bei Er) and commender Huo. It’s was worth watching at that time to be honest but they ruined everything by dropping other characters only to focus on the Kunlun mountains.

I understand that the story wouldn’t exist without the Kunlun mountains but what’s the point of having a lame Kunlun mountain story? They literally dropped Cui Yanzhi, who was the best female character only to give us Wu Shuang and Chu Fengling cat fight. Commender Huo also got ignored as if he never existed, what’s his ending with Cui Yanzhi? I forgot, they dropped him so we’ll never know. Who’s “Her Ladyship” everyone is talking about? You’ll never know because they didn’t even give us a clue.

The story got worse as they started searching for Kunlun mountains. Ding Yunqi got all the clues as the story suggests but they beat around the bush with nothing to offer. They did add two or three hidden identity plots to “boost” the story but they didn’t change a thing. You really can’t just drop a bombshell on us without giving us signals.

Wu Shuang’s identity saga has a lot of loopholes which made the drama a joke. Then they start again going back and forth with the Kunlun mountains search until the last episode and you’re like “what was the point of everything that happened?” I expected the Kunlun mountains search to be the most exciting part in the drama since it was over hyped and many people sacrificed a lot for it.

Then there’s the Tian Long plot which was obvious to anyone, the movements were the same, the way he pronounced words was the same and the voice exposed him at first sight.  They even left out a Zhang Xin Yu (Cui Yanzhi) in the Kunlun Mountains search and she’s one of the main leads, how come?

Chemistry.

I will not beat around the bush with this one, I never took Yunqi and Wu Shuang as a couple nor main leads. If I didn’t make an update on the drama before I watched it, I’d have taken Cui Yanzhi as Yunqi’s wife/girlfriend at first sight (no favoritism). Cui Yanzhi connected more with Yunqi than other females in the drama, their first encounter wasn’t disappointing. Wu Shuang was good but she didn’t have the aura of a Female lead. I’m not hating on the female lead, I’m just stating my thoughts. Besides Wu Shuang and Yunqi, there’s no one to mention here.

Characters.

I want to start off with Wu Shuang (Elaine Zhong) and Cui Yanzhi( Zhang Xin Yu) first as you’re fresh from the last paragraph. I still believe Wu Shuang character would’ve been more appealing to me if it was played by Zhang Xin Yu and let Elaine Zhong be Cui Yanzhi.

I’m not biased, what I write is what I thought after watching the drama. Elaine Zhong is just like 90% of Yunkee Chen’s main role characters (no offense), she just doesn’t sell the “I’m leading the story” to me. She’s a good but not good enough for her role, sometimes she bored me.

Most of you might be wondering what about Chu Fengling? Chu Fengling is fine with the role she took, it suits her but she still needs to improve her facial expressions. Ding Yunqi was also overrated in the drama, they made it look like he will find Kunlun mountains without a team. He came up as a tough guy who doesn’t like violence, which made me like the character a lot.

Luo Jiotian is my favorite character in the drama and you know why if you watched the drama. Luo Jiotian may have started as a bad person but he was more entertaining than others, his laughter, the way he bullied others.

Ending.

“Are you kidding me?” That’s what I thought after watching the last episode. The build up of the drama was great only to find a disappointing ending. Nothing really changes in the end, just a group of people who returned from their search for Kunlun mountains.

What happened during the final moments of the last episode? How did Yunqi survive? They didn’t answer those questions. Main reason why I kept watching the drama even when it sucked was because I wanted to see what’s in the Kunlun mountains but the ending just made me realize I’ve been wasting my time.

Conclusion.

2022 is clearly not a good year for Xu Kai as far as dramas are concerned. Royal Feast wasn’t as good as I expected it to be. This is the second 2022 drama of Xu Kai that didn’t impress me. I would recommend the drama only if you don’t have anything to do or watch. I’m giving this a 5/10 rating just because of the first 20 episodes, Luo Jiotian and Chu Yanzhi. I may have found this drama disappointing but others might find it interesting, that’s why I always state that my reviews are my personal view not facts.