Snowfall Review

I was kind of reluctant to watch Snowfall (冰雪谣) as I’m not a fan of Republican dramas. But then I found out that this was different as it has a fantasy element to it. Furthermore, it has also been a long while since I last caught Vengo Gao in action. I haven’t been watching any of his dramas since Eternal Love Of Dream. So, I thought it is also a good idea to see him in action again. With only 24 episodes in total, I completed this drama pretty fast. You can catch my review of Snowfall below.

My rating: 7.5/10
Episodes: 24
Type: Republican, Fantasy
Aired: July 2024
Images Credit: WeTV Official Facebook

The Cast Of Snowfall

• Vengo Gao Wei Guang as Shen Zhi Heng
• Ouyang Na Na as Mi Lan
• Winwin as Situ Wei Lian
• Ryan Ren Shi Hao as Li Ying Liang
• Wang Guan as Li Gui Sheng
• Maggie Huang Meng Ying as Jin Jing Xue
• Tang Jing Mei as Mu Li Hua
• Wang Han as Zhang You Wen
• Shao Feng as Chi Shan Ying
• Li Mu Ge as Mr. Mo

Main Characters

Shen Zhi Heng

Shen Zhi Heng is a media tycoon in Haidong. He is a dignified wealthy man who is kind and generous. However, he is a freak beneath the surface. He survives on blood and has been alive for over a century as a young man. Shen Zhi Heng also possesses extraordinary powers that make him hard to be killed.

Mi Lan

Mi Lan is the daughter of a business tycoon. However, she is blind and constantly being abused by her mother who sees Mi Lan as the reason for her husband’s neglect. Although Mi Lan is blind, she is smart and has a keen sense of hearing and smell. She is also a young woman who knows how to be grateful to those who are kind to her.

Supporting Characters

Situ Wei Lian

Wei Lian is a doctor and Shen Zhi Heng’s most trusted friend. He is a cheerful and optimistic guy. Wei Lian is attracted to Jing Xue but it is a one-sided affair.

Li Ying Liang

Li Ying Liang is the Chairman of the Economic Development Committee of Haidong. He is also a lackey of the Superintendent of the Haidong Army. He is ruthless and oppressive towards the rich businessmen in carrying out his master’s orders.

Li Gui Sheng

Li Gui Sheng is Li Ying Liang’s righthand man. He is loyal to Li Ying Liang.

Jin Jing Xue

Jing Xue is the daughter of a rich business family. She has inherited the business from her late father and her uncle is managing it on her behalf. Jing Xue is in love with Li Ying Liang but the latter prefers to maintain his distance from her.

Mu Li Hua

Mu Li Hua is the head of the powerful and mysterious Mu family. The family derives their powers from an ancient stone but its members are destined to die before they reach 30 years old.

Zhang You Wen

Zhang You Wen is Shen Zhi Heng’s subordinate and manager of his newspaper business. His grandfather is close to Shen Zhi Heng and helps the latter to take care of the Shen family mansion and tomb in their hometown.

Chi Shan Ying

Chi Shan Ying is the Superintendent of the Haidong Army. He is a brutal man who employs Li Ying Liang to do his dirty deeds of demanding businessmen for their assets.

Mr. Mo

Mr. Mo is a fortune teller and a descendent of the mysterious Mo family.

Synopsis

Shen Zhi Heng is a media tycoon with a well-kept secret. He is a freak who survives on blood and has been living for more than a century. However, he is a principled and dignified man. When he steps on the toes of the city warlord by reporting on the latter’s oppression, he becomes an assassination target. Shen Zhi Heng is brutally attacked by the warlord’s henchman, Li Ying Liang. An ordinary mortal wouldn’t have survived but Shen Zhi Heng did with the help of a blind young woman named Mi Lan. This encounter results in a trusting relationship between the two lonely souls.

However, Shen Zhi Heng’s survival raises Li Ying Liang’s suspicion that he is a monster. Together with the warlord, they try to capture Shen Zhi Heng. They enlist the help of the powerful Mu Li Hua who wants Shen Zhi Heng for her own personal agenda. As Shen Zhi Heng is being hunted, Mi Lan is drawn into the web due to her close relationship with him. With his life in danger, Shen Zhi Heng has to urgently find out the root of his strangeness and its remedy while trying to protect Mi Lan.

Snowfall Ending & Recap (Spoilers Alert!)

Snowfall has a sad ending. Shen Zhi Heng dies as expected after using the Blood Amber Stone to save Mi Lan in Episosde 15. Before he dies, he manages to kill Mu Li Hua with Mr. Mo’s help. Mu Li Hua had captured Mi Lan earlier and used the Blood Amber Stone that the latter was wearing and merged it with her Fantasy Stone to gain great powers. Even the combined strengths of Shen Zhi Heng and Wei Lian couldn’t defeat her. Mr. Mo then embeds the powers of his family’s Profound Yang Stone into Shen Zhi Heng to enable him to kill Mu Li Hua.

Li Ying Liang dies during the fight between Mu Li Hua and Shen Zhi Heng. He pushes Shen Zhi Heng away from a fireball to save him and perishes in his place. Wei Lian survives the fight but has to tell Jing Xue the bad news about Li Ying Liang. Jing Xue is sad but also relieved that Wei Lian is safe as she tells him that he is just as important.

When Did The Leads Get Together?

Mi Lan tells Shen Zhi Heng that she wants to stay with him after her blindness was cured in Episode 15. She doesn’t want to return to her own home and he is happy with her choice. When Mi Lan asks Shen Zhi Heng why he cares so much about her in Episode 16, he doesn’t know what to say and ends up telling her that it is because she is his family.

In Episode 22, Mi Lan asks Shen Zhi Heng is he has loved anyone before in his long lifetime. He replies that maybe he did as he refers to her in his heart. He knows he is going to die soon and has asked both Wei Lian and Zhang You Wen to take care of Mi Lan for him in Episode 22 and 23 respectively.

When Did Shen Zhi Heng’s Secret Become Exposed?

Mi Lan finds out that Shen Zhi Heng needs blood to survive through Wei Lian in Episode 7. This is after Shen Zhi Heng was captured and imprisoned by Li Ying Liang. She also knows that she can see for a short while after consuming Shen Zhi Heng’s blood in Episode 8. However, she is not afraid of him and trusts him completely.

Shen Zhi Heng is forced to reveal that he is not an ordinary mortal in Episode 10 after being captured by Li Ying Liang again with Mu Li Hua’s help. He goes berserk in his quest to escape.

Why Shen Zhi Heng Turned Into A Freak?

Shen Zhi Heng is forced to reveal his past to Li Ying Liang in Episode 11 after being captured. His father brought back a woman, Wei Qiu, one day. They also had a son. When his grandmother caught Wei Qiu and her son killing chickens and drinking their blood, she wanted them burned alive. Shen Zhi Heng pleaded with his grandmother to let his half-brother go and tried to save him. His grandmother refused. Wei Qiu then went berserk and started a killing spree. Although Shen Zhi Heng survived her attack, he became a monster thereafter.

Shen Zhi Heng’s Brother

In Episode 13, Wei Lian is forced to reveal himself to Shen Zhi Heng that he is his half-brother with great powers when they are being pursued by Li Ying Liang and Mu Li Hua. Wei Lian tells Shen Zhi Heng in Episode 14 that he had asked his mother to save Shen Zhi Heng after her attack back then. She did by using the Blood Amber Stone. Wei Qiu died not long after and Wei Lian has no idea where the stone might be. Shen Zhi Heng finds the stone in Wei Qiu’s grave in Episode 15.

Wei Lian also kills Li Ying Liang’s righthand man, Li Gui Sheng, in Episode 21 after the latter wanted to shoot him during their escape from Mu Li Hua’s soldiers in a cave mine. Jing Xue also learns that Wei Lian is a monster after discovering a secret chamber in his house in Episode 22. She is afraid of him initially but forces herself to overcome her fear to find out from him what happened to Li Ying Liang. That is how Jing Xue learns that Li Ying Liang is presumed dead in the mine.

What Happened To Mi Lan?

Mi Lan is shot by Li Ying Liang who is trying to capture Shen Zhi Heng in Episode 15. As she dies, Shen Zhi Heng uses the Blood Amber Stone to save her. Mi Lan acquires extraordinary powers from the stone with her blindndess being cured after waking up from the ordeal. However, Shen Zhi Heng knows that he will deteriorate like Wei Qiu did after merging the stone with Mi Lan’s blood.

Mi Lan forgives her mother in Episode 24 after their conversation and Shen Zhi Heng’s advice. Her mother has returned in Episode 23 after her lover cheated her out of her money and abandoned her. Shen Zhi Heng is willing to support her on the condition that she becomes a good mother to Mi Lan. She asks Mi Lan for forgiveness thereafter.

What Happened To Li Ying Liang?

Li Ying Liang tries to capture Shen Zhi Heng again in Episode 15 but fails. Mi Lan is shot in the process and would have died if not for the Blood Amber Stone. As a result, Li Ying Liang becomes paranoid over his safety as he fears that Shen Zhi Heng would kill him in revenge. The latter captures and locks him up instead in Episode 16.

In Episode 17, Shen Zhi Heng realizes that Li Ying Liang was the opera performer he had helped in the past when he started singing in his cell. Li Ying Liang couldn’t get over the fact that Shen Zhi Heng rejected his plea to save his sister when bandits attacked the opera house back then. Hence, he had a grudge against Shen Zhi Heng despite now knowing that the sight of blood could make the latter go berserk. Shen Zhi Heng explains that was why he couldn’t have saved his sister because the bandits went on a killing spree and blood was everywhere.

Li Ying Liang manages to escape from his cell and becomes obsessed on gaining power and making a comeback in Episode 18. He seeks out Jing Xue for protection. Although she disagrees with his plan and his effort to push her to Wei Lian, she ends up sleeping with him in Episode 19. He nearly dies and is captured by Mu Li Hua in Episode 21. She has killed Superintendent Chi earlier and outplays Li Ying Liang as she wants the Blood Amber Stone for herself and revenge against Shen Zhi Heng.

Snowfall Review – Good Start But Rushed Ending

Snowfall has a pretty intriguing start with a narration of the history of 3 mystical stones which ended up in the hands of 3 different families. The stones enabled them to gain great powers but they also have side-effects. The male lead is not part of these 3 families and thus, there is a curiosity in the beginning of why and how he acquired vampire-like characteristics.

In the first episode, there is an order to have him killed as he has exposed the evil deeds of the city’s warlord. His immortal powers is revealed to the viewers then. For half the drama, the story focuses on the villains’ plans to have him captured in order to discover his secret. To me, the story is engaging up to that point. You understand why the different parties want him for themselves. The aura of the male lead also helps to draw you into the story.

However, the moment one of the villains starts to vie for screen time with the leads, the drama starts to lose its shine. This is because he becomes that typical one-dimensional villain who is not particularly smart either.

Villain’s Story Lacks Conviction (Spoilers Alert!)

The villain, Li Ying Liang, actually has a very significant role in Snowfall. In fact, his screen time could be more than the female lead’s. Li Ying Liang is a complex character with a deep inner conflict. He has emotional baggage and mental issues arising from his relationship with the male lead which goes back to his younger days.

His background story and grudge against the male lead is adequately laid out. But his inner conflict is not effectively fleshed out. Towards the end, he is shown to be more and more emotionally unstable. But he still wants his revenge and the viewers are supposed to sympathize with him supposedly because of his bitter past.

So, there will be a quick redemption arc for him in the end. I guess he is written to be a tragic villain just like the second male lead in The Princess Royal. Unfortunately, it isn’t convincing or satisfactory after all the evil deeds that he has done. Something seems to be missing in his story that it is hard to see him as pitiable especially with his half-baked revenge ideas.

Similarly, the female lead’s mother is also another character that we are supposed to forgive. But her cruelty towards her own daughter in the beginning is hard to swallow that it makes little sense to have her back towards the end.

Plot Holes Mar The Drama

Plot holes will become obvious in the second half of the drama. Perhaps some scenes have been cut out because the story seems to get a little disjointed towards the end. It is very rushed especially the last episode. Some things are not well-explained such as how the female villain survived a mine explosion earlier and the sudden appearance of a zombie-like army that is under her control. The good guys are then seen riding horses which appear out of nowhere to go and save the day.

The ending is definitely not going to please a lot of viewers. It is expected but there is no proper closure for the surviving characters. We are not told what they are doing and how they have been living their lives after the villains have been dispensed with given that they are not normal human beings.

To me, Snowfall’s ending could have been better executed. At the very least, they could have told us clearly what happened to the ancient stones since there are 3 of them which is how the story started in the first place.

Acting & Chemistry

Personally, I do like Vengo Gao’s performance in Snowfall. His character is supposed to be dignified and suave and he played the role well to bring out that aura of a wealthy gentleman of that era. His styling and clothes are a perfect fit for the role which accentuates the character’s upper class status. However, the emotional scenes are not so impressive and lacks real chemistry.

Ouyang Na Na is also great as a blind young woman in the drama. Her character has an innocent and pure heart which she is able to flesh out through her acting. Her child-like mannerisms look natural and convincing. Perhaps it is too convincing that the chemistry between her and Vengo Gao then becomes kind of weird to me.

This is because she is young and child-like while he is an old soul and matured. If opposites attract is your thing, then maybe this couple would resonate with you. Otherwise, their big gap in age and maturity of their characters will neutralize any chemistry between them.

==> Vote On Their Chemistry In This Poll

My Verdict – Worth A Try

Snowfall is worth the time to me because it does have a good story to tell overall. The start is engaging and will quickly draw you into the story. While Republican dramas may not be that popular among viewers, the vampire theme and good start is definitely enticing enough to give this a go. So, it is refreshing in a way with a mixture of fantasy, suspense, and a bit of thrill amidst a Republican setting. The cast also did a good job with a veteran actor leading the way to give us a charismatic gentlemanly vampire.

However, you can’t raise your expectations too high for this drama either as there are obvious flaws that will mar your enjoyment. The ending is a rushed one and the antagonist is not going to endear himself to viewers despite the tragic villain approach to the script. Because of the rushed nature of the ending, there will also be plot holes that will stand out.

Therefore, for this review of Snowfall, I would give it a score of 7.5/10. I like the unique story but the execution is somewhat lacking. This could have been a gem if done right. Watch it for the plot rather than the romance which doesn’t really tug at the heartstrings to me. More time is spent on the antagonist and hence, romance isn’t the main focus of the drama. It is just a pity that the second half of the drama fails to match up to the first despite the overall great cinematography, costumes, and settings.

==> Cast Your Vote On Snowfall Here