A Moment But Forever (念无双), starring Tang Yan and Liu Xueyi, aired to poor reviews. It trended on hot search—not for praise, but because of its shockingly low viewership. Many are mocking it as a “fantasy idol drama with middle-aged leads.” Tang Yan, now 41, is seven years older than her co-star Liu Xueyi, who is 34.
It Aired to Some Complaints
The show is promoted as evoking the classic fantasy idol romances, which could have been good… but the downside is it looks dated, low-budget, and just not up to par with today’s polished productions. Viewers are criticizing the bad makeup, costumes, and questionable CGI—and to some extent, they have a point. You realize it the moment you see a shirtless Liu Xueyi, but somehow, you can’t look away from his hideous wig. And in one particular scene, Wang Hongyi’s make up is on another level of bad.
But is it that bad? I think you have to give it a chance. Sure, the leads are in their 30s and 40s, but Tang Yan is beautiful, and even with subpar styling, both leads are a visuals pair. So why have I kept watching? Because despite everything… it’s actually my kind of drama.
What It’s About
The plot? A goddess is tasked with taking the “God’s Left Hand” from a man, which will kill him. He’s believed to be evil—until she realizes there’s more to him than meets the eye. Tang Yan plays goddess Wu Shuang, who goes by the name Ji Tanyin and pretends to be a human girl to apply as a maid for the powerful Youhu Tribe. We’ve seen this trope a million times, so I wasn’t expecting anything fresh. But that part is quickly glossed over, and what we actually get is a goddess who’s terrible at being a maid. That’s not even the focus—her goal is to figure out whether the male lead Yuan Zhong is truly good or bad.
Yuan Zhong’s the high priest of Youhu, revered and feared by all, but the deeper she digs, the more things aren’t what they seem. And just like that, I found myself several episodes in, fully invested.
A Moment But Forever First Impressions
Needless to say, I’m enjoying the show. Even the bizarre makeup choices—blue eyebrows for the men, brownish eye makeup for the women—are starting to grow on me. I just hope it gains more traction. Episode 8 already has some of the funniest moments—could this secretly turn into a comedy?
A Moment But Forever is Tang Yan’s next drama after her massive success in Blossoms Shanghai, which was a career-defining moment for her. But with this show’s rocky start, it seems all of that has been erased overnight. Maybe people are judging too soon—there’s still time for it to turn around and it seems like ratings are at the very least trending higher now. Liu Xueyi’s witty banter in this is hilarious. Also deserving a special mention is Zifei, Liu Xueyi’s sidekick, played by young actor Ma Qiyue.
Source: 1
Dee
I watched the first episode and the female lead comes rude and annoying but I love both actors and will finish this for sure. Or try to
H a
they watch bad drma that utterly unbearable to complete 2 episodes of and miss this one ,the costume and CGI doesn’t annoyme ,the plot is mot annoying, I mean we wish to that extent that we watched the drama just because the plot is not annoying I mean c citizens are very wired ,chill it is o.k drama somtimes funny ,it is not brainless one ,the dialogue is really good ,his friend who betrayed him tonghua ,,,his love to fl is reasonable and come with cause and reason ,the acting ia really good ,i mean he is million times better than the gloy cast and it became a hit wtf
Applefish
This drama is soooo slow, the plot is lacklustre! The chemistry isn’t there (and this is me already ignoring the ML’s laughable wig!). FL ping pong between she’s quite beautiful in some scenes to looking rather old (idc too much, but it’s noticeable lol). Main thing is the plot can be sum up in 1 sentence: instead of retrieving her object, she has decided to stay with his for his “human” life. I’m up to ep16, and up to now: we are collecting his spirit beasts: 2/5 collected, yay 😑🙄😒! I think it likes 8eps on 1 beast…
The dialogue, while funny at times (and this funny is rather loosely – it has been done before, for a veteran watchers, you might chuckle 1/5 of their “funny” dialogue), they are rather few in between. Combine with very simple plot, lack of actions, cliché/forced romantic moments to drive/progress the romantic relationship between the two leads, it’s a rather meh series. I would give it a 6/10, basically passable to watch, especially during this period of NOTHING GOOD IS ON