Big_Red_1011

Most Western dramas are created to be long-running (not too many “limited series”) because that’s better for the studios. Especially in the days before streaming — studios made $$$ once shows were sold off to syndication [repeats to be red on cable channels instead of original main channels]. Syndication generally required 100+ episodes so that’s approximately 5 seasons of 24-episode per season show. P.S. I have to read subtitles either way so it doesn’t matter the country. Although, dramas from Philippines are a bit easier to watch because they use a lot of English in their speech.

Sure, part of the army (including the general) supposedly blew up in Ning’s mansion, but what about general’s son and the rest of the large army? Wouldn’t you think that the son would be seeking revenge and still come to help? 🧐

And about the army… (spoiler ⬇️)

How did the good guys not see / predict / prepare for what happened in Episode 19? What.. the .. heck 😳😒🧐

Good thing there are hundreds of costume/historical dramas per year 😆 FWIW, I tend to think that for modern dramas Chinese high-school / university dramas are better than Korean (when comparing best examples; too many dramas are just bad or not great). “When I Fly Towards You” is amazing (and I’m well past my school & college years). You can watch it because it’s set in 2012 — that’s practically ancient history (FL makes diaries on video camera 📹). 🤣🤣🤣

Understood. Thank you for the primer :)

Got it! So last stage is generally sponsors and advertisers. P.S. It must be harder for dramas not set in a modern day — cannot reference “999” ten times per episode 😁

Our hero is a bit of a Rogue character (in RPG sense) :)

Neither. He’s a smart fighter that picks and chooses his battles. In early stages, our hero starts off a bit weaker than his peers but he makes great use of skills/weapons/equipment. In RPG terms he may be a bit of a Rogue.

He also has max Luck and near-max Alchemy, 😆

Han Li’s Luck skill is at max level when it comes to drops 😆

Someone estimated donghua will finish in 2040, lol. So far it covered 1/6 or 1/5 of all chapters.

rating actually improved a bit. It started at 8.1-8.2, dropped to 7.9 and now is back to 8.2.

Question for novel/donghua experts: did NGW visit HL’s sect after events of Ep. 12 (she was considering that)? No one from her sect was at the mini-meetup/mahjong game.

MDL tag is wrong. There’s very limited romance in the source novel and, so far, it’s mostly true here. Some women are trying to woo/chase ML but he’s focused on cultivation. There’s an interesting dynamic with FL but she’s not in the same location geographically.

Thank you for the explanation about episode cut. I naively thought it was because regulators & platforms finally realized most dramas (especially, in modern setting) don’t need to be very long. More episodes just gives screenwriters opportunity to use tired tropes that make everyone frustrated. One of my favorites is “When I Fly Towards You” and it’s 24 half-hour episodes (so about the same length as 12-episode hour+ K-dramas).

Wow, I had read your review of Rebel Princess but didn’t realize it was sort of a vanity project for the main actress. Back to business: once a drama is complete and is soliciting funds pre-release, is it mainly about selling ad inventory/sponsorship or do existing stakeholders (studio/platform/early investors) try to hedge their bet by selling a share of the project?

Another candidate is this “scandal” from 5 years ago — headline: “Chinese Actress Yang Zi Slammed By Netizens For Donating "Too Much" To COVID-
19 Relief Efforts” [supposedly there was an agreed upon maximum donation amount for celebrities and YZ exceeded that] 😳

They are kind of like siblings, always teasing each other :)

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