monkeylover

the baby from the Li family and the baby from the affair

yes I agree, the only thing wrong was the pacing problem! It may have been better if they had 30/32 episodes…

what happened? I missed the video, I can’t open it now

Latest update: he just went to the airport for the mid-autumn gala dressed in red shirt. this time with 6 airport security personnel 👍🏻✨✨✨

No, he’s still with the American Crew; got off filming this morning at 7 am… so he’s probably still sleeping or doing covert HeSong work that’s not mentioned 🫠😭

Yes the pacing feels like it's trying to compete with short dramas, with the amount of plot twists too!

I'm used to C-dramas having so much screen time for side characters that this one became okay for me. At least the side characters were not like NPCs this time and they all had their own dreams and aspirations. It felt quite dynamic. Some people actually like LLJ because she had her own redemption arc. But I understand, she's a bit hard to forgive.

I agree with all three of you. Anyways, with the timeskip their respective ages make sense. XJY was 17-23. XWY was 24-30. In the drama, they were only 6-7 years apart (given we don't have information on their birth month).

The reason why casting an older actor for XWY was essential was because his character had to be "weathered" by all the fighting and politics he had to do. The reason why casting a young actress was essential for XJY was because she had to have that naive, positive vibe for her character. So it was really perfectly done!

haha a lot of people took so much time to try and get over Love in the Clouds. During the air time, people were commenting they had to rewatch, once to marvel at his face, once to marvel at his acting, and once to actually try to comprehend the plot haha. then after it finished airing, they had to rewatch to make sense of all the foreshadowing, double meaning and lies. I personally rewatched more than 7 times hahaa

I think that's the pacing's problem. I think the director wanted to compete with short dramas so it felt like we expected 3 plot twists within each episode. Maybe if they made the number of plot twists different for each episode it would feel less predictable. (Or more like the pacing made it feel like we can predict a plot twist coming)

But I think XWY actually thought he would die several times, like in prison (both times), he thought he was going to die. In ep 1, he thought he was going to die. In the last battle he also thought he was done for. But we, as the viewers know there are many episodes left to go. hahaha

and it was actually implied after the Timeskip, that he and Limao kept coordinating with each other, he also already sent the list of bribes to him, but to think that he ended up having to go to jail for it was out of his prediction! haha... He was only stubbornly saying "fine, i'll play along and see who actually wants me dead" but after the torture he realized he was gonna die, so he was like, "okay i'll start writing my will. I'll write a book to educate them all before i die!" such a stubborn cutie pie hahaha.

So yeah, if they had extended this drama a bit longer, gave them more screen time of actually doing investigative work then it would feel more normal.

She actually starts to love him in ep 10, but she had to understand the difference between puppy love and real love. I dunno about you, but personally for me, the payoff for when they did things together and became an unstoppable duo was greater than waiting for them to confess to each other.

haha the messy part, I understand! None of the characters are NPCs, they all have their own dreams and ambitions, it really becomes dynamic like real life. I enjoyed it despite all the tension. Some of the plot twists were quite unexpected.

they're trying to compete with short dramas and cater to those with short attention spans... but yes I hope in the future they can find a balance between character development, main story and filler content. This drama, I think, managed to cut so much filler out, it became very dense. No scenes wasted, lots of callbacks and foreshadowing, it makes it fun for rewatches. I do wish they had added a little bit of filler because I couldn't bear to part with it once it ended, but hey, at least it's already longer than movies.

So apparently the baby from the affair died but the wet nurse was scared she would get scolded, so she didn't tell the grand tutor she failed to swap the baby.

oh, just a friendly reminder, please put the spoiler tag on when discussing spoilers; we don't want to ruin other people's viewing experience.

Well, I understand how you feel, but calling it an after school special is not really fair to the whole drama as it really encompasses broad themes. But I guess it may be cultural difference, I personally think it's much more elegant without any kissing. (we can agree to disagree on this matter, it's okay 😊). It makes the watcher contemplate on other factors instead. For example, there are many love languages, and physical touch is just one of them.

It's been dubbed as the "USA schedule" by c-netz now hahaha, they're living in American time!

I agree, they really fit the characters they're portraying!

The viral meme is just an emoji pack that had his picture (of the RongXia character) and people used it to write "Ancient Chinese" sayings. So for example instead of saying just "No, thank you" they would write "I regret that a prior engagement prevents me from accepting."

But the sheer amount of people who use it has reached nation-wide, and apparently people also use his emoji pack during every start of the school year or something too. So his character became the 古风小生 / Gu Feng Xiao Sheng representative or "Ancient ML / Mr. Traditional Style".

At first HMH's didn't understand why it went viral but at the end of the day, he ended up using it. His go-to meme is the “o而k之” (o ér k zhī); a playful Chinese slang phrase that means "to get it done," "to settle something," or "to make something OK." It essentially turns the English word "OK" into a Chinese verb using clever grammatical structure from Classical Chinese.

If you enjoyed the ML's performance you can watch his other dramas, but he presents vastly different characters, none is as flirty as Ji Bozai. That was definitely his kissing showcase lol. His currently filming one will have lots of kisses too.

But what did you enjoy most? Are you looking for something that's romance-centric? Enemies to Lovers trope or two leads working together? Something with Plot twists? Awesome cinematography & action scenes? It would be easier to recommend if you can elaborate more.