KSM4

Yes! I read it so many times, it's amazing. Listening to audio drama now, though it's not really my format.

This is one of my favorite quotes, too! Such a powerful moment. I adore every episode, but E8 and E14 take the cake.

I actually really liked the special episode, it felt so healing to me, I absolutely can't get enough of it. I'm just not sure what went wrong with filming itself (and with kisses). Surely they could afford a beach without ogling tourists and some better shots in general? This is a mystery to me.

The second mini-special is crazy but great, too :D I love unhinged, stubbornly jealous Fan Xiao.

Thank you very much for the rec, I love good crime shows! I'll go check it now.

Please, let's not pretend that using AI has anything to do with the scenes featuring violence against children. Multiple series have been able to show them without traumatizing child actors. Even Ash managed to show a scene of child abuse pretty starkly without AI in the second half. They were just lazy and made a mistake; they deserved criticism for that, but they also deserve appreciation for listening to viewers.

A lot of people think that.

Bashing AI use is very deserved, and as you can see, it had its impact. They clearly replaced more dumb AI flashbacks with proper scenes in the second half of the series. Making our voices heard is the only way to make a difference.

I found the scene with the 'corpse' very poorly acted :( I didn't mind the acting before that.

When fan service is at play, rational people will always question the relationship, whether it's gay or straight.

I loved this one, too.

Eh, a weak ending to a weak series, but it's still better than the majority of stuff I've been watching in the past 6 months.

I think Fan Xiao would win without even trying. I don't think much of Ji Ming Xuan. Imo, he's just an average guy whose biggest 'quirk' is falling in love with a mentally disturbed person with no real personality.

Let me know what you think after E7 because that's when it all began to look like a total nonsensical madhouse to me. I had many issues with this series before that, but things got absolutely wild in E7.

The problem lies with Shen Mo's actor. He can pull off being quiet and miserable and confused, but when he tried to act happy for flashbacks, it became quickly obvious that his skills are very lacking.

In the first episodes, I was confused because the plot seemed interesting, the characters seemed interesting, but I couldn't feel anything. It was like watching from underwater.

But then things began to actively not make sense to me. If you haven't seen other episodes, then stop reading here because there will be spoilers.

Shen Mo gets a very convenient amnesia where he confuses his ex and Ming Xuan? Okay, let's say I believe that. But after being told for the 100th time that Ming Xuan is not his ex and he's confusing things, he still doesn't get it? This makes him mentally disabled.

A mentally disabled person needs to be at the hospital, not free to wander around, drop to the ground 10 times per episode, faint, and so on. He most definitely isn't fit to have a relationship: why does Ming Xuan even like him?? Out of his sense of guilt? But he didn't do anything all that wrong, he never ordered the assault and had no idea it could happen. Besides, if he's guilty, then providing good care is what he should do. He definitely shouldn't be falling for a mentally challenged person who's so deep in his fantasy world and trauma that his real personality is long lost. This relationship has zero basis.

E1 started with a disturbing scene of Ming Xuan forcing or pretending to force Shen Mo. Based on everything we've seen later, how does it make any sense? Did they just want to mislead the viewers into thinking we are watching a dark romance, and then offer a senseless, soap-opera-like melodrama instead?

There are so many more problems with this series, I'd get tired if I had to list them all.

Apart from the very mediocre acting from one of the leads, which became glaringly obvious in E6 in flashbacks, and underdeveloped characters and relationships, I don't think this series makes sense at all... Maybe they'll somehow explain most of the logic holes later? Doubt it, but who knows.

I thought the series sucked after E1, so I decided to read the novel and ended up liking it. The series stayed very bad, though. Shallow, no payback, no romantic development, plus a completely defanged Jay.

Yes, absolutely. They didn't bother to flesh out their romantic connection, and the payback was a joke. Which is especially strange since the book is much better, so all they had to do was follow its key points and maybe flesh them out even more.

People watched it :D And realized it's the most talentless version of AI slop.

It was shallow and illogical, and did the thing at the end that a lot of people hate. Though it seems like a lot of viewers just don't like dark romances in general and didn't read the tags before watching, too.

YunQi used to be a model, this was his first role, and Hao Yiran took part in other dramas before, but he wasn't all that successful. So for YunQi, this was a novel and challenging experience - he refused to participate the first 3 times and even thought he was being scammed before agreeing. He likes challenges, and he wasn't planning on being an actor in the first place. For Hao Yiran, maybe this was the opportunity to finally get noticed.

It's likely that these two won't be able to join the main channels of Chinese entertainment, but that industry is completely overcrowded anyway, it's impossible to stand out there. They are very successful right now, another series is at work, they are getting deals from luxury brands, so that's probably the best outcome for them both. They made enough money to last them a lifetime.

So yes, they lost something, but they gained so much more. The same goes for other actors: BL is their chance to be seen.