Raymond Ardin

ML wasn't cast as the lead for the actual movie. He was only the lead in the pilot video (which for some reason was completely unrelated to the actual movie), which was meant to test the waters on how the audience will react to this new unknown actress. The lead who dropped out was someone else.

It definitely has wuxia elements, but the main story is about the military and the imperial court rather than jianghu.

One of Mei Chang Su's best friends, the master of Langya Court, is still alive in season 2, albeit as a very old man.

IMO her best role was in Heavenly Sword and Dragon Sabre. The character of Zhao Min may not be everyone's cup of tea, but Yukee was born to play her.

Umm did you miss the part about what they do to people who try to leave?

Some of my recommendations:
一生等你 (A Lifetime Waiting For You) - Bloody Romance OST
藏心 (Hidden Heart) - Song of Glory OST
任花落 (Let Flowers Fall) - The Dark Lord OST

Nice to see someone who shares the same taste in music as me. That one's my favorite too. I also love "雪花叹" (Snowflake Sigh). I wonder if it's based on a poem, because the lyrics are in fancy literary language, and every line has the same number of characters, just like poetry.

Can you recommend other really beautiful and sad songs?

I'm not sure why Li Heng and Gongsun Mo are listed as main but Nong Ying and Zhu Yan are support when they are all basically equally important characters. Li Heng & Zhu Yan are the 2nd couple and Gongsun Mo & Nong Ying are the 3rd couple. There is no reverse harem or love triangle between them.

I love that song so much, I downloaded it and listen to it all the time.

100% agree with you about Zhu Yan. Her character is so boring but she is the dictionary definition of classic Chinese beauty. She has the most perfect face I've ever seen.
Nongying's love story was doomed as soon as Gongsun Mo read her the poem about husband planting a tree for dead wife. It was obvious that the same would happen to them.

Apparently this actress is super popular and people really love her. But I found it kinda weird how she always had this fake cheesy grin on her face, especially in the earlier episodes.

I love her eyes . They're so expressive, alluring, full of mystery and intrigue, and just a little sinister. Perfect for the double agent type roles like in Princess Silver and Duoluo Continent.

Princess Silver is an intense, emotional ride, and is rather exhausting to watch, but it's just so good. The major subplots are absolutely heart-wrenching and tragic, especially that of the third male lead, Rong Qi. Overall, I'd classify this drama as a mystery, but not in the normal sense of solving crimes and bringing wrongdoers to justice. The protagonist's identity, the motives of everyone around her, and indeed the entire plot itself, are all mysteries that become increasingly perplexing as the drama progresses. I'm surprised this drama didn't attract more attention.

One of the most underrated actresses ever. Her acting is so amazing, especially in her role as the villain consort in General and I. Unfortunately she never got the recognition she deserved.

Yes, the novel has the same name (Ye Tianzi, "Emperor of the Night").

I dropped it when I tried to watch it for the first time because the FL was weak and always doing stupid things, but I gave it a second chance and the story was surprisingly good the second time around. The mood of the drama is quite dark compared to most wuxia dramas; instead of a typical romanticized and chivalrous portrayal of jianghu, Snow Tower doesn't shy away from the endless bloodshed and revenge that the main characters are forced to live in.

That being said, there are a lot of other cliches present in this drama. At least one of the leads is always sick or poisoned throughout the entire story. There's the crazy jealous "sister" who thinks she and no one else deserves to be the girlfriend. And despite their deep love for each other, the leads have a pretty unhealthy relationship where communication and therefore trust is lacking. All of these get tiring after a while.

Having watched several dramas with Crystal Yuan in them, the progression of her acting is quite obvious, which deserves respect. Here, it's much improved over her earlier work but not nearly as good as it is in Love and Redemption. She completely nails the cool and badass look, but her crying face is still quite "smiley" and unconvincing here.

Nobody does fierce like Meng Ziyi though. Have you seen her in Ever Night or The Untamed? She has the most amazing glare. It's so powerful and hot! Another actress with surprisingly fierce eyes is Sun Xuening, especially considering she has the most delicately beautiful face I've ever seen (aside from a young Liu Yifei). When she's angry there's so much fire and murderous energy in her eyes, it's shocking.

I also don't like the theory that the leads are gods/immortals, and that everything that happened was their trial in the mortal world. It's fine when the main story is about gods (e.g. Ashes of Love), but when the entire story takes place in the human realm, and then you find out that it was all "just" a trial, everything that happened in the story becomes trivial.

If they died in the mortal realm, then all of their efforts were in vain. He is the only surviving member of the imperial family, so if he dies, the entire empire will fall apart. She is the only surviving member of the XuanJi kingdom's royal family (other than her evil sister/cousin that went insane), so if she dies, the lava will stop flowing and the production of gold (the empire's currency) will cease, and that will also cause the empire to fall apart.

The entire story line was supposedly about killing her to prevent her from waking up the primordial demon from plunging the world into chaos and suffering. But the fact that they died to stop the demon from waking up will also cause the same chaos and suffering. That would be a major plot hole, so we should assume that they didn't die. Honestly, they should've removed the demon thing and just ended the drama when she became queen.

IMO the weakest part of this drama is the supernatural element (the whole thing about waking up the primordial demon that will destroy the world). Instead of feeling like it's an integral part of the story, it seems to be artificially tacked on... which it probably was. I heard that in the original novel, Fu Yao was a modern person that time-traveled back to the Han dynasty, so the whole demon thing was probably a gimmick that the writers of the drama added to avoid a time-travel story (which was banned in China). The story would've been stronger without it.

Wait, did they seriously give us almost 2 whole episodes of flashbacks!? I mean the last 2 episodes. I just skipped through them so maybe I missed something?