BearFightingFanBackAgain

Yeah, this show is 100% relying on the actors to sell it and I think selling it overseas is how they’re making their money back. They could also be selling it at a really cheap price too.
I agree with you that they can’t cut all of the Yebei cast. I’d keep the parts necessary to the plot like the dark magic guy and the migration but I’d severely cut down on the vice couple’s romance. I’d go really lean to basically only include them to where they’re necessary for the plot.

Honestly if the producers intended to go a purely hero focused route, it would have been more logical to cut Yebei and A’Rui entirely and to start the story at the big Yebei battle and have Yezi/Bai Lu start as a prisoner of war in the first episodes. Then, segue it into the Tianqi arc with Yu Xiuming building a relationship with Bai Lu through giving her a position at the Astrology Bureau which could be juxtaposed with flashbacks of her treatment in Yebei (to showcase why Tianqi and YXM are better). Focus would need to be on the relationship strengthening and why YXM is so good to counteract YWY’s appearance later. The audience could then be shown snippets of what happened in the aftermath of the Yebei war with the vice couple and through Qi Hailan and YiWuyou meeting with Bai Lu. Edited correctly it could lead up to revealing the death of A’Rui which could then be spun as a catalyst for the war. Bai Lu wanting go back in time to save A’Rui rather than seeking revenge would stay in line with her vase character(and pass censorship) yet possibly satisfy those who want her to take some sort of action against YXM. The story could then feed into the rest of the aired cut and with first episodes deleted, there would be enough airtime for the canal storyline required by the government and the life after marriage arc with it cut into a happy ending.

SJFY is going to be rebroadcast on two more Taiwanese platforms. Starting to wonder which trailer is the original version because every trailer has a different feel. In this one, Yezi/Bai Lu is definitely a vase character being fought over by two men. They’ve even cut some of Yezi/Bai Lu’s lines and scenes. Most surprising was that they cut, “Yu Xiuming, I hate you” line.

https://m.weibo.cn/detail/4859198921773938

Looks like PXR will be performing at the Young Spring Festival Gala (young在春晚)!
Not sure if she is a host or a performer but it’s this Saturday, January 21 2023 at 14:00 Beijing time.
Initial Post:
https://m.weibo.cn/detail/4858868569473379
Link to CCTV broadcast (may or may not work):
https://m.yangshipin.cn/video?type=2&vid=2018355501&pid=600140521&ptag=4_2.7.3.23318_wxf
Will add the YouTube link if there is one.

Found another interesting point about this drama. At least in the current edit, there is very little female competition. I realise it depends on setting, but unlike many other dramas starring independent women in the palace, Bai Lu doesn’t have to step on the bones of other women to get to the top. Maybe this would change in the full version but in the current version this seems so. Though the show does have deaths, injuries, and some jealousy amongst women, Bai Lu pretty much works her way up professionally and romantically without the expected cliche of harem infighting or plotting against other women.
Rather than fight over YWY with A’Rui, she keeps whatever feelings she may have for him hidden. The one villainess that indulges in competition isn’t part of the palace harem, has a one sided hate, and they don’t quite have the expected end. The one character the audience expects to be a problem, Tianfei, ends up helping Bai Lu throughout the story and when she has doubts about Bai Lu, they’re not born out of simple jealousy but rather a desire to protect Xiu Ming.

It seemed like they accidentally kept a scene from the original cut in. I think he was supposed to leave and then we never see him again.

Anyway,
Nearly finished my rewatch and one of the ways to tell if a Bai Lu shot is out of sequence is to pay attention to her official uniform. It changes as she gets promoted. If she suddenly has her novice uniform after shots of her being supervisor or director or vice versa, chances are it’s an out of sequence shot.
Also the strange long shots when it feels like it should be a close up is probably to hide the fact that the dubbing does not match the mouths. That’s also possibly the reason for some back of the head shots when it feels like there should be a frontal scene.

Yeah the book is sooo good. I read it nonstop for like 3 days. The male lead in the book is an absolute scumbag in the beginning but I really liked that the FML doesn’t let herself get caught up in it. She kinda keeps doing her thing. I really like heroines like this.

They’ve sold the rights to a couple different countries. When this happened with GMP, the Korean and Taiwanese versions had scenes that had been cut out in China. I feel with the quality of Korean dramas I can’t see them buying this show as it is.

Haha, yeah I wouldn’t call it a romance either. I love the show for the actress but it’s definitely a proper tragedy and the relationship is toxic af. The peerless sweet drama tag has become something of a meme/joke now in China though and now all the dramas similar to GMP are often called “sweet” dramas.

They did decide to end it. This 25 episode version is not the original 36 episode version. They also cut the heroine into a vase character for some strange reason. While still imperfect, she was supposed to be way more complex. She was supposed to start out hating the emperor and wanting to kill him but eventually realise she likes him and then deal with the guilt of liking the man responsible for the death of her best friend. I like the heroine a lot but I also saw the deleted tidbits and read the analysis and posts based off the character scene list after knowing what it should have been, the final cut of the heroine should be a crime.
I really don’t understand the producers of this show. So many people were looking forward to the heroine not being a stereotypical heroine and being a heroine with growth and they cut that all out. 😭They used the excuse of censors but why would censors have cut the final arc where it appears the heroine is happily married and (according to rumors) supposed to show her growth? To make matters worse, the official page is still releasing stills and they are full of scenes that they cut.

It’s a different kind of charm but still charming. She’s got a royal sister temperament in real life but is a sweetheart and a goofball at the same time.
Her micro expressions and mannerisms are one of the reasons I became her fan. She’s just so fascinating to watch. I like her newest drama but the dramas that capture her best are Goodbye My Princess and To Our Dreamland of Ice. Also, if you can access bilibili, there are a lot of compilation videos of her both in real life and in shows. She’s also known as a beautiful crier too and is famous for her weird goose like run.

There were a lot of cuts to the beginning to get the story started faster but it calms down. It also depends on what version you watch. There’s a version with the cuts added back in and the first episode is much more coherent but I’m not sure if it’s in English.
Once past the first episode or so, I thought the pacing was fine. It was actually a highlight after awhile and this is one of the few Cdramas I’ve watched in its entirety without skipping but everyone’s different and your mileage may vary.

It’s often referred to as a “peerless sweet drama” in China and I think Youku has it in the sweet love category on its website.

New promo video from Calvin Klein. PXR is definitely the royal sister type.
https://m.weibo.cn/detail/4856301660146294#comment

Also Tencent itself seems to be having issues. Apparently it hasn’t really been airing dramas as of late because there’s some internal problems.
They could also be waiting for his drama with YCY to air. It’s got more hype and is done by the same producers as Canglan Jue I think so if it succeeds, it’ll be easier and cheaper to promote this drama afterwards.
But, Tencent really has to stop grinding dramas though. I’d argue they’re worse than Youku at this point. Look at how many BL dramas they held onto and now none of them can air. Apparently that really messed them up last year.

Actually after Yanxi, a ban on harem politics was put in place. It was too lit😂. So you don’t often see a harem storyline to that level anymore. A lot of other things have been banned too since they aired and there is a big emphasis on “positive entertainment”.
I hear you on the smart leads. In the book, I’d argue Jiman is that level at least when it comes to making money and surviving but I’m not sure in the show. Having just been burned in another drama due to heavy cuts, I’d say enter with hopeful caution for this drama. 1) Even though the book is heroine centric, the initial announcement of the actors suggests this could be a hero centric drama which may mean most of the spotlight will be on the hero. 2) The director is also notorious for ruining heroine centric dramas although I still like Fuyao and Jun Jiu Ling (strangely most foreign audiences do). In fact, I heard the changes he made in Jun Jiu Ling’s script pissed off the screenwriter so much, that screenwriter started posting what they’d written originally so they’d stop getting scolded.
I do have hope for the heroine though and really look forward to this drama cause I love the book and the heroine. And, I’m a fan of the lead actress. PXR is very good at shaping characters and giving them life so for me her heroines are always worth a watch.

Yeah, there’s a lot that I think wouldn’t make it tbh. There’s drugging, infanticide, murder, vicious harem politics, infidelity, out of wedlock pregnancies, treason, clan annihilation... there’s a lot going on in the book …😅if it’s a light comedy, I don’t think any of those elements would make it even if the censors allowed it. Also, in the book, the hero is really black bellied too and takes awhile to be likeable. It really makes sense why he has to be the one chasing and why the heroine doesn’t like him completely until quite far into the book. Most actors wouldn’t want to play him because they’d get scolded to death so it’s more than likely that the screenwriter changed his character. I’ve heard the drama’s relationship described as love after marriage so they did keep some essence of the book.

If I remember right one of the chief producers had a scandal and actually got arrested. Theory is it’s affected the drama.

It seems like it’s a light comedy so I don’t know how well the character will compare to those two because it will have a less serious storyline. If the show follows the book well though, Ji man is more of an entrepreneurial genius but she does have moments of cunning. A lot of stuff gets thrown in her way in the book but she manages to scrape by without being Mary Sue perfect. Actually quite a few things go wrong but it has a good sense of cause and effect. I think only thing is I don’t think those bits could make into the show given the current environment.