BearFightingFanBackAgain

This couple are straight knuckleheads and I love them for it. 🥹

I created a discussion with some links to what’s been said so far.

The drama has been severely edited with scenes cut, rearranged, and redubbed which has affected its quality. I felt it got better from episode 3 though.
Yezi has been cut to pieces and as a result a lot of the powerful emotional scenes people expect from PXR have been cut as well or what’s left is not the originally intended scene so her reactions don’t always make sense. For people who don’t know what’s happened to her character’s storyline, they think her acting isn’t great and she’s been scolded a lot domestically which is a shame. I have still enjoyed watching her so far though and Yezi is actually my favourite out of all of PXR’s characters. Her cute and lively scenes are still good. People aren’t always into cutesy acting but PXR is one of the few actresses that I can watch being cute and never get sick of it.
FSF is definitely the best and highest quality acting partner she’s had so far and to me it shows. The interplay between them is really the highlight of the drama to me and has had me chasing this drama with enthusiasm for nearly a month.
I’d say going into this, to lower your expectations. Not because the actors haven’t delivered but because the censorship and editing have gutted the show. There’s still highlights though where you can see the intended quality such as the library scene in episode 7, the medicine scene in episode 18, or the curse sequence in episode 20.

AHHHHHHH!!!
Is this a bed scene in my SJFY!?🥹🥹🥹🥹
https://m.weibo.cn/detail/4849091430057472

The vice couple? Ugh, they’re so boring… but I guess it’s because they’re the only one with a coherent and complete storyline.

Apparently it’s more than just cuts. Scenes have been rearranged out of order and overdubbed.

PXR’s domestic fans have begun to explain why certain scenes don’t add up. Is anyone interested in the machine translated version of their explanations? If enough people are, I’ll see about making them a discussion topic.

It’s kind of interesting that Weibo is calling Yezi a silly white sweet and a love brain and essentially scolding her but foreign viewers see her as a strong female lead. I wonder if that’s in comparison to the character in the tidbits because I think even with the cuts, Yezi has a fiery spirit . She defies the emperor, argues with the court ministers, and even helped in an assassination attempt. Heck it took 20 episodes for Yu Xiuming to get a proper kiss from her and that’s low-key partially cause he saved her from certain death. There’s also a bit of ruthlessness when she questioned the guy who supplied her stuff for the curse.

There’s theories that he did.
And I feel like we won’t get this scene even if it’s also in the stills. It’s a little too obvious about what’s supposed to happen next. Youku would never be that good to us.

I’m definitely getting coal for Christmas if they cut any more of the romantic scenes for the leads.

It’s no problem. It’s not really known outside of fans who closely follow events on Weibo and it happened a year ago. It’s just a shame for a show to be so maligned considering the backstory.
Also, I don’t blame you for not being into fandom. I was much happier watching Cdramas when I wasn’t a fan of anyone.😂

The scandal never made it very far in English so I can’t find anything but basically the author said the “wrong”thing (I have no opinion on the matter of what he said because I’m not identified with either party and therefore not qualified to judge) in an already tense climate and ended up being cancelled. I believe he was banned from Weibo as well. Essentially that labelled him as a “bad” artist and that sort of thing can affect the future release of the works in China as there is a belief that works by “bad” artists shouldn’t be shown. As the original author of the book this series is based off, that implicated the show and a decent outcry on Weibo was saying the show should be cancelled/boycotted too. The show runners cut ties with the author and in the current climate of C-ent it makes sense to lie low just like they did. All film and television in China has to go through a censorship board to pass the review. Many fans of the actors didn’t think it would pass review and thought the show would be buried. However to everyone’s surprise the show did pass but with a name change and a reduction of episodes from 36 to 25 episodes. The assumption has always been that the bulk of those cuts probably have to do with the original plot lines of the author since part of the screenplay was original. There’s also thoughts that the revenge plot line of the heroine and 2ML was cut due to censor regulations which affected the heroine’s storyline and basically almost entirely cut out the 2ML from the show. This may not be related to the author but the thought is the show might not have been so tightly regulated if the author wasn’t on the “bad” list. So most of the first third of the show which sets up everything including the heroine, her best friend, and her relationship to Yebei is gone. Cutting her revenge line cut out a lot of the FML’s character, character development, acting highlights, cause and effect, and the “love”triangle. Things were then redubbed which led to characters having strange reactions to things are messed up expressions. Some romantic scenes that showed the development of relationship were also cut but I believe this is a platform issue rather than censorship as the platform is notorious for cutting kiss scenes. I get the impression that if they fixed the editing after the cuts there may be another review and maybe the show didn’t want to risk it so aired things as is. It’s not unusual for Cdramas to just be missing scenes or plot points due to censorship cuts. There’s also a sense that cancellation affected post production because some sequences are very good and some like the battle scenes basically look unedited.
All in all it’s left a big mess which the actors are taking the brunt. I think it’s still watchable but mostly for the acting and the couple interactions. Even with the cuts the FML has character and the ML is legitimately values her intelligence. Plus in the odd scenes that haven’t been cut to pieces such as the curse sequence in episode 20, you can get a glimpse of the original story the show intended to tell and it’s quality.

Youku’s marketing is straight trash. I think it was probably still a platonic relationship on her part but that there were more scenes together with Yi Wuyou making overtures while They were definitely plotting revenge. He seems a bit like Runy in that the feeling is not reciprocated no matter what he does and none of Yezi’s body language suggests more. I think whether we get a different version really depends on the popularity of the show. If it hit 9999 or even 9000 we may have gotten something but who knows now.

I already like the drama for the acting. I don’t have too much hope for plot or the ending tho lol.

They may not be able to release it either due to censorship or the platform. I think most of the romantic cuts are the platform.

I think they’re going off the book, interviews, and tidbits. Now people are looking for the original script.

Also, I don’t know what’s going on but her fan base jumped by loads today.

Yeah, I think that’s why her fans lost it and started posting an explanation. Apparently the poster was going to wait until the show finished airing but the criticism was too much. The “flat” acting really didn’t make sense to me because I doubt FSF would have agreed to work with her if she wasn’t at a certain level and knowing her, she wouldn’t have allowed herself to perform poorly. I wanted to defend her but that can really backfire if people think you’re a fan.
I mean this is an actress who basically only took on iconic roles during Actors Please Take Your Place and with only days of prep and basically live like theatre played them enough to survive to the later stages. They weren’t perfect performances of course but I’ll never forget her Legend of the Demon Cat, shivers ran down my spine when I heard how similar she managed to sound to the original when some big names currently don’t/can’t even say their own lines.

I remember reading that in the original synopsis too. I guess time travel must a been somewhat part of the plot because there looks like setup for it but maybe it was a blip rather than a major plot point like it is now.

Yeah it seems that a part of that remained by accident with a line Yezi says to Yi Wuyou. Dang if they kept this storyline, then Yi Wuyou’s involvement/dedication makes more sense. And his rebellion makes more sense cause it’s part retaliation for Yezi’s “betrayal”, part trying to get her back, part revenge for A’Rui, and part getting his country back.