BearFightingFanBackAgain

It depends on what you’re looking for.

It’s worth it for Xiao Ran. I’ve watched it twice just to watch her (it was actually better the second time). It’s best to ignore the overall plot and just focus on the acting though. Turn off the barrage if you’re watching on Youku too. Cangcang is controversial but it’s mostly due to plot and marketing. Her character makes sense considering her worldview and experience.

She is a young, chivalrous woman who believes in the greater good even if she has to sacrifice herself. She grew up outside court intrigue and in her eyes, her family has always pampered her which makes things difficult when her father and husband are essentially foes and are vying against each other for power. And while she accepts the forced marriage, she struggles with being used as a political pawn by her father and husband, their lack of truth and transparency, and the loss of autonomy and freedom that comes from her position. And in the early stages, she is dealing with this situation after a major betrayal and while undergoing a series of traumatic experiences and doesn’t have the full story like the audience. She only has the story she can piece together or that others will give her. She’s basically in a continuous state of stress and her character reflects that in who she lashes out at and who she goes to for comfort. If Huanrui/Yehua had produced this drama with serious intentions, I think Cangcang would have been a very poignant take on the plight of palace women trapped between their own desires, their family’s ambitions, the emperor’s affection, and the crown’s intentions.

🥳Congrats to Xiao Ran on becoming an Art Promotion Ambassador for Harper’s Bazaar🎉

You’re welcome. If you’re ever curious, the show does have some charm points. I think most of the family/found family storylines are pretty good and very logical. And each of the characters are pretty logical and consistent within their own worldviews. It’s very much a story of every character is right in their own little worlds based on what they know at the time and have experienced. On rewatch, I found the FL’s role as a political pawn, how she deals with it, its toll on her, and how it plays out between the men in her life to be interesting. The main couple is also interesting from this angle because it’s essentially the ML fighting the father but trying to woo the FL -it’s a balancing act-and in the initial stages he keeps winning in one arena to lose in another.

It depends. I’m rewatching it and it’s weirdly more enjoyable than the first time but I’m a fan so maybe my judgment is skewed 😅 I’d say its highlights are the acting, the looks, the characters, and their relationships with each other but it’s weak on overall plot. A lot of people don’t like the ending either. If a strong plot is essential, you might not like it.

🎉Congratulations to Love and Crown on entering Youku’s annual list at #20🎉

Promotional content is up to the production company if I remember correctly. Sometimes it’s outsourced to other companies too. However, I think promo is a quality not quantity affair. So, while staying in the public eye is important, the show should want to be in the public eye for the right reasons and shouldn’t post just to meet holiday KPIs if the promo isn’t high quality. One very well edited trailer can do more work than 20 mediocre AI produced posters or poorly shot promo reels.

Happy New Year🎉
Here’s Xiao Ran’s New Year’s post:
https://m.weibo.cn/detail/5250372302276536

Xiao Ran and Zheng Yecheng have been promoting the show in their own way since filming ended. I don’t follow other cast members so don’t know if they’ve been promoting but the cast seems harmonious so I think the rest of the cast will definitely promote together when the time comes.

I think most people are waiting for the trailer to be released tbh. Even though they hit a million much sooner, both LaC and Blood River’s reservations picked up once the trailer was released.

Fans usually speak up when they feel the issue is crucial. I can’t think of any key issues they’ve been quiet about. They may be privately messaging the crew.

They may be conserving resources.
LaC seemed to save most of its marketing for the show’s broadcast because the quality did increase closer to the release date. I think TBBM might follow the same trajectory. If that’s the case, then it’s better for TBBM to focus on producing quality materials for the broadcast. Plus, not every drama released a poster yesterday. The bigger promotional opportunity would be the upcoming CNY celebrations.

And to be fair to LaC, it did organise some promotion or at least the platforms did. They just didn’t host any promotional events like live broadcasting with the whole cast or in-person events. The circumstances are different from TBBM though because LaC was a breakup drama (and a really old IP).

While I don’t know what the final result will be like, TBBM seems to be willing to listen to feedback and does seem to be trying to improve.

The 55 episode version mostly gives more info on Li Chengyin’s story if I remember correctly. I think either version is fine though.

Seems like there’s going to be 2 public events this month! Can’t wait to see what Xiao Ran comes up with next!

January’s schedule is out:

January 9th, Harper's Bazaar Art Magazine 15th Anniversary
January 14th, Magazine Shoot
January 16th, Magazine Shoot
January 20th, Intangible Cultural Heritage Spring Festival Gala Recording

I’ve completed it and rewatched some episodes/ scenes several times but it’s hard to rate. I feel like the producers and production company deserve the 6.5 but not anyone else. The director, actors, and crew seemed to be doing a decent job. To me they’re worth at least an 8. I’m even willing to cut the screenwriter and editor a bit of slack ( but not much. I’d give them a 6.6 rating) because the source novel wasn’t so good which means adapting it must have been difficult.

If you like the FL, I’d watch Goodbye My Princess first. It handles grey and imperfect characters much more realistically. It also respects the FL more by giving the audience enough time to get to know her as a person before the relationship and then spends time showing us how things are complicated by her identity and how she transforms because of her marriage without trying to vilify her.
If you’re still interested in Love and Crown after and still like the FL, I’d say go in with an open mind about her situation. The actress does a good job of showing the different stages of the FL trying to navigate being forced into a stressful and traumatic situation (first love, betrayal, love greater than hate, hate greater than love, deciding to leave when the situation becomes too toxic, and finally accepting the ML) and the acting is great, but her story is hampered by the screenwriter’s desire to keep her a caged canary and the narrative that she has a perfect husband and so should therefore be grateful.

Love and Crown has a few similarities to Goodbye My Princess but they’re common tropes. The book Love and Crown is based off, My Empress, actually predates Goodbye My Princess. After the first few episodes, I don’t think they resemble each other much other than some suspiciously similar shots. Love and Crown didn’t seem to understand the essence of what makes a good tragedy. To me, it’s like they took all the dark and controversial elements of GBMP but didn’t understand that the audience needed to understand the characters first, especially the FL in an originally FL perspective work, and that good tragedy follows a certain logic. The political and family plots had potential to be on the same level but writing the script during filming didn’t seem to leave any time for polishing the script.

Happy second anniversary to Unshakable Faith🎉 Can’t believe it’s been two years since this show took Chinese TV by storm! It was Peng Xiao Ran’s first serious drama as first billing and really a dark horse! Not only did it manage 100 million views in a single day (most of the other shows with this achievement were big budget shows with high profiles and bigger marketing) but it still maintains quite a high rank among 90s actresses CVB scores on CCTV 8 and spy dramas. 🎉

No worries. I understand the frustration. I actually don’t disagree with the rating. It’s a reflection of viewers’ feelings. The show did have a lot of potential so it is sad to see it ruined by issues that producers could have fixed. I just wanted to offer a perspective for why some people might still enjoy the show despite the low ratings.
I think I reduced plot to one element because to me the plot is how the story unfolds (this includes logic and consistency). I separate it from the other elements mentioned. For example, world building is its own category for me. Characterisation and motivations fall under characters. Pacing is editing when it comes to film to me. That said, plot is important to many which is why I guess there is the saying “Plot is king”.
Anyway, thank you for the reply. I like storytelling so I’m always interested in what works or doesn’t work in stories so it’s interesting to see how others view storytelling too.

I think how people see the rating depends on what you look for in a show. A lot of the score for this show seems based on the plot (and possibly the editing) but outside of the plot, some people may legitimately find the show doesn’t deserve a 6.5. I can understand why viewers gave the show a low score but for some people, one element may not be enough to dismiss the whole show. The costumes are okay. The filming while not profound does occasionally have very good shots. The soundtrack is okay and the performances ranges from acceptable to outstanding.

As for the script, it is indeed a mess when it comes to a complete plot, but some interesting things are going on if you look at just the characters. I’m someone who follows characters and acting over plot, so even though I can admit the overall plot is terrible, it didn’t stop me from enjoying parts of the show due to individual storylines or characters. Most are pretty consistent and logical in their own worldviews. And, some of the relationships between characters are enjoyable to watch. It almost makes me wonder if this was a character driven script forced into a plot driven one. Tbh, what I find most interesting about this show’s script is how depressing it is from the FL’s perspective yet it managed to quite successfully make her the “bad guy” in the eyes of so many. I’ve spent the last few weeks trying to dissect this phenomenon and how the screenwriter did it.

Happy Winter Solstice!
https://m.weibo.cn/detail/5246261483539940