Deirdre19

Well, he managed to get his acting up to scratch, so maybe speech training is next on his list... I hope, I hope...
Or he'll end up like Sean Connery, who even managed to play a Russian with a Scottish accent.

The love rival can sometimes add some tension where it is needed to move the plot along and help the main leads to realise how they feel, but if this sort of mindless pursuit goes on for too long - especially after being told off by their target - it becomes really tiresome.
In Legend of YunXi (same director) the annoying SFL (muttering "I will kill you" at least once in every episode) kept haunting everyone until the bitter end. I hope it will not be the same this time.

They changed the name yet again!!???? Someone seems to have become slightly "unchained" in the translation department...

Oh, I would not have recognised him there... I've only ever seen him in costume dramas with his hair done up.

Thanks for the resume - it helps me to prepare mentally before watching the episodes.
And Bai Feng's still not dead! Bummer!!

Really enjoyed the first 5 episodes. This looks like a very interesting role for Liu XueYi, but couldn't they tweak the script a bit regarding his age? With the best of will, he does not pass for a 17-year old!
I'm very happy that they chose a more experienced actor for this complex role, but I think it wouldn't have hurt the plot if they had made him 27 instead...

I agree. This is indeed a problem of misguided fan culture. I find it quite disappointing to see decent dramas with grown-up actors get mediocre ratings on MDL whereas some stuff featuring pretty boys who can barely act is totally overrated.

It's not necessarily hate when you say someone's acting is bad.
Nobody wants to see a bad performance from the main leads as it would ruin the whole drama. I have no personal opinion of the actress, I don't care who she is as long as she can do the job properly. Blind admiration is not doing the acting any service.

I think we have a classic wuxia setting here of the brawn, the brain and the innocent youth.

Watched the first episode... this feels like one of the classic wuxia dramas of old.
I quite like it!

Just from one person... I wish people would give dramas at least a few episodes before passing (negative) judgment. The ratings on MDL are generally quite unreliable. Good dramas with grown-up actors get low ratings whereas trash with pretty boys gets voted up. It really has very little to do with rating acting performance or production quality.

It's available on kisskh.me

She was quite abysmal in "And the Winner is Love". I hope Dylan Wang has given her the contact details of the muse that kissed him after a similarily bad performance in "Miss the Dragon" to help him finally shine in LBFAD.
I hope it will turn out well. I would hate to see a good drama spoilt by bad performances from the main cast.

OMG, that is so unprofessional! Imagine one of us applying for a job that requires fluency in French and then call in a friend every time a client calls. I don't think we would last very long...

His look from The Blue Whisper... do you mean the fake abs??

So are mine!!! From the few chapters that I managed to read of the novel he is a perfect fit! I could see that Qing Cang's trademark look of arrogant boredom in quite a few scenes in my mind.
If you haven't seen "Miss the Dragon" don't watch, you will be very disappointed.

Yes, he was very good in this one. I think part of the surprise success of this drama was that people had very low expectations of him as the ML after seeing him in "Miss The Dragon". It will be much harder for him to meet expectations in his new drama "Forbidden Love" but I hope he will.

Fake kisses, fake abs... was there anything real?

Having read the book I felt that Allen Ren was an absolute mis-cast for this role. If an actor cannot meet the requirements for a role (here: kissing scenes + naked torso) then it would be more honest to step aside and leave the role for someone else. It's not like C-dramaland is lacking suitable candidates...
And no, before you all beat me up, I have absolutely nothing against Allen Ren. I quite liked him in Under the Power, but in my opinion he was just not right for this role and I also think that an actor should fully commit to the roles they are playing and if they can't they should show some integrity and step aside.

It's a modern show about actors starring in a historical drama. Even though the filming of the drama only goes on for a few episodes, there are flashbacks (to the fictional historical drama) and dreams where the characters again perform in their respective roles in almost every episode.
These sequences are coherent and quite nicely done, not some "I transmigrated into Ming Dynasty" nonsense.

Yes, I found the beginning a bit tough. The pacing gets better after ep. 2, but episode 5 was a bit trashy... too much CGI glitter. After that it improved a lot, the plot comes together with a few hints towards the hidden story behind the main characters.