Deirdre19

The main difference is that this was produced before the stupid whitening filters came into fashion. People look natural and healthy.

I know what he is trying to do...
However, as Pei Yan explained to him in the novel, if the two bigger countries fight, his little Yueluo will not go unscathed. More war is never a good solution to anything. And it’s the little people who suffer the most.
Also, as a minister of Liang, drama Pei Yan’s actions to defend his country against spies and saboteurs were perfectly justified

I’m not sure if you are familiar with the concept that two wrongs don’t make a right.
The fact that you feel the need to call someone who disagrees with you (or the fictional character of the ML) stupid shows me that you are still somewhat lacking in maturity.

Well, the way this script is written feels like a terrorist brainwash.
Imagine, your country is holding peace talks with another country. Thousands of civilians will be able to live in peace, but some assassin and his spies are trying to sabotage the whole thing and throw the world back into war again. One minister works hard to stop them but he gets scolded by his maidservant because some of the spies were a cute old couple.
For anyone with a shred of common sense this would seem like madness.

I’m at episode 12 now and I’m starting to wonder what hallucinogenic drugs they fed Jeremy Tsui to talk him into this role. By now it is safe to say that once again, he got well and truly screwed over by his shitty agency and the scriptwriters.
After reading the novel, I had high hopes for this role as he would have excelled as scheming prime minister. However, all he does is fawn over the FL and mention at least every other episode that the assassin/Wei Zhao is really smart (in case anyone hadn’t noticed). Where is the calculating, where the scheming, where is the ultimate loneliness? He feels like Yuwen Hu after a lobotomy!
I wouldn’t mind at all if he had been made the villain of the story (it is quite clear by now that the scriptwriters are set on vilifying the Pei Clan) because he makes great villains, but at least give the man some acting to do!
It really makes me sad to see his hard work and talent wasted like this!

Yes, very, very loose 😂
In the novel the ML and SML were equally matched which made the story interesting. For the drama, the scriptwriters felt the need to make one incredibly stupid to make the other look good.

I have an idea where it is heading and I’m already annoyed at how much they are distorting the novel.

No, SML uses her but without harming her. In fact he is all lovey-dovey around her which is annoying because his supposedly scheming and calculating brain has turned into a pile of mush. This character was definitely much better written in the novel where he actually was allowed to be clever.
He also had one lapse of judgement where he didn’t take ‘no’ for an answer.

In an interview published 14/09/2024 (you can see the link on his page) he said that the situation with his dad is now stable so he can return to filming. Of course, there aren’t any new projects yet.
I hope he will take his time to choose carefully.

We’ll see. I hope he can take his time to carefully choose a good project that does justice to his acting skills.
His talent is absolutely wasted in those nonsensical idol dramas with trainee actresses who are half his age.

@Mdl-moderators: this profile urgently needs updating! Jeremy is no longer a “former actor”.
I seem to remember when he announced his retirement the modification was done within less than 24 hours 😳

He is officially back but currently still with the old agency. It appears that some sort of agreement has been reached, but nobody knows anything concrete.
For more details, please scroll down a bit on this page.

Jeremy is officially back 😀
I take th3 release of this as a welcome back present from the universe.

He is officially back. You can read more about the details on his page.

I agree. To my mind the love story was never the main focus of the novel.
In the end the greater good has been achieved with the people of the empire living in peace under a stable government and the people of Yueluo having equal rights.
That being said, I’m afraid with all the changes they have made to the story,bathe original ending would no longer make any sense now.

Yes. Book fans on Weibo are currently raging against the director and his three screenwriters 😂
Sadly, such changes are the norm in Chinese dramas. They usually remove any novel and unusual ideas to replace them with the standard tropes, add love triangles where there were none, turn ruthless characters into paper tigers and change the villain if it previously was the emperor because that would question the ultimate authority.
I’ve read many of the novels that were turned into dramas and so far the only one of them where the drama version stayed true to the spirit and most of the plot of the novel is Word of Honor.

Both plot and characters deviate considerably from the novel. Wei Zhao’s presence has been considerably increased because he is the ML whereas both Pei Yan’s standing and intelligence have been greatly reduced. Many characters from the novel have been deleted completely and the hero’s cause has been changed from liberation of his oppressed tribe to a revenge story.
The overall political considerations have been watered down and partially misrepresented, which makes the plot feel a lot more conventional.
As far as I can see the whole storyline regarding the martial arts alliance has been completely removed.

Wei Zhao didn’t “rescue” her, he just kidnapped her from Pei Yan because he wanted to use her to put pressure on Pei Yan. He just happened to turn up at a fortunate moment for Jiang Ci.

Braveness of the Ming, a costume drama filmed in 2015 has now been released on a streaming platform in South Korea. Hopefully, someone else will pick this up to make it available to a wider audience.

With stupid restrictions like that, one can only hope there are some pirates about somewhere.
We’ve waited for this for far too long!