Firefly88

Yeah I like the different kind of pace! It's contemplative somehow, and I love the eccentric characters.

Just so you're not disappointed, Gao Weiguang hasn't featured much yet, just a few appearances

Same. I don't rate until it's all wrapped up.

But when he does teach XFN, he says he learns as quick as he did back when he started.

Yeah, but somehow I don't mind, because it's just so enjoyable to watch regardless of pace and plot development.

He's warming up to a marvellous display I think.

I have to say the CGI is very impressive for a C drama.

I understand what you're saying. For you those kinds of things maybe matter less when you're evaluating an actor's performance. However... I have to say I disagree, and I think a drama teacher would too, because a pout is a facial expression done deliberately by the actor as a part of their performance and portrayal of their character. Facial expressions are immensely important in acting for the screen (much less so for theatre where you work more with the body than the face because the audience is further away). For me the facial expression is vital for the portrayal of the character. Criticising someone's facial acting and expression is very different from say criticising their appearance e.g. "She's too short/fat/ugly" etc or "Her eyebrows are ugly" lol. For me that is nitpicking and also a personal attack of sorts, unless you phrase it in a courteous way e.g. "I think she is too [...] for this role, I think a more [....] would have looked better in this role in my opinion.".

There are the adopted 6, but I got the impression his two older sisters and Huangman'er are his biological siblings...

Yeah, I'm confused about it too. Hoping it will all be explained and not be the result of a lazy plot hole.

Yeah, I was wondering that too. Plus, didn't she have Huangman'er after that too?

Haha I didn't dig the bun either.

Also, facial expressions are a big part of acting. I wouldn't describe that as nitpicking from my point of view, because if the facial acting is off, the whole portrayal of the character is off for me.

But that's different from criticising an actress's physical appearance like her nose or eyes or weight etc. A good example is Zhou Dongyu in Ancient Love Poetry, some viewers were really cruel about her not being beautiful enough and so on. I find that kind of criticism problematic. Criticising their acting, facial or otherwise, is a different matter altogether.

Oh I'll give you one! I really don't like Zhang Ruoyun's ponytail hairstyle with the white robe look (but that's not his fault, but the costume people). 😝 I also find his performance less engaging now (I'm at episode 15) than I did in the first few episodes. Less enigmatic somehow. He really drew me in in the beginning, right now I feel a bit underwhelmed. But... hopefully it will pick up again soon and he'll draw me in again.

🤣 Fair enough, each to their own! Well, if you ever fancy something different to mix things up a bit, (and you're feeling tolerant regarding her bangs), I do recommend it! Something about it reminds me a bit of Western historical drama style, a bit Jane Austen somehow.

Dude, everyone's entitled to their views, why make it personal? "We are getting tired of your entitled hate comments about her. whine somewhere else." You are not a "We", you are an individual like everyone else here, you do not have the power to speak for the entire kisskh community (like me for example) and rudely shut someone down like that. That is genuinely "entitled" and problematic behaviour... Hikikomori expressed their view courteously, you however did not and if this was offline, I would suggest you offer them an apology. (Not for disagreeing with them, but for being rude while doing so.) Here's the thing: some may agree with you about the FL's performance and... some may not. Some may even agree a bit with both of you... Providing everyone expresses their view courteously, it's all good.

I don't have a strong dislike of this actress or her performance as I think this is the first time I've seen her in a drama. So far, I find her performance a bit uninteresting compared to the more powerful portrayals of other female characters in the drama. However, maybe she will grow as a character as the drama progresses, who knows? Let's wait and see...! 😄👍

Haha she loses the bangs after she marries Gu Tingye, thankfully. I actually think that drama has a lot of wisdom that comes from a lot of pain and suffering. It has dark characters too... Survival is a big topic in Minglan, especially in the context of toxic/abusive families and as a woman in a world where women have no rights and of course, in the context of polygamy. It's wholesome because of what she does with all that pain and suffering. But it's not fast paced like some dramas, but you get sucked into that world after a few episodes. I love it, except for the bangs it has very few flaws in my opinion.

In a lot of C dramas, the story revolves around the main couple, ML and FL. SSS doesn'r seem to be romance based and the ML is the centre, so I don't know if I could even call her the FL. So far she seems quite childish, but we don't see her that much and I've only got to episode 12 so far. But there are a lot of interesting characters surrounding the ML.

Well, polygamy, as we all know from historical Chinese dramas, was commonplace in "Old" China. I think the Communist Party made it illegal when they took over. But polygamy is nevertheless a deep seated part of Chinese culture, even though it hasn't been legal for 70ish years, which means it's still within living memory.

Regarding me connecting it with mistresses and the crackdown on that in China recently. I actually heard a story about one dude who even had his wife and his mistress living together in one house. My thinking was along the lines of that the Communist Party censors may wish to prevent the polygamous culture from resurfacing and therefore insisting that monogamy should be portrayed as the only happy and virtuous type of relationship to prevent polygamy from seeming normal or acceptable to the public. It was only a theory, not saying it is one way or the other. 😄👍

Yes for Minglan but not the ML and FL. Minglan is a good example of my point actually, because even though she accepts that concubine for show, Gu Tingye, the ML, is furious about it because he wants to be monogamous and he never actually sleeps with her.

As for Sword and the Brocade, that might have been an exception but I can't remember clearly whether the ML actually had a relationship with the concubines or not. Also... you haven't watched it? It is arguably one of the best and most wholesome Chinese dramas ever. It is unlike any other C drama I have watched.