Frost_edelweiss

weren't those coated with some magic cultivation concoction to repel projectiles?

For one awful moment, I thought of fans of so and so used as weapons 🤣🤣
In recent history, it may even be true too.

Thanks for yr opinion. I am not a fan of Zhou Ye... still, perhaps I'll try SoT after all for WXY, if I have time, and hope I will like her too better after that. But too busy now with other watching :)

Ah yes. But now I am a bit confused : Wu Lan (who earlier wounded Jiang Li's arm, in the Luyang brothel fist encounter with Duke Su, rip ep17 before bandit Chu Lan escaped) was described in "cast" as Tao Hong's accomplice (Ep. 14-15) but Tao Hong was seen in the capital, very far away ?

Wang Xing Yue 🔥🔥🔥 was Meng Xiao Dong in the early 2024 drama Amidst a Snowstorm of Love (remarkable there despite the dominance of Wu Lei) and before that, Zhang Zhe in Story of Kunning Palace ... Enjoying his appearances and red cape here lol
Onwards to ep18 now : he's helped with the Ye family problem, but he's not totally won her confidence yet. Did he get hurt in the nighttime attack, btw ? Has she totally recovered from the knife wound on the arm? This drama does like blood drawn and spilt, lol, but also tests of wits and dares.

scroll down in comments: aloofoxy posted a link ;)

Very pretty girl and handsome lead, thrilling and convoluted plot, romance, vicious villains, a technology out of this space and time, alternate and shifting time threads, nice music... The ingredients to keep audience hooked.

I had clicked "on a whim" and stayed despite the fierce competition of longer and attention-grabbing dramas Although there were some moments when attention wandered, even having to refocus with the shifts between protagonists, I generally liked it, so would say it ought to please others as well. .

surely, lol.

novel is 746 long chapters in the epub translated version that you can download and read (open it with calibre) from the gift to us all by MK916 who found that link and posted it a while ago in a "Discussions" pinned storage : https://kisskh.at/discussions/joy-of-life-season-2/125595-joy-of-life-novel-epub-format

enjoy! it's translated into English.

But the screenwriters, and notably Wang Juan who deserves co-creation praise here, rearrange to better fit audience's tastes, so it will be a different experience reading vs watching that story.

Thanks for the info!

I think audience also should think about age of actors... Fan Xian was supposed to be in his mid or late teens in S1 and not much older than 20-23 in S2.

Now with S3, time is running away so some actors will need to be replaced not only to keep up with youthful appearance but also for physical abilities. Stuntmen can be used for dangerous wirework and I do hope ZRY will use them; he who should be a responsible dad on home front and not a legendary daredevil like Jackie Chan (respect to him, but there is an age when actors need to take into consideration health and consequences of bone fractures or tendon tears).

As audience, we should foremost hope the scriptwriter stays consistent and production assigns roles fit for "more speech and jokes" to older returnees + finds talented if not lookalike replacements for those who cannot make it or have grown too old for such roles.

I was amazed so many had come back in S2, but will understand if a good part need to be replaced in S3, and there is also an S4 planned (I think) to cover the whole story.

So cast could change. Maybe not as much as the, shall we say, James Bond franchises.

Let's hope but not put unreasonable hopes and demands into the balance.

yes, still no English subs on ep 10 iQiyi on June 6.
I was scanning this on a whim after having caught part of ep 1 & 2 on Youtube. But am not sure I will persist.

Someone posted a link for a Viki request but that's unlikely to go through : iQiyi seldom if ever has their drama licensed to Viki (WeTV yes). It is disappointing for international audience that the iQiyi app does not provide full subtitles to all their dramas...

I read somewhere that it most often if not always doesn't get through for iQiyi dramas....

My understanding is that his qi was all messed up as a result of over exertion when he had to confront a Grandmaster's disciple just after tackling an attempt at assassination of the Emperor. He had never been trained properly in that department : Wu Zhu had only made him swifter and stronger, but could not really train him as he should have been, so he was something of an autodidact. The injuries compounded the problem. The Emperor may have tried to help following imperial doctor's instructions and Ruoruo attempt at surgery.
I think it was the other Grandmaster in the end episode who "gifted" Fan Xian with the return of his abilities.

Well, Ruoruo does save Fan Xian's life after having "studied medicine" and she is like in S1 his most faithful follower.

There's a 25 episode "special edit" (official?) of S1 somewhere, although I did not watch it ; I believe it was made as a refresher, condensing some parts although in longer episodes than initial version. If you want to give it a go and comment about it too sometime, here is the link :
https://kisskh.co/Drama/Joy-of-Life-Special-Edition/Episode-1?id=9013&ep=153109&page=0&pageSize=100

In the past, "impossibly long dramas" with 70+ episodes did not really feel daunting to audiences. But we live in an increasingly hurried time, so everything has to be chopped to bits and some still feel it's too long... (me, I would have preferred the Jiangnan arc in S2 to be longer and better tailored for us, although I did like the old Grandmaster slash finish and Fan Xian smirk conclusion when he realized he was "back" to form).

I have the flu (or covid? son caught it at least three times despite vaccine, same as husband - we are not out of trouble yet with assorted "pandemics"!). So I am not watching and commenting much these days, started on a short one, as a distraction, fluff that turned out so stupid I ended up rating it as 5 - when I'm usually very lenient. Some disappointments these days for me, then, on top of my own "eyebags, dark circles and puffiness". 😔

Do you know what? There's probably going to be a Season 4 after that. And some started whispering there could be side stories !!

Yes: Xiao Zhan as "Yan Bingyun", Han Jiunuo as "Ye Ling'er", Huai Wen as "He Zongwei".
Those are the ones I spotted as replaced, marveling that so many did return.
I see lilswtangel already answered with another one who played "Li Hong Cheng". :)

in fact at least 4 actors/actresses had to be replaced for characters (Ye Ling'er, Yan Bingyun, He Zongwei, Li Hongcheng), in S2 which does not detract from the fact that the great majority showed up again for our enjoyment.

Oops, was Qi emperor female? I did not realize it in S1 drama version ! Although those long eyelashes....
ML already married Drumstick girl in S2.
Not sure the production would agree to add more harem members and too many children from those after having insisted so much that Wan'er is Fan Xian's one and only. I don't expect LWE'll die or divorce (despite perhaps having some reasons to do so, if she remains angry and cold to her husband after the Lin Gong killing disclosure; but she is supposed to carry FX child so "responsibility" would probably prevail).
I think Fan Xian did not get any further than friendship with DuoDuo? It was actually funny to see him so flustered when people around him were smirking and whispering about their imagined relationship.
Third prince: yes, Crown prince managed to incur emperor dad's disfavor along the way. We could already feel it in S2. So shifting to relatively untainted youngster could be expected.
But the scriptwriters will make an acceptable adaptation so perhaps we do not need to delve too much into the novel version and point out differences one may or not agree with.
If you absolutely want to read it, mkl916 posted a link to a good if still not official translation here : https://kisskh.at/discussions/joy-of-life-season-2/125595-joy-of-life-novel-epub-format It is very long....

I think only two years, although that may seem long too. It was not filmed together with S2 so who knows how it will turn out.

There were already some people who complained that Gina Jin / Jin Chen was not as thrilling in the role of "Ye Ling'er" as the previous actress in S1... (ah well, it's certainly not easy to fit in the well worn shoes of some who were liked before! Some even were callous enough to suggest she hogged the role : it sounds too malicious and I can understand Gina Jin felt hurt by that slander.) Nobody dared to blame Xiao Zhan for not having been able to fit in time on his schedule to return, but I can't see his replacement by Wu Xingjian garnered praise, although the two actors did not look extremely dissimilar, so the seam was not too bad and competently carried out between the cliffhanger and the undying hero's return in his company. The new additions of beautiful ladies (Mao Xiaotong, Wang Churan...) added pleasure for many including myself.

Well, as long as Zhang Ruoyun pledges to return, and the scriptwriters don't hurry too much, and some more favorite actors in this (those who play emperor, CPP, Wang Qinian, Second Prince, Ruoruo, Duoduo...) can manage to participate, we can keep hopes up ? 😉

Meanwhile, there's plenty of other dramas with Zhang Ruoyun, or Wu Gang, Li Qin, Mao Xiaotong, Song Yi, Xing Zhilei.... to go back to or discover! Or read the book; link has been posted in discussion by esteemed MDL member mkl916 (who will probably make a nice edit of this season 2, as she uses to do for other favorite dramas, on YouTube).