Good Grief

We actually have not seen the ML properly practice law very much🤣😭Is he even good at his job? He is more of a private investigator and family therapist. He always gets possessed before we can see his qualification get put to use but it is amusing to watch as least.

This whole situation is such a nothing-burger (situation lacking in substance and blown out of proportion, compared to it’s importance, actually not very significant etc.).

And honestly, it’s all about opinions and preferences, and there are as many of those as people, so everyone will always argue about something… there should just be content made for both parties/sides of the discussion and that’s it), but since the C government got involved and people blew it up so much, there are probably going to be some more serious consequences of this all (where that could have been avoided). It was a cdrama-making/cdrama-land critique/scandal but now it’s turned into a political agenda (which is an unfortunate course of action, ridiculous development - however, not totally unexpected, I guess, via past experiences) .

Also to make it clear, literally none of this is Zhang Ling He’s fault, so I do hope he’ll not catch any serious heat from this.

Edit: not really talking about weight though, I agree that a lot of these celebrities are too skinny for their own good and healthy, and toxic industry standards should be challenged.

"And no one should use “not enough episodes” as an excuse for poor writing."

One of my biggest peeves in dramas is that too many are bloated. If you need more episodes then you've either taken on too much for the story or you need a good editor who's experienced enough to know what doesn't advance the story and ruthless enough to get rid of extra characters that take away from the trajectory of the story and filler that's there to stretch the episode count. I want every minute I'm watching to count.

Thank you for the compliment!

Same about story, acting, directing. If I'm going to invest my time in a drama I want it to keep me interested because everyone involved knows how to do their jobs. Beauty is nice, but as they say it's skin deep and dramas need to be deeper than that.

Fictional works have a real effect on the consciousness of viewers—especially young women.

I honestly agree. I love cdramas but they honestly need to work on better stories. I have a lot of problems with Pursuit of Jade. Number one being: she’s a badass general who can defeat battle hardened generals with a lifetime’s worth of experience because she’s a girl boss butcher? Give me a break. They loosely alluded to her father teaching her in the past but never do they show her training. I practiced martial arts my entire youth, I have many friends who competed internationally and others who were stunt artists. When training for a competition, you train 6 hours a day 6 days a week and 2 hours on the “rest” day. For stunt work, you have to train every single day to keep in shape. It’s honestly disrespectful to martial arts that she can defeat these generals twice her size with literally nothing but “feminism”. I also know someone who is a high ranking military officer and an incredible and successful leader. She works out every single day. Yet probably most of the male soldiers under her command could take her out in hand to hand combat. That’s just biological reality. Fan Changyu’s character is a caricature, which is a disservice to women, who actually have unique skills and can be leaders and change the world in our own way.

Oh, incredible. So China is banning plastic dolls? Will their actors finally look more human?

One thing I hope they get rid of is the awful white makeup that makes actors look like ghosts. And maybe this will give some lesser-known actors a chance at roles that "pretty" stars with little acting ability now get.

Yes, please, to more dramas with actors who have interesting faces and great acting skills. Some of the top stars have such generic faces I can't even look at them. I want people who look different and have great personalities that infuse their dramas.

I think we are not allowed to wish for such a thing. Talk about censorship, right? 😉

Well, in a way, they’re all ordinary (no human being is truly ugly, beauty isn’t really on the outside but that’s a discussion for another day) if not for the following reasons: weight loss, facial procedures (even if minimal), extremely talented make up artists, good lighting, and finally, filters and post production. Sometimes all of the above. Remember, you’re not ugly, you’re just poor.

But to answer your question, yes, I have seen more “ordinary” looking actors in serious dramas, movies that end up going to festivals and such. Sometimes I wonder if they took some random people off the streets. That’s the beauty of these productions (no pun intended). You sometimes can’t tell if that person is an actor or just someone who walked in on the set. But that’s only because I care more about the immersion in the role they’re playing than how beautiful they look.

Yep, those dramas that are a part of the Light On series on IQIYI are fire. Wish this kind of content was also available in the more prominent international platforms. So many hidden gems 🥹

Yes, C dramas are actually pretty diverse, I have IQIYI subscription so i know that. But all dramas landed on Viki and Netflix are idol dramas.

I never said there weren’t.

If all there was to watch coming from a country as culturally diverse and rich as China was idol dramas I wouldn’t even be bothering to spend sleepless nights studying Chinese.

There is no power to choose where censorship is concerned.

Anyway, like I said, carry on enjoying a certain type of drama. It’s your freedom to choose after all.

The article here only points to the fact that the Chinese government has started to acknowledge that putting visuals and certain unattainable beauty standards over other equally if not most important aspects of a production isn’t quite ideal. To which I agree, and trust me, I do not find it nice to agree with the takes coming from a totalitarian regime. Yet here we are.