Good Grief

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.

People be missing the point here so badly it’s sad and funny simultaneously.

Maybe we can still carry on with the idol dramas and pretty faces but please leave some space for smaller dramas with actual good storytelling and production value overall. You know, those underrated dramas with actors nobody even knows about because they don’t fit the beauty standards and “unfortunately” all they have to offer is their acting skills.

Also, as an artist, please don’t use “artistic freedom” as a come back. Artistic freedom doesn’t equal to slapping “visuals and face cards” on a drama and calling it a 10/10 masterpiece. The most poignant art is paradoxically created in times where freedom is nonexistent and the artist needs to find ways to tell a story without having it censored. I say this as someone who lives in a country where a 21-year dictatorship that ended decades ago still affects us to this day.

But I digress. Anyway, some of the most artistically creative dramas in this website have criminally low ratings because they don’t have *checks notes* happy endings, insane face cards, and multiple kisses peppered throughout the episodes. That’s not what Art is so take that word out of your vocabulary or learn how to use it correctly.

It was so evident that all the rabid fans wanted was ZLH's pretty face. Rarely did I see his acting abilities mentioned. It was all about how much people wanted to gaze at him, how beautiful he is with or without makeup and how dreamy the romance was. I'm not averse to a pretty face and most of the actors I like have it, but they also have great acting skills and often choose projects that showcase their range instead of being typecast as the beautiful ML. I just hope that gifted actors don't get penalized because they are good looking.

And a female-centric drama doesn't have to sideline the ML. I dislike when either lead has to sacrifice their abilities and intelligence to bolster the other. Too often it's been the FL that has to appear weak and useless to prop up the ML. I want both leads to be strong and support each other or at least, if they have to start off weak. to develop and grow stronger as the story progresses.

I thrive on chaos, and this beloved seems to be Brazilian or at least she knows Portuguese (I think), so I can’t wait for an in-depth discussion in my native language lolololol