THIS DRAMA WILL BE EVEN BETTER THAN THE FIRST ONE:
1. Zhao Lusi as FL. Tencent casts high profile stars like ZL only when they're aiming to make the drama a big hit or anticipate it to become one.
2. ALP is only a knock off of 3L3W. Yeah I know different authors different stories different characters, but it just a copycat/imitation of the Croton drama starring Yang Mi. 3L3W doesn't have a sequel like this so it's going into uncharted territories with lots of surprises in store. To be honest I hated ALP for being a copycat of 3L3W. No scene was enjoyable to me becoz I seen it all before. This series will b a bit different and a novel experience to me.
3. Tencent took in all the criticisms on Douban. I remember lots of viewers there were criticizing the series like how the FL doesn't even looked like a Goddess with ethereal beauty. So, now we have Zhao Lusi to make up for the bad casting of the 1st series.
4. I don't know, I think Tencent matured a lot in SFX/CGI technology between the filming of the first one and this one. Just look at Chong Zi, it a B/C-grade drama but the special effects looked like Tencent did all of that while asleep (meaning they became soo good, they could put together the effects with computer artists just using one hand). Just look at the swimming turtle scene in Sword Snow Stride, and also some of the stuff in 3Body. That the kind of level of quality we can expect in this sequel drama series.
5. NOT A HAPPY ENDING. Just look at The Untamed. A bittersweet ending where Wei Wuxian was left to wander alone in the vast wide world. I much prefer a non-happy ending becoz it's after all a drama, and dramas r supposed to have dramatic endings! When ppl watch a drama knowing full well in advance of the non-happy ending, it makes them appreciate all the dramatic events in between the beginning and ending even more!
I wonder if you have to watch the prequel to understand this one? I for some reason couldn't connect with the…
Yeah, me too, I never connected ALP. It just another high quality (BUT boring) drama. Anyways, it's not Tencent business model to require viewers to watch the prequel series. They will lose a lot of customers that way. At the least they will do a mini summary in the drama or some kind of flashback to explain things to new viewers!
It's not surprising. When you consider that Shakespeare only wrote stories with sad/tragic endings, you can see Tencent put a lot of effort into these kinds of dramas because Tencent wants to be the next drama adaptation Shakespeare!
ML looks so much like ML of Novoland: Castle in the Sky 2. I don't know if Tencent deliberately chose someone to look and act like that character or not but certainly better casting than Mirror Twin Cities ML. I swear when they filmed the ML from a far distance, I thought they hired the same actor as CitS2!
I just want to say, if this was a Japanese production, Shi Qiang would have smashed a few things during his fits of rage. The most we got in this drama was he nearly broke a pair of headphones but decided it wasnt worth it to have to compensate finance department for the broken headphones. The only other time Shi Qiang became violent was threw the autopsy report of Mu Xiang across the table. This is what separates Chinese professionalism apart from Japanese immaturity. I seen in Japan dramas the MC destroyed an expensive looking laptop during a fit of rage, smashed plant vases to relieve anger etc. Anyone who studied psychologic knows that lashing out (aka acting out) is an immature psychologic coping mechanism. Tencent certainly demonstrated in this drama Chinese high level maturity and 5000 years of wisdom thru this drama!
BTW, before anyone criticizes this post, Wang Miao did break a glass vase in his apartment when he thought Shen Yufei played a trick on him to get him to stop his research. BUT comon he threw a pillow and accidentally broke the glass. In a Japanese production, Wang Miao would have been holding that glass in his hand and smashed it to the ground or on a table. Pillow vs glass in hand, which is the more dangerous instrument and more immature psychological anger relief?
Unfortunately, I dropped this. I want to like this very much. But everything just feels so wrong, from the acting…
Heroes sucked. Totally forgetable and wasted my time. I only like FL in EverNight S2. I became suspicous of Yang ChaoYue after watching Heroes. Seems Tencent only wants to cast this lady in filler dramas till the next big hit... Which is S2 of Ancient Love Poetry. Dance of Phoenix was weird as heck with weird ending: "Im not really Feng Wu just someone who looks and acts like her... WTH?!?!" I will sit this one out.
Not just S2 but also S3. It's all thanks to Netflix. Tencent not gonna back down from doing S2 and S3. If they stopped, all their WeTV subscribers will flock to Netflix to continue the series!
S2 and S3 will be EVEN BETTER than S1 and here are the reasons why:
1. Set in the near/far future, so Tencent has to be more imaginative and create more exquisite looking sets/find more exquisite filming locations.
2. More pew pew action-oriented. The Sci-Fi that people have come to know and love, not just talking their ways to solve a suicide mystery.
3. Two giants fighting over VIP subscribers. It's a good thing Netflix got involved in 3Body as well. Makes Tencent strive much harder to win over VIP subscribers. There are very few people who subscribe to BOTH WeTV AND Netflix. It's either or, so it's a battle of survival for Tencent as well as Netflix. They will definitely look to outdo each other.
4. Tencent did not and had not delivered their best work yet. S1 just a warm up. If they threw all they were capable of throwing into S1 and air it before Netflix does, it makes them reveal their strategy to Netflix and allows Netflix time to copy and one-up Tencent. So Tencent has to save and keep secret their best moves for S2 and S3...
5. You all saw how Tencent injected their own elements into S1. The female news reporter definitely does NOT exist in the book. So, just you wait how much more ingenuity of their own Tencent adds to the sequel series! Such changes are protected by copyright laws, therefore the female news reporter cannot exist as a secondary female lead in Netflix's works!
TO FAN THE SCI-FI FEVER TENCENT SHOULD also ADAPT TWIN MOONS. They already did the Twin Moons anime in 2016. Basically part of the moon got destroyed, then its movement got out of whack and could collide with the Earth. To counter it, mankind built a second, but much smaller artificial moon to stabilize the moon's orbit, hence the TWIN MOON. And then a bunch of conspiracies involving two factions, the military and all that good stuff. Other than Liu Cixin's works, this could be the next cool Sci-Fi thing to adapt, so Tencent should really consider adapting it into live action, in addition to 3Body S2, S3, etc.
8.1/100000+ votes on Douban (so far). On track to become top drama of 2023 in China...https://www.douban.com/search?q=%E4%B8%89%E4%BD%93
Yes, we are ALL Westerners like you cheering on some idol drama(s) when we could ALL witness the birth of Sci Fi in China in the cinema and also on TV...
3K GLASSES IN EVERYONE's HOME. I think Ep 5 came as a shocker to everyone when the universe flickered before Wang Miao's eyes. BUT, you should know everyone has a pair of 3K glasses in their home (I think). If you, your siblings, or your parents bought a laptop in the 2010's, those almost all come with TFT screens with very aggressive flickering, like when Wang Miao put on the 3K glasses, but the blinking is much faster. To see the effect, you only need to set the desktop background to pure white and turn the brightness down to 50%. Then wave your hand (or a pen) before the laptop screen and see for yourself the magic of Pulse Width Modulation.
Also, Ep 4, if you look at Yang Dong's room carefully, you can spot a vintage IBM laptop computer on the desk (the ones made by IBM before Lenovo bought them out). It's amazing seeing how much effort Tencent put into acquiring these types of props.
8.1/100000+ votes on Douban (so far). On track to become top drama of 2023 in China...https://www.douban.com/search?q=%E4%B8%89%E4%BD%93
LOL. What world u live in? If Douban votes mean nothing, y all China online news only quote Douban score and not something like IMDB score or even MDL score? Douban is like Weibo or WeChat in China, it's the only thing that matters there!
BTW, what you mean recoup investment? You obviously don't know how Tencent makes the profit. They don't make dramas just to secure airing rights from TV channels. For Tencent it's all about VIP subscriptions! PLUS, they've learnt too much from their moba game business, only a few handful top-up players make the most money for them. The same way for dramas, only a few handful dramas will make them BIG VIP subscriptions. BUT they need the loss making ones to keep their business going like if they don't have free moba players besides the top up players the game will fail because no one to play with. BUT honestly is something as BIG as Liu Cixin a loss making business venture? I think not!
It got a head start, but only managed 8.2/135000 votes so far.
Meanwhile, Three Body released 12 days later already 8.1/127800 votes.
Also, don't forget Wandering Earth 2 will give 3Body a HUGE hype bump. By the end of it all, 3Body might score a few percentages/decimal points lower, but the viewership much higher and make it overal winner/top drama (rating x votes count = top drama of 2023)!
It's not the drama that has odd pacing. Just the original work is very complicated and nightmare to adapt into…
That's just the way Chinese folks are, very emotive. Look at Chun Li in StreetFighter, she explodes with joy on winning a match. Also look at some (female) Chinese athlete gold medalists during Tokyo 2021. They don't hold back just make faces into the camera when winning gold.
Just completed 3 ep., so Volkswagen is the main sponsors…Can see a lot of effort on special effects.Is it me…
It's not the drama that has odd pacing. Just the original work is very complicated and nightmare to adapt into live action. SO, Tencent is taking the piecemeal approach. They feed you the complexity of the plot bit by bit. Hence the odd pacing. It's a simple but very effective approach. Let you chew the work bit by bit.
All this alluded to in Ep 4 where it's claimed Yang Dong's favorite music is composed by Bach. She claims she enjoys it because she visualizes each piece like someone trying to build a house brick by brick, layer by layer. It may not be evident as you're listening to it but by the end of the track, the builder has built a complete house.
1. Zhao Lusi as FL. Tencent casts high profile stars like ZL only when they're aiming to make the drama a big hit or anticipate it to become one.
2. ALP is only a knock off of 3L3W. Yeah I know different authors different stories different characters, but it just a copycat/imitation of the Croton drama starring Yang Mi. 3L3W doesn't have a sequel like this so it's going into uncharted territories with lots of surprises in store. To be honest I hated ALP for being a copycat of 3L3W. No scene was enjoyable to me becoz I seen it all before. This series will b a bit different and a novel experience to me.
3. Tencent took in all the criticisms on Douban. I remember lots of viewers there were criticizing the series like how the FL doesn't even looked like a Goddess with ethereal beauty. So, now we have Zhao Lusi to make up for the bad casting of the 1st series.
4. I don't know, I think Tencent matured a lot in SFX/CGI technology between the filming of the first one and this one. Just look at Chong Zi, it a B/C-grade drama but the special effects looked like Tencent did all of that while asleep (meaning they became soo good, they could put together the effects with computer artists just using one hand). Just look at the swimming turtle scene in Sword Snow Stride, and also some of the stuff in 3Body. That the kind of level of quality we can expect in this sequel drama series.
5. NOT A HAPPY ENDING. Just look at The Untamed. A bittersweet ending where Wei Wuxian was left to wander alone in the vast wide world. I much prefer a non-happy ending becoz it's after all a drama, and dramas r supposed to have dramatic endings! When ppl watch a drama knowing full well in advance of the non-happy ending, it makes them appreciate all the dramatic events in between the beginning and ending even more!
BTW, before anyone criticizes this post, Wang Miao did break a glass vase in his apartment when he thought Shen Yufei played a trick on him to get him to stop his research. BUT comon he threw a pillow and accidentally broke the glass. In a Japanese production, Wang Miao would have been holding that glass in his hand and smashed it to the ground or on a table. Pillow vs glass in hand, which is the more dangerous instrument and more immature psychological anger relief?
1. Set in the near/far future, so Tencent has to be more imaginative and create more exquisite looking sets/find more exquisite filming locations.
2. More pew pew action-oriented. The Sci-Fi that people have come to know and love, not just talking their ways to solve a suicide mystery.
3. Two giants fighting over VIP subscribers. It's a good thing Netflix got involved in 3Body as well. Makes Tencent strive much harder to win over VIP subscribers. There are very few people who subscribe to BOTH WeTV AND Netflix. It's either or, so it's a battle of survival for Tencent as well as Netflix. They will definitely look to outdo each other.
4. Tencent did not and had not delivered their best work yet. S1 just a warm up. If they threw all they were capable of throwing into S1 and air it before Netflix does, it makes them reveal their strategy to Netflix and allows Netflix time to copy and one-up Tencent. So Tencent has to save and keep secret their best moves for S2 and S3...
5. You all saw how Tencent injected their own elements into S1. The female news reporter definitely does NOT exist in the book. So, just you wait how much more ingenuity of their own Tencent adds to the sequel series! Such changes are protected by copyright laws, therefore the female news reporter cannot exist as a secondary female lead in Netflix's works!
Also, Ep 4, if you look at Yang Dong's room carefully, you can spot a vintage IBM laptop computer on the desk (the ones made by IBM before Lenovo bought them out). It's amazing seeing how much effort Tencent put into acquiring these types of props.
BTW, what you mean recoup investment? You obviously don't know how Tencent makes the profit. They don't make dramas just to secure airing rights from TV channels. For Tencent it's all about VIP subscriptions! PLUS, they've learnt too much from their moba game business, only a few handful top-up players make the most money for them. The same way for dramas, only a few handful dramas will make them BIG VIP subscriptions. BUT they need the loss making ones to keep their business going like if they don't have free moba players besides the top up players the game will fail because no one to play with. BUT honestly is something as BIG as Liu Cixin a loss making business venture? I think not!
https://movie.douban.com/subject/35662223/
It got a head start, but only managed 8.2/135000 votes so far.
Meanwhile, Three Body released 12 days later already 8.1/127800 votes.
Also, don't forget Wandering Earth 2 will give 3Body a HUGE hype bump. By the end of it all, 3Body might score a few percentages/decimal points lower, but the viewership much higher and make it overal winner/top drama (rating x votes count = top drama of 2023)!
https://www.douban.com/search?q=%E4%B8%89%E4%BD%93
All this alluded to in Ep 4 where it's claimed Yang Dong's favorite music is composed by Bach. She claims she enjoys it because she visualizes each piece like someone trying to build a house brick by brick, layer by layer. It may not be evident as you're listening to it but by the end of the track, the builder has built a complete house.