Kannadin

You can read both these articles that go very into details about the differences between both:

https://news.mydramalist.com/article/cookie-done-devitto-done-introduction-to-xianxia-dramas%20

https://news.mydramalist.com/article/introduction-to-wuxia-dramas

I tried to find one article I read a couple of years ago that spoke about all the genres in one article... but couldn't find it after 5 minutes so I gave up.

Lol Basically for you if there's no sex scenes it's bromance? Err... Well to each one his own I guess. I mean if there's kissing, it hardly qualifies as bromance in my book.

I haven't read the novel so I don't know how graphic it is. I don't mind erotic scenes, but I'd rather it doesn't go on for too many pages and it's not "pro-violent sex" so to speak. I've read some pretty borderline BDSM content in Chinese danmei novels and I'm personally pretty disgusted by the idea of inflicting pain for pleasure so the whole thing is just a no-no for me. Of course the opposite is true as well, i.e feeling pleasures from burns, strangling or whatever is also pretty disturbing to me. If there's any of that, you can be sure I won't approach that type of book with a totem pole.

Not judging if it's other people's kink but it's REALLY not mine.

I haven't found the novel personally on aliexpress as I wrote above... If you have a link, I am interested.

Thanks for the new recommendation btw.😎

Hi! Thank you for the links!

I have a principle of not reading translations of books which language I'm learning but thank you for the links anyway... I'll probably read some excerpts per pure curiosity.

The translated team said they found a paper copy through jjwxc... but I checked and the link goes to a nonexistent page now.

Well I'm sure it will get republished at some point... I don't get it to be honest, usually web novels are published soon after they've gotten released in drama form if they're already completed...

But maybe the genre is not as popular?

Ah yeah... I don't mind bromance... I'm literally into anything as long as it's not overly sexualized (tricky this one because sometimes the book overall is not but the erotic parts are a bit too much for me... China surprisingly in the danmei genre has some very graphic and brutal scenes and it's REALLY not my thing), violent or gory...

I also tend to stay away from Horror in general but if it leans more into mystery than traumatizing readers I'm all in as well. 😀

EDIT: Ah! By the way I think you mixed them up when you answered. I mean The Spirealm is definitely bromance in drama form but the novel clearly is not 🤣

Initially rated it 9 because of the strong finale... but came back and rerated it 8.5 instead (as well as comment and review).

After letting the drama sit for a week after its finale... And given I'm not planning on ever rewatching this again... 8.5 is a good compromise since according to my own rating policy anything 9 or above is worth rewatching which is not the case for this show.

It's a good one but the pace is just ridiculous. The draggy middle just ruins everything and I guess lots of people who dropped this, dropped it because of it. After a (short) strong beginning, the drama felt like a drag up to around episode 19 which is A LOT of draggy episodes. Could have been stellar if it wasn't for that...

Compared to the Legend of the Female General, the cinematography was also way above... But good pacing and storytelling will always be more important than how pretty a show is so LOTFG takes my vote if I had to choose between both.

I wasn't really sold on the romance either for reasons I already mentioned in my review and below though I can't blame the acting here, it's more the writing. Anyway, it's one of the rare instance where I think the MDL rating is actually pretty fair... Frankly, I even think it's pretty generous given how horribly paced this drama was.

To be honest I was hesitating between 8 and 8.5 but since I'm Cheng Lei biased, I'm settling for 8.5.

Why don't they do like the Chinese and replace his face with another actor's with AI?
I'm not a fan of this method BUT it's better than shelving this for eternity.

Thanks for your input ^^ I'm even more interested in reading the novel. Sadly I thought I had put it in my wishlist, only to realize... It wasn't the right novel... If you have a link to aliexpress for the paperback version I'd be really grateful 😃

I'm S.A.T 🥳🥳🥳

The title of this article is misleading. Yet another example of MDL using clickbait to lure innocent members. Please go back to only publish articles regarding FICTIONAL DRAMAS and not REAL LIFE DRAMAS.

Hmm...

Both versions have their own charm I guess... If I had to choose between both, I'd say go for the Japanese version because they got rid of the last arc in the Korean version which sucked in my opinion.

I have to say that I personally really loved how we saw more of the FL and ML bonding over their common history and interests as well as the fact that they also showed more interactions with the father. That gave way more heart to the story than the Korean ver.

About the ending, there are some things which the Korean version did better imho especially regarding how in this version, the FL sort of "forgave" her "best friend" and apologized 🤦... but I still prefer the Japanese one. I like that the FL and the ML ended back doing the things they truly loved on a professional level. Koreans have this obsession of success being linked to working for a huge company and whatnot and not necessarily on the joy and warmth that comes from doing something you're passionate about but which doesn't necessarily give you that "social status" that they seem to always crave.
This is something that I always loved about Japan: They truly value their traditions and being a master artisan at your own craft in your tiny shop is not looked down on but something people really respect even if that doesn't make you filthy rich.

The Japanese version incorporated more elements about traditional Japanese culture and honestly this added some warmth that just wasn't there in the original version.

I'd say the Korean version is more thriller-like whereas the Japanese version has more warmth and heart ( albeit maybe for the last 2 episodes where the villain goes even more unhinged than in the Korean ver).

All in all it really depends on what you're looking for. Both versions contain similar elements but the Korean version is more focused on the revenge part whereas the Japanese version focuses more on the warmheartedness between the leads.

Since I gave 8.5 to the Korean ver but I still prefer the Japanese one, that's a 9 for me.

Preach!

Ok that's cool then. No harm done. Have a good day ^^

There's lots of good stories featuring red flag characters that end up turning good by the end of their journey. That's literally a staple of lots of these Asian dramas, I don't really see where you're going with this comment. When it comes to fiction, people have things they like and others they don't, it's a matter of taste. I don't see exactly why you feel the need to make this comment: "you like red flags, wtf?" , here apart from implicitly making a judgment about the type of person I am, which says more about you in that case.

Especially since you write that you were rooting for Su Hyeon, when the dude is a typical red flag character. Good for fiction, awful in real life. He's exactly the type of character you can root for IN FICTION and whom anyone should flee from IRL.

For the rest of your comment, we can agree to disagree. I personally think 7 is actually being extremely generous. Had it been a straight show, I'd probably give this show a 5. I tend to be much more generous with BLs in general.

I don't think the drama downplays their roles... rather it sortof gives you a better insight about how THEY think about themselves. The Princess considers that given what she's gone through she's not at fault for turning the way she was and the husband sees himself as a victim.

The drama made it clear it was a matter of choice. The FL's father and brother stayed honest and true even faced with injustice, the same with many other characters who might have been coward but never went as far as hurting others for self-preservation. Even as she took her revenge, the FL never did any of the characters dirty. When they suffered from some damage, it was always from their own making. If they had been true and honest, nothing would have happened to them.

I personally had absolutely no empathy neither for the Princess nor the husband. Actually I think their deaths was an easy way out. I prefer when my villains are sent to rot in prison until their deaths, at least they suffer for a long time.. Sadly though, lots of screenwriters seems to consider that death is a just retribution.

When you're dead, you're dead. Living is hard not the opposite. There's nothing better to me than villains being malnourished for years, dehydrated and living in a cage until they lose their minds than an easy quick death.

I agree with you 100% Buuuuuuuuuut reading other comments some people really enjoyed this role actually and think she stole the show... Matter of taste I guess. Personally, I think antagonists are only good if you don't give them too much screen time. It makes my blood pressure rise too much and then I have to take "breaks".

SO...

I really enjoyed the Korean version though I think the last arc with the ML's evil fiancée was overkill and needless. That's what ended up making me rate the original 8.5 instead of the original 10 I wanted to give it.

It's been almost two years since I've last watched a Japanese drama... Forgot all these tatemae mannerisms and the fact that their female characters are always startled for no reason. Once I got used to the FL apologizing and getting startled every two seconds though I really enjoyed the first episode and a half ( time to sleep... Was planning to watch the first 10mn of episode 2 and ended up watching over half of it).

They've added more scenes with the father and with the ML. I really enjoyed their interactions and their talk about traditional sweets.
The drama's got that "Japanese flavor" (well obviously... it's Japanese). I remember the Korean version being a bit stressful... the FL was determined to make them pay... Here the tone is more, she wants to escape her fate but I don't feel as much hostility towards both of her nemesis.

Dunno if it's just me or simply that Japanese mannerisms make her look softer.

Anyway. Jury's still out... But I'm really enjoying these little differences so far.

Will see how I think this one fares but if anything... it did make me want to get back to watch more Japanese dramas...

The pace of this drama was horrendous. From a strong start to the most boring middle and a very strong finish... You really have to be a fan of Cheng Lei (or other actors) to stick to it without dropping it in the middle.

This being said the cinematography, color palette, light, and photography was top notch. The whole drama was gorgeous served by very strong performances by the main cast. The story was great too although the 2ML did raise my blood pressure quite a bit at some point.

Apart from the pace my biggest complain, which is more personal taste than anything, is that I wished we had spent more time with Prince Annan than with Jin An. Dark and brooding Cheng Lei is the best🥵🥵🥵

The biggest plot-hole remains Cheng Lei's hair length variations which were all over the place during the last arc. Once you start to notice, it's just impossible to unsee.

This would have become an ultimate favorite had it not been for this awful pacing. The pop music surprisingly fitted the show as well. As it stands, it was a very good one-time watch.

8.5 for me.
Liked the journey but I doubt I'll do it twice.

This drama screams "money" and is pretty easy on the eye for sure but the amount of business talk fillers and characters we don't give a sh** about is ridiculous.

We're in for the romance between the leads yet we get mostly family feuds, business talk and political backstabbing in spades. The drama also features quite a lot of filler scenes and these overly long episodes (on average 1h 30 mn... literally a movie per episode) doesn't help.

I've got too admit, I also struggled a lot to get past the ML's controversy. I usually manage to overlook these sort of things once immersed in the story but since this is basically a disguised makjang that proved to be difficult.

Every time I see him acting in love with the main actress, I see the image of a grown ass man grooming a kid 12 years his junior when she was a minor for his sick tendencies so the act of him being in love with an adult woman is just not convincing. Not because he doesn't act well... But because sadly, as much as I don't want to condemn a whole drama for one sick individual, that individual has a main role, so that's not that easy.
This being said... after a couple of episodes, I've managed to reduced my overflowing disgust to a mildly annoying background noise... I think that's the best I can do now with this actor.

Apart from that, fortunately for me, I went with absolutely NO expectations and I'm only watching this for language learning purposes i.e with Korean subs and a heavy use of Naver's dictionary.

I wasn't planning on learning so many technical Korean (and English for that matter) words about actions, shares, private equity, hedge funds and whatnot. Not the most "fun words" to learn but still more entertaining than reading business news.

Honestly I wouldn't recommend this one to anyone. It's overly long for no reason. It's lots of money and no substance. And the way I see it, I'm watching some soap à la Dallas and not the romance I initially signed up for.

HOWEVER if you're learning Korean like me and want to learn some vocab... That's actually a good choice. There's lots of complicated sentences about business and the judiciary system with long and formal sentences...

The English subs, last I checked, usually under-translate or make up sentences in the worst case scenario... lots of idioms are lost in translation so you won't be tempted to check your understanding with the English translations (or other language you're more familiar with) because any sentence you might have trouble with, you can be sure they didn't bother to properly translate them.

They keep the core meaning but remove all the idioms or imagery that make some dialogues a blast ( and I have to give credits where it's due, lots of fillers, but the dialogues are really well written). Netflix is known for their poor translations when Korean is concerned.

Basically they always give precedence to making the sentence as palatable to the wider public at the cost of accuracy and cultural nuance. Which is why, when a series is available on both Netflix and Viki, I always recommend people to be a bit more patient and go for Viki translations made by fans who are truly serious about conveying cultural subtleties in their subs.

Netflix is Translation Fast Food. Viki is Translation Gourmet's.

Also since the drama is not that great but also not that bad, you can take as much time as you want watching it without feeling the "urge to cheat" and finish the rest in English.

Anyway that was my long 2 cents.
I really don't understand this high ratings.... but again, that's not the first time this happened so...

🧡Prince Annan🧡>>>>>>>>>>>Jin An

🤣🤣🤣🤣

Lol ^^ I'm surprised I didn't see a single comment about how Cheng Lei's hair magically grew overnight once he recovered his memory.

I didn't know one's hair could grow or shorten depending on which identity you assume 🤣🤣🤣

Well he looks dashing either way but it just took me out of it. Very C drama typical that: Esthetic over logic.

It's like when you see these female characters supposedly walking for days even weeks in forests but still having perfect makeup on.

C drama logic: As long as it looks good, fudge narrative logic.😎

My Journey to You 😃 His best role to date. His character saved that drama in my opinion... Too bad it's very unlikely we'll ever get a proper conclusion to that story 😑