Kannadin

LOL! I was just popping here to check if they had beat that record and they DID IT!

CONGRATULATION!!!🎉🎊🎇

Hmm... I can't really say she's smart, but she's not stupid either nor overly clumsy. To be fair the format doesn't allow for strong character development. Let's just say she's pretty normal given the circumstances. Didn't strike me as strong, but not as weak or overly clumsy either. Bottom line she's not one of these actress who is overplaying her cuteness and doesn't "act well" in order to not look pretty so to speak.

No horrible baby-ish voice either.

In spite of how old this is, the series is enjoyable though not as much as I remember and I find the second half way more engaging than the first part when the ML and FL met at University... Maybe it's because I'd already seen it before whereas I couldn't watch the rest of the series when it came out and I had to drop it...

BUT

Really the image is extremely grainy... even by 2009 standard + the sound management is horrendous. Whenever some music is playing you can be sure it takes over the dialogues and it becomes very difficult to hear characters talking over the music.

I truly have a newfound appreciation for Viki translators. They really must have sweat buckets translating that one... 1. They have to deal with this overloud music. 2. Dealing with the Taiwanese accents. Not that it's a bad accent per say, but one can easily assume most people are used to the dubbing from China, and Mandarin is a tonal language so if you have to deal with a specific accent and tones combined with problem N°1, you can be sure translating is not gonna be a walk in the park. 3. On top of that they have a very specific accent in that village. Though my Chinese is pretty low currently, I'm usually able to pick out simple sentences or expressions here and there but the villagers? Honestly I don't get anything they're saying but add to that, the music or sound effects? Just ultimate respect to the translators.

In fact, there's still some part they just couldn't translate. It's not that much of a big deal, but it's my first time seeing a "completed" series on Viki that has so many untranslated bits.

ALSO, the ad cuts are really annoying. Every 15 minutes, you get this musical interlude which must have been placed there for the TV version and then they replay the last 10 to 20 seconds we saw just before said musical interlude but since it's online and we obviously don't have ads WHY did they keep them?

PS: Btw, on Viki, these overly long Taiwanese episodes have been cut short so instead of getting 21 episodes, you get 34.
If you want to keep track of your progress on MDL just so you know 5 Viki episodes is the equivalent of 3 original episodes.

Ah yeah... Totally forgot the little kid never calls his mom "Mom" but "Mu Cheng"...😑 Annoyed me back then, still annoys me now.

Let's both pray to the drama lords then 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽

I just don't' get how that censorship is working really. I've yet to see the Story of Kunning Palace but I've seen the kiss scenes and they're 🔥🔥🔥 so it obviously depends on who is doing the censoring check on the drama in question.

I say they should film a "fake version" and a "real version"... Send the "real version" first, see if it passes the censorship bureau ( since it depends on the person or the persons' mood or whatever) and if it doesn't, release the fake version.

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I can accept EVERYTHING, but PULLLEEEAAAAAZEEEEE China, don't ruin the kisses in Mo Li!!!! Just Don't!

It's with my two ultimate favorite, Queen Bai Lu and Smoldering Hot Cheng Lei, and My God, I've never anticipated anything more than that one so PLEASE DON'T RUIN IT!

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL

I'm sorry I just CAN'T! My Queen Bai Lu do those perfectly but of course she's a Queen so... From what I remember Dilraba in " You are My Glory" had one specific scene with Yang Yang... They were both in some of the first C dramas I watched and they sort of set the standard so to speak.

It's not that they can't... but I get your comment. I'm currently watching When Destiny Brings the Demon, everybody's raving about the kisses and I'm like "BUT THEY'RE ALL FAKE!!!".

I've learned to accept that they're gonna fake it most of the time but I'd rather they did like in these old K dramas where the camera just zoom out instead of trying to show something that just isn't there.

OR be smarter about it. If you want to show me passion, there's other ways. Don't film the fake mouth movements, film the girl messing with the guy's hair when kissing, show the dude touch her back from the top to the small of her back etc... Filming hands for instance is a great way to suggest passion without actors having exchange a drop of saliva ( because even if the kisses are fake sometimes, they do exchange saliva with these lips touching and I'm like... Well, since you've already exchanged saliva why not go all the way right?)

This drama does it a bit but for some reason always zoom in on the wrong camera angle and I can't not tell and it brings me out of the scene.

Either do REAL KISSES or use GOOD TRICKS to hide the fakeness.

Honestly I've learned to keep my expectations low on that front.... BUT I have to admit it's more difficult when basically the drama's main genre is romance. I can't help but rant.

"I can't learn Chinese coz I know I will sound funny but I can speak Korean and German"

Exactly the type of mindset that gives shitty accents for life.

If it was impossible that would mean that there's some biological difference in the structure of the mouth of people of different ethnicity... Which is obviously not the case.

Not gonna do a whole listing of the languages I've learned in my life, that would sound like I'm bragging, but out of the 9 languages I've learned in my life (3 I gave up for the record), there's only one I still struggle accent wise. Rightfully since I have little time nor chances to train my accent so never really bothered.

Everything is muscle memory. If your mouth is not used to pronounce certain sounds you're never gonna be able to pronounce them correctly if you don't specifically train for it. That + your diction i.e the capacity to string together a series of unfamiliar sounds.

One good training is reading out loud books in the language in question... Everyday half to 1 hour OUT LOUD... and not one paragraph here and there + listening to the language on a daily baisis. FOR YEARS.

Why? because as a non native not living in the country, if you don't bother to do that, you just won't have the opportunity to get that muscle training going.

Saying " I can't do this", or " I can't do that" just because you never bothered to do ALL the efforts that non native speakers do to really perfect a language is very typical of giving oneself excuses.

"I'm not an artist, I can't draw". Sure! Do you realize there is no artist's genes whatsoever? The amount of years, dedication, frustration and sacrifice and dull, mindless repetition of the same gestures artists do to become good at their craft ? Learning is not always fun.

Anything that looks easy requires years of work.

If you don't do it, don't expect results but don't insult yourself by saying "I can't" when you just never truly worked for it. I see that type of comment all the time "Oh but they're so talented! I don't have their talent".

No. It's not talent, it's hardwork. You're insulting that person's effort as if they got their skill out of sheer luck, gifted by God or whatever and giving yourself excuses for doing nothing. After all, why bother? No matter how you work, you can't beat inborn talent right?

Well. Life is a long journey. Hope for you that you change that horrendous mindset of yours at some point.

Yeah temporary separation if you prefer. Still I disagree with your statement. She doesn't remember that she told him so as far as she knew, he didn't know either. They're both liars. I get that she was angry, I just don't agree with the extent of her behavior... It was too much given she's not entirely innocent either as far as I'm concerned.

I've noticed that a lot in these romance C dramas... the girl is always 100% right and the dude is always 150% wrong and has to grovel to get back in her good books. Even as a woman, I find this dynamic extremely annoying.

This is a very untrue statement. Anybody can learn to properly pronounce a language even if they're not natives. Most people just don't properly work at it and get stuck with shitty accents for life.

Also accents like anything else when it comes to language learning is something you have to work on for life even when you are already fluent. Natives speakers of any language can go abroad, live there for years and acquire the same weird accent when speaking their own mother tongue as the locals if they haven't practiced it for a long time. Of course, in a couple of weeks, they'll be back with the native one if back in their mother country but no accent is set in stone.

This being said if it's not your mother tongue, it requires people to learn said language and be familiar with sounds of said language ( something lots of people strangely don't do... They learn some languages in class but never consume media content in the language they're learning). If the actor in action just never listens to Chinese and is given a transcript of the sentences in question in Korean or Roman alphabet, he's bound to sound terrible.

Mocking the actor publicly is definitely not professional, but in a private setting, who wouldn't?

Accents are funny. Getting offended because something mocked your shitty accent about a language you don't know nor bother to listen to regularly is ridiculous.

The first sentence I said in Chinese ended up being transcribed by Google translate as "She's overflowing with s.p.e.r.m"

Don't remember what I was trying to say, but I sure do the translation. Even I was laughing at myself.

Just popping up here to check the overall rating... 🤣🤣🤣
OH COME ON'!!!!
Just one little push and it can equal even BEAT When the Stars Gossip horrendous ratings ( ironically two of the biggest budget in K dramaland this year)!!

Rendez vous this weekend to check if it manages to reach 6.5.

I'm not nasty enough to rate down a show I haven't bothered to watch... But I can't say I'm not tempted. I seriously want to "help" this drama reach its full "disastrous rating potential" 😂😂😂

Yeah, I'm trolling.

I personally only have a Viki and an iQiyi subscription... If you mostly watch Chinese dramas, I suggest you check which dramas are available on Viki in your region and eventually switch your subscription especially since Viki is way less expensive. Some C dramas aren't available on Viki but honestly most of the big ones are or end up being available later including Youku ones.

This being said, it doesn't hurt to check. Recently while I was scrolling through the comment section of Moonlit Reunion I discovered the drama hadn't been released on Viki in the US, only on Disney + so only when the drama had completely finished airing in China and on Disney + was it released on Viki... Yet in Europe where I'm living, the drama has been released weeks ago... I think after 6 or 7 episodes had aired in China.

Also iQiyi has an international version, so I think it should be available for you as well... I usually renew my subscription in November... I don't remember the exact date but for the basic VIP ( not 4k), with a VPN set in Taiwan, the subscription cost around 28€ for a year ( for me Viki cost 50€ a year).

The issue with youtube is:

1. Subtitles often suck.
2. Music copyright issues.

Personally I don't bother.

Anyway personally I would advise to anyone who's really into C dramas to get a Viki and an iQiyi subscription... and rely on 🏴‍☠️ for the few that aren't available there.

The issue is mostly if you're into K dramas. There used to be a time when almost everything was available on Viki but Squid Game ruined everything and now you do need a Netflix subscription if you want to get most of them...

I personally think they've been going downhill since that series came out and that Netflix is ruining K dramas overall so I don't watch as many as before... I rely on 🏴‍☠️ especially since their subscription fee is horrendous.

It's honestly only worth it if you're into US shows, at least it justify the cost but if not? Honestly too expensive for what it is.

Yeah that's also one of the reason I said the series feels "slow". Since when watching C dramas we're more used to episodes of 45 mn ( counting in the opening and ending that I personally always skip), 1h can feel pretty long.

Also it's very psychological. There's a couple of action scenes which are well choregraphed... but not a lot. It's more a constant psychological game and the FL and SFL plotting to get their jobs done.

This being said, personal opinion, I think it's worth watching for Cheng Lei, who is the SML in this one, Tian Jia Rui (who is playing his little brother) and Lu Yu Xiao who is playing the SFL here.

Basically the second "couple" is actually the most interesting. I think it's a shared opinion with everyone that the secondary roles really stole the show. You're left a bit puzzled about how to feel about their dynamic. The brotherhood is wholesome although the brother complex of little bro towards his older bro can be annoying at times but the tension between the SML and SFL is through the roof and I'm not talking romantically. Honestly, I'm still wondering to this day if these characters were really into each other or if it was just a game to get the upper hand. Talk about a sick relationship.

On the other side, the main couple appears a bit bland next to them because they're just not as layered and Zhang Ling He plays the usual naive good guy and Esther Yu takes a while to develop some braincells compared to her "colleague".

Honestly It's a captivating show but I took a while to finish it because of how "slow" it felt... I say, one must be in the right mind to watch it.

The really annoying thing is the ending... You think you get some form of conclusion... and then the show pulls the rug under your feet for some last twist which basically cannot even be considered as an open ending.

The end feels a bit like the one in the K Drama "Signal"... It's not a proper ending... It definitely needs at least a second season.

But again... It's honestly worth it just for Cheng Lei, he's really terrific in that one.

PS: Definitely watching Shadow Love and Footprints of Change but since it's gonna take a while before his next drama... I've decided to put some other dramas in-between ^^

Thank you but as mentioned I don't like streaming illegally because of the ads. Also I'm a millenial. I do most of literally everything on my computer not on my phone. I'm just gonna be patient until I can see the series on a proper screen in good conditions.

Fine by me ^^ as I said, as I haven't read the novel I'm glad the drama ML is alive and well once she wakes up in present time.

This being said, the drama is not available on Prime in my country and for some reason, it doesn't work even using a VPN. I guess I need to have an account created with a VPN set in the US to access it...

Only hope now is either this getting available on Viki or on some 🏴‍☠️ websites... Because I have an account on IQiyi but it's not there either. I don't want illegal streaming websites because it's full of ads... I prefer to download but my usual website's links are all dead. Hopefully they reupload them or it gets available on Viki.

I don't mind that much though, because I've only started to really get into C drama 3 years ago... and the amount of C dramas that I want to watch is just insane so... Even if it only gets available in 5 years, that's fine.

Depends.
Basically just so you know: the ending... is a VERY open one so that can be frustrating.
I also personally thought that the drama felt slow... Some people like the directing... Others don't.

It's beautiful but the drama is DARK. Like it feels dark. I haven't seen a single C drama so far that has such a dark atmosphere. Everything feels heavy.

This being said, this was actually the drama that made me discover Cheng Lei... and he literally stole the show. I'd say he's the main draw here with the dude acting as his younger brother. Cheng Lei is the master of brooding and he doesn't it perfectly here. He has this dark, mysterious and menacing aura that literally draw viewers in.

Anyway I personally have conflicted feelings about this drama... But if you want to watch it for Cheng Lei... Well go for it. I've only seen him in Familiar Stranger, this drama and The Legend of the Female General but out of all three, this is to me, his best role... But not necessarily his best drama if you see what I mean.

It's not the familiar tropes. I really DON'T MIND the tropes. In fact I LOVE tropes including the ones you personally mentioned you were tired off i.e toxic ML. IN FICTION, I love my ML to be walking red flags, jealous, possessive and suspiscious. And enemies to lovers is one my ultimate favorite trope ( with gender bender.... btw I wish we could get BOTH all the time :D)

It's more how the story has been woven. It's an endless loop of damsel in distress due to naivety most of the time, than Sima Jiao saving the day and hurting himself in the process. And you get that several times on repeat.
The problem to me stems not from the repetitiveness of the situation but rather on the fact that you cannot help but notice that the same situation is on repeat which is basically a writing issue.

But again, I'm not saying the show is bad... I mean a rating of 7.5 or 8 (depending on how I'll feel watching the last episode) is not a bad rating.

Some people (not you) are acting like the "opinion police" and we should all think the same and want to argue as if you could convince people to change how they feel. Or as if the fact that I feel differently from them puts a stain on the drama or like I'm raining on their parade or something. I just don't get it.

Lol. It's cool I understand I'm part of the minority. I don't mind diverging opinion. Just as I wrote above, there's quite a lot of things that works better in this drama if you're really digging the main couple... which is sadly not my case.

I see the intention but I can't get into them... When I see both actors looking at each other, I don't see "love", I see "actors acting love"... probably because to me their romance is way overplayed.

This being said that's not my main issue with this drama, it's the fact that the plot is basically running in an endless repetitive loop. But It's cool you feel differently. MDL is also a place to share diverging opinions.

Yeah I think Wasted Potential is the right expression. It could have been GREAT, but now I'm only going to remember this one as a one-time watch.

Ah sorry about that.
The baby voice in LBAFD was horrendous... Took me a while to get used to it as well but I loved the show too much to give it up because of it.

Yeah Sima Jiao becomes a major Simp... In fact he becomes SO MUCH of a simp that even already weakened, he weakens himself even more just to satisfy the FL.

For instance, without spoiling too much, at some point the FL has lost lots of her cultivation because of some things... So in order for her to regain her cultivation, Sima Jiao asks one of his lackey to make some blood pills (his blood of course) to help her regain her cultivation... BUT before giving them to her, he tastes them to see if they're not too bitter... And they redo them literally 3 TIMES until the sweetness is okay for her.

Each time they have to extract his blood and at that point in the story, Sima Jiao is in such a state that every wound he gets takes a ridiculous amount of time to heal. He's already REALLY weakened and yet to satisfy her tastebuds, dude literally bleeds out repeatedly.

And that's not the only thing he does for her at the cost of his own safety.

The FL, honestly... The only times she's showing some spunk or some spark of intelligence is when she has to basically make up for the consequences of her stupidity... which backfired on Sima Jiao of course...

Not everything is her fault... But at some point, when you've been fooled repeatedly, you should learn a thing or two about being cautious around your "supposed friends" especially when the person who treats you with such devotion is not liked by said "friends".

I understand they wanted to tell this huge love story but I'm like you on that... WHY OH WHY Do SO MANY C drama MLs become such idiots once they're smitten with their girls?