Kannadin

I don't watch tv series on Youtube. It's available on Viki, that's how I saw the trailer, but thanks for the info.

Thanks for the detailed reply 😎
I've been a bit out of the loop to be honest. I did watch Stay with me but for me it's like the Spirealm (which I also watched). Pretty much censored so I never understood the ban in the first place...
For the rest, some titles do ring a bell but... I'm just a bit puzzled...

Is it ok for mainland actors to act in uncensored BLs?
I mean... I heard that both leads of the Untamed which was basically just Bromance, suffered a lot after the drama so I'm just a bit surprised here.

I mean I' not complaining for sure... But how uncensored is uncensored when the actors are from Mainland China?

Looks interesting... Probably going to wait for all episodes to have aired before tuning in but I have a question.

Is it really from Mainland China?

It's listed as such on Viki but the trailer features writing in traditional chinese (Taiwan)... also this is explicitly a BL... As far as I know, China is still pretty much censoring everything LGBTQ+ or maybe they switched gears and I don't know?

So... I'm late to the party ^^
I was just thinking of this actor which name I had forgotten and saw a youtube video about his scandal.
Well not the best character for sure... I usually try to separate the man from the artist as long as the dude in question is not a murderer, a rapist, a pedophile or a wife's beater ( non exhaustive list)... But I got to admit... He's a bit too much even for me.
Glad I'm not that much into J entertainment. I don't feel the loss.

36 Really?
Do I see everybody as being baby-faced because I'm getting too old or is this actor simply not aging?
I've been seeing in lots of secondary roles playing the Maknae of the group.

Err...
Right now I'm watching episode 6.... What can I say? Started to watch this knowing nothing about the plot.
I naively thought that this would be like Death Note, where initially you're rooting for the anti-hero and then at some point, the anti-hero crosses a line he shouldn't have and you end up rooting for the justice system...

But err... So far, I'm still Team Gaetal and we're in the middle of the show. Is it the intent?

So far so good. I'd rate this an 8.5... because they hinted at something very early and unfortunately it made one plot twist a bit too easy to guess... Cinematography is also pretty basic. It's not bad, it does the job, but it lacks that extra "oomph" that makes you feel you're watching "ART" if you see what I mean.

BUT very bingeable.

OH MY!
THANK YOU for this comment!
1. You definitely need to stay away from this one then. I still don't want to give up, but I'm gonna be honest... I fear I won't manage.
2. I was planning to watch the dramas you mentioned, and now I know I'd better stay away from both. I've already reached my limit with this one... I care for my health. Voluntarily setting myself up for hypertension is not one of my hobby ^^

Ah yeah Hidden Love is by the same author... But I LOVED Hidden Love... I'm sure novel of First Frost is just as good. Personally I blame the directing. I agree C dramas are slower paced... and I usually don't mind. 1. Because episodes are shorter 2. Because I do like the fact that they take their time... but as you said, there's a limit... My problem is that most of time I don't drop shows when I should...

I think that's what everybody's hoping but as you said... this might not result in what we're hoping... You do have a point.

Oh my lol^^Lol you read this ^^
Glad it made you laugh at least ^^

I can connect just fine... (but yeah like you if I can't connect I just can't enjoy it) but I just can't with the "pissed off level". Though, as you said:

"I recently recommended this to my mum seeing the high ratings and having heard good things about it"

I started for the same reason... I was SURE I'd like this... And yet I was burned again. People kept on praising "Blossom". Imho, Lots of irritating situations, romance was mid and pace overly slow.

There was also "The Only One". This one is tricky. It's exactly like that one in a lesser degree... Very good plot, not a lot of romance although it's at the heart of the plot, BUT VERY VERY irritating situations with an ending that will make you curse humanity.
I ended up rating it 7... I hated the show, but it was a good show.. (BUT not as LONG and irritating as this one)
First Frost... highly recommended, couldn't connect with the characters, found the pace too slow. Dropped it at episode 25.. Close to the finish line... But honestly I wasn't even curious about the story, bored out of my mind and I didn't like any of the characters so I didn't think twice before dropping it. Should have done that earlier but given the ratings I hung on.

Needless to say... I'm started to get reeeeeaaaaaaaaaallllllllllyyyyy wary about ratings on Chinese shows. Seems my taste doesn't align well with most C drama watchers...

However this one tops everything. I haven't been that pissed watching anything since "Homemade Love Story" a Family K drama aired in 2020... Trauma was so deep I have avoided the genre since.

Anyway for the record... I've taken another break at episode 34.

I'm not going to recommend this one to anyone. Honestly I wish I'd been like you and couldn't connect from the start, that would have avoided me a whole lot of headaches.

And still I watch.

But again. I'm stupid.

Agree. I checked my list. I did really enjoy Study Group this year. A show... that doesn't have any A-list actors... Maybe apart from the ML. Apparently he's from an idol group, but I personally don't care about K Pop, so it took me a while to remember he actually had a pretty important role in Alchemy of Souls.

When Life Gives You Tangerine is a slice of Life and not my favorite genre so I need to really be in the mood. I'm planning to watch it with my mom when I visit her later in the year. It's exactly the type of shows she tends to enjoy.

But back to your comment... I'm like you, I'm not excited about anything in K drama land. I didn't particularly enjoy the first season of Squid Game so didn't bother to watch the second season yet, so obviously I don't give a fudge about the upcoming 3rd season. Currently mostly sticking to C dramas. Fortunately for me, I've discovered C dramas pretty late so there's no end to good shows past and present available... As for K dramas... Well, I'm probably going to stick to popular dramas that I've yet to watch that aired in earlier years.

I don't want to think 2025 is definitely going to suck all the way... but let's be real, it's not looking good.

The unexpected success of Lovely Runner attests to that.
Instead of burning the budget on actors, they should allocate that budget to the production as a whole . That would definitely be more cost-effective.

If channels start boycotting actors for their horrendous fees, they'll be forced to ask for less to get a job. Plain and simple.

It's not like I don't think top actors who bring audience should not be paid more... but there's a limit that should be set.

Also the article said 80 dramas this year....
Well. We're almost past the first half of the year. I've seen some decent K dramas, but nothing has blown me away this year so far.

More stories, more chance to get a hit... But if you produce less, well, if most of what is produced is just mid... people are going to start to notice.

There's this thing with this show.
The plot is actually VERY good. Everyone have been given proper motivations for their actions ( except the Heavenly Emperor and Empress so far, but I except we'll be given their motivations - apart from gaining power - in due time).

The story is well crafted and you understand how some apparently unrelated events are connected.

AND YET!

THIS SHOW IS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO IRRITATING that I'm NOT enjoying myself.
It was somewhat enjoyable at the start when it was relatively light hearted but since it entered its "angst phase", it's mostly irritating, with very few moments when I can just relax and enjoy the show.

I also feel some parts were overly long. When you look at the length of the novels, lots of novels of the same length in China have been turned into 40 episodes series or less, yet this one is 60 (Viki version)... and you can feel the length. If they'd use this extra time for giving us some romance fanservice to counterbalance the irritating characters I wouldn't have minded... but instead I guess, all these extra episodes were used to add irritation to irritation. I recently started Love Game in Eastern Fantasy, and I binged 22 episodes without even realizing it, and it had more romantic scenes between the leads in 22 episodes than in 34 episodes in this one. The only reason I stopped to get back to this show is because I didn't want to finish the show... I wanted to stay in that universe a bit longer... But more importantly comparatively you can see how each scene is lengthened for no reason in this one, compared to more recent shows.

That's not a reproach per say. I've noticed it with K dramas as well. Older editing had this tendency to lengthen scenes for no reason... Nowadays, the directing is tighter and narration more efficient, which doesn't mean there's no character development. There's just no extra useless scenes... probably because the cost of production has risen, and production teams can no longer afford to add useless scenes on top of useless scenes to make a show longer.

The only good thing I can say, is that this show is a good way to improve one's control over their emotions.

Watching it, I feel like I need to disconnect from any emotional attachment I have to any of these characters which is paradoxical... However If I don't do that, on top of the over-the-top cruelty of all the antagonists, I'd loose my marbles over all the misunderstandings caused by people thinking they should do or not do this or say or not say that for "other people's good", creating messy situations on top of messy situations.

Anyway, not a pleasant watch.

Right now, I've entered a ridiculous competition with this show. I will finish it. Nobody gives a sh** and I shouldn't either. This is a DRAMA for God's sake... Why should I care if everybody loved it, and I want to BURN the Emperor and Empress ( at present because I know, others are going to take their place at some point and be just as IRRITATING as they are)?

Nobody is holding a knife to my throat to finish this drama!

While I know it's completely STOOPID, my idiotic self is telling me, that if I don't finish it, it would have been a complete waste of time given how many hours I already spent watching this show.

Well I started this show on the 21th of April.
I must finish this before the end of June. I just want to leave that one in the first half of the year. Maybe writing this publicly will help me avoid taking another long break away from this show.

Anyway that's it for my rant. I needed to vent somewhere. If you like the show, great for you. My rant doesn't invalidate your feelings, please refrain from insulting me because you think otherwise. You don't need my validation and neither do I. I belong to an existing minority...

I will try to refrain from commenting again until I finish it.

______________

On a side note, in terms of Enjoyment, I'd rate this one 2... But it terms of plot... That would be a 10...
So an average of 6...
On one side I think it's too much given how pissed I am... On the other, I think it's unfair to the show.

It's complicated...

This is not a spoiler... But an overly long comment so I'm hiding it with the spoiler tag. I doubt anybody will read this, but I needed to vent somewhere so here it is....

More than the hair, it was more the face for me. As for the hair, as mentioned it's not the fact that the baby has some... It's the type of hair he had just overly long and thick for his age as far as I'm concerned.
The face didn't match the baby voice as well... But again I seem to be one of the few that was disturbed my this...

Ah well... Fast releases means less time for translators to have a more consistent translation... That would require an extra day I guess.
I personally wouldn't mind but seeing how people kept on complaining about Undercover Highschool being released at D+1... I guess they chose to throw consistency to the bin.

For the record.. There is no official transcription of the Korean language in roman letters hence depending on the translators you can have several transcriptions...

For the Colossal Shadow... and evil spirit... Well he's actually referred both ways in the series. Palcheokwi ( or rather Pal - Cheok - Kwi) 팔척귀 - 팔척鬼 Literally 8 cheok Ghost/Spirit/Monster etc. ( 척 - Cheok being a Korean foot, approximately 30.3cm .

He is also referred to as Ak-kwi - 악귀 - 惡鬼 which is Evil/ Spirit/Ghost/Monster etc.

Archivist and Record examiner are basically the same term... One is just more literary than the other so I personally don't really see the problem, but again I understand it can be confusing if English is not your first language and you're not familiar with the Korean language as well.

It's the son of the Palcheokwi.

Well I hadn't seen your comment last week but I've got to say, it's unfortunately spot on.

I personally didn't notice until you mentioned it because... that's not this show's biggest flaw in my opinion ( for me it's how draaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaggy it is. Would have done great with 12 episodes instead of rinsing and repeating the same tom and jerry chase between Team Good and Team Bad)...

This being said... Now that I've read it... I can't unread it... I was already out of love with this show... This is probably going to affect my ratings negatively.

So... not gonna comment about how draggy this series has been for about 4 weeks now ( yeah I know I just did)...

But... Err I'm at half ep 15... and I just have to ask:

Does anybody else than me being weirded out by the "baby"?
The first time we saw him at the beginning of the series it was pretty fast so my brain didn't register but ....

THIS IS NOT the face of a baby. This is the face of 2 year-old AT LEAST... Also, no baby has hairs like this at birth. Gee. My own brother had a whole set of pretty thick hair ( not like most "bald" baby) but these were baby hair. Very short, not that length.

At first I was thinking I was having hallucinations... But then they kept showing that face on that body and COME ON'!
Seems to me they put all the CGI budgets into the Imugi and forgot to make the baby believable. This is ridiculous.

On a side note: Don't remember who, but somebody guessed the baby's identity right last week. I didn't want to believe it because it seemed too simple and easy... But well..

Dunno what's gonna happen tomorrow, but I won't rate this above 7.5. This show mostly suffers from its length.

2025 has been a pretty disappointing K-drama year for me so far. Some shows were mid-good like that one but nothing blew me away...
I haven't completely given up...

But I'm probably going to stick more to Chinese shows... They're longer... and strangely feel faster and more engaging... What the hell is happening to K dramas recently...