Ive been in drama slump lately and finally Im out of it with this!! While it waws airing I couldnt wait it to…
Have you tried discussing the second half with other people... theres alot of subtle thematic stuff that goes through people's heads on the first watch. I've seen many viewers miss the point on parts of the show because they watched too fast or didn't want to give any more thought after finishing it
Believe it or not, even if the ratings here aren't the best... This drama is great and very popular in China.…
https://x.com/longest_promise/status/1724598714428166521?s=20 now with eng subs. The special effects post production taking 1.5 years to complete was surprising to learn but makes sense for how long it took for the drama to come out. I can definitely see how much effort was put in and it was worth the wait because its visuals are so stunning.
The episodes have been bombarded with 1 stars since the beginning of the drama release and even 10 star ratings…
Well take all the time you want, a lot of people got turned off by the FL which is why this drama is polarizing while some didn't really take her to heart so seriously. YMMV
The episodes have been bombarded with 1 stars since the beginning of the drama release and even 10 star ratings…
Yeah it did amazingly in terms of data and rankings and breaking out of fan circles. TLP has been known as the word-of-mouth drama of summer 2023 as tons of outsiders and passerbys have praised the drama and TLP kept being referenced by official accounts on Weibo, Douyin, etc during its release. There's also tons of praise from national media for its story/themes and improvement from the source material but most importantly Xiao Zhan has been praised for his portraying of the cold shizun archetype and dubbing himself and raising the standards of god-like characters... It wasn't fan hype alone that could get TLP to stay relevant and popular after its finale because the numbers just kept rising post mid-July. TLP is the most misconstrued recently released xianxia drama from international drama watchers but at least we can remember how highly received it was from domestic audiences. Not so well received on here but immensely praised in China. I will just be here to guide people to explanations if they want to hear them.
Okay but what's with the rating??? you can't be serious!
The episodes have been bombarded with 1 stars since the beginning of the drama release and even 10 star ratings will just bring it up to a 5 which makes the rating really unreliable. Also most of the negative reviews I've seen are from people who seemed to binge the drama too fast and didn't take the time to figure out the characters or the nuance of the several storylines. It took me at most 2 weeks after the finale to write out all of my discoveries for others to read but not everyone's minds can be changed. There's alot of eastern storytelling elements in this drama so I can't blame the majority international audience for being unaware of hidden meanings behind events. Criteria like acting, visuals, and characterization are subjective and personal so nothing can be done about that. Everyone walks into this show expecting something so if those expectations aren't met then it will not be a good drama. I myself decided to embrace the storyline for what it is and a lot of things actually made sense with the power of hindsight so i think someone's enjoyment really depends on being willing or not to give a second chance after first watch or hear other people's explanations.
The lines in #SunshineByMySide can be easily felt by audience, and they are related to different age groups facing the state of love, marriage, and the workplace like in everyone’s daily life. The process of ordinary people facing reality is a journey of spiritual maturity.
Sheng Yang and Jian Bing will always be the main couple but that doesn't necessarily exclude individual screen time for supporting cast who are also their own characters directly involved with the leads and also contribute to the worldbuilding aspect. It's only been 7 eps after all...I don't remember this premise promising 100% screentime for Sheng Yang and Jian Bing because dramas marketed as romance will always use the main couple's story to sell the synopsis it's why the trailers are focused on them. But it never means other topics and characters can't be explored. Wouldn't it be too convoluted if the summary also said: "oh yeah we're also going to show the lives of Sheng Yang's parents and his coworkers, Jian Bing's ex-husband, her friend, and her sister to show the challenges different people face in today's society" to ensure every viewer knows what they're walking into? If the story wants to show the perspectives of other characters who have an impact on the leads of then so be it. I personally just go by the phrase "let them cook" like let's just see what is in store when it comes to watching ongoing works putting out 2 eps/day and not waste energy on assumptions. I don't want to say too much because I probably will not get to relate to even 10% of these characters' struggles but I can see that the show is in the midst of expanding the worldview outside of the main couple even if the temporary switch is on a character who we don't morally agree with or new characters to show the generational differences of the cast.
Same I feel like I didn't get to discuss about him enough because everyone moved on so fast I still have a lot…
Nah I meant after the VIP finale mid July most people were ready to move on from the drama and not look back because they were too emotionally overwhelmed and sour/bitter to properly digest things. Turns out there were alot of deeper things going on within the story that takes time to actually notice which is why I have written so many analyses weeks after to debunk misconceptions haha. But we live in a time of binging and fast consumption of media so even if there wasn't Sunshine By My Side airing today it still doesn't change how fast drama watchers are moving on once they finish a show. I check this page frequently and it has definitely gotten slower after Netflix finale
Overall, I really liked the drama, however towards the end they did lower the quality a bit, they threw plots…
The prophecy plot wasn't forgotten, everything you pointed out was actually addressed or not meant to be completely resolved until the distant future but definitely were not ignored. I don't mind breaking everything down if you are down to listen I know how easy it is to not get everything off the bat with the last 3 episodes
Same I feel like I didn't get to discuss about him enough because everyone moved on so fast I still have a lot more I want to write about . No other drama character has made me this passionate
I have to say if you watch carefully without prejudice and hate you will find that the female lead although she…
So true I keep seeing people ask when the FL will get better but when they elaborate more it already sounds like she is not gonna be redeemable at any future point to them so why bother asking in the first place. These type of viewers amplify her mistakes so much they can never see the good things she does. With the way they are already annoyed with her it takes 10x more effort to change their mind and that's just setting themselves up because she will never reach their standards. Some people are unfair like she could be tolerable for a few episodes and then one action makes her fall back down to 0 and the cycle repeats.
Wrote another appreciation post about Shi Ying's character development and what we are really supposed to takeaway from his internal conflict. Just another way to view his character that many first time watchers might not have expected. I just love writing about him because there's just so much to appreciate and nothing irks me more than seeing people claim he's badly written or a boring ML compared to Zhi Yuan. No it's just that they don't know where to look when it comes to seeing his gradual development so that's why I wrote a whole essay about it for anyone to refer to incase they missed some things. I think it's very interesting how his character development contrasts Zhu Yan's. Her growth is a lot more obvious in the traditional sense where she starts off with low cultivation and is hotheaded so she is expected to mellow out while becoming a capable cultivator on her own standing. Her before/after is a lot more tangible to the viewer because she starts from 0. Meanwhile Shi Ying is different because he already starts off as a powerful being who is very calm and mature for his age. With this kind of setup it makes it not so easy for the viewer to figure out how he is meant to grow throughout the story because a lot of his growth is meant to be more philosophical/spiritual than physical(Zhu Yan). The drama had to figure out another way to give him a dedicated character arc that is not present in the source material AND IT WORKS. He might appear to start off as a developed character because he's powerful but his main flaw is that he lies to himself about what he truly wants in life, which actually makes him an incomplete character from the beginning. To figure out his character growth you have to really question his motives and compare his mentality from the beginning to the end of the show. I've seen too many people get too attached to his setup as a priest that they think when he inevitably steps down it goes against his established character which is really not the point of his life-changing decision.
TL;DR Shi Ying's individual journey throughout the entire drama is not about how he figures out when to leave priesthood for love, it is about how he finds balance between his dual life as a priest and crown prince which ultimately fulfills his greatest desires
Soo if you're interested in finding out how TLP approaches Shi Ying's struggle to find out who he is meant to be please click on the link above. Many thanks!
Long story short but Shi Ying being the ONLY cultivator ever in history to achieve the real state and reach immortality…
Yeah no problem...I was originally okay with the ending we were given but after seeing so much negativity I was motivated to dive in and see if there was more meaning and explanation that could be found and then I somehow ended up with a long document (which shows how many unexpected layers and subtlety was waiting to be discovered)
Long story short but Shi Ying being the ONLY cultivator ever in history to achieve the real state and reach immortality…
Yes his chance of reaching the real state was interrupted twice in the beginning but besides being a plot point it can also be viewed symbolically for his character because he was still at his "incomplete" development stage. This concept of reaching immortality through the real state was not just brought up to be forgotten because there were just too many hints in the first half that established Shi Ying as a once in a lifetime cultivator. I thoroughly explain my theory how he achieved the real state near the end of the show in my ending explanation discussion post that has a link to a very longgg document. It is very long because I needed to point out several pieces of evidence to support my claim because as you know from the final fight they did not explicitly have characters go: WHOAAA HE REACHED THE REAL STATE!! So in my theory I claim that his reaching the real state wasn't supposed to be a visible power up but a state of inner peace he achieves only near the end because of the all the trials he overcame and lessons he learned throughout the whole story.
I lOVE this show, it's amazing. Wish haters would get off their high horses and stop tampering with the ratings,…
Long story short but Shi Ying being the ONLY cultivator ever in history to achieve the real state and reach immortality is the story's chekhov's gun and that is why he was able to return in the end. Also the only reason why he was able to defeat the big dark cloud entity. Zhu Yan will never be as powerful or mentally strong as Shi Ying so if she really died in that last fight then she would be gone forever as a mortal and there would be no evidence to argue that she is more than an illusion and the ending would truly be a downer. If you are curious to learn more I made a post about it in the discussion above.
The 43 eps on netflix is because 35, 39, 40 were originally 90 minutes long
CCTV entertainment updated Weibo:
The lines in #SunshineByMySide can be easily felt by audience, and they are related to different age groups facing the state of love, marriage, and the workplace like in everyone’s daily life. The process of ordinary people facing reality is a journey of spiritual maturity.
Wrote another appreciation post about Shi Ying's character development and what we are really supposed to takeaway from his internal conflict. Just another way to view his character that many first time watchers might not have expected. I just love writing about him because there's just so much to appreciate and nothing irks me more than seeing people claim he's badly written or a boring ML compared to Zhi Yuan. No it's just that they don't know where to look when it comes to seeing his gradual development so that's why I wrote a whole essay about it for anyone to refer to incase they missed some things. I think it's very interesting how his character development contrasts Zhu Yan's. Her growth is a lot more obvious in the traditional sense where she starts off with low cultivation and is hotheaded so she is expected to mellow out while becoming a capable cultivator on her own standing. Her before/after is a lot more tangible to the viewer because she starts from 0. Meanwhile Shi Ying is different because he already starts off as a powerful being who is very calm and mature for his age. With this kind of setup it makes it not so easy for the viewer to figure out how he is meant to grow throughout the story because a lot of his growth is meant to be more philosophical/spiritual than physical(Zhu Yan). The drama had to figure out another way to give him a dedicated character arc that is not present in the source material AND IT WORKS. He might appear to start off as a developed character because he's powerful but his main flaw is that he lies to himself about what he truly wants in life, which actually makes him an incomplete character from the beginning. To figure out his character growth you have to really question his motives and compare his mentality from the beginning to the end of the show. I've seen too many people get too attached to his setup as a priest that they think when he inevitably steps down it goes against his established character which is really not the point of his life-changing decision.
TL;DR Shi Ying's individual journey throughout the entire drama is not about how he figures out when to leave priesthood for love, it is about how he finds balance between his dual life as a priest and crown prince which ultimately fulfills his greatest desires
Soo if you're interested in finding out how TLP approaches Shi Ying's struggle to find out who he is meant to be please click on the link above. Many thanks!
The 43 eps on netflix is because 35, 39, 40 were originally 90 minutes long