mabotofu

I agree, it feels like they don't have one ready, but if it gains enough traction with a high potential for profit, what company would turn away from that? That's my hope anyway.

The things we do to keep romance alive in the world!

Already have mine. Kind of feels like I need sunscreen too with how it feels like I'm staring into an eclipse lmao. High risk high reward?

I'm genuinely happy for you and others for whom this ending works! :) But then that's the nature of endings. This one just happens to be particularly divisive because there were so many directions it could have gone. But it's not like we can't all make up our own head canon that makes us happy. There's also still a chance for additional content to get released, so who knows?

Ah okay, to each their own then. For me, it's an ending I can *settle* for, but I can't lie and say I don't wish they had put more thought into it. The rest of the drama is so up there for me that it seems like a shame they slapped something last minute like this at the end. What's especially puzzling is that the content exists/was filmed at some point, but they somehow decided to release this cut. That being said, I'm not mad about it, I still consider this one of the best in the genre--I'm just crossing my fingers for an alternate cut. Yetan's character arc concluded with a great sacrifice that is no less than Youqin's. His death in ep 12 was so impactful that if they could mirror that gravitas and treatment for the finale, it would have been absolutely perfect. Even if we only get a cut to black with her voiceover saying, "Youqin, did you wait long?"--that's okay with me too. I don't necessarily have to see it. I just want that feeling of coming full circle--the potential is there, and it even sounds like it had been planned and filmed. But I mean, it is what it is. I'll make up my own head canon if they don't release a different cut lol.

Piggybacking on this sentiment, but in reality I think the scriptwriter deserves that credit (she's a woman). Although I also agree with AvX re: the script's flaws, I was such a huge fan of the sisterhood in this drama. Even the way the two sisters' personalities are written feels like different ways a woman can be "strong" without being "better than the boys." Like how it embraced the femininity in Qingkui while portraying it as her strength, or how Yetan isn't just your typical demure flower--if she wants something she goes straight for it. And most of all the crackhead energy in the comedy! Despite the largely unfinished ending, a lot of these scenes will go down in cdrama history. It was such a breath of fresh air. For the entertainment value it provided, I think most of us are willing to overlook a few plot holes. We just wish for a better ending out of love, so it could be that much more satisfying as a final product.

Right, it's supposed to be entertainment, you know? I don't go into watching a show to study it like a textbook. But in this case it was just hard to ignore because he did it SO MUCH.

Yeah I think he's just really lacking a trained eye for what makes an aesthetic shot, which admittedly is something that can be learned by being professionally trained in this field. To me it's clear he doesn't have that. C-netizens are agreeing with you, that the actors carried this show. Although there are also some decisions that were great imo (going the comedy route, not hiring traffic stars, changing the storyline to give the soul shards more personality). An aesthetic eye just happens to be something this director is very bad at, unfortunately.

There's a difference in the way Hollywood does it and the way he does it though. Hollywood uses a softer bigger light, with a diffuser and reflectors, to avoid that deer in headlights look. Also lighting temperature matters. The light he used in these shots is cool-toned which completely wipes out the intimate feeling he thinks he's achieving. Usually, this effect is done at an angle to achieve a lens flare or bokeh for a soft intimate feeling, instead of shooting directly into a spotlight. This result feels more like kissing your first crush on a neighbor's lawn and you get caught when the sprinklers turn on. I barely saw any light boards being used on set in the BTS clips. (Sorry for geeking out, it's something I'm particularly sensitive to as a hobby photographer.)

Yeah once I noticed it about halfway through, it was hard to unsee. I found myself constantly squinting to try to see their features/emotions during those intimate scenes. A C-netizen also showed screenshots of that lighting being used even in some scenes between Youqin and Feichi, which doesn't remotely make sense.

Oh and also that bottom-up nostril angle. WHY? That's something I would do to friends I'm trolling for laughs, not as a professional shooting a xianxia. It just... completely defies logic.

Thanks for sharing, these are so lovely. 100% agree on the director's artistic taste lol. Every time there's a kiss/hug/hand hold I brace myself for the camera shooting into a bright a** spotlight. How great would it be if we could get our favorite scenes of these two with this lighting and this color grading?

Oh wow, I should've guessed from that BTS clip of him playing around with that prop as a mic. He has the sound of a trained musical actor, with clear enunciation/diction even through the harder vowels. I wonder if that's what he specialized in. Even during the show, his voice really stands out.

Lol! Hey, if they had kept those tidbits, what's being cut now might be more than a few cheek kisses. So I suppose that's something to be thankful for.

Omg yeah I was so shocked at this when I skimmed through. Qingheng inviting her out to see the meteor shower? That's your sao sao!

And characters still have their own agendas even if they're in love. They feel like real people.

That's true love for ya :)

Oh that makes sense--then yes, I agree! I hope the "redemption" arc can get wrapped up neatly. The trailer for the finale looks EPIC. I can't wait!

YBY is honestly already not bad, she has improved quite a lot from her older work (from the bits I've seen). As long as she doesn't get paired up with a powerhouse like CY she'll do quite well as-is. And she can only improve from here on.

Now that you mention it, signs of a decline in budget are kind of obvious. The action sequences in the first 10 eps of the show were some of the best in cdramaland. Yet somehow the fight with the four celestial beasts were only so-so? Not to mention that campy demon scene. I really hope it doesn't impact the quality of the final stretch--this is the best part of the story!

4 more days!! AGHHH~

Yay you've joined us! I laughed at your fall off a cliff comment. There's a Chinese slang for that: "take him to climb a mountain" means roughly the same thing (as in take him hiking so you can shove him off a cliff). If you're watching on Youku you'll see spammed live comments about taking HC to climb a mountain LOL.

And if haven't seen it yet, there's actually a BTS clip of HC's actor complaining nonstop when they hiked up a mountain to film the Shaoyang parts, and the guy is hilarious. Clip here: https://youtu.be/kROPk32jVso

This looks so epic! But...I burst out laughing at SF becoming a mount. How do they even keep a straight face filming that?

Re: alan, fair enough. If it's in the novel and they exclude her, fans would probably be up in arms about that.

I think I just wanted XYH's exit to have more of an emotional punch. I'm actually not particularly attached to her, but it felt like her previous scenes w/ SF were meant to set up for some sort of emotional payoff, and that deflated very abruptly here.

I can definitely understand the need to make cuts, and my original opinion stands--we can probably take a stab at what was cut and fill in the blanks ourselves. I only listed them this week because it felt especially jarring, as if the editor(s) threw in the towel midway and gave up. Nonetheless, I hope these will be less noticeable as we head into the finale, or that we can eventually see some of that deleted footage.

HC even managed to cause maximum damage as he went out lol--this character isn't changing anytime soon. Tbh I doubt we'll get a redemption arc from him, after everything he's done. A fitting punishment maybe, and if they could include some remorse/regret, that'd be great. The "redemption" is probably going to be XJ's. She's going to finally get rid of her resentment after ten lifetimes of sincerity from our little phoenix.

Re: YBY, I want to clarify that I don't think she's doing a bad job per se. Paired with another actor, her shortcomings would not have been so apparent. Something one of my former acting mentors said comes to mind: the main challenge when working with a scene partner is that it's both a partnership and a rivalry. Which means: you have to complement each other to build the scene, but your partner is also your biggest competition. Because CY's performance is so good, it's very hard for YBY to stand out, and additionally any weakness on her part is magnified. These last few eps have centered around XJ's emotional fallout, so she has had to temporarily stand in for SF as our emotional conduit. Unfortunately, CY is a very tough act to follow in this regard. Despite YBY's many crying scenes in the last 4-5 eps, the most moving one still somehow ended up being CY's. Simply put, she's great at following her partner's emotional cues, but it's hard for her to not be outclassed in the more technically demanding scenes. I've been trying to figure out how to say this without sounding mean, but quite frankly performing on par with someone like CY as a scene partner is far from easy.

You're right, WZQ having a larger role would put the rest of the cast on the backburner, so...fair enough. The editor might have been able to strike a better balance if they had more time, but paring down such a lengthy drama on deadline isn't easy either. I'm certainly willing to overlook minor logical inconsistencies, but I can't help wondering what the result would be if they had more time to play with it.

Perhaps I simply hyped myself up too much for the recent batch of eps. I'll have to manage my expectations appropriately for the final stretch. I also desperately want to see the scene where Baidi does *the* unforgivable thing to LHJD. In one of LXY's interviews, he says he put a lot of work into his microexpressions for that scene, so I'm quite intrigued now. With only 6 eps to go, it's about time for the big reveal anyway.