Kochase

Watching this now, and ok while Han Xilin's cocky and uncooperative attitude annoys me a lot (I'm not sure if they intended for him to actually be a rather dislikable from the audience perspective, but it is 100% understandable why he's unlikeable from the other characters' perspectives), and yes, there's definitely a generous spotlighting of how wonderful Chinese medicine is... the premise is still very interesting and I'm enjoying it so far.

I hope they will give both of the main leads proper character development - Han Xilin really does need to be humbled a bit, and they need to do that through a few instances where Chinese medicine 'loses out' to Western medicine. Ding Yuanzhi also needs to work through that chip on his shoulder left by his dear old dad. I also do really like the idea of the integration of Eastern and Western medicine. Hence, I think there's good potential for the show. I'll come back for a comment when I'm done.

The subs really are atrocious, and I'm sorry to everyone who's relying on it. Depending on how much I get invested, maybe I'll try to fix some of the non-medical subs haha.

Lol they really are atrocious... I can forgive the medical stuff being mis-translated, but the conversational subs are also god-awful.

That's why I think it's less about the specific content at this point, and more about the hype. The same audience is hyped over this as other censored BL adaptations... and they don't like that influence. If people were less crazy over all of these shows, they can probably be released no problem.

It seems like it's new, is why it's an interesting signal. But all I'll make of it is that the BL industry isn't dead, and that companies are positive about its outlook overall.

I do not bank on it whatsoever for giving us any sort of timeline lol.

Lol true, but I wasn't regarding the quality so much as 'were they allowed to show this'. In that sense, bromance has been allowed, but I think they've been careful to avoid the really hyped content. So it's probably still more around the level of popularity behind a work, and less about strictly the content. Under the Skin might as well have been a censored adaptation haha.

Idk if trailer is any real indication... because both League of Nobleman and Desire Catcher (neither are originally BL, but definitely targeting the same audience) have had trailers for ages and still haven't come out. And there's definitely been dramas that just dropped with like... no trailer whatsoever (I don't think WoH really dropped a trailer until it aired, or at least I don't remember it).

But I will still take it as a positive sign :)

tbf, there's been a continuous trickle of bromance still, just not all of them are as talked about. Under the Skin was *very* bromantic. Be Reborn and Are You Safe, while not exactly 'bromance' in the 'two idols of similar age pair up' sort of sense, still had a decent amount. And don't forget the biggest bromance cash cow of them all, Daomubiji series. That continued to air series. I'd still put these in a different category from dangai, which is actual censored adaptation of an originally BL work.

That said, I do have overall hope they're loosening restrictions. Maybe they were also just afraid people would get up to no good again with idol fan wars if still under lockdown cabin fever, and now that lockdown is easing, they might think there's enough 'real world' events to keep people busy that the online realm won't get quite so chaotic.

Yes. And I think that's what a lot of the haters totally miss, saying stuff like 'they could have just shown ep 1 and 16 and be done! nothing happened!'

It's about the journey, not the destination. :) And it's not like this wasn't hinted at again and again that the outcomes don't change in this... time travel / migrate / possession / whatever he thought it was.

I liked it too! We always knew that Jin Do Jun would have to die... everything that has happened was bound to happen again. The one head-scratching part was the fact that HW survived. I thought they did put a bullet through his brain? So not sure what the whole 'you were saved' thing was. That part was a little... ok maybe you shouldn't have started off so definitive. And of course no one will mention how they look similar.... alright fine. Whatever.

But I still liked how they all tied it together, that he was the accomplice to DJ's death. I liked the parallel of Jinyoung's character (the newbie who shot HW) not only took his advice to a T, but we realize is an exact mirror of how HW started out.

There's all the classic wuxias by Jin Yong (basically father of the genre). Demi Gods and Semi Devils was one of them (they also have multiple versions), but I also really like Duke of Mount Deer. Legend of the Condor Heroes might be one of the more famous ones?

Oh I have no idea who I would like Xiao Se with better (I'm indexing on Xiao Se cuz he's my fave)... on one hand, Wuxin, because they're better intellectual partners. Their interactions are always on fire. On the other, Lei Wujie, because while his derpiness is sometimes eye-rolly, it's cute how they interact with each other. And opposites attract, and all. Brain x brawn is a fave combo of mine, assuming brawn isn't terribly annoying.

Most fics on AO3 seem to be Xiao Se x Wuxin though (and before anyone gets too excited... they're almost all in Chinese). I haven't watched all the eps so far either, so I guess we'll see where it goes.

Tbf, the equivalent example is 'het romance', since BL implies a romance aspect. And... well, people do often go around asking if there is / isn't romance and sometimes avoiding it if it has romance. 😅 I know I do -> BL? Yes. Het romance? No.

Haha I guess they want everyone to be binging it over Spring Festival holidays...

You might want to spoiler tag that :)

With China, nothing is ever absolute. There are dramas that are still shelved from ages ago, but I don't think Immortality will be one of them. Unless the show *specifically* has been controversial (e.g. one of its main cast members got into some major scandal), it could be green-lit again at any time.

Tencent has every reason to want Immortality to air, so they won't give up on it easily. Hells, if they ran into a major actor scandal issue, they'd probably sooner re-shoot the whole thing than drop it entirely.

That said... I think Immortality already *has* been heavily edited. It's one of the more raunchy BLs. It's not like The Untamed, where the original work didn't have that many physical scenes to begin with (not until towards the end), so the amount of cutting they had to do was minimal.

The policy was less about the LGBTQ+ element (because they already had censorship policies around that), and more about punishing fandom / getting fandom to calm down around this genre and idol culture.

That's why I'm half wondering if we should stop hyping at every little news of HYX... maybe they're waiting for when the response *isn't* so crazy.

I mean, you'll often have rules that aren't properly defined. Chinese culture MO is always 'the rule is implied, we shouldn't have to spell it out for you, nor do we have to provide you with reasons for our decisions.' And a rule today might not be the rule tomorrow. But the whole thing blew up because BL fandoms and idol culture got way too insane and out of control. The genre is basically in time-out until they feel like it's been long enough / people will learn to behave.

We'll know BLs (or BL adjacent elements) are 'unbanned' when they actually air. Otherwise, there's no explanation for why all the BL dramas are suddenly on a long pause.

Oh you mean in earlier encounters? There's not that many. Tbf he kept his surname, which isn't necessarily unique, but it can trigger a thought. Especially for the folks who were involved with Langya-wang, it's probably not a stretch.

And you know, he's got that kingly aura. 🤣 It screams class.

Yes, thank you!! Everyone assumes it's pure homophobia, like how in the US, many Christians just denounce homosexuality. Such a fundamental belief does not exist in China. There's still bias and prejudice, sure, but it's really not top of mind for the government when passing policies like they might be for politicians in the US.

The key element is always power, influence, and stability of the masses. The government always has a hand in saying what can or cannot be aired because of how entertainment influences the masses. No zombies, no incorrect portrayals of history, no transmigration... it's not limited to BL. People get stupidly stirred up and lose touch with reality when consuming entertainment. Unfortunately, there are a non-trivial number of dumb individuals who do dumb things after consuming entertainment. Like committing crimes, getting into dangerous situations, etc. So while I never agree that censorship is the right answer, it's not totally illogical for the gov to want to regulate such things.

The problem with BL was the explosion of fan wars and toxicity on the internet. BL became the poster child of success for idols, and we all know the problems of idol culture. The gov saw that as a bad influence, something gone rampant, and decided to stamp it out. And it wasn't just BL, right. There was a whole string of celebrity cancellations. And like you said, Jack Ma as well. At the end of the day, it's about ensuring no influence is greater than that of the CCP, and nothing can rock the boat out of the CCP's control.

And adding to that list of 'bad influence'... yeah the 'sissy men' trend also falls under that category. Sissy men (idols) being popular on the fringes? The gov dgafs. But 'sissy' men becoming the dominant image of what attractive qualities in a man are? Yeah the gov is going to care. As for the military... China is always trying to flex its military might. It's nothing new though. Even without the military factor, I can see the gov not wanting its image of 'Chinese men' to be idols lol.

China does want soft power influence, which is why I think it was a bit dumb of them to squander such a golden opportunity. However, thinking back again, their top priority is always control and stability. So it's not surprising they pulled the plug on BL until further notice.

Anyway, homophobia may be an element, but it wouldn't ever be the primary driver in their decisions. Everyone always assumes homophobia as the reason, but alas, can't type out such a long-winded answer each time haha.

I hope not. They better be wrapping up the whole thing this season. Given we're halfway through the drama and only a bit under haflway through the novel, I think they will finish. There's just going to be material cut out.

I thought the same. Seemed like a weird change from the novel and donghua to me. In fact, originally they don't fight Old Tang at all. They fight An He. And it's during the fight that An He basically calls out Xiao Se as Xiao Chuhe.

I'm not a fan of the changes they made. It took away from the climactic reveal and felt a bit silly. Maybe it was easier to choreograph or shoot or something. Idk. The only improvement they made from the donghua (but not the novel), is that the donghua skimmed over the reveal entirely, letting it happen off screen. Ahhh I really don't understand why both the drama and donghua felt the need to mess with the reveal so much.